Israel is the world’s happiest country — official. Or maybe should that be semi-official.

The Thai-based English language newspaper, the Asia Times, ran a column this week claiming that Israelis love life and hate death more than any other nation.

The evidence for this comes not from interviews with Israelis, which would no doubt produce evidence to the contrary, but rather by plotting the fertility rate versus the suicide rate of 35 industrialised countries. Israel stands alone in loving life and hating death.

The column also points out that Israelis have a higher life expectancy than either the Dutch or the Germans.

There must be something in the falafel.