[Patria One]

Israel is hardly economically successful. What can you be thinking of? Palestinians provide cheap labor and the US provides a tremendous amount of foreign aid since the early 1950s, but Israel doesn't have any natural resources and you must know that the tech sector and the tourism sector are both in the tank.

[winslow]

Israel would be a lot more sucessful economically if they didn't have to spend so much of their budget (approx 20%)on defence and security.

[monkeyshine]

Israel is hardly economically successful. What can you be thinking of?

I was thinking about their GDP of $110 billion and their central government's budget of $45B annually. Foreign aid helps but is not essential. With a per capita income of over $18,000 this is greater than many EU nations (as is their state budget... twice as large as Ireland with similar demographics). This is 5-6 times greater than any of her neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria.

Imagine how much better this picture would look if they didn't have to devote so much money to fighting off 5 attacks in 50 years.

[timestax]

Israel is succesful compared to the backward Islamic,muslim nations. Is that one reason that they hate Israel, and USA.

What would you have us do, withdraw our savings from bank and burn all our savings, and quit our jobs where WORK hard for our MONEY. And return to the backward times like your Islamics live in?!

Islamic muslims suck!

OH, and they treat females like dogs, and allow them NO education! How about that eh??!

[Puck from Michigan]

Compared to surrounding nations, yes.....Israel is successful.

[Anamensis]

Israel is hardly economically successful. What can you be thinking of? Palestinians provide cheap labor and the US provides a tremendous amount of foreign aid since the early 1950s, but Israel doesn't have any natural resources and you must know that the tech sector and the tourism sector are both in the tank.

Then how will a Palestinian state survive? Who'll be supporting them? If it's another country, an Arab country, will that invalidate them the way you seem to think our support of Israel invalidates their sovereignty?