Leave it to the major tech blogs to notice what’s good about Israel.
And surprisingly, it’s not even a piece about the latest high-tech scientific breakthroughs or startup purchased by American billionaires.
No, what got the attention of Roi Carthy, the Israel correspondent for TechCrunch, one of the most important and widely read blogs focusing on technology developments, was Israel’s impressive ability to protest in large numbers while maintaining civil society.
Small potatoes aside, it’s been four weeks and zero acts of the barbaric, non-discriminatory violence we’ve seen across the Middle East, and even in the UK. No shots fired. No stores looted. No form of communication has been shut down. In fact, not only have the Israeli police and army not taken any role other than safeguarding the protests themselves, they have even been applauded, literally, by hundreds of thousands for their efforts.
I haven’t seen it put so clearly in the mainstream press. But that’s ok, because TechCrunch probably has a bigger readership than many traditional media outlets.
The only quibble I have is with the (mostly clever) headline: Hello World, Israel is Outclassing You in Civil Disobedience.
What Israeli protestors are doing is not, technically, civil disobedience. They are simply exercising their right to peaceful protest.
But let’s just call it small potatoes.
