Day 1,400: statelet

It and the even more wretched Gaza may end up as failed statelets, compromising Israel’s safety and moral standing.

As Israel turns 75, its biggest threats now come from within

Artwork of the day 
The Concert of the State
Rembrandt
Date: 1642
Style: Baroque
Genre: genre painting
Media: oil, board
Location: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Dimensions: 75 x 101 cm

Word of the day 
statelet: a small state

Quote of the day
“In contrast, Europe has never come remotely close to political unification: it was still splintered into 1,000 independent statelets in the 14th century, into 500 statelets in A.D. 1500, got down to a minimum of 25 states in the 1980s, and is now up again to nearly 40 at the moment that I write this sentence. Europe still has 45 languages, each with its own modified alphabet, and even greater cultural diversity. The disagreements that continue today to frustrate even modest attempts at European unification through the European Economic Community (EEC) are symptomatic of Europe’s ingrained commitment to disunity.”
― Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: The MILLION-COPY bestselling history of everybody