Thank you Dr. Tim!

Imagine that every week you came to the doctor with a different ailment. One week you came in with a headache and the doctor told you "take this aspirin and you'll feel better..." The next week you came in with a cough and the doctor told you "take this cough syrup and you'll feel better..." At first you would be relieved, but soon you would be troubled that the doctor was not addressing the underlying illness. Without doing so, new and progressively worse symptoms would arise.This is how I look at many social, cultural and political phenomena that the western world faces.

Most notable among the symptoms of an underlying existential illness is the extreme and irrational hatred of Israel that is mostly seen among more liberal westerners. Before I go on I must state that yes Israel (like all nations) does things that merit criticism and no, not all criticism of Israel is Anti-Semitic, but it is mind boggling how the criticism has become so obsessive and unbalanced.

In the last few days a hospital in Sri Lanka was shelled 4 separate times by the government, killing numerous civilians. I have yet to see one student march protesting this and calling for an "end to the occupation of the Tamil homeland by the Sri Lankan government..."

In the last 20 years over 1.0 million Christians and Animists have been murdered by the Arab-Islamic regime in Sudan, but how many protests have we seen against Sudan? How many westerners have demanded an "end to the Arab-Islamic occupation of Southern Sudan?"

And in the face of slaughter of Kurds in Turkey...Assyrian Christians in Iraq...Chechens in Russia...mass starvation in North Korean and we are faced with a deafening silence.

Hamas, a radical islamic terrorist group launched 1000's of missiles at civilian targets in Israel and Europe remained silent, but when Israel responded with a targeted response it was met by howls of protest. Well respected intellectuals throughout Europe even called on the destruction of the State of Israel.

The question plagued me: "Israel is the only nation in the middle east that is prosperous, pluralist, democratic, dynamic, creative and capitalist...Israel is a staunch defender of western civilization against some of the most radical, hateful, anti-western groups to cast their shadow on the world stage...so why do so many "progressive" Europeans side against Israel?"

One day I presented this question to my friend Tim. His response was "perhaps Europeans and leftist Americans hates Israel not IN SPITE of its successful affirmation of western civilization, but BECAUSE of this successful affirmation."

Tim's insightful comment struck me like lightening. The segments of Europe and to a lesser extent America that have lost confidence in and even become hostile to western civilization would naturally be troubled and even repelled by a nation that affirms and fights to maintain that very civilization. People who march away from the west's Judeo-Christian foundation will never sympathize with those who live and even dies to maintain that foundation. People who march towards a socialist nanny state will be unsettled by nations, such as Israel, that successfully are moving towards the free-market and limited state.

I believe that the spiritual malaise, this crisis of confidence that inflicts much of the west manifests itself in other symptoms, like the multi-culturalist philosophy that dominates most academic, corporate and government organizations. The merits of assimilating native born, as well as immigrant students to western and American culture is another larger topic, open to debate and discussion. But, there is no question, there is no debate that when a people do not seek to maintain and propagate their culture, they do not believe in the worth of their culture, as well as the worth of themselves.

I guarantee that with keen, honest observation you will see many more symptoms of this ailment. I will leave you with a few of the accomplishments of the "terrible Zionist entity.


Modern Israeli Inventionshttp://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.inreview.com/archive/topic/15785.html

Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 10:33:57 AM by fishtank
Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:
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 US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the US.
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.
With an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16s, Israel has the largest fleet of the aircraft outside of the US.
Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech start-ups.
Twenty-four percent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees - ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland - and 12 percent 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 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.
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."
According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. U. S. officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
In 1991, during the Gulf War, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra played a concert wearing gas masks as scud missiles fired by Saddam Hussein fell on Tel Aviv.
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 Givun imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, the camera helps doctors diagnose 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 heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
Technology... With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley).
In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
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.
The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
The AOL Instant Messenger was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the ClearLight device,produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct - all without damaging surroundings 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 country on earth. This from a country just 55 years young having started off life on a very frontiers-like basis, whose population had mostly just emerged from the devastating World War II years.