Israel Matzav

Our little villa in the jungle

Does Haaretz's Aluf Benn seem - dare I say it? - a little bit proud that Israel was accepted into the OECD?

Israel has always sought to become a member of international organizations where the Western bloc of nations enjoys a clear advantage. In the vast majority of UN institutions, for example, Israel is isolated and does not belong to any geographic group. So it can't elect or be elected. But there are no Arab countries in the OECD and the only Muslim member is Turkey, which yesterday voted in support of the unanimous acceptance of Israel into the group.

Joining the OECD bolsters the approach of Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who consider Israel "a villa in the jungle" - a small island of Western values and development in an Arab and Muslim sea. Now we're in the club and the Palestinians, Egyptians and even the Saudis aren't. They're not even on the waiting list. In the OECD they can't bother Israel with decisions condemning the occupation.

But perhaps what Israel's acceptance into the OECD shows more than anything else is that the dream of a 'New Middle East' is dead. Israel has joined the First World, while the Arab and Muslim countries (with the exception of Turkey) find themselves left behind despite doing all they could to stop it.

It is true that Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden raised some objections to the statistical inclusion of productivity from the West Bank settlements in Israel’s application. Having so cheaply salved their conscience, they went on to vote for admittance of the Jewish state into the Organization.

Now, one of the European foreign policy establishment’s great heroes in would-be Palestine is Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, who is certainly more popular in Sweden than in his own homeland. He spent the last week on the phone calling the political leadership of the OECD and also of its member countries to plead for overturning what was actually the inevitable outcome of the process.

Business is business and tends to be much more of a meritocracy at the macro level than other endeavors. Backward countries aren't going to be admitted to the OECD. But Israel's admission was all but inevitable.

So much so, that even Aluf Benn gets it and can take pride in it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:07 AM