Israel first in loving life

Why Israelis Love Life

by Hillel Fendel




An Asia Times article, explaining why Israel is the "world's happiest
country," cites statistics showing that Israel leads the world in the
national gap between fertility and suicide rates.


The author, identified only as Spengler, compiled and compared the
fertility rates and suicide rates of 35 industrial countries, and found
that Israelis "appear to love life and hate death more than any other
nation."?


Spengler explained that he compared "the proportion of people who
choose to create new life, against the proportion who choose to destroy
their own. Israel stands alone, positioned in the upper-left-hand-quadrant,
or life-loving, portion of the chart."


Israel's fertility rate (births per woman) is 2.77, according to
Spengler, while its suicide rate is 6.2 per 100,000 people.??In the U.S.,
however, the numbers are only 2.1 and 11, respectively, and in France they
are 1.98 and 18.? The gaps in the numbers of many of the other
countries are on the chart are even wider.


"It's easy for the Jews to talk about delighting in life," Spengler
wrote in another Asia Times article, because "they are quite sure that
they are eternal, while other peoples tremble at the prospect impending
extinction. It is not their individual lives that the Jews find so
pleasant, but rather the notion of a covenantal life that proceeds
uninterrupted through the generations."


"Israel is surrounded by neighbors willing to kill themselves in order
to destroy it,"? Spengler writes. He notes that Muslims teach, "As much
as you love life, we love death" - a formula found in a Palestinian
Authority textbook for second graders as well.


Oil-rich Saudi Arabia ranks 171st on an international quality of life
index, Spengler writes, while "Israel is tied with Singapore on this
index, although it should be observed that Israel ranks a runaway first on
my life-preference index, whereas Singapore comes in dead last."


Spengler suggests traditional Jewish faith in G-d as the reason for
Jewish joy.? Muslim faith, however, is?of the type that encourages a form
of fatalism, he feels: "Arabs did not invent suicide attacks, but they
have produced a population pool willing to die in order to inflict
damage greater than any in history. One cannot help but conclude that
Muslim clerics do not exaggerate when they express contempt for life."