Lessons of Lebanon: Israel and its 7th war on its Arab neighbors [Archives:2006/981/Opinion]

By: Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb
The events are ongoing and successive since July 12 when the Israeli forces began their attack on Lebanon. The days since have proved a change in the balance of power and concepts of resistance and war. The evidence is in the continuation of the conflict and its escalation with extreme challenges despite the great price tolerated by thousands of the Lebanese people and the country itself.

The lessons from this situation are many and they take us back again to the history. They tell us the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the region did not change and the situations remained as they were; Israeli aggression and repeated human massacres since Deir Yassin in 1948 then came the new change which is the American open and unreserved support, in an open alliance, that is undoubtedly having no care or respect for the Arab affair. Again the lessons are many but who is going to learn them and how?

There is an almost total absence of Arab parties regarding the case of Lebanon preferred safety and preferred negligence , as it was said before: we will fight Israel to the last Egyptian soldier.

There is complete absence of the Arab League, and here we understand the circumstances under which it is working and the effort being exerted by Secretary General Amro Mousa for gathering the parties to attend the many meetings of the League in order to come out with an imaginary statement. The Arab League is still living illusions of elapsed centuries and has not advanced forward one moment. The league remained just a building without meaning. Will the Lebanese shock wake it up?

Another story is having strong and close relationship with what is going on in the Lebanese arena. It is that the Arab Israeli conflict is a one of civilization on the first place and here we attract the attention to the issue of education in the Arab Homeland an issue of scientific modernization not just the omission of ideas and some subjects from text books. It is the issue of activation of the Arab mind and modernization of education from the first year of primary school to the university and higher education and the connection of the theory with application in compatibility with what are happening in the world and in research centers.

Without science the Arab people will remain stagnant. Science will impose the Arab might and it will impose respect for us. Science and reason will confront the Israeli arrogance.

One of the lessons that are learnt since we mentioned about the Arab League is to ask a question on the necessity of realizing a common Arab development. It is not just trade and trade exchange subject to political whims, temperaments and administrative restraints. We are talking on development and gigantic projects, about technology, about connection with world markets and research and development to impose the Arab presence on the world due to what we possess of riches and potentials. That is why we query, where is the Arab economy compared to the world economy? Are we going to remain consumer and importer countries and oil producing/ or shall we have a positive role to play for the interest of the Arab and world economy?

The situation in Lebanon and what happens on its territories is a siren and alert to the Arab nation.

Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb is an economist and a professor in Political Science. He is the head of the Arab Group for Investment and Development.
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