Over the almost forty years that I live in Israel, I’ve always sensed a kind of pity for the plight of my Arab neighbors.  As Israel developed over these decades, villages and farms grew and displayed the obvious signs of development - good roads, street lighting etc. Over the same period, the Arab villages in areas previously controlled by Jordan, remained in relative darkness and with poor infrastructures.

It was not because the Jewish state discriminated against them. Rather, as a Christian Arab friend of mine who lived in a village in the Galil, explained to me, the leadership of each village see’s the funds entrusted in them as their “god given right”.  So instead of sidewalks or youth clubs or street lights, the leaders of those communities have nice homes and nice cars and can afford to send their children abroad to be educated.

A recent report by Freedom House published a comparison of all the countries in Israel’s “neighborhood”.  Surprise, surprise! The only place in the Middle East where Arabs, Muslim, Christian or otherwise, have personal security and civil rights, is wherever Israel has total control.  A small fact I’m certain will not be reported in the media.