Algerian newspaper notices that Jews care about science, unlike Arabs

Algerian paper E-Chorouk Online has an interesting article comparing Jews' priorities with those of Arabs.

The author uses as a springboard the story of Serge Haroche, the Moroccan-born French citizen who won the Nobel Prize for Physics this year along with an American. Both Haroche and 1997 Nobel physics winner Claude Cohen-Tannoudji were Jews born in Muslim countries in north Africa and both moved to France.

And both of them were celebrated - in Israel.

While Arab media were obsessing over Gilad Shalit's visit to a soccer game, Israeli media all but ignored Shalit in favor of reporting about Haroche.

The newspaper notes that "the Jewish state is interested in scientific excellence in the world of leaders who build Nations, not superiority in football in the world of toys." It says that more than eighty Jewish scientists received the Nobel Prize in various fields. ‬(Actually, the number of Jews who won Nobels in physics, chemistry and medicine is about 120.)

This being Arab media, the writer has to go off on a bizarre conspiracy theory, saying that the only reason Europe and the US support Israel's push for compensation for Jews from Arab countries is because otherwise Israel will force their Jewish Nobel-eligible scientists to leave and move to Israel.

But besides that craziness, it was an interesting and fairly rare article in Arabic media..