"Even in the audience there seems scarcely time to breathe as 16 dancers flex their muscles in a tight ensemble, synchronised with military precision..." (From Jill Sykes' review of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's Horses in the Sky, Sydney Morning Herald 1/9/16)
Seriously, would you expect anything less from an Israeli dance company?
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3 comments:
Military budget as a percentage of GDP - only exceeded by Gulf States:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/06/25/the-biggest-military-budgets-as-a-percentage-of-gdp-infographic-2/#6335c48f4064
Military exports amount to about 10% of the world total and 11th in the world. This for a country that has a GDP ranked 36th in the world.
Tikun Olam indeed!
Good one Jill, indeed.
Thanks for the insight through forbes Grapler.
Don't know how you came up with the 10% of world total re Israel...
According to wiki, in 2014, they are at about 10% of USA, although surprisingly (to me) approx equal to UK, Germany or France, and just bellow them in 7th place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry
Only pointing it out because Middle East Reality Check is becoming the go to place for Australians to get 100% reliable information on Israel.
Followed him for years... A one man news agency..yet to catch him out.
Hi Kosta
My apologies - I didn't do as much homework as I should on this - but this wikipedia site says that in 2007 its military equipment exports accounted for 10% of the world total.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_industry_of_Israel
This site
http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/the-worlds-10-largest-arms-exporters.html/?a=viewall
says 2% between 2010 and 2014.
Here is an article in Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/defense-industry-the-business-of-war-in-israel-a-988245.html
from which I quote:
"British military trade publication Jane's ranks Israel as the world's sixth largest exporter of weapons. In 2012, it exported $2.4 billion in military equipment. But with a per capita value of around $300 in exports for each resident, Israel is at the top of the list. Even the United States, by far the world's largest arms exporter, only has per capita weapons sales of $90. Israel's exports are growing rapidly, too. Data from the Stockholm peace research institute SIPRI shows that Israeli weapons exports more than doubled between 2001 and 2012."
However it also says:
"The decades-long conflict between Israel and its neighbors has certainly contributed to the defense sector's success, a fact that people in the industry and the military are surprisingly open about."
What it does not say is that in every case Israel provoked and in almost all cases initiated these conflicts.
Clearly this is a rapidly changing situation as I read a couple of days ago that the UK is now Number 2. Also I suspect a lot depends on definition. It would take a lot of research to come up with precise numbers. I think one can fairly safely say that per capita Israel exports more weapons (in terms of financial value) than any other country.
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