Israel Matzav

Good news: More American kids spending their year abroad in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon

With the United States desperately searching for Arabic speakers it can trust with national security documents, it is not surprising that the largest increase in American students studying abroad is in Arab countries - Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. What's disturbing is the idealized view of those countries that the students are apparently getting.

According to a February 2010 report from the Institute of International Education, a private nonprofit group that administers the Fulbright program for the United States government, the number of American students studying in Arabic-speaking countries increased sixfold to 3,399 in 2007 from 562 in 2002.

While that number may seem small compared with the more than 33,000 American students who headed to the United Kingdom in 2007 and the 13,000 who studied in China, it represents the fastest growing region for study abroad in the world. Between 2006 and 2007 the number of American students studying in Arab countries rose nearly 60 percent while China had only a 19 percent increase and England, 1.9 percent.

These numbers have no doubt been bolstered by the Critical Language Scholarship Program, begun in 2006 by the State Department — a government initiative set up to encourage college-age students to study Arabic, as well as 12 other listed languages, including Punjabi and Azerbaijani. Since then the program has become so popular (more than 12,000 students having applied for the Arabic program since its inception, with 800 being awarded scholarships), that this year eligibility was restricted to college and graduate students who have already had at least one year of Arabic.

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Brian Reeves, 21, and Leigh Nusbaum, 20, incoming seniors at Brandeis University, are Jewish, speak Hebrew and have spent considerable time in Israel. Hoping to one day work on the peace settlement, they came to the Middle East last term wanting to explore the other side of the Arab-Israeli conflict while honing their language skills.

“Arabic is the new Russian,” said Ms. Nusbaum, who spent last spring studying at the American University in Cairo and wants to become a regional diplomat. Mr. Reeves chose the University of Jordan in Amman, where he learned the Levantine dialect spoken in the Palestinian territories, Syria and Lebanon. “I wanted to find out what Jews and Arabs have in common,” Mr. Reeves said. “A lot.”

Both students traveled extensively, including personal fact-finding visits to Palestinian refugee camps, as well as to Ramallah in the West Bank, all the while being discreet about their Jewish identity. Despite peace among Israel, Jordan and Egypt, strong feelings exist in all three countries when it comes to the Palestinian conflict.

To that end, Mr. Reeves quickly learned to speak in code when in public. “Israel became ‘Disneyland,’ Tel Aviv was ‘Epcot,’ and Jerusalem was called, ‘Cinderella’s Castle,’ ” he said. For Ms. Nusbaum, the experience of being delayed at the Israeli border for nearly five hours when she tried to cross from Jordan into the West Bank was both frustrating and enlightening. “I had stamps in my passport from Lebanon and Syria so they questioned me extensively before letting me through,” she said. “It gave me a real taste of what the Palestinians go through.”

There's a long-standing problem at the US State Department with diplomats seeking posting to Arab countries that outnumber Israel 22-1. Because of the difference in numbers of jobs (among other reasons), it is and has for many years been good for your career to be pro-Arab at the State Department.

But someone really needs to tell Ms. Nusbaum what would happen if she tried to enter Lebanon or Syria with an Israeli stamp her passport. It's quite simple: She wouldn't be allowed in. (The US routinely issues second passports to people in this situation).

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:49 AM