JERUSALEM—A reader searching the world media for pro-Israel sentiment may find it in the least likely place: Arab newspapers and blogs.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington-based organization that closely monitors the media of the Muslim world, noted in a special report this week that despite the normal hostility displayed towards Israel by Arab writers there are some intellectuals and commentators who do not hesitate to praise Israel and draw unflattering comparisons with the Arab world.
Unlike the Arabs, tweeted a Saudi columnist, Abdallah bin Bakhit, "the Jews help create civilization and are not (merely) consuming it. The culture whose technology we use to communicate, whose air conditioners we sleep under, whose hospitals we are treated in, is the culture of the Jews and the Crusaders."
The MEMRI report cites Arab sources that express admiration not only for Israel’s technological superiority but also its morality and its approach to education, while expressing doubts about the Arab world’s ability to emulate it.
"Israel is an entity that lives beside us, has a climate similar to ours and has no natural resources," wrote Kuwaiti columnist Omar Al-Tabtabaee in Al-Rai. "Despite all this, it surpasses us."
Attributing Israel’s successes in large part to an education system that encourages creativity, he noted that Israel registered 7,652 patents in 22 years compared to just 367 in the Arab world. "The Israeli military command only recruits the smartest high school students, which might be the exact opposite of the recruitment method used in Arab countries," he wrote.
Al-Tabtabaee praised the cultivation in Israel, even in its army, of independent thinking that includes the freedom to question orders. "If a soldier is unconvinced, he can object to an order. This is an important part of the greater culture of Israeli society," he wrote. "This is the way to overcome challenges and future hardships. This is the exact opposite of the culture of our Arab societies. Prayer alone will not build the Arab homeland."
A Saudi economic analyst, Hussein Shobokshi, cited the treatment of Palestinian patients and wounded Syrians in Israeli medical facilities as evidence of Israel’s morality. "Would any Arab country agree to treat Israelis this way?" he asked in Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic newspaper published in London. "After coming in contact with Israelis, the extent of their morality and their good and kind nature became clear to me."
Writing in Elaph, a popular Arabic online news site, Iraqi writer Mahdi Majid Abdallah pointed to the imprisonment of former Israeli president Moshe Katsav for rape and sexual harassment as an example of a functioning democracy. "The Israeli regime does not recognize the sanctity of public figures," he wrote. "Its constitution is a realistic constitution and not just words on paper. The distance between it and Arab constitutions is as great as the distance between heaven and earth."
Egyptian writer Ali Khamis, in the daily Al-Wafd, pointed to the high investment Israel makes in scientific research compared to the sums sent to armed militias in the Arab world. "Jewish revolutions are scientific," he wrote, "and Arab ones are tragic," a reference to the Arab Spring uprisings.