The Israeli-Arab Grievance Industry

Nov. 14 2014

A widespread and misleading narrative, recently revived, portrays Arab Israelis as victims of unending discrimination and poverty. In fact, by certain measures Arabs enjoy a higher quality of life on average than many Israeli Jews; for instance, they are more likely to own their own homes. The problems that plague Arab towns and villages originate in something other than discrimination, writes Akiva Bigman:

The Arabs and their well-wishers like to speak about “years of discrimination” that led to the buildup of tension and genuine class-based “rage.” It’s a nice sound bite, but when you check the actual data, it turns out that the facts are far different, and even if there are gaps [between the Arab and Jewish populations], they certainly are not severe enough to excuse or justify an intifada.

The main reason for the poor situation of Arab municipalities is gross mismanagement deriving from the politics of extended families and the lack of a proper administrative culture. Eighteen out of the 25 committees appointed by the government to take over faulty municipalities in 2005 were over Arab municipalities, and almost all were due to “faulty budget management.”

Read more at Mida

More about: Israeli Arabs, Israeli economy

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023