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"What an arrogant man? Yossi Cohen is the real James Bond
Exclusive: Solly Wolf, President of the UAE Jewish Community Breaks in the form of interviews and speaks candidly about economic peace, real peace, the ease of life in the UAE and also about the admiration for the former head of the Mossad
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United Arab Emirates
peace agreement
James Bond
Yossi Cohen
Sonia Gorodisky and Matan Wasserman
Wednesday, 20 October 2021, 08:19 Updated: 09:52
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Although the Avraham agreements are back on the agenda in Israel, the president of the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates, Solly Wolf, has not been interviewed for a long time - and there are reasons for this: he says his words have sometimes been distorted in the press. Wolf estimates that there are currently about 3,000 Jews living in the United Arab Emirates.
In an exclusive interview with Walla! And Maariv, who came to Dubai as part of the beyond business delegation of Bank Hapoalim and the Export Institute, talks about the changes that have taken place since the Avraham agreements were signed a year ago. Wolf, who has British and Israeli citizenship, has lived in Dubai for 20 years and was recently in Israel on Election Day to exercise his right to vote.
"This is the safest place in the world. You can leave a suitcase outside to return the next day and it will still be there. If you forget a cell phone in a taxi, they will immediately hand it over for lost and lost property. It is a country with a very low crime rate," he says proudly.
"The Jews here are slowly establishing themselves - opening shops in malls, boutiques. Most of the Jews who came here in the past worked for companies, were not independent," he says, adding: "Anyone who comes here and sees the synagogue that can accommodate 300 people is surprised In an Arab country. "
According to him, more and more Jews from France are moving to the United Arab Emirates.
"Life is comfortable here. Admittedly expensive, but in France today there is a problem - the children go to school in the morning and their parents do not know if they will return home intact."
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Solly Wolf (Photo: Walla !, Sonia Gorodisky)
5% VAT
Wolf says that the emirates are interested in further developing relations with Israel. "We are talking here about future trade volumes between the two policies of $ 10 billion. I know they want to invest in the country, and we are here, they need more money than we do.
We can provide them with the know-how. All international companies today have offices in Dubai because there are no Here is a tax, only three years ago 5% VAT was imposed here. Besides, what you gain, you put in your pocket. "
Wolf continued:" Israel has been doing business with the UAE for 15 years "under the table", they knew they were products from the country but because of the political situation they said they were products made in Italy, USA, Spain and more. "Now everything is open.
A few months ago, for the first time, I saw a wine made in the country here, by Gamla. I was very excited. Today they have stores that sell Israeli wine, kosher wine. Moreover, the Ministry of Tourism recommended all hotels to have a kosher kitchen."
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There is a feeling that progress in the relationship has stalled and are now trying to restart the processes by delegations of businessmen and official visits ...
"There seems to have been a slowdown after the last round of fighting with Gaza. But now we see that there is readiness and readiness on both sides. innovation is interesting to them and they know that Israel is a superpower high-tech. a few months ago opened the branch of the clinic Aviv for treatment of dementia. treatment costs 80 thousand dollars and the people here are waiting as well as six months to receive treatment, which is patented in Israel.
Wolf also explains some exercise Hattie's The relationship also stemmed from the different business mentality between the peoples:
"Some of the Israelis who come to do business here want to promote things immediately, come and sign, and here it is impossible, they say 'worth - worth'.
Solly Wolf: "Yossi Cohen did the most work" (Photo: Walla !, Sonia Gorodisky)
"The one who did the most work is Yossi Cohen"
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What do you say about the change of government in Israel?
They know Netanyahu, they do not know Bennett yet. Netanyahu did the work (Avraham Agreements - SG, MV), the one who did the most work behind the scenes - is Yossi Cohen. When I met him in Washington a year ago, I went up to him and said, "You're an architect of this whole thing, but no one knows." So he answered me "whoever needs to know - knows". A simple and honest person.
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In Israel, he is sometimes portrayed as arrogant.
"Some arrogant person is not really arrogant. He's a real James Bond."
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Does not interfere with the statements that the prime minister has been replaced?
Why would it bother them? It is sometimes said "with the new is more comfortable to work with than with the old."
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There is still not enough movement yet of the emirates to the land - why?
True, only businessmen travel to the country because they travel in clans.
Traveling with grandparents, siblings and children and five or six assistants.
They need hotels.
In my opinion, today there are maybe 3-4 hotels in the country that suit their level.
Here a five star hotel is like in a country 7 star hotel, there are no such things in the country.
They like big rooms, huge lobbies, marble, chandeliers and stuff like that. "
"Respecting Israelis" (Photo: Walla !, Sonia Gorodisky)
"It's real peace"
About 85% of the UAE population are foreign workers, mostly from Asian countries who came to the country for a few years on average to work and save money. "Foreign workers earn more than a thousand dollars a month here - these are large sums for countries like India and Pakistan. They work here for 5-10 years and leave. They do not go to luxury restaurants and manage to save quite a bit," says Wolf.
- How do the emirates receive the Israelis?
"They respect Israelis. I have lived here for 20 years, I have been to all kinds of Arab countries. It is impossible to compare the Arabs of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon with emirates. The emirates are very polite, civilized and clean people. I have never seen a cloak. "A brick that has a stain on it. They have three or four robes in the car. They are clean, polished, shaved."
"I think it's a real peace. I remember the first direct flight from Dubai to Israel. We left 3-4 people, and back there were 176 people. The people here stood with robes and sang 'We brought peace to you.' In Hebrew. It was an experience that can not be forgotten."
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