The One-Eyed Thomas L. Friedman

Friedman has done some fine reporting.  But, he's also said some awfully dumb things.  I was reminded of this when I read his item, "Breakfast Before The MOOC," an Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, Feb. 19, 2004.

Some explanation: MOOC refers to any "massive open online course."  In his Op-Ed piece,  Friedman describes a MOOC being taught by Prof. Hossam Haick, an Israeli Arab.  Prof. Haick is teaching a MOOC on nanotechnology under the auspices of Technion University in both Arabic and English to students who have registered to take this free online course in such places as Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the like.

Prof. Haick's Ph.D. is from the Technion.  (His father also graduated from the Technion.)  Prof. Hossam Haick is 38 and is described by Thomas Friedman as a science prodigy.  Twelve years ago, Israeli Arabs made up 9% of Technion's students.  Mr. Friedman points out that today the figure is 19%.

It's all good, and I would challenge nothing that Mr. Friedman said up to this point.  However, let me now point to information Mr. Friedman did not provide.  First, what kind of Arab is Prof. Haick (Anyone who speaks Arabic as his first language is an Arab, and this could conceivably include Jews.  I doubt it does include Jews because of the Jew's love of their Hebrew language.  But, it would not be amiss to describe a recent Jewish immigrant from Yemen as an Arab.  Again, while it might technically be correct to do so, it is unlikely that even an Arab-speaking Jew would be referred to as an Arab.  It would simply be too confusing.)  It is not inappropriate to ask whether Prof. Haick is Druze, or Bahai, or Sunni Muslim, or Christian.  As Mr. Friedman must know these differences among the Arab populaltion are relevant and do matter.

Mr. Friedman also really ought to tell his readers that Israel practices affirmative action.  In other words, that their universities set aside places for non-Jewish students, roughly in proportion to their  numbers in the Israeli population.

What Mr. Friedman can not help but share with his readers are references to Israel's "ugly West Bank occupation," and "economic discrimination against Israeli Arabs."   Here, Mr. Friedman must be seeing things through his blind eye.  The ugliness of conditions in the West Bank result not from Israel's administrative efforts so much as from the history if Palestinian intifadas,   from their assaults  on Israeli vehicles,  from their murder of Israeli citizens, and from the desire of a significant number of Palestinians to blow up buses carrying Israeli women and children.  The hatred that drives this behavior is carefully nurtured by the Palestinian leadership through their news organizations, through their schools, and through any other means of communication available to them.

The separation between Israel and the West Bank, whether by electric fence, or by concrete barrier, is not particularly attractive.  I don't believe the Swiss have any such barriers between themselves and their German, French, or Italian neighbors.  But, then, it should be pointed out, these neighbors don't go around trying to kill Swiss citizens.

And, what exactly does Mr. Friedman refer to when he says that Israel discriminates economically  against Israeli Arabs?  If Mr. Friedman didn't suffer from his optic affliction, he'd recognize that economic well being varies greatly between Jews as it does between different Israeli Arab groups.  He must know that secular Jews educate their daughters to the same extent as they do their sons.  Secular wives generally go out and work.  Hassidic Jews, however, generally finds the men studying Torah all day.  The education they give their daughters tends to be inadequate in the face of today's needs.

The situation is somewhat similar with Israeli Arabs.  Druze and Christian Arabs generally give their daughters an education equal to that of their sons.  As a consequence, the standard of living of these families matches that of secular Jews.  The same is very likely true for secular Muslims.  But, poor Muslims with no education other than their memorization of verses from the Koran and perhaps some knowledge of the Hadith and Sunnah act pretty much the way the Hassidim do.  They educate their daughters poorly and then marry them off as soon as possible.  Although it is in violation of Israeli law, a number of Muslims continue to practice polygamy.  This life style, as Mr. Friedman should realize is not conducive to a family's economic well being.

The problems of the Palestinians on the West Bank has little to do with the Israelis and everything to do with the corruption of past and present Palestinian leaders.  What motivation did Arafat have to make peace with the Israelis?  He was piling up mountains of money in his Swiss bank accounts.  Peace would have undermined his economic well being.  The situation has not changed, except that today, it is Abbas who is piling up the money.

One can only wish that Thomas Friedman had two good eyes.