Start-up Nation
Encyclopedia
Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle is a 2009 book by Dan Senor
and Saul Singer
about the economy of Israel
. It examines how Israel
, a 60-year old nation with a population of 7.1 million, was able to reach such economic growth
that "at the start of 2009, some 63 Israeli companies were listed on the NASDAQ
, more than those of any other foreign country."
In 2010, Start-up Nation was ranked fifth on the business best-seller list of the The New York Times
. It also reached the The Wall Street Journal
bestseller list.
states in its publisher's blurb for the book that Start-up Nation addresses the question: "How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million people, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources—produces more start-up companies
than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan
, China
, India
, Korea
, Canada
, and the United Kingdom
?" The Economist
notes that Israel now has more high-tech start-ups and a larger venture capital industry
per capita
than any other country in the world. The success of Israel's high-tech sector over the past two decades has attracted recent attention from business journalists and The Economist describes Start-up Nation as the most notable of a "growing pile" of books on the subject.
In their attempt to explain Israel's success in this area, Senor and Singer discard "the argument from ethnic or religious exceptionalism, dismissing "unitary Jewishness" or even individual talent as major reasons for Israel's high-tech success" and analyze two major factors that, in the authors' opinion, contribute most to Israel's economic growth. Those factors are mandatory military service
and immigration
.
The authors argue that a major factor for Israel's economic growth can be found in the culture of the Israel Defense Forces
, in which service is mandatory for most young Israelis. The authors believe that IDF service provides potential entrepreneurs with the opportunities to develop a wide array of skills and contacts. They also believe that IDF service provides experience exerting responsibility in a relatively unhierarchical environment where creativity and intelligence are highly valued. IDF soldiers "have minimal guidance from the top, and are expected to improvise, even if this means breaking some rules. If you're a junior officer, you call your higher-ups by their first names, and if you see them doing something wrong, you say so." Neither rank
s nor ages matter much "when taxi drivers can command millionaires and 23-year-olds can train their uncles," and "Israeli forces regularly vote to oust their unit leaders."
The book also dwells at length on immigration and its role in Israel's economics's growth: "Immigrants are not averse to start from scratch. They are by definition risk-takers. A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs. From survivors of the Holocaust to Soviet refuseniks through the Ethiopian Jews
, the State of Israel never ceased to be a land of immigration: 9 out of 10 Jewish Israelis today are immigrants or descendants of immigrants the first or second generation. This specific demographic, causing fragmentation of community that still continues in the country, is nevertheless a great incentive to try their luck, to take risks because immigrants have nothing to lose."
Additional factors cited by the authors cite include a sense of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, a culture where individuals frequently tinker with technology, and government policies friendly to start-ups.
Using stories and anecdotes, the book provides examples of Israel's technological and medical achievements, among them "the Israeli innovations that made possible Google Suggest, the list of suggestions that appear instantly in menu form as you type a search request, the Capsule endoscopy
, a miniature camera embedded in a pill so that 18 photos per second can be wireless
ly and painlessly transmitted from gastrointestinal tracts."
While the book describes Israel's many successes in technological innovation, it also attempts to address, in the words of one reviewer, why Israel still lacks its own "Nokia
, Samsung
, or IBM
." According to the book's authors, this is partly because Israeli startups tend to be bought up by large foreign companies and partly because Israeli business has thus far failed to develop the kind of mature management culture needed to run such companies.
Senor and Singer interviewed over 100 people to write the book, among them leading Israeli venture investors including key players in Google
, Intel and Cisco
, historians, U.S. military leaders, and Israeli heads of state. Their conclusion is that "while Israel has much to learn from the world, the world has much to learn from Israel."
in Iraq and now advises venture capital firms. Saul Singer is a columnist and former editorial page editor for The Jerusalem Post
.
believes that the book is written from an Israeli perspective and may irk those with reservations about Israeli foreign policy, but it is still an accomplishment, "not simply for exposing the roots of Israel's success, but by showing what the Israeli case might teach the rest of the world." In The Wall Street Journal
, James K. Glassman
says that "The greatest strength of Start-up Nation is not analysis but anecdote. The authors tell vivid stories of entrepreneurial success, such as that of Shai Agassi
, the son of an Iraqi immigrant to Israel, with his electric-automobile technology, now in the process of creating 'Car 2.0.'"
Publishers Weekly
states that "The authors ground their analysis in case studies and interviews with some of Israel's most brilliant innovators to make this a rich and insightful read not just for business leaders and policy makers but for anyone curious about contemporary Israeli culture."
In The Economic Times
, R Gopalakrishnan
writes that the use of Hebrew expressions makes the book "alive and eminently-readable." Besides chutzpah, the authors use the word bitzua, which roughly means "getting things done." Another Hebrew expression used in the book is "Rosh gadol," which could be translated "can-do and responsible attitude with scant respect for the limitations of formal authority." Gopalakrishnan concludes that the ideas demonstrated in the book "are highly relevant for innovation capability in general, but for India, especially at this juncture."
David Horovitz
of The Jerusalem Post
says that conclusions of Start-up Nation find confirmation in the real world, such as how the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
was saved when an emergency medical team applied a revolutionary elasticized bandage developed in Israel to staunch her head wounds.
A review in The Washington Post
says that "The book weaves together colorful stories of Israeli technological triumphs" such as the story of Shvat Shaked, who "founded a cybersecurity firm with his old buddy from Army intelligence and had the chutzpah to bet a top executive at PayPal
, the online commerce company owned by eBay
, that his few dozen engineers could beat PayPal's thousands in developing secure online software." The review also states that the authors could have done a better job drawing "straight lines between their theories about Israel's success and these case studies"
Maureen Farrell of Forbes
was disappointed that the authors mostly ignored the effects of U.S. foreign aid, but says the book "is worth reading to understand not just Israel's history but the history of capitalism and innovation."
, feels that it is "tarnished by a jarring, tub-thumping patriotism." Jim Miles, in The Palestine Chronicle, disputes many of the book's premises and concludes that "There is no economic miracle in Israel." A review in The Christian Science Monitor
notes that "critics say that the story behind how a country of 7 million has more Nasdaq-listed companies than Europe is more complex than Singer and Senor paint it to be."
Economist Yusuf Mansour, writing in the Jordan Times
, argues that two of the factors to which Senor and Singer attribute Israel's success, the IDF and Soviet-Jewish immigration, have only been sustainable because of the foreign aid that Israel receives from the United States and private sources. Mansour also faults the authors for suggesting that the disparity between entrepreneurship in Israel's Arab and Jewish sectors is rooted in the exemption of Arabs from military service rather than what Mansour perceives to be "the discriminatory policies of Israel against its Arab citizens," particular in education and the labor market.
Gal Beckerman, writing in The Forward
magazine, observes that the book "presents Israel in an extremely positive light as a bastion of entrepreneurial spirit and technological achievement. It skirts a discussion of the conflict with the Palestinians, or even the wealth inequality within Israel, thereby dovetailing nicely with recent public relations efforts by Israel to shift attention away from its problems and toward its achievements."
calls on Ireland to follow Israel’s model. Andrius Kubilius
, the prime minister of Lithuania, has cited Start-up Nation as his favorite book. Solon Partners an executive consulting and angel investor company in Estonia, says "there is much to be learned from the Israeli experience of venture capital incubation through building incentives for privatization." CNN’s Fareed Zakaria
called Start-up Nation "a book every single Arab businessman, Arab bureaucrat, and Arab politician should read." The book is cited as a handbook of "classic economics." It teaches small businesses "how effective a cohesive team can be, especially when that team places an emphasis on chutzpah
first."
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
reportedly keeps a copy of Start-up Nation on his desk as a source of inspiration for the West Bank's own burgeoning technology industry.
Dan Senor
Daniel Samuel Senor, known as Dan Senor , is a founding partner of Rosemont Capital LLC, and Rosemont Solebury Capital Management. He is also a Fox News contributor and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal among other publications...
and Saul Singer
Saul Singer
Saul Singer is an American-Israeli journalist and author. Formerly editorial page editor at The Jerusalem Post, Singer co-wrote with Dan Senor Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, a best-seller which investigates Israel's innovative prowess.-Career:Singer is a columnist and...
about the economy of Israel
Economy of Israel
The economy of Israel is a technologically advanced market economy, including a rapidly-developing high-tech and service sectors. As of 2010, Israel has the 24th largest economy in the world, and ranks 15th among 169 world nations on the UN's Human Development Index, which places it in the category...
. It examines how Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, a 60-year old nation with a population of 7.1 million, was able to reach such economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
that "at the start of 2009, some 63 Israeli companies were listed on the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
, more than those of any other foreign country."
In 2010, Start-up Nation was ranked fifth on the business best-seller list of the The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. It also reached the The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
bestseller list.
Book overview
The Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
states in its publisher's blurb for the book that Start-up Nation addresses the question: "How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million people, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources—produces more start-up companies
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
?" The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
notes that Israel now has more high-tech start-ups and a larger venture capital industry
Venture capital in Israel
Venture capital in Israel has rapidly developed from the early 1990s, and has about 70 active venture capital funds, of which 14 international VCs with Israeli offices, and additional 220 international funds who actively invest in Israel...
per capita
Per capita
Per capita is a Latin prepositional phrase: per and capita . The phrase thus means "by heads" or "for each head", i.e. per individual or per person...
than any other country in the world. The success of Israel's high-tech sector over the past two decades has attracted recent attention from business journalists and The Economist describes Start-up Nation as the most notable of a "growing pile" of books on the subject.
In their attempt to explain Israel's success in this area, Senor and Singer discard "the argument from ethnic or religious exceptionalism, dismissing "unitary Jewishness" or even individual talent as major reasons for Israel's high-tech success" and analyze two major factors that, in the authors' opinion, contribute most to Israel's economic growth. Those factors are mandatory military service
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
.
The authors argue that a major factor for Israel's economic growth can be found in the culture of the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
, in which service is mandatory for most young Israelis. The authors believe that IDF service provides potential entrepreneurs with the opportunities to develop a wide array of skills and contacts. They also believe that IDF service provides experience exerting responsibility in a relatively unhierarchical environment where creativity and intelligence are highly valued. IDF soldiers "have minimal guidance from the top, and are expected to improvise, even if this means breaking some rules. If you're a junior officer, you call your higher-ups by their first names, and if you see them doing something wrong, you say so." Neither rank
Military rank
Military rank is a system of hierarchical relationships in armed forces or civil institutions organized along military lines. Usually, uniforms denote the bearer's rank by particular insignia affixed to the uniforms...
s nor ages matter much "when taxi drivers can command millionaires and 23-year-olds can train their uncles," and "Israeli forces regularly vote to oust their unit leaders."
The book also dwells at length on immigration and its role in Israel's economics's growth: "Immigrants are not averse to start from scratch. They are by definition risk-takers. A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs. From survivors of the Holocaust to Soviet refuseniks through the Ethiopian Jews
Beta Israel
Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...
, the State of Israel never ceased to be a land of immigration: 9 out of 10 Jewish Israelis today are immigrants or descendants of immigrants the first or second generation. This specific demographic, causing fragmentation of community that still continues in the country, is nevertheless a great incentive to try their luck, to take risks because immigrants have nothing to lose."
Additional factors cited by the authors cite include a sense of dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, a culture where individuals frequently tinker with technology, and government policies friendly to start-ups.
Using stories and anecdotes, the book provides examples of Israel's technological and medical achievements, among them "the Israeli innovations that made possible Google Suggest, the list of suggestions that appear instantly in menu form as you type a search request, the Capsule endoscopy
Capsule endoscopy
Capsule endoscopy is a way to record images of the digestive tract for use in medicine. The capsule is the size and shape of a pill and contains a tiny camera. After a patient swallows the capsule, it takes pictures of the inside of the gastrointestinal tract...
, a miniature camera embedded in a pill so that 18 photos per second can be wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
ly and painlessly transmitted from gastrointestinal tracts."
While the book describes Israel's many successes in technological innovation, it also attempts to address, in the words of one reviewer, why Israel still lacks its own "Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
, or IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
." According to the book's authors, this is partly because Israeli startups tend to be bought up by large foreign companies and partly because Israeli business has thus far failed to develop the kind of mature management culture needed to run such companies.
Senor and Singer interviewed over 100 people to write the book, among them leading Israeli venture investors including key players in Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Intel and Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
, historians, U.S. military leaders, and Israeli heads of state. Their conclusion is that "while Israel has much to learn from the world, the world has much to learn from Israel."
Authors
Dan Senor is a former foreign policy official in the United States government. He served as chief spokesmen for the Coalition Provisional AuthorityCoalition Provisional Authority
The Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, members of the Multi-National Force – Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...
in Iraq and now advises venture capital firms. Saul Singer is a columnist and former editorial page editor for The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
.
Praise
Jon Rosen from USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
believes that the book is written from an Israeli perspective and may irk those with reservations about Israeli foreign policy, but it is still an accomplishment, "not simply for exposing the roots of Israel's success, but by showing what the Israeli case might teach the rest of the world." In The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, James K. Glassman
James K. Glassman
James K. Glassman is an American conservative editorialist, journalist, diplomat and author. He is currently the host of the television program Ideas in Action, which airs on PBS member stations across the country. On December 11, 2007 Glassman was nominated by President George W...
says that "The greatest strength of Start-up Nation is not analysis but anecdote. The authors tell vivid stories of entrepreneurial success, such as that of Shai Agassi
Shai Agassi
Shai Agassi is an Israeli entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Better Place, which has developed a model and infrastructure for employing electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel technology. Agassi was President of the Products and Technology Group at SAP AG...
, the son of an Iraqi immigrant to Israel, with his electric-automobile technology, now in the process of creating 'Car 2.0.'"
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
states that "The authors ground their analysis in case studies and interviews with some of Israel's most brilliant innovators to make this a rich and insightful read not just for business leaders and policy makers but for anyone curious about contemporary Israeli culture."
In The Economic Times
The Economic Times
The Economic Times is an English-language Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. The Economic Times was started in 1961. It is the most popular and widely read financial daily in India, read by more than 8 lakh people...
, R Gopalakrishnan
R Gopalakrishnan
R Gopalakrishnan is an Executive Director with one of the largest Indian business groups - Tata Sons, a holding company to one of the largest Indian business groups The Tata Group.He was educated from the prestigious St. Xavier's College, Calcutta...
writes that the use of Hebrew expressions makes the book "alive and eminently-readable." Besides chutzpah, the authors use the word bitzua, which roughly means "getting things done." Another Hebrew expression used in the book is "Rosh gadol," which could be translated "can-do and responsible attitude with scant respect for the limitations of formal authority." Gopalakrishnan concludes that the ideas demonstrated in the book "are highly relevant for innovation capability in general, but for India, especially at this juncture."
David Horovitz
David Horovitz
David Horovitz is an Israeli journalist, author and speaker, formerly the Editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.-Biography:...
of The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
says that conclusions of Start-up Nation find confirmation in the real world, such as how the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords is an American politician. A Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, she has represented since 2007. She is the third woman in Arizona's history to be elected to the U.S. Congress...
was saved when an emergency medical team applied a revolutionary elasticized bandage developed in Israel to staunch her head wounds.
A review in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
says that "The book weaves together colorful stories of Israeli technological triumphs" such as the story of Shvat Shaked, who "founded a cybersecurity firm with his old buddy from Army intelligence and had the chutzpah to bet a top executive at PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
, the online commerce company owned by eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, that his few dozen engineers could beat PayPal's thousands in developing secure online software." The review also states that the authors could have done a better job drawing "straight lines between their theories about Israel's success and these case studies"
Maureen Farrell of Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
was disappointed that the authors mostly ignored the effects of U.S. foreign aid, but says the book "is worth reading to understand not just Israel's history but the history of capitalism and innovation."
Criticism
Ruth Schuster, reviewing the book for HaaretzHaaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, feels that it is "tarnished by a jarring, tub-thumping patriotism." Jim Miles, in The Palestine Chronicle, disputes many of the book's premises and concludes that "There is no economic miracle in Israel." A review in The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
notes that "critics say that the story behind how a country of 7 million has more Nasdaq-listed companies than Europe is more complex than Singer and Senor paint it to be."
Economist Yusuf Mansour, writing in the Jordan Times
Jordan Times
The Jordan Times is an English daily newspaper in Amman, Jordan. The newspaper was established in 1975 and is owned by the Jordan Press Foundation, which also runs the Arabic-language daily Al-Rai, the Kingdom's best selling daily....
, argues that two of the factors to which Senor and Singer attribute Israel's success, the IDF and Soviet-Jewish immigration, have only been sustainable because of the foreign aid that Israel receives from the United States and private sources. Mansour also faults the authors for suggesting that the disparity between entrepreneurship in Israel's Arab and Jewish sectors is rooted in the exemption of Arabs from military service rather than what Mansour perceives to be "the discriminatory policies of Israel against its Arab citizens," particular in education and the labor market.
Gal Beckerman, writing in The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
magazine, observes that the book "presents Israel in an extremely positive light as a bastion of entrepreneurial spirit and technological achievement. It skirts a discussion of the conflict with the Palestinians, or even the wealth inequality within Israel, thereby dovetailing nicely with recent public relations efforts by Israel to shift attention away from its problems and toward its achievements."
Impact
Journalists and policymakers in several countries have recommended Start-up Nation as a useful guide for promoting entrepreneurship. A review of the book in The Irish TimesThe Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
calls on Ireland to follow Israel’s model. Andrius Kubilius
Andrius Kubilius
Andrius Kubilius is a Lithuanian politician who has been Prime Minister of Lithuania since 2008. He previously served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000. He is the leader of the conservative political party Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats.- Biography :Kubilius was born at Vilnius...
, the prime minister of Lithuania, has cited Start-up Nation as his favorite book. Solon Partners an executive consulting and angel investor company in Estonia, says "there is much to be learned from the Israeli experience of venture capital incubation through building incentives for privatization." CNN’s Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. From 2000 to 2010, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International. In 2010 he became Editor-At-Large of Time magazine...
called Start-up Nation "a book every single Arab businessman, Arab bureaucrat, and Arab politician should read." The book is cited as a handbook of "classic economics." It teaches small businesses "how effective a cohesive team can be, especially when that team places an emphasis on chutzpah
Chutzpah
Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad, but it is generally used negatively. The Yiddish word derives from the Hebrew word , meaning "insolence", "audacity". The modern English usage of the word has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in...
first."
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
Salam Fayyad
Salam Fayyad is a Palestinian politician and Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority of the Palestinian National Authority. His first appointment, on 15 June 2007, which was justified by President Mahmoud Abbas on the basis of "national emergency", has not been confirmed by the...
reportedly keeps a copy of Start-up Nation on his desk as a source of inspiration for the West Bank's own burgeoning technology industry.
See also
- Economy of IsraelEconomy of IsraelThe economy of Israel is a technologically advanced market economy, including a rapidly-developing high-tech and service sectors. As of 2010, Israel has the 24th largest economy in the world, and ranks 15th among 169 world nations on the UN's Human Development Index, which places it in the category...
- Israeli inventions and discoveriesIsraeli inventions and discoveriesIsraeli inventions and discoveries have received worldwide attention since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Several of the discoveries included in this list were made by Israelis while staying at overseas research institutes.- Chemistry :...
- Science and technology in IsraelScience and technology in IsraelScience and technology in Israel is one of the country's most developed sectors. The percentage of Israelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry, and the amount spent on research and development in relation to gross domestic product , is amongst the highest in the world...
- Silicon WadiSilicon WadiSilicon Wadi is an area with a high concentration of high-tech industries in the coastal plain in Israel, similar to Silicon Valley in California, in the United States. Silicon Wadi is considered second in importance only to its Californian counterpart...
- List of Israeli companies quoted on the Nasdaq
- Venture capital in IsraelVenture capital in IsraelVenture capital in Israel has rapidly developed from the early 1990s, and has about 70 active venture capital funds, of which 14 international VCs with Israeli offices, and additional 220 international funds who actively invest in Israel...