PM Lee’s inappropriate use of Israel as an example to promote the merits of immigration
September 17th, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
During his dialogue with NTU students last night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong quoted the example of Israel to illustrate the merits and importance of immigration to “get all the talent we can get”.
PM Lee claimed that though Israel is only a small country of 7 million people, it is one of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial centres of innovation outside the Silicon Valley and has the most number of companies listed on NASDAQ other than the U.S. itself.
He added that Israel is able to achieve this feat because it took in talented Jews from all over the world, then in the 1990s an influx of one million highly educated Russian Jews after the former Soviet Union collapsed.
The Prime Minister’s use of Israel as an example for Singapore to emulate is not only inappropriate, but factually erroneous as well. The socio-political context of Israel is completely different from Singapore and therefore it cannot be used as a useful yardstick for us to compare with.
When Israel was founded in 1948 following the partition of British Palestine, it had only a population of 800,000, half of which are Arabs before the majority of them are expelled from its land.
Israel had the smallest population in the Middle East. Being surrounded by hostile Arab nations, it had no choice but to open its doors to immigration and welcome Jews from all over the world.
For Israel, immigration is a matter of political necessity to ensure the survival of their fledging nation, but this is not in the case of Singapore which does not face any serious external threats from our neighbors.
Jews from Europe, especially the Soviet Union emigrated en masse to Israel not because it was the promised land, but because anti-semitism which was still prevalent in the post-war years made it difficult for them to continue living in their native lands of birth.
The influx of new migrants boosted Israel’s population from 1 million to 3 million between the years 1950 and 1970.
Prime Minister compared the Jewish immigrants to Israel to our own immigrants which is again completely out off the tangent.
A foreign Jew will encounter less difficulties integrating into Jewish society than a mainland Chinese settling down in Singapore. The Jews are united by the same religion, language, culture and ethnic tragedy in the form of the Holocaust. They had a lot in common to work together for the sake of their new nation unlike some of Singapore’s immigrants who has no love or affinity for the country.
Israel’s sizable economic presence in the United States is not due to its open-door immigration policy, but because of the influence of the Jewish community which pre-exists the founding of the Zionist state of Israel.
Jews had been emigrating from Europe to the United States since the 18th century and over time, they form a powerful commerce and trading community with their fingers in every pie of the economy from railways, healthcare, arms and foreign trade.
Following Hitler’s persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, many more fled Europe to the U.S.A. bringing with them their money, business connections and expertise. One of these Jews was Albert Einstein whose work led to the discovery of the atomic bomb which helped end World War II.
In case Mr Lee did not know, the Jews, like the Chinese, are expert businessmen and entrepreneurs because they have been depending on trade for survival since the time of Christ.
The Jewish diaspora controlled the economies of almost every country in the world where they were a sizable minority which made them the convenient target of anti-semitics even today.
Israel’s success as a nation is attributed more to the Jews’ inherent qualities as a race rather than its immigration policies which is highly selective.
Perhaps Mr Lee resorted only to using Israel as an example because he simply cannot find another country in the world with such a liberal immigration policy like Singapore where foreigners are allowed entry indiscriminately with scant regard for the interests of its citizens.
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26 Responses to “PM Lee’s inappropriate use of Israel as an example to promote the merits of immigration”
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I think PM lee is too stressed out running this country . he is stressed because he is surrounded by a bunch of salary dependent MPs who will say things that is pleasant to the ears. policies are implemented without due respect and consultation with its people. it is high time for a change. if PM lee wants to salvage his govt and stay on as a respectable govt, his only hope is to call a general election where everyone votes. if any of his cabinet ministers lose, then ask them to pack up and fly kite.
Israel only accepts Jews from other countries, not every races from every countries. Cannot compare the same to Singapore
Lee Hsien Loong should realize by now his immigration policies were flawed in conception, careless in implementation, and catastrophic in results.
Since new job are NOT created in sufficient numbers, the foreigners, usually with shorter-term mindsets, are replacing the locals for the same jobs. And it is not just about the jobs. What about the ad hoc resolution of the housing issues (e.g. workers’ hostels which nobody wants) or the over-crowding everywhere, in buses, trains, roads, in public parks, etc.? Can the present infrastructure actually
cope with the fast growing size of the population of locals and foreigners?
Getting more people into Singapore without due planning and provision is plainly irresponsible. Reaping the benefits of more (short-term) government income without factoring in the (long-term) social costs is unforgivable.
Had his immigration policies been carried out anywhere else, e.g. US, Canada, UK, Australia, or indeed most of the civilized world, the entire government would have already been thrown out.
I want to see ACCOUNTABILITY for this mess.
A few more additional factors which seperates Israel from singapore.
1) Israel is under constant threat of war from its neighbours ever since it’s independence. Singapore did not fight in any wars as of yet.
2) Israel Jews have 1 common religion and the country has a right cultural history which is unique in the world. Singapore does not have any common religion and our country’s history is not as firmly enrooted to any of our citizens.
3) Israel’s ministries and government serve the people and are transparent in their activities. Ministers accept Minstrial responsibilities and step down once they failed to meet their obilgations. the electorate and judiciary and executive arms are different and not under the control of the other.
Well Singapore is not the same.
4) Israeli have a greater freedom and more say in the government and their soldiers are respected by their citizens.
Singapore is rather different again.
Lastly, i do not think the israeli immigration policy is that liberal. I think they only accept Jews. whereas in singapore, any race, creed or nation would be accepted if one proves worthy.
In Israel, both MEN and WOMEN are conscripted for Army and Reservist. Did PM Lee mentioned that?
“Israel only accepts Jews from other countries, not every races from every countries. Cannot compare the same to Singapore”
Assuming the above is true, then they are doing what they always do…again….selective reporting…
PM Lee is right. Singapore got no option..if the polulation not growing.. how to keep the market.. singapore is a service orented countire.. not a production orented.. kep income is from service.. for service need people..so can it be all from China ? or totally for India..or US or EU.. can not.. they are not stupid to hang only with singpoare…So PM Lee is right it have to be Mix those who talented.. can sleep in singapore.. those who stupid.. work hald lol…this is what whole world is doing now.
Bringing up the example of Israel in fact serves to illustrate the opposite, ie how much better Israeli govt treats their citizens than Spore garmen treat Singaporeans.
Israel leaders are many times gutsy and better than ours. Ours…even have to fear the citizens by the number of security guards surrounding the leader in our peaceful land. The trust was broken between the people and the leader at that very moment. Such apple-orange comparison only prove how desperate our leaders were when all other comparison failed.
I wonder what his father, MM Lee has to say about the abovementioned remarks.
Drawing close parallel between Singapore and Israel is not only historically and culturally inappropriate, it drives a rather dangerous political and ideological wedge between us and our immediate neighbours particularly our closest neighbour. I won’t be surprised if MM Lee may have to do another trip up north to some damage control and smoothen quite a few ruffled feathers.
Deepest regards.
Israel is also a LIBERAL DEMOCRACY with a functioning multi-party system. Their PMs keeps changing, sometimes rotating.
More importantly, they have PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION parliament. I challenge the PM to implement proportional representation in our parliament. If he does so, we should have at least 33% of MPs to be opposition parties. Based on last election results, PAP should have 56 MPs, WP has 14 MP, SDA has 11 MP and SDP has 3 MPs.
Does the PM dare to put his money where his mouth is by really emulating Israel?
not only in the north…also the south too…
of all the countries…they have to use israel…
dun forget every year the US supply finanacial support in the billions to israel too…
we could have the same creative and passionate local citizens like israel citizens too if not for the years ago education direction of only producing robots from past education policies instead of creative and critical thinking…well at least some of the current education policies is doing that…but it is still not enough…
i don’t think israelis will like to be compare to singapore…especially when their citizens know their rights are protected and the gov’t knows its citizens comes first…
dun get it…the so called immigrants to israel automatically becomes citizens and knows they have to become citizens first before they are allowed into israel and yes they must be jews…so the local citizens in israel still can somehow accept that…comparison wise..the current foreign folks coming into singapore are not new citizens but given a blank check before to entice them into singapore and also to decide after in singapore if they want decide to become a local citizen…
weird comparison…if i am wrong please accept mein apologies.
@Rowan
I agree – I do not think Israeli immigration policy is liberal at all. Furthermore, the land which Israel sits at the moment had changed hands many many times since 1AD.
Perhaps you can say that many Jews are “returning” home to Israel rather than migrating to Israel.
Why get so worked up guys?
That is just his view right?
Others can have theirs?
no need to get unhappy.
Greetings : pink power Wed, 16th Sep 2009 5:36pm
Do we pay our First World Class Prime Minister millions for such irrelevant views to cover up for mistakes made?
Like you said, everyone deserves our own views and comments, be it good or bad. Right?
The erroneus notion that the arabs were expelled after Israel’s independence on 14 May 1948 needs to be corrected. The arabs in Israel fled in response to threats and warnings from the surrounding arab countries that were preparing to pounce on Israel to destroy her. The arabs fled the war zone, as we may expect it, but later spun the tale that the arabs were forcefully expelled from Israel and were made refugees. This is what the main stream media love to chant about all the time.
If there is anything to learn from this, we should start taking in Jews into Singapore so that businesses will go up and more Singapore-based Jewish firms will be listed on NASDAQ if that is the ultimate AIM.
if immigration is the correct policy, then why isn’t every country emulating us. don’t we like to preach the “singapore model”, we could sell this model to the rest of the world.
as laozi says 物极必反. even a correct policy which carried to extremes will lead to bad consequences.
The acceptance of immigrants into Israel is based on one major criteria and that is their Jewish ancestry. The immigrants may not look similar on the exterior surface but they are bound by a very strong link internally. If your mother is a Jew then you are a Jew because it says so in the Book of Laws. Though not mentioned in the Book, they know everyone hates them and hence are further united by the under siege mentality. Singapore’s immigrants are different. Some may fit the bill but a lot don’t.
Cut the PM some slack, please. This man is under so much pressure, from his old man, his better-half, his peers…..
As a Sinagporean and being a part of Asean, I would like to see us importing our neighbours, Indonesians, as foreign workers to solve our economic problems. Just its maids are not enough. There are about 300 million of them and about 50 million are desperately looking for jobs. We must also help them because we are their neighbour. They are cheap. Culturally they have no problem integrating. They speak Malay. There is halal food here and the also the many mosques already here for them to worship. China and India are way too far.
Just a point to note. there is very little racial tolerance in Israel.
“Why Jews see racism in Israel”
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0902/p06s01-wome.html
“Ethiopian students affair shows prevalent racism in Israel ”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1112050.html
“Racism Inside Israel”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BEN108A.html
They are only tolerant to 1 race… Jews…
Currently immigrants to Singapore are offered to become PR in order to entice them to become new citizens in Singapore. But the benefits to a PR is almost as same as a citizen so many of them do not want to become a Singapore citizen.
Instead many of the PR are demanding equal rights as a local born and breed. Remember recently the case of a PR’s daughter snatching the primary 1 seat of a local？ And also another PR asking for equal rights to buy a HDB flat with subsidy?
These PRs are causing the current tension in our society. Instead of addressing the cause of the problem, he is justifying the mistake caused by using comparison of apples with oranges.
I don’t think Israel have such a policy and it is extremely foolish for our million dollar PM to use this example to champion his cause.
Our ruling government is still in a “foreign talent’ slumber. Still did not realise that immigration issues have to be addressed in terms of the Singapore citizens’ rights, land area, infrastructure capacity, housing, education vacancy, etc…… not just based on the slogan “Foreign Talent have to come in” blah, etc. If it continues like this, sooner or later, Singaporeans themselves will be leaving for greener pastures (if the opportunity arises).
Nothing come good since the current PM took office!
//Pink Power
Of course it matters how LHL thinks.
If he still think immigration is good, be assured you will see another flood of immigration.
Also, his father in now in London celebrating his birthday with his foreigners.
Does it resemble the last scene from Animal Farm where the pigs are celebrating with the humans that the pigs and the other animals fought to chase out from the farm?
Funny right?