Israel today

Most of the land surrounding Israel from Egypt in the west to Jordan in the east is semi desert like with little natural forest. For thousands of years tribes roamed in and out of this area. Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, was founded in 1948 and has developed rapidly leaving the other countries behind. The per capita GDP of Israel is ten times larger than her neighbors. Israel is the only democracy in the region and the only country with a free market economy. The US sends $3 billion per year to Israel in foreign aid and about a forth of this is used to purchase US military equipment. This represents less than one percent of the GDP which is $410 billion. The US in conjunction with the UN and other Arab countries, sends $2 billion per year to Gaza but the two million people who live there remain in poverty. Hamas controls Gaza and they use most of the money to pay salaries of government employees which allows them to stay in power. The other Arab countries in the Middle East, the so called sand Arabs spent centuries living as Nomadic tribes in the deserts until the 1940's when English and American engineers went there and developed the oil fields. Muslim countries about 500 years ago chose to cut them selves off from the western world to keep their theocracies safe from foreign influence and in the process were bypassed by the industrial evolution. They are not interested in having a democracy and have shown no desire for a free market economy.