The Missing Piece

At some point in the process of putting together a puzzle, you have to be able to recognize what pieces may be missing. The puzzle of the Middle East has been a complete mess for a long time. So many mistakes have been made over the years and much misfortune has befallen them, like the discovery of oil. (Here is a culture that would have benifitted from having to earn its way up the economic ladder rather than being able to dress its anachronistic views with modern technology.)

Recently, a very rich Saudi, one who inherited his wealth and therefore has little reason to reassess his views, has given a substantial amount of his wealth to Harvard, which greedily accepted it. This is the same man who attempted to give money to New York after 9/11 while lecturing the US on its complicity in the attack, that is, because our "uneven" treatement of the Palestinians causes terrorism. Rudy Giulliani, of singular political vision at the time, instantly rejected the money because, in principle, accepting his money would be the same as accepting his position. The rebuff most likely stung the Prince and, perhaps, for a moment, he questioned his views.

Violence is the way of the middle east and it has been for centuries. For too long, the west has patronized the Arabs by preaching the sins of its own past. As a result, Arabs cling to the yoke of the "Christian Crusades" and completely ignore their much more bloody history. Arab culture and the Islamic world that it rules has never questioned its history, has never reformed itself, and has never separated Religion and Temporal Power.

The tragedy that Prince Alwaleed refuses to consider is that the plight of the Palestinians is almost entirely due to the actions of other Arabs. They have refused to allow the Palestinians to resettle and have only given them money when they blow themselves up, that is when they speak using the language the Arabs know from their medieval past. Arabs are afraid that if they allow the Palestinians to live in peace or they take some of their billions of dollars and give it to the Palestinians for peaceful results, that they will seem unmanly. This is the same culture that punishes women for allowing themselves to be raped.

The heat needs to be turned up. Harvard missed a great oppotunity to send a message to the Prince.