It’s important to draw attention to any signs of sanity in the Arab world, and here’s one. Almost buried in the usual flood of half-baked conspiracy allegations and anti-Israel hysteria, the Arab News prints an article telling Arabs to face the facts.

I recently received a fax containing some interesting but very disturbing information. The message posed an implicit question to every Arab about what his or her future is going to be. A careful reading of the fax helps us Arabs identify the causes for our defeat in the confrontation with the Jewish state of Israel. Two weeks ago that state celebrated the 54th anniversary of its founding which occurred after the land was taken from the Arabs.

While the fax enumerated a number of significant achievements by the Zionist state, it also compared them with Arab achievements — or to be precise, Arab failures. First, the fax underscored the progress made by Israel in achieving its present Gross National Product (GNP). Israel’s GNP exceeds $100 billion while the oil revenue of all the Arab countries combined is barely $113 billion. The average annual income of an Israeli is about 17 times higher than that of an Arab. The Arab’s average annual income is $1,000 while the Israeli average is $17,000. Twelve percent of Israelis are employed in agriculture and another 12 percent in business while the remaining 76 percent are employed in the industrial sector. The average spent on scientific research per year per person in Israel is $110. The Arab world, in contrast, spends a pathetic $2. Israel’s leading electronic industry manufactures several times more than all the Arab countries combined produce. Israel exports $7.2 billion worth of IT products annually and aims to push it up to $12 billion in a decade. As a proportion of its total population, Israel boasts the highest number of engineers and scientists in comparison to any other country.

These are the right things to think about, but don’t start celebrating the Arab Reformation yet. Because after this promising start, the author finishes rather ominously by lusting after Israel’s nuclear weapons:

Further, the US provides Israel with the most advanced weapon technology. This has helped — and still helps — Israel to develop sophisticated missile systems. With 70 percent of the weapons manufactured in the country exported, the Jewish state is the fifth largest weapons exporter in the world. It has also developed a plutonium-based nuclear capability. As the sixth atomic power in the world, Israel is also capable of manufacturing 200 nuclear warheads.

These are the facts, Arabs. What are you going to do about them?

UPDATE: I notice that Glenn Reynolds also linked to this article, calling it an “unaccustomed ray of common sense.” Well, it’s slightly less blinded by denial than the usual Arab op-ed, true. But I agree with Robert Crawford that what seems to be common sense is incidental to the true goal: destroying Israel and its ally the United States.