The Jews and the Chinese have four things in common: loyalty to family, a high respect for education, a willingness to work long hours for low pay, and a canny acumen for business. Because of these similarities, the Chinese have even been called the Jews of Asia.
The Jews have a long history with China. In China: A New Promised Land, by R. E. Prindle in an interview with David Grossman, Israel’s leading novelist talks about the Jews moving to China.
When a father goes to work in China, he works for his family; not himself. After the children grow up, they must care for their parents; not the other way around like the United States. In the U.S., many parents tell their children to do whatever they want and be anything they want. Most children follow that advice even if it means getting a degree to become an artist or skipping college to chase dreams of acting, singing, or sports fame while attending parties or visiting theme parks like Disneyland because mom and dad said, “We want you to be happy and to have fun.”
It’s different for many Jews and Chinese. Working hard and earning an education are important to both cultures. A close friend and his wife, both Jewish, took out a loan on their home so their son could become a doctor and their daughter a lawyer. They bought a condominium near the university their children attended for an investment and a place to live for their children while in college. Both the mother and father were public school teachers, and they did not earn much, which shows that Jewish parents, like the Chinese, are willing to sacrifice for their children in ways many American parents would find unacceptable in the age of credit cards and instant gratification.
This willingness to sacrifice for the family and nation may have been the reason the Jews won the Six-Day War against overwhelming odds. Although the Chinese have the same values and are willing to make the same sacrifices for family, they did not know how to fight like the Jews. Something the surviving Jews must have learned due to Nazi atrocities.
After a tour of combat in Vietnam, I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California in 1967. Between June 5 – 10, six months after I returned from Vietnam, Israel fought the Six-Day War defeating several Islamic nations that had twice the troops Israel had, more combat aircraft and many more tanks.
It was Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Kuwait, Tunisia, Sudan and the PLO against Israel.
Israel’s had a total of 264,000 troops with only 100,000 deployed. The Islamic nations had a total of 547,000 troops with 240,000 deployed. Israel had 800 tanks to Islam’s 2,504, and 300 combat aircraft to Islam’s 957.
After Israel’s victory, I said, “We should let Israel fight the Vietnam War for us. At least Israel’s leaders know how to fight.” The other Marines agreed.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
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