Should Indonesia Open Diplomatic Relations With Israel, Like Gus Dur's Aspirations?

Israel has become a rich country despite being frequently involved in war with Palestine for a long time. (Unsplash/Cole Keister)

The Israeli conflict with Hamas, a Palestinian militant organization, has not shown any signs of ending soon. But despite continued conflict, Israel is a rich country.

Israel has a developed-tech market economy. Diamonds, high-tech equipment, and medicines are among the main exports, "said usnews.com.

Israel is also very advanced in terms of life expectancy, education, per capita income and other indicators of the human development index.

Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. A total of 163 of the 193 United Nations member countries (UN) recognized Israel's existence, including the United States.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is among 30 lists of countries that do not recognize Israel and support Palestinian independence.

Launching the Worldometer, the current population of Israel is 9,364 million people with an area of 22,145 km2. Meanwhile, Palestine, with an area of 6,020 km2, has a population of 14.5 million people.

Lalu, apa yang menyebabkan Israel begitu maju meski terus terlibat konflik dengan Palestina?

Quoted by BBC, in 2011 Israel had nearly 4,000 start-up companies. This figure is more than any country outside the United States. In 2010 alone, venture capital flows amounted to 884 million US dollars.

Since proclaimed independence in 1948, Israel has become known for its most advanced manufacturing industry. The exodus of experts from European countries during World War II broke out to avoid persecution is one of the factors causing the industry to advance in Israel.

In the 1970s, Israeli-developed industries included fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, and heavy metals.

One decade later, it was the turn of people working in Silicon Valley, the US who migrated to Israel. There they set up research and development centers for US technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Intel.

The large number of new companies in the technology sector contributes to large income from the tax side, foreign exchange sources, to employment. This includes royalties from patents made by Israeli companies.

According to data in 2022, Israel's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 522,033 billion US dollars, while per capita revenue reached 55,536 US dollars. This figure puts Israel in third place in Asia, they only lost to Singapore (91,100 US dollars) and Qatar (83,891 US dollars).

The technological advances experienced by Israel made Indonesia's fifth President Abdurrahman Wahid open the idea of opening diplomatic relations with Israel.

The normalization of Israeli-Indonesian relations was almost realized in the era of President Abdurrahman Wahid's administration. The man who is familiarly called Gus Dur is indeed known to be close to Israeli figures.

Gus Dur even visited Jerusalem in 1994 to witness the signing of a peace agreement between Israel and Jordan. At that time he was still the Chair of PBNU and a respected kiai figure in the country. Gus Dur's visit came after the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to Jakarta and met President Suharto in 1993.

Then shortly after being elected President of the Republic of Indonesia, Gus Dur made input that caused a stir throughout the country. He encouraged Indonesia to start a trade relationship with Israel, as with several other Arab countries. Not only that, Gus Dur also discussed establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

According to Gus Dur at that time, Indonesia could not play a role in the peace of Palestine-Israel if it did not establish diplomatic relations with the two. Launching the official NU website, in the book Peace with Gus Dur, there are two reasons why he wants to open diplomatic relations with Israel.

First, Gus Dur wants to ensure that the capital of George Soros, who is of Jewish descent, does not disrupt the capital market. Second, he wants to increase Indonesia's bargaining position in the Middle East, because during that time the Middle East has never helped Indonesia face a crisis. Indonesia's bargaining power and position is currently getting stronger in the midst of Arab nations. They often ask Indonesia for help to deal with existing conflicts.

According to Middle Eastern expert from Gadjah Mada University, another reason that prompted Gus Dur to open the idea of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel was because Indonesia wanted to learn technology from the Jews.

The reason is that we want to learn from Israel. Israel is very good at irrigation. Jews are very smart at farming and agriculture in Israel is advanced because the agricultural system is good, so Gus Dur wants Indonesia to learn from Israel," said Siti Mutiah at the DIHI UGMTalks event entitled Hamas-Israel 2023: New Chapter of Conflict or Crowd in the Middle East?

However, Gus Dur's idea immediately received massive rejection from a number of parties in Indonesia, including members of the DPR.

Foreign diplomatic relations will be successful if they are supported by the people. But most Indonesians reject diplomatic relations with Israel," Siti Mutiah added.