Amazing little country
May. 24th, 2006 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyI was going to post about gardening, but my internets went down last night, so I couldn't upload my photos. So this is the Palestine/Israel post, although it's really more about my fucked-up family than anything else.
See, I don't really talk to my father's side of the family. I see him about once every few years or so. Sometimes he e-mails me on my birthday, sometimes he calls. On occasion, he sends me a card or a present. Often, he forgets—despite the fact that his birthday is two days after mine.
I have other relatives on that side too—uncles, aunts, cousins. I've seen a handful of them once in the past two decades. Last time, they gossiped to me as though we were an actual family, and we smoked pot and got drunk. They are all wankers.
Every so often, my father gets all uber-Zionist and sends me an e-mail like this one. On my birthday, which happens to be the day after the anniversary of al-Nakba.
Amazing Little Country
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.
Israel's $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 absolute terms, Israel 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 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 % of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 % 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) 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 Soviet 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 remarkable 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.
Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside for 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 the 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
Besides the fact that I don't think inventing the cell phone, voice mail, or Windows XP or having a huge airforce is anything to brag about, I'm sick of seeing this forward every gorram year. So I sent a forward of my own. I was pretty restrained, I think. I cc'd everyone my father had cc'd. And my mom, because she always finds this sort of thing interesting.
Needless to say, I take issue with this forward.
For starters, much of Israel's prosperity and expertise in scientific and medical technology can be traced to extensive funding, primarily from the U.S.
The Israeli government is the largest recipient of U.S. financial aid in the world, receiving over one-third of total U.S. aid to foreign countries, even though Israel’s population comprises just .001% of the world’s population and has one the world’s higher per capita incomes.
That's just financial aid—that doesn't include military aid and charitable donations.
How amazing might other little countries be with that kind of funding?!
"When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times."
The same Golda Meir who said "Palestinians do not exist"? The one who had sleepless nights for fear that Palestinian women might outbreed Israeli women?
Margaret Thatcher was also a woman; should we celebrate the British for electing her?
"Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free.""
It also was among the few countries to have dealings with Apartheid South Africa.
"Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert."
Radically altering the ecology of a region through irrigation, etc., is likely not ecologically sustainable. Besides which, the extent to which the Palestine Mandate was desert is very much exaggerated.
"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."
Unfortunately, that's what happens when you build your country on land where someone else is already living.
(I also attached![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ridemycamel's article about al-Nakba, not that I thought anyone would read it. I hope that was okay with him...)
I was most happy to get three responses.
From my mother:
I'm writing about this family drama because a) I found it funny, as I really have no emotional connection with most of my family, and b) because I think there's a lesson to be learned here.
As far as I know, none of my blood relatives is actually Israeli. My mother's side of the family is from Poland and Russia, and she grew up in Montréal. My father's side is also Ashkenazi, although I don't know where they're from. He and his sister grew up on Grace St. in Little Italy. Few people in my family have even been to Israel.
My mother's side of the family, for the most part, is very religious and isolates itself from non-Jews (she and her brother bucked the trend by very much embracing Canadian multiculturalism). My father's side of the family isn't quite so isolationist or religious, and they're more politically involved, but I highly doubt any of them have ever met a Palestinian before.
You'll notice from these e-mails that neither my father nor my aunt were actually able to refute a point I made with a logical counter-argument. It's a matter of tribal identification, not reality-based thinking. Us = Jews = Israelis = Zionists, by my aunt's logic, but it conflates ethnicity, nationality, and political identity in such a way that I don't see how it can describe a left-wing atheist living in North America. I feel like I'm being told to root for a certain football team because some of the players might share a few genes with me.
These aren't new thoughts by any means, but this recent exchange reminded me of why a debate on Palestine and Israel based on facts and reason so seldom happens. I know why I believe the things that I do. I don't think people in my family can say the same.
By the way, I was thinking of responding:
The only side I've ever taken has been that of justice and human dignity. If that offends you, perhaps you should examine why.
See, I don't really talk to my father's side of the family. I see him about once every few years or so. Sometimes he e-mails me on my birthday, sometimes he calls. On occasion, he sends me a card or a present. Often, he forgets—despite the fact that his birthday is two days after mine.
I have other relatives on that side too—uncles, aunts, cousins. I've seen a handful of them once in the past two decades. Last time, they gossiped to me as though we were an actual family, and we smoked pot and got drunk. They are all wankers.
Every so often, my father gets all uber-Zionist and sends me an e-mail like this one. On my birthday, which happens to be the day after the anniversary of al-Nakba.
Amazing Little Country
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.
Israel's $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 absolute terms, Israel 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 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 % of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 % 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) 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 Soviet 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 remarkable 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.
Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside for 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 the 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
Besides the fact that I don't think inventing the cell phone, voice mail, or Windows XP or having a huge airforce is anything to brag about, I'm sick of seeing this forward every gorram year. So I sent a forward of my own. I was pretty restrained, I think. I cc'd everyone my father had cc'd. And my mom, because she always finds this sort of thing interesting.
Needless to say, I take issue with this forward.
For starters, much of Israel's prosperity and expertise in scientific and medical technology can be traced to extensive funding, primarily from the U.S.
The Israeli government is the largest recipient of U.S. financial aid in the world, receiving over one-third of total U.S. aid to foreign countries, even though Israel’s population comprises just .001% of the world’s population and has one the world’s higher per capita incomes.
That's just financial aid—that doesn't include military aid and charitable donations.
How amazing might other little countries be with that kind of funding?!
"When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times."
The same Golda Meir who said "Palestinians do not exist"? The one who had sleepless nights for fear that Palestinian women might outbreed Israeli women?
Margaret Thatcher was also a woman; should we celebrate the British for electing her?
"Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free.""
It also was among the few countries to have dealings with Apartheid South Africa.
"Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert."
Radically altering the ecology of a region through irrigation, etc., is likely not ecologically sustainable. Besides which, the extent to which the Palestine Mandate was desert is very much exaggerated.
"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."
Unfortunately, that's what happens when you build your country on land where someone else is already living.
(I also attached
ridemycamel's article about al-Nakba, not that I thought anyone would read it. I hope that was okay with him...)I was most happy to get three responses.
From my mother:
HiFrom my father:
Obviously, your comments are well thought out and well articulated. Moreover, the article your friend
Good for you for passing this on as a response to the forward, and thank you for sharing it with me.
Love,
Wow, now that I have your attention ....And best of all, from my aunt—the pothead whom I'm seen once in the past twenty years:
That's the longest discussion we've ever had, thank you. It's not that I don't sympathise with the Palestinian plight, I just get Pee-Ohed at the bias report of the current situation.
Anyway it was just an article in passing as it was close to your birthday and mine.
Talk to you soon.
Love Dad.
Since when did you side with the Palestinians who have sworn to exterminate
us!
I am so disappointed in you as a jewish woman.
Rivy
I'm writing about this family drama because a) I found it funny, as I really have no emotional connection with most of my family, and b) because I think there's a lesson to be learned here.
As far as I know, none of my blood relatives is actually Israeli. My mother's side of the family is from Poland and Russia, and she grew up in Montréal. My father's side is also Ashkenazi, although I don't know where they're from. He and his sister grew up on Grace St. in Little Italy. Few people in my family have even been to Israel.
My mother's side of the family, for the most part, is very religious and isolates itself from non-Jews (she and her brother bucked the trend by very much embracing Canadian multiculturalism). My father's side of the family isn't quite so isolationist or religious, and they're more politically involved, but I highly doubt any of them have ever met a Palestinian before.
You'll notice from these e-mails that neither my father nor my aunt were actually able to refute a point I made with a logical counter-argument. It's a matter of tribal identification, not reality-based thinking. Us = Jews = Israelis = Zionists, by my aunt's logic, but it conflates ethnicity, nationality, and political identity in such a way that I don't see how it can describe a left-wing atheist living in North America. I feel like I'm being told to root for a certain football team because some of the players might share a few genes with me.
These aren't new thoughts by any means, but this recent exchange reminded me of why a debate on Palestine and Israel based on facts and reason so seldom happens. I know why I believe the things that I do. I don't think people in my family can say the same.
By the way, I was thinking of responding:
The only side I've ever taken has been that of justice and human dignity. If that offends you, perhaps you should examine why.
