This study analyzes the five vital economic issues facing the Arab world on the threshold of the 1980s: the poor management of the opportunity to transform oil income into productive human and material capital; the decline of food security; the inability of any Arab country to independently avail itself of the required industrial option; the widening of the social gap between rich and poor; and Israel's arrival at an inefficient economic level and its eventual movement towards productivity expansion-either by way of military occupation (the West Bank model) or by way of a peaceful settlement (the Camp David model). The study concludes that the greatest challenge facing the Arab world today is the use of natural resources to establish political sovereignty, economic prosperity, and social equity.