At what point does a tin ear become pathological? I see what he was trying to say, but the specific phrasing is almost designed to spread hate and discontent throughout the region.
But the thing is, Israel isn't a functioning democratic nation. Arab Israelis are deprived of their rights on a daily basis, as a nation its commited classifiable genocide within the last 30 years, and the only reason its entire agricultural industry does so well is because Israel uses all the water for irrigation that the Palestinians need to..y'know, drink. Israel may be functioning, but it is far from a functioning liberal democracy. And just because a country is functioning doesn't make it a desirable ideal for Iraq at all. Edit: Not to mention the fact that the US props up the whole damn economy.
Just goes to show what a bunch of moronically retarded idiots the Bush administration really are. First, the best way to piss off Arabs is to say: "Why can't you be more like those Palestinian and Lebanese bashing Israeli?" Second, I'm sure that this emulation is not meant to include a secret nuclear defense programme. Third, as Spec says, Israel is not a democracy. In any case, the Palestinians and Israeli already have a lot in common: for both the almost ritual experience of holding a gun for the first time as a pre-teen child is considered a rite of passage into adulthood and becoming a citizen. You are not a man (or woman) until you have done military service for your country. Trust me, Iraq will be like Israel, alright. But that does not mean they will be on the same side.
Israel's exports = virtually nothing Israel's imports = cash from the USA government and misguided Americans, who think they are doing a noble thing(like when they sent arms/cash to the IRA)
Actually, Israel exports a surprising ammount of fruit and veg. I have to stay awares when buying my veggies to make sure I don't buy Israeli ones. I'm not into supporting terrorism, or genocidal armies y'see.
Israel exports produce. It imports wealthy American Jews with a misplaced sense of cultural identity, and wealthy American fundamentalist Christians who believe that the existence of a State of Israel is a condition for the return of Jesus Christ. It seems not only the Devil makes strange bedfellows. Of course, the Christian fundamentalist agenda is that once Jesus does return, all those Jews will convert to the "true faith" or perish. But somehow that does not seem to worry the Israeli much...
Yup. With everybody being wiped out by everybody else's God, Earth is going to be one quiet place after the Judgement Day party is over... Ah, well. At least the dolphins will get a break. You see? The meek shall inherit the earth.
To be fair, i'd find the insult not in the request to emulate but in the faiths here. The US saying "hey, you should be more Israel" is almost a subtle way to say "convert to judaiiiissssmmm" which, if interpreted that way, may be grounds for a full out war to an extremist or two. After all, if you're religious, how do you react to some asshole constantly bugging you to join their heathens?
They also make cheap pharmaceuticals (Teva is one of the largest makers of generic drugs in the world) and a number of other odds and ends. The point here is that if you want to win frinds and influence people, don't hold up the one thing that everyone in the neighborhood hates as an example of how you want things to be. If image sigs were allowed (and I'm glad they're not) mine would have a countdown to Bush's last day in mine!
Israel exports some seriously high-grade technology - most of the world's best encryption technology hails from Israel. ...and while Bush might have said that Israel functions despite the violence - I wonder if he realises that it's Israel that's dishing out a fair proportion of that violence?
