https://www.timesofisrael.com/israe...happiness-list-highest-since-ranking-started/
If Israelis did not have to worry about suicide bombers in pizza parlors and on busses and at Passover seders, if they didn’t have to worry about Palestinians shooting at them as they wait at bus stops, or drive by Arab villages, if they didn’t have to worry about the 140,000 rockets and missiles now stowed away in hideouts in Lebanon, but at any moment could be launched against Israel once Iran gives the word, they might be even happier. If they didn’t have to worry about the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, and the Lion’s Den, they would certainly be even happier. If they didn’t have to worry about Iran’s nuclear program proceeding apace, because once Iran manages to manufacture a few nuclear weapons, its leaders would pose a threat to the very existence of the Jewish state, the Israelis might be happier still. It’s quite astonishing that even with all those worries, Israel has now been ranked fourth in the World Happiness Index. If the terrorist threat were to greatly diminish, or the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran were to disappear, then where would Israel rank? No longer fourth but, most assuredly, first.
No one can predict the long-term effect of the current divisions in Israel over the proposed judicial overhaul. If the demonstrations by those against, and those for, the judicial overhaul continue, they may indeed affect the happiness of Israelis. But if a compromise is achieved, the feeling of relief will be great, and that could lead to a feeling of euphoria that might end with Israel keeping its current rank, or close to it, on the World Happiness Index.
The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, is now ranked 99th in the World Happiness Index. It’s not a surprise. The Palestinian are ruled by a corrupt gerontocrat, Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 19th year of his four-year term as President. During those nineteen years, Abbas has managed to divert so much aid money to his own pockets, and to those of his two sons Yasser and Tarek, that the Abbas family fortune now stands at $400 million USD. Other high-ranking PA officials have also been helping themselves to a few million dollars in money from foreign donors, and their relatives have been provided with well-paid sinecures in the PA administration. This continuing spectacle of colossal corruption at the top, while ordinary Palestinians have to struggle to survive, has led to great anger. In opinion polls, nearly 80% of Palestinians have said they want Abbas to resign, which of course he will never do. The Palestinians see Israel’s noisy, messy democracy at work, and only wish they could have the same political freedoms that Israelis enjoy, instead of the kleptocratic despotism they must endure. Israelis in the opposition may protest nonviolently all they want, as insultingly as they desire. In the PA, someone who expresses his opposition to the government in posts on social media will be imprisoned or, like Nizar Banat, be beaten to death by Abbas’ goons.
If Israelis did not have to worry about suicide bombers in pizza parlors and on busses and at Passover seders, if they didn’t have to worry about Palestinians shooting at them as they wait at bus stops, or drive by Arab villages, if they didn’t have to worry about the 140,000 rockets and missiles now stowed away in hideouts in Lebanon, but at any moment could be launched against Israel once Iran gives the word, they might be even happier. If they didn’t have to worry about the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, and the Lion’s Den, they would certainly be even happier. If they didn’t have to worry about Iran’s nuclear program proceeding apace, because once Iran manages to manufacture a few nuclear weapons, its leaders would pose a threat to the very existence of the Jewish state, the Israelis might be happier still. It’s quite astonishing that even with all those worries, Israel has now been ranked fourth in the World Happiness Index. If the terrorist threat were to greatly diminish, or the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran were to disappear, then where would Israel rank? No longer fourth but, most assuredly, first.
