Toward a More Inclusive View of Development in the Middle East

by Daniel E. Levenson
 
As I was perusing the internet this afternoon I came across a piece on the Brookings Institution website that caught my attention because it had to do with socioeconomic development in the Middle East. I have long felt that economic cooperation, and specifically cooperation on projects that will help build up the infrastructure of civil society, is an area that holds great promise to help bring about the eventual normalization of relations between Israel and her Muslim neighbors. To create a real and lasting peace, it will not be enough to get the two sides to stop shooting (literally and figuratively)  at each other. We have seen such a solution in place between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan, and while it is certainly a significant improvement over the relationships that existed in say, 1966, it is by no means a warm peace, or one which has brought great advantages to the citizens of either Israel or these two Arab nations, aside from the cessation of open hostilities.

Many of the problems that face the nations in the Middle East are the same across the board when it comes to resource and infrastructural challenges, which is why I feel that although some issues may be unique to either individual states or to Israel or the Muslim Middle East, when we discuss issues of resource use and socio-economic development, it is not useful to create a stark divide between Israel and her neighbors. For anyone who believes that peace will eventually come, as I do, it is vital that we shift the discourse in such a direction that Israel is not treated as some sort of bizarre outlier when it comes to planning in areas such as economic development, water use and environmental protection.

The Brooking s article to which I am referring is entitled “Social Entrepreneurship in the Middle East: Charting the Next Steps for U.S. Engagement,” by Noam Unger, and is the third in a series of articles in which they comment on a report released by the Middle East Youth Initiative and Silatech on the state of social entrepreneurship and social investment in the Middle East.

In this piece the authors note that “The United States’ relations with the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries around the world have long been shaped through the lenses of Arab-Israeli conflict, religious extremism, military aid, oil, and nuclear proliferation; hence the Obama administration’s intentional focus on youth, social entrepreneurship, and economic growth may be viewed as a welcomed new tack.”

I am inclined to agree that a shift in direction is a positive thing, mainly since it is hard to say that previous efforts have been hugely successful. However, by placing Israel outside the scope of US Mid-East relations and policy, it would appear that the authors are marginalizing a key regional player, simply for the sake of simplifying the discussion about how the United States can support “Muslim-majority” nations in the Middle East.

To me, this is comparable to someone saying that when they look at a difficult math problem they close one eye  in order to see less of the equation and make the problem easier to deal with.  The authors go on to outline ways that the US can help support social and business entrepreneurs, but fail to mention, I think critically, the ways that Israel could also be a partner in such collaborations. Now granted, the focus of this article is development in the Muslim-majority countries, but by mentioning the Arab-Israeli conflict in the opening paragraph of the piece, Israel has been brought into the discussion in a negative light, only to be abandoned  when the discussion turns to positive steps forward that could help bolster the development of the Middle East.

The article concludes with the statement that “This public-private partnership may develop into a successful example of how government can build on the entrepreneurial strength of the private sector to strengthen policy, spur innovation, and deliver better services to communities.” This is an optimistic assessment, but sadly, it is a myopic one as well.

There may be decades of pain, tension and even hatred on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but there is also the potential for new partnerships and a better use of resources by every country in the Middle East. Of course the United States should help support brave men and women in the Muslim world who are working hard to change their societies and help create a better quality of life in their respective communities, but if peace between Israel and neighboring Arab states is anywhere on this agenda, then it would do both the United States and these Muslim nations well to begin to build such a framework that includes Israel as well.

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2010