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Israel’s Amazing Accomplishments in 59 Years
26 April 2007April 22, 2007 marked Memorial Day, or in Hebrew, Yom Hazikaron, in Israel. Yom Hazikaron is a day where Israelis (and decent people around the world) remember the more than 23,000 Israeli soldiers that have fallen since Israeli independence in 1948.
And in typical Jewish fasion, April 23, 2007, one day after Memorial Day, Israel celebrated 59th year of independence. This is the strength of the Jewish people - to honour those who gave their lives for our people, but also to look forward to a shining future. It takes a special group of people to follow up one of the saddest days of the year with one of the happiest days of the year. This is what we love about Israel and the Jewish people!
Israel, for the young country that she is, has made some unbelievable advancements in the last 59 years. Here is just a tiny number of the accomplishments of the State and it’s people. Sources are not given, but will be added if requested.
Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population, can lay claim to the following:
- The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
- Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
- Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
- The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel
- Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
- Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel
- The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
- Israel ’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined .
- Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
- According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
- 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 U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
- With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world — apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.
- Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S.
- 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.
- On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
- Twenty-four per cent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent 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 (Operation Solomon) 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. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)
- Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”
- 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 Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, 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 camera helps doctors diagnose heart’s mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
- 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.
- A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct — all without damaging surrounding 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 county on earth.
With contributions like this to the world, how can anybody hate the country? For it’s size, Israel has pitched in far more than it’s share to innovations in health and wellness, technology, computing and virtually everything else. Israel deserves to get credit where credit is due. If you have friends that don’t know about the above facts, please pass the link onto them - this is important information! If you feel that the press should repeat this information to it’s readers and viewers, be sure to pass it on to them!
Happy 59th birthday Israel!
Tags:Commentary , facts about israel , israel , israelis , middle east facts
May 29th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I am deeply troubled by the lies and hate mongering that your corrupt media represents on a daily basis. Every article you publish is proof of the Zionist conspiracy of hate and fear which you use to guilt the white nations to continue to fuel your menace. You have no honour, no valour, Zion would not exist if not for the guilt created by your magnification of the holocaust which has been your tool in the corruption of the minds of the masses. You use the working class as your muscle as you control their education creating a race of ignorant subordinates. You have tricked our governments into fighting your battles which you claim as your own victories. You have brought the glory of Europe to its knees. You orcastrated the 9/11 attacks to gain American favour and create a pro-Isreali western presence in the middle east which will never end until the world sees the truth of your parasitic existence.
May 30th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Concerned citizen,
Your comments amount to nothing more than conspiracy theories, especially your accusations against us. Do you really think that we have so much power to “guilt the white nations to continue to fuel your (our) menace”? I wish we did! You give us way too much credit.
It’s rather disrespectful to say that we, the Jewish people, have magnified the Holocaust for unholy gain. Our intention is to try to show people that mass killing is wrong and that it should never happen again. Unfortunately, this message is lost on people like you, and thus tragedies like Darfur are still happening.
How exactly has Israel and the Jewish people brought Europe to it’s knees? It is the Muslims in Europe that are causing problems for Europe, not Israel. For instance, there are 10 times as many Muslims as there are Jews in France. How then does that indicate that Jews are bringing Europe to it’s knees? To say that is just silly.
As for accusing Jews and Israel of orchestrating 9/11 - that is just a ridiculous accusation of which you have no proof, because there is none.
As for calling us parasites, I’m not sure what you’re basing that on. If anything, we have improved the world. Too bad you hate us too much to even notice.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:34 am
The post does point out a lot of positive things about Israel, but there’s a plague in Israel called: “The rich getting richer whilst the poor getting poorer”.
As time goes the standards of being a poor man go lower and lower, so allegedly, less people should be considered poor, but that doesn’t happen. More families join the circle of poverty in Israel.
My father has to work in three different jobs so we will be able to be under the “has the highest average living standards in the Middle East” category.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Hello Hanan,
You are right - Israel is not perfect. As in every society, there are rich and poor. Israel’s social safety net is still not up to par with other Western countries, but I believe, on average, that a poor Israeli is better off than other poor people around the Middle East. In time, Israel will grow it’s social safety net and will help the poor more effectively.
Your comment can apply to the poor in any Western country. It’s an unfortunate fact of life. However do you not believe that even though you’re poor, living in Israel gives you more likelihood of being successful than the poor among Israel’s neighboring countries? You are, after all, using the Internet!
I wish you the best of luck!