Three Card Monte from Planck's Constant

At first, seeing this dealer setting up the Three Card Monte scheme on a market street in Jaffa, Israel, we might assume that this is simply another American export like the jeans he is wearing.

However, this confidence game goes back almost two hundred years and was first described by Mexican author José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi. His book Periquillo Sarniento was written in 1816 (Published in English as The Mangy Parrot).

The game is a variation of the shell game which itself goes back to Egyptian times.

In modern times we saw it played with skill by Yasser Arafat who would flash the peace card in front of the UN while in reality he dealt out death and destruction. At the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David in July of 2000, Ehud Barak offered Arafat 97% of the 1967 territories with Palestinian control over Eastern Jerusalem as the capital of the new Palestinian state; all refugees would receive a compensation package from the Israeli government; and Israeli would withdraw from all the territories after Arafat dismantled the terrorist infrastructure. Arafat refused. All he had to do was say yes and there would have been a Palestinian State today.

Related (Arafat/Palestine):

Said K. Aburish (Author), Arafat: From Defender to Dictator,
Review: In this meticulously researched and iconoclastic work, the internationally respected Palestinian analyst and writer Said K. Aburish turns the current Western perception of Arafat upside-down and presents a re-examination of the leader's life. Judged by how the West now views him, Arafat has undergone one of the fastest transformations of any public figure in recorded history. In a mere four years he has moved from rejected terrorist to Nobel Peace Prize winner and respected international statesman. As a son of Palestine himself, Aburish questions the leader's methods, motives and effectiveness. As well, he addresses the mysteries of Arafat's public and personal life and speculates about the future leadership of the Palestinians.

Sussmans b'Aretz, A Palestinian State: Wither or Whither?
Every time the Palestinians appear to make progress toward their stated goal of statehood, the rejectionists within Palestinian society, led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, make their voices heard through violence directed both toward other Palestinians and toward Israel. The Israeli electorate still supports the idea of a two state solution, but becomes more and more wary with each outbreak of violence and the obvious Palestinian Authority failures in governing Palestinian society.

Jerusalem Post, ZOA poll shows support for Israel in US
Americans oppose giving land to Palestinians by a margin of 5-to-1, according to a new poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates for the Zionist Organization of America.

Related (3 card monte):

The Magic Life, The Three Card Monte
A gang known as the Cracker Parker three-card monte mob worked this con in the early 1950's until the late seventies. The three card monte has been in use on the streets of major cities for decades.

Want to learn how it's all done? Detailed step by step on how to perform the Three Card Monte.

If you want to play Three Card Monte without any cheating involved try here

Three Card Monte - Card Tricks