Resetting Our Goals?: Kibbutz Ketura

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Completely.

"Development" is a word that is thrown around a lot in Israel. From the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), to American Supporters of Israel's Future (ASIF), to USAID, one cannot turn a corner in Israel without running across a plaque telling you who donated money for this 'development' of Israel. To put this into perspective, the campus I am currently living in was made possible by the Jewish National Fund, the JDC, and countless individual donors. The water trip I recently went on with the Arava Institute? USAID footed the bill.

Even Arava's website features the symbols of our major donors

Across the globe, it seems that individuals, organizations, and governments are throwing money toward Israel to use from everything from infrastructure, to defense, to education, to funding Jewish people to make "aliyah" (which is moving to Israel). In many ways, it seems as if development in Israel closely resembles the Cold War era, where Rist points out that " ‘development’ was mainly used as an excuse for enticing ‘developing countries’ to side with one camp or the other" (486). It appears that each side donating money wants their own interests and motives to be taken care of, and to sway the Israeli people into agreeing more with their vantage point.

This type of development is much different than the development of, say Incheon Bay, South Korea, an area that I am studying in my Environment and Society class. South Korea has voluntarily declared it would reduce it's CO2 emission equivalents by 30% by 2025. To do that, it is going through green development to revamp its cities and power system to be more environmentally friendly (e.g. biking routes, better public transportation, green energy sources). Development of this nature is not for the benefit of certain 'lobbying' or interest groups, but rather by the nation for the nation. One may argue this type of development is still interest founded, but my response is all development is. Whether it be for the interest of human health or happiness, or for proving your country is 'superior', development is inherently interest based. Even so, I believe that what is more important is the reasoning behind the development endeavor. This is what separates types of development from each other and makes the word 'development' have different meanings depending on the context.