Israel--A Special Section - Pursuing a Peace Dividend
ELIZUR, YUVAL
Pursuing a Peace Dividend Jerusalem Peace in the Middle East," Yitzchak Rabin declared at the opening session of the second Middle East/North Africa Summit in Amman last October 29, "demands that...
...That was not true in Casablanca, where two chartered El Al planes unloaded six Cabinet ministers, hundreds of officials and an "army" of businessmen...
...In his handsome marble-tiled office we talked about several ventures he had entered into with Israeli industrialists during the past year...
...Other approved projects were less controversial...
...Was progress made toward improving working relations and understanding among the core countries...
...Similarly, many participants in a workshop where Egypt set forth project proposals said it was "excellent...
...Afterward, while driving us in his luxurious black BMW to the Jordan Business Center where most of the summit meetings were held, he noticed that we were reading the slogans in Arabic and English appearing periodically along the roadside...
...slowly but surely weaving a fabric of coexistence and cooperation" capable of resisting the "outright sabotage" of those who would attempt to shred it...
...That is the peace dividend he was pursuing...
...An informal late-night meeting of Egyptian and Israeli industrialists was highly praised by the Israelis...
...He has himself survived numerous assassination plots since assuming the throne in 1953, too...
...Syria and Lebanon were conspicuously defiant in refusing their invitations...
...In the Middle East, high hopes and the utter despair of fanaticism too often form a vicious circle...
...A visibly angry King Hussein asked for the floor...
...As the conference progressed, a marked change in Egypt's attitude became obivi-ous, almost as if it were afraid of missing the boat...
...Six days later, in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Rabin was shot to death by a young Israeli...
...Although a resolution was adopted to establish a regional development bank headquartered in Cairo that would serve as a key financial resource for all Middle Eastern and North African development projects, it remains to be seen whether this will become a reality...
...ne morning, before the proceedings got under way, a few of us met with Omar S., a young Jordanian entrepreneur...
...More important is what sort of atmosphere prevailed...
...By the summit's end, it was apparent that despite their failure to exhibit any enthusiasm for the goings on in Amman, even the Gulf states—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates—have no intention of withdrawing to the perimeter of the Middle East's slowly evolving new playing field...
...Addressing a panel on investment incentives, he said: "A power plant we are building in Morocco costs $ 1.5 billion...
...Soldiers manned machine guns on rooftops and on Jeeps stationed at major intersections...
...Jealousy could explain the Europeans' fierce opposition to a regional development bank...
...The Hashemite Kingdom, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa charged at the opening session of the conference, was "in too great a hurry to warm up its peace with Israel...
...As envisioned, Europe and the United States would be asked to put up most of the capital...
...On the other hand, Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher indicated, if it is something that is very much wanted because it is viewed as a status symbol, the U.S...
...They made it unmistakably clear that they were far from ready...
...Their value notwithstanding, these efforts in themselves probably wi 11 have a marginal impact on Arab-Israeli relations...
...In addition, instead of presenting ideas that would require huge investments or would be considered politically sensitive^—say, a Middle East Common Market—Israel concentrated on what one of its representatives described as "sexy proposals...
...What we could obtain from the proposed regional bank for such a project would be a mere drop in the bucket...
...Neither could uninvited Libya, Iraq and Iran—or the absent West Bank and Gaza factions that oppose Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat and the peace process—be forgotten...
...Were the investors who came from 60 nations persuaded that "the Middle East is now open for business," as Secretary of State Christopher put it...
...Finally, the killing of Islamic Holy War leader Fathi Shiqaqi in Malta on the eve of the event (allegedly by Israeli agents), and the terrorist organization's ensuing threats to "avenge" him, provided an urgent reason for the security steps taken...
...From now on, all our efforts, actions, plans—all our words must concentrate on the economy and on the quality of life...
...Equally naive was the expectation of some that Amman would produce immediate, concrete economic benefits...
...To allay these concerns, they repeatedly pointed out that the Middle East would not be the main market for their country's sophisticated technology-based industry...
...The real test of a gathering like the Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit, however, is not how many formal resolutions were passed...
...Neither was excited by the prospect...
...Yossi Beilin, Israel's former Minister of Economic Planning and current Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, deserves at least some of the credit for Egypt's turnabout...
...Still, whatever the annoyances caused by the security restrictions, the conference concluded without incident...
...In these circumstances there is no real need for a development bank...
...It may not be justified, but they see themselves being asked to contribute heavily to an institution that will get U.S...
...Each hotel floor was patrolled by a uniformed and a plain clothes officer...
...Every road leading to the buildings where various sessions were held, or to those where participants were staying, was closed to vehicles and individuals lacking specially issued identification tags...
...Picking up the theme at a press conference jammed with critical yet polite journalists, then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres declared: "Israel's GNP is expected to reach $90 billion this year...
...In the volatile Middle East no one can say with confidence that it is attainable...
...would be supportive...
...Why don't you realize that the European or American firm that wants the Middle East business will also be required to put together the financial package...
...No one who was there, though, could help noticing that Israel was on the whole treated as merely another participant in the attempt to pull the region up by its bootstraps...
...A case could even be made that it accomplished little more than the initial summit held in Casablanca a year earlier, praised mainly for the fact that it took place...
...He went on to speak of joint "development projects...
...We see the whole world as our marketplace...
...As for whether or not better relationships emerged from the public dialogue and private contacts of decisionmakers at the summit, no doubt assessments differ from one Middle East country to the next...
...That in itself was a triumph for King Hussein and his brother, Crown Prince Hassan, who served as the overall chairman...
...Indeed, the Kingdom's majority Palestinian population does not share the King's enthusiasm for coming to terms with Israel's existence...
...Few know that better than Jordan's King Hussein...
...Both its official and private sector delegations were reduced in size, thanks partly to the relatively short distance (two hours by car) between Jerusalem and Amman...
...As a teenager, he was on the steps of el-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem when a Palestinian hired by Egypt murdered his grandfather, King Abdullah, for secretly negotiating a treaty with the new State of Israel...
...Ignoring its decided aloofness, he insisted that as the ruler of Taba it should be a member of the projected Eilat-Aqaba-Taba development council...
...At times, though, the precautions did seem rather inhibiting and tended to slow down the proceedings somewhat...
...This time around Israel made a concerted effort to lower its profile and defuse the charge of "aggressiveness...
...In fact, we hope this year to earn more by selling the fruit of our brains than Saudi Arabia will earn from the sale of its oil...
...and Israeli companies orders...
...Peace today—Profits tomorrow," another promised...
...Omar smiled...
...One example was the barely concealed tension between Europe and the United States over economic influence in the Middle East...
...We owe this to the citizens of the countries we represent here: A new life...
...Most of the financing was obtained from European banks...
...The Middle East, it noted, has an excess of manpower, a huge amount of money that the oil-rich countries invest elsewhere, and technological know-how available in Israel...
...He was referring to projects related to agriculture, water resource development, marketing, and the environment, for which financing usually can be secured from existing international aid funds...
...Pursuing a Peace Dividend Jerusalem Peace in the Middle East," Yitzchak Rabin declared at the opening session of the second Middle East/North Africa Summit in Amman last October 29, "demands that we think differently, talk differently and act differently...
...Then, ostensibly to relieve the anxieties of the questioner, he added that "other countries, the region as a whole, will reap the fruits of prosperity...
...And he shook hands with dozens of Arab leaders, yesterday's enemies...
...The Arabs not only raised their eyebrows, they raised their voices to accuse the Israelis of trying to dominate the meeting by the sheer weight of their numbers...
...Even Peres' admirers cringed at his choice of words...
...His country and the other oil producers, he casually mentioned, might repatriate part of the $50 billion they have invested in Europe and the United States at very modest rates...
...Cabinet ministers were able to show up for specific sessions and thus avoid giving the impression that "the whole Israeli government" was on hand...
...But it may, after all, be his crowning legacy...
...Europe's irritation was a most noticeable subtext of German Minister of Economics Gunter Rexrodt's reply to a question by an Arab newsman at a press conference...
...But harmony and prosperity in the region would permit the further growth of its trade with North America, Europe and Southeast Asia...
...The United States had an altogether different perspective...
...Roughly 2,000 political figures, government officials, businessmen, and media persons from around the world crowded into Amman for the summit, which was co-sponsored by the United States and the Russian Federation, supported by the European Union, Canada and Japan...
...The answer to the second question will first become apparent a few years down the road, when the actual results of deals discussed in Amman, if any, can be gauged...
...Yes, I know," he said, "they are very naive...
...Nevertheless, he was acknowledged at the summit as the "prophet of the New Middle East...
...A better approach, it was suggested, would be to place additional funds at the disposal of existing local financial institutions and urge them to expedite the handling of worthwhile undertakings...
...If fear of their domination was not completely erased, said the Israelis, it was because of the fanning of ancient animosities by European and Arab business interests worried about competition...
...Yes,"he said, "America and perhaps Israel as its closest ally, will reap the biggest benefits from economic development in the Middle East...
...Such funding operations invariably incur large overheads and cause unnecessary bottlenecks, the Europeans argued, citing recent experiences with their own embattled European Development Bank...
...They included the establishment of a regional business council, a tourism development trust, an Eilat-Aqaba-Taba development council, and an economic news service on the Internet to be called Peacenet...
...But the bank's success, he cautioned, would depend on the readiness of the Gulf states to open their pockets...
...Another seemed to revolve around Egypt's role in the Arab world...
...His hectic schedule included meetings with most of the heads of state and foreign ministers in Amman, who were ushered into his hotel suite at 20-minute intervals...
...Rabin, who earned his place in Israel's history as a tough-minded war hero, closed his address at the opening plenary of the Amman Summit with the following words: "Now is the time to fulfill the prophecy, the dream of millions throughout the ages: to turn swords into ploughshares...
...Also indicative of the near normal treatment accorded Israel was its not being the main target of every conflict that arose...
...A Kuwaiti banker let the cat out of the bag during a workshop on the region's capital markets...
...It was not surprising, therefore, that security measures at the three-day summit were so stringent they disrupted normal life in the Jordanian capital, and must have strained the national budget as well...
...Egypt's expression of displeasure was aimed squarely at Jordan...
...Some have enjoyed peace with Israel for 17 years, he shot back, and now others had to catch up...
...An executive of the Swedish firm ABB, a supplier of electric powerplants, strongly backed the European position...
...The strength of a nation is based on stability and an advanced economy," one asserted...
Vol. 78 • December 1995 • No. 9
