Nobel laureate Robert Aumann warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee against a fast peace settlement. Nobel Prize in economics laureate Prof. Robert (Yisrael) J. Aumann this morning told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that there was danger in hoping to achieve a fast peace settlement. What was needed, he said, was patience and proper preparation on the economic and social levels, in order to reach a true peace.
Aumann said that ironically, the approach that pressed for a fast peace settlement was liable to make peace more distant, and that Israel must show patience, and in particular convince its Arab neighbors that it had patience. In that case, peace might be achieved more quickly, he said.
Aumann, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for innovations in the field, explained the basic principles of game theory to the committee and their application in promoting a permanent diplomatic arrangement. In this context, he attacked the unilateral measures taken by Israel, calling the Gaza Strip disengagement and dismantling of the settlements "a disaster", and saying the effect of continuing this policy would be the direct opposite of a peace settlement, as it signaled that Israel was at a loss as to what to do, and felt it had to take some sort of action, he said, even if that action was a destructive one.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Wednesday, December 21, 2005

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