Earlier this week, Reuters reported on a surprising consequence of Syria’s civil war: trade between Europe and the Arab world is increasingly passing through Israel.

A Romanian truck driver, Ismail Hamad, explained that after 30 years of driving through Syria, he no longer does so because of  “[t]oo much problems, too much guns, too much fighting.”  Reuters notes that Turkey reports an increase of containers shipped through Israel from  17,882 tons in 2010 to 77,337 tons last year, going “through Israel and across the Sheikh Hussein Bridge to Jordan and a few Arab neighbors.”

The trade, though still small, is growing enough to encourage long-held Israeli hopes that the Jewish state can become a commercial gateway to the Arab world. Israel plans to invest at least 6 billion shekels ($1.7 billion) in infrastructure over the next six years to improve the trade route. In the past, some Israeli businessmen and diplomats have lamented the way politics have hurt economic opportunities; others have kept any trade with their Arab neighbors quiet so as not to upset them. Now they see a chance to boost economic and political relations.

“Israel is returning to its historic role, as a transit country, as a bridge between continents, where historic trade routes passed through,” said Yael Ravia-Zadok, head of the Middle Eastern Economic Affairs Bureau in Israel’s Foreign Ministry. She leads a group of Israeli government and security officials trying to figure out how best to encourage trade.

Using Haifa as a hub between Europe and the Arab world makes sense because “[t]he routes from Haifa in Israel to Jordan, Iraq and even Saudi Arabia – used by the Ottoman and British empires up until Israel’s founding – are potentially much quicker and cheaper.” Reuters estimates that using Israel as a transit point may cut shipping costs in half. An expert quoted in the article calls the volume of shipping through Israel in recent years “almost unprecedented.”

In the October 2013 issue of The Tower Magazine, Gabriel Scheinmann observed in The Real Big Winner of the Arab Spring:

The Arab states, hostile and otherwise, will be unable to directly challenge Israel for a long time. Their energies will be focused on domestic conflict as various forces battle for power and control. Moreover, Israel itself has remained mostly untouched by the regional upheaval. It has hardened its defenses and its economy is booming.

[Photo: eran kedar / WikiCommons ]