The report was commissioned by the French government. The report recommends shifting the ways policymakers look at progress from what economists call gross domestic product,or GDP, which is a general measure of goods and services produced in a country.

VOA: standard.2009.09.14

A senior Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group in Jerusalem,Rob Blecher, says frustration over continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the general lack of progress toward achieving a Palestinian state,has prompted the Palestinian leadership to look for new strategies.

VOA: standard.2010.05.03