A tiny fraction of the US budget which is almost entirely earmarked to be spent buying from US suppliers but sure, the Jews are the reason you have a malfunctioning health system.
There's a huge difference between not supporting the current Israeli government and not supporting Israel whatsoever. Many Jews relate with the former, but from my experience it's very few that relate with the latter.
By this logic, if the CEO of a big company with a revenue of 100 billion $ per year steals every year from the company 100 million $ for gifts to some of his/her family members, that does not matter, because it is just 0.1% of the revenue, and perhaps those family members would use a part of the money to buy products of the same company.
I don't know about exports but for certain there's quite a lot of water Israel transfers to Jordan as part of the 90s peace accords. That's a huge deal in the Mid East.
For decades, the weather report in Israel would include the water level of the Sea of Galilee, the only real lake in the country and the source of most of the nation's drinkable water. It would be a major concern during droughts. Now there's so much desalinated water that some are actually being pumped into the lake, for environmental reasons.
Just my $0.02 (I'm a few years older): It's always earlier than you think. Don't let your perception of where you wanted to be at a certain age dictate what you can or can't do.
I built one, way back (I'm not an Android dev, kind of hacked it together but on the positive side it's extremely simple: https://github.com/niryariv/KalSMS )
At the time there were a lot of developing countries projects using SMS as their main interface (a lot of work with community health workers etc). Orgs like the UN would set up an SMS gateway by hooking a desktop with some hardware, and of course it would be very vulnerable to stuff like power outages, someone tripping over the wires etc and you had to get the technician to set it up again. With smartphones you had the all the required setup in one cheap, small and very durable package, no training required to operate.
I realize discussing politics here is pointless, but this is just so comically ignorant I have to reply.
1. Israel won its independence after barely managing to fend off the joint armies of seven Arab nations who invaded the Jewish area following UN partition decision, openly declaring they intend to wipe all Jewish presence. Almost all nations, US included, predicted Arabs will succeed and decided to sit it out. Comparing this to the history of Europeans and Native Americans is simply ridiculous.
2. The name Nesher comes from a cement factory on whose grounds the cave was found. The name Ramle comes from the city founded by the Umayyad dynasty shortly after Islam conquered the land from the Roman Byzantine empire, which conquered it from the Hashmonites, who conquered it from the Hellenic Seleucids, who took it from the Persians, who beat the Babylonians, who took it from the Judeans, who conquered it from the Cannanites etc. After the Umayyad, Ramle was controlled by the Crusaders, then the Mamluks, then the Ottomans, then the British and now Israel. So declaring a specific 18-19th century village in the area as the original "Native" of the place rather than all others who lived there is - simply ridiculous as well.
As an Israeli, I have no animosity towards Arabs. But I really can't stand Western idiots who don't have a slight clue about the Mideast, or anything really outside their incredibly sheltered existance, and see the whole thing as some stupid Hollywood good vs bad conflict.
You don't think it's plausible that a foreigner F and local L can be found, such that F is better versed in L's country's history than L?
I believe that if I were to read a pamphlet on US history, and then go to the USA and quiz random people on it in the street, within fifteen minutes I would find someone born there who knows jack shit.
I think it's plausible, but not in this scenario. In the west, this is a politically charged situation. There, it's a matter of life and death.
If this was an actual simple border dispute, I'd be more inclined to listen to anyone who didn't have direct knowledge, but since this conflict hearkens back to literal Old Testament days, I'm more inclined to believe a native.
They made a plea (which you support), that simply because they are from there, that they therefore know the history better than someone from outside.
That does not follow.
I wouldn't say I know history of this area better than all Europeans, but definitely better than the vast majority. I wouldn't confuse Nesher the town with Nesher the factory, for instance, since having lived not far from the latter I know it's not anywhere near Ramle.
every time I think about walking into these kinds of conversations ... I realize that I would much rather not have mud on my shoes
There's a concept in anthropology called the paradox of the periphery, where people who are farther from their origin / homeland tend to get statistically more religious or extreme in their relation to that homeland....
I feel like that applies to people who are farther from the issue in the whole israel situation. everyone living or from there tends to mention nuance and complexity and everyone farther away just calls it an "obvious" issue with simple solutions.
As an Israeli I always wonder why people who live in the US or Europe think they have some special insight into Israel/Palestine by merit of being Jewish or Muslim.
Israel is vaccinating Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. It actually runs special promotion campaigns (including the PM visiting Nazareth) because some in Arab population are reluctant to take it.
It does not vaccinate Palestinians in the Palestinian controlled areas as it has no authority to do so. Furthermore, Abbas and the PA leadership make a point of not allowing their citizens access to Israeli healthcare (though they did make sure to get vaccinated themselves).
Some time ago my wife was involved in an effort to provide life saving medical care to a Palestinian child in an Israeli hospital. The hospital waved all costs and the treating surgeon was in daily touch with her. The PA refused to allow the child entrance into Israel to receive that care. This wasn't an isolated case, it's PA policy.
Actually it's the HMO system here, much more than the military. Every Israeli, by law, has healthcare insurance. It works much like income tax - deducted automatically from your pay, varies according to income level, and is transferred directly to the HMO you pick among several options which compete (quite vigorously) with each other.
Na. Lots of places have socialized medicine like Israel. Not many of them, if any of them, are having the successful rollout Israel is enjoying. The entire Israeli society is prepared for this sort of event more so than any other in the world. Civil society, healthcare (as you pointed out), military and, dare I say, even religious all work together to pull this off.
I agree with Nir, HMOs are carrying a huge amount of the load here (after the government supplying all those vaccines). You have 4 HMOs total -- one of them (Clalit) being huge -- so there's not much fragmentation; a very fast crew of health workers which allows us to reach that level of vaccinations/day; and an existing well-tested infrastructure for flu vaccines, which are in high demand each year.
I don't think the military was involved yet, and religion was in fact working against vaccination efforts as a few anti-vax rabbis drove sectors of the Haredi population off.
EDIT: Saw another comment about a person in uniform doing the immunization so I might've been wrong about the army's involvement. But either way most comments referring to military involvement mean i.e. wartime levels of involvement, military handing out gas masks door-to-door etc. We're not at the level that the army is a sizable force, from what I can tell. (Except immunizing their own soldiers of course)
I think these articles and the responses are missing the real point which is how an Ivy League education became so important in America.
I grew up in Israel near the Technion, our MIT equivalent which produced a few Nobel Prize winners. It's not a big deal to get in, if you have poor high school scores you take a year long prep course, classes are hard but most people push through. Having a Technion degree might give you a slight edge getting your first job but that's that - you'll be judged by your performance moving on, not on your alma mater.
When I lived in the US for a few years, I couldn't understand how people allocate such importance to a person's high school performance (which is basically what determines their alma mater in the best case scenario, before family donations etc). To me it signals a risk-averse mentality that fears taking a chance on a potential hire.
To be fair, I think much of the urgency around getting an Ivy League education has more to do with parental status insecurities than actual life outcomes. I have three Ivy League degrees. Have they greased a few wheels in life? Yeah sure. But not as much as you would think. I see plenty of people who didn’t get platinum plated degrees achieve tremendous things thanks to the other legs of the achievement stool - hard work and luck. I’ve seen plenty of my classmates fizzle out on those same two factors. There are a huge number of great schools in this country beyond the top 15.
Agreed. As I age I am saddened by the growing realization that the educational institutions which I love and am proud of are key engines of perpetuating a class system.
My experience (as non-American, non-Asian) has been the interaction was actually somewhat easier in Japan or China, because you don't expect a smooth communication to begin with and both sides are not speaking in their native tongue.
When you're in the US you have the false sense that you actually understand what's being said, while in truth learning the actual meaning can take a while.
