Arabs v Israel: an Olympic sport?

Was it, I wonder, an attempt to console Israelis for their poor showing at the Beijing Olympics? A popular Israeli website ran a long story during the games detailing the dismal performance of the Arab world, which, after all, counts as many as 22 countries.

If you thought Israelis were unhappy with the results of their Olympic team, the article said, then look at the reaction of the Arabs, and how their own commentators are mocking their performance.

Though closely followed by satellite television stations, the Olympics do not exactly capture the imagination in the Middle East. When elaph.com, an Arabic news site, asked its audience whether they expected Arab athletes to do well, 88 per cent said no.

They were right to keep their expectations down.

In all, Arabs athletes, who tend to concentrate on a few individual sports, captured only seven medals. Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, a Moroccan-born runner, won the gold in the 1,500-metre race (pictured). A Tunisian swimmer, Oussama Mellouli, clinched another gold in the 1,500 freestyle. Algeria, meanwhile, celebrated its female judo exponent, Soraya Haddad, who went home with bronze.

Some activities, football in particular, can cause a revolution in the region. Egypt, for one, can claim an impressive record, and successfully defended the African Cup of Nations this year. But sports have never been high on the list of national priorities.

According to al-Jazeera, the Qatari channel, until this year Arab countries had won 73 medals in Olympic Games history. Although they make up 11 per cent of the countries that participate, they win on average only 3.4 medals every four years.

A bit of soul-searching always goes on in the media around the Olympics, as commentators try to explain the Arab predicament. It is indeed difficult not to see the performance at the Olympics as part of wider failures of this region to nurture its youth and create positive role models.

Sadly, the Middle East is a place where the likes of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden can easily inspire fascination and devotion. If you are a young man in many parts of the Arab world today, there is not much for you to look forward to - even less if you are a woman.

Young people struggle to find jobs, to move out of their parents' homes and to build their own families. Most are products of a dysfunctional education system that is still struggling to teach the basics - so sports facilities and training, are not a priority for schools.

And then there are the overall political systems, which discourage any form of assembly or organisation, and grow overly suspicious of anyone who manages to win popularity.

In the oil-rich Gulf states, where youth can hope for a better future, it is the drive that is apparently lacking. "Emiratis have a soft and easy lifestyle. But sport is not easy; it is hard," Ibrahim Abdul Malik, head of the Olympics committee in the United Arab Emirates, told The National, an Abu Dhabi-based daily.

Yet it is in the Gulf, particularly in Dubai and Qatar, that governments are starting to look at sports more seriously. Qatar, a country that has a tiny population but a huge ambition (see the article below), is putting big money into sports. It hosted the Asian Games in 2006 and mounted an unsuccessful bid to attract the 2016 Olympic games.

Qatar has also given nationality to foreign athletes who might help put the country on the global sports map.

Having sent its biggest delegation ever to Beijing, however, Team Qatar came back empty-handed. Perhaps its luck will improve in four years' time.

For now, Qataris and other Arabs might draw some satisfaction from the fact that a few countries in the region managed to do better than Israel, which won a single medal - a bronze for windsurfing.