We Rule

My in-laws sent me an email today. Now I have been insistent to the point of nastiness that I don't want any jokes, funny pictures or propaganda from them, but sometimes it is clear my father-in-law just can't resist. Today I was subjected to the tenth version of that email that points out why Israel is so fantastic.  We have the higher relative percentage of start up in the world, blah, blah, every processor that runs your computer was invented here.  We have the smartest people, the most profitable companies etc. etc. Israel invented voice mail and the cell phone (not exactly true at all).


No one ever mentions the fact that Israel has won in total one Olympic gold (for wind surfing  none the less) one silver and 5 bronzes. Kenya for example (while not a technology powerhouse) has won 75 medals (23 gold). Netherlands, which has roughly twice as many people as Israel has won 246 Olympic medals not counting the 86 winter Olympic medals. While Israel may have more lawyers per capita than anywhere else in the world (a dubious honor to be sure), the national soccer team has only qualified once for the World Cup (scoring a single goal in the competition and being eliminated in the first round). We not near 80% in sport, no matter how much we spend.


While some of the achievements of this small but noisy country are indeed outstanding. I think it behooves us to be modest. We could always boast about the quality of our drivers.