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All of this, but from my perspective Israel's current policy is Jewish neuroticism writ large.
I have Jewish friends and I love them for their intelligence and wit, but whenever politics or conversation comes to Zionism, they turn into different people. The Holocaust has burned a collective trauma across the Jewish community (reinforcing the historical trauma of the pogroms) that causes them to act out.
If they continue to try to manipulate other gentile communities to act in their interests, they will continue to generate bad will that is not in their collective interest.
As a wise man once said, “If they don’t want to be seen as an international conspiracy to subvert and destroy anything that contravenes their ethnoreligious interests, then they should probably stop conspiring internationally to subvert and destroy anything that contravenes their ethnoreligious interests”
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I don’t know how many people here ever read the book Start-Up Nation about the story of Israel’s so-called “economic miracle.” Their view in that book essentially came down to the premise that its success was mostly internal and owed to “battlefield entrepreneurs,” that spurned a culture of innovation, via their military. What they downplayed in the book though was something that’s actually fairly well known in contemporary military doctrines called the “qualitative military edge.” That’s wholly independent of Israel and has existed since the days of the Cold War.
Because the nations of the Warsaw Pact had a numerical advantage over the US and its allied stations in Europe, America had to maintain its QME in defense systems, which are almost all based in technology. That’s why in US-Israeli arms deals, Israel gets first regional access to our defense technology. When America supplies both Israel and an Arab state the same tech, Israel gets a more advanced version of the platform and the ability to customize the US system. It’s why in Obama’s term (just to pick one example out of many), you can find stories in the news about how his administration just sold 20 F-35 aircraft to Israel, soon followed by a sale of F-15’s to Saudi Arabia.
To the OP’s point above you, Israel’s actually missed several economic opportunities because of its attention paid to their defense industry. If you look at Singapore for example, they chose a multicultural path to avoid the kind of race riots that threatened to divide them in the 1960’s. Israel didn’t ensure rights to Arab citizens or even Mizrahi Jews. Singapore chose economic development as a primary development target, Israel chose to prioritize defense at the expense of economic development; and so funds that could’ve went to fostering unity and regional development went into security and suppression of the occupied territories; and is more reliant on US military aid because of it.
In defense of Israel, Singapore has better land, and focusing on a multicultural, multireligious state was always more likely to succeed.
Singapore's land isn't an important religious site to multiple monotheist religions.
Singapore's land was sparsely populated by native Malays and mostly unused jungle. The settlement of Chinese workers may have started in the 14th century, predating modern ethnic nationalism. Israel's land was far more occupied and contested.
The malaysian Sunni muslims are either more tolerant of non-muslims from either a cultural basis, or maybe a Shafi'i islamic school perspective. This is less true of Arabic muslims in general.
If you could have body-swapped Lee Kwan Yew into dictator of Israel during it's founding, I don't think he could have molded Israel's society to be similar to what he did for Singapore.
Honestly, if your comparison is that you did well but unperformed compared to Singapore I'm inclined to cut you some slack.
I would sacrifice a testicle to have a dozen more such disappointments.
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It is in their collective interest. Jews have lived in Europe for 2000 without being able to assimilate. They have done so by having numerous rules and conventions that make it difficult to interact with Goyim. For example their food rules make it hard for them to share a meal with Goyim.
They have an exceptionally ethnocentric religion with a strong sense of them and us.
They have been in constant conflict with their host populations. Nothing unites a population like an external enemy.
Israel has some super woke people. It has some of the most fanatical religious people in the middle east. They have people who are genetically largely European and some who are north African and some who are from Persia. They have little to unite them except a common enemy. If Israel had been founded on an island with no enemies it would have torn itself apart by now.
Jews require constant conflict with the outside world and that is what makes their religion so difficult for the rest of us.
This is no different than any other intense religious practice. All religions have an ideological lexicon for distinguishing themselves from the out-group. You have Jews and Gentiles. Muslims and Infidels. Christians and Pagans. Communists and Counter-Revolutionaries. Catholics and Freemasons.
Jews (and I’m referring to the original meaning of the term, the religion of Judaism) are very committed to their beliefs. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. Plenty of Jews if you’ve ever truly interacted with any and tried inquiring into their beliefs will tell you go to Church and seek God within your own tradition. There’s something of a tradition in Judaism that if someone wants to convert, a Rabbi is supposed to deny them on 3 separate occasions and accept them on their 4th attempt. It isn’t because they’re scrambling to hide the secret Jewish titty bars and glitter from you, and the cage where they sacrifice a virgin down in the catacombs. They want to know through the spirit of your conviction that being turned away isn’t going to stop you from wanting to become a Jew. The religious requirements are heavy, and they want you to understand that. But in Judaism, it also isn’t a requirement that you have to become a Jew to have a share in the world to come. What requirements are incumbent upon you by God depends entirely on which covenant you belong to. Jews belong to the Mosaic covenant, Gentiles belong to the Noahide covenant.
They don’t “require” constant conflict with the outside world.
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