Posted on 04/14/2024 8:52:45 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As Israel’s war with Hamas passes the six-month mark, here are some updates:
Despite all the hardships Israelis are facing these days, Gallup’s recent World Happiness Report lists their country as the fifth-happiest nation on Earth, behind Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden. The US ranks twenty-third.
Why, in the midst of a battle for its very existence, surrounded by enemies on all sides and confronting the escalation of anti-Semitism around the world, are Israelis so happy?
And how is the answer relevant to Christians in our secularized culture?
Gil Troy is an American presidential historian and senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, he explains the difference between Israel and the US: “Amid unspeakable suffering, Israelis have found comfort in one another and a higher calling. Too many Americans feel lonely and lost.”
According to Troy, “Israelis pursue happiness through family and community, by feeling rooted and having a sense of purpose.” He adds: “Despite disagreeing passionately, Israelis live in an intimate society that runs on trust and generates hope. Israelis feel that they’re never alone, and that their relatives and friends will never abandon them.”
After leading more than thirty study tours to Israel over the years, I can attest personally to the truth of his description. The Israelis I know are indeed some of the most optimistic, gracious, and family-centered people I have ever known.
By contrast, Troy says of anti-Israel progressive students in the US:
These illiberal liberals trash traditional families, religion, and America’s noble story of a flawed nation becoming “a more perfect union.” These campus commissars are among the unhappy Americans the surgeon general sees in the depths of loneliness and despair.
Israelis didn’t seek this war—but when attacked, they unleashed a patriotism, idealism, self-sacrifice, and grit that today’s regressive progressives scorn. Israelis’ resilience, duty, and love of life explain how this often polarized and besieged society remains such a happy place. Rather than demonize these heroes, protesters could learn from Israelis about the art of living—not only for their sake but for America’s too.
Secularized Americans can indeed learn from Israelis about “resilience, duty, and love of life.” But both are missing a factor that should cause Christians to be an even greater model for “the art of living.”
I can think of 3.3 billion reasons to make them happy each year
Exactly
They are not bored.
They deserve all the happiness they can get. The 20th century was not very kind to the Jewish people.
Actually they should be paying USA 3.3b a year for saving them in the 20th century
They have not had their vote stolen?
We give them a lot of money.
Evidently, something called “Iron Dome” works and it makes them happy.
IOW, they're a homogeneous society, with a shared ethnicity and religion. And their government and media celebrates the history and culture of that ethnicity and religion.
Homogeneity is a good foundation for creating bonds of trust and shared interests.
Diversity is a weakness.
But the media, government, and universities are telling the West that preserving and celebrating its white Christian heritage is racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. So the West has been denied the happiness and trust of homogeneity.
And now they're chipping away at Japan.
makes me doubt the poll or the response to it, like rooting for your home team biases sports polls
Be careful. It is hard to attribute victimization for groups without similarly attributing blame.
FAITH
Maybe they trust their government to keep them safe.
Is that her name?
Imagine how happy they’d be if they didn’t spend time meddling in the world’s affairs with AIPAC and the NGOs that have DESTROYED EUROPE AND NOW DESTROYED AMERICA. Back then, they could leave Germany and Poland and Russia and had America to go to. Now? Nowhere will be safe. They hate Christianity so much, they imported MUSLIMES and the turd wold to ruin Western Civilization, and will kvetch to us to help save them yet again when islam starts doing what islam always does.
If we were allowed to have our own ethno-state, we would be happy too. Living in a nation with your own people who share common heritage, language, culture and ethnic background is very good for a people.
Israel is 60% atheist.
Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a population of 467,875, it is the economic and technological center of the country. Tel Aviv is home to most of Israel’s foreign embassies.[b] It is a beta+ world city and is ranked 57th in the 2022 Global Financial Centres Index. Tel Aviv has the third- or fourth-largest economy and the largest economy per capita in the Middle East. The city currently has the highest cost of living in the world. Tel Aviv receives over 2.5 million international visitors annually.
A “party capital” in the Middle East, it has a lively nightlife and 24-hour culture. The city is gay-friendly, with a large LGBT community.
The tiny state of Israel’s per capita GDP is on par with most Western European nations at $54,660, while in Palestinian territories the per capita GDP is $3789.00.
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