Israel's Success, the Interview

تنسيق-الكليات-لعام سكس نيك كس

Dan Senor and Saul Singer go beyond stereotypes and beyond the continuing Mideast conflict to analyze this question in their new book, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

"...one of the most important is the training and battlefield experience that most Israelis receive in the military. The military is where many Israelis learn to lead and manage people, improvise, become mission-oriented, work in teams, and contribute to their country. They tend to come out of their years of service (three for men, two for women) more mature and directed than their peers in other countries. They learn “the value of five minutes,” as one general told us. They even learn something more uniquely Israeli: to speak up — regardless of ranks and hierarchy — if they think things can be done better."

Read the rest of the interview here

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Israel's Military and Economic success

Why is the tiny country of Israel so successful?

For those that refuse to believe in miracles...

"...one of the most important is the training and battlefield experience that most Israelis receive in the military. The military is where many Israelis learn to lead and manage people, improvise, become mission-oriented, work in teams, and contribute to their country. They tend to come out of their years of service (three for men, two for women) more mature and directed than their peers in other countries. They learn “the value of five minutes,” as one general told us. They even learn something more uniquely Israeli: to speak up — regardless of ranks and hierarchy — if they think things can be done better."

Dan Senor and Saul Singer go beyond stereotypes and beyond the continuing Mideast conflict to analyze this question in their new book, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle

ATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s so special about Israel?

DAN SENOR: Israel represents the highest concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship in the world today: the most start-ups per capita; the highest percentage of GDP invested in civilian R&D; more companies on NASDAQ than all of Europe, Korea, Japan, India, and China combined; and the biggest destination for global venture capital per capita. Israel raises 2.5 times as much global venture capital as the U.S., 30 times more than Europe, 80 times more than India, and 350 times more than China — and these numbers are from 2008, when the world was in the midst of an economic meltdown. Israel all but escaped the crisis that ripped through economies everywhere else.

LOPEZ: What makes Israel an economic miracle? What’s most impressive?

DAN SENOR: The jaw-dropping data above would be impressive for any country, but to accomplish all this while under a near-total regional economic boycott, under physical attack, and absorbing millions of refugees in a tiny country with no resources is hard to comprehend.

LOPEZ: What’s the secret of its success?

DAN SENOR: Our book dives into many interacting factors, but one of the most important is the training and battlefield experience that most Israelis receive in the military. The military is where many Israelis learn to lead and manage people, improvise, become mission-oriented, work in teams, and contribute to their country. They tend to come out of their years of service (three for men, two for women) more mature and directed than their peers in other countries. They learn “the value of five minutes,” as one general told us. They even learn something more uniquely Israeli: to speak up — regardless of ranks and hierarchy — if they think things can be done better.

LOPEZ: Has this been an ethical success story?

DAN SENOR: We believe that the free-market system is progressively eliminating the extreme poverty that was the lot of the world throughout history. This process is largely driven by improvements in productivity, which are in part a result of advancements in technology, especially by small, scrappy start-ups. Also, Israel has specialized in life-enhancing and life-saving technologies like medical devices, water conservation, desalination, and irrigation, not to mention the information technology that is making the world smaller. The great thing about innovation is that, unlike physical resources, ideas can be shared and duplicated by all without taking from anyone else.

LOPEZ: Is there something particularly Jewish about Israel’s success?

DAN SENOR: Many people conjecture that there is something specifically Jewish at work. The notion that Jews are “smart” has become deeply embedded in the Western psyche. We saw this ourselves; when we told people we were writing a book about why Israel is so innovative, many reacted by saying, “It’s simple — Jews are smart, so it’s no surprise that Israel is innovative.” But pinning Israel’s success on a stereotype obscures more than it reveals.

For starters, the idea of a unitary Jewishness — whether genetic or cultural — would seem to have little applicability to a nation that, though small, is among the most heterogeneous in the world. Israel’s tiny population is made up of some 70 different nationalities. A Jewish refugee from Iraq and one from Poland or Ethiopia did not share a language, education, culture, or history — at least not for the two previous millennia. As Irish economist David McWilliams explains, “Israel is quite the opposite of a uni-dimensional, Jewish country. . . . It is a monotheistic melting pot of a Diaspora that brought back with it the culture, language, and customs of the four corners of the earth.”

You can see a video of interview here

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تنسيق-الكليات-لعام سكس نيك كس

Oppose Israel, Pay $10 for Cheerios?

This was posted today at HogOnIce. Not the most likely name for a blog that you'd expect an Orthodox Jewish Gun Nut living in the Land of Israel to be reading every day, but believe me it's worth your time.

"Eretz Israel" is Hebrew for "Land of Israel" and refers to the Land that was promised to the Jewish People by God in the Torah (Old Testament).

Oppose Israel, Pay $10 for Cheerios?

Count me Out

I stumbled across something interesting last night. I'll bet a lot of you know who Hal Lindsey is. He wrote The Late Great Planet Earth back in the Eighties. It's all about his interpretation of Biblical prophecy. I just came across one of his columns, and I thought some of you might want to take a quick look.

I'm not endorsing this guy. I don't really remember all of his positions. But he believes in Eretz Israel, and so do many other Christians, and so--unbelievably--do a few Jews. Eretz Israel is the term used to describe the land promised to the Jews by God. It's not totally clear what it means, but it's definitely bigger than the little sliver of land the Jews currently defend. Hal Lindsey says:

The "land for peace" formula called for Israel to give up some of the land of Promise in exchange for peace. In other words, it was a form of blackmail whose terms were drawn up in Washington and forced upon Israel for the express purpose of undoing what God had already done, including dividing Jerusalem and taking part of it from the Jews.

I've been a supporter of Israel for a very long time. But somehow it never occurred to me how wrong it was to pressure the Jews to cede land--their birthright--even temporarily. I always figured that as long as Israel was reasonably secure and covered a fair amount of real estate, everything was on course. And I thought America was doing well, by funding Israel's defense and attacking her enemies. But I was wrong. George Bush should never have entertained the notion of making the Jews give anything back. They are surrounded by vicious barbarians, and they treat Arabs within their borders better than Arabs treat their own, and as far as I'm concerned, it's fine with me if they take over half of the Middle East. It would be nothing but progress. In their hearts, the Arabs agree. Historically, they have busted their asses trying to sneak into Israel, much as Mexicans sneak into the USA. They haven't just entered to commit acts of terrorism. They also wanted jobs and better treatment than they got at home.

I thought America was a country that would be blessed for harboring and helping Jews. But Hal Lindsey and the Orthodox Jews are right. What we are doing over there is very, very wrong. So maybe Lindsey and the Torah-believing Jews are right when they saw America is having hard times because of it.

Yesterday I read that a pizza maker was paying $37 each for bags of flour that cost him $16 a month ago. Because of the ethanol farce. Ethanol is a proven hoax, yet we are going to starve our children (and the children of foreigners who eat our grain) to keep the ignorant hippies happy. Oil is plentiful, and nuclear energy is cheap, safe, and virtually inexhaustible, but energy costs are skyrocketing because we are crippled by completely irrational policies about building reactors, and because the oil companies and the hippies agree that we shouldn't build refineries. Money that used to stay here now goes to India and China and even Brazil. The Euro, which used to be a joke, has traded places with the dollar. Real estate is tanking, and it's going to continue for at least another year. There is no place for Americans to put their money, unless they want to invest abroad. It's starting to look like a perfect storm. For people who believe in God, it shouldn't be a big surprise.

I don't care what the UN says. I don't care what atheists say. We need to help Israel. Does that make us accessories to Imperialism? Fine. I couldn't care less. Some people don't deserve autonomy, and a whole lot of them are concentrated in the Middle East. Maybe you remember a guy named Saddam Hussein. Can you seriously tell me that murdering savage deserved to be in charge of a country? Iraq would have been better off as a colony of Haiti.

I don't talk about it much, but I have come to realize that imperialism is a very good thing. Many nations are just too dangerous to be allowed to run their own affairs. Syria, North Korea, China, Iran, Russia...wouldn't you sleep better at night if these nations were controlled by civilized countries in the west? I sure would. We'd be doing their citizens a huge favor. Everyone knows that. But no one has the integrity to say it.

Maybe the US is on its way to second-world status. But you don't have to be part of it. For $350, you can move a Jew from a Diaspora nation to Israel. You can feed poor Jews in Israel. You can fight the anti-Jewish press. Conservatives like to say that we shouldn't count on the government to do good alms for us. That is true. We can give on our own. And we can also conduct foreign policy on our own. Why wait for George Bush to correct his mistakes when you can bypass him entirely? Go to the website of the International Federation of Christians and Jews and find out what you can do. Or find other organizations that do the same kind of work.

Here's another quote:

"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:3).

But the Bible is just a myth, right? Isn't that what they told you in college? Maybe Zechariah was a lucky guesser.

Here's my advice. Help America and help yourself and your family. By helping Israel directly. And let's admit we support the concept of Eretz Israel. The hippies may desert us, but God will not.

And now I am OFF TO THE RANGE.

Keep up the good work Steve!