The bittersweet political relations between Israel and Britain are currently going through one of their bitter phases. But trade relations between them rarely attracted so much attention as they did last week proving the durability of the Anglo-Israeli connection.
About 200 Israeli companies displayed their wares at a three-day exhibition entitled “Industrial Israel,” showing the British public that Israel is a highly sophisticated technological society and not just a pretty orange grove in the sun.
The exhibition coincided with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the British-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Trade between the two countries is now running at about 500 million Pounds Sterling a year.
Even more significant, perhaps, is the fact that for the very first time the balance of trade has swung in favor of Israel. She now sells Britain not only fruit and vegetables but a growing range of industrial products, like those that were on show in London’s West Centre Hotel.
Among the products featured there were automotive parts, security systems, domestic appliances, air conditioning, solar energy equipment, medical equipment, rubber, plastic and metal cutting systems, batteries, computers and many more.
EVIDENCE OF COMPLEX RELATIONS
The complex relations between the two countries were evident at the Chamber of Commerce anniversary dinner where the guest speakers were Sir Keith Joseph and Gideon Patt, the British and Israeli industry ministers, respectively.
Both men were speaking against the background of severe economic difficulties in their respective countries. Sir Keith, after paying the requisite compliments about Israel’s technological achievements, expressed his amazement that Israel could remain civilized while their inflation rate was running at 135 percent. “Please write a simple text book for us on how you manage this,” he pleaded with Patt.
Patt did not oblige but made it clear that Israel was so dependent on imports of vital weapons that she simply could not afford the “luxury” of the ruthless deflationary policies which raised Britain’s unemployment to its highest level since the dark days of the depression.
It was ironic, too, that while Britain and Israel presented contrasting pictures of iron economic discipline on the one hand and inflationary anarchy on the other, in terms of their mutual trade it was Israel which was by for the healthier partner.
POLITICS REARS ITS UGLY HEAD
It was here, too, that politics reared its ugly head in the familiar form of complaints about Britain’s acquiescence to the Arab boycott. Monty Sumray, the Chamber’s chairman, bluntly asserted that fear of the boycott was the main reason for the relative fall in British sales in Israel, causing the Jewish State to cease being Britain’s biggest Middle East market.
In introducing Sir Keith, he challenged him to provide some words of comfort about the British government’s attitude to the boycott and an assurance that it would take active steps to counter it, rather than simply wringing its hands.
With equal candor, Sir Keith, who is a former vice president of the Chamber, said he could not give such an assurance, asserting his belief that trade relations with Israel could flourish regardless of the boycott.
The other political factor which overshadowed the Chamber of Commerce event was Israel’s new found friendship with Egypt, symbolized by the presence of the Egyptian Ambassador to Britain, Abu Saeeda, and his economic counsellor. The applause which greeted every reference to the Egyptian Ambassador and to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty for exceeded that given to Anglo-Israeli relations, the official theme of the evening.
Lord Marcus Sieff, the Chamber’s president, spoke warmly of his recent meeting with President Anwar Sadat and called for British businesses to become involved in the development of economic ties between Israel and Egypt. Shlomo Argov, Israel’s Ambassador, went even further by forecasting that Egyptian-Israeli trade would one day be greater than Anglo-Israeli trade and that Israel would also begin trading with other Arab countries.
The Ambassador diplomatically steered clear of his current political difficulties with the British government. But the sweetness of his remarks about Egypt merely emphasized the bitterness of his thoughts about Britain, whatever the course of their commercial relations.
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