Israel To Join CERN As First Non-European Member 351
First time accepted submitter WorldPiece writes "More accurately, first non-European full member. This comes with some opposition from groups pushing to boycott Israel academia in response to the Israeli government's policies. 'It is a vital part of our mission to build bridges between nations. This agreement enriches us scientifically and is an important step in that direction,' CERN's Director General Rolf Heuer, a German physicist, told the signing ceremony."
Re:wait a minute (Score:4, Informative)
Israel is actially in West-Asia. Geographically that place was never considered to be a part of Europe. However there are strong cultural ties.
Re:Bad (Score:5, Informative)
I wonder how many potential Palestinian scientists have gone undetected, untrained and unfunded?
Probably dozens. Lebanon keeps Palestinians in poverty in refugee camps instead of integrating them into society. There were no universities at all in the West Bank prior to 1967. Hamas spends money on weapons that could be spent on education.
Yes, indeed. Palestinian society, much like the rest of the Arab world, allows a criminal waste of human potential by diverting energy towards a conflict instead of towards building up civil society. That's why most Arab states have a low (and usually declining) human development index and shockingly inefficient economies compared to Israel.
Devoting your energy to conflict and bitterness will destroy you before it destroys your enemy.
Re:Military State (Score:5, Informative)
Funny.
I suggest you take a look at, e.g, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-up_Nation [wikipedia.org]. Here's one paragraph (the source is backed by reference):
"How is it that Israel -- a country of 7.1 million people, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources -- produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom?[4] The Economist notes that Israel now has more high-tech start-ups and a larger venture capital industry per capita than any other country in the world."
Or, e.g., browse the list that ranks the top-100 computer science departments in the world [arwu.org] and observe where and how many times the Israeli flag appears in the list. (FYI, Israel has only 6 universities.)
etc. etc.
Re:wait a minute (Score:2, Informative)
No, the modern day country of Turkey is Asia Minor, because it was previously the Roman Imperial province of Asia and we later decided that there was more to Asia than just Ionia. The part of the Middle East that Rome controlled was called the province of Syria (due to the Assyrians) and it included the modern day countries of Syria, Jordan and Israel. Today we just consider the whole thing Asia, though where it ends is really just drawing line in the sand. For instance, is all of Russia in Asia?
Re:Bad (Score:5, Informative)
Politics IS a science. And science has politics. I wonder how many potential Palestinian scientists have gone undetected, untrained and unfunded?
As a student at the Technion, Israel's premier university, I can tell you that Arabs are very disproportionately overrepresented there. That's fine, there is good reason: the Arabs have strong motivation to work hard and push ahead. Despite the huge number of Arabs in Israeli universities, I do not recall a single political or racial event in my time at the Technion. Not one.
Re:Military State (Score:4, Informative)
Do you even think that Israel would exist today without US backup?
Well, it's impossible to answer "what if" questions, but Israel didn't receive substantial assistance from the US until after the 1967 war and it survived quite nicely from 1948-1967.
Re:Good. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Did South-Africa ... (Score:4, Informative)
Two sources for the quote are ynet [ynetnews.com] and Haaretz. [haaretz.com] The NYT [nytimes.com] passed it along too. The BBC [bbc.co.uk] reported on documents obtained by Gisha from the Israeli government detailing the blockade and containing estimates of the calories required by Gazans to stay alive.
It took five minutes to Google this up. Open your eyes and see that what has been happening for decades now is real and not just some "narrative." Of course, I'm sure you can cook up some explanation of why it's a military necessity to prevent food from entering Gaza.