Israel Does Spectacularly In World University Rankings

The Shanghai Academic Rankings of World Universities for 2012 is out. 

Although these tpyes of rankings are vested with much more significance than they should be within individual universities and departments, taken as a whole, they are, in my opinion, a decent indicator of a country's academic success.

Israel's university rankings are spectacular. 

The listings must be seen in the context of the utter dominance of US institutions and those from a small number of other countries.  For instance, in the overall academic rankings, 17 of the top 20 institutions are American (the other three being Cambridge, Oxford, and Tokyo), and of the top 50, 35 are American and 5 are British.  A similar pattern is present in all of the departmental rankings. 

So given Israel's small population of less than 8 million and its location in the Middle East, its numbers are stunning. 

In Computer Science, Israel has the #12 (Weizmann), #15 (Technion), #21 (Hebrew U), and #31 (Tel Aviv) departments.  But the stat that is even more impressive is that Weizmann and Technion have the #2 and #3 non-American CS departments in the world, and are #1 and #2 outside of North America.

In Mathematics, Tel Aviv university comes in at #26, the highest ranked department outside of North America or Europe.  Technion and Hebrew also crack the top 100, and together they are the only universities outside of North America, Europe, or East Asia to do so.

In Physics, Hebrew, Weizmann, and Technion all crack the top 100, accounting for three out of the only four institutions outside of North America, Europe, and East Asia to do so (the only other is the Australian National University).  In Economics, Hebrew has the top ranked department outside of the US, Canada, or Britain.  In overall Engineering/Technology, Technion is ranked #38 in the world, the highest rank for any institution outside of North America, Europe, or East Asia.

In the overall university rankings, Hebrew's spot at #72 makes it the top academic institution in the world outside of North America, Europe, East Asia, or Australia, and in fact #3 in Asia and #1 in Asia outside of Japan. 

Israel may in fact have the finest university system in the world on a per capita basis, if such a thing could be defined, as in the number and rank of top institutions divided by the population.  By contrast, except for a few heavily financed Saudi Universities which do make the middling levels of the top 500 overall university list, no institutions in the Middle East outside of Israel make any of the top 100 department or 500 overall university list.  In fact, given the high percentage of foriegn faculty at the Saudi universities, I would posit that of the Arabs who are faculty at these world class universities and academic departments in the Middle East, a majority are actually employed at Israeli universities.  How's that for apartheid?

So again, I must ask why some of those who claim to adhere to the values of the left, which supposedly include education and scientific progress, as well as some of those who claim to adhere to the values of the right, which supposedly include meritocratic acheivement and economic prowess, are so quick to side with Israel's enemies and take an extreme one-sided view of the Israeli / Arab conflict.  I know the answer - antisemitism - but I am still asking them.