So these guys think that the average IQ in Israel is dead average? Somehow that strikes me as rather odd, especially considering the following:
Jews are generally regarded as more intelligent than the average person. This perception has a basis in fact - the best and brightest throughout Jewish history traditionally became rabbis. Unlike priests, rabbis are permitted to marry, and rabbis traditionally have large families, partially in order to set a good example for their flocks. Also, Jews have endured numerous persecutions and massacres of various types for nearly 2,000 years. It only makes sense that the survivors (and their offspring) would have a higher level of intelligence, as intelligence is definitely a positive survival factor throughout the animal kingdom. Thus, the base of Jews before the Holocaust probably had an IQ of more than 100.
Israel was the beneficiary of a large influx of Holocaust survivors. Since higher intelligence is a positive survival factor, this leads to the conclusion that such survivors are more intelligent than the average of all of the people subjected to such treatment (who themselves probably had an IQ of more than 100). Simple genetics predicts that the offspring of such generally more intelligent people will also be more intelligent.
Israel managed to establish itself in a desert wasteland against the wishes of its much more numerous and better armed adversaries, and to then survive and prosper against overwhelming odds, as well as to develop a rather robust nuclear weapons infrastructure. None of these things are easily accomplished by very intelligent societies, and would probably be impossible for those of merely average intelligence.
Israel's intelligence services, Shin Bet and the Mossad, are looked upon as being the best in the world, man-for-man. Israel's armed forces are looked upon in the same manner, or at least no worse than #2 or #3 in this regard. From precisely which population base did the very numerous people in these institutions spring?
Israel has a disproportionately large number of doctors and scientists in its population, probably the highest per capita figures in the world. Certainly the vast majority of people in these professions have well above average intelligence.
Are we to believe that the rest of Israel's population (i.e. non-Mossad, non-armed forces, non-professional) are so far below average that they drag the overall average Israeli IQ to only 100? Keep in mind that these people also have families, and most people like to marry others of similar intelligence levels; their offspring will, as indicated above, also be of higher intelligence. Thus, the base of people with higher intelligence in Israel is multiplied by a factor of somewhere between 2 and 4 (depending on marital status and the number of children) beyond the raw numbers of people in the "higher intelligence" category defined above.
By the way, does this figure include Israeli Arabs (about 1 million)? How about the Pallies that live under Israeli control (1 million? 2 million)? If these groups are included, then the average IQ of Jewish Israelis is likely considerably higher than 100.
I'd love to know the details and methodology of this book.