Soccer Dad

Israel's oil

Finally, a Thomas Friedman column about Israel that isn't cynical, Israel discovers oil It involves a conversation with Israeli venture capitalist, Yossi Vardi. (Yes it's Time Select, check out the Newspaper databases at your local library system for the full article.)

Which gets to the point of this column: If you want to know why Israel's stock market and car sales are at record highs -- while Israel's government is paralyzed by scandals and war with Hamas and doesn't even have a finance minister -- it's because of this ecosystem of young innovators and venture capitalists. Last year, VCs poured about $1.4 billion into Israeli start-ups, which puts Israel in a league with India and China.

. . .

Those countries and companies that empower their individuals to imagine and act quickly on their imagination are going to thrive. So while there are reasons to be pessimistic about Israel these days, there is one huge reason for optimism: this country has a culture that nurtures and rewards individual imagination -- one with no respect for limits or hierarchies, or fear of failure. It's a perfect fit with this era of globalization.

And since this is Thomas Friedman here's a pithy line from the column (that in this case is funny and not condescending):

"Today, every Israeli Jewish mother wants her son to be a dropout and go create a start-up," said Mr. Vardi, who is currently invested in 38 different ones.

For more on the topic you might be interested in Israel's Silicon Wadi (.pdf)

Silicon Wadi.