Uh-oh. Pull up a chair. It's another diatribe.
There was an article this morning in the DMN (their site has gone kablooey tonight - I'll link the article when I can get to it) regarding the economic Armageddon facing the Palestinian State upon completion of Israel's security wall. The same stuff is found elsewhere, even in the Arab press.
The Palestinian economy is almost completely dependent on Israel. Israelis employ a ton of Palestinian labor and buy huge quantities of Palestinian goods, but it goes further than that. Israel also controls the Palestinians water and energy supplies, most of their banking, and most of their foreign trade.
If we look back to those heady days of the early and mid 1990s, when Rabin and Arafat were winning Nobel Prizes and peace seemed to be almost within reach, the Palestinian economy experienced rebirth. Investment poured in from around the world, Israelis fell all over themselves to create broader and deeper economic ties, and the Palestinians found themselves employed, their goods selling, and their standard of living rising. Anything and everything seemed possible.
Now, a decade later, with the Intifada, the failure of Barak's olive leaf and Sharon's iron fist, the political disasters at Wye River and Camp David behind us, the Israelis have gone the unilateral route. They have built most of their wall (completion will occur in early 2007), they have brought in immigrants and guest workers to replace the Palestinians' labor, and are apparently prepared to live their lives behind their ramparts, separate from the Palestinians in every way.
This, to me, illustrates the entire East-West encounter in microcosm. Allow me to explain:
The Israelis have willed their country into existence and have thrived in a sea of enemies. The Palestinians have floundered under poor, corrupt leadership, surrounded by countries that profess to be allies and supporters.
The average Israeli is educated, has a say in how he/she is governed, serves the nation in the military for most of adulthood, and contributes to the economy. The average Palestinian has little education beyond rote memorization of the Quran, has only recently been able to vote and most recently voted out the crooks and voted in the murderers, is employed by the government in most cases, and produces very little.
Is this a fair and balanced view of the Israelis and Palestinians? No. If you've read anything on this blog, you know where my allegiance lies. But, even with that, how far from the truth is it?
In his recent letter to President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on and on about the "failure of democracy". I keep hearing this from the East (heck, we used to hear it from the Commies) and I don't understand it at all. Islam, at least the radical element, seems to believe in the benevolent dictator. Is this how they describe Arafat? How do radical Muslims reconcile Israel's successes on the battlefield, in industry, the arts, medicine, education, agriculture, etc against the Arab world's abject failures in these same areas? How do they defend their "education" system when it produces no peace, no wealth, no advances, and leaves the vast majority of the population in abject poverty?
Most Muslim societies in the 21st century are places where basic human needs are repressed, the authorities are in everyone's business everywhere, all the time, and where a once-great civilization of merchants, scientists, artists, and thinkers has been sliding backwards for 800 years. How do the radical Muslims reconcile their societies with the West, where people are free to worship, raise their children in relative safety, make decisions based on experience and education, provide for their families, and live in relative peace?
Wow, I got WAY off topic here. Must be the lovely bottle of icy chardonnay I opened at dinner.
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