You can't be serious! Are you really suggesting to give up all those sandy hills and dirty beaches that have been soaked with the blood of innocent people for thousands of years already? Do you really want to move and leave the desert a desert, to share it rather than killing one another over it? It has been commanded by a loving God that we should kill each other over it. Do think just for a couple of billions of bucks and the prospect of lasting peace for us and our children and for sustainable development of a whole region one should give up all the fighting and bloodshed? Where you living, man? On Mars? Get real, leftist!!!

with all due respect to the writer and his arithmetic, the sad truth is that there will never be an israeli embassy in riyad, even you dismantle not only gush katif and all other so-called settlements, but tel-aviv as well.... get real...

Hopelessly optimistic and delusional opinion. if we get a peace agreement the best we will get is being left alone. The Arab world is irredeemably and unapologetically Antisemitic. It doesn't matter if the source of that Antisemitism is the result of the false narrative of Jews being an outside colonial intruder or the more traditional ethnocentric religiously driven Antisemitism that has permeated the Arab world for more than a millennium. The Arab world simply is not going to to do business with Israel or Jews given a choice, peace or no peace. The best we can hope for in the foreseeable future is benign neglect. For consideration

that during the reign of the Sha in Iran, there was an oil pipeline to Israel with free oil. Now there is an oil pipeline to Israel with free oil from Iraq. The sources of that information were articles in Free American Magazine and American Free Press newspaper. Both are anti-semitic, but have a lot of interesting information. Free American Magazine is no longer published except sporadically after the publisher was run into by a car running a stop sign in Phoenix when the target was riding a motobike. Just before that he ran a series of articles critical of the Apostle Paul.

The GNP of the oil rich Arab nation is dwarfed only by the ignorance of the writer of this article. How can Plocker even imagine that Arabs give a damn about the so called palestinians. If the did care they would use their trillions to educate and integrate them - instead of slaughtering them. Pathetic.

The problem isn't the palestinians, it's the arab world that won't accept us.

Money buys influence. We can see our political influence deteriorate day by day. Just look at the change in US policy. Who would give a damn about Palestine or the Arabs generally, without petrodollars? It would be nice to have commercial relations with the Arab world. But it's unrealistic to assume it will happen no matter what happens with the peace process. Actually, it's unrealistic to assume that the peace process will work. What all those petrodollars have not accomplished is to change the ideology of the region. Quite the contrary, the petrodollars are fueling more extremism. Arguably, the increased wealth is a contributing factor to the rise in Islamic expansionism. The Middle-East is not Asia. China, India, & most other Asian countries are building economies based on added value to a far greater extent than oil-rich Arab countries. Their wealth & progress will not disappear when either the oil runs out or alternative energy sources become more commercially viable. Our economic success does not depend on Arabs, it depends on us. And the danger is that we are failing to create the conditions for our future success. And, this failure is a political problem. Just look at the school strike, the sorry state of our educational system, the poor results our schools achieve. Look at the far too many young people who are under-educated & unskilled. Economic success today is not based on natural resources, it's based on knowledge, technology, & know-how. The Arabs cannot avoid doing business with us indirectly - our technology is integrated into a global system & is found in all the products the Arabs import. Sure, it would be nice to have direct business opportunities but it is not essential. All of this oil wealth, for all the political influence it buys, has not contributed to the social or political stability of the region. The opposite is occuring. Without political & social stability, whatever progress is made is ephemeral, it is built on a foundation of sand. Our future success depends on the success of our educational system, the funding of our universities, the utilization of our brains. And, as I said before, this is essentially a political problem. Our rotten political system is the biggest threat to our future.

All over the world researchers are working on green energy. Arguably solar energy is the cheapest energy today when all factors are considered. It is only going to get better, e.g. with solar dye cells. Before long, this vast Muslim economic power house can drink their oil. The real puzzle is why Israel, a technological powerhouse, has been dragging its feet on solar energy.

The article is accurate as a statement of fact but I tend to disagree with the analysis. Some of my disagreements are: • A knowledge based economy such as Israel's is far more productive and sustainable that an oil exporting one. • The gulf countries are dependent on expat knowledge and have resisted or failed for many years to build a national knowledge industry centered on its citizens. It also failed to apply this on a pan Arab basis as still most of the qualified young Arab professionals are going west. • Another measure the writer ignored is the entrepreneurial gage. Israel has more new start ups that get sold off internationally (creative) where gulf countries are acquiring global companies (acquisitive) • Dubai may be the best example of capability, leadership and integration however the other Arab countries still lag behind across the board (closed economies) • Signing a peace treaty with Palestinians and Arabs will not give Israel access to the new business because governments make peace but people normalize ( cases Jordan and Egypt) The list goes on. The opportunity the writer alludes to is a very lucrative one with a small window of time. Israel's economy has focused on the global vision and with a value add approach; this opportunity will always be there. Like Israelis the Palestinians are not welcome in the Arab world although recognized as the most educated, experienced and honest professional. They are the Jews of the Arab world as they amassed and created over the years a proxy economy in most of the Arab countries (as a regional ethnic group Jordan, UAE, KSA) To sum up, yes Israel will miss this opportunity, but so will the Palestinians and so will everybody else in the Middle East.

for torah observant Jews, I'd say.

the tide is turning in the region. anyone here been to Dubai recently? It's like Hong Kong. The arabs are not going to blow their opportunity this time round - theyre much smarter now and investing for the long term. This is the real new middle east. Do you want to be part of it or a shaky fortress colony propped up by a declining superpower?

Oil is a finite resource. Eventually it will dry up or enough alternative energy source will be developed that petroleum based economies will not be what they were. What Israel has is more enduring: Brain Power. Take a look at the number of high tech areas where Israel was either a primary developer or made significant improvements in. Israel is also a leader in developing desalinization methods and fresh water will become far more valuable than oil in the very foreseeable future.

I understand that you have money at the forefront of your importance list but where did reality drop off? The arab countries don't want to make peace with us. they HATE us the last thing they want is for us to take part in their wealth streak. in my opinion the best thing that israel can do at tihs point is elliminate oil spendancy and kill the arabs main revenue. we have the technology and we have the PR we just need to want to do it and impliment it now!

If this is the thinking of the so called elite and decision makers ala this writer, no small wonder that Isreal will always be a nothing in a sea of oil. A small poor apple pushcart ghetto run by a Judenrat of idiots.

Are you saying to give up Israel to terrorists that want us destroyed just because they control the oil? I hope you rea;lise how ridiculous you sound but that doesnt surprise me, knowing you come from the loony left.

Those who 'think' the contrary have no sufficient education to understand the stakes.

Sever, We have a peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan. The treaty is a joke. How much trade and tourism do we have with these 2 countries? Close to none. It is a state of non-war. If you think that if we sign an agreement with the Palestinians everyone will love us and trade with us, you are wrong. The Arab contries hate the Jews and the Palestinans equally.

I wonder about what kind of material it is? It must be published in arab press as a black humor. Hue! Arab countries created "palestinians" only for one purpose: Israel's destruction as a Jewish State. Money that are paid for such fantasies are really black and bloody.

Did you see the raw data or are you blind??? Brain power when made into a pariah means nothing. Got it? I am an Israeli and there is not enough money for hospitals, mental health and most of all schools. Without the above there CAN BE NO BRAIN POWER. What Israel once had in plenty is now not at all plentiful. Like it or not oil speaks. Please do not talk about decades upon decades when the oil dries up. I must educate and feed my family now. This is the here and now. Sometimes one must do what they must do. Walk in my shoes Emanon in the USA.

I couldn't agree more as to what our Arab enemies have created. However, we must live now in order to be strong and create and stay alive. At this moment the cards are stacked against us in all directions. We will not cave. We will fight even if the fight is not to your approval.

I agree with you as well however the flaw in your thinking is that we must stay in war mode forever which too will drain the lifeblood out of this country. IT ALREADY HAS. Yes indeed we are in a state of non war with Egypt and Jordan and everyone knows it as well as the US who have done nothing to shame Egypt from allowing weapons tunnels dug to kill Jews. Yet still we must have peace in order to prosper even fake peace WHERE ALL THE PARTNERS are in check EVEN WHEN THEY HATE OUR GUTS. One can not escape from reality no matter how hard they try.

oil in the sand is going to be limited in the future and then, what do the arabs have to offer the world? fallafel? the globe must push ahead and concentrate on alternative sources of energy like SOLAR. like deselinazation and water technology which israel is a world leader will be 100% more important than oil in coming years considering the global green house effects we are witnessing nowadays. it will be brain power that leads the world and not oil. arabs have no brain power compared to israel, no technology and an absolute aversion to labour and work. they hire from without the coutry, experts and laborers as seen in most arab countries. they do not have the knowhow for economic progress. all they have is this black gold which one day will dry up or sooner if the world starts depending on cheaper and better green energy which is in the interest of economy (money spent) and health. israel will always be in the forefront of this possible technology because it has a vision and brain power and a willingness to advance and learn and contribute globally to this green economy. anyone believing the arabs are ready with knowledge and expertise in such global economy are deluding themselves. without oil in the sand with which they hold the globe's balls, arabs contribute nothing! brain will win over oil. just you wait and see in the next 10 or so years when the world comes up with alternatives for oil, the arab countries and their skyscrapers in dubai and uae and iran will dry up like a raisin in the sun. when countries rely on one major export commodity and do not expand their knowledge to other fields such as high tech, etc.... they are doomed to fail. arabs put all their eggs in one basket, but the eggs will crack up soon enough to put them back to the 12th century before they discovered their sands are soaked with this commodity that has been highjacking the world's economy for so many years. believe me, they will be nothing and the world won't pay any attention to them when all this black gooey stuff dries up. they'll all be obsolete, driving camels across the desert and selling fallafel to tourists.

So in the mean time we will stay in war. Wow! That will get us far. All of you talk about what it will be decades away. Where are we now? What our the real chances of prospering NOW. No one wants to take shortcuts or be out of touch with reality. Like it or not reality is at hand and no one can see it.

yes terry it is political but sure you can use the ecconomic for political target may be not like auther decision but like ghandi doing ... do you know about the indian leader .. so economy is related to policy in a way or other .. but sure in different ways

I wrote a response on my blog: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2007/11/put-not-your-trust-in-princes_05.html

Guyz its really appreciable that at present israel has many tallented professionals than that of arabs. All of you has a common missunderstanding is that all arabs are now illitarate, they only go to madrasah n only learn islami teaching. But in last 3-5 years the scenario has totally changed.Arab gcc countries are becoming knoladge based country from oil dependent country.UAE already able to become as a non oil dependent country.Oil accounts only 7% on gdp.Saudi arabia 30-35% non oil dependent country .expected to become oil free economy by 2020-2025.Same for qatar.But only kuwait lags behind still with 95% oil dependent country.But its really astonishing that these countries are now spending billions of dollars on higher studies and on R&D .They are importing all the top ranked usa universities or all the top professors of usa and euorope.You can search in the internet to see it by yrself.Even in this page there is a advertise in the middle about KAUST.Newly launched saudi research university of 2.6 billion dollar with 11 billion endownment.This is going to be the 1 of top 10 ranked uni of the world.Same for other or upcoming universities.Yes arabs are illitarates for the centuries but their advantage is their madian age is below 20 .If all these young kids get the benifit of these uni then within the next 20 years arab world will surplus in knoladge than that of israel with couple of time.N i like to give an another idea to what extent arab economy is increasing.If saudi able to build and implement their 6 new economy and industrial city then by2020 their per capita gdp will jump from current 14500 to 33500 with a population base of 40 milion then.qatar's per gdp will be more around 60000,uae's 40000-50000 and of kuwaits around 40000.Now lets come to sovereign wealth fund.If current growth continues than by 2015 swf of gcc countries will be atleast 6-8 trillion and by 2017 8-10 trillion which is almost equal to usa gdp,enough to become a ecomical superpower.Now lwts come in which directions they are buliding their knowladhe based industry.Saudi arabia is build in petro chemical,plastic,finance,bio medical equipment ,energy, telecommunication,automotive , mining,medical related subjects, semiconductor etc. almost same for other arab countries but uae is building another industry that is aerospace industry, dubai aerospace enerprise initial starting budget is 15 billion with aim to become to world leader in civilian and military aviation, aerospace parts manufacturing,airposrt building,aero space traffic management etc.

Now at least in couple of cases these things going to effect israel economy.In tourism ,it,automotive,semiconductor , and in bio medical ,as these are the main export parts of israel. u can expect easyly that the flow of investment will be narrow 2 israel as more people are now interested to do business wid mid east.As they are more investing for tourism uae,qatar,saudi arabia the number of tourists will also dicrease of israel which will reduce the income of israel.Now lets come to the oil matter. there may be a green energy but this is not going to effect oil industry atleast for 25 to 30 years. The reasons are usa is getting lots of profit through oil company and from whom mainly from china and india and also profitting as all the arab countries is putting the money on usa bank. This is helping to maintain stability as china and india has taken away almost all the jobs and taking the manufacturing money,by buying oil and gas they are repaing those money to the usa through the profit of oil companies.Obviously arab countries are also getting the benifit.and as u knw oil is a trillion dollar industry and oil lobby is very strong in the usa they r not going to let this happen in usa as all the high price is paing mainly by china and india not usa.So even they able to sale their oil till 2025 -2030 they will build up a unthinkable amount of sovereign wealth fund which not only diversify their economy from oil but also give them the opportunity to dominate the world through black money.Now obviously if current trends continue israel will be lagged to the arabs by couple of hundred miles no doubt about that.More bad news their is strong possibilyty for changing foreign policy of usa towards israel by stopping foreign aid, which will effect israel economy with that of tourism,semoconductor industry,biomedical equipment,aircraft equipment as saudi arabia will be able to make these equipment cheaply than that of israel with a brand name as oil n gas is really cheap in arab.Dnt take my any comment by heart.Now its up to the israeli's whether to keep only some sattlement in westbank or gaza or want to prosper along with other neighbouring country by business and with mutual understanding by abandoning the idea of zionist's greater israel.