Wednesday, July 27, 2005

The Arab-Israeli Conflict by the Numbers

Okay, I'm still having serious Africa withdrawals everyday, but let's shift gears for a minute. Since the recent London bombings (which are especially disturbing to me since our team travelled to London the day of the bombings) I've heard all the usual tripe about how support for Israel (and now also the Iraq war) have brought this on the British. So, naturally, in my compassionate-conservative attempt to understand the underpinnings of why young Islamo-fascist goons turn violent, I have pondered the "Arab-Israeli conflict." Thanks to the genius of Dennis Prager, who offers up the following succinct by the numbers analysis, it all makes sense to me:

Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament: over 700
Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran: 0
Number of Arab leaders who visited Jerusalem when it was under Arab rule (1948 to 1967): 1

Number of Arab refugees who fled the land that became Israel: approximately 600,000
Number of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries: approximately 600,000

Number of U.N. agencies that deal only with Palestinian refugees: 1
Number of U.N. agencies that deal with all the other refugees in the world: 1

Number of Jewish states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 3
Number of Arab or Muslim states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 0

Number of terrorist attacks by Israelis or Jews since 1967: 1
Number of terrorist attacks by Arabs or Muslims since 1967: thousands

Percentage of Jews who have praised the Jewish terrorist: approximately .1
Percentage of Palestinians who have praised Islamic terrorists: approximately 90

Number of Jewish countries: 1
Number of Jewish democracies: 1

Number of Arab countries: 19
Number of Arab democracies: 0

Number of Arab women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": thousands
Number of Jewish women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": 0

Number of Christian or Jewish prayer services allowed in Saudi Arabia: 0
Number of Muslim prayer services allowed in Israel: unlimited

Number of Arabs Israel allows to live and vote in Israel: 1,250,000
Number of Jews Palestinian Authority allows to live in Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory: 0

Percentage of U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning an Arab country for human rights violations: 0
Percentage of U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning Israel for human rights violations: 26

Number of U.N. Security Council resolutions on the Middle East between 1948 and 1991: 175
Number of these resolutions against Israel: 97
Number of these resolutions against an Arab state: 4
Number of Arab countries that have been members of the U.N. Security Council: 16
Number of times Israel has been a member of the U.N. Security Council: 0

Number of U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel: 322
Number of U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning an Arab country: 0

Percentage of U.N. votes in which Arab countries voted with the United States in 2002: 16.6
Percentage of U.N. votes in which Israel voted with the United States in 2002: 92.6

Percentage of Middle East Studies professors who defend Zionism and Israel: approximately 1.
Percentage of Middle East Studies professors who believe in diversity on college campuses: 100

Percentage of people who argue that the Jewish state has no right to exist who also believe some other country has no right to exist: 0
Percentage of people who argue that of all the countries in the world, only the Jewish state has no right to exist and yet deny they are anti-Jewish: approximately 100

Number of Muslims in the world: more than 1 billion
Number of Muslim demonstrations against Islamic terror: approximately 2

2 comments:

Ray said...

OK... I need to get some more information on Prager! You have definitely stimulated my interest in his stuff.

I knew much of these statistics (being Jewish I tend to follow them), but I am very interested in his writings.

Also, if you want to read a pretty good book on Israel, Alan Dershowitz (surprisingly) wrote a book called 'The Case for Israel' whihc I found to be pretty good...

Of course, there are those who say all of these statistics are misleading but many of us have been alive for a goodly portion of Israel's existence and have simply had to follow the news to a degree to know the truth of that argument.

Charles North said...

Ray - thanks for reading. Check out Dennis' web site at www.dennisprager.com All his articles are listed. You can also listen to him on 660 AM in Dallas from 11am to 2pm. He brings an intellectual depth to most political discussions that is lacking elsewhere.