I hear people say that Israel is a high-tech country. I think they are assuming that because it's full of Jews that they must be brilliant (even though obnoxious). I live in Israel. It is not a high tech country. A few weapons have been developed there, as well as another invention or two that they tell you about every chance they get. Otherwise, this place is like Arkansas circa 1950. Go to the Tel Aviv bus depot some time. That's the main bus station in the main city. It looks like the Congo in there. It's a mess. It's damp, dirty, and primitive. Cheap wares for sale.
Try out some Israeli web sites. The main Israel bus information website hasn't worked in years. In each big city, the electronic boards that are supposed to tell us when buses are coming are unreliable most of the time. The bank machines are unable to receive deposits about half the time and most of the time they are unable to issue receipts. If there's any decent medical care, it's all equipment from America, but not a lot of it. You wait 4 months for an MRI. I was at the Dead Sea this week and the temp. sign that's supposed to warn us about the desert heat said 50 degrees C. which is 122 F. I asked a bartender about this. He said, that sign is always wrong. I could go on. This is not a high tech country.
Wikipedia claims that Israelis have won 13 Nobel prizes. Let's examine this. 3 were peace prizes for killers. 1 was in literature to a man educated in Europe. That leaves us with 9 in economics or chemistry.
Joshua Angrist was born to a Jewish family in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1977.[7][8] Angrist received his B.A. in economics from Oberlin College in 1982. He lived in Israel from 1982 until 1985 and served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Defence Forces.[9] Angrist received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1987 and 1989, respectively. After completing his Ph.D., Angrist joined Harvard University as an assistant professor until 1991, when he returned to Israel as a senior lecturer (equivalent to an Assistant Professor in the US system) at the Hebrew University.[12] After being promoted to associate professor at Hebrew University, he joined MIT's Economics Department in 1996 as associate professor, before being raised to full professor in 1998. Since 2008, he has been MIT's Ford Professor of Economics and teaches econometrics and labor economics to its students. Verdict: An American
Daniel Kahneman Raised in Paris. Hebrew University (BA) University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD) - semi-Israeli.
Aaron Ciechanover - Israeli
Avram Hershko - Hungarian, most of his education in Israel semi-Israeli.
Ada Lifshitz- Israeli
Dan Shechtman - Israeli but much of his education and experience is in America. semi-Israeli.
Michael Levitt - S. African, British Education - Anglo
Arieh Warshel - Israeli born but much of his education and work has been in America. semi-Israeli.
Robert Aumann - Born in Germany, Education City College of New York (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS, PhD) German American
That's two real Israelis. Most of the rest a blend with America or Europe. A few aren't Israeli at all. They just have some association with the place.
Remember this country is 70 years old. Meanwhile 214 Jews have won Nobel prizes out of 965. That's 22%. If you remove the so-called Israelis that leaves 201. So while Jews are notable for their ability to win Nobel prizes, Israeli Jews are undistinguished to say the least. Half of the world's Jews live in Israel, but they aren't winning any prizes there except for a few who were educated mostly in America or England. Dare we say that Israel is holding them back.
There's also very little culture. Try to find a real symphony. You might get a chamber music ensemble all with middle aged Russians. Israel is not producing musicians.
Israel is second world really. Don't assume because there's so many Jews there that it's full of brilliance. When Jews live in civilized affluent countries that aren't obsessed with war they can do very well. Israel isn't one of those countries.
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