My Response in Harry's Place

Harry's Place has a little backing and forthing on the "flotilla" which includes a bit why Ireland hates Israel so much. Here's my letter to the editor.

I'm off to Ireland next week and will be staying in Cork, where my ancestors departed for the States in the 19th c. I was an FSO and learned Arabic to a high level of speaking and reading, and after twenty years, half of them living in the Arab Middle East, I finally after Arafat's weasel-out of the Barak/Clinton initiative and the immediate Second Intifada, closely followed by 9/11, had a Road to Damascus moment. Now I am one of Israel's most fervent supporters, and have more ammunition than most to support my beliefs and principles.

Sadly, the UN Development Agency has pursued two monumental studies, one in 1990, and the other in 2006 which explained in exhaustive detail just why the economies of Arab countries in particular, and Islamic countries in general, were stagnating or even decreasing compared to population growth. The second was done mainly by Arab and Muslim social and economic scientists, if one can wrap one's mind around "social science." The first had been derided as marred by "orientalist biases." Strangely, the second study by the professionals from the region were much more harsh on themselves and their countries than the 1990 study. The Economist has both in their archives, and only Israel and Turkey stand out from the general stagnation. Now with Erdogan, it appears Turkey might begin to slip backwards as it "turns eastwards" and rids itself of its Kemalist infrastructure.