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A Further Perspective
Israeli Exceptionalism
No other country casts such a giant shadow.
Much was made of President Obama’s dismissal of the idea of American exceptionalism, when he noted that the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism, etc. No doubt Achilles believed in the latter, as Hector believed in Trojan exceptionalism. But in many ways there truly is no more exceptional a nation than modern Israel.
Exiled for nearly two thousand years by Roman imperialism, survivors of countless persecutions over the centuries — including those of an Islam far less tolerant that “Religion of Peace” partisans would have us believe — the Jews were awakened to the promise of return to the Holy Land by Napoleon. The man Winston Churchill called “the greatest man of action to take the world stage since Julius Caesar” invaded Egypt in 1798 and, more even than the atrocities of September 11, 2001, that invasion “changed everything.” Bonaparte promised the Jews that they could return to the Holy Land if they supported him. Napoleon spent his last days on St. Helena, in the south Atlantic, an inhospitable place. Given the condition that Jews coming to Zion found “the land of milk and honey” in, St. Helena was the Ritz by comparison. When the Arabs arrived in the seventh century they brought with them not only their religious faith but black goats, which promptly gorged themselves on the abundant vegetation. Denuded, the Holy Land became in short order a visual and ecological wasteland. The City of David withered for lack of care, as Umayyads from Damascus, Abbassids from Baghdad, Fatimids from Cairo, Seljuks from eastern Turkey, Crusaders from Europe, Ayyubids from Damascus (led by Saladin, a Kurd), Mongols from the steppe (Genghis’ grandson, Hulagu, who went home else he would have razed the city), Mamluks from Egypt, and Ottomans from Constantinople, serially conquered the City.
Enter the Jews late in the Ottoman period, finding a land Mark Twain described as desolate and deserted when he came to Jerusalem in 1867, six years after the first settlement outside of the Old City’s walls had been started. As Jews came to Palestine, a place that had never denoted a city, let alone a country of any kind or, for that matter, a people, so the Ottomans took notice, and sent Arab tenant farmers in. The hundred-plus years and counting war between Arab and Jew in Palestine began early in the twentieth century. Jews came not as conquerors, and purchased from absentee landowners (the effendi class) the farms worked by the farmers. Through a century of backbreaking labor and ingenuity they restored green fertility and beauty to the wasteland left after thirteen centuries of Muslim (mostly not Arab, as only the Umayyads were ethnically Arab) misrule and neglect.
Now the “Palestinians” — a misnomer if ever there was one — want it all back. They would end the miracle that is Israeli exceptionalism. one that tops ours. America was a vast land, rich in natural resources, protected by two immense oceans, and populated by a few dozen pre-modern tribes. It took a full century from George Washington’s 1789 inauguration to close what Frederick Jackson Turner called the final frontier. Along the way, America had time to develop and prosper, shielded from the destructive wars of monarchical Europe, until in 1917 it came to the rescue of a Europe attempting to commit suicide.
Israel had no such luxury. Shooting started the very night that news of the November 29, 1947 UN partition resolution reached the Mideast, and continued through Israel’s May 14, 1948 proclamation of statehood. Sixty-three years of unremitting Arab hostility have followed. Israel is a tiny island surrounded by more than one-quarter of a billion Arabs, virtually none of whom think there should be a single Jew in the Mideast, let alone in Jerusalem. David? First Temple? Second Temple? Say — in Arabic, please — “Bah humbug!”
Yet Israel has prospered, gliding through the recent near global crash with a growing economy and the world’s second most dynamic tech sector. It is a triumph of the human spirit and genius. Arabs, awash in petrodollars, lack the human capital to match Jewish dynamism. Israel, put simply, beat longer odds than did the United States.
Frank Sinatra’s voice lights up the business center at the Tel Aviv Dan Hotel as I type. You remember him, the pilot in Cast a Giant Shadow who dropped soda-pop bottles to scare off Egyptian tanks. Fortunately for the state of Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces have more than soda-pop bottles to resist Arab aggression. And the IDF will need all they can get to continue to protect Israel’s ability to prosper. Frank is long gone, but the IDF is here. Perhaps Israel will adopt “Come Fly With Me” as a theme for the 21st century.
(Mr. Wohlstetter has been reporting from Israel all week.)
About the Author
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Michael Tomlinson| 9.8.11 @ 6:24AM
RINO Ron Paul and his devotees want like this on little bit, but it was a good article about a great people who've deserve the support of the leader of the free world.
pineapple| 9.8.11 @ 7:00AM
I'm sure you're not referring to Obama but the next "real" president.
Alan Brooks| 9.8.11 @ 7:15AM
Imagine this sci-fi scenario: A small tribe with unique literature, customs and myths believes they’ve been “chosen” for a glorious destiny. But they’re driven out of their native land, forced to wander the globe for aeons, persecuted and annihilated, until they’re impelled by a utopian novel to return to their homeland. They name their new city after the inspirational book and their country becomes a technological powerhouse… but still, they’re surrounded by enemies. They wage eternal war, they hover between hope and apocalypse… their contributions to humanity are astounding but they continue to fear total extinction. Familiar? Of course. I’ve described Israel and the Jews.
A four-millennium saga with floods, burning bushes, diasporas, miracles, massacres, temples, pogroms, holocausts, and 180+ brainy Jews receiving Nobel Prizes - 22% of the total awards garnered by only .25% of the population. Today’s Israel - a dynamic nano-nation tinier than New Jersey in size and numbers - is imagination made concrete, the material manifestation of Theodor Herzl’s futuristic, Zion-inspiring 1902 book Altneuland (translated as “The Old New Land” in English, and “Tel Aviv” in the Hebrew translation by Nalum Sokolov.)
Is Israel valuable to Transhumanism? Yes. Even though most Israelis worry about surviving next week and regard contemplation of the year 2025 as impractical because they might be “pushed into the sea” by then. Yes. Even though membership in the Israeli Humanity Plus chapter is only 50-100 with twenty regular attendees. Yes, Israel is a crucial player in H+ and here’s why:
Silicon Wadi
In 1998 Newsweek named Tel Aviv as one of the Top Ten technologically influential cities in the world.Wired and The Economist rated Israel’s high tech region second only to Silicon Valley. “Silicon Wadi” - an area half the size of its California sibling - has over 3,850 startups with 120 companies on NASDAQ, the largest number outside the USA. Israel’s tech success is aided by low-rate government loans for development - Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and numerous global business surveys have all praised Israel’s economic environment. Another contributing factor: well-educated immigrants who arrived from the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, and abundant local grads from esteemed institutes such as Hebrew University, The Technion, Tel Aviv University and Weizman Institute of Science.
Consider this commendable data: The first cell phones were developed at the Israeli branch of Motorola. The majority of Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft Israel. Pentium MMX chip technology was designed at the Israeli Intel. Both the Pentium 4 and Centrino processors were designed by Israelis. Dov Moran, an Israeli, invented the flash disk. Voice mail technology? Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Israel. Highest percentage of home computers in the world? Israel. Highest ratio of university degrees? Israel. Highest per capita number of scientists and technicians in the workplace? Israel. (145 per 10,000 - second is USA with 85). Techno-progressive President Shimon Peres recently declared, “the future is in nanotechnology.” Israeli universities advance research in cutting edge fields like cognitive neuroscience, cellomics, telomerase, etc. etc.
Petri Dish for Progress
On November 9, 2009, Ray Kurzweil was a guest at the Israeli Presidential Conference: Facing Tomorrow. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited Kurzweil for inspiring his “Renewable Energy Initiative” that seeks to replace all fossil fuel with renewable resources - primarily solar - in the next ten years. Kurzweil discussed reverse-engineering the brain with President Peres. The American futurist also proposed using nanotech to solve energy and environmental issues, and he suggested building an entrepreneurial technology incubator that would be shared collaboratively by both Israelis and Palestinians. Kurzweil has the ears of open-minded Israeli leadership. Imagine the impact if (when) his ideas are successfully enacted. Israel’s small size and tech chutzpah make it an ideal laboratory for scientific progress.
Robotics
Israel has on-going military needs and a small population (5.6 million Jews, 1.9 million Arabs). It has responded to this challenge by becoming a world leader in robotic weaponry. In 1981 it successfully utilized its first unmanned aircraft. Since then, it has added unmanned speedboats, unmanned ground vehicles, border guard robo-snipers, camouflaged robot snakes, and a nine-inch tall VIPeR ‘bot that climbs stairs, sniffs for explosives, disarms bombs with water spray, heaves grenades, and shoots hostiles with a mini Uzi submachine gun. Israel’s goal is to robotize one-third of its military machinery in the next 10-15 years. There’s also been non-violent success. Israeli scientists co-developed (with Europeans) the “SmartHand” (a robotic prosthetic hand), and they’ve recently invented a bionic retina implant, “Bio Retina.”
Artificial Intelligence: Michael Vassar of SIAI (Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence) notified me via email that “the main Israelis that pursued work vital to our core mission are Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky… and the computer scientist Judea Pearl for his development of Bayes Nets.” Kahneman (2002 Nobel Prize winner for his Prospect Theory) was born in Tel Aviv. Tversky was born in Haifa. Their collaboration on “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” is a seminal work in the Artificial Intelligence field. Singularity essays like Eliezer Yudkowsky’s “Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks” are deeply indebted to the Israeli psychologists. Judea Pearl - computer scientist and philosopher - is also recognized as a giant in the field of artificial intelligence. He’s a pioneer in the probabilistic approach to AI and the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.
Stem Cell Research
Israel leads the world in stem cell research papers per capita. On April 9, 2010, scientists at Hadassah Hospital achieved a crucial breakthrough. They demonstrated a new technique that can mass produce huge quantities of fetal stem cells. Two members of the Israeli Humanity+ chapter are highly knowledgeable in stem cell research: bio-scientist Dr. Danny Belkin and bio-ethicist Dr. Frida Fuchs Simonstein.
Environmental IQ
Israel aims to be the first nation with a national electric car network - they hope to have it fully operational by late 2011 (edging out Denmark). Its engineers are also developing hydrogen fuel. Israelis are world leaders in desalination and wastewater renewal. On World Water Day (March 22), the United Nations lauded Israel as the planet’s most efficient recycled water user. Tel Aviv University scientists also recently (04/22/10) discovered that ultra-violet nanoscale wavelengths are superior to chlorine for cleaning tap water. Israelis have long been leaders in solar energy technology and they export their expertise around the world. One company just signed a deal to build solar energy farms in California and Nevada. Israel is also unique in the world because every year its population of trees increases.
Science Fiction
Israel has been described as “the birthplace of science fiction.” For chariots in the sky, eco-cataclysms, invisible voices, and other paranormality, check out the Torah. Want a hero traveling through space, searching for the secrets of creation? Examine the apocryphal books of Enoch, circa 300 B.C. In contemporary Israel, “political science fiction” dominates the genre, with the vast majority of successful books using the homeland as a setting. A utopian-intended society tottering on the edge of annihilation is obviously ideal for SF. A partial list of important authors would include Pesakh Amnuel, David Avidan, Dan Zalka, Etgar Keret, Orly Castel-Bloom, Gail Hareven, and Addy Zemach.
Futurist Philosophy
Mordechai Nessayahu’s “Cosmotism” depicts a future in which Israel saves humanity from eco-disasters and nuclear annihilation. Also influential as a Labor Party stalwart, Nessyahu motivated Yitzak Rabin and Shimon Peres to pursue the Oslo Accords peace plan. Shimon Peres published his own visions in “A New Beginning.” He imagines an improved Israel via peace and an information revolution. Equally optimistic is Yigal Arica’s “What’s in the Future?” Niv Ahituv’s “A World Without Secrets” presents a totally transparent world, where all information about everyone is available to everyone.
Tzvi Bisk - author of Futurizing the Jews (co-written with Moshe Dror) and The Optimistic Jew - predicts that Israel will become a model superpower. He says that it will be a “light unto nations,” with one of the world’s highest scientific, cultural, social and economic standards. He also envisions a cyber-Israel, connecting global communities to enlarge the “Jewish homeland.” Recent events have perhaps dampened Bisk’s positivity. In an email to me he remarked, “you may have noticed from media reports we in the Middle East have not yet gotten the humanist thing right yet, let alone the transhumanist thing.”
Young Bright Lights:
Ilia Stambler is a primary organizer of the nine transhumanist seminars in Israel. He’s a 38-year-old PhD candidate at Bar Ilan University, writing a dissertation on “The History of Life Extensionism in the 20th Century.” He’s also an intern at IEET (Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies). Stambler notified me via email that Israeli transhumanists are primarily focused on life extension, with the Singularity ranking second in interest. He also reports that “futuristic visions are often underplayed here in view of the more immediate concerns.”
Adi Berman is only 19 years old, but Aubrey de Grey has praised her as “exceptionally bright and intelligent.” A singer/songwriter with her tunes on MySpace, she’s a respected writer on Imminist.org forums. Her emails to me were pithy: “Israelis hope that Israel has a future.” Discussing radical life extension, she insists, “Life’s irrelevant if death overcomes us… it’s natural that we seek unlimited life spans, every organism tries to survive… each having a natural tool to help them: venom, speed, strength, camoflage, etc… we have a BRAIN, a highly developed one, that is our natural tool to survive….”
Defense & Friends:
Israel is a world leader in satellite technology, often used in spying on hostile neighbors. Israel also has nuclear weapons - an estimated 75-200 warheads. It’s got the fourth largest air force in the world and the most impenetrable flight security. Israel’s “best friend” is not the United States, it’s India - a close economic and military ally, and a collaborator on space research. Israel’s also (usually) cozy with China, Russia, Germany and Mexico.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Israel (like South Korea) will be a tiny giant in the world of the future. Both nations have risen triumphantly from near-nothingness in the last sixty years. Although Israel is miniscule and threatened by opposition, it has used this challenge as motivation for advancement. Israel’s diminutive size and gargantuan progress is reminiscent of the small vibrant city states of history, such as classical Athens (rivaled by Sparta, Thebes and Corinth), medieval Florence (opposed by Venice, Milan, Genoa, Pisa and Siena), the Warring States of China (forward leaps in philosophy, metallurgy, government, law and military strategy), Swahili seaports (Mombasa, Malindi, Kilwa, Sofala, Zanzibar, and Mogadishu competed economically as their cosmopolitan cultures blossomed), plus myriad other mighty dwarfs that performed phenomenally under pressure.
I believe that Israel’s future will be as plucky as David with his technologically superior sling. All humanity can benefit from Israeli research and inventiveness as our planet progresses towards a metaphoric “land of milk and honey.”
Hank Pellissier, with special thanks to Ilia Stambler for his patient assistance.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.8.11 @ 9:54AM
Alan,
where in the dickens did you get this splendid copy/paste?
It certainly wasn't your words. You barely make one declarative sentence in a row.
Nevertheless...a good read.
Stammon| 9.8.11 @ 10:20AM
Alan got it here:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/4164
Thank you Hank Pellisier
Alan, you finally post something worth reading. Did you mean to infer that you wrote it?
Alan Brooks| 9.8.11 @ 10:37AM
Didn't you read the last sentence?? sheesh!
W| 9.8.11 @ 12:50PM
Alan,
good post.
I retract any bad comment I may have made to you.
Any prior bad comments I may have made are now inoperative.
Margie| 9.8.11 @ 3:21PM
LOL. Hey, Alan has always been on Israel's side. That plus he's anti-Libertarianism for the most part. He gets it.
Before I get accused of "willfully misrepresenting" you though, I will add: Am I correct in saying so, Alan?
Three cheers for Brooks today!
Alan Brooks| 9.8.11 @ 4:15PM
Thanks, Marge. Now would you please forgive Catholics? the Pope isn't the AntiChrist; Benedict's number isn't 666, is it? He isn't the Beast.
Margie| 9.8.11 @ 4:38PM
You're welcome, sir.
I don't have anything against Catholics, it is the doctrines that are against the Word of God that I hate.
And when anyone argues in favor of them that are false, I must present the very Words of God in protest. That's what Christians do.
Catholicism teaches a doctrine of works, but God says we are saved by His Grace.
"For by Grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--
not because of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:9 & 10.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 4:57PM
Margie---you are a darling. Your husband, of course, is a wonderful, wonderful man.
Kevin Codd| 9.9.11 @ 2:06AM
Margie,
You are (at least partially) in agreement with the Catholic Church on this subject. The Catholic Church teaches that we are saved by God's Grace alone. I believe the distinction you are trying to draw is that of faith vs. good works.
As far as that goes:
-Jesus Himself tells the rich man that in order to be saved he must "keep the commandments" in Matt 19:16-17.
-St. James repeatedly tells us of the necessity of good works: "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:24), "...faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26) ".
-"For He will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life" (Romans 2:6)
Pax Christi
Kevin Codd| 9.9.11 @ 2:13AM
If you want some evidence that this is the Catholic Church's official stance on Grace, Google "catechism paragraph 1996". Subsequent paragraphs go into more detail.
Margie| 9.10.11 @ 3:28PM
Kevin,
I'm not interested in Catholicism. I prefer to find the Words of God in the Bible, directly.
I know exactly what the Religion teaches. And even if they did change the wording as to Grace, they haven't yet repented of the myriad of other false and unbiblical teachings.
I appreciate the gesture, but reject the Religion outright.
Joseph| 9.9.11 @ 1:01PM
Kevin. Don't waste your time talking sense to her. She isn't rational, it is all hate, every religions is false except what she read in her bible. Makes atheism look better every time I read her stuff.
Joseph| 9.9.11 @ 12:57PM
Brooks, she can't change, too far gone. You are the only one here, maybe couple others, who don't enable her bigotry.
Margie| 9.10.11 @ 3:16PM
Ah, no, "JOSEPH"~
The true bigotry is on the part of the Catholic church who claims that the "Pope" is "the vicar of Christ."
There is no such thing in the Bible, nor does God approve of such a thing as church hierarchy.
If you read your Bible you would know this.
And~ the horrid bigotry of the Catholic church is that it rejects Bible believing Christians and considers them heretics. Actually, much like you do!
They persecuted and tortured and killed Bible believing Christians for about 600 years. Why? Because they rejected the Papists and their despicable heretical unbiblical teachings.
A little truth seeking on your part is in order, my "friend."
Joseph| 9.11.11 @ 8:09AM
Ah yes "Margie"
Read some history besides your fundamendalist sites. Learn that all religions especially your protestant religion have persecuted others. You are only believe in your little world reading a bible that was a translation of a translation of a translation of books selected by Martin Luther and a comittee appointed by an english king. Try Martin Luther King instead of Martin Luther if you want to be a Christian. There is no point in responding to a ignorant fanatic. You keep repeating yourself. You are a mean vicious fanatic.
VBMax| 9.8.11 @ 2:58PM
This can't be the same Alan Brooks whose posts I normally scroll through, is it?
Thanks for posting it.
RCV| 9.8.11 @ 3:43PM
Well done, Mr. Brooks.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 4:56PM
Ken---let us praise Alan here as we criticize him when he does badly---Alan, really, really excellent, informative post. Thank you very much. One other thing, Alan---how often are you hacked by a C Elegans troll?
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 5:03PM
You forgot greatest numbers of scientific papers published per capita---Israel.
Jack in Wi.| 9.8.11 @ 6:40PM
Israel is the world's greatest welfare queen. It has recieved many hundreds of billions in subsidies from the American taxpayer. It also has recieved hundreds of billions in reparations from Germany. It receives vast monies from the worldwide dispora. It also gets a lot of money funelled through from the Russsian Israeli Mafia. Israel would dry up and blow away without all that support. If Israel is doing so well now, why are there hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets demanding more from the government? If Israel is doing so well now, why can't it finally get along without American foreign aid?
Mike w| 9.8.11 @ 9:44PM
Yes, Israel the most exceptional nation that American tax payer money can buy.
RCV| 9.9.11 @ 12:53AM
And we've made few better investments. It's right up thre with the space program.
Sam G| 9.9.11 @ 6:35AM
The US has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to Egypt, support of the Paleswinian "Authority", The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, want me to name few similar more?
And what did it get in return? $#@%. All wasted or stolen.
Have you calculated how much it costs to keep twenty thousand (or so) US troops in South Korea (not mentioning the thousands of US soldiers who died in the Korean War)? It has been a sound investment,hasn't it?
Or, how much has it cost the US taxpayer to maintain Western Europe's independence during the cold war (frankly, with Eurabia looming on the horizon maybe the US should have let Europe sink earlier. It is going to sink anyway, no doubt).
How much has the US contributed so far to the Un and its semi defunct corrupt agencies? Do you have any idea?
George| 9.9.11 @ 1:03PM
What is our return on this israel investment. I know we give them 3 or 4 billion every year. What do we get, just asking, want to know.
Sam G| 9.10.11 @ 11:01AM
The money given is only for procurement of military gear from US companies. This arrangement is called Foreign Military Funding (FMF) and Israel is not the only one to receive such funding (Israel does not receive any "welfare" funds like Egypt). The actual beneficiary of this is the US industry (US workers!).
Some of the FMF is used to develop certain system in Israel, like the Israeli Arrow anti-ballistic missile system. Guess who gets all the knowhow because of the FMF? The US Goverment! This example is just a drop in the bucket of how the US industry and governemnt benefit from the funds they allocate to Israel for defence procurement.
RCV| 9.9.11 @ 1:28PM
We get a strong and reliable ally in the region. We get a democratic state that protects the rights of people of all faiths -- Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish -- to worship openly at the sites that are so precious to their religion: The Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Church of Holy Sepulcher, the Via Dolorossa and the ancient Jewish Quarter. We get a state that has done the work we would otherwise have had to do in destroying nuclear weapons facilities in Iraq and Syria that would have posed a real and potent threat to our troops and allies in the region. We get a country where advances in science, technology and the arts benefit all of humanity every day. And we get the blessing of knowing that there is a refuge in the Middle East for the Jewish people who face persecution everywhere else in the region, and in other places around the globe, and who can at last say, "Never Again."
That's among the things we get, George. Good investment from my perspective. Good investment, indeed.
George| 9.9.11 @ 5:59PM
Agree with all that but at what price. Since the 1967 Six-Day war the Arabas/Muslims blame us because they can't beat Israel as long as we support Israel. So since 1967 the muslim terrorrists attack us. We were not attacked before 1967 and the 1973 war.
It is a fair question that we should ask without being accused of hating Jews or hating Israel or anti semitism. Should Americans die and get attacked here at home for Israel. Or can Israel defend itself.
RCV| 9.9.11 @ 8:55PM
Israel has di-efended itself for every day of its existence. No American soldiers have fought for it.
Nor were we attacked because of Israel or because of the intractability of the Israel-Palestine disputes. Islamacists only use that as a rallying cry to attempt to attract support for their cause. When Jordan and Egypt controlled the West Bank and Gaza from 1948 through 1967, they could have created a Palestinian state on their own, but they didn't believe in the concept of Palestinian national identity, and didn't want an entity controlled by the rabid PLO/Islamic Jihad/Hamas factions on their border.
We were attacked by the Islamacists because of our ties, not to Israel, but to the Arab regimes in the region whose governments they want to overthrow (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt), and because of our bases in those countries, and the fact that our companies exploit and export their oil. Even if the Palestinian issue had been resolved in 1948, that Islamacist hatred of us would still exist today.
Israel is just their favorite whipping boy, but we are their favorite target.
George| 9.9.11 @ 11:16PM
What evidence is there that were were attacked after 1967 because we supported regimes they wanted to overthrow. None. You know that is not true.
Even Bibi says the muslims call Israel the little satan and the USA the big satan. Read the Six Day War history written by an Israeli. He says the Arab propoganda after 1967 was to blame the USA for their defeat, they couldn't accept that Israel beat them, it had to be the USA's help.
Rightly or wrongly they believe they lost the wars and can't beat Israel because of the USA. You can argue if we should support Israel but you can't change the facts.
No soldiers have been killed, but 3000 civilians were killed on September 11 by the terrorrists, and many others have been killed by the terrorrists, and our country is like a police state where we have to be checked and screened at airports and buildings and sports events.
You are attempting to be too clever.
RCV| 9.11.11 @ 11:26PM
Osama Bin Lade wrote and talked extensively of American occupation of Saudi Arabia, the sacred precincts that Mohammed walked upon, and his determination to fight until they left. Palestine is but a sideshow for Al-Qaeda.
Nick| 9.10.11 @ 12:32AM
RCV,
"No American soldiers have fought for it."
That is not completely true. There were Army forces manning Patriot Missile batteries in Israel, during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. They also trained the Israelis how to use them.
I completely agree with you about why the Islamacists attack us. Usama Bin Laden thought that we would leave Saudi Arabia after the attacks of September 11th. Like we had left Somalia, in 1993.
He thought that by taking over Saudi Arabia he could wreck the economy of the West, thus, destroying us. Usama's end game was always taking over Saudi Arabia.
He didn't realize that President Bush would not act as cowardly as Bubba 'the pervert' Clinton had, after Blackhawk Down. A bad miscalculation, on his part.
You probably don't agree with that last part! Ha-ha!
Have a good weekend.
POST American| 9.8.11 @ 7:00AM
"Isreal was set up to be the Ulster of the
Middle East."
-------------------------WHO said that?
AGAIN, the virtual signature of capstone
'Order out of Chaos' and controlled dialectic
from the Albert Pike crowd.
---Divided South Africa, Berlin, Germany,
Cyprus, Isreal, Ireland -----KOREA.
Hitherto unknown until the usury and capstone
creeps got their 20th century sovereignty
destruction and EUGENICS op underway.
AGAIN, -----------thank you Globalists!
RT| 9.8.11 @ 7:22AM
Very informative article. One point, though: per the book of Genesis Israel's success is due to the triumph of God's promise to Abraham, not the human spirit.
C Smith| 9.8.11 @ 11:47AM
Friday, February 23, 2007
A Zvika Force of One
On Yom Kippur, Israel’s most holy Shabbat (1973), the forces of 13 Arab nations, and Cuban and Palestinian troops converged on Israel to destroy her.
On that fateful Day of Atonement, the Israelis were outnumbered and outgunned by staggering margins. In Sinai, for example, exactly 450 Israeli troops faced an invading force of 100,000 Egyptians, who enjoyed a superiority in artillery of 40-1 and a force of 1,350 tanks against Israel’s 91. On the Golan, the Syrians had eight tanks for every Israeli tank, and even higher ratios of troops, guns and planes; later the Syrians would be bolstered by contingents of Iraqis, Jordanians, Palestinians, Saudi Arabians, Kuwaitis and Moroccans. In addition, the Arabs were equipped with the latest in Soviet rocketry, against which Israel had virtually no defense (Matt Nesvisky, The Lessons We Learned in 1973, The Jewish Journal, 2004-09-24).
Of those young men who stood between Israel and death, Golda Meir later recalls, ‘They fought and fell like lions’ (Peter Colon, The Yom Kippur War, Israel My Glory Oct/Nov 1997 p.15, emphasis added).
After the first day, the enemy in the Golan with tactical, logistical, and numerical superiority, the element of surprise, and Soviet supplied night-vision virtually destroyed Israeli resistance and was headed toward a strategic crossroads and Israel’s divisional headquarters. During the night, Lieutenant Zvika Greengold, a young blond son of Holocaust survivors, unattached to any unit, hitchhiked to the conflagration. Removing the dead from a Centurion tank, he took command.
For the next 20 hours, Zvika Force [koach Tzvika], as he came to be known on the radio net, fought running battles with Syrian tanks—sometimes alone, sometimes as part of a larger unit, changing tanks half a dozen times as they were knocked out. He was wounded and burned but stayed in action and repeatedly showed up at critical moments from an unexpected direction to change the course of a skirmish (Abraham Rabinovich, Shattered Heights, The Jerusalem Post, September 25, 1998).
His and a few remaining Israeli tanks succeeded in stalling the enemy who apparently thought they were confronting a superior force. Concurrently Prime Minister Golda Meir, conceding the Golan, began implementing the Samson Option (Judges 16:30):
During the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Israel came close to making a nuclear preemptive strike when it seemed to be facing defeat at the hands of Syrian armor, according to a half dozen former U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials familiar with the still-classified incident…. According to a former senior U.S. diplomat, by Oct. 8, Israel's northern front commander, Maj. Gen. Yitzak Hoffi, had informed Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan that he couldn't hold out much longer against the 14,000 Syrian tanks rolling through Israeli defenses on the Golan Heights. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Dayan was ‘attacked by acute panic’ and declared to advisers: ‘This is the end of the Third Temple.’ But if Israel was to perish, it would take Damascus and Cairo with it. According to a former senior CIA official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, Dayan sought an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Golda Meir and secured her authorization to arm 13 intermediate-range Jericho missiles with nuclear warheads. Eight F-4 Phantom fighter aircraft were also to be given nuclear arms, former senior U.S. officials said (Richard Sale (UPI Terrorism Correspondent), Yom Kippur: Israel's 1973 nuclear alert, United Press International, 9/16/2002, emphasis added).
Unlike the Army of One recruiting ploy, the day is coming when every Jew of Israel will literally be a Zvika Force of One:
In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first,that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them (Zechariah 12:6-8, emphasis added).
http://theisraelofgod.blogspot.....f-one.html
Paul Kotik| 9.8.11 @ 7:40AM
What a terrific article. Israeli Exceptionalism - like many a stroke of brilliance, it seems so obvious once it's discovered. There could be no more apt a phrase.
POST American| 9.8.11 @ 8:19AM
---"The Ulster of the Middle East".
-------------------------Ain't they clever.
Sean| 9.8.11 @ 9:32AM
Since they are more exceptional than the USA maybe we can now stop giving them billions in welfare each year. Sounds like they can do without it.
Sam G| 9.9.11 @ 6:49AM
You are greatly mistaken. Israel doesn't get any civilian ("welfare") aid from the US, but allocation of funds for military procurement (FMF-Foreign Military Funding), which can be used only in the US to procure military gear from the American industry, which charges exhorbitant prices for its goods, with the blessing of Uncle Sam. The fact is that similar non-FMF procurements are much cheaper.
In pure economical terms, Israel does not need this support. Being a 200+ billion dollar economy (with a GDP per capita 10 times higher that that of Egypt), the 3 billion FMF aid is a drop in the bucket.
The FMF benefits mainly the US industry and a sizeable bunch of bureaucrats (in Israel and the US) who are "supervising" this aid.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.8.11 @ 10:11AM
May God continue to bless Israel.
You guys need one old crippled up sniper?
Walking Horse| 9.8.11 @ 10:11AM
And, to top things off, Benjamin Netanyahu is the de facto leader of the free world, given that our current leadership has rejected the position with prejudice.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 8:21PM
Jeez, Walking Horse---I have said that EXACT same thing. It should be POTUS. It's a damn shame it is Bibi.
RCV| 9.9.11 @ 1:29PM
It's our President, no mistake about it.
Stammon| 9.8.11 @ 10:23AM
Why can't we give the Israelis California and see what they do with it? It certainly isn't being used now.
Mike D.| 9.8.11 @ 10:37AM
Well, the California leftists tried immulating North Korea and we know where that is now, why not, let Isreal have a go at it.
RCV| 9.9.11 @ 1:30PM
Israel would be a good SECOND choice for us Californians, but we'll stick with the USofA, thank you.
Akaky| 9.8.11 @ 11:31AM
Sinatra's best line from Cast a giant shadow is about those soda bottles. When the head waiter tells him that the bottles will scream as they go down, Sinatra says, that'll make two of us. Good article.
C Smith| 9.8.11 @ 11:38AM
Thursday, February 22, 2007
A Nation Born in One Day?
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children (Isaiah 66:8).
On Sabbath Eve, the 5th Day of Iyar 5708 (14 May 1948) David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel and appealed “to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel … in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream — the redemption of Israel.” President Truman, an outsider unexpectedly elevated to the Oval Office a few years earlier, was immediately notified. Quickly hand correcting a two sentence response without notifying officials of contrary opinion in the State Department or a Special Session of the UN General Assembly, the United States, in the person of Harry S. Truman, was the first to recognize “the provisional government as de facto authority of the new state of Israel.” In the eleven minutes it took Truman to respond, the two thousand year justification for SPIRITUALIZING Israel's covenants, promises, and blessings vaporized! The children of Israel were in the land.
The first person of course is the radiant woman which was none other than the nation of Israel. And fighting against the woman was the great dragon and this dragon is none other the person of Satan in his great diabolical work in trying to destroy the nation of Israel because by that he could make God a liar... Of course he ultimately fails because God will yet proclaim His purpose for Israel. He will yet reveal that purpose. It will yet be unfolded in time to come and the very fact that Israel is a nation today is indicative of the fact that God is going to keep His Word as if there was any doubt (The Valley Church, emphasis added).19
There was dancing in the streets, and then the realization that Israel’s rebirth would be through the fire. Arab forces of Lebanon, Syria, Iraqi, Egypt, Tran Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Yemen converged within hours to annihilate the fledgling nation, which in the estimation of British Field Marshall Montgomery would occur within two weeks due to the imbalance in training and ordnance: “1 tank w/o gun (Arabs 40 tanks), 0 war planes (Arabs 74), 5 artillery pieces (Arabs 140), 3 armed ships (Arabs 12)” (Yosef Ofek, Not on a Silver Platter: From National Home to Sovereign State, 1939-1949, 1984). Israel did have access to a few Piper Cubs, from which Jews tossed empty seltzer bottles modified to mimic the sound of falling bombs. They also had a few other small planes where the bombardier, legs strapped to the door, would chuck improvised bombs (some with sewer pipe casings) between his legs football style. Like David in the valley of Elah they had little more than sticks and stones, but they were fulfilling His purpose “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (cf. 1 Samuel 17).
http://theisraelofgod.blogspot.....e-day.html
saltine| 9.8.11 @ 12:48PM
Israel is our ally. Like England. Or France. Or Germany. Nothing more and nothing less. The contributions they have made are no greater than those of many other countries, and they exist today in large part only because of us. And I support that. But the arrogance of the Isreali supporters here - that even though they continually spy on us, take actions that threaten our interests in the Mideast, deliberately and unnecessarily antagonize their neighbors they are still great - is very alienating. Our nation's interests and those of the Israeli people are two related, but very different, things.
prudence| 9.8.11 @ 1:05PM
I think you have failed to recognize that posters are not just supporters of Israel, we are amazed at the grace of God toward her.
Dave Williams| 9.8.11 @ 3:02PM
Grace? GRACE? You call being under continuous attack by millions of sword-wielding 7th-century fanatics GRACE?
Not for me, thanks. How about, say, Norway, or Canada, who seem to have life generally pretty good?
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 5:00PM
Dave---actually, compared to the way we HAVE had it---yup, this is G-d's Grace to us.
Saltine---you have polio or not? If not, your appreciation of the contributions of the Jewish people is somewhat limited, pal.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 8:16PM
The Norwegians will become Islamic in 30-40 years.
C Smith| 9.8.11 @ 11:35PM
Good observation. The Lord has and continues to extended GRACE to Israel, but she is still not ready to accept it. One day she will:
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn" (Zechariah 12:10).
KyMouse| 9.8.11 @ 1:25PM
The late Jewish evangelist Zola Levitt, of Zola Levitt Ministries (www.levitt.com), often spoke about the exceptionalism of Israel.
As I have said before in TAS comments, he pointed out that no other nation of people have been forced to leave their homeland, have been scattered to almost every distant country, have suffered terrible persecution, and yet have returned to their homeland two millennia after their exile began.
And they have returned speaking the same language -- the prophet Isaiah could walk down a Jerusalem street today and converse with people he passed -- and worshipping the same God as their ancient forebears.
Zola added that the same could not be said of other ancient lands: The tour guide who shows you around the pyramids in Egypt is likely to be Muslim, not a worshipper of Ra or Horus; nor will he write in hieroglyphics. By the same token, your tour guide around the Acropolis in Athens isn't likely to worship Athena or Zeus.
No other people have achieved what the Jewish people have achieved in their return to their ancient homeland -- and through the Bible, God promised that all of it would happen.
saltine| 9.8.11 @ 2:14PM
Prudence is absolutely right - these are the comments of zealots, or what, if they were of another faith (say, for example, Islam) we would call radicals or fundamentalists. Not the greatest voice to have helping you discern a useful and productive foreign policy, I would argue.
John786| 9.8.11 @ 2:49PM
Another day. Another Zionist loon. I fear that America has an infinite supply of these loons. All very depressing. But on the bright side there are already more Palestinians living under isreali rule than Jews. The writing is on the wall. come on Palestine . Next year in al-quds inshallah.
VBMax| 9.8.11 @ 3:09PM
@John786
I guess you're just one of those people who can't stand success.
RCV| 9.8.11 @ 3:46PM
John, God definitely does not so wish.
And yes, there are an infinite number of American supporters of Israel, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, Jewish and Christian and Atheist.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.8.11 @ 4:50PM
RCV
Just now and then you write a post that makes me smile. Give me a call on my cell phone. Heh, we can argue for hours you scumbag communist.
713-569-3896
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 5:01PM
Well, I'm happy for that, guys. (RCV and Ken) I like you both. Even though I 99.99999% of the time agree with Ken, and maybe 20% of the time agree with RCV.
But I like the way RCV and I disagree.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 8:20PM
No, no John, there aren't . Nice try. May the Dar-Al-Harb swallow you whole, and may the fleas of a thousand camels infect your unwashed armpits.
Dave Williams| 9.8.11 @ 3:03PM
In your fever dreams, you muslim pig.
Dave Williams| 9.8.11 @ 3:03PM
In your fever dreams, you muslim pig.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.8.11 @ 4:54PM
Hey folks,
I got an idea. As soon as the water-tanker planes finish our fires here in Texas, let's load 'em up with ground up pig guts and spray the middle east.
A whole piss-pot of virgins will be relieved in paradise.
John786| 9.8.11 @ 8:04PM
Very nasty even by your standard ken. A response that doesn't mention your rediculous book. Well done Ken. I was hoping by now that you would have raptured. But then who would keep us all entertained. Stay with us Ken don't get raptured please. Pretty please. On a good note Arabs and Jews are working together in isreal against neoliberal economic policies. May be this will blossom into a wider civil rights movement against sectarian based government. Inshallah next year in Al-Quds.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 8:19PM
"Against sectarian government?" No thanks to Sharia, fool.
Naturalborn Texicanette| 9.8.11 @ 6:26PM
Hahahahahaha!!!!! Love it OT!!!!
Fire in Leander a couple of days ago just missed my son's house by 160 feet. So thankful!!!
For a good read about Israel's birth, try Herman Wouk's novels "The Hope" and "The Glory."
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 8:18PM
I am glad you are safe, as Texas Women (as I know from personal experience) are wonderful ladies.
Kingofthenet| 9.8.11 @ 6:29PM
Israel is an Ungrateful ally...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....dberg.html
PJ| 9.8.11 @ 6:55PM
I like Israel alot. It does have some problems which the essay has hinted.
It has a secularized, relativist society akin to western Europe & the United States. Like the western countries, it does not seem to value innocent life. Abortion is legal & 10%-14% Israeli pregnancies end in termination.
Israel doesn't seem to be very good at investing in cutting-edge, biological enterprises. ---------It seems to be investing in fetal stem cell research, a losing proposition compared to adult stem cells.
I expected Israel to be much more ethical considering all the hardships they have faced.
That said, the surrounding Middle Eastern leaders & their people secretly want Israel to stay alive & healthy. And so do I.
Sam G| 9.9.11 @ 6:56AM
PJ, you have stated: "I expected Israel to be much more ethical considering all the hardships they have faced"
Compared to any country in the world (including those sanctimonious hipocrites from Scandinavia) Israel is the most ethical country in the world.
PJ| 9.9.11 @ 9:17AM
I guess you consider abortion & fetal stem cell research to be moral & ethical?
Sam G| 9.9.11 @ 11:28AM
Why shouldn't abortions be legal? You sound as if women in Israel undergo abortions galore, but in fact it is a bit more complicated and scrutinized. You cannot have an abortion on a whim.
About the fetal stem cell research - I admit I don't have a clue...
Still, on the question of ethics - compare Israel to any country in the world and you'll see that I was right.
Nick| 9.10.11 @ 6:17PM
Sam G.,
Abortion is intrinsically evil. It can never be justified, for any reason. Because the abortionist kills an innocent human being.
Mike w| 9.8.11 @ 9:49PM
If you freaks want to believe the superstition that Jews are God's Chosen people then you are welcome to do so. Just quit backing that weird idea with my tax dollars.
No intention of being anti-semitic. I just don't believe the fairy tale.
Margie| 9.8.11 @ 10:31PM
This World you we living in is the fairy tale, Mike.
Eternity is forever, and God is real. All of this is going to perish~ and sooner than we think.
Jesus is Lord, God's will be done.
Joseph| 9.8.11 @ 10:52PM
You know what god's will is tell us.
Margie| 9.10.11 @ 3:24PM
Yes, I do!
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.
You will seek Me and find Me; when you seek Me with all your heart.." Jer. 29:11-13.
Now, you tell me that is wrong.
Joseph| 9.10.11 @ 6:07PM
There is nothing wrong. You can take that to mean whatever you want. You pray...
You have a habit of pasting some quote that means something to you but you don't or can't say what it means.
Margie| 9.10.11 @ 10:50PM
Doesn't that mean anything to you, Joseph?
Joseph| 9.11.11 @ 8:11AM
Do you know how to speak in English declarative sentences.
POST American| 9.8.11 @ 10:56PM
---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
"The ULSTER of the Middle East"
----------------------------CASE CLOSED----------
Naturalborn Texicanette| 9.9.11 @ 10:34AM
Thanks OT!!!!
D Roamer | 9.11.11 @ 1:58AM
My thought is that Israel has a technology surpassing any nation with the exception of you know already, the U.S.A. Why do I write this? Iran's nuclear program has been disabled many times by problems in their network. It has been compromised by worms, bugs, whatever newest form of network invasion that Israel can dream up. Even without the aid of counter agent , the system is vulnerable. When once compromised, it will be engineered to be leak proof, but with decoding programs so rapid these days, a opening will surface. When hostile moves are made, a demonstration of what can happened will occur, such as all electric power will shut down, the whole country is centered on the power for everything from phones to lights, operation of elevators, the nuclear system will not operate. Just a wild thought today. Thanks for letting me ramble on so.
Richard Baker| 9.11.11 @ 5:50PM
John786:
So you want a massacre of millions of Israelis? Sieg heil, mein Fuhrer!