As candidate for vice president, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, will no doubt be asked about his relations with pro-Israel groups. But at least one commentator in the Arab world thinks Lieberman represents not special interests but the strengths of a democratic system -- strengths the Arab world might well emulate. PNS commentator Rami G. Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times, writes a regular column from Amman.

Several stories in yesterday's newspapers highlighted the key difference between Arab and American societies.

One story reported Al Gore's choice of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, an American Orthodox Jew, as the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate.

Others told of the continuing political pressures on Saadeddin Ibrahim in Egypt and Nidal Mansour in Jordan -- both accused of receiving foreign funding to support the work of their civil society institutions in the fields of democracy, press freedom, and civil rights.

The contrast between what is happening in the United States and the Arab world should make many in the Middle East ponder why our region remains poor and weak compared with the rest of the world, and seemingly unable to enter into equal political or economic interaction with the West.

I do not share the conventional wisdom that sees choosing an Orthodox Jew as a candidate as the sign of a new pro-Israeli tilt in U.S. politics.

Indeed, it's hard to think of more pro-Israeli policies than those of the last five or six American presidents, coupled with the consistently pro-Israeli policies of the American Congress, topped by Bill Clinton's provocatively pro-Israeli statements after the Camp David II summit.

Rather, I think the selection of Lieberman signals the deep and continuing assimilation of Jews into U.S. society.

On a global plane, strengthening the sense that Jews are accepted, normal citizens in the world's most powerful societies may act to comfort and bolster Jewish citizens of the state of Israel.

This explicit political inclusion of Jews at the highest level of American society may help moderate Israel's image of itself in the Middle East, and perhaps soften many Jewish Israelis' sharp fears about whether they will ever be accepted as a normal country in the Arab-Islamic Middle East.

A Jewish-American vice presidential candidate should also be seen as an affirmation of the inclusive, open, pluralistic nature of American society and politics (remember, Ralph Nader -- the son of Lebanese immigrants -- is a candidate for the U.S. presidency).

Simultaneously in Egypt and Jordan, state or quasi-state institutions continue to press individuals whose main crime seems to be that they dare to question some of the society's political norms or to independently monitor state activities.

The Egyptian government has held the sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim in jail for a month now, and accused him of all sorts of crimes --including spying for the United States, receiving foreign funding, hurting Egypt's image, and rigging elections.

The charges are patently ridiculous, and have turned the otherwise proud Egyptian state into an embarrassment among the community of nations insofar as domestic democratic political culture is concerned.

This week, the Egyptian government shot itself in the foot again when it charged a colleague of Dr. Ibrahim, the noted playwright Ali Salem, with threatening national security for writing a script for a film on voter registration.

Here in Jordan, the Jordan Press Association's (JPA) disciplinary committee is investigating charges that the prominent journalist Nidal Mansour received foreign funds for the Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists which he heads.

Of course, the JPA, which is packed with government employees, should be leading the fight for greater press freedom and journalist rights, rather than intimidating individuals who work to defend human rights and enrich civil society.

Several other press and human rights groups in Jordan are being targeted for similar investigations, on the same silly charges of receiving foreign funds.

These are bizarre charges, indeed, given that massive foreign financial aid has helped Jordan and Egypt stay afloat and develop in many areas in recent decades.

Accusing civil society organizations and individuals in Egypt and Jordan of taking foreign funds is a simplistic, unconvincing smoke screen for unstated fears and resentments.

The danger is that this sort of open intimidation of civil society actors threatens to remove those independent organizations that are vital for pluralism, dynamism, and comprehensive national development.

There is a fundamental, colossal contradiction in the soul of Arab societies that claim to seek democracy and entry into the global trading system but press criminal charges against individuals whose work personifies the best of democracy.

Such behavior seems to retard and reduce political pluralism and democratic dynamism, leaving power dangerously unchecked in the hands of the state. It also contrasts sharply with the events of the American presidential election, where the doors of inclusion are opening wider.

Many people -- in the Arab world and elsewhere -- will bemoan the political influence of Jewish-Americans in the United States. A more useful exercise for us in the Arab world would be to rigorously analyze the American and Jewish experiences, understand the causes of their success, strength, and prosperity, and make a serious effort to match their achievements -- or better them, if we can combine material prosperity and political modernity with our strong social and religious values.