by David Harris
Executive Director, American Jewish Committee

There are those in the international community who claim that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root cause of the Middle East’s problems. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been among the most prominent of these voices.

In his article “A Battle For Global Values” (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007), Tony Blair reiterated what he has expressed in previous public statements: “How can we bring peace to the Middle East unless we resolve the question of Israel and Palestine?” Achieving peace, he continues, “would not only silence reactionary Islam’s most effective rallying call but fatally undermine its basic ideology.”

More recently, in a speech at the Istanbul Forum in October, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan named the lack of a Palestinian state as the crux of all problems in the Middle East. In so saying, he echoed a speech by his own Foreign Minister, Ali Babacan, at the Annapolis conference, who declared that “the Palestinian question is at the epicenter of all problems in the Middle East. The resulting climate of despair, hatred and pessimism continues to haunt the region and create a breeding ground for extremism.”

Similarly, Aijaz Zaka Syed, a columnist for the Dubai-based, English-language newspaper Khaleej Times, wrote in November that “the key to…world peace lies in Jerusalem.”

True, genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians would remove one of the long-standing conflicts in the Middle East. Moreover, to state the painfully obvious, peace would serve the best interests of those involved.
But the suggestion made by Prime Ministers Blair, Erdogan and others that such a settlement is a necessary precondition for wider peace in the Middle East and would take the wind out of radical Islam’s sails is unsupported by the facts.

Let’s assume for a moment that Israel did not exist. Would that have changed the basic story line of the bulk of events in the Middle East?
Would Yemen today be fighting a war on three fronts against its own rebel movements and al Qaeda?

Would Iraq and Iran have chosen not to pursue an eight-year war that cost more than a million fatalities? Would Iraq have decided not to invade Kuwait in 1990? Would it have rethought its use of chemical weapons against both its own Kurdish population and Iran?

Would Syria have refrained from slaughtering over 10,000 of its own citizens in Hama in 1982? Would it have withheld its central role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri?
Would Saudi Arabia have stopped exporting its Wahhabi model of Islam, with its narrow, doctrinaire view of the world and rejection of non-Muslims as so-called infidels, across the globe?

Would al Qaeda not have attacked the U.S. in 2001, when, it should be remembered, the Israeli-Palestinian issue was never even mentioned among Osama bin Laden’s list of “grievances?”

Would the danger posed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan magically disappear absent the Israel factor?

Would Iran today abandon its nuclear and hegemonic ambitions in the region?
Would the Shi’ite-Sunni split, with its profound political and strategic ramifications, evaporate into thin air?

Would the Sudanese government have stopped its collusion with the Arab Janjaweed militias to end the massive murder and displacement in Darfur?
Would the desperate poverty and widespread illiteracy that dampen hope and create a fertile recruiting ground for radical Islamic movements suddenly be alleviated?

Would Saudi women instantaneously have the right to drive, would non-Muslims finally enjoy equal rights in all those Arab countries where Islam is the official religion, and would the Baha’i no longer experience persecution at the hands of the Iranian government?

In reality, the destabilizing factors in the Middle East run far deeper than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Strikingly, while most Western political leaders mince their words, the courageous Arab authors of the annual Arab Human Development Report have not. They have spoken of three overarching explanatory factors for the region’s unsatisfactory condition: the knowledge deficit, the gender deficit and the freedom deficit.

Unless these three areas are addressed in a sustained manner, the Middle East, which ought to be one of the world’s most dynamic regions, is likely to continue suffering from instability, violence and fundamentalism, irrespective of what happens on the Israeli-Palestinian front.

Consider some of the important findings in recent Arab Human Development Reports and related studies:
• The total number of books translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years is fewer than those translated in Spain in one year.
• Greece – with a population of fewer than 11 million – translates five times as many books from abroad into Greek annually as the 22 Arab countries combined – with a total population of more than 300 million – translate into Arabic.
• According to a Council on Foreign Relations report, “in the 1950s, per-capita income in Egypt was similar to South Korea, whereas Egypt’s per-capita income today is less than 20 percent of South Korea’s. Saudi Arabia had a higher gross domestic product than Taiwan in the 1950s; today it is about 50 percent of Taiwan’s.”
As Dr. A.B. Zahlan, a Palestinian physicist, has noted: “A regressive political culture is at the root of the Arab world’s failure to fund scientific research or to sustain a vibrant, innovative community of scientists.” He further asserted that “Egypt, in 1950, had more engineers than all of China.” That is hardly the case today.

A recent UN Human Development Report revealed that only two Egyptians per million people were granted patents (for Syria the figure was zero), compared to 30 in Greece and 35 in Israel.

In the same UN report, the adult literacy rate for women aged 15 and older was 43.6 percent in Egypt and 74 percent in Syria, while for the world’s top 20 countries it was nearly 100 percent.

And finally, according to the current Freedom House rankings, no Arab country in the Middle East is listed as “free.” Each is described at best as “partly free” or, worse, “not free.”

The sad truth is that it is precisely political oppression, intellectual suffocation and gender discrimination that explain, far more than other factors, the chronic difficulties of the Middle East.

To be sure, there exist no overnight or over-the-counter remedies for these maladies that would allow the region to unleash its vast potential, but let’s be clear: they, not the straw man of Israel, are at the heart of the problem.

It would be illusory to think otherwise.

Passover Guide for the Perplexed 2009
By Yoram Ettinger

1. David Ben Gurion, the Founding Father of Israel (UN Commission, 1947): “300 years ago, the Mayflower launched its historical voyage. How many remember the data of the voyage, how many passengers were on the Mayflower and what kind of bread did they consume? However, 3,300 years earlier, the Exodus from Egypt took place. Every Jew knows the date of the Exodus – 15th of the month of Nissan – and the kind of bread – Matza, leaven bread – consumed. Until today, Jews all over the world, tell the story of the Exodus and eat Matza on the 15th of Nissan. They conclude the story of the Exodus [Hagadah] with the statement: ‘This year we’re slaves, but next year we shall be liberated; this year we’re here, but next year in Jerusalem.’” The prayer Next Year in Jerusalem is recited twice a year: Yom Kippur and Passover, the most sublime spiritual and physical Jewish experiences.

2. Passover highlights the fact that the Jewish People have been passed-over by history’s angel of death, in defiance of conventional wisdom. Non-normative salvation has characterized Jewish history ever since the Exodus, the Parting of the Sea, destruction of the Temple, exiles, pogroms, expulsions, Holocaust, Communist and other forms of Anti-Semitism, on-going Arab/Muslim wars and terrorism, etc. However, the involvement of Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb and Nachshon (the first to jump into the Red Sea before its parting) attests to the crucial role played by principle-driven leaders.

3. Passover commemorates the transformation from Diaspora- slavery to national-deliverance. The difference between the spelling of Ge’oolah (deliverance in Hebrew) and Golah (Diaspora in Hebrew) is the first Hebrew letter Alef, the root of the Alpha-Bet. The Hebrew spelling of critical root values and terms begins with Alef: G-D, Truth, Faith, Covenant, Credibility, Awesome, Power, Abraham, Light, Father, Mother, Love, Soil, Adam, Courage, Spring, Unity, Food, Responsibility, Immortality/Everlasting, Cure, Horizon, Patrimony, Tree. In order to transform (personal or national) Diaspora into Deliverance one must return to the roots.

4. The Exodus took place around 1,300BC, 600-700 years before Greek philosophers promoted democracy, establishing the Jewish People in the forefront in the on-going battle against rogue regimes. Passover is celebrated on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan – the first month of the Jewish year and the introduction of natural and national spring (Nitzan is the Babylonian word for spring and the Hebrew word for bud). Nissan (its root is Ness – miracle in Hebrew) is the month of miracles, such as the Exodus, the Parting of the Sea, Jacob wrestling the Angel, Deborah’s victory over Sisera, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, etc. The 15th day of any Jewish month is endowed with full moon, which stands for optimism in defiance of darkness and awesome odds. It is consistent with 15 parts of the Hagadah (the chronicles of Passover), 15 generations between Abraham’s message of monotheism and Solomon’s construction of the first Temple and the 15th day of the Jewish month of Shvat, Arbor Day – the “Exodus” of vegetation.

5. Passover has four names: Holiday of Pesach (Passed-over; sacrifice), Holiday of Liberty, Holiday of Matza and Holiday of Spring. It is the first Jewish holiday, according to the Jewish calendar, which starts in the spring (Aviv in Hebrew, which consists of two Hebrew words: Father of 12 months), the bud of nature. The word spring is mentioned 3 times in the Torah, all in reference to Exodus. Passover – which commemorates the creation of the Jewish nation - lasts for 7 days, just like the creation of the universe. Passover is the first Jewish pilgrimage and the basis for the other two annual pilgrimages. Thus, the first stop of the Exodus was at Soukkota (Soukkot/Tabernacles - the 3rd pilgrimage), and Passover is the prelude to the receipt of the Torah/Ten Commandments (Shavou’ot/Pentecost - the 2nd pilgrimage).

6. Passover (role model of Liberty/Exodus) interacts with Pentecost (role model of Morality/Ten Commandments), since Liberty interacts with Morality. The one constitutes a prerequisite for the other. The absence of one means the absence of the other. The Liberty-Morality interaction/interdependence distinguishes Western democracies from rogue regimes. No appeasing-rhetoric would transform rogue regime into a free/moral entity. Herut is the Hebrew word for Liberty and Harut (spelled with identical Hebrew words) is the Hebrew word for Inscription, which refers to the Ten Commandments.

7. Passover – just like monotheism, the Sabbath, Ten Commandments, repentance/Yom Kippur – constitutes a Jewish gift to humanity. It constitutes inspiration to liberty and to national liberation (”Let My People Go”). Jews have been targeted by enemies of Liberty (from Pharaoh, Nazism, Communism to Palestinian/Arab/Islamic terrorism and Ahmadinejad), because Jews have been rightly perceived as the messengers of liberty as a God-given natural right and equality before the law.

8. Moses, the hero of Passover, has become a role model of principled leadership. Moses’ name is mentioned only once in the Passover Hagadah, as a servant of G-d, a testimony to Moses’ humility, in order to humanize – rather than deify – Moses and to highlight the role of God in the Exodus. Similarly, Moses’ grave site is purposely unknown, and the only compliment accorded by the Torah to Moses – a prime leader in human history - is “the humblest of all human beings”. The Mosaic legacy has greatly impacted US democracy, hence Moses’ marble replica at the House Chamber on Capitol Hill, at the Rayburn House Office Building’s subway station and at the Supreme Court (holding the Ten Commandments).

9. Passover inspired Puritans, Pilgrims and the US Founding Fathers:

*George Washington and John Adams were compared to Moses and Joshua.
*Adams, Jefferson and Franklin proposed the Parting of the Sea as the official US seal.
*John Locke considered Moses’ 613 Laws as the most fitting legal foundation of the new society in America.
*Ezra Styles, the President of Yale University, stated that “Moses, the man of God, assembled three million people – the number of people in the America in 1776…” (May 8, 1783).
*President Calvin Coolidge: “The Hebraic mortars cemented the foundations of American democracy…” (May 3, 1925).
*John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts: “God has entered into a Covenant with those who are on their way to wilderness in America, just as he had entered into Covenant with the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai…” (1630 sermon on the Arbella).

They considered themselves “the modern day People of the Covenant “, King George III was “the modern day Pharaoh”, the Atlantic was “the modern day Red Sea” and America was “the modern day Promised Land”.

The term Federalism is based on “Foedus”, the Latin word for “The Covenant.” The Founding Fathers considered the political structure of the 12 Tribes, sustaining semi-independence, governed by their own Governors and by Moses the Chief Executive, Aaron, Joshua and the 70 person Legislature, a model for the 13 colonies and the US political system.

10. The Exodus is mentioned 50 times in the Torah, equal to the 50 years of Jubilee, a historical pivot of liberty (”Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof”, Leviticus, 25, 10, inscribed on the Liberty Bell). 50 days following the Exodus, Moses received the Torah, which includes – according to Jewish tradition – 50 Gates of Wisdom. Where does that leave the 50 States?! The commemoration of the Exodus is one of the 613 Jewish/Mosaic laws. It is highlighted in most Jewish prayers and rituals, such as the daily prayers, the welcoming of the Sabbath, the blessing over wine, each holiday, upon circumcision, at the door step (Mezuzah) of Jewish homes, etc.

11. Passover commemorates the victory of Jewish demography. Jacob arrived to Egypt with 70 members of his family, but Moses launched the Exodus with 600,000 adult males and a total of some 3 million people – quite a demographic momentum. The Exodus was the first case of a massive Jewish immigration (Aliya) to Israel, in defiance of odds and projections – as have been all major Aliya waves since 1948 - but in touch with Jewish history and destiny. A Jewish Demographic tailwind has currently been in motion between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. While Herzl launched the Zionist voyage – in 1897 - with an 8% Jewish minority west of the Jordan River in 1900, and Ben-Gurion celebrated the 1947 UN vote with a 33% minority, today’s Jewish State is endowed with a 67% majority over 98.5% of the land west of the River (without Gaza) and a 60% majority with Gaza.