May 21, 2019 - Steve Pieczenik
04:38
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Hi. | |
| I'd like to talk today a little bit about Jared Kushner, whom I have criticized for quite a while. | |
| But he has made a proposal, which I think, when I think it over very carefully, it's quite an innovative proposal. | |
| What he wants to do is to create an economic forum June 25th and 26th to bring together financers, serial entrepreneurs, bankers, investment bankers, CEOs, And bring them to the Middle East where they will discuss how to improve business in the West Bank, Gaza, as well as involving Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and other countries. | |
| Quite frankly, when I thought about it, I said, that's a pretty good idea. | |
| And I'm always for what we call a paradigm shift. | |
| I'm tired and you guys are tired and the Middle East is tired of hearing about the Palestinian land, the Israeli land and this land. | |
| So what it does is to switch away the dynamics and the narrative away from landholding. | |
| And nationalism to what we prefer and I certainly prefer as a serial entrepreneur and that is business. | |
| Where the business deals and does it make sense? | |
| As I thought about it, number one, Israel of course is the number one country in that area. | |
| That has technology. | |
| It has not only technology, it has an important technology that can unify that whole area, which it has used in the past and has helped 135 countries. | |
| And that specific technology is desalination and how to create clean water from polluted water. | |
| Now what am I talking about? | |
| I would involve Turkey and Iran in all of this because they're the predominant Shiite and Sunni powers and even bring Russia into it and possibly China if it wants to. | |
| And here's what I'm saying. | |
| The water that goes to Israel and Lebanon really starts in Turkey. | |
| Then from Turkey, it goes down to Syria, Syria, Lebanon, Lebanon, Israel, Israel, Jordan. | |
| Now that water is a very important conduit and that's where Israel really goes to war. | |
| It doesn't go to war because it's Jew versus Muslim. | |
| It goes to war if you've depleted their water source and they need it. | |
| So in fact, the water source and conservation of water would be an important topic for this workshop on economics because everybody needs water. | |
| And all the major countries are invested in water. | |
| And as I mentioned years ago, the war in Syria was really started over water because the farmers in Homs and Hamas, and they were Sunnis, were running out of water. | |
| So they came up to Damascus. | |
| The Allied whites who ran the country under Bashar Assad really didn't know how to handle the issue of a lack of water and in turn it really became the conflict area for Sunnis versus Alawites and Shiites. | |
| Well, that doesn't have to happen anymore. | |
| Syria has a lot of incredible businessmen. | |
| Many of them were Syrian Americans. | |
| When I was there, they wanted to know how they could be improved in terms of their business. | |
| Number one, they have one of the perfect Arab-speaking countries. | |
| And of course, films are an important part of their country, as is in Egypt, developing and making film productions. | |
| Number two, besides water, I would say technology transfer. | |
| Now, in the West Bank and Gaza, we have Palestinians. | |
| The most part, I think it's important to understand to the world that Palestinians in Jordan, West Bank, Gaza, and elsewhere are considered by the Arab countries to be, quote, the Jews of the Middle East. | |
| Translated, that means they're very good business people, both men and women, and they have a lot of products and companies all over the Middle East. | |
| They're also They're also, you know, criticized for being, quote, Jewish-like in the Middle East, but that's the price you pay for being successful. | |
| So the Palestinians in Jordan, in particular, from 58, 65, and all the other persecutions, can certainly be an important part of developing the West Bank and Gaza in concert with the Israelis. | |
| Now, the most important part of this whole effort, and I congratulate Jared Kushner and all the other CEOs, is what Frederick the Great said. | |
| L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace. | |
| Audacity, my friend, and that's what will make it possible. |
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