"START UP NATION" is as good a read as you've heard

The modern State of Israel has been at the core of Jewish existence, concern, even obsession, since its founding in 1948, and, as we all know, Jerusalem and much of the former Canaan have been in our thoughts and prayers since the beginnings of the Jewish people over three millennia ago. Whatever your feelings about Israel--from "it can do no wrong" to "its leaders are so often deeply flawed" to "its treatment of its Arab citizens should be so much better"--there is no question that the nation is a kind of obsession for the rest of the world as well, whether due to outright Jew-hatred to sweet philo-semitism, to utter fascination. We all know that.

So, when START-UP NATION was published recently, written by Dan Senor (a former member of my synagogue in Toronto!) and Israeli journalist Saul Singer, my heart sank: would it be just another gung-ho "Israel is Great" book? Or just one more business book, this one about how Bright These Israelis Be? Well, I was both relieved and charmed to read it from cover-to-cover in just a few hours, and I've been eagerly reading my favourite parts to my wife of four decades, Merle. It is extremely well-written, it is honestly historical as well as critical, and it is a very solid study of just why Israel has risen to the top of entrepreneurial creativity in today's world. To quote from its cover blurb, "How is it that Israel--a country of 7.1 million, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war, with no natural resources--produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful nations like Canada, Japan, China, India, and the U.K.?" A great question, and answered beautifully in its too-brief but often thrilling 240 pages.

When I lecture on Israel, or the impact that Judaism has had on civilizing the world, partly through mothering both Christianity and Islam (as I love to joke, "I've given up waiting for a thank-you"), I have never fully understood before now its citizens' astonishing impact on modern industry, especially--but not limited to--technology and computers. As the authors say at the end of their opening note: "if there is one story that has been largely missed despite the extensive media coverage of Israel, it is that key economic metrics demonstrate that Israel represents the greatest concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship in the world today." Wow. Who knew? Too often, we Jews love to brag that we are the people from which Einstein, Freud and Marx descended, when none of those three cared very much about their religious origins, and the latter actually hated all faiths, especially Judaism (and his writings on the Jews read like Hitler's private notes.)

So, we read and marvel at the Israeli billionaire Shai Agassi's determination to create the perfect electric car, and how he was prodded and assisted by the aging former PM of the Jewish State, Shimon Peres. We are stunned to read the brilliant Agassi's belief that "by isolating Israel, [its] adversaries had actually created the perfect laboratory to test ideas." We are charmed and awed to discover that "more Israeli companies are listed on the NASDAQ [junior, often hi-tech stock] exchange than all companies from the entire European continent." And--this fact had this business-writer gasping, "in 2008, per capita venture capital investments in Israel were 2.5 times greater than in the United States, more than 30 times greater than in Europe, 80 times greater than in China, and 350 times greater than in India."

What I also admire about authors Senor and Singer is that they avoid, and even mock, the petty and self-serving "Well, the Jews are so smart!" belief, which can be as racist and antisemitic as the "all blacks have rhythm" and "all Asians are great in math" prejudices. The greatest insight in this much-recommended book is their central theme: that the remarkable mix of Israel's sadly-necessary military--youth of both genders being forced to serve in their late teens, so they don't enter universities until they are far more mature and in their early or mid-20s, from every country, culture and colour in the world--"seems to foster entrepreneurship." The military! Where "chutzpah and assertion are the norm"! So, in the U.S., where managers and underlings most bow to, and often blindly obey, their Presidents and C.E.O.s of their companies, "it's more complicated to manage five Israelis than fifty Americans because [the Israelis]will challenge you all the time--starting with 'Why are you my manager; why am I not your manager?'" Who would have thought?

In other words, the authors show, the Israeli armed forces has few senior officers, and 23-year-olds (who in North America are still checking for pimples and rarely travel anywhere) are forced to come up with creative solutions and profound responsibilities--often in life-or-death situations in wartime or during acts of terrorism--and where no one leaps up or salutes their officers, makes for brilliant entrepreneurs (and why Intel and PayPal and countless other hi-tech companies from around the world have come to seek out "the typical Israeli entrepreneur."

There's more, of course. Immigrants are risk-takers by their very nature (to leave their native lands and languages to move to a dangerous, threatened nation!); over one million Russians who poured into Israel before and after the fall of the USSR "had to be the best" in their dreadful native land because of its inbred Jew-hatred; how Ben-Gurion essentially ordered Technion University to create an airplane industry; why the Arab economies lag, in spite of the great natural intelligence of that people. Yossi Vardi is quoted at the opening of a late chapter, "The two real fathers of Israeli hi-tech are the Arab boycott and Charles de Gaulle, because they forced on us the need to go and develop an industry." The mother of invention, indeed.

During the 1973 war, I recall a bitter joke which several Israeli friends shared with me: "they are trying to push us into the sea. Fine. So we'll learn how to live and breath underwater." This book is no joke, and its insights are far deeper than one may expect. It's not cheap--$32.99 in the McClelland & Stewart edition, but cheaper on the net--but it is a must read. And NOT because it is petty and self-aggrandizing; far from it. Because it clearly shows the world what outside pressure, unlimited immigration (recall the Ethiopian airlifts), and a universal draft (along with a lot of admittedly bright people) can produce. Great book!