An Egyptian proverb goes as follows: “This carpenter's door is broken.” It is used to warn that you must not believe someone who says he is a carpenter that will fix your door, when you can clearly see that his own door remains unfixed.
Of course, the pretender need
not always be a carpenter because con artists have infiltrated every profession
you can think of. In fact, I remember a French saying from my childhood days.
It went something like this: Don't trust someone who tells you how you can lose
weight when he is himself so obese.
What brought these memories to
mind, is an article that came under the title: “Forging a more enduring
Israel-UAE peace,” written by Ron Robin and published on September 2, 2020 in
the New York Daily News. Robin is currently president of the University of
Haifa. Before that, he was a provost at New York University (NYU). One of his
duties then was to participate in the effort to establish the NYU Abu Dhabi campus.
The point of Ron Robin's
article is that the announcement of the new understanding between the UAE and
Israel is a good thing for everyone concerned. But he goes on to reveal that
something even better is brewing behind the scenes. He explained the need for
that thing as follows:
“The UAE pact is
an agreement between individuals, in particular the leader of the UAE Sheikh
Mohammed bin Zayed and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If either of
those leaders departs the stage, the agreement's fate will hang in the balance.
However, an existing partnership between New York and Abu Dhabi provides a
blueprint for success. What does this have to do with peace? The answer lies in
the 'Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention,' which posits that no two
countries which both have McDonald's franchises have ever gone to war”.
Aside from that
theory, says Ron Robin, there is also the reality of what he, himself, has
started to work on. Here is what he had to say in that regard:
“In my capacity
with the University of Haifa, I have started the process of establishing
connections between Israeli and Emirati universities. The peace deal lays the
foundation for research ties and student exchanges which will leverage the
vehicle of higher education to cultivate a warm peace between the Israeli and
Emirati people. By pursuing collaboration in the aftermath of their nations'
broader agreement, Israeli and Emirati academic institutions will produce
graduates who drive the engine of peace and prosperity”.
But does he really
believe in this, or is he the carpenter whose door is broken? To find out, we
see what else he is saying. Here is a montage of sayings you'll find in his
article:
“The ideas
cultivated in the university setting cross cultures, bridge differences and
foster mutual understanding between people from divergent backgrounds. The
university brings people together. Interaction with new ideas and people who
are different is valuable and necessary, and a commitment to educating students
who are true citizens of the world”.
What Ron Robin says here, is
that diversity is a good thing. He praises New York University in Abu Dhabi for
bringing together students from around the globe, which is what's necessary to
produce true citizens of the world, he goes on to says.
The implication of all this,
is that all cultures can mix and learn from each other without one destroying
the other. And this can only happen if all cultures are presumed to be equal.
The question, however, comes down to this: Does Ron Robin believe in that?
Well, look what he goes on to say:
“The New York
University at Abu Dhabi is the strongest university in the Arab world. Its
status as a prestigious research university mirrors a Western model for
academia that was previously absent in the Arab world”.
As you can see, this catches
Ron Robin in the act of conducting two contradictory discourses at the same
time. On the one hand, he says that all cultures are equal and when mixed, can
contribute to the creation of true world citizens. On the other hand, he says
that the Arab universities, which are the flagships of Arab cultures, are
inferior to the Western universities, which implies that they risk being
destroyed.
And there is more. Drawing on
his experience when he was provost at NYU, working to establish the campus in
Abu Dhabi, Robin says that he is now working to establish the right kind of
connections so as to fix the door through which humanity will enter into the
long-sought era of peace and prosperity.
Let us pray that Ron Robin will see fit to fix his own door first.