There are countless failed countries and completely dysfunctional societies that could stand to learn a lot from Israel’s tremendous success.
The world’s most successful nations are those that could learn from the success of others.
The United States and Canada were largely made up of people who came from successful countries built on Western Civilization, followed by successive waves of immigration of those who yearned to live in a nation built on the principles of the West, principles like individual freedom, free speech, limited government, freedom of religion, and a capitalist economic system.
Other nations found that embracing the lessons of the Western world was the best way to recover from shattering military defeat and economic collapse. Both Japan and Western Germany had their societies largely reshaped by the Allies following World War Two, and achieved levels of success and prosperity that seemed unthinkable when the war ended.
Other nations trapped behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union surged economically once the USSR fell. For example, Poland achieved amazing economic growth once they escaped from communism and were free to trade, free to think, and free to speak.
Even China managed to achieve significant economic growth by shifting towards a slightly more open capitalist model, and their growth is now slowing as they return to a more strict embrace of doctrinaire communism.
Sadly, much of the world still seems unable to learn the lesson of emulating the success of others. Rather, many nations choose to be jealous of others’ success, and choose to mire themselves in hateful conspiracy theories rather than take an opportunity to learn.
And nowhere do we see that more than in how many countries respond to Israel’s success.
By all counts, Israel should be an incredibly poor nation. It is largely bereft of natural resources. Much of its land isn’t useful for agriculture (just about 20%). It has very little territory. It is surrounded by hostile neighbours. It has been attacked over and over again, and is thus forced to spend a significant portion of GDP on the military.
Yet – despite having none of Canada’s economic, territorial, or security advantages – Israel has about the same per capita GDP as we do, and it is much wealthier than most Middle Eastern countries that possess tons of oil.
In a logical world, Israel would be a beacon of inspiration to a wide array of nations and cultures. It would stand as an example of what can be acheived even against all the odds.
Poor and dysfunctional countries should be sending everyone they can to meet with Israel officials and entrepreneurs to learn about Israel’s success, to build stronger ties with Israel, and to emulate Israel’s best practices.
Instead, Israel gets relentlessly demonized at the corrupt United Nations, gets constantly attacked by terrorists, and is the target of constant blood libels by the pathetic anti-Semites on the far-left and far-right.
Meanwhile, endless jealously towards Israel in much of the Middle East has been normalized as some sort of acceptable ‘cultural diversity’ in Canada, rather than being labelled as the sign of a dysfunctional failure and inability to learn from the success of others that it really is.
This is one of the reasons why Israel deserves support now more than ever.
Israel represents the highest aspirations of humanity.
Israel represents the ability of human beings to succeed against all the odds.
Israel represents the human power to turn land that is almost unusable into a nation of prosperity and technological strength.
Meanwhile, Israel’s enemies represent the exact opposite.
Israel’s enemies represent the lowest aspirations of humanity – jealously, hatred, dysfunction, destroying greatness instead of embracing it.
Israel’s enemies represent the human ability to squander even the greatest potential wealth and opportunity.
This is why standing with Israel is more than just a geopolitical or military imperative. It’s also about standing with the best that humanity has to offer and ensuring that the human journey of technological advancement and freedom continues and thrives, rather than being subsumed by those who would drag us back into the primitive void.
Spencer Fernando
