Posted on 02/22/2018 3:58:17 PM PST by SJackson
In a Nov. 25, 2017 article marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, published in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Lebanese journalist Karam Al-Hilu compared the meager accomplishments of the Arab world in the past century with those of the rest of the countries, particularly Israel.
He noted that Israel’s supremacy in the areas of science, economy, society and politics is the source of its strength, as well as the source of Arab failure in confronting it.
The following are excerpts from his article:[1]
“A century after the Balfour Declaration . . . the Arabs have not managed to build a [single] state that possesses knowledge, justice, and the economic, social, and human capability for confronting Zionism. One hundred years have been squandered, in all aspects; during them, the Arabs have been confronting Israel while their cultural infrastructure was in crisis–in the areas of knowledge, politics, economy, society, and thought.
“According to the 2014 [UN] report on knowledge in the Arab world [the Arab Knowledge Report], despite the 500 Arab universities, with an enrollment of nine million students and faculties of 220,000 lecturers, higher education in the Arab world is very meager in scientific research, in its failure to adapt to digital culture, and in its incompatibility with [universal] scientific and human culture.
“Outlay on scientific research is extremely negligible. Even in Egypt, the Arab country where the [cultural] awakening is the most deeply rooted, [only] 0.43% of the [gross] national product [is allocated to scientific research], versus 4.04% in South Korea and 3.39% in Japan. Therefore, scientists and research output are a rarity in the Arab world, and the research that is published [there] constitutes only 0.8% of the global average. The number of patents registered to the Arabs in the past 50 years does not exceed [the number of those] registered by Malaysia alone.
“Not a single Arab university ranks among the 500 best in the world, while Israel supersedes the Arabs at an astronomical rate, in inventions and in hi-tech export. Israel has completely wiped out illiteracy [among its citizens], while among the Arabs, 23% remain illiterate.
“The Arabs have not, over the past century of conflict with Zionism, succeeded in building a [single] state of law and justice. The 2017 international transparency report showed that six of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world are Arab. Countries such as Egypt and Tunisia are ranked 108th in corruption, and Lebanon is 136th, while Israel takes 33rd place, which places it with the developed countries.[2]
“[The Arabs] have also not succeeded in building a ‘nation,’ a ‘homeland,’ or a ‘society,’ in the words of Constantin Zureiq,[3] for the tribal division still distances them from [achieving] pan-Arab unity. They also have not managed to establish a country [in which there is] economic justice; the class gaps [among the Arabs] are very great and unemployment, particularly among young people, tops out at 35.7% in Egypt, 32.1% in Iraq, and 45.3% in Mauritania.
“The Arabs’ resistance against Israel must start with their reading of these numbers and these facts. Indeed, they have spared no blood, martyrdom, or [self-]sacrifice, but they have been negligent in the areas of science, economy, society, and politics that are the source of Israel’s strength–just as they are the source of our failure in confronting it.”
[1] Al-Hayat (London), November 25, 2017.
[2] A reference to Transparency.org’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2016, published January 2017. The ranking of Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon given in the article are accurate, but Israel’s is not; it is actually in 28th place. Transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016#table.
[3] Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureiq was a pioneer in researching Arab nationalism.
An honest man!
The Arab world of advancement came to end with the introduction of Islam
Guess that’s news/blasphemy in some circles.
He better join a witness protection program.
“The Arabs’ resistance against Israel must start with their reading of these numbers and these facts. Indeed, they have spared no blood, martyrdom, or [self-]sacrifice, but they have been negligent in the areas of science, economy, society, and politics that are the source of Israel’s strength–just as they are the source of our failure in confronting it.”
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Last 100 years. They didn't invent suicide bombings, but it's fair to say they perfected the technique. I'd give them credit for the vests, and ball bearings in rat poison. Same with airplane hijackings, in conjunction with European Communists. The most significant of the century, they invented palestinians.
To paraphrase President Trump The Great, what the author refers to are sh!tholes. Watch where you walk.
Thanks SJackson. I hope the author went into hiding.
I’m almost ready to call it the Trump Doctrine - Acting in National Self-Interest
This gent’s point is that he hates the Jews, but at least they’re organized.
The missed opportunity is that the Arabs could have been engaged in the same sort of quasi-beneficial motivational tension that the US had with the Soviets.
Competition, for the most part, improves systems.
Who will be soon facing a fatwah. He should call Salman Rushdie for sanctuary ideas.
Israel even has more patents each year than the United States of America.
WTF are loser Arabs making besides bombs, booby traps and suicide bombers?
That hate come from a false "holy" book called the Koran. The Jews revere the Torah, therein lies the reason for their existence and accomplishments.
Truth hurts... Muslims need to fix their own problems and move on.
If God does as he pleases, and what he pleases is variable, then the universe may not be lawful. Thus, muslim theology did not provide the necessary fundamental assumptions for erecting the concept of science based on observations leading to formulate natural laws.
as long as the Muslims keep trying to ‘confront’ Israel, they will continue to suffer
trying to ‘confront’ another people is at the root of their problem
they need to dump their sh**ty Koran what with all its HATE ATTACK LIE RAPE and CONQUER instructions, the Koran reads like a Sstanic How-To Manual
(It has some nice nice verses but they ignore those other than to quote them when challenged by Christians about all their terrorist murder mayhem)
PS: they should at least read some of those other Koran chapters that they refuse to heed, like where allah instructs them that he’s given the Promised Land to the Jewish People
“An honest man!”
It’s a start. But until there’s millions more like him the Arabs will keep failing.
Israel’s existence did not impede Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the rest from excelling. However, they did wastefully expend efforts attempting to destroy Israel while not spending enough on just trying to be good countries in their own right. If Israel was a “negative” for them, it was the form of their focus on Israel that was negative, and it meant wasted and negative policies for them.
They focused on the hole, Israel, instead of focusing on the doughnut - their own direct needs for a better country of their own, each of them.
Summary: non-shthole country surrounded by many.
Lebanon was relatively prosperous and Western oriented until the civil war and emergence of Hezbollah.
In the seventy years since its founding, the state of Israel has managed to surpass - in standard of living, in economic output, and just about every other measurable metric - all the surrounding older more established Arab nations. I wonder why that is.....
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