Friday, April 20, 2012
The Lt. Col Eisner Affair: What Did We Learn?
By Sherwin Pomerantz
Earlier this week Israel and the world was treated to filmed footage of a senior Israeli army commander pushing the butt of his rifle into the face of a Danish protestor who was part of a cycling group of pro-Palestinian activists trying to enter an area deemed inappropriate by the Israel Defense Forces.
The video, of course, became instantaneously viral both inside and outside of Israel. There was an immediate denouncing of Lt. Col. Eisner by both President Peres and Prime Minister Netanyahu followed by his removal from his command position by the Army’s Chief of Staff, Major General Benny Gantz. Eisner was later chastised and told he would be demoted to 1st Lieutenant and prevented from having any command position for the next two years, at a minimum. Given the way armies operate everywhere in the world, the military career of this highly decorated officer is probably over.
Whether or not one agrees or disagrees with the actions taken by the authorities here in removing Eisner from his position, the fast action by the Chief of Staff certainly was a successful exercise of damage control on his part and limited the international fallout that generally occurs in these situations. But the real question remains: What have we learned from this event? Or have we learned nothing?
On December 8, 1987 Israel saw the beginning of the first organized, concentrated and fully orchestrated civil disobedience by the Palestinian population in Gaza as well as in Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank). This was 20 years and six months after the capture of these areas by Israel during the Six Day War of June 1967. One did not have to be a genius to predict that once Israel had a maturing generation of Palestinians raised under Israeli control of these areas, we would see an uprising.
At the time you had 18, 19 and 20 year olds who were raised in refugee camps and who had never known what life in these areas was like before June 1967. So while their parents and grandparents could, perhaps, internalize the fact that under Israeli control their overall lives were better than when the Jordanians, Egyptians and Syrians were in charge, the youth did not have the experience that would allow them to make such an evaluation. In the eyes of those young men and women, Israel was an occupier, and not a benevolent one at that. They surmised that the only way they could end the “occupation” was to engage in civil disobedience, which, more often than not, turned violent and led to the death of people on both sides of the issue.
And, of course, after this was the second intifada which began on September 28-29 2000 ostensibly after the visit of then Israeli Opposition Leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount, but which everyone knows was a plan by the Palestinian leadership just waiting for the right moment to be implemented. The Sharon visit was simply the match that lit the fire of combustibles that had been built up previously. And even after the violence began to die down, there were and continue to be regular terrorist attacks, albeit less now that we have built a separation between our peoples that simply makes it more difficult to attack.
But it was not only from the Palestinian side that we should have seen all of these situations simply waiting to happen. We should also have figured out that no people can rule indefinitely over another people in one land where each have historical claims to the land. Let’s not get into the argument now about whose claims have more legitimacy, about whether or not one side recognizes the claims of the other or the host of other arguments that are, in fact, real obstacles to peace (as opposed to the settlement enterprise which has been fabricated by the Palestinians and the world community as such an obstacle).
We should have figured out that if we continue to maintain the status quo for 45 years, as we have, and cannot find a practical solution as to how best to share this land, that it is simply not possible for our people to not be morally corrupted by the process that we call “protecting our security” while the other side terms it “occupation.” It has been obvious for years that eventually (and as time passes, more and more) members of Israeli society engaged in the security activities of the country will have their morality challenged and act in a manner that is both detrimental to themselves and to the country they represent….our country, Israel.
Lt. Col. Eisner is, most probably, a decent human being. I have never met him, have no way of judging, but generally in the Israel Defense Forces, people who rise to commander level have passed through enough tests, met sufficient challenges and impressed enough others both of higher and lower rank, that one can assume they are both moral and responsible. But the system places these people in a position where, from time to time, individuals will cross the mental equivalent of the physical blood/brain barrier and do something that is morally reprehensible. Our mistake is not acknowledging that this fact is a clear and present danger to the long term viability of our country and our society.
If nothing else, perhaps this will be a wake-up call to the entire country that the “elephant in the room” if left unchecked, has the potential to undermine the entire Zionist enterprise. Let’s hope for the sake of all of us that this does not happen.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
The Real Israel: Innovation Central
By Sherwin Pomerantz
A few weeks ago Cisco Systems agreed to buy NDS, a company which originated in Israel and still has a large R&D facility in Jerusalem, for $5b. That purchase then became the largest buyout of an Israel company since the 2006 purchase of 80% of Israel’s Iscar Ltd. by Warren Buffett for $4b. Could anyone have believed just 30 years ago that Israeli tech companies would rise to such lofty levels of market value? Not likely, but this is the Israel the headlines don’t cover.
Over the past two weeks we have had visits here by both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Both men were touted earlier this year as Republican challengers to US President Obama and both declined to pursue that opportunity for personal reasons. So even though they are not active participants in the Republican presidential nomination sweepstakes and, therefore, are not simply seeking to establish their Israel or Jewish credentials for their constituents, why did they come to Israel and why now? I should add, by the way, that neither of them came on “official” Israel government sponsored visits, both came on their own with parts of their families in tow.
The firm that I was privileged to found 20 years ago with three other partners, Atid EDI Ltd., and which I continue to serve as president, was involved in both visits. For Governor Christie we set up business appointments for some of the people traveling with him as well as ensured a representation of high level captains of industry at a reception he held in their honor just a week ago. For Governor Daniels, even though he is here during the Passover holiday when businesses are traditionally closed, we set up a business roundtable on Monday with half a dozen leaders of the high tech community in Israel, held at the Israel headquarters of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co.
Interestingly enough what both governors came to Israel to do was as much about learning the secret of Israel’s high tech success as it was about selling the benefits of their own states. As a matter of fact, during yesterday’s roundtable, while a former Indiana Secretary of Commerce was extolling the virtues of doing business in Indiana, the Governor interrupted the conversation in order to redirect it. In a word, he said that while he appreciated the willingness of the Israeli audience to hear about why it is good to do business in Indiana, he really wanted to know what Israel did to make itself the world’s most efficient center of innovation. And indeed what has made this so?
Israeli innovation traces its roots to 1918, 30 years before the founding of the state when Prof. Chaim Weizmann, who was later to become the country’s first president, participated in the inaugural ceremonies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. At the time he said:
It seems at first sight paradoxical that in a land with so sparse a population, in a land where everything still remains to be done, in a land crying out for such simple things as plows, roads, and harbors, we should begin by creating a center of spiritual and intellectual development.
92 years later Israel’s creative energy was nicely summed up by Warren Buffett when he stated: "If you go to the Middle East looking for oil, you don't need to stop in Israel. But if you go looking for brains, energy and integrity, it is the only stop." Truly an encomium nothing short of amazing.
But why shouldn’t these two governors have zeroed in on Israel’s technological success? America is going through a crisis the likes of which it has not seen in 80 years. Manufacturing has gone offshore and, with it, much of the innovation as well as innovators tend to want to be close to where their ideas will be put into practice. So if America wants to re-learn what it takes to become an innovation greenhouse Israel is the natural place to look.
In 2011 Newsweek’s Daily Beast ranked Israel as the 4th most innovative country in the world. Bloomberg Business Week hastened to add that “Israel has one of the most dynamic high-tech industries in the world and is a hub for venture capital as well.” The greatest testimony to its success however, is the results: more patents filed per capita than any country in the world and the second highest number of start-ups anywhere.
This of a country of just 7.6 million people, only 64 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, and with few natural resources – yet produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK. Israel has, per capita, attracted over twice as much venture capital investment as the US and thirty times more than Europe.
Gary Neill, the head of Johnson & Johnson’s Innovation Research Unit summed it up best on a recent visit to Israel when he said: “There’s an Israeli working on every insoluble problem.”
94 years after the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the remarks of then Prof. Chaim Weizmann established the vision of a country for which innovation would be its singular most important characteristic when he uttered those famous words “we should begin by creating a center of spiritual and intellectual development.” The resulting intellectual development has manifested itself into a dynamic, spirited and challenging innovative environment, orders of magnitude beyond what anyone could have possibly dreamt of in 1918.
Harvey Firestone, the founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co, once said: "Capital isn't so important in business. Experience isn't so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."
Israel is a perfect example of Firestone’s theory. Small in size, lacking in natural resources, with a population fewer than 8 million, the wellspring of ideas has given the country the ability to be by far one of the world’s largest sources of innovative technologies and start-up companies. It is, in a word, the innovation platform writ large. And that is the real Israel.
By Sherwin Pomerantz
A few weeks ago Cisco Systems agreed to buy NDS, a company which originated in Israel and still has a large R&D facility in Jerusalem, for $5b. That purchase then became the largest buyout of an Israel company since the 2006 purchase of 80% of Israel’s Iscar Ltd. by Warren Buffett for $4b. Could anyone have believed just 30 years ago that Israeli tech companies would rise to such lofty levels of market value? Not likely, but this is the Israel the headlines don’t cover.
Over the past two weeks we have had visits here by both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Both men were touted earlier this year as Republican challengers to US President Obama and both declined to pursue that opportunity for personal reasons. So even though they are not active participants in the Republican presidential nomination sweepstakes and, therefore, are not simply seeking to establish their Israel or Jewish credentials for their constituents, why did they come to Israel and why now? I should add, by the way, that neither of them came on “official” Israel government sponsored visits, both came on their own with parts of their families in tow.
The firm that I was privileged to found 20 years ago with three other partners, Atid EDI Ltd., and which I continue to serve as president, was involved in both visits. For Governor Christie we set up business appointments for some of the people traveling with him as well as ensured a representation of high level captains of industry at a reception he held in their honor just a week ago. For Governor Daniels, even though he is here during the Passover holiday when businesses are traditionally closed, we set up a business roundtable on Monday with half a dozen leaders of the high tech community in Israel, held at the Israel headquarters of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co.
Interestingly enough what both governors came to Israel to do was as much about learning the secret of Israel’s high tech success as it was about selling the benefits of their own states. As a matter of fact, during yesterday’s roundtable, while a former Indiana Secretary of Commerce was extolling the virtues of doing business in Indiana, the Governor interrupted the conversation in order to redirect it. In a word, he said that while he appreciated the willingness of the Israeli audience to hear about why it is good to do business in Indiana, he really wanted to know what Israel did to make itself the world’s most efficient center of innovation. And indeed what has made this so?
Israeli innovation traces its roots to 1918, 30 years before the founding of the state when Prof. Chaim Weizmann, who was later to become the country’s first president, participated in the inaugural ceremonies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. At the time he said:
It seems at first sight paradoxical that in a land with so sparse a population, in a land where everything still remains to be done, in a land crying out for such simple things as plows, roads, and harbors, we should begin by creating a center of spiritual and intellectual development.
92 years later Israel’s creative energy was nicely summed up by Warren Buffett when he stated: "If you go to the Middle East looking for oil, you don't need to stop in Israel. But if you go looking for brains, energy and integrity, it is the only stop." Truly an encomium nothing short of amazing.
But why shouldn’t these two governors have zeroed in on Israel’s technological success? America is going through a crisis the likes of which it has not seen in 80 years. Manufacturing has gone offshore and, with it, much of the innovation as well as innovators tend to want to be close to where their ideas will be put into practice. So if America wants to re-learn what it takes to become an innovation greenhouse Israel is the natural place to look.
In 2011 Newsweek’s Daily Beast ranked Israel as the 4th most innovative country in the world. Bloomberg Business Week hastened to add that “Israel has one of the most dynamic high-tech industries in the world and is a hub for venture capital as well.” The greatest testimony to its success however, is the results: more patents filed per capita than any country in the world and the second highest number of start-ups anywhere.
This of a country of just 7.6 million people, only 64 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, and with few natural resources – yet produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK. Israel has, per capita, attracted over twice as much venture capital investment as the US and thirty times more than Europe.
Gary Neill, the head of Johnson & Johnson’s Innovation Research Unit summed it up best on a recent visit to Israel when he said: “There’s an Israeli working on every insoluble problem.”
94 years after the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the remarks of then Prof. Chaim Weizmann established the vision of a country for which innovation would be its singular most important characteristic when he uttered those famous words “we should begin by creating a center of spiritual and intellectual development.” The resulting intellectual development has manifested itself into a dynamic, spirited and challenging innovative environment, orders of magnitude beyond what anyone could have possibly dreamt of in 1918.
Harvey Firestone, the founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co, once said: "Capital isn't so important in business. Experience isn't so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."
Israel is a perfect example of Firestone’s theory. Small in size, lacking in natural resources, with a population fewer than 8 million, the wellspring of ideas has given the country the ability to be by far one of the world’s largest sources of innovative technologies and start-up companies. It is, in a word, the innovation platform writ large. And that is the real Israel.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Hebron: Considering All of the Facts
By Sherwin Pomerantz
The news over the past week has been full of stories about the move by Israelis into a three story building in the center of Hebron, the Israeli government’s waffling on exactly what to do about this and finally, late this week, the eventual evacuation of the building by Israel Defense Forces troops.
How this was all reported depended on which end of the political spectrum the reporter and his/her paper represented. The right, as expected, defended the right of Israeli citizens to live anywhere in Israel and lambasted the government for supposedly taking a position against this right. The left was quick to criticize the actions of the Israeli citizens who took over the building as nothing more than yet another provocation. As for the center, well, I am not sure that “middle Israel” as journalist Amotz Asa-El likes to call us, really exists anymore.
But sadly, none of the media reported all of the facts and all of the suppositions surrounding this incident. What do they appear to be?
First of all, my fellow citizens who moved into the building claimed that they had bought the property in a legal manner. When the dust settles that may, indeed, prove to be a true statement of fact. However, no Palestinian who values his life would dare sell a three floor apartment building in downtown Hebron to Jews. After all, according to the laws of the Palestinian Authority doing so is punishable by death. My guess is that whoever owned the building sold it to someone who acted as an intermediary for the Israeli buyers. There is no way to tell who the intermediary was but it could have been someone living abroad, an independent real estate broker or some other unidentified party. As a result, most likely, the sellers had no idea they were selling the property to Jews.
Next the Israelis who “bought” the property decide to move in. Now we are talking about a piece of property in what can only be described as one of the most controversial locations in Israel. Hebron, the city in which graves of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and most of their wives are located, but in which the overwhelming majority of residents are Arab, is always a tinderbox waiting for the next explosion. So the buyers decided to move in knowing full well that in order to remain there they will need the protection of the Israeli Defense Forces, day and night, 24/7. But they didn’t first clear their intentions the authorities who need to protect them, but rather moved right in claiming that they bought the property fair and square and have a right to live there.
One could read this and say these people are crazy. But they are not! They knew from the get-go that moving into that building would cause three things to happen almost immediately: (1) Force the government to order the Israel Defense Forces to move troops in to protect them; (2) Cause the Palestinian leadership to immediately claim this was yet another “provocation” and; (3) Act as a catalyst to cause yet another crisis within the Israeli government between those who sit firmly on the right and others who yet see the possibility of rapprochement with the Palestinian leadership. And all three of these things were intentionally caused by those who “bought” the building so as to give further strength to their claim that we have a right to live anywhere in greater Israel.
Finally, the expected governmental crisis did occur. Prime Minister Netanyahu, not wanting to upset his right-leaning coalition played for time, suggested this be left for resolution until after the Passover holiday and otherwise sought means not to expel the residents of the building. Defense Minister Barak, on the other hand, true to his Labor Party roots and his Tel Aviv social circle, demanded a rapid expulsion of the residents in order to neutralize the provocation.
So, in retrospect, it is not simply a matter of people innocently buying a building and deciding when to move in. Rather, it was another example of how what would appear to be a simple act, when it happens in this part of the world, gets to be much more complicated and full of symbolism as well.
Tonight, as we begin the Passover holiday, we will spend the entire evening dealing with symbols. There are symbols of our oppression in Egypt, symbols of our exodus from slavery, and symbols of our 3,500 year old faith and how it has withstood the pressures of time and anti-Semitism. Ostensibly, the purpose of these symbols and the story we relate at the seder about that period in our history is meant to teach the young people around the table about our sojourn in Egypt and how we rose from slavery to freedom. So perhaps more than any other people, we understand the value of symbols and how they can be used to teach the lessons of history.
But we need to learn from those very same symbols that we are not free if we take advantage of others. We need to learn that freedom carries with it responsibility not only to ourselves and our loved ones but to the great community of which we a part as well. Actions when they are in our best interests but cause anguish or inconvenience to others is not how free people should behave. Those who moved into that three story building in Hebron last week, however righteous they may have felt personally vis-à-vis their right to live where they want, were selfish in conducting an exercise that caused anguish to their countrymen, their government and their neighbors. It was not the action of free people.
George Bernard Shaw is quoted as having said: “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past but by the responsibility for our future.” Tonight we remember our past but need to learn its lessons well in order to ensure our future. Let’s hope we internalize that while we still remain free.
By Sherwin Pomerantz
The news over the past week has been full of stories about the move by Israelis into a three story building in the center of Hebron, the Israeli government’s waffling on exactly what to do about this and finally, late this week, the eventual evacuation of the building by Israel Defense Forces troops.
How this was all reported depended on which end of the political spectrum the reporter and his/her paper represented. The right, as expected, defended the right of Israeli citizens to live anywhere in Israel and lambasted the government for supposedly taking a position against this right. The left was quick to criticize the actions of the Israeli citizens who took over the building as nothing more than yet another provocation. As for the center, well, I am not sure that “middle Israel” as journalist Amotz Asa-El likes to call us, really exists anymore.
But sadly, none of the media reported all of the facts and all of the suppositions surrounding this incident. What do they appear to be?
First of all, my fellow citizens who moved into the building claimed that they had bought the property in a legal manner. When the dust settles that may, indeed, prove to be a true statement of fact. However, no Palestinian who values his life would dare sell a three floor apartment building in downtown Hebron to Jews. After all, according to the laws of the Palestinian Authority doing so is punishable by death. My guess is that whoever owned the building sold it to someone who acted as an intermediary for the Israeli buyers. There is no way to tell who the intermediary was but it could have been someone living abroad, an independent real estate broker or some other unidentified party. As a result, most likely, the sellers had no idea they were selling the property to Jews.
Next the Israelis who “bought” the property decide to move in. Now we are talking about a piece of property in what can only be described as one of the most controversial locations in Israel. Hebron, the city in which graves of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and most of their wives are located, but in which the overwhelming majority of residents are Arab, is always a tinderbox waiting for the next explosion. So the buyers decided to move in knowing full well that in order to remain there they will need the protection of the Israeli Defense Forces, day and night, 24/7. But they didn’t first clear their intentions the authorities who need to protect them, but rather moved right in claiming that they bought the property fair and square and have a right to live there.
One could read this and say these people are crazy. But they are not! They knew from the get-go that moving into that building would cause three things to happen almost immediately: (1) Force the government to order the Israel Defense Forces to move troops in to protect them; (2) Cause the Palestinian leadership to immediately claim this was yet another “provocation” and; (3) Act as a catalyst to cause yet another crisis within the Israeli government between those who sit firmly on the right and others who yet see the possibility of rapprochement with the Palestinian leadership. And all three of these things were intentionally caused by those who “bought” the building so as to give further strength to their claim that we have a right to live anywhere in greater Israel.
Finally, the expected governmental crisis did occur. Prime Minister Netanyahu, not wanting to upset his right-leaning coalition played for time, suggested this be left for resolution until after the Passover holiday and otherwise sought means not to expel the residents of the building. Defense Minister Barak, on the other hand, true to his Labor Party roots and his Tel Aviv social circle, demanded a rapid expulsion of the residents in order to neutralize the provocation.
So, in retrospect, it is not simply a matter of people innocently buying a building and deciding when to move in. Rather, it was another example of how what would appear to be a simple act, when it happens in this part of the world, gets to be much more complicated and full of symbolism as well.
Tonight, as we begin the Passover holiday, we will spend the entire evening dealing with symbols. There are symbols of our oppression in Egypt, symbols of our exodus from slavery, and symbols of our 3,500 year old faith and how it has withstood the pressures of time and anti-Semitism. Ostensibly, the purpose of these symbols and the story we relate at the seder about that period in our history is meant to teach the young people around the table about our sojourn in Egypt and how we rose from slavery to freedom. So perhaps more than any other people, we understand the value of symbols and how they can be used to teach the lessons of history.
But we need to learn from those very same symbols that we are not free if we take advantage of others. We need to learn that freedom carries with it responsibility not only to ourselves and our loved ones but to the great community of which we a part as well. Actions when they are in our best interests but cause anguish or inconvenience to others is not how free people should behave. Those who moved into that three story building in Hebron last week, however righteous they may have felt personally vis-à-vis their right to live where they want, were selfish in conducting an exercise that caused anguish to their countrymen, their government and their neighbors. It was not the action of free people.
George Bernard Shaw is quoted as having said: “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past but by the responsibility for our future.” Tonight we remember our past but need to learn its lessons well in order to ensure our future. Let’s hope we internalize that while we still remain free.
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