Secret Israeli Weapon Can Fix Mideast at The Ouwet Front: A Lebanese Forces Blog

Secret Israeli Weapon Can Fix Mideast

Posted by Y

by Amity Shlaes

Americans think of war or religion when they think of Israel. But Israel is also an unusual high-tech success story.

A survey last May of non-American companies on the Nasdaq counted three Korean companies, five Irish businesses, five from the U.K. and six from Japan. Israel had 64.

In 2008, Israel drew more than twice the venture capital per citizen than the United States. It drew 30 times as much cash as continental Europe, and 350 times more than India.

There are some pretty familiar ethnic explanations for the Israeli tech miracle. Jews are supposed to be smart. Jews from overseas will fund Israeli companies regardless of quality. And so on.

But those explanations don’t suffice, as Dan Senor and Saul Singer point out in “Start Up Nation.” (Senor is my colleague at the Council on Foreign Relations). The Israeli record of innovation has less to do with tribe and more with policy. The Israeli military has also played a surprising role in the process.

The story starts with the old Israel, its suspicion of capitalism and its counterproductive affection for trade unions and communal farming. A decade and a half ago the Israeli government established a tech fund that it dubbed Yozma. Yozma’s goal was to lure venture capital to join it in creating Israeli projects. The very signal that Yozma’s creation sent changed Israeli attitudes about business dramatically. One executive paraphrased John Lennon on Elvis to describe the shift. “Before Yozma, there was nothing.”

Education, Women

But other forces contributed. The high level of education for both men and women meant new companies had someone to hire. During his tenure as finance minister earlier this decade, Benjamin Netanyahu pulled his own Margaret Thatcher by cutting taxes and government jobs and privatizing El Al, the national airline, and the Bezeq, the state-owned telecom company. Netanyahu phased out high-return government bonds, thereby forcing domestic capital to find an alternate place to invest. Financial reforms made the marketplace relatively transparent.

The authors identify several less-intuitive factors. One is Israeli tolerance for failure — bankruptcy isn’t the end of a career. Another is immigration. Sure, the immigrants from the former Soviet Union had degrees, but what mattered as much was the immigrant personality, that of the self-selected risk-taker willing to start over, and therefore, also “start up.” It also helped that academic and business doors were open to the immigrants.

Soldiers of Commerce

Yet the secret weapon of Israeli innovation is the Israeli military. The Israeli draft doesn’t merely ask male soldiers to serve for three years and women for two years; they serve for much of their adulthood, returning each year. This sounds like a career disrupter. But the Israel Defense Forces’ elite units end up functioning as the sort of fruitful techno clusters that Michael Porter of Harvard University identified as so hospitable to innovation.

The advantage of being associated with an Israeli elite unit — two famous names are Talpiot and 8200 — is like the advantage of going to Harvard Business School, only greater, says Israeli Tal Keinan.

Keinan is an Israeli investor and a 2001 graduate of Harvard Business School, so he’s able to put in American terms what the Israeli network does. He points out than a Harvard Business School reunion happens only every few years, and it is among people who shared only spreadsheets, not tents or rifles. Says Keinan of the IDF bond: “Imagine a reunion every year, and that it lasts two to four weeks.” Israelis are that much closer and more likely to help each other on projects.

Democratic Authority

Beyond the advantage of networking are a flatter hierarchy and the democratic habits of the Israeli military. The challenges of war on the house-to-house level have forced the Israeli military to hand authority down the chain. The skills even junior officers garner get the civilian jobs from people who themselves have served, and therefore know how to read a military resume.

An example of the military-high tech dynamic came when the president of PayPal Inc., Scott Thompson, was on the hunt for software to detect fraud, something American innovators believe they produce better than anyone else.

As a favor to an investor, Thompson met with Shvat Shaked, a co-founder of the Israeli company Fraud Sciences. To Thompson’s astonishment, Fraud Sciences was able to predict the likelihood of fraud better than any mechanism PayPal or others had developed. While at 8200 tracking terrorists, Shaked andfellow 8200 veteran Saar Wilf had discovered a special characteristic of those doing something wrong — they try to hide their traces. The innocent, by contrast, don’t. They had used that knowledge to write the most competitive software.

Muslim Opportunity

Soon investors nurturing projects in Muslim-majority countries will have their own Yozma, the new Global Technology and Innovation Fund that President Obama is touting.

But the Israeli record suggests that such public-sector funds, while exciting, aren’t the most important reason for high-tech innovation. “Most of these countries,” Senor says of the Middle East, “are not behind because they lack money.”

Senor suggests that strengthening the talent pool by allowing women in the workforce, strengthening the right to question and vote out officials within the military or outside it, capitalizing on the value of immigration, and voting in a government that encourages experiments all matter more.

The second message here is for U.S. companies, which tend to value veteran officer candidates less than their Israeli counterparts. U.S. veterans’ time in combat may translate into an ability to make the difference at some of our own start-ups.

Filed under: Other, Social
Posted by Y on 11.03.09 @ 3:55 pm | 27 Comments

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27 Comments. Add your own...

1. Mike | November 4th, 2009 at 7:37 am

Okay…
2. Nth | November 4th, 2009 at 9:42 am

Enough with this ridiculous “israeli superiority” trash” – Know the facts :
http://nth-word.blogspot.com/2009/02/israeli-contributions-really.html
3. rawa2 | November 4th, 2009 at 10:15 am

wowww youre very proud of israel…2 thumbs uo for your loyality to your primary country ya Y
4. Zo3o | November 4th, 2009 at 11:43 am

Very interesting article, whether we like it or not, Jews are the brightest when it comes to money and economical issues.
Rawa2: I don’t think Y is being a big fan of the Israeli state, he is simply showing you how Jews have managed to keep their money stable in their pockets by using their brains not their oil…sad, but true.
5. avi | November 4th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

NTH you love denying reality…..for sure all of Israel’s discovery was because of American money of coarse….that’s why Arab states have much more money much more oil,but no brains or organization right???
6. avi | November 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

And worst of all Nth ;no unity a part from when it comes to Israel’s genocide right???
7. Nth | November 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm

avi ….

unity ?? sorry didn’t get that …

Reality … not denying anything .. just explaining that Israel specifically got an amount of support that if given to Somali over that period of time would make it a super power….

I’m not saying Jews are inferior to anybody …

“Israel’s genocide” ??? what ?

Man … just one simple example … Israelis claim they invented the mobile phone … well … it was motorola … with american money … american technology … american educated engineers … on “occupied palestinian soil” …. anyway this is a long discussion, and requires an open mind …. I’m not here to argue like the custom on these lebanese signs, i was just provoked by the way articles on this site are presented ….. not strange for ouwet anyway ..

again … Somalia could have done this … man … I even went through the effort of researching the number so that i don’t get ignoramuses arguing emptily with me ….
120 Billion … just starting 1948 … !!!! familiar with a concept called time value of money ????

I stand by my word … I would have created those green men if i had that money ….

Also …. not that its relevant here …. Arabs are not rightly put into the equation …. if you had some knowledge of social/ political and cultural understanding you would know what i’m talking about ….. anyway …… which arabs specifically ???

Nothing about the zionist entity deserves praise …… except maybe the diabolical genius and LOOOONG term planning in a most racist and inhumane manner ….. inconsiderate to other people, who are merely registered as ‘inexistent’ in the zionist agenda …. Its going DOWN baby !!

sorry if some of my words were too strong !
8. Ahmed making a point | November 5th, 2009 at 12:19 am

Y

Are you an Israeli ??
9. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 8:35 am

“Israeli-ness” is a point of view

This wasn’t the only article with this flavor on this site … but what continues to amaze me is some people’s inability to see history, even when its shouting, singing, dancing and spitting in their faces !!!!

Mazel Tov

nth-word.blogspot.com
10. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 8:40 am

“Israeli-ness” is a point of view

This wasn’t the only article with this flavor on this site … but what continues to amaze me is some people’s inability to see history, even when its shouting, singing, dancing and spitting in their faces !!!!

Federalism …. could be something to think about – IF AND ONLY IF – the one pleading it wasn’t ‘Ouwet’ … with such a zest for ‘israeli superiority’, zionist agenda, zionist racist principles (beautiful harmony guys .. really) and new IDF (the zionist terrorist attack army) weapons …

Mazel Tov

http://nth-word.blogspot.com/2009/02/interesting-facts-about-arab-israeli.html
11. Mike | November 5th, 2009 at 9:14 am

Not all the ouwet are pro-zionist. Only the ones who are idiots who can’t learn from the past or who don’t have any real insight into the middle east situation. We recognized Israel was no good in 1982 when they betrayed us. Also, by meeting with Arafat back then and not to mention by helping to carryout the attack on sheikh bashir gemayel that cost him his life and lebanon its savior by giving the green light to the syrians. Even the tzadal aka SLA(south lebanon army) was betrayed by the israelies and left to die at the hands of hezbollah while most escaped to israel with their families leaving their homes. Everyone to zionists is like chewing gum. Chew them until the last drop and then spit them out.
12. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 10:49 am

chapeau bas to Mike !

I’ll take your word for it …

Christians in Lebanon (the so called right-wing) should remember that Zionist thought considers them to be part of the ‘no people’… interesting references here, but its not the topic .. Again …. they DON’T think that christians are better than the rest of the no-people of the region ….. the word ‘Arabs’ holds no specific significance here, because even if it were replaced with ’shankaloonians’ (some country somewhere) that will still imply the same racism ..

Being racist against a group … simply … actually being racist – in general – tells you all you need to know in this dimension …
13. avi | November 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Nth is Mike !!!!!So you use multiple users Mike so that someone can say hey I like what Mike said war is good….shame on you Mike!
14. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

That was ridiculous avi …. I hate bashir … I hate sheikhs … and I think that Mike’s opinions of zionists are under-estimative (based only on what happened to a small group instead of the full view of awesome galactic-level crimes)….. we are two (very) different people …. man … come on …
15. avi | November 5th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

‘Nothing about the zionist entity deserves praise …… except maybe the diabolical genius and LOOOONG term planning in a most racist and inhumane manner ….. inconsiderate to other people, who are merely registered as ‘inexistent’ in the zionist agenda …. Its going DOWN baby !!’

’sorry if some of my words were too strong ‘!….

These were your words NTH,firstly I am not the ‘zionist entity’ my countries people’s name is Israel and we have a culture and independence that you can deny for 100years no matter,secondly you sound a lot like Mike ….what are we planning in such a diabolic manner???What part of Israeli Nobel peace prize winners do you not understand?what part of Mobile phone do you not understand???Man you are so racist that you stink like Mike what’s so ridiculous????Why the hell are you sorry??

‘chapeau bas to Mike !

I’ll take your word for it … ‘

Really and you not Mike???And you still give opinions???

‘I hate bashir … I hate sheikhs … and I think that Mike’s opinions of zionists are under-estimative ‘

I mean why do you guys hate so much????
16. avi | November 5th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

lol Mike how much lies can one say about the Jews??,I quote you…

‘not to mention by helping to carryout the attack on sheikh bashir gemayel that cost him his life’

Now how about that????everything comes back to the Jews how convenient;..now the truth I quote wikipedia you know the dictionnary Mike….

On September 14, 1982, Bachir was addressing fellow Phalangists at their headquarters in Aschrafieh for the last time as their leader and for the last time as commander of the Lebanese Forces. He was discussing how the militia would transfer its military power to the Lebanese Army, which Bachir hoped to support as the only military power in Lebanon. At 4:10 PM, a bomb was detonated at the headquarters, killing Bachir and 26 other Phalange politicians. Whereas rumors spread that Bachir had gotten out alive, it was confirmed the next morning by the Lebanese Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan that Bachir was indeed assassinated. [8]

Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and also a Maronite Christian, was later arrested for the assassination. His sister was living in the apartment above the room Bachir was in. He had visited her the previous day and planted the bomb in her apartment. The next day, he called her and told her to get out of the building. Once she was out, he detonated the bomb from Nasra area in Achrafieh, few miles away from the building. When he came back to check on his sister, he was immediately arrested. He later confessed to it, saying he had done this because “Bachir had sold the country to Israel.” He was imprisoned for 8 years, until Syrian troops took over Lebanon at the end of the war and freed him on October 13, 1990.[9]

So why did Bashir die Mike???For peace and for future generations…..Mike you are such a liar that this is becoming fun.
17. avi | November 5th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

Are you even capable of telling the truth????Even for once?????Say the truth you simply hate Jews and stop trying to use facts to back up your hate because there is no historical justification for racism.
18. avi | November 5th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

That goes for NTH and my favorite liar of the month:AKA …MIKe!!!!!
19. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

avi …. just one question …. are you getting paid for participating on this forum ??? are you part of the mighty internet army?? Shouldn’t you be killing some baby or stealing a house somewhere ???

anyways man … no hate here … I don’t like long arguments .. so simply say : “I don’t believe that we are racially supreme and are morally allowed to kill and displace a large group of people just because they don’t belong to our race (ethnicity/ religion).. I believe that we shouldn’t steal people’s homes!!”

if you say the above sentence – any human on earth should easily – I will love you man …… Kisses and everything … the whole deal ….

If you can’t say it … you’re a sad racist trapped in the past … or a believer in the law of power not morality ….. you’re free to believe whatever u want, but then we’re free t call you on it

http://nth-word.blogspot.com/2009/04/zionism-is-racism-is-it-and-what-about.html
20. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

Avi …. are you getting paid for your contributions ?? are you part of the mighty israeli internet army ??

man … absolutely no hate here ….. just say : “I don’t believe that we are racially supreme, and the we can justify to ourselves the murder and displacement of a complete people because they are of a different race (ethinicity/religion) than us, and I will work against such injustice if it exists” …… and I will love you … literally … no kisses, but love you nontheless ….

PS the statement above should be easy to say by any humane person …..

http://nth-word.blogspot.com/2009/04/zionism-is-racism-is-it-and-what-about.html
21. Nth | November 5th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

sorry the last comment was doubled due to tech errors….. maybe my computer wasn’t made by superior israeli technological genius
22. avi | November 29th, 2009 at 1:52 am

Nth or Mike your paranioa and lies of the Jewish people are nothing new….anyway we are the bad guys and always have the bad role ….so maybe you are the one trapped in the past???
23. Mike | November 29th, 2009 at 3:31 am

If you are jewish you would follow David Weiss. Seems you’re more an athiest zionist bigot.

“Real cause of overwhelming Jewish atheistic tendencies seems to be tragic ignorance of Judaism’s most profound teachings and ideas”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3809043,00.html

Exactly what you’re doing here and why people like you follow zionism.

Enough with you claiming to be talking for the jews while having nothing in common with their noahic codes, principles or values. Go smoke your weed and rant your zionist dogma somewhere else.
24. avi | November 29th, 2009 at 11:25 am

Whatever man but I told you I am Israeli and level of religion is a non issue……The one who should chimmout and smoke some weed is you.
25. Mike | November 29th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

I repeat again:

If you are jewish you would follow David Weiss. Seems you’re more an athiest zionist bigot.

“Real cause of overwhelming Jewish atheistic tendencies seems to be tragic ignorance of Judaism’s most profound teachings and ideas”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3809043,00.html

Exactly what you’re doing here and why people like you follow zionism.

Enough with you claiming to be talking for the jews while having nothing in common with their noahic codes, principles or values. Go smoke your weed and rant your zionist dogma somewhere else.
26. avi | November 29th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

Why do you want me to follow someone,?….who said i speak for all Jews??What do you think I am like you and I follow tribal leaders like sheep????And yes when it comes to your terrorism I do know what most Israelis think…the answer is no way!And Mike i got some intellectual sh*t for you,you are too late Israel exists and way before I was born today we can talk of post Zionism and i agree with you smoke weed and make love,don’t shoot missiles…No to violence!
27. avi | November 29th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

One last thing I do follow Davis Weiss ,both of them that is,the fist one I love his jazz music and second one I love his paintings.I do not follow people Mike I am a Jew I only submit to G.od,and an Israeli citizen which means I vote!