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You could find smoking guns like this all over the scene, and some people would still be smelling roses. (Maybe the one in the desert.) Adam Levick at CiF Watch brings us today, posted below, news of an astonishing, revelatory nature.
Whether attributable to the reactionary autocratic nature of their political systems, the repression of individual creative initiative endemic to their political and cultural milieus, or a culturally ingrained Antisemitism that requires automatic opposition to any development originating in Israel, the vote in the U.N. of 31 nations to oppose encouragement of private and public sector entrepreneurship reveals a plain truth. Against the 141 nations that voted for the Israeli-proposed resolution, we find all of Israel’s historic and current Arab enemy states and every major Muslim nation joined together with any remainder of the most politically and economically backward nations in the world: North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. Of the three most creative human activities – artistic production, scientific inquiry, and entrepreneurial initiative – those nations of the world most direly in need of the latter have now officially rejected the very idea of it in the premier world forum. We find in this group of nations, too – absent the major players of the Cold War communist world – the core of those nations, later to be repudiated by history, that shamefully voted in 1975 to declare Zionism a form of racism.
What the Guardian won’t report: Israel wins at the UN. Israeli culture wins in the Middle East
by Adam Levick (cross-posted at CiF Watch)
On Dec. 21, 2012, a UN resolution on “Entrepreneurship for Development” was proposed by Israel, along with 97 co-sponsors.
The resolution encourages private and public sector entrepreneurship, “developing new technologies and innovative business models, and enabling high, sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth while protecting the rights of workers as the best way to deal with the challenges of poverty and job creation.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said the following:
“The Israeli spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity prevailed at the UN today. As a state that was founded in difficult circumstances, we have been able to create opportunities for talented people and have become an enterprising superpower. Creating a culture of entrepreneurship can work miracles and drive economies forward. Investing in human resources is a real message that Israel conveys to the developing world.”
The UN adopted it by a vote of 141 in favor to 31 against, with 11 abstentions.
The Guardian – which continually informs their readers when the UN censures the Jewish state – hasn’t reported the Israeli sponsored resolution.
Why does it matter?
If you recall, there was a huge row over comments during the US Presidential campaign suggesting that Israeli culture is a major factor in the state’s economic and social prowess in the region.
Many commentators on the far left (including ‘Comment is Free’ contributor Rachel Shabi) scolded those who would suggest a connection between culture and success – imputing racism to such arguments.
Shabi characterized the broader narrative that Israeli culture may be more conducive to success than Palestinian culture as “standard-issue superiority complex racism”.
To those so easily manipulated by au courant post-colonial causation, the stubborn reality of Israeli success (as with Western success more broadly) must be explained by Western hegemony or other global injustices.
To the far-left crowd which occupies the Guardian, the word “racism” – which is defined by a belief in the inherent, immutable, biological or genetic inferiority of a group, race, or ethnicity – has been defined so expansively as to even impute such bigotry to those observing intuitively that some cultural habits are necessarily inimical to economic achievement and social development.
Now, take a look at the countries who voted against the Israeli resolution advocating “entrepreneurship for development”.
Algeria, Bahrain, Bolivia, Comoros, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Yemen.
Do you see a pattern?
A strong majority of these states are plagued by poverty, under-development and despotism.
Oh, and also: The majority of these states are opposed to Israel’s very existence, and some have a shameful history of having ethnically cleansed their Jewish citizens in the twenty years following 1948.
The resolution, based on the most intuitive reasoning, was opposed because it was the Jewish state which proposed it.
By obsessing over Israel, refusing to concentrate on the real problems plaguing their societies, and working to instill the liberal cultural habits necessary to alleviate their poverty and throw off the yoke of tyranny – and ignoring the lessons on how a small, innovative, Jewish country accomplished so much in just six and a half decades – they ensure that little progress will likely be achieved.
Those in the West who continue to indulge such nations in the fantasy that their anti-Zionist delusions are justified, even righteous, are complicit in condemning millions to poverty, tyranny and hopelessness.
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Very strange, because I thought Jordan and Israel had fairly good relations. I mean, they even recognize Israel as a state in their textbooks. Egypt comes as no surprise, however.
Also missing are Afghanistan and Bangladesh.