Almost Deep Thoughts

The irreplaceable David Warren says in one short paragraph what it usually takes Bernard Lewis a book or two to say.

It is not “demographic pressure” that feeds the growing emigration to Europe and the West, or into Israel within the “green line” (aptly named, for you can see it from the air: where the green ends and the desert begins, right at the border). It is rather the failure of productive enterprise, the fatalistic spirit that expects all wealth to be delivered without effort and as a matter of right; or seized if it is not delivered.

Unlike North Korea in that famous nighttime photo, Araby at least has electric lights. They ought to