Several recent articles provide a wealth of data that
indicate how truly miserable conditions in many Arab countries are, and how
grim the outlook for much of the Arab world is. The most shocking data are from
Syria (though the situation
in
Yemen is probably similarly dire). A recent
NYT article
outlines the devastation wrought by five years of war in Syria:
“
Let’s take a look at the numbers. (While the following statistics are
estimates, they will, if anything, get worse with the continuing matrix of wars
in Syria.) More than 80 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line. Nearly 70
percent of Syrians live in extreme poverty, meaning they cannot secure basic
needs, according to a 2016 report. That number has most likely grown since then.
The unemployment rate is close to 58 percent, with a significant number of
those employed working as smugglers, fighters or elsewhere in the war economy.
Life expectancy has dropped by 20 years since the beginning of the uprising in
2011. About half of children no longer attend school — a lost generation. The
country has become a public health disaster. Diseases formerly under control,
like typhoid, tuberculosis, Hepatitis A and cholera, are once again endemic.
And polio — previously eradicated in Syria — has been reintroduced, probably by
fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Upward of 500,000 are dead from the war, and an untold number of Syrians have died indirectly from the conflict
[…] With more than two million injured, about 11.5 percent of the prewar
population have become casualties. And close to half the population of Syria is
either internally or externally displaced. A 2015 survey conducted by the United Nations refugee agency
looking at Syrian refugees in Greece found that a large number of adults — 86
percent — had secondary or university education. Most of them were under 35. If
true, this indicates that Syria is losing the very people it will most need if
there is to be any hope of rebuilding in the future.”
But the future also doesn’t look rosy for the rest of the
Arab world. MEMRI recently
summarized
some of the relevant findings of the latest UN Arab Human Development Report
(AHDR), which
focuses
on “challenges and opportunities facing youth in the Arab region.” Needless to
say, the comprehensive UN report is carefully “balanced,” which is to say it
tries hard to package all the bad news with some slightly better news or upbeat
talk about opportunities that are waiting to be seized.
As the MEMRI summary notes:
“While we would have wished
otherwise, in reviewing the report we find that the critics of the ‘Arab
Spring’ were more realistic in their assessment of the events of 2011 than
those who were inclined to see bright stars in the sky. […] Arab youth today
remain mired in poverty; they are politically marginalized and voiceless,
economically disenfranchised, and socially prone to radicalization and
violence. Theirs is a fragile and often volatile existence.”
“The [UN] report highlights the
fact that in the last decade the region has experienced ‘the most rapid
increase in war and violent conflict’ compared with other regions of the world.
The Arab world also has ‘the dubious distinction’ of comprising the largest
number of failed states showcasing a high scale of ‘fragility and failure’ in
addition to being the source of the largest number of refugees and displaced
people. While the report would not predict the level of conflict in the region,
it does project that number of people living in conflict areas will increase
from 250 million in 2010 to over 305 million in 2020.”
If you check out the report itself, there are plenty of
findings that indicate how dire the situation in many Arab countries is and how
little chance there is for rapid improvement – indeed, further decline seems
more likely:
“the region still scores lower than
the world average on the HDI [Human Development Index] and already lags three
of the world’s six regions, namely, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and
Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. By the year 2050, the region
is projected to rank fifth, only a little ahead of sub-Saharan Africa.”
“Evidence shows that the prospects
of young people in the region are, now more than ever, jeopardized by poverty,
economic stagnation, governance failure and exclusion, all compounded by the
violence and fragility of the body politic.”
“Overall, the quality of education
is poor. Standardized international tests in education such as the Trends in
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International
Student Assessment show Arab countries scoring well below the average.”
“The rise of women in Arab
countries is inseparably and causally linked to the future human development of
the Arab region. The pervasive disempowerment of women in Arab countries is
grounded in cultural, social, economic and political factors. As the 2005 and
2009 AHDRs observed, the seeds of discrimination are embedded in cultural
beliefs and traditions in childraising, education, religious structures, the
media and family relations.”
Among the particularly noteworthy figures in the report is
the following, which shows that the overwhelming majority of Arabs consider
religion, i.e. mostly Islam, as “an important part” of their daily life:
This is also an interesting finding in the context of the
ongoing mass migration to very secular Europe – a migration that is most warmly
welcomed by liberals who don’t think much of their own religious fellow
citizens and look down on religious Americans. The importance of religion for
Arabs is also noteworthy in the context of another finding in the UN report:
“It is mainly because of its high
levels of social and religious intolerance that the region stands out among
countries at similar levels of development around the world. Tolerance is a
core value in pluralistic societies and a cornerstone of more democratic
systems. […] This wide regional deficit
and lack of progress on values of tolerance are worrying for the future of
democracy in the region.”
While Israel has so far managed to remain “a villa in the
jungle” – as Ehud Barak once put it famously – it is clearly bad news that the
region looks set to remain mired in conflict and that so many fundamental
factors are likely to impede social progress and economic development. A year
ago, a still very relevant
article
in
The New York Jewish Week outlined the resulting problems for Israel
as explained by veteran political analyst Ehud Yaari. The article begins with
an anecdote:
“Ehud Yaari characterizes his
friend Bernard Lewis, the eminent scholar of the Middle East [who turned 100
last May], as possessing ‘this ability to see into the future.’ Over a recent
dinner in Israel, Yaari asked Lewis what he thought the Middle East would look
like in fifty years. Without hesitating, Lewis leaned over the table and said
decisively, ‘Any Arab who can will be out of here.’”
Unfortunately, many of those who can’t escape the
hopelessness of the Arab Middle East may end up fueling sectarian conflict and
bloodshed. And for frustrated young Palestinians, it is obviously tempting to
commit terror attacks. In a very interesting
piece
published a few days ago, Yaari writes about Israel’s efforts to curb the wave
of attacks that started in fall 2015, and it turns out that the motivations of
the mostly young perpetrators clearly reflect the deep discontent and
frustration as well as the religious fervor described in the UN report on the
Arab world:
“most of the attackers came from
the fringes of West Bank society: young people struggling with social
marginalization, who had experienced repeated setbacks in their private lives
or faced insurmountable personal or financial hardship. The collective profile
of the assailants identified most as frustrated individuals who felt that their
lives had reached a dead end, to the point that many sought salvation through
martyrdom. Many of those captured during assaults told interrogators that they
believed that death for the sake of jihad would reward them with the
recognition they failed to obtain in life.”
Regarding the motivations of the surprisingly high number of
female assailants, Yaari writes:
“Investigations showed that almost
all of these women—including a 72-year-old grandmother from Hebron—were seeking
to escape family hardships, such as pregnancies out of wedlock, arranged
marriages, violence within the family, and so forth. Quite often it seemed that
these women were seeking death or arrest in order to break away from their
environment. In more than one instance, a young woman would wave a kitchen
knife or scissors far from the Israeli soldiers, not posing any real threat,
knowing that she would be immediately taken into custody.”
For some more on Palestinian frustration and discontent, you
can check out this
recent lament
on “A Life of Degradation and Bitterness under Fatah Rule,” and
this curse of “Israel,
Hamas and Fatah” – the latter by a Palestinian who was “born and raised as a
proud refugee from the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza.” As much as the
Palestinians may see themselves as part of the Arab world, it is definitely
uniquely Palestinian to be “born and raised as a proud refugee” in a
Palestinian city among Palestinians.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please
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Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Elder of ZiyonSpeaking to a packed auditorium at an event sponsored by the Hebrew University’s Truman Institute, Germany-based opposition activist Issam Zeitoun made a blunt appeal for help. “All Syrians have suffered under this regime. Something must be done. The Syrian people are too weak. We need the help of the international community.”
Kajjo and Zeitoun’s remarks were repeatedly interrupted by Arab students angry that they were breaking a taboo and according a kind of recognition to Israel. “You are a disgrace to Syria” one student shouted at Zeitoun.
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