Rosenberg at ARISE Summit: Israeli-Arab business deals will transform the region

JERUSALEM — “Tectonic changes” are expected in the region as more Arab countries start engaging in business opportunities together with the “start-up nation.”

That was the assessment of Joel C. Rosenberg, ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS editor-in-chief, in his keynote address at the 2020 ARISE Summit, which began on Monday.

Rosenberg pre-taped his remarks so that he could be in the UAE this week.

Already, since the signing of the Abraham Accords, Israeli, UAE and Bahraini governmental leaders and businesspeople have surged ahead with dozens of Memoranda of Understanding and financial deals.

Now speculation is running high as to whether other Muslim nations will sign normalization treaties with Israel.

“Imagine a moment in which the Arab world stopped seeing Israel as an enemy, seeing Zionism as racist, using their money and technology to stop us, to destroy us,” Rosenberg said as the summit kicked off on Monday.

“What if the whole thing flips and Arab wealth and ingenuity and business savvy combine with Israeli entrepreneurship? I just think it’s an extraordinary moment.”

Participants from more than 50 countries are tuning in from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bahrain and the UAE to name a few. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is partnering with the summit, which is taking place digitally this year.

“We don’t take the overwhelming participation in our economic summit this year for granted,” said ARISE Founder Calev Myers. “Active participation in digital summits requires special effort, and our - primarily Evangelical Christian - business partners from around the world have once again shown their support and interest in the wellbeing of Israel and her neighbors. This is very timely encouragement for Israel’s business community.”

Rosenberg dived deep into the ramifications of the warming ties with Israel that are burgeoning in the region.

Israeli is a country of 9.5 million people and has an annual gross domestic product of about $340 billion.

“We are the country that has got all kinds of entrepreneurs creating all kinds of technologies that need funding, that need marketing, that need markets,” Rosenberg noted. “Imagine if oil-rich Arab countries decided to start to invest in Israeli companies in Israeli venture capital firms?”

The United Arab Emirates has a GDP of $420 billion and sovereign wealth funds including one with $700 billion. While Bahrain is smaller, with a GDP of $36 billion, the nation has also placed their bets with Israel.

“Not with Iran, not with the radical islamists not with the muslim brotherhood not with al Jazeera but with Israel and with the United States,” Rosenberg continued.

“Consider what would happen if we really did make peace with Saudi Arabia,” he said.

The Saudis are a nation of 34 million people and an annual GDP of about $600 billion with multiple wealth funds of hundreds of billions of dollars.

This is a “game changing moment” in history, Rosenberg said.

ARISE was founded three years ago with the goal of connecting businesspeople from around the world to the Israeli marketplace (the majority of whom are Evangelical Christians). The summit is designed to matchmake CEOs, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world with business opportunities in Israel.

Coincidentally, the timing of the ARISE Summit coincides with a summit taking place in Dubai, the UAE-Israel Digital Future Economy, which is being covered by Rosenberg and ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS Managing Editor Joseph Magen.

Rosenberg encouraged ARISE Summit attendees to continue to pray for peace in the region and to look for business and investment opportunities which will become a blessing for Israel and the Arab world.