Start-Up Nation, The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

 

                                                                                                                                                ב"ה    

15 Shevat 5770                                                                                        January 30, 2010

New Book Brings Us Spiritually and Materially Closer to Eretz Yisrael

While admiring in awe the magnificence of the full moon, Mom Nina was impressed that I would remember our family's 54^th anniversary arriving in America on this very day, from Greece via Naples, Italy, courtesy the USS Constitution of American Export Lines. The coincidence enhances the joy of today's Shabbat Parasha Beshallah TuB'Shevat, that hopeful Jewish point in the calendar that celebrates the holiday of trees and las frutas, the blossoming already underway in Israel, anticipating the coming of spring.

            Anna and I are blessed with three daughters, who, in turn, has given us "sons" to whom we playfully refer by the sequence of entering our familial circle. Thus, it was son-in-law number two, Peri Avitan, a sabra (Israel-native), and the charismatic owner-manager of CCI Systems http://www.cci-sys.com/, a custom-made remote video surveillance enterprise, rushing excitedly to present me with the new book, Start-Up Nation, The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, pressing me immediately read and comment on it. Having done the former, I am ready to fulfill his latter request.

            A Council of Foreign Relations Book, it is the joint output of Dan Senor and Saul Singer, both steep in business reportage, the first a New Yorker, while the second, now a Jerusalemite, has also served as U.S. government adviser. In an absorbing narrative, they factually describe Israel's economic power ascendency catapulting its innovation and entrepreneurial intensity ahead of Japan, China, India, South Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom!

            The factors that have made a nation of 7.1 million the hub for start-up companies, and attractive for the capital of such billionaires as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have everything to do with Israel being "a state of mind;" the informality of dress and address that cuts to the chase in every interaction and transaction, producing chutzpah, the refreshing directness that unnerves others. An American, Russian, Chinese man and an Israeli stand on a street corner. A reporter comes up to the group and asks: "Excuse me, what's your opinion on the meat shortage?" The American says, "What's a shortage?" The Russian says, "What's meat?" The Chinese man says, "What's an opinion?" The Israeli says, "What's 'excuse me'?"

            The country's frenetic pace is partly explained by examining the constricted space in which it is required to live, even as its neighbors wish its extinction. Other vital components that make Israel thrive are the welcoming openness of its immigration policy, "immigrants are not averse to starting over; they are by definition risk takers; a nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs." The development is the outcome of classic Zionism; for there must exist a state for which Jews need no visas; citizenship is granted upon entering the country.

And Jews have come on the wings of prayer and hope: from czarist Russia, escaping pogroms; circumventing a British embargo to enter pre-1948 Mandate Palestine; Operations Magic Carpet and Moses, bringing droves of Yemenites and Ethiopians, respectively; and the exit of myriads detained Jews from the former Soviet Union (the last, surpassing a critical mass to establish political parties in their new home in the land of their ancestors).

 

America can rediscover this virtue, while reclaiming the essence of its soul. Israel reserves a unique place for universal military service, harnessing the manifold talents of a heterogeneous population, while forging the ties that bind in post-service solidarity and as returning civilians creating companies listed on the NASDAQ --- more than those from all Europe, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, and India combined!

            Oddly, our own paradigmatic USA can also reclaim the can-do spirit that exemplifies Israel, blazing in achievement and resilience. Disputation arising from doubt has been the syndrome of Jewish civilization and guides today's Israel. Jews are the People of the Book, founding in Israel eight world-ranked universities and 27 colleges. Their yozma, a driven initiative, in recent years inventing drip-irrigation, warm-water fishing in the desert (pumping 98o water into ponds raising tilapia, barramundi, sea bass, striped bass), and the camera pill that examines intestines and report the results in real time.

            All is not sanguine, however. Israel's Founding Father, David Ben-Gurion, granted 400 yeshiva exemptions, as an alternative for the army, to the Ultra-Orthodox haredi to get their support; today tens of thousands go to Jewish seminaries, excluding themselves from the mainstream of Israeli society, including secular studies that have propelled the nation to the upper echelons of industry, commerce, and academia.

Additionally, British journalist Chris Davidson in Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success describes the sheik's dilemma in the midst of astounding affluence. Demographics dictate continued ample growth in the Arab world, a majority falling in the youthful productive age group, without a concomitant ability to create the requisite 80 million jobs; rote education is inadequate; 50% of the population, women, cannot forever be excluded from civil society, retarding progress in the process. Moreover, the Arab boycott proved counterproductive, as Israel was to draw on national resolve to become self-reliant, as it did when French President Charles de Gaulle's betrayal in denying military assistance made Israel translate the adversity into an opportunity to build its own military Research and Development apparatus that has become the world's envy, solidifying today's vigorous ongoing alliance with the United States!

            Finally, reflect on some amazing statistics culled from this volume and elsewhere: Israel's freedom of speech is underscored by more than 30 newspapers in Hebrew, English, Russian, French, and more; an Israeli buys five books a year, 35 million sold annually; there are more scientific papers per capita than any nation in the world, and the highest rates of patents; more than 20% of Israelis hold degrees; there have been nine Nobel Prize winners in economics, peace, chemistry, and literature; Cisco, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Intel have large operations in Israel; the 2009 Forbes list has 13 Israeli firms among the world's biggest companies; Israeli nanotech patents and publications rank in the top three along with Switzerland and Germany; and, Israel trails only the United States in the number of start-up technology companies and in the allocation of venture capital funds! Such leaps of accomplishment, and barely 61 years old! Shavua tov, καλη εβδομαδα, buena semana ...

            Sincerely, and with fraternal affection,

                        Asher

            Prof. Asher J. Matathias

            312 Longacre Avenue, Woodmere, NY 11598-2530  

            516-374-2958 Mobile: 369-5799 AsherJmat@Aol.com

*Ahmein! And may you continue to educate and enlighten with your tales of survival, heroism and cultural triumph. Myron M., Plainview, NY

*Hi Asher, Thank you for this very interesting and very informative email. Could I forward it to some friends of mine? Καλή εβδομάδα και σ' εσένα! Μελέτης M. (Pastor), Volos, Greece