Israel is the most civilized country in the Middle East

 

 

Let’s be clear about what we mean by civilization. We’re not talking about grandiose architecture, or marvels of literature, or the masterpieces of visual arts. We are talking about civilization as it concerns a man on the street—i.e., YOU. In that respect, a society bound by laws is a civilized society.

I am sure many of you have been to Israel. Once you clear immigration at the Ben-Gurion Airport, you are equal to everybody else present there. Your ethnicity, socioeconomic background, the language you speak, or the beliefs you hold do not matter. That is the kind of civilized society all of us want to live in. A society bound by laws is a predictable place. When there are no laws, or the laws are not uniformly applied to all, you are on your guard all the time because anything can happen anytime.

A civilized society is run by laws that apply to everyone, including the lawmakers. There are laws and procedures in place that decide how a citizen can become a lawmaker. In uncivilized societies, a strongman comes to power by pushing weaker people aside; once in power, he puts in laws that apply to all the citizens but not to himself and a chosen few.

When Saddam Hussein appeared in court, and the charges under the Iraqi laws he was being tried for were read to him, he yelled, ‘You are going to try me under the laws that I made?’ And that is the mentality of the rulers/lawmakers in many countries. Save for Turkey, or to some extent Iran, the countries in the Middle East are not civilized at all.

Back in 1998, I was flying out of Jeddah, and the plane was scheduled to leave on time. But something happened, and the plane stopped taxiing to the runway. We thought it was a temporary thing, and the pilot was waiting for the runway to be clear, but then the wait time kept stretching. We wanted to know what was going on. ‘There are some issues with the runway,’ we were told. After waiting for over an hour, we were cleared to take off. We later found out we could not leave at the scheduled time because someone from the royal family had decided to fly, and they had preference over us.