RAMALLAH, West Bank, 13 April 2007 — Perhaps as part of his ongoing dream of “New Middle East”, Israeli Deputy Premier Shimon Peres yesterday said at a conference on “The Sea as an Economic Resource” that Israel should stop investing in West Bank and build artificial islands instead.

The conference, which opened Wednesday, deals with “opportunities and threats presented by the Mediterranean Sea.” Topics on the agenda include pollution of the sea and coasts, the economic potential of the sea for Israel, and more.

Peres said, “The State of Israel has a narrow waistline (less than ten miles between Israeli city of Netanya and West Bank city of Tulkarm)... Israel has invested some $15 billion in the territories (West Bank and Gaza). Instead of this, we must invest in the sea, and stretch our western border into the sea by building artificial islands.”

It was Peres who, as minister of defense in the mid-1970s, approved the establishment of the first Israeli settlement, Kedumim and Elkanah, west of Nablus city in the West Bank.

Some Israelis view with irony his remarks about investing in the sea, especially in light of his well-known position in favor of a New Middle East. “His tendency is clear,” wrote one observer. “A new Middle East without Jews on land — only in the sea.”

Meanwhile, Syrian-American Ibraheem Suleiman, a US-based Syrian citizen considered an associate of Syrian President Bashar Assad, presented the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee with possible scenarios for a peace deal with Syria, Israeli Knesset Member Zehava Gal-On of Meretz party said yesterday.

Gal-On said that according to Suleiman, Syria would cease its support for “terror organizations and join the global fight against terror, as well as cutting ties to Hezbollah.” Syria would, in turn, demand that Israel withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights.

In another development, the BBC said yesterday it has been assured by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that its Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, kidnapped a month ago, was “safe and well,” and again appealed for his release.

“I appeal to all those who may have influence with the kidnappers to use their best endeavors to secure Alan’s release safely and speedily,” BBC Director General Mark Thompson told a press conference in Ramallah.

“I would appeal to the people holding Alan Johnston to release him immediately,” he said, on what the BBC said was a “day of action” being held to highlight their correspondent’s plight.

There has been no word on the fate of Johnston, 44, since he was forced from his car at gunpoint as he drove home from work in Gaza City exactly one month ago on March 12 — the longest a Westerner has been held in the volatile territory.