Causes of Arab unrest
What are the origins of the current wave of fundamental unrest ripping through the Arab/Muslim world?
1. The most obvious reason is the backwardness of the region, its lack of economic and cultural development. Almost the only product that the West wants from the Arab region is oil, and that comes from the ground. In terms of culture, in most Arab countries women are uneducated and subject to female mutilation and male control. Even a UN panel set up to assess the status of the Arab world a few years ago confirmed that the causes of their backwardness were internal.
2. The political system in the majority of Arab countries is military dictatorship. This is or was true of Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan (the King appoints half of the "Parliament"), Bahrein, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, and the unrest has spread to Morocco, Djibouti and Iran. Only Iraq, for obvious reasons, and some of the Gulf States have shown some degree of liberal development. Given the homogeneity of these repressive dictators it has been questioned whether democracy is possible at all in Arab or Muslim States. The exceptions are Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, which had its own revolution in 1999 against Suharto, the military dictator for 32 years.
3. An aversion to the West and to modernization by the Muslim religious authorities. They are afriad that if they allow Western influence they will lose their control. Ironically, most of the dictators adopted a pro-Western approach in their policies once the Soviet Union collapsed (vide the turn-around in Egypt) in order to benefit from US largesse.
Note that conspicuous by its absence is any reference to Israel. Those who argue that the Israel-Palestine conflict is the root cause of Arab unrest and antagonism to the West (as Pres. Obama has done and UK Foreign Secretary Hague did pathetically last week) are absolutely wrong. For the most part, the support that the other Arab countries give to the Palestinians is purely symbolic. They give them very little money, much less than the EU, US or even Japan, and some of them even ban the Palestinians, such as Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Most of the "political" support that the Arab dictators have given against Israel is a way of distracting their populations from their real internal issues, something that dictators always do, by focussing on external threats or the Jews. This worked very well for the Nazis and the Soviets. While Israel has been blamed by the usual leftist anti-Israel ideologues for Gaza's situation, note that the official Egyptian blockade of Gaza has been far more strict than that of Israel, that allows thousands of trucks carrying food and medical supplies into Gaza every week, as well as supplying oil, water and electricity. But, the Egyptians allow illegal transfer of goods via tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border, and no doubt make a handsome profit from this.
Whether or not the current ferment and uprisings in the Arab world can actually lead to democracy and/or pro-Western governments remains to be seen. As Qaddafi's son said in a broadcast last night, they will fight to the last Libyan. But, in fact, cynically this situation is in Israel's interest. Let the Arabs fight each other, they desperately need a modernization revolution and it is their internal problem. Meanwhile Israel can sit back, continue it amazing 7.5% estimated GDP growth rate, and prepare itself in case any of the regimes that come to power once again try to distract their people from their lack of development by feeding them the old "Israel is the cause of all our problems" nonsense. Maybe they have short memories and will want to try their luck again at trying to destroy Israel. But, on the other hand saner heads may prevail and the futility of such a dangerous repetition and the advent of true democracy may lead to an improved situation. We can but hope!
---------------------------------------------------------------
In relation to my previous blog "But at the UN they are condemning Israel," see also:
http://allan-kingsolomonsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/arab-world-awash-with-revolt-and.html
1. The most obvious reason is the backwardness of the region, its lack of economic and cultural development. Almost the only product that the West wants from the Arab region is oil, and that comes from the ground. In terms of culture, in most Arab countries women are uneducated and subject to female mutilation and male control. Even a UN panel set up to assess the status of the Arab world a few years ago confirmed that the causes of their backwardness were internal.
2. The political system in the majority of Arab countries is military dictatorship. This is or was true of Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan (the King appoints half of the "Parliament"), Bahrein, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, and the unrest has spread to Morocco, Djibouti and Iran. Only Iraq, for obvious reasons, and some of the Gulf States have shown some degree of liberal development. Given the homogeneity of these repressive dictators it has been questioned whether democracy is possible at all in Arab or Muslim States. The exceptions are Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, which had its own revolution in 1999 against Suharto, the military dictator for 32 years.
3. An aversion to the West and to modernization by the Muslim religious authorities. They are afriad that if they allow Western influence they will lose their control. Ironically, most of the dictators adopted a pro-Western approach in their policies once the Soviet Union collapsed (vide the turn-around in Egypt) in order to benefit from US largesse.
Note that conspicuous by its absence is any reference to Israel. Those who argue that the Israel-Palestine conflict is the root cause of Arab unrest and antagonism to the West (as Pres. Obama has done and UK Foreign Secretary Hague did pathetically last week) are absolutely wrong. For the most part, the support that the other Arab countries give to the Palestinians is purely symbolic. They give them very little money, much less than the EU, US or even Japan, and some of them even ban the Palestinians, such as Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Most of the "political" support that the Arab dictators have given against Israel is a way of distracting their populations from their real internal issues, something that dictators always do, by focussing on external threats or the Jews. This worked very well for the Nazis and the Soviets. While Israel has been blamed by the usual leftist anti-Israel ideologues for Gaza's situation, note that the official Egyptian blockade of Gaza has been far more strict than that of Israel, that allows thousands of trucks carrying food and medical supplies into Gaza every week, as well as supplying oil, water and electricity. But, the Egyptians allow illegal transfer of goods via tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border, and no doubt make a handsome profit from this.
Whether or not the current ferment and uprisings in the Arab world can actually lead to democracy and/or pro-Western governments remains to be seen. As Qaddafi's son said in a broadcast last night, they will fight to the last Libyan. But, in fact, cynically this situation is in Israel's interest. Let the Arabs fight each other, they desperately need a modernization revolution and it is their internal problem. Meanwhile Israel can sit back, continue it amazing 7.5% estimated GDP growth rate, and prepare itself in case any of the regimes that come to power once again try to distract their people from their lack of development by feeding them the old "Israel is the cause of all our problems" nonsense. Maybe they have short memories and will want to try their luck again at trying to destroy Israel. But, on the other hand saner heads may prevail and the futility of such a dangerous repetition and the advent of true democracy may lead to an improved situation. We can but hope!
---------------------------------------------------------------
In relation to my previous blog "But at the UN they are condemning Israel," see also:
http://allan-kingsolomonsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/arab-world-awash-with-revolt-and.html
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:17 AM
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