Dear Friend of Israel, Friend of FLAME:

A brilliant Jewish friend observed to me over lunch last week that he believes the reason many people are anti-Semitic or anti-Israel or both is because of envy of the Jews and envy of Israel---for their prodigious accomplishments. I don't know if my friend is correct, but I do know that our achievements have been astounding. Yes, enviable, indeed.

But forget about everything the Jews have contributed to civilization for a minute. Let's just consider, as this week's FLAME Hotline does, the truly astounding things the Jews in Israel have accomplished in just 63 years. Suffice it to say that from an economic, agricultural, and entrepreneurial standpoint, no nation has come close to achieving what Israel has---and all of it while fighting off at tremendous expense armies of Arabs attacking her from every side.

The open-minded person, the aspiring person, you would think would say, as my Protestant mother used to, admiringly, "The Jews have great values and they do amazing things." How could you, as, say, an Arab, review incredible achievements like those below and not think, "Whatever Israel is doing, we've got to do that, too---just like them"?

But apparently irrationality is more powerful than the overwhelming evidence that Israelis have discovered some great formulas for success. In other words, Israel has a gift. Call it a gift of God, call it a gift of intelligence, call it a gift of determination . . .

To deserve this gift, we have to respect it and protect it . . . and keep spreading the word.

Speaking of which, I took FLAME's advice and called my congresswoman last week to support House Resolution 238, which House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) have introduced. It urges the Obama administration to rally opposition to Palestinian efforts seeking recognition of statehood. Arab states will soon submit a measure to the United Nations (U.N.) calling for the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. The Cantor/Hoyer resolution also warns of repercussions for U.S.-Palestinian relations if an unreformed Hamas is included in a new Palestinian government. It's not too late: I urge you to pick up the phone and call your Congressional representative right now through the Congressional switchboard at (202) 225-3121. To identify your Representative (and contact him or her via email), go to Contacting the Congress. (You'll need your nine [5+4] digit zip code to find your Representative.) Please take a few minutes, right now, while you have this Hotline in hand, to contact your Representative. Urge him or her to support H.R. 268: We oppose unilateral U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state without negotiations with Israel.

I would also urge you, using the Forward to a Friend button below, to forward this powerful message to your friends, family, and colleagues. Israel needs us now.

Best Regards,

Jim Sinkinson
Vice President, FLAME

P.S.

As you know, Israel gets regularly battered in the media, and we pro-Israel advocates too often find ourselves on the defensive. But FLAME has begun to take a different tack in its hasbarah (clarifying) messages: Most recently we're calling the world's attention to the hypocrisy of unrelenting attacks on Israel by the U.N. in the face of horrible crimes against humanity committed by the Arab world. If you, too, believe we should seize the offense against Israel's enemies, I recommend you review FLAME's latest position paper: "Apartheid in the Arab Middle East: How can the U.N. turn a blind eye to hateful, state-sponsored discrimination against people because of their race, ethnicity, religion and gender?" This piece is just now appearing in magazines and newspapers, including college newspapers, with a combined circulation of nearly 5 million people. In addition, it is being sent to every member of the U.S. Congress. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able---with $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html. Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that Israel gets the support it needs---from the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people.

"Shitty Little Country" . . . or a Light Unto the Nations?

Anonymous Author

In December, 2001, the French Ambassador to England, Daniel Bernard, was overheard at a party in London to have said the international security crisis had been triggered by "that shitty little country Israel." Ironic enough that following the 9-11 attacks Israel should blamed for the international security crisis, but even more ironic that tiny Israel has proportionately accomplished more good than any other country in the world. Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:

• The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year. Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

• The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.

• Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.

• The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

• Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

• Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

• The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

• Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.

• Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

• Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

• According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

• Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

• Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin---109 per 10,000 people---as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

• In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. ! (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).

• With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world---apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.

• Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture ca pital funds, right behind the U.S.

• Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies.

• Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.

• The per capita-income in Israel in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.

• On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.

• Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland, and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.

• Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

• In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon and Moses) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.

• When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

• When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day---and saved three victims from the rubble.
• Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship---and the highest rate among women and among people over 55---in the world.

• Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands of them have come from the former Soviet Union)

• Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

• Israel has the world's second highest per capita publication of new books.

• Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.

• Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.

• Medicine: Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

• An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. (Every year in U.S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.)

• Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill, which is used to view the small intestine from the inside to diagnose and treat cancer and digestive disorders.

• Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

• Israel leads the world in the proportionate number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and fewer than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well.

• A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct---all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

• An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in Southern California's Mojave desert.

• All the above was achieved while engaged in regular wars with implacable enemies who seek its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.