Lebanon is collapsing and other Arab states are in a state of unprecedented distress. Some are crumbling and in the midst of bloodbaths. Most are failing. Nearly all of them are finding it difficult to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. The gap between them and the modern world is widening, to the extent that there is doubt it can be bridged without a deep social and cultural revolution. In recent generations, the Middle East has been in a state of constant change, but the changes make it difficult for them to cope: there is less openness, pluralism, and tolerance, more violence and autocracy, less willingness for deep-seated reform to society and government, and more excuses.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
A precondition to a matter-of-fact discussion of all these aspects of the issue is exposing the shallowness and manipulation of the two prevailing explanations. At one end of the spectrum, these failures are attributed to "Islam." This is similar to claims made about "Judaism" or "Christianity," without distinguishing Jews from each other (such as secular liberals vs. Haredi zealots) or Christians (American Quakers vs. the Phalanges in Lebanon). The world's largest Muslim nation (Indonesia, home to some 275 million people) has been undergoing a process of democratization for over two decades, including a number of rounds of free elections. Most of the concentrations of Muslims in central and eastern Asia (including about 200 million in India) are not violent or bullies in the way of some Arab states, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In Iran, the Revolutionary regime is oppressive and barbaric, but its society includes open and pluralistic structures that survive even under the mullahs, and the infrastructure of a society on which a change of regime can be built. In the Arab world, there are differences in the levels of violence, as can be seen if we compare Morocco to Syria, Iraq, and the Palestinians. "Islam" is not a recipe for failure or an explanation for violence.
On the other side, the Arab failures are excused by the history of colonialism. These excuses are accepted by the Arabs themselves, "progressive" circles in academia, the media, and politics, who see members of the "third world" as victims who must not be forced to accept responsibility for their behavior. The pathetic nature of these excuses becomes clearer when we compare the failures of the Arabs to achievements of India in establishing a democratic rule and removing hundreds of millions of people from desperate poverty, despite a heritage of the caste system. Post-colonial India, without resources, dramatically improved the quality of life and freedom of many of its citizens, whereas the Arabs, with their wealth of resources and who suffered only a short time under foreign rule that was much less oppressive than it was in India, use the "colonialism" excuse to avoid responsibility for wrecking their own countries and ruining their sons' and daughters' quality of life.
The failure is a cultural and social one: This is a society that clings to its tribal, patriarchal structures, whose values are not pluralistic and is eaten up by inherent corruption. Autocratic regimes and/or revenue that is based in natural rather than human resources can at most promise a measure of stability and avoid collapse. This culture has failed to confront the challenges of modernity for 100 years. It is expanding and deepening the gap between the Arabs' expectations, based on their glorious past, and the stinging acknowledgement of their present state of wretchedness and their fear of the future.
A political culture is not the decree of fate and does not require an abandonment of identity. Zionism recognized the failures of an entrenched way of life and created a revolutionary cultural change that offered a constructive way out of the distress of the former way of life and a Jewish identity that was based on stable foundations. This strengthened the national Jewish collective in addressing the challenges of the 20th and 21st centuries, and dramatically improved the lives of millions of Jews. The Turks grew stronger through the Ataturk's cultural revolution 100 years ago.
This culture explains, to a large extent, the Arab states' failure, their few scientific achievements, the prevalence of terrorism among themselves, the failure of many Arab migrants to Europe to integrate into society, the Palestinians' rejection of the historical compromise and delusion about the destruction of Israel, and the culture of violence, crime, and tribalism that is rife in Arab society in Israel. When the premier value is denying responsibility, nothing can be fixed. Certainly the revolutionary fixes that are required cannot be made.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
