QOTD

Youssef Ibrahim -- an Egyptian-born American reporter, for 24 years a senior Middle East regional correspondent for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal -- in Thursday's NY Sun:

America has undertaken all the peacemaking opportunities available and done so at a huge cost in both treasury and good will. In the 1970s and '80s, America accomplished two Herculean tasks, landing peace treaties between Israel and Jordan, and between Israel and Egypt. The bill came in at more than $140 billion -- and counting -- and garnered few thank-you notes.

When compared to what it did for Europe after World War II, the breadth of America's commitment to the Middle East is breathtaking. According to a president of the George C. Marshall Foundation, Albert Beveridge III, postwar expenditures "to reduce hunger, homelessness, sickness, unemployment, and political restlessness" for 270 million Europeans living in 16 nations totaled a modest $13.3 billion -- about $88.2 billion in today's dollars. The Marshall Plan aid lasted just four years.

By contrast, America has been actively working on peace in the Middle East for 28 years, during which it has paid Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Arabs more than $150 billion to kiss and make up. America's aid funding in the region is so head and shoulders above that in Africa, the former Soviet republics, and other truly poor countries of the world, it is absurd.

And what has been the result? Since the Israel-Jordan peace treaty was penned on October 26, 1994, American taxpayers have supported Jordan's 6 million people -- half of whom are Palestinian Arabs -- to the tune of $350 million a year, a total of $4.5 billion to date. Still, Jordanian public opinion is fiercely hostile to America.

Since Egypt and Israel signed on the dotted line on March 26, 1979, Israel has received some $80 billion, and Egypt has collected $60 billion, according to congressional statistics. If American spending on Egypt is far from over, so are the insults heaped on it daily in the Egyptian press.

Even the quarrelsome Palestinian Arabs who routinely burn American flags have received well over $20 billion in food and humanitarian aid from Uncle Sam.

Whether it is money well spent is arguable. What is certain is that America, while Europe and the Arab countries watched, has done more than its share as a Middle East peacemaker.

(via Right Wing News)