While much of the conversation about Israel revolves around its conflict with the Palestinians, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state, Iran’s nuclear threat and political elections that never end, there’s a whole other story that doesn’t get much attention:
Israel is fast becoming a country serving humanity.
That thought was on my mind this week after spending time in Jerusalem with my friend Jonathan Medved, who runs a fast-growing innovation investment platform called OurCrowd. Over a late afternoon coffee at the King David Hotel, Medved riffed on a country that produces innovation the way a thriving wine grower produces grapes.
Since the mission of his organization is to secure investment for these innovations, Medved has been at the forefront of Israel’s obsession with solving universal problems. From medical care to the environment to AI to cybersecurity to green technology to food security to water generation to energy conservation to airport efficiency to countless other areas, Israeli innovations now affect all of humanity.
This is not a new idea. Since the book “Start-Up Nation” came out more than a decade ago, the word has gotten out about how tiny Israel punches above its weight– about how the country’s urgent, no-nonsense culture of achievement is ideally suited for innovation.
The problem is that “Start-Up Nation” became a ubiquitous cliché that was taken for granted. Even when major innovators like Apple, Microsoft and Intel would announce significant investments in Israel, it fell into a familiar narrative. Just more of the same.
It’s only when the Abraham Accords were signed that “Start-Up Nation” began to get a fresh face. While Israel has been exporting its innovations around the world for years, this was different. Here were Arab nations, after decades of hostility to the Jewish state, transcending that enmity for the sake of common interests and a shared humanity.
You would think such a game-changing country would become a big story. A people returning home after 1900 years of exile, searching for refuge in the wake of the Holocaust, creating one of the hottest innovation hubs in the world and a source of solutions for some of humanity’s most pressing problems.
And yet, the world still yawns.
How is that possible? Why haven’t Israel’s stunning achievements become a bigger story? For one thing, because good news and Israel don’t mix well. Among the left, little must interfere with Israel’s failure to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians. Among the “tough love” crowd of Israel supporters, good news about the Jewish state tends to be downplayed as “hasbara”— just another tool to build good PR.
Among media outlets that are routinely biased against Israel, a transcendent story of a plucky and resourceful Jewish state helping humanity disrupts the familiar narrative of an all-powerful and guilty Israel.
At the United Nations, where Israel is condemned more than any other country, it would be unthinkable to celebrate it as one of the world’s most indispensable nations. Talk about cognitive dissonance.
If you’re someone who’s used to putting down Israel, extraordinary news about Israel can really mess with your head.
In short, if you’re someone who’s used to putting down Israel, extraordinary news about Israel can really mess with your head.
I wonder if Israeli innovators worry about any of this stuff. I’m guessing they’re not spending too much time agonizing over BDS or the biased coverage of Israel or how Israel is treated at the UN. In their labs and tech centers, they’re agonizing instead over finding cures for chronic diseases or creating green technologies that will heal the planet.
I’m guessing they’re so busy solving problems that make the world a better place they’re probably oblivious to the fact that much of the world hasn’t noticed.
That indifference to hasbara and media accolades in favor of real achievement is also part of the story.
