Sharansky Promises to Push Economic Path to Peace

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Israeli Trade Minister Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, pledged yesterday to work toward creating Israeli-Palestinian industrial zones as vehicles toward cementing peace between the two peoples.

He echoed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by saying the Likud-led government seeks to continue the peace process that was pushed by the previous, Labor-led government but also wants to see greater openness on the part of the Arabs.

"The new Middle East was in the heads of our great dreamers," Mr. Sharansky said, apparently referring to former Prime Minister Shimon Peres. "What was lacking was that there can be no new Middle East if democratization, …