The cycle of perpetual outrage and victimhood continues.
Mitt Romney pointed out something obvious, that Israel has a record of economic success unmatched by those under Palestinian Authority control, attributing it to cultural and other factors:
“As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” the Republican presidential candidate told about 40 wealthy donors who breakfasted around a U-shaped table at the luxurious King David Hotel….
The economic disparity between the Israelis and the Palestinians is actually much greater than Romney stated. Israel had a per capita gross domestic product of about $31,000 in 2011, while the West Bank and Gaza had a per capita GDP of just over $1,500, according to the World Bank….
“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”
Horrors! That’s racist!
The reaction of Palestinian leaders to Romney’s comments was swift and pointed.
“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
No, Romney did not say that there is anything genetic about the Palestinians which has made them less successful, he simply mentioned cultural and other factors.
Doesn’t culture matter? Doesn’t the fact that Israel has a culture focused on high tech and scientific education and entrepreneurship matter?
Seven Israelis have received the Nobel Prize in various sciences. Here are some other inconvenient facts:
In terms of inventions Israelis have given the world the Uzi, the mobile phone (partly), camera chips for phones, SMS messaging and the first anti-virus software; Israel has the highest percentage of home computers per capita and the third most educated workforce on earth, with 12 per cent holding advanced degrees. The country also has more engineers and scientists per capita than any other country around the world, and has more companies quoted on the high-tech NASDAQ stock exchange than any other country outside the United States, more than all of Europe, India, and China combined.
In the last ten years Israeli scientists have won five Noble prizes in the sciences, a tally bettered by only four other nations, while per capita Israel produces more economists than any other country.
Israel also publishes a huge number of Scientific and Technical Journal Articles, some 16,470 in 2005, more than the entire Arab world and Iran combined. And the Jewish state produces an astonishing number of inventors. Last year in the United States Israelis registered 1917 patents, just below Italy (58 million people) and the Netherlands (15 million) and way ahead of its neighbours Saudi Arabia (58) Turkey (45) Egypt (20) Kuwait (14) UAE (9) Iran (8) Lebanon (5) Jordan (1) and Syria (0). Israel itself grants 2500 patents a year, putting it in the top 20 of all countries and again more than all its neighbours combined. Israel is number one in the world for medical device patents per capita and number four for biotechnology patents per capita. And its biotechnology exports are now worth $6 billion a year.
How else to explain why Israel, but not Egypt or Jordan or Syria or the Palestinian controlled areas — or even most of the non-Arab world — excels like Israel?
Here’s one of today’s headlines in science, Molecular transistors to help tablets replace laptops:
A Tel Aviv University researcher recently found a clever solution to these problems [of limits on miniturization of electronics].
Doctoral student Elad Mentovich, under the supervision of Dr. Shachar Richter of the chemistry department and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, explained that the continuing miniaturization of silicon technology has made it difficult to build large computer memory, especially because of the difficulty in miniaturizing the capacitors used to store the data.
Mantovich used carbon molecules called 60C (meaning 60 carbon atoms) to build a tiny, sophisticated memory transistor that is able to transfer and store energy and completely eliminate the need for a capacitor. It can store both an electric charge and information at the same time A capacitor (originally known as a condenser) is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field.
There is nothing racial or genetic about Israel’s success. Adjacent Arab countries and territories could be as economically successful, if they focused less on destroying Israel.
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And now Israel has vast oil and gas reserves, too.
God love ’em…
Yes, He does! 🙂
Dershowitz reverts to type…
“But today, for reasons that are unclear at best, at the very moment of Mitt Romney’s arrival in Jerusalem, the law professor has decided to inject himself in the political process by publishing an apologia pro vita Obama regarding the president’s Israel policy. He has no “buyer’s remorse,” Dershowitz tells us, from supporting Obama in 2008 and will do it again this year.”
http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2012/07/29/dershowitz-flacks-for-obama/
Israel GDP per capita for 2011 is 32,000 $.
You mean a culture focused on ‘splodey dopes inhibits growth and innovation? Who knew?
Yep, when your highest cultural aspiration is to strap suicide bombs onto the chests of your best and brightest, you’re probably not going to produce a society with a lot of technological, medical, or other innovations to its credit.
But keep on hating on the Jews, Palestinians. It’s been working out so well for you so far . . . .
Speaking of President “Gutsy Call” …
Thus, through projection, today’s meme is that Romney is a “wimp.” OMG
Over the strenuous objections of aides and political advisors, President Barack Obama today ordered Seal Team 6 to execute Osama bin Laden with extreme prejudice. Though the political cost to his presidency could have been fatal, the president was motivated by what those know him best call his unparalleled sense of justice. “I just had to do what I thought was right,” the president commented. “I know no other way.”
See how easy it’s going to be to spin this?
Erekat blames the “occupation,” conveniently forgetting that several Palestinian ministers (including, I think, him) resigned in the 1990s from the Palestinian Authority because of corruption–billions of dollars missing from foreign aid that somehow found its way into Arafat’s bank account (and those of his cronies)at a time when they were supposed to be building a civil society on lands that Israel had just left. Instead, they were in preproduction on Return to Intifada.
Hey, Saeb, if Israel can do all that while in A PERPETUAL STATE OF WAR, maybe you should consider that the real cause is that you refuse to accept a Jewish state. Given a choice, you’ll always prefer a dead Jew to a prosperous Palestinian.
(Oh, but somehow the fictitious country of Palestine managed to field an Olympics team, taking the gold in three events: suicide bombings, rock throwing, and self-victimization. Be proud.
“The Hand of Providence” is an interesting reference, that some greater entity than the merely human may be involved in the incredible success of modern Israel. Five thousand years have passed since G_d called Abram out of the land of Ur and brought him to the Land of the Promise. His descendants still inhabit that land. Try as you might today you cannot find a Moabite, Ammonite, Amorite, Edomite, Jebusite etc., but you can find an Israelite, right where the G_d of Abraham, Issac and Jacob said he would keep them.
That was always The Plan.
“Big Brother” was only a small part of what Orwell wrote about. A greater theme of his work was the inversion of meaning through propaganda in the name of totalitarianism (which, quite naturally, was presented as “the greater good.”) This is why these times are “Orwellian” (or, more properly, anti-Orwellian). So when we hear the liars and corrupters screech, we know that a truth is being told. This is our foolproof moral Geiger counter. When the Palestinians screeches, when Obama screeches, when all Leftists and any of their unholy allies and enablers screech and shriek “hate” or “racism” — we know we are on to the truth. This is when we need to press harder, right on the sore spot, until the screeches finally give way to the bent knee and broken spirit.
We must break and rout them with the truth, just as they have tried to rout and demoralize us with their lies using the mob of the media and PC hordes.
They recognize that their god wills every setback. Maybe they should try a god that wills success to those who try?
Its no wonder leftys and arab nutbags have so many sypathys in common. They both believe in a doctrinare religion the only real differance being Islam believes in God. So essentially they are fighting the same enemy and belief system. They both seek to impose a system that allows their values and control to dominate. If they were to allow an open market their product is marginal.
Islam does not believe in God. Islam believes in a satanic being who finds lying acceptable and glorifies in murder. The Islamic being is not the same as the Judaeo-Christian God at all.
Ancient Arabia, Persia, and so forth flourished. Islam did them in. History, fact. It is not a life-enhancing worldview.
“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
That’s funny. Don’t Israelis also occupy Israel?
Disclaimer: I’m not implying that the former Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, British province of Palestine is actually a ‘nation’.
If nations were people, Palestine would be the guy crouched on the esplanade at a busy intersection, dressed in dumpster chic, muttering to himself. He’d be holding a sign that says, “Jews Stole My Country. Need $$$ for Krav Maga Lessons!”
Yep.
It’s just like so many of the poor in America. They blame their sorry state on racism, “the 1%,” capitalism, etc., etc.
But then you see immigrants who are not white, do not speak English, etc., come to this country determined to succeed against all odds … and they do it again and again.
Any American born in America has a huge advantage, just being a native English speaker, over someone who comes here and has to learn English.
There are no excuses. Culture is the key. And when your culture or subculture is dysfunctional, you will not flourish.
I wrote about the problem of a Palestinian state at Rantburg a few years back. I have yet to read anything new that would change my mind. We know what a future Palestinian state would look like — we’ve seen it.
” if they focused less on destroying Israel.”
They have a much bigger problem than that.
Freedom is a pre-requisite to economic success. Under Islam, no one is free.
Inside Obama’s mind:
“Israelis, you didn’t build Israel yourself. Somebody else made that happen: American foreign aid.”
Didn’t the Paleostinians have almost everything they’d asked for at Oslo but they literally blew it up? Is it solely Israel’s fault that the PA cannot get its people to honor any ceasefire or peace accord?
Obama shot off his trap about returning to the 1967 borders, and it seems like American Jews have forgotten. We know that’s what he wants and it’s always what the Arabs have wanted. Asking the US to go back to its pre-1492 borders is almost as stupid and makes about as much sense.
What Obama needs to do is send Jessie Jackson and Owl Sharpt’n over there and teach them Paleostinians how to be REAL victims.
Not bad for a little sliver of a country surrounded by enemies bent on its destruction that until a short while ago had no natural resources. Not bad at all.
All is proceeding as Isaiah prophesied.
When Twain toured Palestine, in I believe the 1840’s, he remarked that the land was empty. Only with the beginning of Zionist arrivals at the end of the century did the land return to use.
The Jews always remained in Jerusalem but the Palestinians arrived from the Transjordan after the jobs, after the olive groves and irrigation and commerce returned.
Descendants of the Ammonites and Moabites.
Actually, Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, the son of the bondmaid.
I never thought to go to israel. I can’t think why I completely overlooked it. I think it was this Kibbutz stuff .
Now I would like to go & see the archeological digs . But I don’t want to see any Palestinians.
I wonder if there are “Visit Israel but see no Muslims ” tours.
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