Israel does not have successful academic institutions because of the US. They built it themselves.
The theory that the US "does not allow" the establishment of academic institutions in Islamic countries is equally wrong.
edit - There is a common attitude among Arabs (evident in this poster's comments in this thread) that everything bad in Arab countries is due to some combination of the US and Israel. One of my teachers, a Jordanian, told me how his father would poke fun at this attitude: when something in the house would break, his father would ironically blame Israel for it.
American foreign policy in the Arab world is complicated. It seems to me that many Arab countries oscillate between Islamist democracies and secular dictatorships. The US prefers the latter to the former. I think it's fair to criticize this stance but my sense is that the US would support a secular democracy, were it possible. The Obama administration supported the secular opposition to Assad...but it has turned out that the biggest faction of the Syrian opposition are Sunnis motivated by Islamism, hence America backing away from Syria.
Jewish culture has always had a deep respect for and encouragement of intellectual development. The Islamic world may have had that in the past but it's been heavily suppressed by the spread and rise to power and influence of more extreme and rigid forms of that belief system. In Israel, if the extreme orthodox were in charge or had as much influence as extreme Islam, you'd probably find suppression of intellectual development.
You missed my point. I am not talking about who built it. I am saying that the US doesn't allow true democracy in the Middle East which should be followed by scientific development.
> There is a common attitude among Arabs (evident in this poster's comments in this thread) that everything bad in Arab countries is due to some combination of the US and Israel. One of my teachers, a Jordanian, told me how his father would poke fun at this attitude: when something in the house would break, his father would ironically blame Israel for it.
To prove that your arrogant comment is wrong: I didn't mention that Israel is responsible for anything, I was mainly talking about the US. And I didn't say that all of the problems caused by them.
The theory that the US "does not allow" the establishment of academic institutions in Islamic countries is equally wrong.
edit - There is a common attitude among Arabs (evident in this poster's comments in this thread) that everything bad in Arab countries is due to some combination of the US and Israel. One of my teachers, a Jordanian, told me how his father would poke fun at this attitude: when something in the house would break, his father would ironically blame Israel for it.
American foreign policy in the Arab world is complicated. It seems to me that many Arab countries oscillate between Islamist democracies and secular dictatorships. The US prefers the latter to the former. I think it's fair to criticize this stance but my sense is that the US would support a secular democracy, were it possible. The Obama administration supported the secular opposition to Assad...but it has turned out that the biggest faction of the Syrian opposition are Sunnis motivated by Islamism, hence America backing away from Syria.