Israel’s Value to Transhumanism
Imagine this sci-fi scenario: A small tribe with unique literature, customs and myths believes they’ve been “chosen” for a glorious destiny. But they’re driven out of their native land, forced to wander the globe for aeons, persecuted and annihilated, until they’re impelled by a utopian novel to return to their homeland. They name their new city after the inspirational book and their country becomes a technological powerhouse... but still, they’re surrounded by enemies. They wage eternal war, they hover between hope and apocalypse… their contributions to humanity are astounding but they continue to fear total extinction.
Familiar? Of course. I’ve described Israel and the Jews. A four-millennium saga with floods, burning bushes, diasporas, miracles, massacres, temples, pogroms, holocausts, and 180+ brainy Jews receiving Nobel Prizes — 22% of the total awards garnered by only .25% of the population. Today’s Israel — a dynamic nano-nation tinier than New Jersey in size and numbers — is imagination made concrete, the material manifestation of Theodor Herzl’s futuristic, Zion-inspiring 1902 book Altneuland (translated as “The Old New Land” in English, and “Tel Aviv” in the Hebrew translation by Nalum Sokolov.)
Is Israel valuable to Transhumanism? Yes. Even though most Israelis worry about surviving next week and regard contemplation of the year 2025 as impractical because they might be “pushed into the sea” by then. Yes. Even though membership in the Israeli Humanity Plus chapter is only 50-100 with twenty regular attendees. Yes, Israel is a crucial player in H+ and here’s why:
Silicon Wadi: In 1998 Newsweek named Tel Aviv as one of the Top Ten technologically influential cities in the world. Wired and The Economist rated Israel’s high tech region second only to Silicon Valley. “Silicon Wadi” — an area half the size of its California sibling — has over 3,850 startups with 120 companies on NASDAQ, the largest number outside the USA. Israel’s tech success is aided by low-rate government loans for development — Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and numerous global business surveys have all praised Israel’s economic environment. Another contributing factor: well-educated immigrants who arrived from the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, and abundant local grads from esteemed institutes such as Hebrew University, The Technion, Tel Aviv University and Weizman Institute of Science.
Consider this commendable data: The first cell phones were developed at the Israeli branch of Motorola. The majority of Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft Israel. Pentium MMX chip technology was designed at the Israeli Intel. Both the Pentium 4 and Centrino processors were designed by Israelis. Dov Moran, an Israeli, invented the flash disk. Voice mail technology? Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Israel. Highest percentage of home computers in the world? Israel. Highest ratio of university degrees? Israel. Highest per capita number of scientists and technicians in the workplace? Israel. (145 per 10,000 — second is USA with 85). Techno-progressive President Shimon Peres recently declared, “the future is in nanotechnology.” Israeli universities advance research in cutting edge fields like cognitive neuroscience, cellomics, telomerase, etc. etc.
Petri Dish for Progress: On November 9, 2009, Ray Kurzweil was a guest at the Israeli Presidential Conference: Facing Tomorrow. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited Kurzweil for inspiring his “Renewable Energy Initiative” that seeks to replace all fossil fuel with renewable resources — primarily solar — in the next ten years. Kurzweil discussed reverse-engineering the brain with President Peres. The American futurist also proposed using nanotech to solve energy and environmental issues, and he suggested building an entrepreneurial technology incubator that would be shared collaboratively by both Israelis and Palestinians. Kurzweil has the ears of open-minded Israeli leadership. Imagine the impact if (when) his ideas are successfully enacted. Israel’s small size and tech chutzpah make it an ideal laboratory for scientific progress.
Robotics: Israel has on-going military needs and a small population (5.6 million Jews, 1.9 million Arabs). It has responded to this challenge by becoming a world leader in robotic weaponry. In 1981 it successfully utilized its first unmanned aircraft. Since then, it has added unmanned speedboats, unmanned ground vehicles, border guard robo-snipers, camouflaged robot snakes, and a nine-inch tall VIPeR ’bot that climbs stairs, sniffs for explosives, disarms bombs with water spray, heaves grenades, and shoots hostiles with a mini Uzi submachine gun. Israel’s goal is to robotize one-third of its military machinery in the next 10-15 years. There’s also been non-violent success. Israeli scientists co-developed (with Europeans) the “SmartHand” (a robotic prosthetic hand), and they’ve recently invented a bionic retina implant, “Bio Retina.”
Artificial Intelligence: Michael Vassar of SIAI (Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence) notified me via email that “the main Israelis that pursued work vital to our core mission are Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky... and the computer scientist Judea Pearl for his development of Bayes Nets.” Kahneman (2002 Nobel Prize winner for his Prospect Theory) was born in Tel Aviv. Tversky was born in Haifa. Their collaboration on “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” is a seminal work in the Artificial Intelligence field. Singularity essays like Eliezer Yudkowsky’s “Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks” are deeply indebted to the Israeli psychologists. Judea Pearl — computer scientist and philosopher — is also recognized as a giant in the field of artificial intelligence. He’s a pioneer in the probabilistic approach to AI and the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.
Stem Cell Research: Israel leads the world in stem cell research papers per capita. On April 9, 2010, scientists at Hadassah Hospital achieved a crucial breakthrough. They demonstrated a new technique that can mass produce huge quantities of fetal stem cells. Two members of the Israeli Humanity+ chapter are highly knowledgeable in stem cell research: bio-scientist Dr. Danny Belkin and bio-ethicist Dr. Frida Fuchs Simonstein.
Environmental IQ: Israel aims to be the first nation with a national electric car network — they hope to have it fully operational by late 2011 (edging out Denmark). Its engineers are also developing hydrogen fuel. Israelis are world leaders in desalination and wastewater renewal. On World Water Day (March 22), the United Nations lauded Israel as the planet’s most efficient recycled water user. Tel Aviv University scientists also recently (04/22/10) discovered that ultra-violet nanoscale wavelengths are superior to chlorine for cleaning tap water. Israelis have long been leaders in solar energy technology and they export their expertise around the world. One company just signed a deal to build solar energy farms in California and Nevada. Israel is also unique in the world because every year its population of trees increases.
Science Fiction: Israel has been described as “the birthplace of science fiction.” For chariots in the sky, eco-cataclysms, invisible voices, and other paranormality, check out the Torah. Want a hero traveling through space, searching for the secrets of creation? Examine the apocryphal books of Enoch, circa 300 B.C. In contemporary Israel, “political science fiction” dominates the genre, with the vast majority of successful books using the homeland as a setting. A utopian-intended society tottering on the edge of annihilation is obviously ideal for SF. A partial list of important authors would include Pesakh Amnuel, David Avidan, Dan Zalka, Etgar Keret, Orly Castel-Bloom, Gail Hareven, and Addy Zemach.
Futurist Philosophy: Mordechai Nessayahu’s “Cosmotism” depicts a future in which Israel saves humanity from eco-disasters and nuclear annihilation. Also influential as a Labor Party stalwart, Nessyahu motivated Yitzak Rabin and Shimon Peres to pursue the Oslo Accords peace plan. Shimon Peres published his own visions in “A New Beginning.” He imagines an improved Israel via peace and an information revolution. Equally optimistic is Yigal Arica’s “What’s in the Future?” Niv Ahituv’s “A World Without Secrets” presents a totally transparent world, where all information about everyone is available to everyone.
Tzvi Bisk — author of Futurizing the Jews (co-written with Moshe Dror) and The Optimistic Jew — predicts that Israel will become a model superpower. He says that it will be a "light unto nations,” with one of the world's highest scientific, cultural, social and economic standards. He also envisions a cyber-Israel, connecting global communities to enlarge the "Jewish homeland." Recent events have perhaps dampened Bisk's positivity. In an email to me he remarked, "you may have noticed from media reports we in the Middle East have not yet gotten the humanist thing right yet, let alone the transhumanist thing."
Young Bright Lights: Ilia Stambler is a primary organizer of the nine transhumanist seminars in Israel. He’s a 38-year-old PhD candidate at Bar Ilan University, writing a dissertation on “The History of Life Extensionism in the 20th Century.” He’s also an intern at IEET (Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies). Stambler notified me via email that Israeli transhumanists are primarily focused on life extension, with the Singularity ranking second in interest. He also reports that “futuristic visions are often underplayed here in view of the more immediate concerns.”
Both the Pentium 4 and Centrino processors were designed by Israelis. Dov Moran, an Israeli, invented the flash disk. Voice mail technology? Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Israel.
Adi Berman is only 19 years old, but Aubrey de Grey has praised her as “exceptionally bright and intelligent.” A singer/songwriter with her tunes on MySpace, she’s a respected writer on Imminist.org forums. Her emails to me were pithy: “Israelis hope that Israel has a future.” Discussing radical life extension, she insists, “Life’s irrelevant if death overcomes us... it’s natural that we seek unlimited life spans, every organism tries to survive... each having a natural tool to help them: venom, speed, strength, camoflage, etc... we have a BRAIN, a highly developed one, that is our natural tool to survive....”
Defense & Friends: Israel is a world leader in satellite technology, often used in spying on hostile neighbors. Israel also has nuclear weapons — an estimated 75-200 warheads. It’s got the fourth largest air force in the world and the most impenetrable flight security. Israel’s “best friend” is not the United States, it’s India — a close economic and military ally, and a collaborator on space research. Israel’s also (usually) cozy with China, Russia, Germany and Mexico.
Conclusion: In my opinion, Israel (like South Korea) will be a tiny giant in the world of the future. Both nations have risen triumphantly from near-nothingness in the last sixty years. Although Israel is miniscule and threatened by opposition, it has used this challenge as motivation for advancement. Israel’s diminutive size and gargantuan progress is reminiscent of the small vibrant city states of history, such as classical Athens (rivaled by Sparta, Thebes and Corinth), medieval Florence (opposed by Venice, Milan, Genoa, Pisa and Siena), the Warring States of China (forward leaps in philosophy, metallurgy, government, law and military strategy), Swahili seaports (Mombasa, Malindi, Kilwa, Sofala, Zanzibar, and Mogadishu competed economically as their cosmopolitan cultures blossomed), plus myriad other mighty dwarfs that performed phenomenally under pressure.
I believe that Israel’s future will be as plucky as David with his technologically superior sling. All humanity can benefit from Israeli research and inventiveness as our planet progresses towards a metaphoric “land of milk and honey.”
Hank Hyena also writes for hedonistfuturist.com and The Extropist Examiner.
Special thanks to Ilia Stambler for his patient assistance.
Recent Comments
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You lost me at "No eyes." I would like to keep mine.
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People, take these comments with a heavy dose of salt. Obviously you are going to find more educated and less educated members of any religion,...
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Life imitates art! One of my favorite sci-fi novels is Limbo (1952) by Bernard Wolfe. He envisions a world where people get amputations so they...
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First, most of these were predictions made by Arthur C Clarke decades ago. And two, they suppose that natural evolution is going to be allowed to...
Comments
What is this propaganda doing here? I thought this is H+, not zionist website...quite dissapointing
Heh... the TRUTH can be hurtful.
Especially when one is so HATEFUL.
As such a nice article, even if it reads a bit like coming from the propaganda mill (it nearly makes me singing the Hatikvah).
Indeed Israel is technologically strong (and Jews worldwide have contributed significantly to humanity). They work much in fields we transhumanists consider to be key and I follow their progress regularly.
The disturbing thing is that Israel has a very ambivalent future; there's much shadow: economically, demographically, the open and hidden conflicts with near and not so far neighbours. What this articles hopefully makes clear is that transhumanists should strengthen their ties with Israel and support it.
Alright, I wasn't going to add to the ongoing farce that is the comments thread to this article, but this needs to be said.
Israel is nothing more than a country, and like any country, it is made up of a diverse collection of people.
Do I approve of the actions of the Israeli Government? No. Under no circumstances. I support no institution which preaches "exceptionalism." Not even those which try to claim that humans themselves are superior to all other animals. Therefore I find Israeli claims to being "God's Chosen" to be in no way different than Hitler's "Supreme Aryan Race" or Christianity's "Humans are made in God's Image." Israel's government should be held fully accountable for their actions against Palestinians.
That being said, the mistake Hank made was in trying to link Israel's history as a nation, religion, and ethnic group to their scientific advances. The one has no real defined connection to the other, anymore than the joke we call American Government is responsible for the massive scientific progress made in the last few decades in America. In both cases, that progress is made IN SPITE of the government.
The mistake too many other posters here have made is to define all Israeli's by the stereotypes passed down by centuries of fear, xenophobia, and intolerance.
Stereotypes LIE people. They distort, exaggerate, and demonize. To judge all Israeli's by the objectional behavior of the likes of Sharon is as idiotic as deciding you hate all flowers after only seeing a Thistle.
Accept the fact that science that will benefit all of us is being done, despite the idiocies of a government seemingly bent on self destruction.
People are people. If you object to being labelled unfairly, then why do it to others?
I agree in general to Valkyrie's post, BUT I really don't know where he takes this "I find Israeli claims to being "God's Chosen" to be in no way different than Hitler's "Supreme Aryan Race" from.... I'm an israeli, and I have NEVER claimed I am, or any of us, Israelis are superior, certainly not "God's Chosen".... The fact it is claimed in the scriptures -- that is a fact, it's there. But I don't think you can say Israelis are walking around claiming to be superior to the rest of the world, not at all so.
But there are some other FACTS too, like the number of Jews awarded with Nobel prizes in so many different fields, totally un-proportionately to their number in the world population... That is a fact.
Also, making a claim like "Israel's government should be held fully accountable for their actions against Palestinians" is kind of superficial at best, I'd say.... There is a TON to be blamed on the Palestinians before accusing the Israelis for the situation in the Mideast (but for that you need to learn a bit about the PAST).... The fact they are the underdog does not make them saints.... Being homeless does not necessarily make one righteous....
"The fact it is claimed in the scriptures -- that is a fact, it's there. But I don't think you can say Israelis are walking around claiming to be superior to the rest of the world, not at all so."
You shouldn't be, since it's also written in your scriptures that your ancestors slaughtered neighbouring semitic tribes, all in the name of God. I'd call that genocide.
One day, people will realize the lie that is Judaism and then the idol worship surrounding Jesus (a figure of derision for Jews anyway) will also wither away, but it won't be in my lifetime. Furthermore, until people realize that all religions are simply belief systems that have as their premise that there's life after death (thereby allaying our greatest fear), there can be no real progress toward a humanistic future where those of us who are more highly evolved rule by right of superior intellect and a greater capacity for love.
Hi Valkyrie - thanks for writing in, this is Hank. I agree with most of what you said, but I don't think anyone is making a mistake if they do partially attribute Israel's success to its "Jewish culture." Jewish culture has frequently produced achievement, brief googling reveals at least 5 Jewish "Renaissances" or "Golden Ages." They are 1) Spain from the 8th- 11th century. 2) Spain from 1391-1492. 3) Prague from 1500-1700. 4. Vienna from 1848-1938. 5) Russian Revolution from 1912-1492. Israel can be recognized as #6, and I'm sure there's other candidate eras, like the creation of Hollywood. I won't speculate on the reasons for Jewish success, although I'm sure - as one commenter noted - that emphasis on education is important. Nearly every Jewish Golden Era ended with the Jews getting kicked out, or worse, and their economic assets seized.
Russian Revolution from 1912-1492? If you mean revolution(s) that led to the rise of the Soviet Union, I know what happened in 1905 and in 1917. But what happened in 1912? In any case, it hardly ushered in a Jewish Golden Era! Likewise, there was no Jewish Golden Era in Spain from 1391 -- quite the opposite (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Spain#1300_to_1391 ). And while the creation of Hollywood is an interesting candidate for "Jewish Golden Era", it misses a larger point -- that Jews have flourished in the United States in general (not only in Hollywood). The US, more or less from the time of the American Revolution, provided Jews with a degree of equality and freedom from persecution and oppression that they couldn't dream of in Europe or the Middle East.
And despite the challenge of ongoing insecurity, in many ways, Israel from 1948 has seen the greatest Golden Age and Jewish Renaissance of all.
Yes, Jews have been in a position as outsiders to frequently do things that the locals were restrained from doing by the local church or political leaders.
But that is not due to them "Being Jews" it is due to them being OUTSIDERS who were not held to the same standards of control. Many other similar examples exist. And just like the Jews, inevitably those outsiders would eventually be turned on because they were OUTSIDERS. The Dutch in Japan are a good example.
I know many jews who I wouldn't trust with a lead nickel. And many others who I would trust with my life. They are JUST PEOPLE. And the ones who strive the hardest to "be Jew" are generally the ones who have no other sense of identity. I know people living in ISRAEL who refuse to define themselves as Jews.
People are people, Hank, not their religion or ethnic group. No group has a right to claim superiority. Praise the advancements coming out of the labs because they are worthwhile accomplishments. But they are not JEWISH accomplishments. There's nothing in science which is jewish, or american, or russian, or whatever. It's all just science. After all, would you label any advance a "Catholic" or Islamic" or even a "Eskimo" or "Asian" one? No, because those advances are not Race or Religion based.
It's a fine listing of accomplishments, on par with the listing you made of South Korean picking itself up out of the third world. But linking those accomplishments to a *religion* was where you wandered away from reporting into advocacy.
And why this thread devolved into a flame fest.
"Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge" - Leonardo Da Vinci.
There are some questions without answers, and "Israel or Palestine?" is one of them.
While an article about Israeli technology is not explicitly political, the author should acknowledge that, on this forum, it is. I would hope to see this type of incendiary topic gracefully avoided in the future.
Maybe for you, 'Israel or Palestine?' is an unanswerable question.
For me, as someone who judges people based on their merit and their actions, it's Israel all the way.
Okay, they basically accepted being handed a nation (really, not much more than a patch of dirt at that point) by a foreign power -- and have fought hard to protect it.
And then they did all of the things mentioned in this article and more.
If it had remained in Palestinian hands, really, what are the chances it would be anything other than a patch of dirt today? Now, it provides a powerful identity for a people with motivation to do great things -- a quality sorely lacking in the world today.
Why, -in the world-, would you want anyone else to have it? So that they can turn it back into a patch of dirt after legislatively plundering the motivated people who are too attached to their new home to leave?
Hi "Anonymous" -- there sure are a lot of you! - this is Hank Hyena, the author, and I respectfully disagree. You believe we should all avoid any mention of Israel's robotics, stem cell research, solar energy advances, desalination success, and electric car system, because it stirs up political anger? That is just not true, I am convinced we should be informed of all innovations, even if they're from nations many of us are angry at. China is one of the the worst human rights violators on the planet, but we still talk about China's successes, don't we? (Personally, I was surprised to learn about tech progress in Israel, because that info is always way back-page, while Israel's politics are headlines.) Do "incendiary" topics distress you, Anonymous? I'm sorry about that, but avoiding them can't be the answer.
I'm sorry, I find this article to be insulting and propagandist. What about the Palestinians? Do they deserve to have their homeland taken from them violently simply because the Jews were oppressed and hurt by others? What about the Lebanese, who were recently bombed by the Israelis with the flimsy pretense of housing terrorists? Israel is not an enlightened nation; it is nothing more than a pugnacious bully hiding behind the excuse of the Holocaust in order to justify their own actions of prejudice, bigotry, hypocrisy, and violence. If Israel is a model example of a transhumanist nation, then I'm the Prime Minister of Japan.
You simply know NOTHING -- and I mean NOTHING -- about the history of the Mideast, dear. But swallowing Arab propaganda you do, lots of, which is the easiest, of course.....
"What about Lebanon?" you ask..... Just shows your utter IGNORANCE, again, dear.... Israel has NOTHING against Lebanon, a beautiful country that USED to be called Switzerland of the Mideast... Used to be, not anymore thanks to the Syrians (who claim Lebanon to be actually part of Syria, and who doesn't even have an embassy there, did you know, dear?), Palestinian terrorists in the past and violent Iranian proxy Hezbollah in the present. They MASSACRE Lebanese Christians and their leaders, and they USE Lebanon to launch rockets against Israel, send terrorists to attack Israeli civilians, abduct Israeli soldiers.
FIRST THEY ATTACK ISRAEL, THEN THEY CLAIM TO "DEFEND LEBANON AGAINST ISRAELI AGGRESSION" HEHEH...
Go out, spend some time, get some education, before your hit your keypad.... How about that.
Wow, I like hplus but running ads for zionism makes me want to hurl.
Israelis worry about getting pushed into the sea huh? By who? They have more nukes than anyone but the US or Russia.
I suppose if you spend most of your history being nasty to people, you have to be a bit paranoid about the fact that they might resent it.
Oh, I know, it's ok if Israel contantly craps on everyone, after all they have always been so poisecuted. Oy vey!
Ken
Can't anybody who objects to Israel's politics write a cogent critique of this article that is actually about the article? Do I have to do it for you.
Dear h+
While this article clearly shows that Israel is moving forward very rapidly making technological advances that are dear to transhumanists hopes and dreams, I believe it is immoral to run an article about Israel without objecting to its treatment (insert stronger language here if you like: occupation, apartheid, what have you) of the Palestinians.
sincerely,
Whitey Fjord
You could also point out that Israel critic Noam Chomsky was prevented from entering the country, a shameful act for a country that's supposed to be following democratic, enlightenment, transHUMANIST values. You know, something thoughtful?...
Something thoughtful?
Were you implying that the original article, or your silly comments, are infact "thoughtful?"
LOL
Since the original article was little more than propaganda for Israel, I think it's perfectly thoughtful to point out what a crappy little country it is in fact.
Ken
Hi Ken - this is Hank Hyena, the author -- thanks for your interest in my essay. Here's recent news for you -- You said Israel is a "crappy little country" but if you ever get a disease called "Critical Limb Ischemia" - you could fly to Israel and get stem cell therapy to cure you. Here's the link:
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/pluristems-stem-cell-therapy-looks-pr...
Many diseases might be alleviated via the aid of stem cell research and Israel is leading the way.
Ken, you're mad about the Palestinian situation, but you shouldn't despise everyone in Israel. Their stem cell researchers are doing something very useful for you and the rest of humanity.
'Crappy' though it may be now, it was far worse in literally every measurable way before the Israelis took control of the area.
Why yes, anti-semitism is totally driven by jealousy and is no way caused by the recognition of Israel as an Apartheid state that treats Palestinians as fourth class citizens regardless of their opinion of Israel.
Yep, no way any rational person would find Israel a terrible fascist nation that butchers hundreds of innocent Palestinians every time someone fires a bottle rocket in their general direction.
What's the count nowadays? 50 Palestinians die for every Israeli or something like that?
Yeah, I'm totally jealous that they're such a great country, what with the whole shooting journalists and barring anybody who ever says anything bad about Israel from entering the country thing.
I mean, what other country steals economic data from the US to boost their economy while costing the US thousands of jobs and accruing a 70BN dollar trade deficit with Israel?
Hi Anonymous, this is Hank Hyena, thanks for writing in. When I agreed with another writer that anti-semitism is often motivated by envy, I was thinking of two specific arenas. The first is Hitler's lethal antipathy - according to many researchers it sprang from resentment of the economic success of the Viennese Jews; one estimate is that 2/3 of the top thousand entrepreneurs in 1930's Austria were Jewish. The second situation I was referring to is Israel's present success, compared to its most virulent, and possibly jealous, enemies. Here's some figures from various indexes: GDP: Israel #29, Iran #71, Syria #111. DEMOCRACY: Israel #38, Iran #145, Syria #156. EDUCATION: Israel #34, Iran #112, Syria #124. BEST NATIONS FOR WOMEN: Israel #45, Syria #121, Iran #128.
Unfortunately, of all the deadly sins - envy is the usually the least fun and the least constructive. Here's some final facts for you to peruse: "For 20 years following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the Palestinians tried peaceful co-operation with Israel. The result was an outburst of mutually beneficial economic growth... despite a tripling of the Palestinian population, per-capita income in the West Bank and Gaza rose to $1,706 in 1987, up from $80 in 1967. But ever since 1987, Palestinian militants have periodically sent homicide bombers and Katyusha rockets into Israel. For the Palestinian people, the consequence has been ruin..." (by George Gilder)
Great article, unfortunately many people still failing to see Israel achievements and like many time before are not interested in facts but in feeding their jealous antisemitism. Hopefully for those poor people anti-antisemitic pill or other kind of therapy will be available soon similar to those who are already helping many mental patients
Hi Vladimir, this is Hank Hyena the author. Thanks for your comments, especially for injecting the word "jealous" into the equation. I agree with that, I think envy of Jewish and Israeli success is an important, but largely unspoken, factor in past and present anti-semitism.
I am Jewish, not Orthodox, and as to the comparison between Orthodox Jews and Hitler, while I cannot claim expert knowledge of Orthodox belief I don't think Orthodox Jews suggest that non-Jews should be deprived of livelihood and property and then put in concentration camps and murdered.
There is a country in the Middle East that recently promulgated a law barring Palestinians from over seventy occupations, does not allow them to apply to become citizens, and limits where they can live. It's Lebanon. No one gets too upset about this; I wonder why.
Even if the calumnies about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians were all true, the Palestinians are hardly walled off. If the Gazans are, it's because Egypt, their Arab brother, has done so and the Palestinians on the West Bank are not blocked off from Jordan. Walling off the Palestinians is a recent development and was a response to a wave of suicide bombings. Note that once the security barrier was built the suicide bombings dropped off from "often" to "none." The world has a habit of being casual about Jewish lives, though.
As to being chosen, apparently to God "chosen" means "occasional periods of prosperity interspersed among centuries of hideous persecution." I wish we had picked up earlier on his mystical and divine sense of humor.
Like it or not, Israel is the economic fulcrum to move the whole region forward.
I can see a time ahead with Israel exporting its knowledge by building factories in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Turkey, which will give the young Arabs of today a future. Universities will follow. It is time to learn from Israel and take the best ideas and make an Arab future with them
You either let go of the past, or it will drag you down with it.
Thanks for noting the importance of Israel for anyone who believes in the future.
Hi puetzz -- this is Hank Hyena the author. yes, I believe in the future, and I believe Israeli scientists and techies are contributing towards a positive future, and I thank them for it.
>"they’re driven out of their native land, forced to wander the globe for aeons, persecuted and annihilated"
That's a fictious description of Jewish history. Jews have constantly occupied the position of "middle-man minority" in whichever country they chose to move to. As such they are almost invariably better off than the typical member of their host country. The average Jew in 16th century Europe was much better off than than the average European of the time. They were permitted to borrow and lend money at interest, which normal Chrstians could not. That's an odd sort of persecution.
Yes the Jews were better off than the typical member of their "host" country. This is because the Jews bestow the value of education and hard work to their children. In 16th Century eurpoe, Jews couldn't lend to Christians and Christians couldn't lend to Jews. The only difference is that Jews didn't persecute Christians in order to not have to repay them.
For the most part, Jews in Europe were not permitted to own property (wonder why they became good with money), they were murdered and raped as their lives were not protected by law like other citizens and every now and then exterminated or driven out. The average Jew in the 16th century was not better off in any way than his counterpart. not even financially. at the end of the 15th century (the same year Columbus discovered America) Jews were driven out of Spain and had to scatter all over the world again.
Facts are important in conversation. As is an adequate grasp of history. we all get to have our own opinion, but we don't get to have our own facts.
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