Bright spot

At night from space Israel appears as a bright spot surrounded by the
darkness of the Middle East. From Israel to the oil fields of Saudi Arabia
there is practically nothing visible. Cairo makes a bright splash, but
Damascus and other cities are hardly seen. It's as if the whole of the
Middle East is a blighted region.
One possible explanation could be a low density of population, but that is
hardly true given the millions of Arabs crowded into cities and camps
throughout the Middle East. Another more likely reason is the lack of funds
to pay for lighting, for example compare the GDP per capita for Jordan of
ca. $1,000 pa, for Syria and Egypt of ca. $600 pa, while for Israel it is
ca. $18,000 pa, in line with many European countries. So that's the key
difference, for the 56 years that Israel has been in existence it has raised
itself from nothing to this level.
And when I say nothing I mean nothing! After the victory of the War of
Independence in 1948 Israel took in at least 1.5 million Jewish refugees,
both from the camps in Europe after WWII and from the Arab countries. They
came with nothing and lived mostly in tented cities in Israel, called
ma'abarot, and I remember still seeing some of them when we lived here in
1964-66. No international agency gave them the funds that have been
lavished on the Palestinians, who on a per capita basis have received many
times more than any other refugees in the world, and still receive, even
though their current status as refugees is insupportable under the rules of
the UN High Commission for Refugees.
However, most of this money, and the billions given by the Arab countries
and the EU, has been squandered. Instead of working industriously to build
up their "homeland" the Palestinian youth have instead been wasting their
time, egged on by their great leader Yasser Arafat. While Israeli youth
have been studying and developing businesses, Palestinian youths have been
honing their skills in throwing Molotov cocktails and blowing themselves up.
Theirs is a culture of death and destruction, while Israel has a culture of
life. This clear dichotomy is aptly symbolized by the light of Israel and
the darkness of the surrounding Arab region.
The undisciplined nature of the Palestinians was amply illustrated by the
events at Arafat's funeral in Ramallah, when the crowd prevented the
deplaning of the Palestinian leaders and then took over Arafat's coffin, and
the events yesterday in the funeral tent in Gaza. Whether it was an
assassination attempt on PLO Head Mahmoud Abbas or not, the fact is that a
group of armed gunmen pushed their way into the crowd and started shooting,
while chanting anti-Abbas slogans. There was an exchange of fire with his
bodyguards and two were killed. This is just the beginning of the clash for
power in Gaza and the PA. It is amazing to me that the liberals in Europe
are not yet disillusioned by the nature of the Palestinians with or without
Arafat.
It seems that the Arab mentality is better served by a strong dictatorial
leader, which is what they have always had (although Arafat was not as
strong as Nasser, Assad and Saddam). The notion, advanced by Pres. Bush,
that the Arabs can adopt democracy like any other group has little basis in
reality. If the Palestinians or the Arabs in general ever manage to get the
idea that victory does not mean killing your rival but succeeding by
competing against him, then there may be hope. But, that is expecting a
major cultural change that is probably in the realm of fantasy. Until then
the Arab Middle East will remain a region of darkness.