Guest Columnist: Israel's friendship will come with benefits

Israel should move on and become part of the upcoming 'in' crowd of nations.

By NORMA ZAGER
Knesset 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Knesset 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
"See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore He would give to your fathers - to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and to their descendants after them." (Deuteronomy 1:8). If the Lord closed the deal thousands of years ago, why is Israel still looking for a co-signer? Israel must survive but American Jews are "over it." AIPAC sold out for a glass of lemonade in the Oval Office and J Street is as pro-Israel as Jimmy Carter. It is time to wake up and realize the menu in the White House has changed. However, the financial dynamic has also changed, and a healthy bottom line trumps political propaganda any day. Some believe the enormous buyouts of American companies by Arab investors is proof of the growing fear by many Israelis that Arab money will threaten US pro-Israel policy. By virtue of this mind-set, Israel is showing weakness and dependence on a parent who long ago passed into the great beyond. It is time for Israel to move on and become part of the upcoming "in" crowd of nations. There's a vast untapped market of new friends. Israel's ability to sell its innovations and world-class advances to countries like China, Russia, Japan, India, Germany, France, England and every country in either the Old or New World is a gold mine. ISRAEL HAS left the US behind and breezed ahead by miles. The United States continues to slip and slide downhill in education, innovation, manufacturing and wealth through the loss of capitalist incentive and its new socialist agenda. In the meantime, a new world order has evolved in Asia, and voices calling to distance oneself from the dollar as the international currency are already being heard. Israel is not only capable of becoming an integral member of the group; it is capable of playing a pivotal role. While the Arabs rush around trying to find places to invest their soon-to-disappear oil fortunes, the rest of the world is slowly entering a world it cannot fathom. Science, technology and medicine will drive the future, not oil. Brains not brawn, and Israel has no shortage of either. I don't blame America. Israel has too long behaved like a college graduate who returns to live at mom and dad's and finds they moved out of the 10-room house in Great Neck to a small condo in Florida. The extra room no longer houses baseball trophies and awards but a sofa bed and computer desk for grandpa. The breed that built Israel - tough, determined and fresh from the Nazi atrocities with energy fueled by passion - is gone. Energized by a loathing at what they witnessed and a commitment to see that it never happens again, they built the State of Israel with the power of a volcano spewing lava into the sea, creating a new land mass. Now, Israel is populated with a new generation of Jewish minds. A young innovative breed combines the genius of the early European inventiveness with a science and tech mind-set so strong the innovations just keep coming. And the world just keeps benefiting - from vaccines to medications, from cells to computer technologies, from nano-explorations to splitting the basic particles - Israel is the heart and center of creativity and innovation. According to an article in The New York Times this year, "There are more companies on Nasdaq from Israel - 91 - than from any other country outside North America, and Nasdaq lists more Israeli companies than all other foreign bourses combined." Israel is more than capable of standing on its own feet. IN THE short 61 years since the United Nations partition vote, Israel has brought the world the cellphone, most of the Windows operating system, an earthquake detector for home use, instant messaging (the ICQ instant-messaging program was created by four Israelis), firewall security software, Intel wireless computer chips, numerous medicines, miniature video camera capsules to examine internal organs, voice mail technology and agriculture advances a hungry world already embraces, not to mention new technologies to harvest the power of the wind and the heat of the sun and to desalinate ocean water in order to reduce our dependency on oil and adjust to living in severe water-shortage conditions. Cardiology, genetics, neurology and ophthalmology are but a few of the medical sciences benefiting from advanced Israeli technology. Israeli medical and biotechnological firsts include state-of-the-art surgical lasers; fully computerized no-radiation diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer; an intelligent medical sensor that can be used to track and direct instruments to an exact three-dimensional location in the heart or other organs via a real-time virtual image; the fully flexible waveguide fiber for endoscopic surgery; unique computerized monitoring systems for critical care patients; pain-relieving transcutaneous devices; a revolutionary autoclave design to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases; and many more. A new type of internal combustion engine was developed that will double engine efficiency, reduce carbon emissions by half and cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 percent. The list is endless. Israel's future is not predicated on American support, but on its own confidence and ability. I envision the Jewish homeland as the Rocky of the 21st century. I see Israel as a long-shot contender with the soul of a giant who rises from obscurity to become the champ. Oh wait, I've heard this story before. And little David slew Goliath to become king. Perhaps recalling Bible history may go a long way toward reviving Israel's self-esteem and rebuilding its image. We've won the match, now let's wear the belt and behave like the champion and the "light among nations" Israel is meant to be. The writer is an award-winning journalist and author whose work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and numerous periodicals. In 2003 she was awarded the coveted Los Angeles Journalist of the Year and the Best Investigative Series by the Los Angeles Press Club.