Ever since independence and the advent of Wahhabi Islam in the country, Indians, especially its youth, have hardly been anywhere educated or even informed about the Israel. This is for a very simple reason: that Arabs, who dominate the Islamic world, have been in war with this tiny nation ever since its inception, and their stanch supporters,
Islamic Fundamentalists, have acted as a lobbyist for them, thus giving a bad picture to Indians. Believe it or not there are tremendous achievements of this nation from which Indians could have learnt, for our own benefits.
It'sworthy to know, foremost, that Israel is one of the tiniest nations on the face of the earth? only about 8,000 sq. miles. It is only 260 miles at its longest and has a 112 mile shoreline, is 60 miles at its widest and only between 3 and 9 miles at its narrowest.
With its population of less than 5? million Jews, which less than 1/1000th of the world'spopulation, and confronted with 56 years of unrelenting Arab Terrorism, just as in case with Kashmir in India, it has phenomenal achievements.
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 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, it has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hitech).
Israel is ranked No. 2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the United States of America.
Its citizen has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income here as per 2006 was $17,500, exceeding that of UK.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel? workforce holds University degrees – ranking third in the industrialised world, after the United States and Holland?and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
According to industry officials, Israel designed the Airline Industry'smost impenetrable flight security. US officials now look to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats, especially after 9/11 attacks.
Israel has the world's second highest per capita per books and museums.
They were Israeli scientists who developed: computerised system for ensuring proper administration of medications, first fully programmed non-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer and the first ingestible video camera so small that it fits inside a pill used to view small intestine from inside which mostly used in diagnosing of caner and digestive disorders.
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world, apart from Silicon Valley.
Astonishingly it leads the world in number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000 as opposed to 85 in the United States, over 70 in Japan and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25 per cent of its manpower employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well, on per capita basis again.
The cell phone on which the corporate houses the world over depend was developed by Motorola in Israel, which has its largest development center here.
Mind you all these achievements of this tiny country were besides the relentless terrorists strikes and bomb blasts, that happen almost frequently. It'salso worthy to note her achievements in being victorious against the Arabs who collectively attacked her more than three times with forces exceeding 5:1 ratio, 5 Arabs against 1 Israeli.
In 1976, when a French plane, consisting mostly of Israeli and Arab citizen, was hijacked and brought to Uganda, miles away from it, it showed its commitment of zero tolerance on terror, by rescuing all its hostages successfully.
When we talk about the poor development rate in Kashmir they blame it on the terrorist activities, almost squarely. Kashmir, mind you, is larger than Israel in size and even in resources. It'sa sad thing that we have never studied anything from Israelis. Why haven'twe? Is it all because of the propaganda of Wahhabi Islamic Fundamentalist and their so called Pan-Islamic dream, supported by few in this land? Sad, if this is the raison d?etre. Israel has proved to the world that if you are determined, nothing can stop you, absolutely nothing.
(The Author is a writer, and also works as Vice President of Bharath Bookmark, Mangalore he can be contacted at indiamahesh@gmail.com)
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