Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is being reamed by liberals in  the media for a supposed gaffe in stating that Israel is much more successful  economically than territories under Palestinian control because of its  "culture."

Rich  Lowry explains how that is perfectly true in a piece at National Review  Online today. The long and short of it is that Western classically liberal  values like the rule of law, representative democracy, religious  tolerance/diversity, free speech and secure property rights are hallmarks of  Israel's civil society that are woefully lacking in both the West Bank and Gaza  Strip: