Category Archives: Israel

Updated: Israel Is Doing Just Fine Financially (& On Illegal Immigration)

“The Med’s Best Kept Secret”: “Israel today has become a vibrant, functioning jewel of a nation tucked into the eastern flank of the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv looks more like San Diego or Barcelona than Baghdad or Kabul.” … it maintains “a stable macroeconomic structure and a strong high-tech sector.” …

“What’s the secret? Ayelet Nir, chief economist at IBI, an Israeli investment firm, lists six major reasons Israel’s economy has done well of late:

A very conservative banking system–without most of the complex and problematic financial instruments found in the United States.

No mortgage crisis in a country where putting 50 percent down isn’t unusual, and banks often ask for guarantors.

A current account surplus since 2003.

Negligible inflation.

Prudent governmental fiscal policy.

Healthy integration into the world economy.

“Israeli technology has certainly been a big part of the Internet age. The cell phone? Developed in Israel. Ditto for most of the Windows NT operating system and for voice mail technology. Pentium MMX Chip technology? Designed in Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Developed in Israel. The list goes on. Firewall security software originated in Israel. The latest breakthrough is the “PillCam,” a video camera that can be swallowed and aids physicians in diagnosing intestinal cancer.”…

How has Israel managed to do so well in high-tech? Every Israeli high-tech player can recite the national data like a bleacher bum spitting out baseball statistics:

Israel produces more science papers per capita than any other country.

Israel lags behind only the United States in number of companies listed on NASDAQ.

Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce has a university degree; only the United States and Holland have a higher number.

Israel leads the world in scientists and technicians per capita.”

Read the complete article.

Update: Israel is doing something else right: deporting illegal immigrants without much fuss.

Updated: A-Jad

Iran, Islam, Israel

Only in America. And I mean it in a good way. I first came across this nickname for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Diana West’s blog. I see it’s commonly used by The American Thinker. Very funny. I know I’ll be scolded by neocons, who describe A-Jad as akin to Hitler, but all I see is a colossal clown.

In any case, a nickname is long overdue. Good wholesome disrespect is the best assertion of American superiority.

On a serious note, Andy Bostom, the exegete of Islam, has some must-read Iran analysis on his blog. Read “Perpetuating Iran’s Islamic Culture of Hate,” and “Mullah’s Milk.”

Update (June 23): A-JAD AND ISRAEL. The Christian Science Monitor considers the reasons A-Jad is preferred in Israel:

“[E]ven though Mr. Ahmadinejad has threatened the Jewish state with destruction, many officials and analysts [there] actually prefer the incumbent president because – short of the downfall of Iran’s theocratic system of government – he’ll be easier to isolate. Reformist leader Mr. Mousavi, by contrast, isn’t expected to alter Iran’s drive for nuclear power, but he would win international sympathy.”…

Clinton To Israeli-Palestinians: Stop Breeding!

Hillary Clinton, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Justice

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells the Palestinians living in Israel proper to curtail procreational so as not to infringe on their Jewish neighbors. And while they’re practicing family planning, Clinton commanded close-on-a-million Israeli-Palestinians to refrain from adding a room to the family home, for the same reason.

I’m sorry. I got confused. Clinton’s commands apply ONLY to Jews living in Palestinian territory, not to Palestinians living in Jewish territory. But you’ve benefited from that little exercise, have you not?

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman certainly gets it. He told Clinton, “NO!”—no to her imperious demands that Israelis “‘completely’ halt activity in West Bank settlements.” “Everywhere people are born, people die, and we cannot accept a vision of stopping completely the settlements. We have to keep the natural growth,” Lieberman said during his talks with the secretary of state in Washington.

Against this backdrop, William Barr, columnist for the Paris Post Intelligencer, has surveyed some of my writing on Israel for his readers. Barr is a writer who bothers to do research and quote his subject accurately; now that’s fair treatment I’m not often subjected to.

Geithner Gives Chinese Students The Giggles

America, China, Debt, Economy, Education, Inflation, Israel

There is something quaint and good-natured about laughing at the ludicrous Geithner’s claims of American solvency, instead of getting angry or being rude, as less-inhibited Westerners might, when faced with a bald-faced lie. The Chinese response is definitely culturally distinct.

Were American students capable of grasping how bad the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s policies are, and how dire the debt and the deficits, they might grow testy. Alas, no point dealing in hypotheticals. The chances are slim that an audience of students on a typical American campus would allow facts, the laws of economics and reason to get in the way of Obamadualtion and general Keynesian credulity (a proxy for economic illiteracy).

It happened in China (via Reuters):

“China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of March, but some analysts believe China’s total U.S. dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.

‘Chinese assets are very safe,’ Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.”