In 60 short years as a modern state, Israel has become a nation of
remarkable achievements. Over 2.9 million Jews have moved to Israel
since 1948 from Africa, Arab nations, Europe, India, Latin America,
North America, Australia, and New Zealand, not to mention 1.1 million
persons from the former Soviet Union. Over the years, the Israeli
population has grown from an estimated 750,000 to over 7 million. This
includes a Christian and Muslim Arab population that comprises nearly
20 percent of the current population. Thanks to basic laws that defend
democratic principles, all of these peoples and religions are provided
the op****tunity to join the Israeli "melting pot," similar to that of
the United States.
The unlikely story of Israel does not end there. Israeli
entrepreneur****p and research have improved the lives of people in a
variety of areas: medicine, agriculture and irrigation,
communications, computer technology, security, aviation safety,
alternative energy development, business services, and disaster relief
and rescue, to name just a few. This has been accomplished by a nation
with barely 0.1percent of the world's population, which has been
forced, due to the unremitting enmity of its neighbors, to devote an
astronomical 10 percent of its GDP to defense.
Despite these amazing achievements, no country in the world is more
roundly rejected by the community of nations.
Location, Location, Location
It is Israel's misfortune to be the only non-Muslim state located in
the center of the Arab world. Reborn in war in 1948, Israel has never
since been free from the threat of war or terror directed against its
population from surrounding state and non-state actors.
Despite repeated attempts (some successful) to make peace with its
neighbors, Israel is treated as a pariah state. While most of the
criticism is focused on the measures that Israel takes to prevent its
citizens from being harmed by terrorism, the scorn can be traced back
to the very founding of the state. Indeed, the anger at Israel
persists, not because of its policies, which have ****fted dramatically
over the years, but because many of Israel's Arab neighbors still do
not want to recognize it. This is the case despite peace agreements
with two of its neighbors - Egypt and Jordan - in addition to
intermittent peace negotiations with the Palestinians for 15 years. In
fact, the isolation and hostility have, if anything, worsened.
International Isolation
Israel's isolation is not only regional. Approximately 40 percent of
all resolutions passed by the United Nations at the behest of Arab
nations have condemned Israel for its security policy vis-a-vis the
Palestinians or Arab nations. Human rights commissions, and
international courts have convicted Israel of all kinds of alleged
violations of international law and international human rights
standards, while ignoring truly atrocious human rights violations,
including suicide bombings, and the indiscriminate firing of rockets
and mortars at Israelis. They also neglect to mention the continued
threats to "wipe Israel off the map" (Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad) or "drive the Israelis into the sea" (Hamas leader
Mahmoud al-Zahar).
While Israel fights for its survival, the international community
routinely calls Israel's very legitimacy as a nation into question.
Entire international conferences such as those at Durban in 2001, and
the upcoming "Durban 2" are devoted to the "scourge" of Zionism.
In the face of this constant drubbing, Israel has repeatedly sought to
explain itself to the world. Efforts at hasbara, or public relations,
have repeatedly failed. The Palestinians have cornered the "victim"
market, making it nearly impossible for Israel to gain world sympathy.
Israel has thus taken upon itself to create a "rebranding" program, to
attempt to communicate its achievements and contributions, instead of
the steady and unrelenting coverage of war, terrorism, and the rebuke
from other nations and international bodies that issue most re****ts on
the country.
Business and Technology
For 60 years, Israel has given the world the products of its high tech
society. These are innovations to make life better for billions of
people on the planet. Quietly, Israel has become one of the world's
leading technology, science, and medical research centers.
Much of Israel's innovation can be traced to an unusually well-
educated workforce. Israel has the highest number of university
degrees per capita in the world, with a high concentration of them in
science, medicine, and engineering. Half of Israelis with degrees also
hold advanced degrees. This commitment to higher education occurs in a
country where most students do not even begin university study until
after their military service is completed, usually at age 22. Israel's
science and technology universities - including the Technion, Weizmann
Institute, and Talpiot program of the Israel Defense Forces - graduate
some of the best-trained scientists and engineers in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other
nation in the world, and has one of the highest rates of per capita
patents filed. Israel is the nation with the highest number of
scientists and technicians per 1,000 in the workforce, with far higher
levels than in the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Over 25 percent of
Israel's workforce is employed in technical professions, putting
Israel first in the world in this category, too.
Thus, it is not by accident that Israel trails only the United States
in the number of startup technology companies. In fact, Israel ranks
behind only the United States and Canada in NASDAQ-listed companies.
It is also number two in the world in the allocation of venture
capital funds, after the United States. Israel is the only country
outside the United States where Cisco Systems and Microsoft have
located R & D facilities. Google, IBM, and Intel all have large
operations in Israel.
In the area of software and communications, products that are a part
of every day life around the world owe their development to Israel's
high tech industry. These include: voice mail technology, AOL's
Instant Messenger, Intel's Pentium 4 microprocessor and Centrino
chipsets, most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems, the
original cell phone made by Motorola, the first PC anti-virus
software, the first key-chain storage system, the largest
communications router in the world from Cisco, and other advanced
computerized security systems.
Thanks to these innovations, Israel has achieved remarkable and
consistent economic growth, with a current per capita income of
approximately $20,000 per resident, and a GDP approaching $150
billion. Indeed, Israel has become a developed country, much like many
of the nations in Western Europe.
Tikkun Olam
Israel's relative wealth is only one part of the picture. One of the
bedrocks of the Jewish faith is a concept known as tikkun olam, or
repairing the world. As such, Israel has emerged as a leader in the
field of medicine and medical research. Indeed, Israel has been on the
cutting edge of embryonic and adult stem cell research, including
research in neurodegenerative disease, such as ALS, and the
regeneration of heart tissue.
Israeli researchers developed the first instrumentation to diagnose
breast cancer without radiation, the first ingestible video camera
inside a pill to view the small intestine for cancer and digestive
disorders, and a computerized system to ensure proper administration
of medications in institutional settings. They also developed the Ex-
Press shunt to treat glaucoma, and were in the forefront of the
introduction of both bare metal and drug-eluting stents.
Israelis developed a device that helps the heart pump blood, a blood
test for MS, a new acne treatment that causes bacteria to self-
destruct without damaging skin or tissue, a vaccine against mosquito-
borne West Nile virus, a new painless device to allow diabetics to
inject themselves with insulin, a device for monitoring coronary
disease inside a cell phone, a bone "glue" for faster recovery from
injuries, a DNA nano-computer to detect cancer and release drugs to
treat the disease, and a nose drop that serves as a five-year flu
vaccine.
Due, in part, to its innovations in medicine and, in part, to the fact
that Israel has too much experience with disaster resulting from war,
Israelis are on the cutting edge of search and rescue. Israeli teams
are often called on to help locate and rescue victims after
earthquakes and other natural disasters. The experience and knowledge
gained in rescuing Israelis from buildings and buses blown apart by
terrorists, have been applied to save victims of natural disasters in
Turkey, Greece, Mexico, Cameroon, India, El Salvador, Afghanistan,
Armenia, Georgia, and Sri Lanka, as well as victims of violence in
Bosnia, Romania, Kenya, Kosovo, Rwanda, Argentina, and Cambodia.
Green Machines
Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, had a dream of
"turning the desert green." While Ben Gurion was dreaming of expanding
Israeli agriculture to arid environments, subsequent generations of
Israelis had different visions of "green." Israel is now a leader in
environmentally-friendly technologies.
Israel is the only country in the world that is rapidly increasing its
number of trees. Israelis developed and installed (in California) the
first large-scale solar powered and fully functional electricity
generating plant. Israeli scientists have developed sensors that pick
up signs of stress in plants, the technology for an all electric bus
for urban use, an engineless nano remote-piloted vehicle, the world's
first jellyfish repellent, a toilet system with small and large
flushes that saves billions of gallons of water per year, and a nano-
lubricant that could end the need to change car oil.
All the while, Israel continues to chase Ben Gurion's dream. With the
help of science, Israelis have made vast desert areas of their country
bloom. They have done so through special drip irrigation and water
desalination systems that Israeli scientists and agronomists have
since introduced on all five continents, including projects in India,
China, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, and Jordan.
Looking Back
What is particularly remarkable about these achievements is that
Israel has created all of it amidst a constant barrage of terrorist
attacks, not to mention full-scale wars every few years. As such,
Israel has shown that it is a resilient nation; it will not be brought
to its knees by war, terror, boycotts, and international isolation.
Unfortunately, this success is one more source of intense envy and
resentment for Israel's Arab neighbors; Israel is a key innovator in
modern science and technology, and they are not.
As Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary in May 2008, the
Palestinians will expectedly mark the day as al-Naqba, the disaster.
To the continued amazement of those who understand Israel's
achievements in recent decades, much of the world will offer its
condolences to the Palestinians, and share the Palestinian belief that
the world might have been better without Israel's creation in 1948.
For the foreseeable future, most of the world (with the United States
as the principal exception) will continue to enjoy the innovations
that Israel produces while simultaneously berating the Jewish state
for defending itself. For its part, Israel will continue to provide
the world with the fruits of its labor with the ironic hope that, one
day, the Jewish state will simply be seen as one state among many.
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