Public Comment

Unlikely Prospect for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By Ralph Stone
Thursday November 06, 2008 - 10:17:00 AM

In her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein posits that Israel’s embrace of disaster capitalism has diminished the need for it to engage in meaningful peace negotiations with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. For years, it was conventional wisdom that you needed political stability to have steady economic growth. However, Israel has turned this conventional wisdom on its head. Israeli occupies Gaza and the West Bank, engages in violence with the Palestinians, is experiencing political turmoil, yet the country is experiencing an economic boom. How?  

According to Klein, Israel has exploited the chaos by pioneering a successful defense and home security-related economy and thus, enjoys a booming prosperity while it is in conflict with its neighbors. Thus, it could be said that Israel’s economy is based on the prospect of continual conflict and deepening disasters.  

Today, Israel is the leading source of home security gadgetry and anti-terrorist technologies. Israel has over 600 security and homeland-security related companies. In 2006, Israel exported $3.4 billion in defense products—well over a billion more than it received in U.S. military aid. That makes Israel the fourth-largest arms dealer in the world. By the end of this year, Israeli exports in the sector may reach $1.2 billion. The key products and services are high-tech fences, unmanned drones, biometric IDs, video and audio surveillance gear, air passenger profiling and prisoner interrogation systems, precisely the tools and technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories.  

How does Israel’s burgeoning economic boom relate to the prospects for meaningful peace negotions? At one time, Israel needed the Palestinians as a cheap source of labor. However, after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, about 700,000 Russians immigrated to Israel, now making up about 15 percent of the working age population. This influx of new labor made the Palestinians surplus humanity. In 1993, Israel began its closure of the occupied territories. The closure was supposed to be temporary. This changed after Sept. 11, 2001, when the rise of Israel’s high tech industry began. This corresponded with its diminished need to have friendly relations with its Arab neighbors. Israel is now a fortified gated community, surrounded by locked out people. Gaza and the West Bank are now surplus humanity. 

Thus, it can be argued that a continued war on terror is good for Israel’s defense and home security-related industries. And Israel has less incentive to engage in meaningful peace negotiations with the Palestinians and its other Arab neighbors. As Klein observed, the “Apartheid” Wall serves at least two purposes: to keep the Palestinians caged in and to advertise its defense and home security-related industries. 

 

Ralph E. Stone is a retired Bay Area attorney.