After the defeat of June 5, 1967, the late Libyan journalist Rashad Bashir al-Huni traveled to Cairo and attended the trials of senior Egyptian officers who were held responsible for the defeat. He returned to Libya and wrote an article in *Al-Haqiqa*, the newspaper he edited, titled: “Knights Without a Battle.”
In it, he dissected the political, military, and economic structures in Egypt that produced that devastating defeat. After the success of the Libyan revolution on September 1, 1969, dozens of journalists who had written during the monarchical era, in both public and private newspapers, were put on trial and accused of corrupting public opinion in Libya.
Among those brought before what was known as the People’s Court was Rashad Bashir al-Huni himself. The principal charge against him was what he had written in his incendiary article, “Knights Without a Battle.”
The irony is that, just days before his death, the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, in his meeting with the late Mauritanian president Moktar Ould Daddah and in a phone call with the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, said much of what Rashad al-Huni had written in the article for which he was tried. From the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 to the wars we are witnessing today, the heavy question persists: why are the stars of defeat pinned on the shoulders of officers, junior and senior alike? In reality, many among them are victims, not perpetrators.
After every successful military coup, officers holding ranks higher than those of the coup leaders are dismissed; some are tried and imprisoned, and some meet the fate of execution. In Israel, many officers who participated in the two world wars went on to fight its wars with the Arabs. Those who retire often move into political life or turn to fields such as archaeology, yet when wars break out, they return to the front lines under the command of officers younger in age and rank.
This introduction is prompted by the title of this article: “Wars Without Weapons.” Wars are merely small links in a long chain of conflict, complex and cumulative, whose foundation is the army of knowledge.
The total number of Jews worldwide is about 16 million, including 7 million in Israel. The number of Arabs across all Arab countries, according to 2026 estimates, stands at 510 million. Since 1901, Jewish recipients of Nobel Prizes in scientific fields including physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics have numbered 155, representing 22 percent of all laureates worldwide. Among Arabs, only Ahmed Zewail and Omar Yaghi have received the prize in scientific categories, both in chemistry. Israel’s area is 20,770 square kilometers, while the Arab world spans roughly 13 million square kilometers.
Israel hosts more than seventy research centers outside universities and ranks among the highest countries globally in research intensity relative to population. After the June defeat, the late Egyptian writer Anis Mansour raised the slogan “Know your enemy,” delving into the details of Israel’s scientific, industrial, and educational systems. Some attacked him, accusing him of self-flagellation, to which he replied sarcastically: “Some deserve to have their minds flogged, not just their bodies.” Across the Arab world, satellite channels and social media bombard us with appearances by those presented as scholars, who speak of the “science” of marriage, divorce, khulʿ, and disobedience; of which foot to use when entering the bathroom; of women’s dress and the roles they should not assume. Friday sermons remain in another realm, dominated by narratives of intimidation. Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations in most Arab universities avoid engaging with applied sciences, instead roaming through stories lost in distant times, whether mythical or otherwise. One diligent researcher reportedly spent years studying the degree of flatulence that nullifies ablution.
After independence, the late Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba said that we had moved from the lesser struggle against colonialism to the greater struggle through knowledge and work for development, progress, and advancement. Education that equips young men and women, from the primary stage, with the power of critical thinking, through curricula that encourage scientific research and by providing laboratories in schools, universities, and institutes, is the foundational base of strength for life in all its dimensions, in war and in peace.
We are not inventing a new species of human beings, nor crafting a history tailored to our illusions and dreams. The world is no longer merely a small global village as it was once described; it is now a page we see, read, and experience within our own homes. The experiences of nations that once stood at the lowest levels of backwardness and, within a few years, leapt to the forefront of progress, prosperity, and power, are before us.
The beginning lies in cutting the cords that bind us to pits and swamps buried by the current of time. There can be no victory in a war in which chronic ignorance confronts those who fight with the weapons of knowledge and reason.
