Who needs Israel anyway?

Who needs Israel anyway?Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:47:54 -0500Who needs Israel anyway?By Pat Boone


Many Western and European political leaders having heard thedeprecations and the determination to wipe Israel off the face of theearth, from the likes of Palestinian Yasser Arafat, Saudi ArabianOsama bin Laden, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,and so many other power brokers in the region have come dangerouslyclose to deciding that little Israel is the "thorn in the side" ofworld order.The next logical thought is: "Who needs Israel ? Let her be erased,her people dispersed (or whatever), and the Middle East can settlecomfortably into a harmonious Islamic community of states. Problemsolved!"What folly. What suicidal blindness.I just returned from a momentous event in our nation's capital. Anorganization called Christians United for Israel , or CUFI, convened4,000 people from all 50 states in several days of briefings andstrategy sessions, culminating in an exhilarating, rousing rally inthe D.C. Convention Center featuring Jewish leaders and top Christianministers celebrating the things we hold in common and the spiritualbonds that unite us. The next day, several thousand of theparticipants fanned out over Washington and Capitol Hill, lobbyingvirtually every representative and senator on behalf of Israel andits sovereignty.Why? Couldn't we all see this is an exercise in futility, anunnecessary bother that we'd all be better off if Israel didn't exist?No, we all see clearly that the world needs Israel . The whole world.What do I mean? Consider:Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of theworld's population, can make claim to an astounding number ofsociety's advances in almost every dire ction!Intel's new multi-core processor was completely developed atfacilities in Israel . And our ubiquitous cell phone was developed inIsrael by Motorola, which has its largest development center in thelittle land.Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology was pioneered in Israel .AirTrain JFK ï¿Â〓 the 8.1-mile light rail labyrinth that connectsJFK Airport to NYC's mass transit is protected by the Israeli-developed Nextiva surveillance system.Bill Gates calls Israel "a major player in the high-tech world"; mostof Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel; thePentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel; bothMicrosoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the U.S.in Israel; and, with more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech companies inthe world apart from the Silicon Valley.Get this: Israel leads the world in the number of scientists andtechnicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85in the U.S. , over 70 in Japan , and less than 60 in Germany . Withover 25 percent of its workforce employed in technical professions,Israel places first in this category as well! It goes on and on.The Weizmann Institute of Science has been voted "the best universityin the world for life scientists to conduct research." Israeliresearchers have:Discovered the molecular trigger that causes psoriasis.Developed the Ex-Press shunt to provide relief for glaucoma sufferers.Unveiled a blood test that diagnoses heart attacks ........ ... bytelephone!Found a combination of electrical stimulation and chemotherapy thatmakes cancerous metastases disappear and developed the first fullycomput erized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breastcancer!Designed the first flight system to protect passenger and freighteraircraft against missile attack.Developed the first ingestible video camera so small it fits inside apill used to view the small intestine from the inside, enablingdoctors to diagnose cancer and digestive disorders!Perfected a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, aninnovation with the potential to save lives among those withcongestive heart failure, synchronizing the heart's mechanicaloperations through a sophisticated system of sensors.These are only a few of Israel 's recent contributions to the welfareof the world. There are just too many to list here. Water shortage,global warming, space travel, anti-virus, anti-smallpox, bloodpressure, solar power, paralysis, diabetes, data storage these andhundreds more are being addressed by Israel's scientists. They'repioneering in DNA research, using tiny strands to create humantransistors that can literally build themselves and playing animportant role in identifying a defective gene that causes a rare andusually fatal disease in Arab infants!WHO NEEDS ISRAEL ? WHO DOESN'T ?Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any othernation by a large margin; it has the largest number of startupcompanies globally, second only to the U.S.; it is No. 2 in the worldfor venture capital funds, financing all these advances; its $100billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighborscombined; and Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.And while it maintains, by far, the highest average living standardsand per-capita income, exceeding even those of the UK , Israel is thelargest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth, relative to itspopulation. It is truly an unparalleled marvel of our time.So what's the point of all this?Simply that the very idea of eradicating or even displacing Israelfrom its historic home is suicidal to the rest of the world, not justher Arabic neighbors. Though there are ominous biblical consequencespronounced on those who "curse Israel ," there are also wonderfulblessings promised those who "bless" her and we're seeing those real,practical, humanitarian blessings proliferate around the world,blessing all humanity.Stop just for a second and imagine a world today that never knewIsrael . And then go further: Given their living standards,ideologies and attitudes toward all who dare to disagree with them,imagine what our world would be like if Israel 's enemies held sway.Would you rather live in an Iran , Iraq , Syria or Afghanistan ? Oran Israel ?Who needs Israel ? Let's be honest. We all do.


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