Like Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu believes that peace between Jews and Arabs is possible. They differ, however, as to the miraculous means of effectuating this peace.

Mr. Peres, a paraMarxist, believes that economic prosperity in the Middle East (read: washer-dryers, indoor toilets, VW's and TV sets) will transform militant Arabs into bourgeois democrats.In contrast, Mr. Netanyahu, a PR-man, believes, judging from his "To Return to Ourselves" article in YEDIOT AHARANOT -- that Internet will do the trick. Instead of imbibing the Koran, the Arabs will click on Yahoo!

To Bibi's credit, he admits that so long as the Arab world consists of dictatorships, Israel will have to maintain a deterrent military posture on the one hand, and national consensus on the other. (He says nothing about the ingredients of national consensus.) But like Shimon, Netanyahu unwittingly evinces contempt for Arabs, believing they will renounce their 1,300-year civilization for comfort and pop culture.

The question is whether Arab regimes can be democratized by economic prosperity and scientific technology. There is no evidence to support such wishful thinking. To the contrary. Germany, was not only the most scientifically and technologically developed country; it was also the home of humane literature; yet it produced the most monstrous tyranny.

Scientific technology will only arm the despots now ruling the Arab-Islamic world.

Consider: Israel has a peace treaty with Egypt. Yet Egypt, whose people live in abject poverty, spends almost 30% of its GDP on arms and does so without any threat from its neighbors. Egypt is on a war economy, and the only thing Internet will do is show that Egypt's target is Israel.

Peres's dreams aside, we know from many years of experience that the higher the standard of living of Arabs west of the Jordan, the more hostile they become toward the Jewish state.If proof is wanted, the British Peel Commission report of 1937 noted that, "Although the Arabs have benefited from the development of the country owing to Jewish immigration, this has had no conciliatory effect. On the contrary, improvement in the economic situation in Palestine has meant the deterioration of the political situation."

Arab hostility is not produced by economic inequality, which Netanyahu needlessly mentions in his aforementioned article. The root cause of Arab hatred is religious. The truth is that Arabs fervently believe that Jews have no right to an independent and sovereign state in the Islamic Middle East. Only examine the statements of Arab Knesset members such as Azmi Bishara.

Mr. Netanyahu cannot seem to face this dismal truth. Recall his July 1996 address to a joint session of the American Congress. Israel's then newly elected prime minister gratuitously declared, borrowing a phrase made current by Samuel Huntington, that there is no "clash of civilizations" in the Middle East. If Mr. Netanyahu believes this, then he is not qualified to be Israel's next prime minister.

Conversely, suppose he was merely posing before the American Congress as a "politically correct" politician, hence, that he does indeed recognize a "clash of civilizations" between Arabs and Jews. If he then believes that this clash can be overcome by injecting Internet into the Arab homes, it would be best if he compete for a job with CNN in Atlanta!

Like left-wing politicians and intellectuals, Mr. Netanyahu and Likudniks in general cannot take Islam seriously. Which leads me to conclude, with Orwell, that ?a generation of the unteachable is hanging upon us like a necklace of corpses.