I think this was written a number of years ago. The situation in the years following has only gotten better.
The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year. Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder .
Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population, can lay claim to the following: The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel .
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel’s air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16’s. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.
Israels $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin – 109 per 10,000 people — as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absoluteIsrael has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. ! (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world — apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S.
Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.
The per capita income in Israel in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world ,after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East .
In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon and Moses) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times.
When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day — and saved three victims from the rubble
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship — and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 – in the world.
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Sovi et Union)
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”
Israel has the world’s second highest per capita of new books.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more rem arkable because, this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert!
Israel has more museums per capita than any other country
Medicine… Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment Every year in U. S hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
Israels Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders .
Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart’s mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.
A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free,narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct — all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California’s Mojave desert.
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.
. . . . AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND SAYS: “ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY”
Please spread this e-mail to 36 friends or more…TODAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_6MxtoysjE0
Israel: A Tiny Nation,
A Great Destiny
As we celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut, we rejoice at the wonderful successes of the State of Israel. Our joy, though, is dampened by the ongoing perfidious slanders and threats lodged against Israel and the Jewish People from so many quarters. It is vital that we stay focused on the remarkable renaissance of the Jews as manifested in the reestablishment of a sovereign Jewish State after so many centuries of exile. We thank the Almighty for having granted us the privilege of living at this special time in Jewish history.
This article by Rabbi Marc D. Angel is reprinted from A Dream of Zion (Jewish Lights Publishing Co.)
A tiny nation, often misunderstood and maligned, changed the course of history for the good. This tiny nation produced the Bible and its prophets; sages and mystics; poets and dreamers. This tiny nation, generation after generation, in many ways has been the conscience of humanity, the litmus test of human civilization.
This tiny nation lived in a tiny land in antiquity. Its King David established Jerusalem as its capitol city a thousand years before the dawn of Christianity and more than 1600 years before Mohammed. It was seldom allowed to live in peace: other nations threatened, attacked, made war. It saw its capitol city razed by vicious enemies, its Temples destroyed by Babylonians and Romans, its citizens ravaged and exiled.
This tiny nation, scattered throughout the world, faced persecutions and humiliations. Its men and women and children were confined to ghettos, deprived
of elementary human rights, subjected to pogroms and pillage. Millions of them were murdered during the Holocaust.
Exiled from its land for nearly 2000 years, it always dreamed of returning to its ancestral soil and re-establishing its sovereignty. It prayed daily for the return. Many of its members made pilgrimages, and some remained living in the land throughout the generations, in conditions of poverty and oppression.
In spite of the persecutions it suffered and in spite of the callousness of so many nations of the world, this tiny nation maintained faith in One God and in the mission He assigned it to bring the lofty teachings of Torah to humanity. In spite of all its sufferings, this tiny nation maintained faith in humanity: it strove to make the world a better place for all human beings, with an eternal optimism that is truly a wonder.
This tiny nation, born 3500 years ago, wove its way through history and refused to be destroyed or silenced. This tiny nation, scattered throughout the lands of the world, found the will and the courage to return to its historic homeland after nearly 2000 years of exile. The return home has been difficult. It has had to fight wars, withstand terrorism, overcome economic boycotts, endure political isolation, and combat hateful propaganda.
Yet, this tiny and ancient nation, against all reasonable odds, has re-established its sovereignty in its historic homeland; it has created a vibrant, dynamic, idealistic society, dedicated to the ideals of freedom and democracy. With its memory spanning the millennia, it has created a modern, progressive state.
My wife Gilda and I first visited this historic land in the summer of 1968, a year after our marriage. When we glimpsed the shoreline from the airplane window, we both found ourselves with tears in our eyes. We were not born in this land; we had never been there before; and yet we were returning — we and all the generations of our families were returning through us. “When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we were as in a dream (Psalm 126:1).”
This tiny people is Israel. This tiny land is Israel. This nation of dreamers and visionaries, builders and farmers, sages and scientists, warriors and peace makers—this nation is Israel. This tiny nation is a great nation. This tiny land is a holy land. “The tiny shall become a thousand, and the least a mighty nation (Isaiah 60:22).”
Israel is a bastion of hope in a world filled with despair. It is a wellspring of human dignity in a world filled with shameless hatred and strife.
To stand with Israel is to stand for the redemption of the people of Israel and humanity. To stand with Israel is to recognize the sheer wonder of the survival and contributions of the people of Israel. It is to affirm the preciousness of life over a culture of death; righteousness over hypocrisy; idealism over despair. This tiny nation in its tiny land is a testament to the greatness of the human spirit. It is a testimony to God’s providence.
It is a privilege, beyond words, to dream with Israel and share its destiny.
“For Zion’s sake I shall not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I shall not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a flaming torch (Isaiah 62:1).”
That shitty little frog Daniel Bernard met his maker ten years ago. Good riddance!
Won’t matter what Israel develops or invents. The Europeans live only to wipe every last Jew off the face of the Earth, and to finish the work of Adolph Hitler, who, in the post-Christian Europe, is Europe’s true God and Messiah. Nor does it matter to the Europeans that Israel may have enough atomic weapons to obliterate the continent. If 300 million Europeans die to wipe out 6+ million more Jews, there is no doubt that the majority of Europeans consider that to be a price worth paying?
Doubt that last statement? Add up what percentage of Europeans support Communist parties, Socialist parties, and ultra-nationalist parties, plus Islamist movements, all unified in their desire to wipe out every last Jew. That adds up to a majority of Europeans.
@ mar55:
All the righteous indignation won’t make one wit of difference. Just like arguments of security needs are irrelevant. Israel foolishly bought into the Oslo fraud and conceded that it occupies another’s land. Until Israel starts to exerts it’s legitimate rights and expose the pali-poser fraud, nothing will make a difference.
The only shitty smell comes out of the French. I’ve never encounter such bad odor as that coming out of their shitty citizens. With all the Jews leaving France and landing in Israel they are going to be left with people without imagination or business skills.
The country has no way to go but down. Just go into history and see what happened to Spain after they got rid of their Jews.
The French cannot even make tanks that work. When they go to war their tanks have only two speeds.Neutral and reverse. The reverse gets more use than any other since they are cheese eating surrendering monkeys. Without Jews they are lost.
@ Salomon Benzimra:
@ bernard ross:
@ Yidvocate:
I have made several copies for distribution and, I’ll ask the people who receive them to make extra copies and distribute them. I sent more than 40 emails and the same as I take with me my IPhone to Aaron’s Market to get out the information about Israel and Israpundit. The middle age people and older adults are more interested than the young people. I think that having children and raising a family has something to do with not having time for Israpundit. As long as their parents and grandparents inform them the information gets out. This area has lots of shuls and is growing. The largest grow in Judaism is in the Orthodox community. Monday I’ll take this article to the class I’m attending and again will ask to distribute it. In spite of BB and the straw he has as a brain Israel not only will survive but it will shine brighter than ever. It is quite a trial for Israel to have to put up with their PM.
He could not manage not even a small farm. How can he continue as PM of Israel it is beyond my imagination.
And still the world hates us. Defies all reason.
Yes, great piece; I have to copy it, what’s the date?.
Great piece, Ted!
Please note that the Israeli economy is more than twice the $100B you quote