I really hope this doesn't come across the wrong way - as I am sure it will, but I just cant find the words. Please excuse me in advance for any offence caused. This is not my intention. I just want to see if I can understand the situation and make myself a better person through objective understanding. Here goes..... What does Israel add to the world? All I can think of is that it is a customer for the American arms trade. It also produces some garden produce, especially avocados. It also keeps a lot of journalists from other countries in jobs for obvious reasons. Apart from that, can anyone please explain how the world benefits from Israels presence? It seems to me it just causes a heap of conflict. There are other African countries that are similar in nature: They produce great garden produce, but are riddled with conflict. I appreciate that Israel isn't the sole perpetrator in the current middle-east conflict. I think its 50-50. So what do they add? Why should we support them? They have no oil, or anything else that Americans want. Please educate me.....
Perhaps to make myself more clear.... Please can someone state something POSITIVE about Israel? Thanks.
I have done a Google, and I can see some Nobel prize winners there. Well - thats a start. The problem is that all their research was either done in the USA or Europe, or backed by us (American tax payers) or the Europeans.
Good point never thought about that. So the question you're suggesting is: if a non-Jew American had received the same support he, and not the jew, would have received the Nobel? I think it's all pointless anyway since Nobel prize committee members are previous winners, and since there are so many jew Nobelists already, we can expect a jewish lock on the prize for a very long time.
So no one knows? Come on people, this cant be difficult. Here are some examples.... Argentina - great beef products Brazil - great soybean exports, sugar, leaders in ethanol production France - superb wine and fine food Italy - again, great food eaten the world over like pasta and pizza, wine, fine clothing and style America - modern day capitalism, free markets UK - Law and order, modern civilization and of course the great language we all share Iraq/Iran/Persia - the dawn of civilization. Writing, maths Greece - Great ancient scholars. Maths. Egypt - The pyramids Saudi Arabia - oil Russia - vodka, some superb scientific discoveries. China - some great developments in educational methods. The very first exchange. You get the picture...... Please - no one say advocadoes!
They took that place that was largely uninhabited and had no economic life to speak of and made it into something. Regarding the arms customer thing, that is because they are surrounded by half a billion people that seem to want them dead and/or gone. Remove the Moslems from the equation and you have a peaceful and productive country.
But the Moslems were relatively peaceful before Israels antagonism. Did we have world terrorism before 1967? Not on todays scale, no. I disagree that it is the Israelis that have brought economic life to the area. There are a LOT of OIL RICH nations around the area, doing just fine before Israel came along. GDP figures of oil producing countries in the area DWARF that of Israel. Besides, all the money that was injected into the area came from America and Europe (again). My question was WHAT HAVE THEY CONTRIBUTED TO THE WORLD though. Not 'what have they done in a tiny bit of desert?' I have thought of something though: The Jews gave us banking and insurance. Its a start, but it was the Jews - NOT ISRAEL.
You're asking a lot of different questions here, like what have they contributed to the world and why should we support them and what is positive about them. You mentioned in the first post that there are other countries (African countries) about which you have the same questions. I am curious as to why you are asking these questions? What is the point of them? Are you an American and you don't like the U.S. foreign policy as it pertains to Israel? http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html PS - I'm off to figure out where the hell Nauru is and when it became a country
Israel has some very smart software and hardware engineers. I believe Intel has one of their facilities there. My friend who works in Intel once told me that the the Israel facility is amazing in terms of producing quality chips. I can't verify his claims, but then with the bunch of nobel laureates who are jewish, I tend to believe that Israel has one of the best brains in the world. I am being stereotypical here, but this is an off the cuff thought/remark.
They do have something that Americans want - a strong democratic presence, and an ally, in a very hostile region. p.s. Not every country there is oil rich. Israel's immediate neighbors - Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt do not. Egypt is an economic basket case and, I believe, the # 2 recipient of our foreign aid dollars. So why do we continue to support them? What have they given the world in the past couple of centuries?