The GPI (Global Peace Index) published a chart displaying the countries of the world and how peaceful they are. Number 1 was Iceland (the most peaceful) and the last one (number 158) was Somalia.
Israel is ranked 150. And besides the general bad ranking, I think it’s also sad that Syria is above us on the list.
It might seem obvious for Israel to score very low, and some people might believe that it’s even true – but let’s make a few things clear.
Wars in Israel usually break out every 5 to 10 years, with very little civilian casualties. The gap between the last two wars was 21 years. The last time we had a war with more than 120-or-so killed soldiers was 30 years ago.
But never mind the wars. The wars are, with all due respect, a very “background-ish” thing in Israeli reality. In social terms, Israel is one of the safest and the best countries in the world: the social skills of everyone are very high and people have no problem with asking help or advice from strangers on the street. The cities are great, the landscapes are stunning, the civilian death (by murder rate) is extremely close to zero, the amount of unemployed people is of the lowest in the world and the politics ARE stable.
Although 20% of the people in the world picture Israel as a war-filled deserted country where kids run around with guns and Arabs are murdered ruthlessly – the REAL situation is actually very different.
One video that shows the beautiful sides of Israel (from ProjectInterchange on youtube.com)
Now, I do not have a single problem with Syria, but I do believe that the current situation – in which the GOVERNMENT is killing civilians in major cities – makes the country much more dangerous than Israel. That just shows exactly how unfair the chart is. The organization that made that list is an official, respected one, but clearly misjudged us.
I love this country. I look at the countries that are considered to be the best in the world and I still think that Israel is the best. Living here is not dangerous in any way. It is a brilliant country with great people. It should be at LEAST in the center of the list.
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