A group of Israeli businessmen has warned Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu that failure to reach peace with Palestinians has a high economic cost for Israel. The businessmen, who were invited to the meeting by Netanyahu himself, told him that unless there is diplomatic progress, the Israeli economy won't reach its full potential.
According to the businessmen, some of whom are friends of the prime minister, if there is no progress toward peace, Israel will cease to be the startup nation; it will continue to have an accelerated brain drain; and foreign investors will refuse to invest in an explosive environment. At the same time, the defense budget will continue to drain the country's resources.
The head of the group was Yossi Vardi, who had been an economic adviser to Netanyahu during the talks with the Palestinians that led to the Wye Agreement of 1998, where Arafat accepted the nullification of the Palestinian National Charter Provisions that called for the destruction of Israel.
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