Turkish reporter was talking about how the people in Gaza have got used to the death and suffering.
Not only in Gaza but in war-torn Syria and Iraq as well. Believe it or not, their harsh condition will be at the advantage of the Arabs that will kickstart the cycle of empires back into the hands of the Arabs. A bit of history class here.
You see when I saw the Arab world of today it does remind me of pre-Islamic Arabia, both in its political system/allegiance and the social structure of its inhabitants. The Romans (the Western hegemon of the time) classified the Arabs as three distinct people. Those are (Geographically from top to bottom) Arabia Petraea, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix:
3 of those are distinct, but at least when it comes to Arabia Petrae and Arabia Felix, they have some things in common:
- They're highly urbanized and consist mostly of urban dwellers. Architecture is peak art.
- Quality of life is high and people are more individualistic.
- They adopted many of the Roman lifestyle and etiquette (akin to many Westernized Arabia of today like the UAE)
- Many are educated
- Most of them are puppet states to more powerful entity such as the Romans, such as the lakhmids, Smaanids and Petra, the same way many advanced and rich gulf Arab countries today ranging from UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia are one way or another subservient to the Rome of our time (USA) or the Persia of our time (Russia/Soviet Union/China) with the likes of Syria, Iraq,
Only one of them begs to differ, Arabia Desertae, which is what mostly consists now as Saudi Arabia and its two Mecca and Medina, the people of Arabia Petraea and their characteristics:
- Life is rough, not only because of constant combat between tribesmen but also because the area is arid.
- because there is much constant combat, people consolidate around their clans, resulting in the emergence of close kinship.
- People are warlike and prefer violence.
- Many if not most are illiterate
- They don't adopt that many lifestyles from then superior Roman culture They're not that subservient to the larger empires.
If you look at today's situation it couldn't be more different except that the people of Arabia Desertae are now at the peak of their civilizations, with rich Gulf countries at the spotlight while ironically the people of Arabia Felix and Petrae (like Palestine) are today at the bottom of civilizations and usually comes into the spotlight either because there is war, famine or mass killing (like in Gaza today).
During the time that Islam emerged in the 6th century, it is these "rough" Arabs from Arabia Desertae that carried on building the Arab Islamic superstate as they soldiered their way to conquering large landmass, in the process of conquering many lands from the "civilized and educated Arabs" they eventually employ the civilized Arabs from Arabia Petra and Felix to good use administering their newly conquered land.
If you look at the Middle East today with the emergence of groups like Hamas or ISIS, you see that constant violence, war, and hardships in their countries has transformed them into what the Arabs of the 20th century couldn't be, these groups have become notably more adept and effective on the battlefield, differing significantly from the historical perceptions of modern Arab military capabilities. ISIS and Hamas are just a glimpse of what an A-TEAM of small but highly focused and determined Arabs can do even in the face of technological disadvantage. In the case of ISIS (and expected with Hamas) they were defeated by the fact that the U.S. intervened in time and the unprecedented rallying of the world against them prevented them not only from capturing Baghdad but also led to their defeat and loss of physical territory.
Put the U.S. out of the equation and you'll see another ISIS-like military organization with even more ruthlessness and effectiveness that could readily sweep the "national army" of the Arab state but this time without any long-term intervention from Washington it could prove deadly.
This is why I'm not putting any hope of any sort of multinational Islamic alliance forming a gang and militarily conquering Jerusalem and Palestine, the OIC and the Arab league have proven to be useless and there's only military option to do this and that military option can only be done once the Arabs are forcefully united under a single all-powerful entity the same way that the Arabs are forcefully united by the early Muslims.
And because there's only a military option, it is good to know that in Arabia and MENA today, there's a rising supply of demography but less economic opportunities, which equals to = a pool of potential manpower. The war-like characteristics of conflict-ridden Middle Eastern people will help this in the long run as well because the people are readily accustomed to conflict and war. They only need a visionary leader or so or even a military organization to channel those potential.
And as for those who keep mentioning the importance of education and technology above power struggles etc, I know that today Saudi Arabia and the UAE are actively investing in their universities and technology sector.
Overall education spending across the GCC averages 13.3% this year, says Alpen Capital
www.zawya.com
Perhaps these scientific communities that the Saudis are cultivating now may be readily harnessed to their fullest potential upon the arrival of their new masters on their land. This practice has been done in the past and will likely be repeated in the future. When early Arabs captured Syria from the Byzantines they readily employed the existing administration to run their newly conquered land.
