Comments on: For Tom Friedman to Win His Bet, Friedmanism Must Go http://southjerusalem.com/2008/06/for-tom-friedman-to-win-his-bet-friedmanism-must-go/ A Progressive, Skeptical Blog on Israel, Judaism, Culture, Politics, and Literature Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:35:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Jake L. http://southjerusalem.com/2008/06/for-tom-friedman-to-win-his-bet-friedmanism-must-go/comment-page-1/#comment-562 Jake L. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:33:18 +0000 http://southjerusalem.com/?p=190#comment-562 Tom Friedman is most certainly wrong when he says: "The economy is exploding from the bottom up. [...] Israel is a country that [...] a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm." Israeli tax and labor regulations make life hell for anyone trying to set up a small business. While the top 19 families earn a quarter TRILLION shekels a year between them, great swaths of the masses live on $600 - 1,200 / month. The Communist/Socialist system that Ben Gurion put into place pushes people into dependancy on public welfare - which is the aim of the Communist/Socialist system in the first place. Tom F. is today what he has always been - an entertaining writer of remarkable fiction posing as fact. This is not the stuff of good journalism. Tom Friedman is most certainly wrong when he says:

“The economy is exploding from the bottom up. [...] Israel is a country that [...] a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm.”

Israeli tax and labor regulations make life hell for anyone trying to set up a small business. While the top 19 families earn a quarter TRILLION shekels a year between them, great swaths of the masses live on $600 – 1,200 / month. The Communist/Socialist system that Ben Gurion put into place pushes people into dependancy on public welfare – which is the aim of the Communist/Socialist system in the first place.

Tom F. is today what he has always been – an entertaining writer of remarkable fiction posing as fact. This is not the stuff of good journalism.

]]> By: O Cohen http://southjerusalem.com/2008/06/for-tom-friedman-to-win-his-bet-friedmanism-must-go/comment-page-1/#comment-560 O Cohen Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:35:48 +0000 http://southjerusalem.com/?p=190#comment-560 Completely agree with every word. Also check out what i have written here: http://anisraelitaxi.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/people-vs-dinosaurs/ Completely agree with every word. Also check out what i have written here:

http://anisraelitaxi.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/people-vs-dinosaurs/

]]> By: Y. Ben-David http://southjerusalem.com/2008/06/for-tom-friedman-to-win-his-bet-friedmanism-must-go/comment-page-1/#comment-561 Y. Ben-David Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:00:08 +0000 http://southjerusalem.com/?p=190#comment-561 Nice piece. Friedman is a real puzzle to me. He spent several years in Lebanon as a journalist. Before the civil war there broke out in 1975, Lebanon was the most prosperous Arab state and the people there had considerable freedom, including freedom of the press, a very rare commodity in the Arab world, although it had a bizarre political system which was a cross between feudalism and democracy. In spite of all these good things going for it, things that Friedman can relate to in his materialist-economic outlook on life, this relatively idyllic society tore itself to shreds in a blood civil war which ended up being a primitive, tribal conflict. In other words, all the supposed economic interests that everyone had in peace and inter-communal harmony fell apart. Thus Friedman's belief that peace will assured if everyone has joint economic interests that they don't want endangered simply isn't true. Friedman saw all this with his own eyes and yet it seems he didn't learn anything from it. The same thing happened here in Israel. Everyone said that once the Palestinians had something to lose, they would opt for peace. In 1999, there was a construction boom for hotels and other tourist facilities in the Palestinian territories. At the same time, political tension was building up. I recall pro-Oslo people saying that there wouldn't be an outbreak of violence because if they were planning such a thing, why would they be endangering all the building they were doing? Yet, Arafat decided to go ahead with his suicide bomber war anyway, in spite of the new hotels that would remain empty. Another example is Yugoslavia....Tito built an multi-ethnic society where people worked together and there were joing economic interests, yet when various demagogues went up and decided to play the ethnic resentment card, the decades of peaceful relations between the groups went up in smoke. Tom should understand that economics, while important, does not determine everything. (Maybe he should get his nose out of the business pages once in a while and read the postings here about the importance of the Torah). Nice piece. Friedman is a real puzzle to me. He spent several years in Lebanon as a journalist. Before the civil war there broke out in 1975, Lebanon was the most prosperous Arab state and the people there had considerable freedom, including freedom of the press, a very rare commodity in the Arab world, although it had a bizarre political system which was a cross between feudalism and democracy. In spite of all these good things going for it, things that Friedman can relate to in his materialist-economic outlook on life, this relatively idyllic society tore itself to shreds in a blood civil war which ended up being a primitive, tribal conflict. In other words, all the supposed economic interests that everyone had in peace and inter-communal harmony fell apart. Thus Friedman’s belief that peace will assured if everyone has joint economic interests that they don’t want endangered simply isn’t true.
Friedman saw all this with his own eyes and yet it seems he didn’t learn anything from it.

The same thing happened here in Israel. Everyone said that once the Palestinians had something to lose, they would opt for peace. In 1999, there was a construction boom for hotels and other tourist facilities in the Palestinian territories. At the same time, political tension was building up. I recall pro-Oslo people saying that there wouldn’t be an outbreak of violence because if they were planning such a thing, why would they be endangering all the building they were doing? Yet, Arafat decided to go ahead with his suicide bomber war anyway, in spite of the new hotels that would remain empty.

Another example is Yugoslavia….Tito built an multi-ethnic society where people worked together and there were joing economic interests, yet when various demagogues went up and decided to play the ethnic resentment card, the decades of peaceful relations between the groups went up in smoke.

Tom should understand that economics, while important, does not determine everything. (Maybe he should get his nose out of the business pages once in a while and read the postings here about the importance of the Torah).

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