I am currently reading, Closed Cirlce: An Interpretation of the Arabs, by David Pryce-Jones. Jay Nordlinger from The National Review suggested it last week. It is really interesting in explainting how Arabs think. They are really a different group of people when it comes to explaining how they govern and rule. The crux of the book is that trying to impose Western ideas of governing (which include democratic ideals and the concept of compromise) on these people is destined to fail.
These people understand power, but democracy is an absurdity to them. After reading some of this book, it makes sense why these people have had Hussien, Quaddafi, Araft, Nasser, and the rest of the tin-pot strongmen as their leaders. With all their money and wealth (oil money as well as the money that the US and the Soviet's poured into the area) the really have nothing to show for it. Arab countries don't really produce anything but oil. They export very little and they import most of their food.
In so far as Isreal is concerned, it is a nation of several million and it is pitted against many nations with over 120 million people and yet they exist and prosper.
Arabs have killed more Arabs that any other people. Iraq invaded Kuwait. Syria and Lebanon have gone after each other. Iraq and Iran (even though Iran is not an Arab country) slaughtered hundreds of thousands in one of the longest wars of the 20th century.
In all, a pretty interesting read.
The Turks at the time of World War I managed to pull their society out of the medieval murk by means of the "Young Turk" party, led by Kemal Ataturk. They formed an official government in 1923, and in the next 15 years accomplished the following: the Latinization of the alphabet; compulsory education to achieve a high rate of literacy; equal rights for women, including the vote; rapid modernization and industrialization; the establishment of a *secular* state with tolerance for Islamic religious practices, but the deliberate suppression of "jihadists," i.e. Islamic fundamentalists. This CAN happen in other Islamic countries that are still stuck in the 1200's.