Israel is a Western Nation or Wherein We Discuss While Israel is In the Middle East It Is Most Certainly Not a Middle Eastern Country

Yesterday a colleague of mine and I were discussing the Wikileaks release of the United States diplomatic cables.  He asked me how it felt to learn that leaders of certain Arab and Islamic countries have privately urged the United States to bomb Iran.


Travis asked me "Now that it is widely known other middle eastern countries  feel this way, what do you think Israel will do?" 


I responded by stating "You think Israel is a Middle Eastern country?  I think Israel is a Western country, not a Middle Eastern country.  It may be located in the Middle East, but it is definitely a Western country."

The Middle East, from a European perspective, is the region that is proscribes Western Asia and North Africa. 


Here in the United States, the term has recently been expanded in usage to sometimes include Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Caucuses and Central Asian countries like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  In the minds of many Americans, the term Middle East is synonymous with the Islamic World and Arabic peoples, even thought the majority of Muslims live outside the Middle East in Northern Africa and Southeast Asia. (Indonesia is the most populous Islamic country.)


This is all a very complex topic and shall be re-visited in a future post. 


Back to the issue at hand: Israel and its status as a Western country. 


Western nations are defined by several key attributes: cultural, economic and political.


Culturally, Western nations are informed by Judeo-Christian influences in their spiritual thinking, customs and either ethic or moral traditions and a Greco-Roman and Renaissance cultural influence, concerning artistic, philosophic, literary, and legal  themes and traditions.  An exception to this rule is Japan, while having a Western style secular culture, blends with it a strong tradition of Shinto and Buddhist tradition.


Israel is the center of the Judeo-Christian world and as such maintains a long connection with the many cultures and religions that originated therein or passed through - Judaism, Roman Empire, British Empire Islam, etc.  Inasmuch while Israel is geographically in the Middle East,  the heart of Israeli culture looks to the West - popular music, Dancing With the Stars, arts and sciences, education and fashion are all aligned with trends that resemble other Western countries like the United States, Britain and other EU nations.

The vast majority of Western nations have market based economies that are allowed, for the most part, to function autonomously.  


Israel falls well within this definition.


Israel is a diversified market economy with a rapidly developing high-tech sector, which is backed by a thriving venture capital industry. Israel possesses a substantial service sector and is a world leader in software development and is a major tourist destination. The major industrial sectors include metal products, electronic and biomedical equipment, processed foods, chemicals, and transport equipment. 


Tel Aviv was just named one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.  


Until the discovery of the Leviathan Field, Israel was heavily dependent on imported oil and gas.  When developed to full capacity, this discovery could prove to sustain all of Israel's oil and gas needs for decades.


The concentration of high-tech industries in Israel is considered second in importance only to its Silicon Valley.


Israel as a tourist destination, a leader in high-technology and military hardware, green energy research and  commitment to stable investment and market fundamentals stand in stark contrast to the underdevelopment of the majority of bordering countries.  


These facts attest to the Jewish state as falling into the family of Western nations.   

Israeli Election Ballots

Countries of the Western world are generally considered to share certain fundamental political ideologies: the rule of law, respect for individual liberties and property rights.  Additionally countries with strong political and/or military ties to Western Europe and/or the United States, such as Japan and South Korea can be said to be Western in a political sense at least.  As such, this definition of the term "Western" is not necessarily tied to the geographic sense of the word. A geographically Western nation such as Cuba is not considered politically Western due to its general rejection of democratic institutions and personal liberty. 


Given the foregoing, I believe we can safely conclude that while Israel is IN the Middle East, it is NOT a Middle Eastern country, as its core identity is of a Western, market-based, liberal democracy based on recognition of human rights, respect for the rule of law and engagement in international democratic institutions.