With gratitude to God, I write these words overlooking the walls of Jerusalem just two hours before the holyday of Sukot starts and just two miles from where King David himself celebrated Tabernacles.
Yet, even while wrapped in Jerusalem’s eternal spiritual transcendence, I am typing on a first rate computer connected to high speed Internet in an air-conditioned office.
Many cities like Istanbul, Prague, and Tallinn display similar contrasts between ancient and modern. But Israel’s ever-present ancient aura is the fuel propelling the country into modernity.
With fewer than 10% of the population of her four contiguous neighbors, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, Israel’s Gross Domestic Product is about equivalent to the aggregate of those four countries. Imagine if tiny Rhode Island produced more wealth than Georgia. Instead, as you’d expect, Rhode Island’s GDP is about 1/10th of Georgia, which has about ten times the population of Rhode Island.
One explanation routinely offered for the abysmal economic performance by Israel’s four neighbors is Israel’s existence. There are problems with that excuse. One, they weren’t doing any better before 1948 or before they launched several unsuccessful wars against Israel. Two, being surrounded by enemies, the monumental costs of self-defense impose a disproportionate burden upon the tiny Jewish state.
