astounding 100 percent in Jordan.
Yet at least one Israeli diplomat
hasn't given up hope. "In general
terms, we have good relations with
the Gulf states. We consider them as
potential partners for when peace will
prevail," said the official, who's based
in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Unofficial Ties
Beyond that, the official — who asked
not to be identified — declined to
elaborate, except to say that "there
are economic relationships" between
private Israeli and Gulf Arab compa-
nies. Israel inaugurated its Doha trade
office in 1996, the same year it opened
a similar mission in Muscat, the capi-
tal of oil-rich Oman. The latter office
was closed in 2000, at the height of the
Palestinian intifada.
Today, Israel has no official presence
in Oman. Nor does the sparsely inhab-
ited country of 2.5 million have any
Jews living in it. In fact, the only coun-
try in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation
Council with a Jewish community at
all is tiny Bahrain, home to 36 Jews
and a synagogue that has been closed
since 1948.
The degree to which Israel's existence
is acknowledged varies from country to
country. For example, signs on public
phones throughout Muscat list the inter-
national dialing codes of more than 100
countries, but not Israel because Israel
cannot be dialed from Oman. On the
other hand, it's easy to punch in Israel's
international access code from any call
center in Bahrain, and the call costs only
18 cents a minute.
Bahrain recently signed a free-trade
agreement with the United States, but
it first had to drop its participation in
the Arab League's boycott of Israel, as
demanded by Washington. A similar
trade pact involving Oman was passed
by the U.S. House of Representatives
after Oman's minister of finance
assured Washington that his country
"does not apply any aspect of the boy-
cott, whether primary, secondary or
tertiary, or have any laws to that effect."
Yet in Oman, Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates, it's difficult if not
impossible to access most Jewish-
related Web sites or any Web site
ending in .il, the Internet domain for
Israel. Such attempts from Dubai
— the commercial capital of the
UAE — result in the following error
message in Arabic and English: "We
apologize. The site you are attempting
to visit has been blocked due to its
content being inconsistent with the
religious, cultural, political and moral

values of the United Arab Emirates?'

Third Parties

At a downtown Dubai travel office, a
large wall map of the world published
by a Dutch shipping company pin-
points the location of every country on
Earth, but the name of Israel is rubbed
out in black magic marker. Likewise,
the World — a mind-boggling $3
billion tourist and real-estate develop-
ment that will look like a map of the
world from space when it's finished
next year — contains 300 or so arti-
ficial islands each named after coun-
tries and regions of the globe. Every
single member of the Arab League has
its own island, but there is no island
named "Israel."
Even so, trade between Israel and the
UAE is believed to total in the millions
of dollars, though it's all channeled
through third countries like Cyprus.
Among Dubai's huge expatriate
community are hundreds if not thou-
sands of Jews working for multina-
tional companies and organizations.
One of the most prominent is Dr.
Robert Thurer, chief academic officer
of Dubai Healthcare City, a sprawling
hospital complex being built on the
outskirts of Dubai in conjunction with
the Harvard Medical School.
"Nobody cares if I'm Jewish. It's not
an issue',' said the longtime Harvard
professor, who grew up in Hicksville,
N.Y."Dubai is not about politics. It's
about economy and business."
Dr. Thurer added, "My general feel-
ing is that local people here don't have
anything against Jews, just the State
of Israel. And they're able to separate
those two things' El

New Board At Technion

The Detroit Chapter American
Society Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology will install its new board
Wednesday, Nov. 8, at Tam O'Shanter
Country Club in West Bloomfield.
Maj. Gen. Amos Horev, president of
the Israel Technion Society and deputy
chair of Technion International Board
of Governors, will give the keynote
address.
The new president is Jerome
J. Kanter. The new chair is Scott
Leemaster. Newly added to the board
of directors are Arline Bittker, Rhea
Brody, Connie Colman, James Colman,
Cathy Deutchman, Lisa Jacknow Elias,
Amy S. Jacknow, Mark A. Pittman and
Andrew Shapack.
For reservations for the installation,
call Barbara Zeevi, (248) 737-1990.

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