By Ephraim Sneh, The Jerusalem Post, 27.05.08

The followng is an excerpt from the original op-ed posted on JPost.com:
I WRITE THESE words from Bethlehem where I was invited to attend the Palestinian Investors Convention, though not as a potential investor. Over 1,200 business people from the West Bank, Gaza and the Gulf States attended the event. Security arrangements under the responsibility of Palestinian Authority security forces were effective and professional. Palestinian companies delivered their presentations with professionalism on an international scale. On Thursday afternoon, the foreign investment deals that were signed passed the $1 billion mark. However, even before one job is created in the West Bank, it can be said that the convention's biggest achievement was its mere existence.
I met with PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad, who initiated the convention and remains the main reason for its success. He proved that under his leadership, the West Bank is becoming a place in which investors are prepared to conduct business. Security forces that were deployed in Jenin and Nablus - and who reached Bethlehem to secure the convention - significantly changed the face of personal security and public order. The convention was a show of force against Hamas. A non-violent show of force proving that modernism and economic development trumps Hamas' dark terrorism.
Though the event did receive some media coverage in Israel, I regret that no other Israeli MK, no other Israeli official and none of the media's Arab affairs correspondents were present. I did meet a small number of Israeli businessmen who decided to break through for the sake of economic cooperation.
Things are happening on the other side of the fence, and in Israel no one is listening. If we strengthen the Palestinian economy and help it develop - and we are capable of doing so - we will essentially be strengthening the moderates and those who oppose terror. Therefore, I dismiss the term "a gesture to the Palestinians" when referring to the dismantling of a roadblock or as a step toward strengthening the Palestinian economy as nonsense. Such acts first and foremost serve Israel's interests.
The writer, a former deputy defense minister, announced this week that he was quitting the Labor Party to form a new political grouping called 'Strong Israel.' He wrote the above for his jpost.com blog.