Buffett and Hezbollah
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 by billFrom NY Times
By Thomas L. Friedman
Warren Buffett. The most important thing you need to know about Israel today and how it has performed so far in the war with Hezbollah is Warren Buffett.
Say what? Well, the most talked-about story in Israel, before Hezbollah started this war, was the fact that on May 5, Mr. Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and the world’s most successful investor, bought an 80 percent stake in the privately held Israeli precision tools company, Iscar Metalworking, for $4 billion — Mr. Buffett’s first purchase of a company outside America. According to BusinessWeek, as a result of the deal, Iscar’s owners were likely to pay about $1 billion in capital gains taxes into the Israeli government’s coffers — an unexpected windfall. With the Israeli budget already running a $2 billion surplus, the government is considering slashing value-added tax by one percentage point to 15 percent.
In May, Israeli papers were filled with pages about how cool it was that Israel had produced a cutting-edge company that Warren Buffett wanted to buy. It was being discussed everywhere, pushing the Tel Aviv stock exchange to an all-time high.
That is where Israel’s head was on the eve of this war — and it explains something I sensed when I visited Israel shortly after the fighting started. Nobody wanted this war, and nobody was prepared for it. Look closely at pictures of Israeli soldiers from Lebanon. There is no enthusiasm in their faces, and certainly no triumphalism. Their expressions tell the whole story: I just don’t want to be doing this — another war with the Arabs.
Israeli soldiers were napping when this war started — that’s why they got ambushed — for the very best reasons: They have so much more to do with their lives, and they live in a society that empowers and enables them to do it. (Unfortunately, the Buffett company is in northern Israel and had to be temporarily closed because of rocket attacks.)
Young Israelis dream of being inventors, and their role models are the Israeli innovators who made it to the Nasdaq. Hezbollah youth dream of being martyrs, and their role models are Islamic militants who made it to the Next World. Israel spent the last six years preparing for Warren Buffett, while Hezbollah spent the last six years preparing for this war.
Israel was not prepared for this war, said the Israeli political theorist Yaron Ezrahi. It came upon us like the crash of a meteorite. … The whole focus of debate in the country before this war was on withdrawal. The Israeli Army had just taken on its own extremists, the settlers in Gaza, and removed them against their will, added Mr. Ezrahi, and the country had just elected for the first time a prime minister who promised voters to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank in return for nothing.
In the end, Israel will do whatever it has to do to prevail. But what is so troubling for Israelis is that this war is about nothing and everything. That is, Israel got out of Lebanon, and yet Hezbollah keeps coming. It is all about Hezbollah’s need to justify its existence and Iran’s need for a distraction.
What is doubly sad is that Lebanon was getting its act together. Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister, represented a whole new type of Arab leader — one who rose to power by being a builder and an entrepreneur. He understood that Lebanon, freed of Syria, was a country whose youth had the energy and skill to compete anywhere. He thought Lebanon could again be a model of how Arabs can embrace modernity. But Mr. Hariri was murdered, allegedly by Syria, and now Lebanon’s democracy is being murdered by Hezbollah. Once again, in the Arab world, the past buries the future.
Israel mustn’t get sucked into that same grave. Israel needs to get a cease-fire and an international force into south Lebanon — and get out. Israel can’t defeat Hezbollah, it can only hurt it enough to make it think twice about ever doing this again — and it has pretty much done that. It must not destroy any more of Lebanon, which is going to still be its neighbor when the guns fall silent.
Israel wins when Warren Buffett’s company there is fully back in business — not when Nasrallah is out of business. Because that will only happen, not by war, but when Arabs wake up and realize that he is just another fraud, just another Nasser, whose strategy would condemn the flower of Arab youth — who deserve and need so much better — to another decade of making potato chips, not microchips. Nasrallah can win in the long run only if he can condemn the flower of Israel’s youth to the same fate. Don’t let it happen, Israel.
Thanks for the article, it has added an interesting angle with Mr. Buffett’s investment in Israel. However, I don’t agree with most of what Mr. Friedman says, and I think his so called liberal credentials hide a bias that continues to fuel the violence in the Middle East.
I strongly disagree with Mr. Friedman’s notion that “Israeli youth dream of being inventors”, while “Hezbollah youth dream of being martyrs”.
First of all, he compares the entirety of all Israeli youth with what he considers to be a radical faction of the Arab world, Hezbollah. He neglects to mention the radical factions within the Israeli world (the Kahanists, for example) who’s dreams rival Hezbollah or Hamas in their zeal not to become martyrs but to likewise irradiate their Middle Eastern neighbors. Since you won’t see it in the mainstream press, for more info see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahanist
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/29722.pdf
There are human beings on each side of this abominable situation. Neither side is any less human than the other - each encompassing all the good as well as all the vile baggage that human kind can carry.
I’m sorry Mr. Friedman, but the sooner we understand that they dream our dreams - and we dream theirs - the sooner we will all have:
a) and end to indiscriminate violence;
b) a more profitable market for poor Mr. Buffett’s portfolio; and
c) a lasting peace for the rest of us on the planet.
Perhaps the everyday Israeli citizen is much like the everyday American citizen, and just like the every day citizen in Lebanon or Palestine. In general, we all dream or look forward to a prosperous, healthy, happy and safe future for our families and those we love.
It seems to me that it is our governments and organized religions who drag these every day citizens into bloody wars that nobody really wants. Like our dreams, our nightmares are all the same.
Articles like this written by Mr. Friedman only foster the push that one side is right - the other side is wrong. This invariably creates a drumbeat for continued war and violence.
There are, however, others who get much less press than Friedman.
They prefer peace to war and work extremely hard to live together with respect for their neighbors of different faiths and cultures.
JJ Keki, a gentle man who is the director of a coffee Cooperative of Jews, Muslims and Christians put it best when he said, “Today the world is in pain. We want to prove that a better way is to be proud of who you are, respect each other, and make something great together. (coffee, in this case)”
For more info go to:
http://www.mirembekawomera.com/
Another is a Dominican Monk in Israel, Bruno Hussar, who founded Neve Shalom~Wahat al-Salam with the intention of creating a place where the people of the area could live together despite national and religious differences, and who would conduct educational work for peace. He says “Our starting point is that the conflict between Arabs and Jews is a conflict between two peoples, between two national identities, and not between individuals.â€
For more info go to:
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/__Israeli_and_Palestinian_Identities_in_Dialogue_1469.html
Oasis for Peace http://www.nswas.com/
School for Peace http://sfpeace.org/
Gush-Shalom http://zope.gush-shalom.org/
New Profile http://www.newprofile.org/
“When Jews and Arabs get together, work together, live together, they create their own miracle: Neve Shalom is such a miracle it deserves our warmest support, for it justifies our highest hopes.â€Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Laureate.
We need to look critically at articles like these if we are to ever change the incessant drumbeat for war into a constant rhythm for peace. I hope you’ll continue to send them to me!
Wage Peace, not war.
Mr Friedman
I believe Israel will win if he wins the hearts of it’s neighboring countries. Most of mankind is agains this war. Do you really think that they all wrong and only america knows whats right? Most inteligent leaders all around the world aren’t manipulators or commandos with mighty weapons. I can read articles in four lanquages and I feel blessed by being able to acquire wider range of the truth. This war is wrong because, in my opinion, Israel created more enemies just like it did in the past. Manipulating of others for self interest never lasted long in the history. Self-righteousness makes people look more selfish. Israelis should not pride themself about Buffett but they should rebuild Lebanon. May be they could be friends and live in peace and may be harvest some flowers together.
A Few Points:
-Hezbollah did not start this war. The north-south violations have been ongoing for years. This recent event hardly stands out in that respect (save for Israel’s perverse response). Israel appears to have planned a major assault for some time. e.g., “Israel responded to an unprovoked attack by Hizbullah, right? Wrong”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14416.htm
-Israel’s aggression is about far more than Hezbollah. This war means something more. But what? Certainly not what Friedman discusses. Making out that Israel is the happy go lucky victim is beyond insulting by this point. Reality check Mr. Friedman.
-According to
http://www.elliottwave.com/features/default.aspx?cat=mw&aid=2549&time=pm
Friedman’s assessment of the stock market spike thanks to Buffet is misleading. After a 2% rise after the announcement (that following a three year stock market rise in general), the stock price has since fallen 17%.
-Israel needs to make peace. Peace means withdrawal to the 1967 borders and removal of all settlements. The settlements are Israel’s act of war. Removing them will be Israel’s only true act of peace. Nothing else Israel does should take ones eye and mind away from this reality. Go home Israel. Back to the armistice lines of 1949.