Et si de Gaulle ou le premier Mohamed venu de nos banlieues avaient vu juste? Cobb, Sammy Davis, Jr. Ils se convertirent souvent au christianisme.
Mais elle est fascinante. L e Point. Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0. Jews make up 2 percent of the U. Pease lists some of the explanations people have given for this record of achievement. The Jewish faith encourages a belief in progress and personal accountability. It is learning-based, not rite-based. Most Jews gave up or were forced to give up farming in the Middle Ages; their descendants have been living off of their wits ever since. They have congregated around global crossroads and have benefited from the creative tension endemic in such places.
No single explanation can account for the record of Jewish achievement. The odd thing is that Israel has not traditionally been strongest where the Jews in the Diaspora were strongest. Instead of research and commerce, Israelis were forced to devote their energies to fighting and politics. Milton Friedman used to joke that Israel disproved every Jewish stereotype. People used to think Jews were good cooks, good economic managers and bad soldiers; Israel proved them wrong.
But that has changed. The most resourceful Israelis are going into technology and commerce, not politics. Israel has more high-tech start-ups per capita than any other nation on earth, by far. It leads the world in civilian research-and-development spending per capita. It ranks second behind the U. Israel, with seven million people, attracts as much venture capital as France and Germany combined. Because of the strength of the economy, Israel has weathered the global recession reasonably well.
The government did not have to bail out its banks or set off an explosion in short-term spending. The country was not founded so stray settlers could sit among thousands of angry Palestinians in Hebron. It was founded so Jews would have a safe place to come together and create things for the world. This shift in the Israeli identity has long-term implications. Netanyahu preaches the optimistic view: that Israel will become the Hong Kong of the Middle East, with economic benefits spilling over into the Arab world.
