Inside Israel Today: Standing up for Start-Up Nation

you're listening to inside Israel today with your Hoffman on the land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today here on the Land of Israel Network on the land of israel DICOM on a hot and slimy day here in humid jerusalem I just arrived last night from Australia via Hong Kong there seems to be a whole pattern of land of Israel hosts being invited to Australia each I Fleischer was received very well among the Aussies and I encourage you to listen to his show all about that this show will not be about that for the most part because on my flight from Hong Kong that's how you get to Australia one of the best ways anyway was my good old friend Saul singer the former op-ed writer editorial writer for The Jerusalem Post and then he made it big as a lot of Jerusalem Post people do writing a book called startup nation that I recommend for all of you so in our second half of the show we will be hearing about how Israel continues to be the startup nation but before that look it's been a couple weeks since I missed my show last week being on the way to Hong Kong and then Australia so I can tell you I went from Monday I was the analyst of CNN as they were opening that embassy finally in Jerusalem it was very special for me to be a part of that ceremony even though I wasn't technically at it I was at another place in Jerusalem overlooking the old city and speaking of on and off for more than an hour with Becky Anderson of CNN about the significance of the ceremony going on and it really was a beautiful ceremony I loved the speech of Jared Kushner that was a really hopeful and inspiring I encourage you to find that on YouTube if you didn't get a chance to see it I thought it was great to have pastors and rabbis speaking together at that same ceremony I've never met pastor Hagee if anyone can get me uh ties with him I would love him to come here and inside Israel today but I have met rabbi Wallach the rabbi of Habad of the five towns in Long Island and he's a really really special man and then it's now spoke well and Trump spoke well and I want to for the umpteenth time used the show to apologize for doubting Donald Trump for not thinking that he would keep that promise to move the embassy and and he did and as Carolyn Glick wrote two years ago now and I'll never forget she wrote there's no act and can make the world safer then America moving its embassy and the reason why is because the world sees Israel as America's top Ally and when they see America treat its ally well they say to themselves we have an interest in being America's ally and when countries are America's Ally that makes the world safer that was the opposite of what was happening during the eight years of the Obama administration and now it is happening and countries around the world realized that they have to be friends with Israel that the path to Washington goes through Jerusalem and so there they have an interest their country their people in having close ties to the Jewish state and so when we look back everyone is going to remember that special ceremony and you know what we look back the other events of the day aren't going to end up mattering in retrospect the Hamas cynically tried to get attention by moving up by a day they're riding against Israel they're disgusting attempt to infiltrate with thousands of people into Israel kidnapped soldiers and threatened civilians and it's a very very big relief that it was stopped at the IDF in that very very difficult situation prevented there from being so much more loss of life certainly a lot more civilian life imagine if he would have had 10 terrorists make their way successfully across the border and get into some vehicle that would bring them to a community where they would start opening fire god forbid now you could have easily easily had hundreds of people be killed this week Jews and Arabs and I think the world has to be really appreciative of the IDF doing all it could to prevent the loss of civilian life whether it was putting leaflets down from the air telling people not to go there you know it was interesting Carolyn Glick wrote in her column on Friday that they should have scattered human animal feces near the border so that no one would go there and you know what they didn't do that but they did spray a terrible smell and they did put gas there also to make it difficult to smell and to see when they were there so they actually did what they could to prevent crowds from getting there and maybe if they didn't do those things it would have been worse it's a tragedy for the people of Gaza you know we need to show empathy with them they deserve better Israel has done so much to help them Israel initially let the a lot of people from Gaza work in Israel and then they built an industrial zone in in the era's crossing so people could work there from Gaza and the Hamas and others burned that down and they kept on rebuilding and burning and Israel built an airport for them in de Hanyu in Gaza that that got destroyed look Israel kept on helping them and helping them in helping and I was there in Gaza when Israel withdrew every single Jew so they could run themselves there on their own without the IDF being in their way and did they then use that opportunity to build up Gaza into the French Riviera no unfortunately did not it took the green houses that Israel left for them to employ them and they destroyed them and then they took their leadership mahmoud abbas was their leader rightfully by law and sort of still is even though they haven't had an election and they overthrew him i don't like the word coup i like their word overthrow because it describes better what they did they threw bosses people off the top of buildings to take over and the hamas has been in charge for a long time over there and they have not been taking the massive amount of international aid that has flown into gaza to build up gaza to build homes everything and schools and hospitals and playgrounds know they've been building terror tunnels and investing in terror to try to destroy our schools and hospitals and homes and playgrounds it's so sad the amount of cement that israel has facilitated bringing into gaza could have built towers all over gaza and nothing is being built above ground there few daily building tunnels that will soon be meaningless as the underground barrier that Israel has built nears completion and so the people of Gaza deserve so much better than what they have right now um but one small credit to Hamas is at least they're not firing rockets they have not fired rockets since the last operation of Israel and two guys all the rockets that have been fired have been fired by rebel groups in order to hurt Hamas now in this weekend's Jerusalem Post my former executive editor Sol had an interesting suggestion he called upon CC from Egypt to really invest in Gaza in a serious kind of way and people around the world to help those investments build resorts in the Sinai in the area that touches the Mediterranean Sea that could employ the people of Gaza over there build farms and factories around those resorts and it will give further employment and build a port that will be on both sides of the border between Egypt and to Gaza sounds like a great idea and I hope the world read that column and we'll talk to CC about how to implement such a great idea now I mean that certainly would help the people of Gaza a lot more than than sending children to go near a fence and try to infiltrate Israel that's certainly not going to help their lives in any way another person I I am really relieved for who it could have been so much worse with is Metta [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Israel I was so relieved for Netta Netta bars eli the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest the proud Israeli that what happened in Gaza did not happen the day before the Eurovision Song Contest because had that happened I don't think she would have received the outpouring of support that she received from countries around the world including countries not known for being the most pro-israel people in the world after all she received the maximum number of points from France and so it could have been worse and I'm so happy for Netta that she won it not a big fan of the song in particular but she is a down-to-earth really good person who deserves the best and Netta reminds me of another person who I think is the ultimate contrast with her Natalie Portman's real name having been born in Jerusalem was are we allowed to say we're not allowed to say the words natalie portman here in the Land of Israel Network it won't if I'm being critical is that ok so Natalie Portman's real given name here in Jerusalem was Netta Lee her Schleck and so her decision to not come here not even to take advantage of Israeli democracy and speak her mind if she has a problem with the policies of Netanyahu or with Netanyahu personally it really was such a downer for the people of Israel especially those who admired her and respected her and appreciated her past efforts of Israel advocacy and there was no bigger pick-me-up after being harmed so much by one Metta then the victory of the other Netta and so look when it comes to looks obviously Natalie Portman has an advantage over Netta Barzilai but when it comes everything else when it comes to character when it comes to pride when it comes to just being a nice person I will pick Netta Barzilai over Netta Lee Hirsch like Portland Portman at any day what I'd like to end this half of the show with is just by thanking the people of Australia for receiving me so warmly both in Sydney where I spoke at an extremely successful Habad dinner for the Habad of the North Shore and Rabbi knuckled Shapiro and in Melbourne where I had the honor and pleasure of speaking at a place called Dominion da mi nya and Dominion a crowd of hundreds and hundreds of mostly young people on Shavuot night also spoke at the Habad of Glen Eira also spoke and Herrera Castellano with a lot of Israeli people there in the crowd also spoke to nice high school girls also spoke at shul also spoke at some wonderful meals where I was hosted by some great people I saw no kangaroo I saw no koala some pretty weird-looking birds like Magpies but that's about it no other animal but I saw some wonderful wonderful Jews who care a tremendous about amount about the Jewish state who are so far away and yet you could tell that us that Israel is so close to their hearts so and they love to eat - and I encourage more hopes here at the Land of Israel Network to make that Trek to beautiful Australia after the break we'll be speaking here to Saul singer author of startup nation here on the land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm don't touch that dial a weak tribe of juda calls zeb Jabotinsky nature beckons with the spring Passover beckons the day of Exodus liberation from our chains I'm definitely looking for a little bit of liberation and frankly even a healthy dose of redemption I'm Roth Mike Feuer and this is the Jewish story join Roth Mike foyer for the best Jewish history podcast the Jewish story on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel we're back here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm where I'm so excited to have on our show today Saul singer the author of the acclaimed book startup nation which has been translated into more than 30 languages around the world Saul is a former writer of editorials at The Jerusalem Post and then he moved up in the world probably works a little better hours now maybe makes a little more money and makes Israel look good all around the world telling people about the wonders of Israel and how and why it is leading the world in high-tech Saul thank you for being here on inside Israel today on the land of israel calm okay so you we saw each other there in the airport in hong kong when i was on the way back from australia and you were on the way back from a city in china whose name I don't remember please enlighten the people what city was it and why were you there it was Chengdu a small city in China probably bigger than Israel that lots of cities like then China you got heard of that are bigger than Israel I was there to speak at a conference actually a conference about a start-up competition with Israeli and Chinese startups that's really cool did we win I don't remember whether the winner was an Israeli startup or Chinese star think it was an Israeli startup actually that's really great so why do they care so much in China about learning from Israel about how to be a startup nation and why is your book so successful there in China that you keep on you mentioned you've been invited to China five times ten times this was my tenth lamp what's happened with China and in many other countries is that around the world as the the world changes faster and faster the change and accelerating in the world countries are sort of panicking and saying well we need to be more innovative to stay on top of this and they say to themselves okay you know we would like to be like Silicon Valley that's what we want and they look at the United States and they see well we're not the u.s. we can't do that so then they hear about Israel this tiny place with no resources in a bad neighborhood and they see well Israel did it they think ok well maybe we can do it and they want to find out how Israel did it and there's a lot of operation in in in many countries and it seems to be particularly strong in China where they are particularly motivated to become innovative because they believe that that's really what's separating them from being the leading country in the world they see they are the largest country by far and population they are about the same GDP as the United States and probably going to passed in the United States but they they feel that they are not leading the world the way the United States is and a big reason for that is innovation so they really want to become more innovative so you after your book was so successful you started something called startup nation central please tell us what that is so startup nation central is a nonprofit organization that tries to connect is particularly the high-tech sector with the rest of the world and basically tries to serve the tremendous interest in in Israel of delegations coming all the time from different governments and companies and business leaders and so on coming to Israel to see startup nation to see what's going on here and try to figure it out and so startup nation central was kind of created to just help tell that story an imp addicted in particular they built a a great database that has all 6,000 Israeli startups hundreds of corporate development centers venture funds accelerators the whole system is there on the database you can it's called the finder and you can look by technology or company or whatever you're looking for and find it there and where can you find that online or do you have to pay for that so it's free it's just go to startup nation Central dot o-r-g it's kind of a long address but startup nation central dot o-r-g and you're just look for a startup nation finder on Google so give us an example of the current Israeli startup that that can inspire people around the world so gosh I mean there's so many I keep running into lots of interesting ones and I'm particularly interested in the medical or health place and and when I'm I think could really make a huge difference is a company called beyond verbal which was at first studying how to detect emotion from voice you know instead of trying to understand the words and avoid trying to understand the emotion and they they built that and and they're excited about that but then they realized that they could actually diagnose disease through voice including something like cardiac disease which is even bigger problem than dancer and it turns out you can diagnose cardiac disease cardiovascular disease just by analyzing a minute or so a voice so you know that's just there's another one I saw just in China get in the medical area that has come up with a wrist something like you wear like a watch and it can measure your blood pressure continuously what pressure is one of the hardest things to measure the most important things to measure because again one of the most deadly things is high blood pressure until now nobody's been able to figure out how do you measure that without putting a cuff on and going to the doctor or buying one and doing at home so this they've figured out how to do it optically from your risk and do it continuously it just goes it goes on and on that's really really cool I know that we're getting oxygen out of water and we're building and putting snow on the Alps and all kinds of exciting inspiring companies all around the world now the naysayers though saying that Israel isn't very good at building a bigger company that whenever startup start doing well they go in and sell themselves off to Google and to Facebook and because of that we haven't been able to build a mega company in Israel is that true and is not a problem there's something ironic that I find as I travel around the world and that is that everywhere I go people are blind to their own strengths they're very aware of what's difficult for them and they take for granted what they're good at so Israeli say you know why do we only do startups why can't we do big company and then everywhere else I go everyone says why can't we do startups and they just take for granted that they can be big companies so the fact that we keep complaining about only so-called doing startups shows that we don't really appreciate difficult and how important that is in the world economy you know however so many other countries are we're just dying to have as many startups as as we do and here we are complaining why can't we do big companies but yes it's true that we're not very good at building big companies though we're getting you know the companies we're building are getting bigger yeah is there a company that that could crack that threshold people talk about Wix maybe I don't know well see this is the other thing is that this is not just an Israeli issue it's basically even in Silicon Valley it's almost impossible for a new company to get into the category of Google Facebook Apple because those enormous companies will buy you you know Facebook paid 19 billion dollars for what's up so who can turn down that kind of money at some point there's no price that thing they won't pay if they want or they they want to block you or whatever they'll do whatever it takes so in a way Silicon Valley companies are now in the same boat they are building companies to sell to these larger larger companies they've become Israel if I'd I guess you could say but I don't see anything wrong with that I think there are two stages or two kinds of business these days there's startups and there's big companies and startups are great at innovation and they're not very good at scaling at growing big companies are great at scaling and growing but they're not it's not so easy to them to innovate so what you have here in Israel and a big part of what we call the startup nation is this synergy between what corporates are good at and what startups together and that's why you have these hundreds of huge companies here they're not here for the Israeli market there is no Israeli market they're here to innovate that's the only reason they're here and the way they innovate is they partner with startups they buy them or they build their own Development Center often like iBM has bought more than 10 startups here those those 10 startups are the IBM of the center here in Israel all those people so that's how it works my last question is is there a hopeful message you can give our listeners around the world who include many lovers of Israel both Jews and Christians who want Israel to have an even better future so I really think it's important for people to understand and appreciate how innovative Israel is how strong this high-tech sector is how important it is to the world how it Byard it is around the world and how so many countries and people everywhere I go they they want to connect with Israel when it comes to innovation it's it's it's really quite amazing some of the same countries that are kind of hostile with Israel when it comes to the conflict I can't get enough of Israel when it comes to innovation so I think this is a very exciting and optimistic world where we're many many countries want to work with Israel and it's a positive story and it's uh it's Israel making a difference in the world so I think it's important for people to we're aware of this side of the story and not just the stuff you see in the headlines beautiful Saul thank you for coming here on inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel comm and I especially appreciate you coming on after a very long flight from Hong Kong after a flight from China my pleasure and listeners thank you for being with us on another exciting edition here of inside Israel today have a great day from here in Jerusalem by in an unprecedented revelation that shocked the world Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposed Iran's diabolical plan to build nuclear weapons and ultimately thrust the world into nuclear war how did Israel successfully penetrate the most protective and secretive bunker into Iran and extract thousands of files from under the Iranian regime and the one question nobody seems to be asking is why does Iran want to destroy Israel in the first place this week on Israel inspired Israel inspired with Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm sharing the truth and beauty