Sunday, December 10, 2006
FEEWINGS HURT
A Q&A with Al-Jazeera Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Sheikh:
Q: Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?
A: I think so.
Q: Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?
A: The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.
Q: In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?
A: Exactly. It’s because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego.
Those numbers should give pause to those who think Arab states to be the underdogs in this particular conflict.