Israeli exports, mostly hi-tech, were $61bn in 2013, compared with Saudi non-oil exports, which were $38bn. Yet this figure conceals the fact that Israeli economic indicators are falling behind OECD norms, owing to the dreadful education of ultra-Orthodox children after 11 years of age. Arab-Israel education is as bad. Some call it third-world. Experts say that poor productivity and education will result in Israel eventually being unable to support the armed forces, which account for 5.7% of the national budget, and without which the nation will find it difficult to defend itself (not my judgment – that of educated economists).(Bronwyn Maddox, Prospect Magazine).
And yet…….the (mainly) religious extremists are so blinkered that they are unwilling do a peace deal, blaming the Arabs for everything and themselves for nothing. Now they are attacking Gaza and killing more Palestinians, over 100 of them as of Friday night. Much of the violence is from the “shababnikkim”, extreme right-wing ultra-Orthodox youth, whose racist hatred of Arabs and disregard for the law is causing alarm among many Israelis.
I wish we could elect that peacemaker and man of simple common sense, Epicurus, believer in happiness, to run that country. If he survived more than a month he might save both the Israelis and the Arabs from themselves. Unfortunately, it is possibly too late. This is the fruit of the medieval wings of national religions.
What the American Government should have done after the Second World War was to welcome all the traumatized Jewish survivors and refugees and set them up with accommodation and water in the deserted parts of Arizona. This way they would get the desert to flower and acquire a pool of seriously smart people to drive the economy forward. The whole grisly story of Israel and the Arabs would have been avoided. But this, I concede, ignores the antisemitism rife in the US ( and elsewhere) at the time, and, of course, the “next year in Jerusalem” idea promoted by the Zionists, who were determined to create their own country, come what may. But it is an intriguing “what if.”
The murder of the Jewish boy that started this current round of violence was clearly a deliberate attempt to undermine the rapprochement between Hamas and the West Bank Palestinians. Who did it is not known, but the grown up reaction of both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities should have been “This is dreadful, but we have to ignore it on a political level and continue to work towards peace”. But the last thing Netanyahu wants is a united Palestinian community, and no doubt there are Arab extremists who share his view. The over-reaction is typical of the calibre of leadership on both sides.