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Gov. Christie praises Israel's tech industry during Bridgewater town …

ru1bailbonds.com4/11/12

Gov. Chris Christie today said he believes free market ideals have allowed Israel's high-tech industry to flourish BRIDGEWATER — In the first of a series of town hal…

Israpundit » Blog Archive » Why is Israel so happy? What, me worry?

www.israpundit.com4/10/12

Israel is much happier than all the European countries that experienced their last war six decades ago. The Jewish state's population exceeds 7.5 million, nine times that of 1948, the year of the state's creation. Israelis are …

Israel ranked 14th in the United Nations first World Happiness Report, conducted by Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

And it’s a result that is likely to surprise a lot of people.

Denmark, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands topped the list, while Benin, Central African Republic, Togo and Sierra Leone came in last.

Canada came in right behind The Netherlands in fifth.

And the United States ranked 11th, while the United Kingdom came in 18th.

The 158-page report was commissioned for the United Nations Conference on Happiness, which aims to “review the state of happiness in the world today and show how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness.”

The report was based on findings published by the Gallup World Poll between the years 2005-2011, as well as three other surveys.

The rankings compile a “life evaluation score,” which is based on various factors including health, job security, political and personal freedom and corruption.

According to the report,

“while basic living standards are essential for happiness, after the baseline has been met happiness varies more with the quality of human relationship than with income.”

Israel Ranked 14th?

If you think the report must be wrong when it comes to Israel and perhaps the USA too, then take a look at,

World’s Happiest Countries – Happiness Index From Forbes.com

Threats To Israel

Israel is under contestant threat from many Islamic countries that have vowed to destroy it.

Iran is going nuclear and continually threatens to wipe Israel off of the map

Arabs fire rockets every day at civilians in Ashkelon, Beersheba, Ashdod and Sderot

And suicide bombers would blow themselves up in cafes and shopping mall if they were able to.

Israel is the only nation without recognized borders.

And organized propaganda is endlessly used against it by Islamic countries, third world countries, and liberals that love to support the perceived underdog.

Divisions In Israeli Society

Israel’s social fabric is deeply divided, between its Ultra-Orthodox Jews and its Secular Jews.

Between nationalists and leftists.

So What Is The Source Of Their Happiness?

Perhaps because,

Israelis have one of the longest life expectancies of any nation in the world.

Their country has a history of scintillating enlightenment, with the highest production of scientific publications per capita in the world, more museums per capita and the highest worldwide publication of new books.

Economic success! No other industrialized country does it better, especially for a nation that doesn’t have natural resources and has a population roughly half of Belgium’s.

Israel’s high-tech industry is flourishing, making the country known as the “start-up nation".

In a war-ravaged country like Israel, the past few years saw five Israeli Nobel Prize winners.

There is attachment to the land, whereas love for one’s land, is a nationalistic taboo in most of the West.

For a country the size of Wales, Israel has the varied landscape of the US but the distance from the north to the south is only around 500km or 310 miles.

Israel’s population is very resilient. A new governmental study just found that Intifada-era violence did nothing to affect Israel’s national morale.

Israelis are also happy because they know that Dimona and the IDF are there to protect them.

To Summarize

In Israel, the celebrations of life are far more important than the memories of death, and to quote Golda Meir.

“We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”.

And perhaps Israel is a lighthouse of life, on the border between survival and destruction, believing that ultimately, that life will overcome death?

The Saudis Want to Arm an Insurgency « Commentary Magazine

www.commentarymagazine.com2/24/12

Al-Qaeda fighters will most likely show up, if they haven't already. Another question we're going to have to start asking ourselves is whether or not we want any leverage in Syria after Assad is deposed. A hostile Islamist …

Why haven't we intervened in Syria? Is Iraq to blame? Is Libya? | Left …

www.leftfootforward.org2/27/12

It could also be argued that inside Syria there is no overwhelming desire to see Assad deposed. An opinion poll conducted last December showed that 55 per cent of Syrians still want Assad in power; however, three important …

The Assad Regime Is Close To "Coup Proof"

The Obama administration along with its Arab and European allies are trying to push Syria’s leader from power, but US officials acknowledge that they see no good candidates to replace him, either inside the government or from the nation’s fractured opposition.

Why Isn’t There A Viable Alternative To Assad?

It’s because President Bashar Assad worked for years to make Syria coup proof, and he did everything that he could to make sure that there could never be heir apparent.

"The ruling establishment there is so entrenched and it is so self-interested, even if, and this is purely speculative, even if they overthrew Assad, it’s not clear that we would like his successor much more",

said a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Similarly, among the rebels, there is no opposition figure who has come out and become the face of Syrian resistance".

the official said.

Clinton Is Trying To Increase Internal Pressure

On Friday (February 24, 2012) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attempted to exacerbate any divisions within Syria’s elite, and especially among its security forces by saying,

"Their refusal to continue this slaughter will make them heroes in the eyes of not only Syrians but people of conscience everywhere.

What Anti-Coup Measures Are In Place?

The Assads and many other power-brokers in Damascus are from the minority Alawite sect, that only makes up 12% of the Syrian population, so their fortunes are closely tied to the president’s.

Joshua Landis, who is a professor at the University of Oklahoma and writes a newsletter on Syrian politics.

"The Assads have been planning for this for 40 years, for a Sunni uprising against them. And that’s why they’ve poured family members and sectarian members into the top upper ranks. It’s all about loyalty to coup-proof this regime".

"When the younger Assad took office, he kept the grip of power within the family, with his brother Maher commanding the Republican Guard and his brother-in-law a leader of the armed forces".

"The place is one exercise in nepotism".

Those Involved With Spilling Innocent Blood Are Fearful

Individuals involved in bloodshed against noncombatants also have a strong incentive to fortify Assad because they could be in very serious trouble if the government falls.

"Almost anyone in the security services as of today would have good reason to fear for their future in a Syria in which the regime has fallen",

said Paul Pillar, a Georgetown University professor and former top CIA analyst.

The Syrian Intelligence Agency

For decades, the Assads took into account an uprising led by Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims, which make up about 74% of the population, much like the one which is presently underway.

They built a security apparatus that included a "Mukhabarat culture" of secret police and public fear to control the population.

* Mukhabarat, is the Arabic word for "intelligence agency".

"It would be difficult to mount a coup because the Assads engineered a system in which intelligence agencies have overlapping functions",

said Murhaf Jouejati, a National Defense University professor and member of the opposition Syrian National Council.

"So if there is the movement of any units of the Army they would all become aware of it".

Big Brother Is Watching The Upper Tier Too

"The top tier is not immune from scrutiny by their peers either. Even these people are watched over by different intelligence agencies. So it really is difficult to mount a coup, although one can never say it is impossible",

Jouejati said.

"Syria is a police state with a very strong military and intelligence capability inside Syria",

a US official said.

"They are pervasive throughout Syria, they have sophisticated means of obtaining information and that is something the opposition has to battle".

"They are heavily networked, literally and figuratively, inside the country. They use a variety of collection means at their disposal to obtain information. It is your classic police state".

So Will Assad Fall?

Clinton said on Thursday that she would,

"bet against Assad staying in power and that there will be a breaking point".

"That breaking point may come when there is a convergence of international, diplomatic and economic pressure and enough of a boil inside Syria to create the writing on the wall for Assad. But it is not going to be easy, and it may take more time",

So When Will The Writing Be On The Wall?

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a recent congressional hearing that,

"One factor to watch is the "cohesion of the elites. And while we’ve seen signs of some of the seniors in the Assad regime making contingency plans to evacuate, move families, move financial resources, to this point they’ve held together".

"Assad himself probably because of his psychological need to emulate his father, sees no other option, but to continue to try to crush the opposition and short of a coup or something like that, Assad will hang in there and continue to do as he’s done".

Jouejati (member of the opposition Syrian National Council) says,

"The popular uprising is evidence that some of the public is shaking off its fear. What is happening now in Syria is that this barrier of fear is breaking and people are discovering that they can trust one another and this is the greatest threat really to the Assad regime".

So How And When Might He Step Down?

Landis (professor at the University of Oklahoma) said,

"He is doomed because he’s the last minoritarian regime in the Middle East. So one presumes that they will eventually fall in this age of democratic revolution and popular revolt".