[Jo Sul]

This is a bit long, but provides an interesting perspective:

> The essay below is an extremely well formulated address which was
> given at the Weizmann Institute of Israel, by one of the foremost
> physicists in Israel. Professor Chaim Harari brings great insight and
> wisdom to his analysis of how the Third World War came about, and which
> countries are vulnerable.
>
> The essay is drawn from an address delivered by Professor Harari at
> a meeting of the International Advisory Board of a large multi-national
> corporation, April, 2004
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> HAIM HARARI, a theoretical physicist, is the Chair, Davidson
> Institute of Science Education, and Former President, from 1988 to 2001,
> of the Weizmann Institute of Science. During his years as President of
> the Institute, it entered numerous new scientific fields and projects,
> built 47 new buildings, raised one Billion Dollars in philanthropic
> money, hired more than half of its current tenured Professors and became
> one of the highest royalty-earning academic organizations in the world.
>
> Throughout all his adult life, he has made major contributions to
> three different fields: Particle Physics Research on the international
> scene, Science Education in the Israeli school system and Science
> Administration and Policy Making.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A View from the Eye of the Storm
>
> As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological
> "entertainment" in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman
> suggested that I present my own personal view on events in the part of
> the world from which I come. I have never been and I will never be a
> Government official and I have no privileged information. My perspective
> is entirely based on what I see, on what I read and on the fact that my
> family has lived in this region for almost 200 years. You may regard my
> views as those of the proverbial taxi driver, whom you are supposed to
> question when you visit a country.
>
> I could have shared with you some fascinating facts and some
> personal thoughts about the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, I will touch
> upon it only in passing. I prefer to devote most of my remarks to the
> broader picture of the region and its place in world events. I refer to
> the entire area between Pakistan and Morocco, which is predominantly
> Arab, predominantly Moslem, but includes many non-Arab and also
> significant non-Moslem minorities.
>
> Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood?
> Because Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you
> might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has
> never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region. Yes, there
> is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main
> show is. The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do
> with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the
> Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has
> nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the
> murders of hundreds of civilians in one village or another by other
> Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam Hussein did not invade
> Kuwait, endanger Saudi Arabia and butcher his own people because of
> Israel. Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because
> of Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own
> citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel. The Taliban
> control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with
> Israel. The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do
> with Israel, and I could go on and on and on.
>
> The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally
> dysfunctional by any standard of the word, and would have been so even
> if Israel would have joined the Arab League and an independent Palestine
> would have existed for 100 years. The 22 member countries of the Arab
> League, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of
> 300 millions, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before
> its expansion. They have a land area larger than either the US or all of
> Europe. These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources,
> have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and
> equal to half of the GDP of California alone. Within this meager GDP,
> the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the
> rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being
> corrupt rulers. The social status of women is far below what it was in
> the Western World 150 years ago. Human rights are below any reasonable
> standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of
> the UN Human Rights commission. According to a report prepared by a
> committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the
> U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much
> smaller than what little Greece alone translates. The total number of
> scientific publications of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6
> million Israelis. Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing
> the poverty, the social gaps, and the cultural decline. And all of this
> is happening in a region that only 30 years ago was believed to be the
> next wealthy part of the world, and in a Moslem area, which developed,
> at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world.
>
> It is fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground
> for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide
> murders, and general decline. It is also a fact that almost everybody in
> the region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on
> Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and
> anything, except themselves.
>
> Do I say all of this with the satisfaction of someone discussing the
> failings of his enemies? On the contrary, I firmly believe that the
> world would have been a much better place and my own neighborhood would
> have been much more pleasant and peaceful if things were different.
>
> I should also say a word about the millions of decent, honest, good
> people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew
> up in Moslem families. They are double victims, of an outside world
> which now develops Islamophobia, and of their own environment which
> breaks their hearts by being totally dysfunctional. The problem is that
> the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and
> of the incitement but they also do not stand up against it. They become
> accomplices by omission, and this applies to political leaders,
> intellectuals, business people and many others. Many of them can
> certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views.
>