Middle East Press on: Israel, Israel Iran, Alzheimer, Dehumanisation: New Age Islam's Selection, 18 November 2024
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
18 November 2024
Trumping Israel? No Way!
Huckabee Is The First Gentile Ambassador To Israel In A Decade, What Does It Mean?
The Silenced Suffering Of Iran’s Youth And The Deafening Silence Of The West
A New Israeli Clinical Trial Is Testing A Tuberculosis Vaccine To Prevent Alzheimer's
The Cleaning Crisis In Israel: Workforce Shortages Are Harming Public Health
The Western Dehumanization Of Muslims
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Trumping Israel? No Way!
By Hakki Öcal
Nov 18, 2024
The question is: Could Donald Trump be stronger than the 77-year investment Zionism made in the United States? We call that yield of that high-return, low-risk investment “the greater Israel” today. A genocidal, apartheid regime, Israel is the real force that is pulling all political, financial and diplomatic ropes in the United States.
Despite the endless monetary and diplomatic assistance it gets from the U.S., it is not a reliable ally for the American people. It doesn’t face an existential threat from Palestinians or neighbours, yet it receives an incredible amount of military support from Washington. With an air of smugness, Israel bosses the U.S. around; it behaves so outright obstinate only a secret enemy, a back friend would do so.
Where do those 10 million strong people get this kind of power, and why are they tolerated endlessly by a nation that, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been considered the “global balancing power” by almost every other nation in the world?
This is a million-dollar question, and you have to write a 500-page book, titled “Israel Lobby and U.S. Lobby” to begin to answer it. Perhaps, the tip to solve this puzzle is in professors John. J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt’s conclusion in the so-titled book: “Had American Jews not organized on Israel’s behalf and convinced important politicians to support their objectives, Israel might never have been established.”
So, you birthed it, you feed it. The American Jews, organized around the Federation of American Zionists (FAZ) and supported by all the European Hebrew societies and Jewish nationalist clubs, did more than breastfeed it; they reinvented Christianity for the American people. Christian Zionism has become an American political and religious ideology that converges the Jewish eschatological “Gathering of Israel” with the second coming of Jesus Christ. You get an inside track; your vanguard force opens the castle gates for you.
Entered the castle are more than 700 political action committees, “proudly serving pro-Israel Americans to strengthen bipartisan support for the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Before organizing into the modern (and legitimate) PACs and organizing into a government-like establishment in AIPAC, American Zionist Restorationist groups, led by William Eugene Blackstone, tried to persuade President Benjamin Harrison to pressure Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II to accept those Jews fleeing from the Russian pogroms to Palestine.
Gradually, sometimes for legitimate causes, some other times improper requests to deliberately not to delineate the Jewish areas in the “U.N. Plan to Partition Palestine,” the Israel lobby made inroads into the U.S. government to affect national and international affairs. Not only did billions of dollars of U.S. assistance find its way to Israel, but Israeli bureaucrats and the U.S., trained technicians, tossing discretion to the wind, dissected illegally the U.S. warplanes given to them and stole the copyrights with impunity. Israel became the owner of the second most advanced air force after the United States. (You have to read the not-so-secret odyssey of Adolph Schwimmer, a hero in Israel and a wanted outlaw in the United States.)
Israel stole classified U.S. information and sold it to China. Israel stole bomb-grade uranium from the United States. The U.S. National Counterintelligence Center (NACIC) identified dozens of Israel's economic espionage incidents in the U.S. There are movies, novels and scholarly papers on Israel's military, economic and industrial espionage in America since 1947, but only one member, former Navy intelligence analyst and convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, who was granted Israeli citizenship and moved to Israel. Israel had sought clemency for Pollard, but then-President Bill Clinton denied that request.
Yes, occasionally, U.S. presidents and government authorities treat Israel like other countries and start acting as an honest broker instead of Israel’s lawyer. Some people hoped that when President George W. Bush’s second term was over, and his neoconservatives were out of power, the U.S. foreign policy would go back to what it should be when it serves the U.S. interests. But such expectations failed to reckon the fact that the pro-Israeli lobby even recast American peoples’ religion for them; staffed the governmental cadres with their picks and pre-selected their elected politicians. After one or two meaningless outbursts of the new President Obama, the Israel lobby made sure that neoconservatives served in government and stayed active in media. Obama hopelessly said that no Middle East peace deal was possible during his presidency.
We do not even hear the perfunctory utterances of the “two-state solution” phrase anymore. When was the last time Biden said he believed in a two-state solution? Or the President-elect Donald Trump, to this effect?
Now media pundits fantasize there is a split in the “deep state,” which enabled Trump to win. Of all the people, Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian “political philosopher” says, “No one could have acknowledged his victory, if there had not been a split within the U.S. deep state.” Others surmise that Trump would not allow neocons in his administration.
I won’t bother you with quotations from John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick for CIA director, Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary, or Mike Huckabee, an American Baptist minister and Trump’s pick for Israel ambassador. Trump’s Cabinet nominees show us that he doesn’t have a trump card up his sleeve. What do you expect from a person whose “Deal of the Century,” trying to bring peace to the Middle East was in reality committed to the realization of "greater Israel”? His son-in-law penned what he called “Peace to Prosperity” seeking total Palestinian disempowerment and wholesale surrender to the Israeli enterprises.
One or two “prominent” neocons may be skeptical of Trump and his policies, but the president and all his men and women are committed to greater Israel, and the Israel lobby is still in the saddle.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/trumping-israel-no-way
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Huckabee Is The First Gentile Ambassador To Israel In A Decade, What Does It Mean?
By Pesach Wolicki
November 18, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of Mike Huckabee as United States ambassador to Israel represents a break with recent tradition. The last gentile US ambassador to Israel was James Cunningham, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008.
Although there have been several non-Jewish ambassadors to the Jewish state, the appointment of Huckabee sets a new precedent and signals what appears to be a new direction in the US-Israel relationship. Huckabee is unabashed about both his unequivocal support for the Jewish people’s national claim to the entire land of Israel as well as the reasons he holds this view, which stem from the biblical basis of his Christian faith.
In describing the realization that he came to upon visiting Israel for the first time in 1973, Huckabee recently said that “God had set this land aside for His people 3,800 years ago when he gave Abraham the title deed to all of Israel and said: ‘Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed’” (Genesis 12:3).
For Evangelical Christians like Huckabee, supporting Israel is straightforward, even as it is often misunderstood. The most repeated prophecy in the Bible is that the nation of Israel, scattered to the ends of the earth, will one day return to its land after a lengthy exile.
In the words of Deuteronomy 30, the first time in the Bible this prophecy appears, “Even if you are scattered to the ends of the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and take you. He will bring you back to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will make you more numerous and more prosperous than your forefathers.”
Christians who take the Bible seriously look at the modern State of Israel, with millions of Jews ingathered from all corners of the world living in a prosperous first-world economy, and they understand that God’s promises are real.
For many American Christians, support for Israel is not about eschatology and fulfillment of the prophecies but rather a simple connection that is as historic as it is spiritual. Vice president-elect JD Vance, a Catholic, explained US support for Israel as follows:
“A majority of citizens of this country think that their savior – and I count myself a Christian – was born, died, and resurrected in that narrow little strip of territory off the Mediterranean. The idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous.”
On another recent occasion, Vance described the US-Israel relationship as “an expression of deeper things, of cultural affinity, and shared heritage and values.”
Or, to quote Huckabee again, “There is no explanation for Israel, nor is there an explanation for the United States, apart from the intervention of God. I don’t see how anyone with a semblance of intelligence can see the miracle of Israel or, for that matter, the miracle of the United States, and come to any other conclusion [than] that this is not just man’s doing, this is God’s doing.”
Spiritual rather than political
FRAMING THE US-Israel relationship in spiritual rather than geopolitical terms is a welcome development. The Abraham Accords have a deeper significance than just a series of normalization agreements. Despite the realpolitik that informs the thinking of career diplomats in the State Department and, frankly, even most Jewish supporters of Israel, the real glue that binds most of America to Israel is the Bible. And this matters now more than ever.
The enemies of Israel, both in the Middle East and in the West, reject Israel’s legitimacy and existence because they reject the Bible. The connective tissue of the bizarre and unholy alliance between the progressive, atheist Left and jihadist Islam is a rejection of the truth of the Bible Jews and Christians revere and of the biblical underpinnings of Western civilization. To speak of the alliance between the US and Israel only in terms of geopolitics and national security is to miss what is happening right now globally.
The cultural struggle happening in America and throughout the Western world can be summed up in one question: Is the Bible true? Political conservatives from Hungary to Brazil, to the Netherlands, and the United States understand that they are fighting for the values and way of life bequeathed to them by their Bible-believing ancestors.
Christianity is the enemy of both the left-wing progressives and the Islamists who are now overwhelming Europe. It’s no wonder that those on the right in all these countries are also overwhelmingly pro-Israel. We have reached a point where the separation between politics and faith has disappeared.
Henry Kissinger famously said, “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.” But Kissinger was not a man of faith. By appointing Mike Huckabee to represent the US in Jerusalem, president-elect Donald Trump has signalled that the US-Israel relationship is about something far more permanent than politics.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-829540
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The Silenced Suffering Of Iran’s Youth And The Deafening Silence Of The West
By Catherine Perez-Shakdam
November 18, 2024
As six young Iranians now await execution in what is chillingly known as the “Ekbatan Case,” the Iranian regime once again reveals its brutal commitment to suppressing dissent.
Their names – Milad Armon, Alireza Kafaei, Amir Mohammad Khosh Ighbal, Navid Najaran, Hossein Nemati, and Alireza Baramarz Pournak – will likely vanish into the abyss if the Islamic Republic of Iran has its way.
Their “crime”? Taking part in a movement that demanded nothing more than dignity and the right to a voice. In the “Woman Life Freedom” movement of 2022, sparked by the tragic killing of Mahsa Amini, these young Iranians dared to imagine a future free from the stranglehold of a regime that views every breath of liberty as a mortal threat.
The Islamic Republic’s unyielding response to these protests is as strategic as it is ruthless. Arrested, paraded before courts notorious for rubber-stamping sentences of death, and confined in some of Iran’s most infamous prisons, these young men and women are offered no justice. Trials are mere formalities, judgments predetermined, and the sentences – death by hanging – are delivered without a hint of remorse.
As the executions loom, one might expect an outcry from global champions of human rights and a surge of outrage from those who claim to stand with the oppressed. But here lies the insidious hypocrisy of the modern-day liberal Left.
Western blindness
In Western capitals, selective blindness has settled over the progressive movements and voices that proclaim themselves defenders of justice. There is passion, of course, but only when the cause fits a preferred narrative. Observe the throngs rallying in European streets in “solidarity” with the Palestinian cause, voicing calls for “freedom” while aligning with pro-Hamas factions that openly call for the destruction of Israel.
These crowds, with their slogans of liberation, claim the moral high ground, yet they are conspicuously silent when it comes to the cries of Iran’s youth, who face not merely political oppression but the ultimate penalty for daring to speak out.
One cannot escape the bitter irony that those who raise banners of “Freedom for Palestinians” often refuse even a whisper of solidarity for Iranian citizens who face the noose for daring to seek freedom in their own homeland. The moral compass of those voices, quick to castigate Western democracies, grows suspiciously quiet when it comes to the brutal suppression and state-sanctioned murder carried out by Iran’s ruling regime.
And so, we are forced to ask: Where are the self-proclaimed champions of human rights, those tireless voices for “justice”? Where are the mass protests in London, Paris, and Berlin for these young Iranians who risk everything to break their chains?
Yet beyond the silence lies an even darker reality. Crowds have been co-opted into endorsing the regime’s narrative to such an extent that they have become indifferent, perhaps even blind, to the true implications of their stance.
By aligning themselves with slogans crafted by the Islamic Republic, these activists and protesters unwittingly lend credibility to a regime that has made brutality its default policy not only in Iran but throughout the infamous Shia Crescent.
The cries of “resistance” and “liberation” have become twisted mantras, recycled and repurposed to veil the suffering inflicted upon Iran’s own people. Such allegiance, whether given knowingly or ignorantly, supports a narrative that despises dissent, that brands anyone who dares challenge the regime’s stranglehold as a heretic to be silenced.
IN THEIR eagerness to appear “on the right side of history,” many in the West have fallen victim to a moral rot that appears to have spread unchecked. The callous indifference shown to Iran’s plight is not merely a lapse in judgment but an abdication of the very principles these voices claim to uphold. By parroting slogans tailored to suit the regime’s purposes, they forsake the real victims of tyranny and feed a perverse cycle of support for the oppressor.
This is not simply a failure of activism; it is a grotesque betrayal of those who, unlike the pro-regime crowds, are not calling for the destruction of others but merely for their own right to live in dignity.
Until the West wakes up to this hypocrisy and recognizes the moral contamination at the heart of these selective alliances, the young men and women of Iran – and indeed, those oppressed across the Shia Crescent – will continue to face their oppressors alone while those who could have lent them their voices march blindly in step with the very forces of repression they claim to oppose.
The Left’s enthusiasm for human rights appears to be highly conditional. In Iran, a theocratic regime perpetuates its grip through sheer terror, stripping its citizens of their rights and exacting terrible retribution on those who dare to stand against it.
The Ekbatan case embodies this tactic, as Iran’s judiciary wields capital punishment to silence the very generation that could envision a future without such fear. Imprisoning and executing young men for demanding freedom is not just an attack on individuals; it is a direct assault on the future of the nation.
What is unfolding in Iran is not merely repression but a campaign of terror – an attempt to obliterate the spirit of youth in order to preserve the twisted values of a regime that has consistently acted with impunity. And the world, mesmerized by other agendas, looks the other way.
This willful ignorance from the West is nothing short of complicity. The liberal Left, which claims to stand for the underdog, seems to have chosen whose oppression is worth championing and whose suffering is best ignored. It appears that the Iranian people’s desperate cries for help fall outside this selective moral compass.
If the Left truly champions freedom, democracy, and human rights, then let them prove it. Let them raise their voices for Iran’s youth, who, unlike the pro-Hamas crowds, are not calling for the destruction of others but for the right to live in peace, with dignity, in their own homeland. The hypocrisy of celebrating “resistance” in Gaza while ignoring genuine bravery in Tehran is a moral failure that history will not look kindly upon.
As the world stays silent, the Islamic Republic continues to act with impunity, secure in the knowledge that its crimes will be met with little more than a passing nod.
But for the rest of us, for those who see through this duplicity, there is a duty to speak out, to demand that these young men and women are not forgotten. Their names and their courage must not vanish into obscurity simply because their oppressor does not fit the Western Left’s preferred narrative.
In the end, it is not only Iran’s youth who suffer under this hypocrisy; it is the integrity of human rights itself. If we fail to raise our voices now, we betray the very ideals we claim to cherish, leaving Iran’s youth to face the darkness alone while their persecutors operate in full view of a world that simply cannot be bothered to care.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-829533
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A New Israeli Clinical Trial Is Testing A Tuberculosis Vaccine To Prevent Alzheimer's
By Barbara Sofer
November 18, 2024
“What’s new?” I ask neurologist Tamir Ben-Hur as we happen to meet in the employees’ cafeteria at Hadassah-University Medical Center, in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. My tray is piled high with spicy fish and abundant Mediterranean vegetables. Good for the brain.
He describes his newest clinical trials.
I’ve known for a few years that there is a blood test that can predict whether or not one is likely to get Alzheimer’s disease. It’s available and free for those of us between ages 65 and 80.
I was Ben-Hur’s English teacher at the Hebrew University Secondary School when he was a teen and I was 23, so he pretty much knows my age.
Although I know that I can take this test which would shed light on my future, I’ve, well, sort of postponed it. Chickened out, in other words.
“Half of persons who are offered the test say they don’t want to know if they will get Alzheimer’s. The other half say they want to know so that they can plan their futures,” Ben-Hur has told me. He’s in the second category and has taken the test himself, passing with flying colors.
Taking part in clinical trials
I am happy to take part in clinical trials, a form of volunteering that advances science. Working at Hadassah, where doctors and nurses are always doing research and looking for subjects, I took part several years ago in a different clinical trial in the neurology department.
It required the neurologist to put electrodes in my hair to measure brainwaves. This was a messy business that could probably be done more efficiently by a hairdresser experienced in permanent waves and color highlights.
Once electroded up, I was attached to a machine to measure my brain activity. I had to answer a long series of questions, like “What’s closer to Jerusalem – Tel Aviv or Haifa?” (a cinch, right?), and then “What’s closer to Jerusalem – Kiryat Malachi or Hadera?” The questions got harder.
After the paper was published in a prestigious scientific journal, I asked to know how I’d done. The researcher agreed to check.
Great, he said. The actual words? “Excellent brain.”
Talk about a compliment to savor!
But later, I wondered whether I was told the truth. The bride is always beautiful, as they say in the Talmud. Having subsequently accompanied a dear friend on her journey after she was diagnosed with an incurable brain disease, I know that doctors involved in steps of the diagnosis are sometimes reluctant to share bad news. That falls, at last, to the neurologist in charge. In my friend’s case, that was coincidentally Prof. Ben-Hur.
One in nine persons 65 and older develops Alzheimer’s disease. Neither of my parents had it. But then again, my father died at 63. I don’t have the symptoms, which, of course, I checked several times with Dr. Google.
What would be the good of knowing? But today, over carrots in tehina, Ben-Hur shares his news. It turns out that the century-old vaccine used for tuberculosis is showing promising results in slowing Alzheimer’s disease.
According to the official publication of the brain division and department of neurology at Hadassah Medical Organization, the theory is that the BCG vaccine might activate systemic and brain immune cells to protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease.
The BCG vaccine was used, starting in 1921, to prevent tuberculosis. Israeli newborns were routinely given the inoculation as part of Israel’s public health initiative to prevent TB when it was more common in Israel. Today, only babies at high risk are vaccinated, and even for them the vaccine has limited effectiveness for tuberculosis.
Previous studies, at Hadassah and the Hebrew University and other centers around the world, have found that administering the BCG vaccine may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by strengthening the immune system, making it more effective.
So shouldn’t we all be taking it?
That, of course, is exactly why there is a clinical trial. This is the first-in-the-world clinical trial to directly test the effectiveness of the BCG vaccine in the fight against Alzheimer’s. How amazing that would be if we in Israel had the proof.
I call and make an appointment.
Potential participants must be cognitively intact, so I have to undergo a cognitive test. Tip No. 1: You take the blood test while fasting first, so if you, like me, need that first cuppa before you tackle the world, have your mug of Joe ready.
I roll up my sleeve, and the blood is sent off for evaluation. I chug my coffee and take the cognitive test. Tip No. 2: You might want to practice counting backwards by seven. Except for my insistence that bananas – on which we recite the borei pri ha’adama, the fruit of the ground blessing – aren’t really fruit, it goes smoothly.
My examiner pronounces me mentally fit.
In a few weeks I’ll know the results of the blood tests. The clinical trial will evaluate if the BCG vaccination reduces the level of phosphorylated tau protein and other biomarkers in the blood and thus helps prevent the development of dementia. Decreased protein level phosphorylated tau in the blood will be an indication of a reduced risk of developing dementia over the next few years. In addition, my blood will be used for basic research aimed at identifying systemic factors that drive the disease, in order to develop additional drugs.
If – God forbid – I show the biomarkers associated with the probable development of Alzheimer’s, I will receive three doses of the vaccine, which has minimal side effects.
My sister and I spent part of a summer when I was 10 with an aunt who was soon after diagnosed with TB. Aunt Lucile was hospitalized in a Connecticut sanatorium. We never had side effects from the inoculation or got tuberculosis, so taking the shots doesn’t scare me.
Follow-up includes blood tests and additional cognitive tests. I’ll let you know how I do.
Here’s what’s thrilling to me. We’re a country at war on seven fronts. So many wounded soldiers need medical evacuation and innovative treatment. When I wake up every morning and recite the prayer thanking God that I’m still alive, I add an extra thanks for not having to spend a night in a shelter because of the latest sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.
Here are our Israeli researchers still hard at work, juggling their day jobs with demanding medical and non-medical roles in the IDF.
Doing the test is personal, of course, but it’s also about being an Israeli and wanting to help fix the world.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-829471
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The Cleaning Crisis In Israel: Workforce Shortages Are Harming Public Health
By Veronica Rosenberg
November 18, 2024
The workforce crisis in Israel’s cleaning industry is not new, but it has never been this severe. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and the prolonged effects of the ongoing war, the situation has worsened, and the shortage of workers in this sector has reached alarming levels.
The numbers speak for themselves: Today, the industry is short 45,000 workers, an unprecedented deficit that directly impacts public health and the quality of life for everyone. When hospitals, schools, and other public institutions are unable to maintain proper cleanliness standards, the public is exposed to life-threatening infections and diseases.
The primary question, of course, is why this extreme shortage has occurred. The answer is straightforward – people simply do not want to work in the cleaning profession. The work is physically demanding, exhausting, and low-paid, making it unattractive to Israeli workers. Additionally, the public perception of the cleaning profession does not encourage Israelis to enter the field.
To understand the full impact of this crisis, we must acknowledge the direct link between hygiene and public health. In environments that are not thoroughly cleaned, there is an increased risk of disease outbreaks and widespread illness. Cleaning public institutions, particularly sensitive ones like hospitals, nursing homes, and schools, is crucial in preventing infections and epidemics.
The statistics are troubling: More than 7,600 people have died from infections contracted in hospitals in Israel – cases that could have been prevented if our healthcare facilities had been able to maintain appropriate cleanliness levels. Every day this labor shortage continues means increased health risks for the public and the healthcare system.
Soon, thousands of foreign workers are expected to arrive in Israel. While foreign workers can certainly help alleviate the immediate crisis, they will not provide a comprehensive solution.
Addressing the crisis
Addressing a crisis of this magnitude requires fundamental changes in the industry, from working conditions and wages to the tender policies managed by the government and local authorities. Currently, public tenders set the minimum wage as the standard salary for cleaning staff – a wage that does not reflect the cost of living in Israel and is insufficient to attract a stable workforce to the sector. If we continue down this path, we will find ourselves repeatedly facing the same issues.
Additionally, there is room to incorporate advanced technologies in the industry to improve efficiency and work quality. With the right tools, smaller teams can achieve better results and reduce the burden on existing workers. Other countries are already implementing technological solutions to address workforce shortages, and it is time for Israel to follow suit.
Investing in cleanliness is not a luxury; it is a foundation for healthy living. We must ensure that cleaning staff receive a fair, livable wage, one that will also attract local workers and give them a sense of value and pride. It is time to improve working conditions so that employees receive greater recognition, fair and respectful wages, and economic security.
The crisis in the cleaning sector impacts every aspect of our lives. Any solution that focuses solely on immediate relief, like bringing in foreign workers, will not yield the desired long-term results. If we genuinely want to protect public health and improve the situation, the government must act responsibly and comprehensively, investing in our workers to ensure a clean and healthy environment for everyone.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-829531
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The Western Dehumanization Of Muslims
Peter Harrison
November 17, 2024
It is approaching that time of year again when I fly to the UK to spend Christmas with family and friends. I have lived in Dubai for nearly 16 years, which I guess makes it my home — indeed, the longer I live out here, the more detached I feel from the country where I was born and spent the first 40 years of my life.
There are aspects of life here where, as a Western migrant, I still sometimes need to remind myself to adjust, but there is also a lot of good, like there is anywhere in the world.
Yet there remains a view among many of those who have not been here that the Middle East is some kind of restrictive, dangerous Third World. Questions I still get asked when I visit the UK include, “how do I enjoy myself, given it’s so restrictive,” to which I reply, “I go out, see friends, you know … normal stuff.”
Another favorite is, “it can’t be good for women, they can’t do anything.” Like drive? “Yes, they can.” Work? “Yup, that too.” But they can’t be managers? “Again, yes. In fact, I have had as many female bosses as I have men in the nearly 16 years I have lived here.”
That is not to say it is perfect. Indeed, there is a reason why companies are going that extra mile to recruit women into senior engineering and science roles in the Arab world — but there is an effort to redress the balance.
In 2019, shortly before COVID-19 hit, the World Economic Forum released a report that identified Jordan as a country where workers were more likely to have a woman as a boss than a man. Jordan led the pack, with 62 percent of all managerial positions filled by women.
But according to a report published by Corporate Women Directors International, there is generally still a long way to go. The report explained that, in 2023, women remained vastly underrepresented in the corporate boardrooms of 16 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkiye region, “holding just 8.6 percent of board seats in 1,148 listed companies.”
It should probably not be surprising that Westerners have such a veiled view of the Middle East. Little is reported of the region except negative stories. There is rarely a mention of the children being killed most days in Gaza without the apparent justification that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
In October, journalists working at leading international news organizations reported that they were being expected to write content that was against the Palestinians. It is a claim that the news organizations deny, but it was well documented that more than 100 BBC journalists wrote an open letter criticizing the organization’s coverage of the Israeli war in Gaza, accusing it of being pro-Israel.
Since the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, Muslims have been portrayed as anti-Western. The French banned women from wearing veils in public, while the US in 2017 imposed a travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
When attacks are carried out by Muslims, they are portrayed as Islamist terror attacks. Yet, when a white Western man gets in a van and drives through a crowd of Muslims outside a mosque in London or walks into mosques in New Zealand carrying multiple automatic weapons and opens fire, killing many men, women and children, they are “lone wolves.”
Islam and, in turn, the countries where the religion is dominant have become demonized.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who recently resigned from the Conservative Party due to its “hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities,” said the quickest way to dehumanize people was to “make them Muslim,” even if they are not. She was pointing to the pro-Gaza demonstrations in the UK, which were attended by people of all faiths, yet the crowds were widely reported as being dominated by Muslims.
Equally, the war on Gaza is portrayed as targeting Muslims who are aligned with Hamas, rather than claiming the lives of innocents, no matter their faith or politics.
Muslims also find themselves described as “moderate” or “conservative,” rather than as people.
While Israel “defends itself,” those living in Lebanon and Gaza are “tribal” or “terrorist supporters.”
I was once asked if Westerners were allowed to celebrate Christmas in the Middle East, yet the shops in Dubai’s malls have been selling Christmas decorations since at least October. Hotels have been taking bookings for their Christmas Day lunches for months.
Life out here — my dear compatriots — is fine. Maybe not perfect, it even has its nightmares, its fallings out, but it is fine and for now that suits me.
I know many people who have lived or live in areas targeted by bombs, tanks and guns — they have friends and family still in these areas. One person I know recently learned that her school in Lebanon was targeted, while another lost a relative to a sniper in Gaza.
These people are just that — people. They are haunted by the images coming out of their home countries. They did not choose these wars, but they have to live with them, while they do not get to see their families. So, when I get on that plane to visit my family, I do so in the knowledge that some of my equally deserving friends and colleagues are not so lucky.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2579685
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