Missing the Point

Ben Stein writes that the U.S. economy is in great shape:

The bond markets have rallied staggeringly. The stock markets had one of their best months ever in April. The rate of defaults on corporate bonds remains extremely low. And index securities that track mortgage defaults are saying that the fear of a colossal national mortgage default epidemic was ill-founded.

Just as I am writing this, new employment data has come out showing only very small job losses in April — 20,000 jobs out of a labor force of very roughly 160 million, meaning that 1 in 8,000 jobs has been lost. The actual rate of unemployment is falling to a very modest level — 5 percent.

Yet the national media is still selling us fear of a recession. One of the major national newspapers has a reporter who’s desperately trying to peddle a story of national economic collapse even as the economy stays afloat.

Leave it to an economist to look only at numbers and miss the larger picture. Yes, the United States is not currently in a recession (at least not yet). But that does not mean everything is going well. The stock and bond markets mean absolutely nothing to people on a day-to-day basis. People who have stock portfolios do not derive regular income from them; the money sits for decades until retirement. People rely on their jobs for their livelyhoods.

Employment is indeed high, but Stein does not address the quality of those jobs. For example, wages are not keeping up with inflation, many recent college graduates are working temporary or menial jobs while facing crushing debt from credit cards and student loans, and more employers are reducing or cutting their health-care benefits. But, hey, at least they’re employed! (They’re actually underemployed.)

Most importantly, Stein does not address the culture of debt that now exists in the United States. More and more people are faced with expensive mortgages, maxed-out credit cards, and massive student loans. Other people who have no health insurance take on thousands of dollars of debt if they need emergency care.

At some point, the house of cards will fall. Perhaps it has already begun. Yes, the economy is doing wonderfully.

Israeli Politics

RISHON LEZION, Israel – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would likely become the next prime minister if elections were held today:

The poll predicted that with Livni leading Kadima the party would receive 27 seats in the Knesset, as opposed to 23 for Likud and 15 for Labor. According to the study, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz would garner 17 seats as head of the party and Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit would tally only 13.

I think I was wrong. Since I moved here in January, I had believed that Israeli politics had moved from the center-left to the center-right. (See here for my definitions.) A slim majority of Israelis had supported former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s move to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. However, I had thought that the resulting rocket attacks from there since Hamas took over had moved Israelis to the right (the Israeli public would never withdraw from additional territory again until all Palestinians cease their attacks). Prior polls showing that the right-wing Likud Party would win the next election had seemed to confirm my view.

So this latest poll was quite a shock: The centrist Kadima party would win if Livni were its leader. From this, we can conclude that the Israeli public has not undergone a significant political shift. The opposition to Kadima – or the popularity of Likud, in other words — has not been the result of ideological differences, but personal ones. Israelis do not like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. If people are asked to choose a party, Likud wins. But if people are asked to choose a person, Kadima wins. This is telling.

And Livni may become the prime minister sooner than we think: Olmert is in trouble (again).

Telling the Truth

RISHON LEZION, Israel – Thomas Friedman, as usual, hits the nail on the head:

We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes…

We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

Friedman gets it. But will Hillary Clinton, John McCain, or Barack Obama get it?

I live in a country where most people dry their clothes on clotheslines. To use only as much energy as is necessary, I flip a swith to heat the water a half-hour before I take a shower and then turn it off immediately afterwards. (Every bathroom has these.) Toilets have two different levers to flush, so people use only as much water as needed. People drive small cars, not SUVs. The country is investing in many different forms of alternative energy (primarily solar). People live more simply; they don’t need the biggest house, the latest fashions, or the newest mobile phone.

Developing countries are revamping their entire infrastructures while America’s is falling apart. High schools in the United States cannot compete with those in Europe and Asia. China and India are transforming their economies while America’s is unraveling. (That is what happens when a country’s primary form of economic growth is a result of consumer spending and people going into debt.) The United States increasingly borrows from other countries (including China) to finance its growing debt. It is now the United States’ turn to learn from other countries.

The American people voted Jimmy Carter out of office after he told them some uncomfortable truths. I don’t think they would make the same mistake again.

Obama and the Muslims

If Sen. Barack Obama becomes the next U.S. president (and I think he will), he might not be able to improve America’s relations with devout Muslims around the world. See here.

Fighting Hizbollah

RISHON LEZION, Israel — Hizbollah recently won a significant victory:

Heavily armed Hezbollah fighters seized control of much of western Beirut on Friday, patrolling the deserted streets in a raw show of force that underscored the militia’s refusal to back down in its escalating confrontation with the American-backed government.

I’ll say it again: Israel and the Lebanese government need to make (official) peace and then unite against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon because the terrorist group threatens them both. If such an alliance were to exist, then Syria would definately be worried. In fact, such a joint defense might concern Syria enough to convince its government to abandon its ties with Iran and join the West. (Iran and Syria currently help Hizbollah and Hamas.)

Thinking Only With Their Wallets

As a result of the skyrocketing price of oil, more Americans are now using public transportation and buying smaller cars. If only they had done so years ago. In related news, Paul Krugman warns that the high price of oil is here to stay: The fundamentals are sound, and the market is not overrun by speculators.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

JERUSALEM — Starting at sundown on Wednesday, the State of Israel will observe Yom HaShoah, the daylong remembrance of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. At 10 a.m. on Thursday, sirens will sound throughout the Jewish state, and everyone will stop and stand at attention for two minutes. People will even stop their cars on the streets and get out to observe the event. I have never been in Israel on this day, so it will be interesting to see.

I wish I had something original to say, but I do not. Countless other writers will describe the anti-Semitism that still occurs throughout the world, and I must echo their thoughts. Anti-Semitism is at a record high in Canada. Anti-Semitism has increased in many parts of Europe and elsewhere (see here as well). Offical anti-Semitism in Arab and Muslim countries is skyrocketing. Vandals are attacking Jewish cemeteries in the former Soviet Union as far-right nationalists there also demonize Jews. Hitler dolls are now on sale in the Ukraine. Dozens of posters appeared in Russia before this Passover to warn people that Jews want to make matzah out of childrens’ blood. (The trend is reversed in the United States, where anti-Semitism has declined.)

One day we will all live in peace.

Teenagers and Privacy

Fox News reports on a disturbing trend:

Forget about passing notes in study hall; some teens are now using their cell phones to flirt and send nude pictures of themselves.

The instant text, picture and video messages have become part of some teens’ courtship behavior, police and school officials said.

The messages often spread quickly and sometimes find their way to public Web sites.

“I’ve seen everything from your basic striptease to sexual acts being performed,” said Reynoldsburg police Detective Brian Marvin, a member of the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force of Central Ohio. “You name it, they will do it at their home under this perceived anonymity.”

While Fox News does sensationalize its reports even more than other media outlets, I would not be surprised if this were true.

Imagine growing up in a world where secrets and privacy do not exist. Imagine growing up in a world where everyone knew everything about you. Imagine growing up in a world where sexuality is increasingly acceptable — even for pre-teens and schoolchildren. Imagine that you have had the Internet for your entire life. This is the world in which today’s teenagers are living.

As a result of Facebook, MySpace, Google, and every other Internet utility, everyone’s life is now an open book (at least for those who choose to make it so). Since teenagers have always had the Internet, it is extremely natural for them to use it to the fullest extent possible because they have never known a different world. And since they are young, they do not understand the ramifications.

One case in point: Disney actress Vanessa Hudgens (of “High School Musical” fame) caused a furor when she sent a nude photo of herself to her boyfriend, and it found its way online (of course). (No, that link does not go to the photo itself, and I’m not going to look for it either.) When teenagers combine their naive comfort with technology with a lax attitude towards sexuality, this is what naturally results. (Although sometimes the attention is not even the person’s fault: Allison Stokke, a high-school pole vaulter, became an overnight sensation after photos of her were placed online.)

The solution, of course, is for parents to talk to their children about the dangers of technology. When parents do not discuss sex and birth control with their teenagers, they are more likely to have unsafe sex and become pregnant. When parents adopt puritanical attitudes towards sex, that usually makes children rebel and pursue the other extreme. When parents believe that their precious daughter (or son) would never place provocative photos of themselves on the Internet, they should think twice.

Once something is on the Internet, it is there forever. This is the world in which we now live.

Dating and Game Theory

Mark Gimein discusses why so many women believe that there are no good men left:

You can think of this traditional concept of the search for marriage partners as a kind of an auction. In this auction, some women will be more confident of their prospects, others less so. In game-theory terms, you would call the first group “strong bidders” and the second “weak bidders.” Your first thought might be that the “strong bidders”—women who (whether because of looks, social ability, or any other reason) are conventionally deemed more of a catch—would consistently win this kind of auction.

But this is not true. In fact, game theory predicts, and empirical studies of auctions bear out, that auctions will often be won by “weak” bidders, who know that they can be outbid and so bid more aggressively, while the “strong” bidders will hold out for a really great deal…

This is how you come to the Eligible-Bachelor Paradox, which is no longer so paradoxical. The pool of appealing men shrinks as many are married off and taken out of the game, leaving a disproportionate number of men who are notably imperfect (perhaps they are short, socially awkward, underemployed). And at the same time, you get a pool of women weighted toward the attractive, desirable “strong bidders.”

Where have all the most appealing men gone? Married young, most of them — and sometimes to women whose most salient characteristic was not their beauty, or passion, or intellect, but their decisiveness.

In essence, Gimein is saying that the women (and perhaps the men) who choose to be the pickiest are the ones who are most likely to remain single. While this is common sense, it is also more relevant to today’s dating world. As I wrote in an earlier essay, one unintended consequence of feminism has been to make women pickier. Evolutionary psychology has instilled a need in women to date “up” — in other words, they developed the desire for additional security, strength, and resources in a mate to compensate for their physical weakness at a time when they were unable to fend for themselves in the primal state of nature thousands of years ago.

Now, however, women can fend for themselves. They have as much access to employment and education as men. In short, they no longer need men to survive. But women still desire to date “up,” and there are fewer men who suit their desires as they move further “up” themselves. No female CEO is going to marry a plumber. So the successful women who are this picky remain single because they are only trying to find someone who fulfills their evolutionary and biological imperatives. And, as Gimein notes, there are fewer men available with each passing year. The women who are successful are those who choose early.

So Much for the Conspiracy

JERUSALEM — There’s a new player in Washington, D.C.:

For years, liberal American Jews who have chafed under the taboo against criticizing Israel have dreamed of starting a political organization that would speak for them. Now, with the launch of J Street, that dream has become a reality.

I’ve always laughed at the fanatical idea that there is a Jewish conspiracy and/or Israel Lobby that controls the world — or at least impedes political debate on Middle Eastern affairs. As I noted in a prior post, Jews and Israelis cannot even agree amongst themselves. Now that there is a left-wing and a right-wing lobby for Israel, this only proves my point further.

Letter From Israel: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

JERUSALEM – In the Holy City, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict always occupies the minds of Jews and Arabs here, but it is rarely discussed in public. After all, no one wants to risk a fight on the street if the wrong person happens to overhear a conversation.

But people are always eager to speak their minds during loud arguments in living rooms and hushed discussions over lunch in a restaurant. Everyone in Jerusalem has a different solution to the decades-old conflict. (In contrast, most people I have met in secular Tel Aviv are bored with the issue and rarely want to discuss it all. I think it is because they rarely encounter Arabs, while people here live and work with them everyday – for better and for worse.)

In my prior letters, I’ve addressed some of the religious and cultural issues that are occurring inside Israeli society. Now I wish to present the complex subject with which most Westerners are familiar: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

—
The Background

After Israel declared independence in 1948, the country was attacked by the surrounding Arab countries. In the resulting war, many of the Arabs who had lived in the region known as Palestine went to the West Bank (which was then part of Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (which was then part of Egypt).

These people eventually became known as Palestinians (and the people who remained in Israel became Israeli Arabs, whom I have discussed earlier). The reasons for their departure are controversial: pro-Israel historians state that the Arabs left to avoid getting caught in the middle of a war, but pro-Palestinian historians believe that the Arabs were forced to leave at gunpoint by the Israeli army in order to make way for a Jewish state. (According to the most recent research, it seems to have been a little of both, depending on the exact time, place, and circumstances.)

In 1967, several Arab countries attacked Israel again. Israel won the conflict and took East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, as well as the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel took these pieces of land for both pragmatic and idealistic reasons: Increasing the size of the country gave Israel more security, and possessing Jerusalem and more of the ancient land of Israel inspired religious Jews in the country and around the world.

However, there was a not-so-slight problem: East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza were inhabited by millions of Palestinians, and they continued to fight Israel themselves. At the same time, the Israeli government encouraged Israelis to move to the West Bank and Gaza and build settlements (whose legality under international law is questionable). Religious Zionists wanted to claim the occupied lands for Israel because of its historical significance, and the military and civilian presences there provided additional security for the Jewish state.

This, in a nutshell, is where things stand. And now it gets complicated. I’ll try to be brief.

The Palestinian Authority ostensibly wants peace and an independent country in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, but various Palestinian factions (like the terrorist group Hamas) continue to attack Israel. Israel officially wants the Palestinians to have their own state, but the Jewish state continues to build settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

—
The Real Issue

I cannot speak on the Palestinian side of the issue because I am not very familiar with their society. However, I can write about the Israeli viewpoint.

If Israel’s actions (building additional settlements in the West Bank while negotiating to create a Palestinian state there) seem contradictory, that is because they are. In terms of the Palestinian conflict, the main problem on Israel’s side is that it has yet to answer the question: What kind of country do we want to be?

There’s another old joke among Israels: “We want a Jewish state, a democratic state, and a country in all of the ancient land of Israel. But we can only pick two of the three.”

In other words, Israel must eventually choose one of the following options:

1. Democratic and in all of the land — but not Jewish
2. Jewish and in all of the land — but not democratic
3. Jewish and democratic — but not in all of the land

Here’s why. Israel cannot remain a Jewish state, a democracy, and a country in all of the ancient land of Israel forever because of demographic trends. As a result of their higher birth rates, Palestinians are projected to outnumber Jews within the next couple of years in the total area encompassing Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

If Israel wants to be a Jewish state that exists in all of the ancient land of Israel, then it will no longer be a democracy because a minority (the Jews) will control the majority (the Palestinians) and not give them equal rights. If Israel wants to be a democracy in all of the ancient land of Israel, then it will no longer be a Jewish state once Palestinians outnumber Jews. If Israel wants to be a Jewish and democratic country, then it must give up the West Bank and Gaza.

Which of these options would you choose? Yeah, it’s hard – and Israelis have yet to agree amongst themselves. In the United States, people define themselves as liberals or conservatives based on a wide rage of social issues (like abortion and gay marriage) and economic ones (like taxation and government spending). However, Israelis divide themselves as “left” or “right” based mainly on how they would resolve this fundamental issue. All other issues are secondary.

The extreme left: Liberals generally prefer to have a single, bi-national state in all of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in which one person – whether Jew or Arab – would have one vote. These people place a higher importance on being a democratic state in all of the land of Israel than on the country remaining a Jewish country. Liberals believe that a country based on ethnicity or religion is outdated at best and immoral at worst.

The extreme right: Religious conservatives generally place a higher importance on having a Jewish state in all of the ancient land of Israel than on granting democratic rights to those who are not Jews. After all, the Bible commands Jews to have a Jewish state in all of the land. The Bible does not mention anything about democracy. The most extreme of the extreme want to annex all of the land, expel the Arabs, and reinstitute a monarchy (because ancient Israel was ruled by kings).

The center: Moderates generally place a higher importance on Israel remaining a Jewish and democratic state than on remaining in all of the land of ancient Israel. They want to see a two-state solution in which Israel gives the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians so that they can have their own country. These are the most pragmatic people.

However, even the center is split. The center-left believes that the Palestinians will stop attacking Israel once the Jewish state no longer occupies their land and they have their own state. The center-right believes that Israel should give these areas to the Palestinians only after they stop attacking Israel.

A few moderates want Jordan to annex the West Bank and Egypt to take the Gaza Strip, but this is extremely unlikely. These countries do not want a sudden influx of millions of radicalized, impoverished Palestinians coming into their countries because they are already dealing with their own Islamic insurgents and economic troubles as well. (Israel, by the way, is now at peace with Egypt and Jordan.)

—
The Options

Each of the proposed solutions has its drawbacks. A single, democratic state comprised of Jews and Arabs may seem ideal to many people, but such a country would probably implode into civil war like in the Balkans in southeastern Europe in the 1990s. A single, Jewish state in which Arabs are either expelled or not granted democratic rights would quickly be condemned as immoral and similar to the apartheid regime that existed in South Africa. A two-state solution in which Israel gives away the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza would surrender many areas that are religiously important to Jews and leave a smaller Israel that is more vulnerable to attack.

Everyone in Israel knows that these are the only three options. But the Israeli government has yet to choose one. This is why the government is paradoxically negotiating a return of the West Bank to the Palestinians while building settlements there at the same time. (Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did withdraw from Gaza, but Hamas took control of the territory and started firing rockets into Israeli towns.)

The Israeli government has yet to decide which of the three options to choose because the government itself – just like the society as a whole – is fractured, divided, and paralyzed. The government is unable to function because of one issue: Israel’s broken electoral system. But that’s the topic for my next letter.

Prior letter: What is Israel, Anyway?

Cursing the Yankees

This is awesome. It’s too bad that the jersey was found before Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium.

An Honest Question

JERUSALEM — In a prior post, I wrote that Israel should withdraw from the West Bank completely and remove the settlements there. But now I’m having second thoughts.

Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, and Hizbollah moved in and started firing missiles into the northern part of the country. Israel withdrew from Gaza, and Hamas took over and started firing missiles into the southwestern part of the country. Following these results, why should Israel even think about withdrawing from the West Bank and giving East Jerusalem to the Palestinians? I’m looking for a reason, but I cannot think of anything.

Dating Up and Down

A female medical student writes to Salon to ask for advice on her boyfriend:

Now I have met someone who is just everything that I felt was missing in my last relationships. I find him very attractive; we laugh all the time about stupid things and serious things. We have traveled together and every day is fun. Even when we argue we are able to see eye to eye at the end. He adores me and treats me good. But he doesn’t have an education, nor is he on the path to obtaining one. He has drive, but he is seriously lacking the follow-through aspect. He talks very big about his future, but he is happy with the present. He has a high school education and has a very secure government job that earns him enough. There is no impetus for change. I have discussed several times about him going back to university or getting a trades course, just anything to improve his current situation. He shows interest, but more so at my insistence.

I am attractive and outgoing and I have dated at least a dozen (serious/not serious), if not two dozen, to find this guy whom I really like, but it really bothers me that he is letting his life slip by without even trying. It bothers me that he has been gifted with health, and a sound mind, a good supportive family, and he doesn’t want to make the best of it. It bothers me that there are people in less fortunate circumstances who are doing 10 times the work to get ahead in life, and meanwhile he is not even trying. Although it may seem like I am high and mighty and judging those without a university education, I am not. My parents do not have it, and I love them to pieces. I think that it was seeing them go through the struggles of having no education and immigrating to a new country that made me realize what amazing opportunities North America offers if you just try. I believe that we only live this life once, so why not give it all you’ve got.

As I wrote in a lengthy essay, women are finding the dating scene more difficult as they become more educated and successful in modern times. Women tend to date “up” as a result of evolutionary psychology. (Not all, but most.) As a woman gains advanced degrees and high-level jobs, the portion of men in the dating pool whom she will consider as mates will decline. (How many female CEOs will date plumbers?) This is modern why women are both increasingly successful yet more stressed as far as their relationships are going. The woman who wrote this letter to Salon is no different.

Red Sox Season Starts

JERUSALEM — The baseball season will officially begin in ten minutes, when the Boston Red Sox host the Detroit Tigers at Opening Day at Fenway Park. Since the game is not being shown on ESPN or Fox Sports, I can only listen to it through the website of Major League Baseball/WRKO radio in Boston. (Click here or here if you want to listen as well.)

But I’m really looking forward to this weekend, which will have the first Yankees-Red Sox series in Boston. I’ll be watching from a bar here in the Holy City. Go Sox! Yankees suck!

Letter from Israel: What is Israel, Anyway?

JERUSALEM — There’s an old joke among Israeli Jews: it’s easier to pray for the ingathering of the exiles than to live with them.

Israel, like the United States, is a nation of immigrants. If an Israeli is not an immigrant himself, then most likely his parents or grandparents came from places as varied as Germany, Russia, Morocco, Iran, and New York. Modern Hebrew is known as the only language that children teach to their parents – children born here are naturally fluent, but their parents usually know it as a second or third language.

But there is a crucial difference between Israel and the United States. Neighborhoods, cities, and regions in America are usually comprised of one or two ethnic groups. The southwest is increasingly a Hispanic area. Boston has historically been Irish and Italian. Many people in my hometown in southern Illinois are German.

However, Israel is an extremely small country compared to America; it is roughly the size of New Jersey. As a result, every city, neighborhood, and apartment building is a mix of people from all over the world. Everyone must try to live together in a tight environment, but they do not always succeed. Each ethnic group has its own worldview, culture and religion, and these mentalities often conflict. If you ask five Israelis for their opinions, you will get six answers.

But before I explain the conflicts in Israeli society, I need to set the stage by drawing a picture of the different ethnic groups in Israel and how they came here.

—
Israeli Jews

After Judea was destroyed by the ancient Roman Empire in 70 C.E., the surviving Jews were forced into exile. Some went to Europe. Some went to Spain, northern Africa, and neighboring Arab countries. Some stayed in the Middle East. Over the subsequent centuries, each Jewish community developed its own cultural, ethnic, and religious flavor.

The Jews of Europe became known as Ashkenazi Jews, they developed the Yiddish language, and they tended to resemble other Europeans in appearance over the centuries as a result of intermarriage and conversion. They know European (and later American) history and culture, and they have Western mentalities. Ashkenazi Jews developed many diverse types of Judaism: Haredi Judaism (the ultra-Orthodox Judaism described in my last letter), mystical Hasidic Judaism, and non-Orthodox types of Judaism like Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. In the nineteenth century, Ashkenazi Jews founded the secular, Zionist movement that aimed to re-establish the State of Israel someday. Of course, the most significant event in European Jewish history was the Holocaust: Roughly one-third of the Jews in Europe died.

The Jews who fled to Spain following the destruction of Judea became known as Sephardi Jews. For centuries, Spain was divided between Islam and Christianity, and Jews were usually caught in the middle. In the late 1400s, the Christian king of Spain finally defeated the Muslims and united the country. However, there was a side effect. In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave all Jews and Muslims a choice between three options: leave the country, convert to Christianity, or die. (Columbus was not the only person to leave that year.) A sizable number of Jews did convert, but most left Spain to settle in Jewish communities in various places throughout the Arab world. A few resettled in the South America and other countries as well.

The Jews who moved to neighboring Arab countries after the destruction of Judea became known as Mizrahi Jews. For centuries they lived among Muslims in relative peace. A little-known fact: Jews, in general, were historically treated better in Arab countries than in Christian Europe until the twentieth century. (Spain was not the only country in Europe by far to expel Jews.) Mizrahi Jews are Arabs in culture but Jews in religion: their food, their mentalities, their dress, and their physical appearances can be virtually indistinguishable from those of Arabs. Their first language became Arabic. Most Sephardi Jews eventually moved to Arab countries, so the terms “Sephardi” and “Mizrahi” are now interchangeable in Israel.

There are two other Jewish communities that have moved to Israel in the past several years: black Jews from Ethiopia and Indian Jews from India. The communities had claimed that they were descendents from the ancient lost tribes of Israel, and DNA testing confirmed that they are descended from Jews in the Middle East. Most of these communities have decided to move to Israel.

—
Other Israelis

Roughly twenty-five to thirty percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish: primarily, they are Muslim and Christian Arabs, as well as non-Jews from Russia. Each of these groups has a story to tell.

The largest minority group in Israel is the Arabs. When Israel was founded in 1948, some of the Arabs in the region known as Palestine fled to neighboring countries (and, in some instances, the Israeli army forced them to leave at gunpoint). Others stayed in their towns, which were eventually located inside Israel once the borders were drawn. Israeli Arabs are full citizens under the law – Arabic is the second official language of Israel, and an Arab political party sits in the legislature. Arabs, however, do face constant discrimination and suspicion from other Israelis who consider them to be a fifth column. (One exception: Arab residents of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed from Jordan after the war in 1967, are permanent residents, but they are not citizens. They are free to travel and work inside Israel, but they cannot vote.) Some Israeli Arabs have committed terrorist acts over the years, but the vast majority of them just want to live their lives peacefully.

When the State of Israel was re-founded in 1948, the country’s founders wanted to encourage Jews from all over the world to move here. Under the law, any Jew who requests Israeli citizenship can receive it. However, the law also permits anyone who is at least one-quarter Jewish to receive automatic citizenship as well – even if he is not Jewish himself. (In other words, anyone with just one Jewish grandparent can become an Israeli citizen.) The reason: Adolf Hitler aimed to kill anyone who had at least one Jewish grandparent – even if he was not Jewish himself.

However, this part of the law drastically changed Israeli culture after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Once people were allowed to leave Russia, many non-Jewish Russians immigrated to Israel simply because they happened to have a Jewish grandparent and a desire for a better life. Now, as a result, Israel is partially comprised of a large number of Russians who are not Jews, who do not care about Judaism, and who barely speak Hebrew. In fact, at least one Russian-Israeli teenager even founded a neo-Nazi group in Israel recently and assaulted a few religious Jews in an Israeli city. (He was quickly arrested.) As a result, the government may change the law and close the loophole that allows non-Jews to become citizens, and Israel’s leaders are also facing calls to deport the teenager and strip him of his citizenship.

—
Forming a Country

Following the destruction of Judea in 70 C.E., a few Jews had always lived in the region known as Palestine. Many Arabs lived here as well. Ashkenazi Jews began moving from Europe to Palestine in the nineteenth century, and many Holocaust survivors later moved to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s. Shortly after Israel was founded in 1948, many neighboring Arab countries expelled the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews who had been living in their countries, and they eventually moved to the Jewish State. Israel also had to use military operations to airlift several Jewish communities out of some hostile, Arab countries. Eventually, Jews from Ethiopia and India moved to Israel. After the victorious Six-Day War in 1967, many affluent American and European Jews moved to Israel. Tens of thousands of non-Jewish Russians arrived in the 1990s.

Take all of these communities, place them in an extremely small pot, and stir quickly. That’s the recipe for Israel. But how can one create a functioning country – not to mention a civil society – out of such diversity?

This is another difference between Israel and the United States. America has largely been successful in assimilating its immigrants over the years because the United States is a country that was founded not on religion or ethnicity, but on ideas – specifically, the ideas that are described in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A person’s ethnicity and religion do not matter – a person can believe in these ideas regardless of whether he is white or Hispanic, Christian or Muslim.

But modern Israel was founded on Judaism, an idea that is an ethnicity and a religion. What this mean for citizens who are not Jews? What does a Russian Christian, a Muslim Arab, and a European Jew all have in common besides the fact that they hold an Israeli passport? What is the status of non-Jews in a Jewish state? What unites all Israelis regardless of ethnicity and culture? These are questions that have yet to be answered.

Still, Jews in Israel are extremely divided even among themselves. Ashkenazi Jews from Europe are generally wealthier and better educated than Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, and this difference resembles the racial divide in America because Ashkenzi Jews have lighter skin tones than other Jews here. Ashkenazi Jews frequently work white-collar jobs at Israel’s top high-tech firms; Arabs and Sephardi Jews tend to work blue-collar jobs in food service and as day laborers.

The divide between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews presents itself most significantly in a metaphorical question: Is Israel a European or Middle Eastern country? Is it East or West?

The Zionist founders of Israel were European Jews, and the country has developed a parliamentary democracy that resembles those in most European countries. Israel has friendlier relations with Europe than with other countries in the Middle East. The country’s soccer team plays in the European league (and not the Asian one). Israel’s high-tech companies frequently work with Silicon Valley in America.

However, a majority of Israeli Jews are now Sephardi Jews because that community tends to have more children. More people now eat various Middle Eastern foods including falafel, shawarma, and couscous rather than the foods favored by Ashkenazi Jews like latkes (potato pancakes) and matzah ball soup. At the risk of sounding stereotypical, most Israeli Jews culturally act more like Middle Easterners than Europeans: they yell, haggle, debate, and banter all of the time. Israelis are a very emotive people: to paraphrase New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a calm discussion between two Israelis sounds like four Americans having a livid argument. It’s hard to put into words, but my readers who have traveled to the Middle East should know what I mean.

Still, the ethnic and cultural divide between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews is nothing compared to the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But that’s the complex topic for my next letter.

Prior letter: The Ultra-Orthodox; Next letter: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Food and Energy

The price of food is skyrocketing. (See here.) This is why I predict that the United States will enter a period of stagflation soon: The economy will slow significantly, but the prices of food and oil — and everything that depends on them — will continue to rise.

Women Don’t Negotiate

Linda Babcock, writing in the New York Times, reports some common sense:

While hiring two people with similar credentials, a woman and a man, I made each the same salary offer. The woman accepted the offer without negotiating. The man bargained hard, and I had to raise his offer by about 10 percent before he would agree to it.

In between these two events, I watched similar situations play out among my students and friends. Time and again, I saw women accept the status quo, take what they were offered and wait for someone else to decide what they deserved. Men asked for what they wanted and usually got what they asked for.

I have similar experiences. Back in Boston, I once interviewed for a marketing position at a New England hospital. Although the job did not pan out, I had successfully negotiated a salary that was 40 percent higher than the initial offer. (And the wage was still much lower than the median salary for such a position.)

A female friend of mine held a similar job at the same hospital. She rarely negotiated her salary or bonuses, and she did not say a word when a co-worker once essentially convinced the boss to give my friend’s bonus to her. Another woman I know accepted a salary at her company without negotiating at all because she was simply glad to obtain a job.

Of course, the plural of anecdote is not data. But common sense dictates that there is a trend here. Women do not receive lower pay in general because they face systematic discrimination — if that were the case, companies would be hiring only women who were equally qualified and thereby save a lot of money on salaries. After all, a company’s sole purpose is to create as much profit as possible.

Men are generally conditioned — whether through nature or nurture — to embrace conflict. We don’t mind a fight. Women, however, are generally conditioned to avoid conflict and create harmony. They dislike overt or explicit conflict, and this tendancy manifests itself in the workplace as an acceptance of whatever is offered. (When women fight with each other, it is not with fists — it is with passive-aggressive subtlety.)

Of course, there are exceptions to these rules about men and women, but these qualities are true a majority of the time. The typical workplace rewards people who are aggressive go-getters, but it seems that a majority of women do not have that quality. Women who receive lower salaries should not claim discrimination — they need to adapt to a new environment instead.

Hamas Over Fatah

JERUSALEM — If the Palestinian Authority held a presidential election today, the leader of Hamas, a terrorist organization, would defeat President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the latest poll:

The gap between the standing of Abbas compared to the standing of [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh decreases significantly in three months from 19 percentage points to almost zero. If new presidential elections were to take place today, Mahmud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh would receive almost equal number of votes, 46% for Abbas and 47% for Haniyeh. Abbas’s popularity stood at 56% and Haniyeh’s at 37% last December. During the breaching of the Rafah border with Egypt, Abbas’s popularity dropped to 51% and Haniyeh’s increased to 43%. Haniyeh’s popularity today is the highest ever registered since Hamas’s electoral victory in January 2006.

Sometimes I wonder what the Palestinians are thinking. Anyone care to venture a guess?

Moderation or Nothing?

Is it better to forbid children and teenagers from drinking alcohol completely, or is it better to encourage them to drink in moderation? All signs point towards the latter.

Vocational Training

The state of California is starting to realize the value of vocational education:

Some of the 200 allied-health fields, for example, will need nearly six times more workers to meet California’s needs by 2020 as retiring baby boomers seek more medical care, according to one study.

But community colleges also are the state’s training grounds — and, more than ever, the only ones — for hundreds of other occupations, as high school vocational training in areas such as car repair and metal working has dwindled steadily over two decades.

The community colleges and industry have begun to recognize their mutual needs. Laney College in Oakland took extra steps after hearing from a high-pay woodworking industry.

I’ll say this time and time again: Not everyone needs to go to college. Most people probably should not go. However, parents, guidance counselors, and society in general drill the inane idea into teenagers’ heads that people who lack university degrees are somehow inferior.

As I’ve written before, the United States needs to revamp its educational system to encourage fewer people to go to college and more to train for specialized jobs. It is one of the ways that America can successfully respond to globalization. (Plumbers and nurses can never be outsourced.) Specializing in a trade will also prevent people from spending their entire working lives on welfare or at McDonald’s.

A bachelor’s degree is now a high-school diploma. A master’s degree is now a bachelor’s degree. (If this trend continues, people will soon need a doctorate to distinguish themselves enough to obtain a job as a secretary.) When fewer people go to college, the price will fall — and that will stop people who do go to college from taking on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.

Cheaper Airfares

The prices for flights between Europe and the United States will fall soon. Go capitalism.

I just hope airlines’ service will improve as well. After my last two international flights (see here and here), it cannot get much worse.

Haggling Comes to America

JERUSALEM — One of the quirks (and frustrations) of living in Israel is that many things are negotiable. If I don’t haggle with a cab driver and settle on a price beforehand, I might be taken for an expensive ride when I’m going to a new location. The cheapest products are at souks, where price tags rarely exist.

Now, it seems that haggling is becoming an acceptable practice in America for items that are not big-ticket ones like houses, cars, and furniture. I think this is a negative indicator of the state of the U.S. economy: consumers are more conscious of costs since they have less money to spend, and businesses are under more pressure to sell even if their profit margins are lower.

Part of me wishes I could see this. It can be fun to argue over prices — unless, of course, you’re in a hurry.

Obama and the Jews

JERUSALEM — A friend recently forwarded this article to me:

…there is unease among some Jewish voters about the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential contender.

Why?

Part of it is a division between blacks and Jews that’s been growing for years, a split that Obama has challenged fellow blacks to confront.

Another element is the praise Obama has received from Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, whose disparaging comments about Judaism are toxic to many voters. Obama’s own pastor has a history of supporting Palestinian causes.

And there are questions about Obama advisers who some U.S. Jews see as less than ardent advocates of Israel.

Finally, there are rumors and outright lies about the candidate that have gained an audience through repetition in e-mails and on Web sites.

Obama is working hard to win over this vocal, powerful and reliably Democratic voting bloc.

I support Barack Obama for president. But I’m currently in Israel, and Israelis and American Jews here frequently criticize my choice because they believe the inaccurate rhetoric that has been sweeping the Internet and conservative media outlets.

Still, in all honesty, I must admit that is impossible to determine which policies a presidential candidate will pursue once he is in the White House. It’s fairly useless to research what the candidates believe on the Middle East because they all say the same, generic things: I support a two-state solution, the Palestinians need to renounce terrorism, and Israel needs to return the West Bank. They all say that they are committed to the “road map.” No candidate who makes it far in a presidential campaign is going to say that he has a view that is significantly to the left or right of these statements. After all, their primary concern at this point is to win the election.

We never really know what White House policy will be until after a person is in office, and they have to deal with a situation in the Middle East. Will a president be fairly neutral (like the first President Bush), or will he essentially side with Israel (like the second President Bush)? We can never know in advance.

I have yet to see the major candidates address a specific question like: “What would you do if Iran supplies Hamas with rockets that can hit Tel Aviv from Gaza?” or, “What would you do if Israel decides to build an increasing number of settlements far beyond the Green Line?” Washington reporters rarely ask detailed questions on the Middle East because they report on politics and political competition; they do not usually know the intricate details of the issues they cover.

Still, I support Obama because I agree with him on most of the other issues that affect the United States, and I think only he will have the ability to inspire and unite the American people in the difficult years ahead. But I do not know what his Middle East policies would be if becomes the next U.S. president. I’m taking that on faith.

Purim in Israel

JERUSALEM — Israelis, along with Jews throughout the world, are currently celebrating the holiday of Purim, which remembers the time when Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia, saved the country’s Jews from a massacre centuries ago.

Everyone here celebrates it by throwing a nationwide party. Living rooms, bars, and synagogues become completely different — and surreal — worlds. Everyone, including children and adults, wears a costume. (It’s like the Jewish Halloween.) People eat and drink — a lot. There are parades in the streets. When the Purim story, as recounted in the Book of Esther, is read aloud in synagogues, everyone shouts and stomps their feet every time the name of Haman, the villain of the story, is spoken. Clubs are packed.

Last night, I went to a Jerusalem bar with some friends. The bartenders spent more time dancing on the bar than serving drinks. (See above.) I understand why. The Torah commands people to get so drunk that they cannot distinguish between the names of Haman and Mordechai, Esther’s uncle. And this is the one religious rule that even secular Israelis follow. In addition, the two holidays of Purim and Passover, which occur next to each other, both contain the themes of deliverance and redemption. So everyone is in a celebratory mood.

Still, the holiday contains a few uncomfortable elements. The biblical story itself is extremely violent. When Haman’s plan is exposed, the Jews of Persia take revenge by killing him, all of his sons, and all of the Persians whom they thought were on his side. Moreover, an ancient Persian plan to massacre a Jewish community is eerily similar to Iran’s current plans for nuclear weapons and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s frequent diatribes against Israel.

But I doubt most people are thinking of that right now. They’re too busy going to the next party.