comment: >
  
  
  
  The Jews who emmigrated to Israel were educated and Westernized and socially and culturally ready to construct a modern state
  
  
  Israe had the backing of the U.S.
  
  
  Pakistanis were by and large extremely poor, uneducated, and still acutely remembered the authoritarian British colonial regime.
  Colonialism is a HUGE factor in the current poverty and lackof development of the global south.
context: I feel like a better comparison would be between Pakistan and Bangladesh, given that both of them were given the similar starting parameters (caveat is Bangladesh had a lot less support/investment). >
  
  I'd say that Bangladesh is still doing better than Pakistan as it is not involved in any active proxy wars with another country. Pakistan has a massive debt problem and has essentially become a Chinese puppet nation. Remember how few years back Chinese workers on the belt and road project in Pakistan beat up the police (or was it military personnel? ) who were trying to tell them not to go to nearest town for their own safety? >
  
  Bangladesh has also, with little fanfare, brought its birth rates down to be on par with educated, Western countries. In fact, Bangladesh's birth rate is now actually below replacement level. The overpopulation the country is famous for will soon be "the overpopulation it was once famous for." >
  
  Pakistan had a LOT less help from Western nations. For a long time, Israel was mostly funded by other countries (especially Germany). Also, Israel invested a ton of money into education, which has payed back immensely. You wouldn't know it now, but 80 years ago, Israel was in a complete economic tailspin and would have likely ended up in the same place as Pakistan, or even more likely been wiped out entirely, had it not been for Western intervention. >
  
  It's not only that, Israel has benefited immensely from donations from wealthy Jews from around the world since the Rothschild began helping the first pioneers buy Palestinian land from the Ottomans in 1881. Post holocaust/founding donations to the country have also increased dramatically.
  Also, many wealthy, educated, and intelligent Jews move to Israel (even though life is harder there) because they want to feel part of Jewish history, that they are contributing to the return of Jews to their homeland. 
  Pakistan isn't a global ethnic group experiencing a religious and historic pull back to Pakistan and thus doesn't have the same global and historic "project" that Israel has. >
  
  If anything, they have a desire to leave. There's tons of Pakistani immigrants in the United States and other areas of the world. >
  
  Why is Canada much wealthier than Russia although they both have traditionally strong ice hockey teams?
  The one thing to take away from your observation, if anything, is that religion or being a religious sanctuary plays no role whatsoever in the economic development of a nation. Just like being good at ice hockey doesn't either.
  You have very poor, very rich, and middle income countries that are strongly religious or even quasi-theocracies all over the muslim world, from Saudi-Arabia to Indonesia to Iran, over the christian world, from the Vatican over Poland to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and so on.
  If anything is to take away, it's that religion or religious rule doesn't matter for how an economy progresses. And why would being a sanctuary in that matter change that?
  I don't know why you would even make that connection in the first place ("though they both were..."). >
  
  Because Canada has the stronger ice hockey team, thus our wealth. The shame of their game has led to decades of Russian stagnation, while Canada gets its beer on. >
  
  That makes sense too because Russia losing to a bunch of American college grads at Lake Placid in 1980 precipitated the decline and fall of the USSR. Before that the Russians had the best hockey team in the world and were a strong country. >
  
  Which paled in comparison to the Canada/Soviet 72 series.
  It’s why Stalin died, and why they lost the war in Afghanistan. As is known. >
  
  So what you're saying is it's actually hockey all the way down? >
  
  Can’t argue with results. >
  
  The man speaks the truth. >
  
  If you look at the UN yearly Human development index, Pakistan is quite low compared to Israel which is close to the US at a high development rate. 
  Their per capita income actually isn’t bad, but they’re suffering because of low education (if you look at mean years of schooling it’s like 6-9years at highest average vs. western countries that maintain the standard of +12 years), a life expectancy that isn’t improving as fast as other countries, and the biggest factor for the low score is gender inequality. They’re classed as barely better than Afghanistan, which is kind of a low bar.
  
  The labor force participation for women is 24.9% as compared to 82.7% for men. It is the lowest in the region after Afghanistan. Overall in terms of the Gender Inequality Index, Pakistan is only ahead of Afghanistan in South Asia. The higher gender inequality has huge economic and social implications for the country as women constitute around 49% of the total population.
  
  The gender inequality comes from their cultural and religious history, so you’ve pretty much got your answer there. >
  
  Access to education, and the ability to use it after graduating. >
  
  The Ashkenazi Jews were one of the most accomplished segments within what was then the most advanced area of the world (Europe).  For example their over-representation in science and other intellectual fields was very impressive.  And this was despite facing widespread prejudice.  So its not too surprising that a country settled and founded by them would be a success.  They did get a decent amount of foreign aid as well, and continue to do so. >
  
  Jewish culture places an emphasis on education to a greater extent than almost any other world culture. Jews have won 36% of all the Nobel Prizes won by Americans, despite never being more than 2% of the US population at any time.
  Cultural practices have consequences. There are some cultures in Pakistan, to which sizable amounts of the Pakistani population belong, that still do not believe in allowing women to learn to read. >
  
  Not just emphasis on education. All Jews are required to be literate. Always have been. So in a pre-industrial world, a newly industrial world, etc imagine a whole population who is literate. Pretty amazing feat. Judaism as a religion also emphasizes interpretation/higher reasoning. SOOO many come on to Jewish reddit groups talking about how they want to read the Torah to understand Judaism. You can't understand Judaism by reading the Torah I say. You understand Judaism by questioning the Torah. Question god. Question if any of it is true or real. Question, answer, and then question your answers. So it's unsurprising that Jews bring this questioning to the rest of the natural world and the issues or presumptions in it.
  TLDR: We're a people based on literacy and questioning everything we're told. That makes for a pretty good scientist or economist too. >
  
  Yes, this is a much more thorough/accurate way to say what I was saying >
  
  Pakistan substituted religious schooling in for a real public education system, resulting in generations of unemployed young men with no productive skills. Meanwhile the men who did receive practical education fled the country for better opportunities abroad. Top that off with a long period of hot and cold war with India to little/no productive end for Pakistan. 
  On the flip side, Israel nailed the diplomatic game, securing a lot of foreign support at critical times.  While Israel now approaches pariah state status over the situation with Palestine, Israel still managed to secure the country with both the largest economy and most powerful military as well as a permanent UN security counsel seat as a practically permanent benefactor. Israel also has a robust education system and substantial economic influence for it's size. >
  
  Not just men. Pakistan split from India who focused on education. Today literacy among women puts Pakistan worldwide at 148 with 46.5% and India at 130 with 65.8%. Source