Salama A Salama Discusses What Focusing On Israel Is Costing the Arab States

At the Middle East Institute tin Washington I was asked by one of the researchers why Egypt, having concluded a peace agreement with Israel, was not paying more attention to its people? Why, they wanted to know, is energy being constantly expended on defending Palestinian rights when, at the same time, there are no attempts to undertake the actions necessary to improve standards of living or to formulate the kind of policies that would more effectively meet the health care and educational needs of the Egyptian population?

It is exactly such questions, and the thousands more that can be asked along similar lines, that oblige Arabs to undertake a serious, deep reading of the UN Development Programme Arab Office's report. For one thing is absolutely certain, no changes will occur without Arabs first facing the facts, however unpalatable they may be.

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