AMMAN, 25 May 2005 — After three consecutive World Economic Forum conferences in Jordan, Israel has apparently failed to employ the so-called Dead Sea diplomacy to jump over the quest of peace into forging normal ties with the Arab world, prominent businessmen and academics said yesterday.
“Despite its intensive presence at the meetings, I believe Israel has failed the Dead See diplomacy test. We managed to feel this impression even with non-Arab participants,” Chairman of the Jordanian Businessmen Association Hamdi Tabbaa told Arab News.
“The Israelis have failed to convince the world that reforms can be conducted in this region in isolation of a peace pact with the Palestinians. They also failed to skip over the quest of peace into having normal times with Arab states other than Jordan and Egypt.”
The WEF on Sunday concluded a three-day conference at the Dead Sea that held under the theme “Seizing the Moment.”
Jordan’s Islamic-led opposition boycotted the WEF meeting, contending that its primary aim was to “bolster US hegemony of the region and act as a platform for normalization of ties between Israel and Arab countries”.
“The king was quite clear in putting the issue forward: There will be no stability in this region as long as the Arab-Israeli conflict is not resolved,” said Tabbaa. “We felt that the Israeli argument is no longer acceptable to participants, including non-Arab delegates, taking into account that the Israelis failed so far to honor their commitments under peace treaties concluded with Jordan and Egypt and the Oslo accords concluded with the Palestinians,” he added.
Five Israeli ministers and other senior officials took part in the WEF meeting at the Dead Sea, including two Deputy Prime Ministers, Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who expected earlier the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Jewish state and at least 10 Arab countries in 2005. None of the Israeli ministers pledged that the planned withdrawal from the Gaza strip would be part of the Quartet’s road map.
