Interesting...

, the link is to an interview with an Aljezerah guy. He sounds reasonable until the end when he blames Israel for all the Arab's problems.

Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?

I think so.

Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?

The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.

In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It's because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this.

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He's right. I don't understand it.

Earlier in the essay he also lamented that kids can't learn if a teacher has 70 kids in a class...
Well, sorry buster, but my parochial grade school class averaged 65 until sixth grade, and then classes were 45.