Israel is a magnet for hyperbole

By Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM–According to Israelis and others who talk and write about the country, it is the worst or the best place on earth.

Hyperbole is the language of those who love and hate it. It is often in the cross hairs of international organizations flying the flags of justice and humane behavior. Or it is doing the Lord’s work, and is set upon by vicious, predisposed, anti-Semitic beings, who according to some include the man currently sitting in the Oval Office.

Israelis also speak with fulsome criticism or praise. Among their accusations is that it has the most severe records of inequality, getting worse by the day; that its drivers are among the worse in the world; and that its politicians are among the most corrupt and self-serving, with governments that cannot live out their terms without falling victim to petty disputes. There are also Israelis who cannot pause to consider these things, so busy are they boasting the country’s record in medical and technological advances, and economic performance.

Reality, as usual, is more complex than the boasts and accusations of people who feel too strongly about their views.

Israel is beset with enemies, and it does defend itself, but with less “collateral damage” than can be found for countries also involved in warfare, like the United States and Britain, whose residents are among the most prominent in accusing Israel of war crimes.

Israel is not a perfectly egalitarian society, and it does have traffic accidents. Its governments do exhibit internal conflict and are likely to fall before the end of their terms. However, in each of these traits Israel is in the normal range, and generally about the average for Western democracies. Anyone wanting to find countries where there is much greater inequality, many more traffic accidents, and governments that are more problematic should look in the Third World. The great rift in human behavior is between the well to do and the poor. And on this trait, Israel is usually in the middle of well to do countries on a host of indicators.

Against claims that Arab Israelis suffer from discrimination and persecution, the facts are that Israel’s minority is closer to the Jewish majority on indicators of family income than are comparable findings for minorities and majorities in the United States; and Israeli Arabs have better indicators of health than white Americans.

If Israel is pretty much like other countries to which it might be compared, why the excitement?

One reason is all those Muslim countries, with votes in international forums, and money to hire public relations firms, buy into media companies, and endow universities. This assures lip service from Western governments not wanting to annoy their sources of energy, as well as cooperation from individuals who administer higher education and the media.

Another reason is the place and nature of Israel and its population. Jews and others expect more of the Promised Land. The Light unto the Gentiles does not shine as brightly as some expect. It is not Heaven on Earth, but its human failings (i.e., being a normal country with social problems and disputes) disappoints the faithful who expect more of it.

Israel infuriates Muslims who view the entire Middle East (which some of them stretch all the way to Portugal) as properly Arab. It angers ideologues (Jews and others) who buy into the Palestinian narrative and conclude that Palestine should be their home, or at least a place where they are treated better than minorities elsewhere.

In regard to the overly fulsome praise, some time ago there was an e-mail passed around and around, which I filed under the heading of Jewish junk. …  The claim that Israel has the highest living standards and wealth in the Middle East leaves out a number of the oil producing countries; and that it has the highest incidence of university graduates in the world does not square with World Bank data. They show Israel ranking 16th among 21 upper income countries on a measure of university enrollments relative to population. On most things, Israel must be satisfied with being good, without being the best.

So please lower the volume of complaints and praise. They disturb my enjoyment of wine from the Golan. It is good, but not the best.

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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University