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Arab writers call for learning fromIsraels technology, democracy andmoralityBy ARIEL BEN SOLOMON 05/02/2014 02:15

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Despite the fact that the Arab media often uses harsh andinsulting rhetoric describing Israel or Jews, occasionalarticles by their intellectuals praise Israel for itsachievements.

Lawmakers gather for a session in the Knesset. Photo: REUTERS

Despite the fact that the Arab media often uses harsh andinsulting rhetoric describing Israel or Jews, occasional articlesby their intellectuals praise Israel for its achievements.

Such articles mainly compliment Israel for its hi-tech and urgeArab countries to learn from it, explains a new report by theMiddle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), whichcompiled these types of pieces over the past year.

Abdullah Bakheet, a Saudi columnist, tweeted last April thatunlike the Arabs, the Jews help create civilization and are not[merely] consuming it.

The culture [whose technology] we use to communicate,whose air conditioners we sleep under, whose hospitals weare treated in, and whose cement roofs we pray under, is theculture of the Jews and the Crusaders, he said.

In February and March of last year, Kuwaiti writer OmarAltabtabaee published three pro-Israel articles, whichexplained how Israel gained superiority over the region despiteits lack of resources.

Have you ever asked yourself how the small entity calledIsrael managed to hold the entire world in its palm? Instead ofcontinually cursing the entire world, have you tried tounderstand how Israel made all those achievements in allareas? he wrote.

Israel attracts great Jewish minds from all around the world,said Altabtabaee according to the report, adding in another

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article that Israel is an entity that lives beside us, has aclimate similar to ours, and if we look a bit further we willdiscover that this entity has no natural resources and despiteall this, it surpasses us!... This entity knows that education isthe basis of society and the basis of its culture and unity.

Egyptian writer Ali Khamis wrote in the Al-Wafd newspaperduring the rule of Muslim Brotherhood president MohamedMorsi, Jewish revolutions are scientific and Arab ones aretragic. This is the painful truth and the bitter harvest that wehave reaped from the winds of the Arab Spring that tore usapart.

Iraqi writer Mahdi Majid Abdallah wrote an article, titled Arabsand Muslims should learn from Israeli morality, on the Elaphwebsite last year.

I have suffered and still suffer from emotional complexes Iinherited from the Arab and Islamic society in which I havelived for a long time.

[These complexes] planted the idea in the heart of society thatthe Jews are the most lowly and cowardly people and that noone believes them; that they are traitorous, hypocritical,narcissistic, and strive to corrupt nations and peoples; [thatthey are] a people that anger Allah, and a jealous and resentfulpeople that does not wish well for mankind.... As time passed,and after I met a group of Jewish men and women up close,the fog lifted and the basic assumptions that were solid facts inmy mind crumbled and quickly became lies, he said,according to MEMRI.

Abdallah goes on to mention that Palestinians get medicaltreatment in Israel. Would any Arab country agree to treatIsraelis this way? Of course [not].

He also praised Israeli democracy.

When you watch sessions of the Israeli Knesset, you can seethe freedom that Arab MKs enjoy, [despite] their harsh criticismof the Israeli government and even the entire Israeli regime.

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Xkeyscore 7 minutes agosince arabs have praised jews, will it be time toend the occupation and killing of innocents ?!

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PETER SM an hour agoShame this is not compulsory reading for leftistsloganeers and Neo n azis. It would be great of both those groups got a life

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Tal_Ben_Avraham an hour agoSo out of hundreds of millions of Arabs itspossible to find a few article's that refrain fromblaming Jews for their problems.As my daughter would say that statistically, thatsan insignificant number that proves nothing.One of them even questions his brainwashing?Big deal,the problem is the vast majority won't.The only development the Arabs have made isthe suicide bomber.We have received over a quarter of all Nobelprizes ever awarded, Muslims have received howmany? 3? 4?.G*d has blessed them with an abundance of oilbut they have made few advances in the last 100years.They hate us because we have shown them theirlimitations

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Yosef ben Israel an hour ago

Tal_Ben_Avraham

You mean Nobel Prizes I think.

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Tal_Ben_Avraham an hour ago

Yosef benIsraelCorrect,my mistake, the peaceprizes are dierent.Obama got one for,well beingblack by all accounts.Mistake corrected.

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wingdings 2 hours agoShouldn't that be made known to the one withKetchup in his head?

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Yosef ben Israel 2 hours agoA little bit of fresh air in the arab house, finally.

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Tal_Ben_Avraham an hour ago

Yosef ben Israel

Still a huge stench.

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Giulia 2 hours agoThey despise the Jews but yet they want to learnfrom the Jews. Chi disprezza compra.

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wingdings 2 hours ago GiuliaNietzsche said once (and he was notjudeophile!): "They must have some highvalue to be hated so much!" That explainsit all!

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours agoThis will never be reported by the leftistmainstream media in the US. The Guardian willnever acknowledge it.

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YuriS an hour ago Shel_ZahavThat anti-Israel rag the Guardian wouldrather choke on their hatred for Israel thanwrite a feel good story about Israel....TheGuardian's sole reason for being is tosmear Israel.....There is a lot of money tobe made from writing BS about Israel.....

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Vandy 4 hours agoThe simple reason why things have stagnated inthe arab or muslim world is because of theunstability and chaos that arose from thedismantling of ottoman empire and governmentsthat rule the people.

I am sure our fellow jewish brethren realise thatthe golden age of the jews in spain came underthe rule of muslims. Baghdad was the centre ofthe universe at one point when it came toscience and technology back in the day. Muslimswere still religious back then as they are now.Only dierence was there was a healthy balanceand outlook.

From invention of algebra, to arabic hindunumerals to even the propogation of the digitzero. All these happened when there wasstability and peace in arab and muslim lands.

Problem these days is that you cant advancewhen there is strife and the muslim countries thatare stable do not really care about science thatmuch.

For shame.

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Tal_Ben_Avraham an hour ago

Vandy

Typical Muslim! Its all someone else'sfault.The only advances the Muslim world haveshown are better communications,transport and methods of killinginnocents, the mentality is unchanged in1500 years.To advance you need to co operate as asociety nor kill and destroy.

Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago VandyThe "golden age of Islam in Spain" cameabout because of the contribution ofJews! Arabs claim all sorts of Jews to beMuslims.

Arabs do not use the numerals that we

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use today. They did not invent the "zero".

Even during the "golden age in Spain"there was not peace in Arab and Muslimlands. And there were many pogromsagainst Jews and Christians during this"golden age". These communities wereoften plundered and destroyed evenduring the "golden age". You need aneducation.

The Arabs did not invent algebra. I amsurprised even a backwards fool like youis still peddling this nonsense.

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Yosef ben Israel 2 hours ago

Shel_Zahav

Algebra has been invented by AlKhwarizmi. He was a Persianmathematician. The name Algebracomes from the arabic Al-Jabr, thetitle of Al Khwarizmi book andmeaning "reunion of brokenparts".

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wingdings 2 hours ago

Yosef benIsraelYes, people always thinkMaths came from theArabs, it did not! That goesfor many other inventionsas well, like Arab Grammaror medicines.

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O rly 4 hours agothank god for israel or the world would bewithout cement, air conditioning, hospitals andtelecommunications!wait wut.....

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YuriS an hour ago O rlyOrly come on tell us your realname......Fatma Suha or Haninn

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YuriS an hour ago O rlyAnd hopefully without you......

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago O rlyOr even unclever anti-Semites who can'tfind the way to be humorous or satiricaleven when they want to be.

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O rly 2 hours ago

Shel_Zahav

woops i did not pledge myundying love for the state of israel,i must be an antisemite!

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YuriS an hour ago

O rly

No you are not an anti-Semite just a dumbass....

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O rly YuriS

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O rly 40 minutes ago

YuriS

that was not the implicationof the post i wasresponding to.

maybe the dumbass is theone who lightly tossesaround a slurs that got 6million people killed just todefend a petty politicalposition

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AlterNation 4 hours agoTheres a few smart arabs - but not enough.

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JW 6 hours agoSend a copy to Israel's best known self-hatersGideon Levy and Amira Hass over at Haaretz. Atbest, it'll shake them out of their stupor. At worst,it'll give them sleepless nights.

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago JWThey will find a way to blame Israel for it.

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valakos 6 hours agoarab intellectuals are a minority in countries likeegypt, iraq, syria, tunisia etc - islamicfundamentalism sees them as a threat and theyare invariably silenced. I also found thestatement saying The culture [whosetechnology] we use to communicate, whose air conditioners we sleep under, whose hospitals weare treated in, and whose cement roofs we pray under, is the cultureof the Jews and the Crusaders, highly oensive - all christians areapparently crusaders, even to muslimintellectuals. Firstly the crusades were almost athousand years ago but this idiot has yet torealize that, moreover the same "crusader"comment could be said about their pedophileprophet.

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago valakosMost Arab intellectuals are as anti-Semitic as the rest. These, in this article,are just a small minority.

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AmerigoV 7 hours agoAriel Ben Solomon with all due respect thesequotes from arab government controlled mediaare simply infinitesimal; close to zero when youcompare them to the behemoth bombardment ofthe Islamic demonic culture, in the madrasas, inthe mosques, in the streets, and the pictures onthe walls etc. There are over one hundred millionArabs/Muslims that are dedicated to Islam andthe teaching of the mosques. The mosquescontrol the media, the population, the schoolsand even their private lives. I like your optimism,but its not because of Israel that the youngArabs wants change, it is because the educatedones discovered that praying 5 times a daydoesn't bring you one loaf of bread at home.

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago AmerigoVThere are over 300 million such Muslims.Furthermore, among the educatedMuslims, most are still anti-Semitic.

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busin12000 7 hours ago AmerigoVNeither does three times a day. But I doagree with the first portion of your post.

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago

busin12000

Wrong. Praying can be helpful. Butit's best to sleep through the nightand not wake up at 4 am becausesomebody with a bad voice wantsto run your life.

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nekema 7 hours agoThe writer is an Arab, but a useful Arab. Talk niceabout him.

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago nekemaThere are some.

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The Lone Ranger 6 hours ago

nekema

As opposed to the Arabs which youprefer ..... the ones who declare Jihadagainst infidel non-Muslims especially theJews and for no other reason thanbecause radical Islam is intolerant!

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busin12000 7 hours ago nekemaUseful to other Arabs. To guide them outof the dark ages.

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AmerigoV 7 hours ago nekemaYou are limited, still; and beyond dumb.

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davrg 7 hours agoMost of the German intellectuals also wereagainst the natzis. Unfortunately the feelings ofsimple Germans decided the course of theevents.

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago davrgNot true. Most were not against theNazzis. Intellectuals are just as racist andbiased as anybody else.

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Partyforever 7 hours ago davrgGermany and the USSR lost manyintellectuals. Both collapsed and lostmany intellectuals.

Smart countries and companies pickedthem up. Gave them jobs.

Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago

Partyforever

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Shel_Zahav 2 hours ago

Partyforever

Intellectuals are destroyingAmerica.

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Tati 7 hours agoWise and decent people. They are rare exceptionthat proves the rule.

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The Lone Ranger 7 hours agoAt least there are some sane minds among Pali-Abs that recognize there is more to life than justhating the Jews!

That Arabs have allowed themselves to be allconsumed by their hatred to the exclusion ofliving a healthy and productive life!

The problem is if they want to learn from us andimprove themselves, then it will cut into the timeand resources that they currently spend onhating and killing Jews!

I guess they will have to make a choice!

Do the Pali-Abs have peace and prosperity or dothey hold on to their hatred and bigotry somemore?

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davrg 7 hours ago The Lone RangerThe problem is not if they "want to learn",but if they "can learn". Their hatred maybe the consequence of not to be able to.

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YuriS 40 minutes ago davrgIn one of their frequent Londonriots against Israel.......There wasthis Muslim idiot carrying thisplacard reading....."Kill allJuice"......Their hatred extends toeven Juice and of course toJews....

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Partyforever 7 hours ago

The Lone Ranger

They still have to "earn" their peace prize. 2

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The Lone Ranger 7 hours agoAt least there are some sane minds thatrecognize there is more to life than just hating theJews!

That Arabs have allowed themselves to be allconsumed by their hatred to the exclusion ofliving a healthy and productive life!

The problem is if they want to learn from us andimprove themselves, then it will cut into the timeand resources that they currently spend onhating and killing Jews!

I guess they will have to make a choice!

Do the Pali-Abs have peace and prosperity or dothey hold on to their hatred and bigotry somemore?

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davrg 7 hours ago The Lone Ranger

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davrg 7 hours ago The Lone RangerThis is right. Bennett calls it "autonomyon steroids": either hate us and go hungryor behave well and live well, whiledepending on the good will of the IsraeliJews.

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Partyforever 7 hours agoWhen you live in a rational society, where menare free to trade, you receive an incalculablebonus: the material value of your work isdetermined not only by your eort, but by theeort of the best productive minds who exist inthe world around you.

In proportion to the mental energy he spent, theman who creates a new invention receives but asmall percentage of his value in terms of materialpayment, no matter what fortune he makes, nomatter what millions he earns. But the man whoworks as a janitor in the factory producing thatinvention, receives an enormous payment inproportion to the mental eort that his jobrequires of him. And the same is true of all menbetween, on all levels of ambition and ability. Theman at the top of the intellectual pyramidcontributes the most to all those below him, butgets nothing except his material payment,receiving no intellectual bonus from others toadd to the value of his time. The man at thebottom who, left to himself, would starve in hishopeless ineptitude, contributes nothing to thoseabove him, but receives the bonus of all of theirintellectual eort.

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