A Middle East Quiz ... by Alan Caruba

A Middle East Quiz
By Alan Caruba

Let’s take a Middle East quiz. Name a major medical breakthrough generated in a Middle Eastern nation other than Israel? Got to think about that one? Let’s narrow it down. Name a Middle Eastern nation that has produced extraordinary technological breakthroughs that power and operate millions of computers?

Despite its small size, Israelis working in Motorola’s largest research and development center came up with the basic elements of the modern cell phone. At Microsoft-Israel, Israelis developed most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems. And the Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at the Intel operation there. In fact, both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only research and development facilities outside of the United States in Israel. Wouldn’t it be a shame if a Hezbollah or Iranian missile destroyed them?

It should come as no surprise that Israel has the highest percentage of home computers per capita or that Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population of any nation in the world. Israel, in fact, produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation, about 109 per 10,000 people, and has one of the highest per capital rates of patents filed.

Apart from the Silicon Valley in the U.S.A., Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world with more than 3,000, not including the highest rate of start-up companies, so there are probably more as this is being written.

These are the same people that Hezbollah and Hamas have promised to kill, but let’s be fair to the Arabs, they have led the world in suicide bombers and the development of Improvised Explosive Devices. They excel at fighting wars without putting on uniforms and hiding among civilians.

By comparison with any other Middle Eastern nation, Israel has the highest average living standards with a per capita income in 2000 that exceeded the United Kingdom. Compared with the rest of the world, it has the third highest rate of entrepreneurs and the highest rate among women and people over 55.

This is the nation that Iran’s president wants to “wipe off the map.”

Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, non-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer. An Israeli company developed a computerized system to ensure the proper administration of medications, removing human error from medical treatment in hospitals that use the system.

It has done all this while fighting the wars perpetrated against it by its Arab “neighbors” since the day it declared its independence in 1948. It has done this while being under constant attack for years from Lebanon that flared yet again into another full-scale war and while enduring the Intifada by the PLO followed by continued rocketing by Hamas from what is now called the Palestine territory.

Ironically, the Middle East that has been growing date palms for centuries has never been able to come up with a tree that yields more than about 38 pounds a year. They usually grow 18 to 20 feet tall. In Israel, however, comparable date palms yield about 400 pounds annually and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or from a small ladder.

When the Israelis withdrew from the Gaza strip, they left behind greenhouses that had employed hundreds of Palestinians and produced an abundance of foods. The greenhouses were destroyed within days. Meanwhile Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization are at each other’s throats.

After 18 years of occupation, the Israelis withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah used the following six years to build bunkers and stockpile weapons. The rocketing of Israel never stopped.

Last question. If you had to move to any nation in the Middle East, which one would you choose?

We are told we are involved in a clash of civilizations between the developed West and the tyranny, poverty, and backwardness of the Middle Eastern version of Islam. To grasp what that means, review the facts stated above and then project a future for this nation and others if the Islamic Revolution succeeds in conquering Europe and the United Kingdom? Think about life in America if it succeeds.

Then, maybe, you will understand why America has always striven to support Israel.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. His new book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, has just been published by Merril Press. It is available from Amazon.com.

© Alan Caruba, 2006