As fears of boycott increase, Israeli officials attend Davos to search for new markets

Israel hopes to exploit the World Economic Forum in Davos to boost its public relations and economy amidst fears of increasing international boycotts in protest of its illegal settlements.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni are all going to attend this year’s annual meeting, according to Israeli media.

The Times of Israel reported Netanyahu speaking about the Israeli economy with great pride and contrasting its success with Western failures. He boasted that: “Israel is an exception to the Western economic scene,” adding that “we have succeeded in dealing with the global economic crisis better than almost all Western countries.”

As Israel is afraid of losing EU markets due to the boycott, Netanyahu expressed his willingness to search for new markets at Davos. He explained that: “We need to develop new markets and new partners and this is my goal in going to Davos. My intention is to talk with leading global high-tech companies, in the cyber and other fields.”

He also stressed that he is going to ask companies to invest in Israel in order to create jobs. “This will be good for them and good for us as well,” he said.

The prime minister’s office announced that he is scheduled to meet with Yahoo! President and CEO Marissa Mayer and Google’s Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora.

While Netanyahu is busy with these meetings, Peres is also scheduled to meet with several prominent leaders and businesspeople.

According to the Times of Israel, Peres will be meeting with the president of Azerbaijan, as well as with the heads of major companies including Philips, CISCO, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bloomberg and others.

Peres usually uses Davos as a platform to speak about peace and to convey to the world the message that Israel is suffering because of continuous Palestinian aggressions.

The title of this year’s forum is “The reshaping of the world: Consequences for society, politics and business”.