Direct quoting sentences with "" is your friend.

Needless to say the bloke is a psychotic racist straight out of the colonial era (which it turns out never ended). I especially liked the snide touch of 'maybe add the explosives elsewhere' - mate, there's nowhere on earth Israel can trust ensnared wage slaves to not sneak away a few hundred kilos of explosives to exact revenge for what that country has done to the Palestinians. I think they're just going to have to make their stupidly expensive, ultimately ineffective high-tech weaponry themselves, or get the yanks to do it for them.

jeers,
I

*****

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/opinion-a-plan-for-palestinian-prosperity/ar-BB1lRW4n

Opinion | A Plan for Palestinian Prosperity
Opinion by Andy Kessler

The April 13 Israeli skeet shoot—knocking out 99% of the approximately 170 drones, 120 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles Iran launched toward the Jewish state—was a technological tour de force. It combined difficult math, real-time sensors, sophisticated software and no small amount of artificial intelligence to guide advanced hardware, propulsion systems, explosives and lasers. That one night probably cost more than $1 billion. “We intercepted. We thwarted. Together we will win,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted.

Now make it profitable—and use it to promote Palestinian prosperity. These defenses against incoming threats are a marvel. Israel’s Iron Dome, like Raytheon’s Patriot air-defense system, was designed mainly to take out short-range rockets. Patriot missiles can cost $4 million each, while Iron Dome missiles are $40,000 to $50,000, helpful given the sheer number of cheap Israel-bound rockets. In an asymmetric-warfare world, defense is still expensive.

But Iran’s long-range attacks required more: David’s Sling intercepts cruise missiles. Spyder finds and destroys aircraft and drones. Arrow can pick off ballistic missiles coming from outside the earth’s atmosphere. The U.S. Navy also provided help. Three ballistic missiles were taken out by our Aegis missile-defense systems, and 70 of the drones were shot down by U.S. ships and aircraft.

Josh Wolfe—whose venture firm, Lux Capital, invests a third of its funds in defense and aerospace—told me last week: “Every country watching that show is now thinking ‘I want that!’ An export version of these systems could be Israel’s next big product.”

Israel should eventually build factories in Gaza and the West Bank to manufacture these systems. There’s no better way to turn an enemy into an ally than to give him a job. That may sound far-fetched, but history is on my side. After Germany’s surrender in 1945, amid a landscape of destroyed cities, the Marshall Plan helped rebuild Germany into a peaceful ally. The reconstruction of Japan started during occupation under Gen. Douglas MacArthur. We did a pretty good job because—wouldn’t you know it—behind China and the U.S., Japan is third in the world in global manufacturing output. Germany is fourth, Italy seventh.

“Made in Japan” was a joke at first, indicating substandard quality. But over time, Japanese manufacturing and labor productivity improved until the name was synonymous with quality. (In the late 1950s, my mother was pregnant as she and my father sailed back to the U.S. after his Navy stint in Yokohama. On Japan visits years ago, I used to get a giggle from investor audiences when I told them I was made in Japan.)

This hiring of old enemies is still happening. All those antiwar protesters from the 1960s and ’70s, including “Hanoi Jane” Fonda, would be shocked to learn that their iPads, AirPods and Apple Watches are sourced in Vietnam. Apple says it has created more than 200,000 jobs there and spent close to $16 billion since 2019 as it migrates its supply chains out of China. CEO Tim Cook, on a visit to Vietnam last month, said the company plans to spend more. Trade is a more effective healer than foreign aid.

So turn Gaza and the West Bank into factory floors assembling defense systems, although maybe add the explosives elsewhere. Bring great jobs and a middle class to their mostly poor inhabitants—they can even work on Saturdays!—without handouts from the politicized United Nations. Turn Gaza into Hong Kong, a place of free trade, or Mexico, a neighbor with a cheap but effective labor force.

In 1975, Vietnam was a war-ravaged, rice-growing communist backwater. In 1994, the U.S. imported $50 million in goods from Vietnam. In 2023, we imported $114 billion worth. Vietnam’s labor productivity in 2021 ranked only 136th of 185 countries. It still grew, as the country has inexpensive labor and lots of room to improve. After Germany reunified in 1991, the formerly communist east turned around in short order. On a visit to South Korea years ago, I learned the country has detailed action plans to take over North Korea if and when the current regime collapses, and turn it into a cheap-labor manufacturing powerhouse. Israel needs to do the same to assure long-term peace on its borders.

Sure, I’m thinking way ahead, but a Hamas-free Gaza might be the perfect test bed for oil-free economic upside in the Middle East. The Gaza Strip has a population of two million, the West Bank another three million. An Israeli effort to educate a workforce to hire into high-tech factories—semiconductors as well as defense—could go a long way toward establishing a friendly, prosperous neighbor and future ally. It will take a lot of work, but it’s worth it.

Write to kessler@wsj.com.