So the world is in shock. Few predicted the collective turmoil of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and maybe even Jordan and Algeria. After all, only last week, Israel’s head of military intelligence went on record saying that the Egyptian regime was in no danger of collapsing.

And why is the world scared? Usual stuff – the threat of cutting oil supplies that feed the power engines of modern industry. And some of these regimes have a lot of heavy weaponary that should not fall in to the wrong hands.

Amazingly, there are those like Senator John Kerry, who believe that if Israel was to make immediate concessions to the Palestinians, maybe the revolts will calm down or even go away. See his interview on the BBC from Davos.

Some sobering perspective was offered by Professor Bernard Lewis, who at 94 is still one of the world’s leading historians on the Middle East. Interviewed in the Hebrew press on Friday, he observed that the protesters are jealous of freedoms  – press, worship, women’s rights, votes for all – found in Israel.

So, it got me thinking, why has there been no uprising in Gaza? Is the Hamas grip on power that oppressive? Or is it that the economy is not as weak as made out in the world media?

Returning to the theme of Davos, much has been made in the discussions about promoting entrepreneurship, as a way to boost small or poor economies. 

….teaching young people living in poverty how to create wealth for themselves is the surest path to poverty alleviation.  More simply put, ownership equals prosperity.  And really how do we ensure inclusive economic growth – by opening the path to ownership to as many people as possible.

In Israel, entrepreneurship is part of the culture of society; a constant desire to find new solutions for economic, medical and environmental issues. And while many sectors need additional resources, education is available for all. It is a society of opportunity.

As for countries, which are members of the Arab League………….