Isreal is all of what American conservatives dispise, and only
 one thing conservatives like.

 Isreal is a religious state, which conservatives like, but the
 wrong religion for American conservatives. Many on the religious
 right in this country support Israel because they believe the
 support of Isreal will lead to the end of the Jewish faith.

 In the end times, which the religious right is hoping for, and
 the re-establishment if Israel is supposed to preceed, the Jew
 are supposed to convert or die.

 Nice when your supporters are hoping for the end of what you
 believe in, isn't it?

 Israel is also heavily socialist, involved in social
 engineering, and universal health care. Isreal is also very
 multicultural. All of which the right in America dispises. Oh,
 and they are big on immigration, but the right accepts that
 since they are trying to consolidate all the world's Jews in one
 place.

 Israel is also a democracy, but that is in the balance in the
 current events. How democratic a nation is when the military is
 embedded in almost all of national life is arguable. How long it
 can continue as a democracy when the press is allegedly free,
 but subject to military censorship, is truely questionable.

 Which leads to the title question, is Israel becomming a failed
 state, and if so, just why and what are the indicators.

 What are the indicators of a failed state? Dependence on
 international aid? Expansion of poverty? Widespread crime,
 extending into the government? Oppressive government?

 Those who pay attention to Israeli news, from Israeli sources,
 may be aware that poverty is a problem in Israel. Now that is
 not supposed to be, as Israel offers so much to immigrants.
 However, having listened to The Voice of Israel (Kol Israel) for
 years, and reading online Israeli newspapers, it comes out that
 poverty is a continuing problem in Israel. Which is not really
 suprising in a country that has focused on it's military for all
 of it's existance.

 Clearly Israel is dependent on foreign assistance for it's very
 survival. The US provides Israel with more foreign aid than it
 does to any other country. Much of that is military aid, if not
 most. However, if the US did not provide that aid then Israel
 would have to divert more of it's economy to make that up.

 To those who pay attention crime in Israel is pretty well known,
 but even a short search turns up more than I knew before.
 Organized crime in Israel is well established, but has grown
 drastically since the fall of the Soviet Union. In the last
 decade such crime has reached to the level of cabinet ministers,
 and assignation attempts between gangs. At least one bombing in
 Isreal was originally believed to be of Palestinian origin, but
 proved out to be an attempt to kill a gang leader by a rival
 gang. The attacks have included anti-tank rockets and bombs.

 Israeli organized crime is inherently international, due to the
 ease of travel. The surge of immigration from Eastern Europe
 after the fall of the Soviet Union included many criminals, and
 world wide immigration to Israel opens up outward travel by
 those holding passports from other countries. Israeli crime
 families have tentacles into Eastern and Western Europe, and the
 United States.

 International criminal activity by Israeli mobs include drug
 dealing especially, but also money laundering, gambling,
 trafficing in women, and murder which goes with all the above.

 One possible reason for the extent of Israeli infiltration of
 international organized crime is the restrictive Israeli
 extradition laws. While Israel can extradite Jews to other
 countries for trial, that is only allowed if the accused will be
 sent to Israel to serve any sentence. Israeli prisons are more
 'humane', or soft if you prefer, than many other countries,
 including the US. One of the Israeli organized crime figures
 murdered in the feuds had escaped from prison by the simple
 expedient of walking away from a weekend pass, and moving to
 England, where he was killed.

 In January of this year Israel shipped 5 accused crime figures
 to the US for trial, but, if convicted, they will be sent back
 to Israel to serve their sentences. Those men, described by an
 Israeli police spokesman as the "Lords of Organized Crime", were
 wanted for murder, drug dealing, money laundering and possible
 RICO prosecution.

 Yet all of this, while indicating a breakdown in Israeli
 society, do not necessarily indicate a failing state. What may,
 though, it how many citizens want to, or are preparing to, leave
 the country.

 Recently I discovered that emigration is a problem for Israel,
 but the potential for more immigration is huge. Aproximately 50%
 of Israeli youth said they would rather live somewhere else if
 it were possible, in a survey on the subject. Over 60% of
 Israelis either already hold foreign passports, or have applied
 for them, and indicated they are considering leaving. Around
 3/4 million Israelis either have US passports or have applied
 for them.

 There has long been a worry that Islamic reproduction exceeds
 Jewish reproduction to such an extent that Israel may no longer
 be a Jewish state. An unmentioned addition to this concern is
 the emigration/immigration imbalance in Israel. Israelis who
 leave the country typically do not return. They are twice as
 likely to be college educated as the average Israeli, and, more
 important, they are young.

 The immigrants to Israel tend to be older, the emmegrants tend
 to be younger. The immigrants are much less likely to have
 children than the emmigrants. That too will add to the
 reproduction imbalance.

 All in all, if over half the population of a country are
 considering leaving, and half the youth have said they would
 prefer to leave, that just might suggest the nation is on it's
 way to being a failed state.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.
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