Israel is the Silicon Valley of the Mediterranean
March 16, 2008In other words: Israel’s Technology Creates an Investment Goliath
Yes, ladies and gents, as many of us here in Israel know (and few of us outside of it know), Israel is a powerhouse when it comes to technology and medicine. It is third only to the US and Canada in terms of number of companies listed on Nasdaq (75!!!), well ahead of England, China, and Germany.
For those of you who don’t know (again, probably most of you), Israelis have invented much of the technology used today such as instant messaging (ICQ), firewall security software, Intel wireless computer chips, numerous medicines, and miniature video camera capsules to examine internal organs. Other Israeli inventions: the cell phone (invented by Motorola, with it’s largest R&D center being in Israel), most of the Windows NT operating system, voice mail technology, and VOIP technology.
More Israeli patents are registered in the US than from Russia, India, and China combined, despite the enormous population disadvantage (about 7 million in Israel vs. 2.5 billion combined in the other 3).
Click here to read about Israel’s robust economy in this great Fox Business article.
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It really is quite impressive that Israel is the technological powerhouse it is, especially being in such an unstable region. Unfortunately, a lot of people probably do not realize that Israel has contributed so much to the technological field as it has. And the advances in technology over in Israel show no signs of slowing down.
I agree. It’s one of the reasons I started this blog. So many people only hear about the fighting and know nothing about all of our accomplishments.
I just heard that Israel invented the cell phone, instant messaging, the firewall, and has the highest number of university degrees per capita in the world on the history channel. With all these contribution it is quite amazing that so many people tend to suppress the importance of Israel here in the US. I think their are way too many who want us to drop support simply for the sake of oil. It seems all too often we hear about places like Dubai with their 7 star hotel and indoor ski resort, but hardly ever hear about all the practical contributions that come out little Israel. It is incredible the number of people I come across that think that Israel should not be given military support and should be put on the same level as Palestinian terrorists. I wish more people would recognize Israel’s right to peacefully exist. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Jonathan. It’s why I started this blog in the first place.
And about the oil, don’t worry. Israel is already working on alternative fueling options, and if anyone can invent something that would make oil obsolete, it’s Israel, and then everyone’s dependency on Middle East oil will end.
Could you comment, whether my details are correct in my essay in
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-Jews-statistics.htm ?
E.g. “It is USA that profits from Israel, rather than the opposite. Israel gets nearly 2 billion euros from USA almost every year, that is true. But. US demands that Israel is not allowed to stop BRAIN DRAIN from Eretz israel to USA. Before the Second Intifada, there were 200 Israeli companies listed in the US High Tech Nasdaq, after the Intifaca the count had dropped to 70. At the moment, the number is back in 100, which is still greater than from all the European countries combined. Dollars are green since the yankees pull the down from the tree when still raw and fresh. Israel has not been allowed to let any of its companies to be scaled up in their homeland but most are imported straight from the garage. The scaling up of industrial production would mean jobs, to both Jews, Arabs and other ethnic groups. Israel is ordered to stay as some kind of innovation laboratory only, as the 51. state.
Astonishing number of 25% of the Israeli researchers have moved from Israel to the United States – and this figure does not yet even include the people with double citizenship! The next largest brain drain of researchers to US are 12.2% from Canada, 4.3% from Netherlands, and 4.2% from Italy.
One of the secrets of innovative success in Israel is the fact that cheating is minimized in the public funding: Money is not delivered according to research plans but steady income and thus the market analysis is emphasized. The support is designed so that the first 2-10 years a startup company does not have to pay taxes. But no direct funding without compensation is offered. Today, Israel draws Venture Capital (VC) more than the Europe.
A novel phenomenon is the strategy by which Israel has been able to claim victory over China and other Far-East countries regarding the most modern High Tech factories: As an example, the supranational Intel transferred the mass production of Centricon-processors to Israel, where 25% of citizens possess a higher decree from the university but where people respect patents and are not plagiating every item they produce for others. (China is a great country of thieves. The Empire of Pirates steals every moving article in your machine.) Intel was also offered an overall tax rate of 10%, which is about three times lower than that of US.
Also, the biggest generic drug factory in the world was recently established in Israel. Over half of the export from Israel are High tech products, compared to the 25% which is the average in the OECD countries.
Although the export of the agriculture has remained constant past the last 30 years, its relative amount has dropped from 70% to 3%. Out of the 3000 companies in Israel 80% are less than ten years old, and the average failure rate of these start ups is very low, less than 50%. In biotechnology and drug development, about 400 experimental drugs have been approved or accepted in clinical phases. The greatest portion of funding of research per capita is found in Israel. Israel also has the greatest ratio of researchers per square meter or population in the face of the world, far exceeding I.e. Japan: http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Indicator.htm”
Pauli Ojala
Helsinki, Finland
Biochemist, drop-out (MSci-Master of Sciing)
The Palestinian life expectancy increased from 48 to 72 years in 1967-1995. The population of the Palestinian Arabs has increased tenfold (10x) in 57 years, which might be the world record after the WWII. The death rate decreased by over 2/3 in 1970-1990 and the Israeli medical campaigns decreased the child deat rate from a level of 60 per 1000 in 1968 to 15 per 1000 in 2000. (An analogous figure was 64 in Iraq, 40 in Egypt, 23 in Jordan, and 22 in Syria in 2000). During 1967-1988 the amount of comprehensive schoold and second level polytechnic institutes for the Arabs was increased by 35%. During 1970-1986 the proportion of Palestinian women at the West Bank and Gaza not having gone to school decreased from 67 % to 32 %. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in West Bank and Gaza increased in 1968-1991 BKT from 165 US dollars to 1715 dollars (compare with 1630$ in Turkey, 1440$ in Tunis, 1050$ in Jordan, 800$ in Syria, 600$ in Egypt. and 400$ in Yemen).
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