Profile

Perspectives on Israel

 

Pete Hoekstra and his wife, Diane

 

Congressman Pete Hoekstra and his wife, Diane, traveled to Israel January 9-18, 2000, on an educational trip sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF).

The goal of the trip was to familiarize the congressman with U.S.-Israel relations, the Middle East peace talks, Israel’s security situation and the state of economic and political trends in Israel.

During the trip, Hoekstra, R-Holland, participated in several high-level meetings with a wide variety of leaders – Israeli, secular, religious, government (leadership and opposition), as well as with experts in the peace process, U.S.-Israeli defense cooperation, and Israel’s economy.

AIEF is an educational foundation affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

AIEF sponsors, among other things, educational programs such as trips to Israel for community leaders and elected officials, seminars on Middle East issues at universities throughout the U.S., and other projects that help to educate the general public about U.S.-Israel relations.

The following is a compilation of Congressman Hoekstra’s observations from his trip.

Massada

Introduction

Over the years, I have had a number of invitations to travel abroad. In more than seven years since I was elected to Congress, I have traveled abroad on government business twice for a total of less than seven days. I visited Mexico for a weekend prior to Congress’ vote on NAFTA in 1993 and visited the Balkans while we were engaged in the bombing campaign in Kosovo. In January 2000, I agreed to participate in a trip to Israel sponsored by the American Israeli Education Foundation.

Like many other parts of the world, this area is of strategic importance to the U.S. I agreed to participate because of my interest in Israel and the ongoing peace talks. I wanted to familiarize myself with the issues and U.S. interests in the Middle East.

I also recognized that if peace negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians reached a successful conclusion, Congress might be asked to appropriate up to $70 billion – $14 billion for each of the next five years. That’s a considerable investment that I felt deserved further research on my part. Currently, the U.S. provides about $5 billion annually in economic and military aid for Middle East countries.

I visited Israel for eight days. We met with various political leaders, business and religious leaders during our stay. It was a fascinating trip to a country one-seventh the size of the state of Michigan and home to three of the world’s major religions. Yes, it was an awesome experience to walk in the area where Jesus walked more than 2,000 years ago.

Following are some of my impressions of visiting Israel and what I learned. Please feel free to e-mail me with additional questions or comments. Just for your information, I have voted both for and against various aid packages to Israel and the Middle East over the last few years. I can provide you with specific information on individual votes if you’re interested. Thanks for your interest in this report.

The Dead Sea

Economic

Israel’s economy is moving towards a high-tech economy (What’s new? So is everyone else’s!) The differences may be:

• Much of Israel’s economy historically has been driven by military development. Israel has had to depend on superior military technology to maintain a strategic military advantage in the Middle East. It has focussed on high-tech for an extended period of time.
  
• Israel’s economy during the last few years has benefited by significant immigration from the Soviet Union. What has been Russia’s loss has been Israel’s gain. Up to 45 percent of the 880,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union are college graduates. While in many cases this high influx of immigrants would be a burden, in Israel it has also been a significant asset because of the education and backgrounds of the immigrants.
  
• Israel must develop a high-tech industry. It has few natural resources, so its future economic development will depend on the high value added industries.
  
• Israel’s top industries include computers, software and telecommunications. It has 2,000 high-tech companies and 3,000 start-ups with four or five new start-ups every day expected in 2000.
  
• 71 percent of its $24 billion in exports is high-tech.
  How does Israel encourage economic development and investment?
  Interestingly enough, Israel has no capital gains tax although it taxes individuals up to the rate of 55 percent of earned income. It has significant government support for start-ups. Entrepreneurs can apply for government grants of up to $300,000 per year for two years while they develop their ideas. They may also receive government support for financial management and logistics. Israel has also made it easier for financial investment to flow in from overseas. The Israeli government is also moving towards more privatization of government-owned industries.

Israel and its neighbors

Israel is the foothold of democracy and free markets in the Middle East. Several of the nations surrounding it feature authoritarian governments that lack true political freedom. Few of its neighbors have functioning free markets.

In many cases, this leads to an outcome in which – if you believe that free markets and economies will lead to the greatest economic prosperity – we should witness Israel’s economy continue to outpace the economies of its neighbors. \

Won’t real peace occur once these economies become more intertwined and all grow stronger? For those who believe and hope that it will become like Western Europe, an integrated a economic of peaceful neighbors, it is possible but it will require fundamental change in the forms of government and the economies of Israel’s neighbors before we can expect it to really occur.

Beit Shean

Miscellaneous Facts

Israel has a free-trade agreement with the United States. It conducts 40 percent of its trade with the U.S., 32 percent with Europe, and little with its direct neighbors.
Israel faces some of the same challenges that we face. How do you train sufficient young people to staff a growing high-tech industry, and how do you retrain older workers in new technologies?

Summary: Israel is a small, high-tech, emerging economy. It recognizes that its future rests in its ability to develop and maintain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market. This is not a portion of their economy, it is the dominant component of a relatively fragile economy. It is trying to create an economic climate friendly to high-tech industries from an investment and workforce standpoint. It is trying to encourage the development of an entrepreneurial mentality. It has a number of factors that work to its advantage, but also has some disadvantages, including a continued significant expenditure for defense, and challenge of absorbing up to 600,000 immigrants annually, equal to almost 10 percent of their population.

Absorption Centers and Immigration

Israel continues to openly accept all Jewish immigrants. Recently there has been a considerable influx of Ethiopian Jews. While virtually any kind of immigration presents difficulties, this latest wave of immigration has presented some special challenges. While many Jewish immigrants – from the former Soviet Union, for example – are familiar with Western customs that are prevalent in Israel, many of the Ethiopian Jews come out of tribal cultures, so the Western World is a shock to their systems. The Israeli government is working to make the Ethiopians’ transition to Israeli culture as painless as possible.

Observations on the Peace Process

There are many things that strike me about the discussions that I had about the peace process, but they boil down to these:

• The passion: I’m used to people feeling passionate about their political positions. This passion reached new heights when it was applied to how people felt about the negotiations going on with Syria and the Palestinians. Why? Because it deals with the very survival of their nation. They need to get it right! It’s personal. The wars and conflicts have affected just about everyone personally. Everyone has either fought in one of the wars or knows several people who did. Plus, so many have been touched by the deaths that have occurred in past wars and in current events such as activity in Lebanon or ongoing terrorist attacks. For Israel, military success and national survival have come with a tremendous price.
• The process: Once a peace agreement is reached with Syria, it must be approved in a national referendum. While I’m typically in favor of more voter involvement, it seems like a national referendum on the peace agreement is a dicey situation.
• The complexities: Peace with the Palestinians and the Syrians is a complex process. The peoples are intermixed; there are not clear boundaries. It’s about national survival. The Golan Heights, with their view of the Sea of Galilee, is a priceless strategic asset that was fought for and defended with Israeli blood. It is not a simple proposition that they give it up.
• The isolation: The Israelis feel that they are alone. The Israelis, in most cases, see the U.S. as a reliable ally in economic, political and military issues. By and large, they do not see strong support from Europe and many believe that Europe is only interested in the peace process because of potential economic benefits, not a commitment to Israel.
• The ever-changing nature: The challenges of yesterday and today will be different than the challenges of tomorrow. Fading away is the direct military threat of pushing Israel into the sea. The threats of terrorism and fundamentalism are constantly evolving.

Military

Israeli Soldiers

Israel continues to have a very strong military and it must. However, it can not maintain a large standing army or be involved in a prolonged conflict. It has neither the military nor human resources to do this. All its citizens are compelled to serve in the military, but in a time of conflict it must rely on a rapid call up of reserves to attain an effective fighting force.

A personal observation: The country as a whole feels a profound sense of loss whenever a soldier is killed in action or a civilian is injured or killed in a terrorist attack.

Where do we go from here? In the Middle East, there is always a strong possibility that a low-probability event will occur. That means that a peace agreement with Syria and the Palestinians may be just around the corner or it may be years away. The U.S. must stay vigilant in monitoring the issues in the Middle East. There is no doubt that the Middle East is of strategic importance to the U.S. There is no doubt that efforts to promote a lasting peace in the Middle East are positive. We must not push the Syrians, the Palestinians or the Israelis into a peace agreement. We can coach and nudge, but they must reach a peace agreement between themselves if it is to be a truly lasting peace.

We must also begin to prepare the American people for a peace settlement. While I was in Israel and the peace negotiations were going on, published reports indicated that the U.S. might be requested to support the peace process to the tune of $17 billion to $70 billion over five years. That’s a significant amount of American investment. If the President is contemplating that type of U.S. investment, he should start preparing the rationale today. The American people and Congress deserve to know beforehand what the President is considering and why. It would be truly outrageous if a peace agreement were brokered that depended on significant U.S. investment if the case had not been made and agreed to by Congress and the American people.

Some may ask what U.S. resources would be used for. As I understand it they would be used for:

• Resettlement of Israelis from the Golan Heights;
• Providing military resources to the Israeli army to make up for a loss of the total (or partial) Golan Heights. This relinquishing of the Golan would again leave Israel much more vulnerable to the Syrians. The Israeli military would like to develop a new capability for rapid deployment in case of attack;
• Providing military aid that would ensure that the Israeli military would continue to maintain superior military advantage;
  
• Economic aid including funds for increased use of desalinization plants. Some of the land givebacks being discussed would jeopardize access to water. Israel would like to develop addition sources of water.

Sea of Galilee

I personally have made no decision on expanded U.S. aid to Israel. However, I am convinced that because of the strategic importance of this region to the U.S. and our allies this process must be a collaborative process between the different branches of our government. Congress cannot be brought into the process at the end and expected to allocate significant resources to a peace agreement without some kind of involvement prior to a final agreement.

 

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