Israel and the United States, though two of the most advanced countries in the world, have much to learn from the other’s example, according to Daily Wire co-founder and Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro.
Shapiro spoke at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Tel Aviv Wednesday on what Israel and the United States should learn from each other in economics, politics, and national identity. Throughout the speech, The Daily Wire co-founder drew on the wisdom of great Americans and Jews such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Rabbi Joseph Be’er Soloveitchik, and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
“Our countries have something profound and vital in common: they are both gifts from God, blessed by Him, founded in liberty and consecrated to the idea that He is present in history, and that He guides history toward His ends,” Shapiro said.
The conservative pundit began with what Israel could learn from America. Israel’s economic system, which Shapiro referred to as a “a dumpster fire,” is hampering the Jewish state’s growth. The “intelligence, hard work, and social capital of the people of Israel” have allowed the tiny nation to compete economically with much larger, more populated, and naturally richer countries. Excessive taxation and heavy regulation are holding the country back, however.
He went on to criticize Israel’s “vast bureaucratization” that has lengthened the process of something such as building a home into a years-long affair when a comparable project in a conservative state such as Florida takes well-under a year. And in addition to red tape, Israel’s unions are another major hurdle to development. Nearly a quarter of Israel’s workforce is unionized.
“In the United States, more and more states have been adopting right to work laws designed at taking away special union privileges, freeing up people to work when and how they want. In Israel, public sector unions punch far above their weight politically, and politicians are simply afraid to cross them,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro’s final point of criticism against Israel is against its judiciary branch of government, which Shapiro says “acts as a merger of the executive and the legislative branches.” The judiciary’s role was corrupted after the “supposed constitutional revolution of 1992,” which a “self-selected” judicial branch has taken advantage of to “rule out of bounds perfectly legal acts of the Knesset, leaving an unelected and unaccountable set of oligarchs in charge of crucial national policies in the name of a non-existent Constitution.”
In contrast, the U.S. Supreme Court is held in check by a president who nominates justices and a Senate that confirms them. “In short, America’s governmental system is better than Israel’s, and it’s not particularly close,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro’s criticisms of the United States struck at its national culture, which has been split “between a country that sees the American flag and feels pride, and country that sees the American flag and kneels in shame; between a country that thinks America was always great, and a country that thinks that America has never been great; between a country that believes in absolute truths and accepted moral wisdom … and a country that believes that ‘my truth’ trumps the truth …”
“America has one major thing to learn from Israel: that a nation-state must have, at its heart, a nation. And that means that America must learn from Israel the necessity of common history, common culture, and common destiny,” Shapiro said.
From the shackles of Pharaoh to the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Jewish history is rife with tyrants who have sought to destroy the Jewish people. That ever-present danger reinforces the bonds that all Jews share, and evidences the need for a Jewish state in Jews’ historic homeland of Israel.
“[Israelis] realize that the historic tie between the Jews and the land of Israel cannot be severed, even when it is broken; that no matter how much Israel may want to be the same as all other nations, it will never be so,” Shapiro said. “As God told the Jewish people, ‘And I shall take you unto me for a people, and I will be to you God.’”
Americans also share a common heritage and principles that are worth uniting around and are the key to the United States’ rise. Shapiro said:
So, this is what America can learn from Israel: it can remind itself that its exceptionalism, its unique place among the nations, is no coincidence. America can remind itself that it, too, has covenants of fate and destiny. America can remember that it was founded as a nation rooted in certain principles – the principles of Judeo-Christian morality on the one hand and the promises of the Declaration of Independence on the other. America can remember her own history, and refuse to allow it to be undermined. And America can recognize her unique destiny – a destiny explained by Benjamin Franklin in his remarks to the Constitutional Convention of 1787: “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?” Indeed, America has spread freedom to more people than any nation in world history; it has spread prosperity to all corners of the globe; America has liberated hundreds of millions and fed billions. That is because America is the greatest country in world history; America has a special history and a special purpose.
Shapiro ended his speech with a final warning to Israel. The United States is failing from within due to a progressive Left that believes “America is exceptional only in its evil” and preaches a radical, self-centered individualism.
“So perhaps that’s the last lesson America can teach Israel: do not let any of this crap happen here. For the love of God, do not let the Left destroy the covenants of fate and destiny,” Shapiro said. “Cling fast to your principles. Do not be led astray by those who bless themselves in their hearts, saying, ‘I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ Instead, remember the covenants that make the Jewish nation — and the Jewish state — special.”
Read Shapiro’s speech below: