Actor Benedict Cumberbatch read out a poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish on a London stage last week. In reciting On This Land There are Reasons to Live, the actor gave an airing to the timeless claim for Palestinian statehood.
“On this land, there are reasons to live,” he read. “This land, the lady of lands, the motherland of beginnings, the motherland of all ends. She was known as Palestine; she, forevermore, will be known as Palestine. My land, my lady, you’re a reason to live.”
Days later, France and the UK became the first western permanent members of the UN Security Council and the G7 to take the Palestinian demand as equal to that of Israel. Other nations have followed, including Canada and Australia.
Whatever outcome emerges from Israel's war in Gaza, the tension between the generational claim and present dangers will not go away.
For decades, the British government and its counterparts among rich nations had a policy that set Palestinian statehood as the reward for a peace deal. That old formula which underpinned western policy was a losing battle. The new calculus is equally daunting but it changes the game.
Until now, all the building blocks had to be in place for recognition of the state of Palestine to represent the keystone in the arch. That formula relied on the belief that all the other steps could be taken and these would hold. The arch would stay in place and eventually be capped as a solid edifice.
Now, all that assumption-building has been swept away and these countries are left with a different construct. A new calculation must be tested if the gambit they have just launched can withstand deterioration of the conditions on the ground.
History is at a turning point on the Palestine-Israel peace process.
David Lammy lasted just over a year as UK foreign secretary before he was promoted to deputy prime minister. As he heads to the conference on the two-state solution in New York, he has already made his mark. And it takes diplomacy back to a test that is well-known around the world. The rebel Irishman Robert Emmet declared at his execution that no one should write his epigraph until the boundaries of his nation were drawn.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that his government will now try to destabilise the new position of the western partners as rapidly as possible.
The British Foreign Office statement on Sunday detailed the target he would have in his sights: “A two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state led by a reformed Palestinian Authority, is the only path to a lasting peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people – free from the horrendous violence and suffering of the last two years.”
The concerns over the conflict in Gaza are clear and grave. The threat posed by Israel’s plans for illegal settlements and a path to annexation through its E1 plan will deepen in the weeks ahead.
The UK is hoping it has a framework for peace that is solid. It has called for reform of the Palestinian Authority, and for those restructuring efforts it has appointed the veteran fixer Sir Michael Barber as UK Envoy for Palestinian Authority Governance.
In its version, France has aligned with Saudi Arabia to offer a new working blueprint to fulfil the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.
Mr Netanyahu is certainly preparing the Israeli public for a worse showdown to come. In the past few weeks, he has talked darkly of an isolation economy that would rely on Israel’s resilience. This is a far cry from his claims of tech superpower brilliance that he used to see as the legacy of his long leadership of Israel.
For western policy makers who have signed on to this shift and even for others such as Japan and Germany, the difficulty will be how to keep engaged with Israel.
It is hard now because the Israeli officials in charge are not interested in a relationship that takes on board the concerns of their counterparts. Indeed, the actions of the government are aggravated attempts to go in the other direction.
In future, the western governments will act to preserve the ideal that the British and French and other states are signing up to. In this, there is a parallel to the instructive moments both countries engaged in with the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the Palestine Mandate after the First World War.
Countries backing the two-state solution have moved the process on to a new plane of international politics by taking the position of promoters of the Palestine state.
As the experts at the UK think tank Chatham House noted after the Palestinian recognition announcement on Sunday, the new direction provides a leadership boost for Mr Starmer. It reassures the Labour Party base and progressives as a whole that his government is on the side of principled action against the damage of Mr Netanyahu's forever wars.
That in itself is an achievement that makes the recognition decision a landmark of international leadership.
Hydrogen: Market potential
Hydrogen has an estimated $11 trillion market potential, according to Bank of America Securities and is expected to generate $2.5tn in direct revenues and $11tn of indirect infrastructure by 2050 as its production increases six-fold.
"We believe we are reaching the point of harnessing the element that comprises 90 per cent of the universe, effectively and economically,” the bank said in a recent report.
Falling costs of renewable energy and electrolysers used in green hydrogen production is one of the main catalysts for the increasingly bullish sentiment over the element.
The cost of electrolysers used in green hydrogen production has halved over the last five years and will fall to 60 to 90 per cent by the end of the decade, acceding to Haim Israel, equity strategist at Merrill Lynch. A global focus on decarbonisation and sustainability is also a big driver in its development.
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
RESULT
Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Manchester United 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UK's plans to cut net migration
Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.
Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
