Jordan Times
Monday, May 23, 2005
Business ties speed
Arab-Israeli peace — Shalom
By Suleiman Al Khalidi
Reuters
DEAD SEA — Business ties between Israelis and
Arabs should be encouraged to bring economic benefit to both and boost chances
for peace, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Sunday.
“It's very old-fashioned to say that there should be no economic ties before
peace,” Shalom told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting
in Jordan.
“I think it will be much easier for the Israelis to accept progress in the
political track if they realise they have normal business relations with the
Arab world,” he said.
“If the Israelis, like the Arabs, find that there is economic progress and
better standards of living I am sure it will be much easier for the two sides to
make more concessions in order to move towards peace,” he added.
Shalom said Israel felt signs of change in Arab readiness to do business with
Israel, which many Arab businessmen say remains a taboo and is done covertly.
“There is a change in the Arab world, we can feel it. The Arab peoples are more
open to have free dialogue with Israel,” he indicated.
Israel is a regional powerhouse whose economy dwarfs its Arab neighbours, even
the oil producing countries. But senior Arab businessmen say Israel is not
interested in setting up ventures with them and sought to penetrate bigger Arab
markets.
Shalom tried to allay Arab fears of Israel's economic domination, flooding
markets with subsidised Israeli goods, decimating local industry and gaining
access to Arab natural resources.
He said Arabs would gain more by trading with Israel as they had comparative
advantage in certain sectors, such as labour and transportation costs.
“Israel has no intention to dominate. In truth, the benefits are more for
Arabs,” he emphasised.
Shalom said Israel's two peace partners Jordan and Egypt had benefited from free
trade accords in which both countries export to the United States without
tariffs provided they produce goods made with at least 11.7 per cent Israeli
content.
“When we signed the free trade agreements with Jordan and Egypt it was first and
foremost for them, not for us,” he said, adding Jordanian exports to the United
States rose to more than $1 billion last year from $13 million in 1999.
“If peoples realise that there will be economic benefits, I am sure they will
support ties between Israel and their countries,” Shalom said.
He said economic integration was in the interest of Israel, and has urged the
European Union to set up regional projects that would promote Arab-Israeli
prosperity.
Israel is expecting normal ties with Arab countries that have no territorial
disputes with it, such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia and the energy-rich Gulf
states, he said.
“What kind of conflict do we have with the Northern African countries or the
Gulf states? We have neither territorial or economic disputes,” he added.
Israel has full diplomatic relations with only three members of the Arab League
— Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania.
Shalom foresaw that Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in August
would give a push to Arab states that have so far been reluctant to initiate
ties.
But many Arab countries say Israeli practices against Palestinians fuel the
resentment of ordinary Arabs and only a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from
the West Bank and the setting up of a Palestinian state would allow them to
consider normal ties with Israel.