Soccer Dad

What a wonderful world; not yet

via the Israeli Consulate Daled Amos reports that the Palestinians are already Israel's second biggest export market.

In spite of the hostilities between the two groups, the second largest country to which Israel exported goods in 2005, excluding diamonds, was the Palestinian territories, Khatib told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. He spoke to the Post following a Jerusalem event hosted by the Peres Center for Peace designed to publicize a report by the Palestine Trade Center on economic relations between Israel and Palestine.

But that could grow even further

If relations between Israel and the Palestinians were to become "friendly" rather then "hostile," the value of Israeli exports to the Palestinians could grow to $7b. annually within the next five to 10 years, Khatib said.

But that number could be augmented by another $5b. within that same time frame because Israel could export its products duty-free to the Arab Free Trade Area countries with the help of the Palestinians. That would includes duty-free sales of products to Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Tunis, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Mauritania and Somalia.

Similarly Elder of Ziyon notes that Israel's hosting a trade show for Palestinian technology companies.

Maan News (Arabic) reports that next Monday there will be a trade show in Tel Aviv featuring 25 Palestinian Arab technology companies who want to get business cooperating with Israeli companies.

Unfortunately Elder of Ziyon gets somethng wrong

PalArab terror apologists may note that this conference is organized by the Peres Center for Peace and therefore doesn't represent the mainstream of Israeli thinking . . .

The Arab world doesn't view the Peres Center for Peace so benevolently. In the afterglow of the Oslo Accords, Shimon Peres wrote a book caleld the New Middle East about the cooperation he foresaw in the Middle East. How was it received in Egypt?

An Egyptian newspaper explains this fear: "What it [Israel] has failed to achieve by war it will achieve by peace. A Zionist empire will spring up between the Nile and the Euphrates, one in which the mighty Zionists will be masters and the inept, misguided, and dysfunctional Arabs the underdogs." More alarming yet, an Arabic translation of Peres's book, The New Middle East contains an introduction claiming his text provides "irrefutable proof" confirming The Protocols of the Elders of Zion-a century-old Russian forgery claiming that Jews seek to take control of the world; the introduction claims that Peres's plan confirms that they plan to start the process by dominating the Middle East

(Yes I realize that the article's is eleven years old. Unfortunately, I've seen little to suggest that Arab attitudes towards Israel have changed much since then.)

It would be wonderful if there would be cooperation between Israel and its neighbors that would bring prosperity to all in the region. But until Israel's good faith actions are accepted as such and not as some cynical imperialist maneuver that cooperation will never take hold.

Blogdigger tags: Israel, Palestinians, Egypt, Peace Process, Economy.