Israel is 1/6th of 1% of the whole Middle-East. 2% of the Middle-Eastern population. In light of that:
- Highest ratio of university degrees per capita in the world
- More scientific papers produced than any other nation in the world
- Highest number of scientists and technicians per capita in the world
- Highest number of PhDs per capita in the world
- Highest number of engineers per capita in the world
- Highest number of physicians per capita in the world
- Highest number of workforce in tech per capita in the world
- Largest immigrant-absorbing nation per capita in the world
- More start-up companies per capita in the world
- Largest wholesale diamond center in the world
- More NASDAQ companies outside of US and Canada
- Second highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world after Silicon Valley
- Most of the shit used in your computers was developed there, same with cellphones
- Most museums per capita in the world
- Most orchestras per capita in the world
- Most books published in the world per capita in the world
- Most books read per capita in the world
- Most independent free Arabic press in the Middle-east
- Only country in the Middle-East where the Christian population has grown in the last 50 years
- Only country in the Middle-East where people of all religions are free to vote
- Only country in the Middle-East where women have full political rights
Even the rest of the Middle-East as a whole doesn't compare.
I literally cannot comprehend why so many diehard liberals support Palestine unconditionally and act like Israel is the Third Reich reborn. Israel is a
massive success story; they managed to achieve all of this
while surrounded by enemies on literally all sides. Can you even imagine how much better Israel would be if they were able to focus/spend money on on non-military matters instead?
Honestly, I feel like what holds most Middle Eastern countries back (aside from religious fundamentalism, sectarianism, and overall corruption ) is the gigantic victim complex they insist on holding onto. Everything is the West's fault. Everything is Israel's fault. Nothing is
ever their fault and they refuse to help themselves, instead contenting themselves by blaming everyone else. It's undeniable that Western (not just American, Europeans have their hands dirty, too) intervention has played a role in the current state of the Middle East, but I just hate how people (both the aforementioned diehard liberals as well as many Middle Easterners) act like the ME was a peaceful, stable place before Western powers fucked everything up.
A big part of the victim-complex is Islam, or rather how many of its adherents interpret in. The self-victimization results from the fact that a lot of Muslim people think that Islam is
perfect - the perfect religion, derived from the perfect god, delivered through the perfect man, and written down in the Quran, which is perfect in its every syllable. Because the religion is perfect, it follows that nothing that is wrong in Muslim societies is the fault of those societies. All problems are externally caused. So many people start believing that "Islam is the solution" and increase religious fundamentalism while decreasing secularism. They refuse to look inwards and consider that maybe, just
maybe, they should tone down the Islamism just little bit and put more effort into non-religious education and efforts. Instead they just keep getting more and more fundamentalist and intolerant, which means many Middle Eastern countries are getting worse instead of better.
They really need to just take over Northern Iraq and declare it Kurdistan already since they've done a much better job at fighting for something than the Iraqi army ever did.
