Mideast Conference Ends With Calls for More Business to Bolster Peace Moves : Commerce: Networking is the name of the game among Arabs and Israelis. A second conclave is planned for spring.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres greeted his Qatari counterpart, Sheik Hamad Jassim ibn Jaber al Thani, in true Arab fashion with a kiss on both cheeks, and each seemed pleased that the long decades of Arab-Israeli hostility were clearly ending.

Dov Lautman, one of Israel’s biggest manufacturers of underwear, sports clothes and socks, was so engrossed in a conversation with a Bahraini businessman interested in wholesale deals for the Persian Gulf that neither was aware of heads turning as they walked through the hotel lobby arm in arm.

And the ever-secretive Saudis--still not keen on political gestures toward Israel despite its peace agreements with Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization, but eager to do what business can be done in their wake--were pulling aside Jewish businessmen from the United States and Europe asking for introductions to Israelis.

After three days of such corridor chats as well as formal discussions, the Middle East and North Africa Economic Summit concluded here Tuesday with a call by more than 1,200 political and business participants from 61 countries for expanded trade and accelerated economic development to underpin Arab-Israeli peacemaking.

Conference participants proposed the establishment of a regional development bank, a tourist board, a chamber of commerce and a secretariat to coordinate the proliferating contacts and plan another summit for spring in Jordan’s capital, Amman. All will have Israeli and Arab participation.

“Our people are expecting a great deal from this conference,” PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat said, reflecting the hopes not only of the Palestinians but of all Arabs and Israelis. “They are looking for the fruits of peace. They want changes in their daily lives. For them, this is the object of peace.”

The drama was not in the conference declaration or its lengthy deliberations but in the way that Arab and Israeli business people engaged one another in extensive networking, usually for the first time, with the idea of “Let’s do a deal.”

“Our entrepreneurs are ready to go--they feel that peace changed the whole economic environment in the Middle East and liberated them from all the past rules to go out and do business wherever they can,” said Crown Prince Hassan of Jordan. “Peace will create tremendous economic energy, and indeed that was a strategic goal we in Jordan had in making peace with Israel.”

The underlying logic of the Casablanca conference was that peace agreements were indeed opening the way for broader economic development but that businesses, working together across once-hostile borders, could move faster and more effectively than governments in creating jobs and wealth.

“This is a major step beyond the Arab-Israeli conflict,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Amir Moussa. “That conflict is drawing to a close, and we are all anxious to move ahead. Peace must be just, it must be durable, but it must also benefit the people. This Casablanca conference was a landmark in integrating the economic with the political.”

More than anything else, however, the conference was the first regional effort to integrate Israeli and Arab efforts not only in diplomacy but in economic development. It marked the growing acceptance of the Jewish state by its Arab neighbors after nearly 50 years of enmity, and it recognized the potential benefits in developing a regional economy.

“The message is going to go out from Casablanca that it is all right to do business with Israel, and initially the message will be more important than any of the deals that might have been done,” Marc Yakutiel, a Tel Aviv business consultant, said. “We are working toward a fundamental change in the regional environment, and this will bring a tremendous, positive shift.”

Israeli spirits were soaring, for here they were talking, directly and quite openly, with Saudis, Kuwaitis, Omanis and Algerians as well as Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Moroccans and Tunisians.

In its declaration, the conference called for an end to the Arab boycott of Israel, but to its participants that was simply a matter left from an old agenda.

“For an Israeli businessman to be able to talk with a businessman from Saudi Arabia--in public, in front of other Arabs, in front even of television cameras--says a lot about how the Middle East has already changed,” said Yakutiel. “But it is also a strong indication of the sort of partnership we can expect to have, and perhaps very shortly.”

Some of the talk among Arabs and Israelis was of immediate deals. More of it was of long-term relationships that might include joint ventures in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and banking. And the most visionary discussions focused on multibillion-dollar mega-projects for regional development.

“I am even a little bit frightened because Arab expectations are so high--they exaggerate our strength,” said David Kimche, a former Israeli Foreign Ministry official who now heads the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations. “But clearly we have a lot to offer in the way of technology, in research and development, in financial and marketing services. And for us, of course, these are the sales we need for our own growth.”

Although many Israeli businesses look out at a vast Arab market roughly 50 times what they have domestically, economists have warned that they will meet resistance from Arab producers, that much work must be done to ensure free trade and that exports to Europe, Asia and North America are both more profitable and a better long-term orientation.

Still, the prospect of increasing sales, perhaps without even adding production capacity, drew many Israeli business people to Casablanca.

“The advantage is the event itself,” said Moshe Bar-Ilan, general manager of Israel Oil Refineries in Haifa. “Some of these contacts may work out, and that’s good. I’ve got a pocketful of business cards myself. . . . The main thing, however, is the acceptance of Israel’s presence and role in the region.”

Israel has been doing an estimated $500 million in trade with its Arab neighbors in recent years, according to Israeli economists, and its exports of agricultural equipment have done very well.

Those sales, all carried out through third countries, are believed to be well on the way to doubling this year, with Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia joining Egypt in open trade.