Speaking to "Globes" at the World Economic Forum in Davos today, President Shimon Peres said, "Leave governments. Governments are a lot of diplomacy, suspicions, prestige, a lot of lawyers and military men. Because Israel is a lot stronger scientifically than diplomatically, it is easier to work with companies. Thus the Middle East must ride the chariot of global companies. It is not only a new Middle East but a new world."
President Peres for the first time presented an alternative model to the New Middle East in which the central player bringing change to the region would be international companies and the business sector rather than governments. He said, "What I've learned here in Davos is that governments have failed and companies are getting stronger. Governments are built on force and companies are built by listening. Governments want to force their will and companies listen to consumers around the world. The world's largest 40 companies have more money than all the governments put together. Israel is stronger in technology than diplomatically and so it is more convenient for us to work with companies than governments. It is very difficult to coordinate between governments and much easier to coordinate between companies. International companies have achieved amazing things like putting an end to racism."
Peres feels that the way to calm the region's problems is through economic cooperation and using Israel's technological advantage. "We are a region lacking land and water. The main problem of the Middle East is hunger, unemployment and repression. Money won't help here. The $4.5 billion the IMF plans giving Egypt won't help, because it will propose conditions that cannot be met. We can help because we are the only ones that know how to make one drop of water into three drops, and so I say, come on let's help them. We can calm the region down, we simply need to help them get out of their troubles."
Summing up his trip to Davos Peres told "Globes" "This is the first time for many years that there is an optimistic atmosphere. For the first time Europe is growing although not at the rate they would want but for the first time the growing deficit has become a reduced deficit."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 27, 2013
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