As Israel Turns 56
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem----April 26....As Israel turns 56-years-old, I have several wishes for this young, tiny and democratic state.
My first wish is for the elimination
of Yasser Arafat. More than Yassin, Rantasi or any other Islamic terrorist,
Arafat has done more to destroy both Israeli and Palestinian lives than
anyone else breathing today. He walked away from a peace deal and an entity
for the Palestinians at Camp David and created the violent intifada. Arafat
has destroyed both Israeli and Palestinian economies. He has talked in
English of "Peace of the Brave" while in Arabic begs Palestinian
children to become suicide bombers.
Arafat takes millions of dollars in EU humanitarian aid and diverts it
to his wife Suha's private bank accounts in Paris. Arafat has not allowed
any of his prime ministers to work for a true peace and uses Palestinian
TV to spread racist hate rather than tolerance and understanding. Lastly,
Arafat who agreed to the US brokered Road Map Peace Plan has not implemented
his side by confronting terrorism, instead Arafat has been harboring terrorists
in his own home. Arafat, who was expelled by the Jordanians for attempting
to overthrow their government in "Black September" of 1971,
should be killed or at the very least expelled from Israel.
Arafat must go in order for all of us to live in a more stable, peaceful
and healthy environment.
After Arafat has choked on pita and houmous, the mourning has passed, then we, Israelis must place our full backing behind a true and honest Palestinian leader who will confront all elements of Islamic terrorism and sign off on the establishment of free trade zones and industrial parks in Palestine Nablus, Jenin and Rahmallah. Jobs must be created for the Palestinian poor so that they can turn to the baker and the fisherman for food - rather than Hamas and Islamic Jihad for death.
The Israeli government will create greater tax incentives for venture capitalists to invest in Israel. Israel must and will regain her lead status as the technology center of the Middle-East, inviting the best minds to return to Israel, stopping the present brain drain.
Taxes for the very wealthy
will increase as benefits for the Israeli poor expand. Israel's 21 percent
unemployment must be addressed. Education and health must become priorities,
as great as security. For if our education and health programs decline,
who will we be defending.
Doctors and nurses need to be compensated better.
As for defense, Israel's nuclear capability, if it exists, should expand. Israel should never be at the mercy of her neighbors - dictatorial, corrupt Arab oil rich regimes who maintain and use weapons of mass destruction. That our police and security guards are better compensated. That our soldiers in the field get a tastier variety of food and get it on time.
The Israeli government will implement a plan to centralize all public relations activity under an office created by the Prime Minister. This office will ensure that all ministries speak with one message to the media, using professional and experienced outside PR professionals for support. Israel must learn that the war of bullets and the war of the words go hand in hand. Israel no longer has the luxury of separating these two strategic battles. That former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is named as minister of this new office. That deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Justice Minister Tommy Lapid and Government Press Office Director Danny Seaman serve as deputies.
Priority must be given to building and construction integrity, for when an earthquake does strike, Israel will survive.
That the Negev will be populated in numbers that we should have seen decades ago. Let casinos be built, let industrial parks flourish and create the long awaited "life" canal from the Dead Sea to the Med.
In this new year, I wish that we will see a "cleansing" of the management of the Jerusalem Post. The Post's owners Conrad Black and David Radler, who are now facing criminal corruption charges, handpicked the Post's present senior management which desperately needs to be replaced. The Jerusalem Post needs an editor-in-chief who speaks and reads Hebrew and writes for Israelis, not for those living in London or New York. That Haaretz stops dreaming about peace with Osama bin-laden, Islamic Jihad and Hamas and supports a country at war with terrorists - not "militants."
That our many terror victims heal quickly and regain fresh and vibrant spirits.
Lastly, that all Jews and Israelis around the world will again look at Israel as their true and only home. We living in Israel have that obligation to clean the carpet and wash the windows. We must make the words "to be a light onto other nations" a truism and reality.
I close in wishing the warm
and dedicated people of this beautiful and magical state of Israel - long
life, prosperity and joy in the days to come.
Please enjoy the writings of Stef Wertheimer below. I pray we see this
reality materialize in the near future.
Statement by Stef Wertheimer, Chairman, Board of Directors, ISCAR, Ltd. at the June 24, 2002 hearing of the United States House Committee on International Relations.
I wish to thank Chairman Henry Hyde for having the foresight to initiate this hearing, as well as Ranking Democrat Tom Lantos and Chairman Gilman. I am also thankful to the members of the Committee who have allowed me to testify before them. I am honored to be here.
This morning could prove to be an historic session. It could change the course of events in my troubled region of the eastern Mediterranean. Congressman Hyde has been voicing the need for a new bold approach to certain parts of this area. He has used the term "a new Marshall Plan" to describe his vision. As all of you in this room know, that plan changed the course of the 20th century by rebuilding Europe after WWII. It may be in your power to transform another region of great strategic importance to the U.S.
I am here to make a few observations and, perhaps, to expand the concept that Congressman Hyde has envisioned. He and I – and I know many others – share an interest in calming my region. I believe there is only one solution: a vigorous plan for industrial development that will be enhanced sometime in the future by a political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
What is needed is not continuing aid, but rather the willingness of the U.S. and other OECD countries to make a limited-term investment in the future of the eastern Mediterranean. Unlike social welfare, the proposed plan will make people self-sufficient rather than continually dependent. It is a program that will offer hooks rather than fish.
My testimony is based on 50 years of successful entrepreneurship in a developing region. I started my own metal tool cutting company, ISCAR, Ltd., in 1952, not long after the end of the Israeli War of Independence. It is now one of the two leading companies in its field in the world, with annual revenues of $1 billion. I have also built four industrial parks in Israel that generate an additional $1 billion, much of which derives from the 150 emerging industries that have been launched in the parks’ incubator spaces.
My own experience allows me
to make two points with conviction. First, since my own corporation grew
during times of war on Israeli soil, I can vouch that we need not wait
for a peace agreement before embarking on this plan.
We should begin as soon as possible.
Second, having launched my company from a remote area in the Galilee,
I can testify that it is possible for the eastern Mediterranean to be
competitive in the global market.
I use the term "eastern Mediterranean" deliberately. It is time to redraw the map of the Middle East. For far too long, political maps have defined this region. We now need a new economic map, one that will distinguish the oil-producing states in the Gulf from the non-oil states in the east.
Oil wealth has also contributed to some of our most menacing problems today. Let me mention three in particular.
First, oil riches have created an enormous disparity in the wealth of neighboring states of this region. For instance, Kuwait ’s GDP per capita is about ten times that of Jordan’s. It is almost inevitable that unrest will result from such gross economic inequality. Still worse is the fact that oil revenues have generally been invested not in the region but rather in the West. Very high unemployment exists now in parts of the region. As a result – and I quote from UNDP’s recently published Arab Human Development Report 2002 – "while it is shocking, it is not surprising that…more than half of young Arab people surveyed wanted to emigrate to other countries, mostly to industrialized countries outside the region."
Second, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin-ladin, and 15 of the 19 who carried out the September 11 attacks come from Middle Eastern oil-producing countries that support a xenophobic form of religious education.
Third, the Arab oil-producing states have turned a blind eye to their brethren, the Palestinian refugees. They offered them neither shelter nor any support meaningful enough to create a secure and stable society.
For a solution, we should turn our sights to the Old Levant countries. Concentrate first on Jordan, Turkey, and Israel, and then expand the program to include the Palestinians, the Lebanese, and other neighbors seeking a higher standard of living.
Why Jordan, Turkey, and Israel? Lacking natural resources, these three have the greatest potential for economic success because they cannot expect idle riches. Israel has succeeded precisely because it lacks oil. To reach its relatively high GDP per capita, it has had to rely on hard work, technological and other innovations, and export-driven industries – the same ingredients that underlie the recent success of Ireland, Finland, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. In addition, Jordan, Turkey, and Israel have b been oriented to the West and wish for stronger ties with the EU and NASTA.
The Middle East was once a bustling economic region. No longer. The above-mentioned Report, written by Arab intellectuals, frankly outlines the distressing situation. It claims that the Arab world (defined as 22 countries of 280 million people) now has the lowest growth of per capita income in the world, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa. The Report cites three reasons for this: lack of political freedom, the repression of women, and inadequate knowledge of the world beyond.
There is a glaring omission in this otherwise excellent document. Nowhere does it stress the need for industrialization. Yet industry is the engine of economic stability, a vehicle by which a nation can quickly become empowered.
Consider this: the economic success of Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea has been achieved in a matter of decades. With post WWII American aid, they industrialized and become self sufficient in the process. These Asian Tigers had few natural resources, yet their success is indisputable. Another example: since the fall of the Berlin Wall, one can see the same success unfolding in some of the Eastern European nations. Nothing could better demonstrate the soundness of the original Marshall Plan’s concept. The approach can be copied.
The main way that I can contribute to Congressman Hyde’s vision for a Marshall Plan is through Tefen, my model of an industrial park that has been extremely successful in Israel. Its formula could be exported. Today there are four parks in Israel based on this model, and a fifth will soon be constructed in the north. In addition, it will also soon be tested for the first time on foreign soil: in Gebze, Turkey.
Only two years ago the model was to be built in Gaza. I was engaged in a partnership with the Palestinians to build twin parks, one near Rafah, the other just across the border in Israel. Leaders of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority approved the plan. The Harvard University School of Design completed a planning study of the area. Unfortunately, however, the second Intifada has postponed that project.
The Tefen model stresses creativity through an unusual combination of aims: to provide high quality products to a global market, to advance entrepreneurial education and industrial training, to foster new indigenous industries, and to showcase art and culture. To these ends, the four parks all have incubator spaces, educational and training facilities, museums, and sculpture gardens.
As in any business enterprise, Tefen’s success can be quantified in numbers. The model park and its two replications in the Galilee and one in the Negev have launched 150 new firms that currently generate $1 billion in sales and have given rise to 5,000 new jobs. They prove that this part of the world can compete successfully in the global market.
A Marshall Plan for this region will be an ambitious undertaking. Why not test the concept first in one specific place? Jordan, a relatively small nation with a highly literate population of 5 million, would serve as an ideal showcase. His Majesty King Abdallah and his late father have been close allies of the U.S., and Jordan’s continued stability is vital, both for this region and for the West.
An expenditure of $1 billion over five years (in addition to the current U.S. funding) in industrial development, infrastructure, and technical education would bolster the economy and increase its GDP significantly in a short period of time, similar to what happened in Europe with the Marshall Plan. The plan is to build five industrial parks in diverse areas of the country and to assist in establishing industrial facilities within those parks. They will change the pattern of poverty and unemployment and prove that industry can pave the way for economic stability. The funds should be managed and dispensed by a U.S. or international institution. A preliminary plan and budget for Jordan is attached.
Jordan’s stability is critical for this region as well as for the West. If it does not receive the funds to enable it to increase its standard of living, it could well cease to exist in the near future.
Once Jordan is deemed to be a success, then the Marshall Plan could be extended to other countries in the region: Turkey, the Palestinian Authority, the developing communities of Israel and, eventually perhaps, Egypt and Lebanon. One hundred parks of the Tefen model would transform this region, enhance the quality of its workforce, increase its standard of living, and provide the environment for more democratic societies to emerge
The Middle East has a way of besmirching the entire world with its conflicts. It is of global interest to quiet this area. A Marshall Plan for this area would produce a variety of benefits:
A reduction of terrorism worldwide. The majority of the world’s terrorists hail from this region. Terrorism thrives in areas of poverty. Narrowing the gap between the financial status of neighboring countries and enhancing a population’s standard of living automatically changes attitudes. Job opportunities and a higher standard of living for people in this area will reduce the power that terrorist groups offer to the deprived masses.
Continued free flow of oil to the West. Developed countries are particularly dependent on oil. By raising the standard of living in the region’s non-oil-producing countries, the Plan will reduce some of the glaring financial injustices that produce turmoil here and thus ensure the free flow of oil.
Enhanced trade opportunities for the West. To develop this region will require the expertise and equipment of the industrialized countries. The West has much to offer in terms of its know-how and its goods.
Industrialization of these countries will enable American companies committed to buyback agreements to find sources for purchasing.
A foreign policy victory. While economic disparities are not the only issue plaguing this region, an ambitious program of industrial development in the eastern Mediterranean will bring positive political, economic, and social results. This will prove to be the best investment for the future.
In summary, I would welcome
the support of this Committee, which would greatly enhance the prospects
of peace. A long-term solution to the problems besetting us now rests
on narrowing the gap of wealth distribution.
Industrialization is the key to achieve this.