Venture Capital.

This is coolbert:

The nation of Israel is now and has been for some time at the forefront of military technology development.

This may come as a surprise to a lot of folks.

The total population of Israel is about 7 million persons. NOT a large country either with regard to geographic area or populace. Small actually. And yet, for a period of decades now, has had a very strong influence on weapons development and military related technology. Persons in the military sphere the WORLDOVER pay a lot of attention to what the Israeli is doing. Since the Jewish state is constantly at war with it's neighbors, it is only natural that the Israeli has spent a lot of time and energy and thought to military technology. And KNOWS WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOES NOT! FROM EXPERIENCE!

As I have said a number of times, the Ordnance department of the Israeli military is very good. Can take a basic weapons system that is imported from say the United States, and make extensive modifications that create and even more potent and lethal weapon of war. The F-4 Phantom jet is just one example of what Israeli ordnance can do. Upon receiving shipments of the F-4, around 1970 or so, Israeli ordnance may no less that 500 small changes and improvements to the basic aircraft. What these were, I am not sure. A rear view mirror, for one thing. Indicative of a profound ability to think about things and devise solutions and improvements!

When Israel was first founded [1948], the image of a strong, relatively wealthy military power was not the ideal the Zionest elders sought to portray. Israel was rural, agricultural, not wealthy, poor even, espousing a socialist, communal type of society based on the kibbutz ideal.

[Israel has always had a first-class technological school, at least equal to MIT in the U.S.? This is the Technion. Again, for decades now has been producing engineers, scientists of world-caliber with a superior education.]

That image has gone the way of the dodo a long time ago now.

High technology, cutting-edge stuff, now emanates from Israel on a regular basis. Has enriched the nation and made it a magnet for foreign workers even.

NOT socialist but NOW strongly capitalist in nature, Israel is THIRD IN THE WORLD IN THE NUMBER OF RISKY VENTURE CAPITAL START-UP COMPANIES, ALMOST ALL ENGAGING IN HIGH TECHNOLOGY TYPE OF BUSINESS.

"Venture capital invests in Israeli techs"

"Recovering from recession, country ranks behind only Boston, Silicon Valley in attracting cash for startups"

Here is a sampling of Israeli academics, scientists, technologists that have made and are making their mark. An example of the brain power that accounts in large measure for leading-edge weapons technology developed in Israel.

Academic figures


Computing and mathematics.

Shmuel Agmon, mathematician,
Noga Alon, mathematician,
Shimshon Anitzur,
Robert "Yisrael" J. Aumann - mathematical game theory; Nobel Prize in Economics (2005)
Amir Ban & Shay Bushinsky - programmers of Junior (chess)
Moshe Bar - creator & main developer of openMosix
Yehoshua Bar-Hillel - machine translation
Joseph Bernstein,
Eli Biham - differential cryptanalysis
Arie Dvoretzky,
Abraham Fraenkel - ZF set theory
Hillel Furstenberg,
David Harel - computer science; Israel Prize (2004)
Abraham Lempel & Jacob Ziv - LZW compression; Richard W. Hamming Medal (1995)
Yoram Lidenstrauss,
Michel Loève - probabilist (born in 1907 Palestine)
Joel Moses - MIT provost & writer of Macsyma
Judea Pearl - artificial intelligence, philosophy of action
Haim Pekeris,
Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro - representation theory; Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1990)
Amir Pnueli - temporal logic; Turing Award (1996)
Michael O. Rabin - nondeterminism, primality testing; Turing Award (1976)
Adi Shamir - RSA encryption, differential cryptanalysis; Turing Award (2002)
Saharon Shelah - logic; Wolf Prize in Mathematics (2001)
Ehud Shapiro - Concurrent Prolog, DNA computing pioneer
Avi Wigderson - randomized algorithms; Nevanlinna Prize (1994)
Doron Zeilberger - combinatorics
Reuven Cohen - Open Source Advocate
There have also been at least 9 Israeli winners of the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science: Shlomo Moran (93) & Shafi Goldwasser (93 & 01), Yoram Moses (97), Moshe Vardi (00), Uriel Feige & Shmuel Safra (01), Nir Shavit (04) and Noga Alon & Yossi Matias (05).

[with skilled mathematicians and software experts you can BUILD strong cryptographic programs to secure your secrets, and at the same time, develop ingenious methods to READ the cryptographic systems of your adversaries!!]

Physics and chemistry.

Yakir Aharonov - Aharonov-Bohm effect; Wolf Prize in Physics (1998)
Shlomo Alexander,
Jacob Bekenstein - black hole thermodynamics
Amos De-Shalit,
David Deutsch - quantum computing pioneer; Paul Dirac Prize (1998)
Israel Dostrovsky, physical chemistry,
Joshua Jortner & Rafi Levine - molecular energy; Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1988)
Josef Imry, physicist,
Aaron Katzir, physical chemistry,
Ephraim Katzir - immobilized enzymes; Japan Prize (1985)
Zvi Lipkin, physicist,
Mordehai Milgrom - Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND)
Yuval Ne'eman - the "Eightfold way"
Asher Peres - quantum theory
Giulio Racah - spectroscopy
Nathan Rosen - EPR paradox
Nathan Seiberg - string theory
Dan Shechtman - quasicrystals; Wolf Prize in Physics (1999)
Shmuel Shtrikman, physicist,
Izchak Shteinberg, physicist,
Zeev Tadmor, chemical engineering,
Igal Talmi, partical physics
Chaim Weizmann - acetone production
Itamar Wilner, chemist

[Need I suggest that a lot of good physicists are needed to develop nuclear weapons!!]

Biology and medicine.

Israel Aharoni - discovered the Syrian hamster
Aaron Ciechanover & Avram Hershko - ubiquitin system; Lasker Award (2000), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2004)
Moshe Feldenkrais - invented Feldenkrais method used in movement therapy
Gavriel Iddan - inventor of capsule endoscopy
Doron Lancet - smell, origin of life
Alexander Levitzki - cancer research; Wolf Prize in Medicine (2005)
Leo Sachs - blood cell research; Wolf Prize in Medicine (1980)
Michael Sela & Ruth Arnon - developed Copaxone; Wolf Prize in Medicine (1998)
Jacob Shani - performed the first atherectomy in New York State(1991); invented an angled catheter(1992)
Israel Silman - 3D structure of acetylcholinesterase, Elkeles Prize for Research in Medicine (2005)
Joel Sussman - 3D structure of acetylcholinesterase, Elkeles Prize for Research in Medicine (2005)
Valero Aaron-Professor of Medicine, founder of Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, director of government hospital
Meir Wilchek - affinity chromatography; Wolf Prize in Medicine (1987)
Ada Yonath - structure of ribosome
Amotz Zahavi - Handicap Principle

Engineering.

Franz Ollendorf, Electronics, Electrical research,
Moshe Zakai, Electrical engineering,
Jacob Ziv, Electrical engineering,

Entrepreneurs.

High-tech.

Beny Alagem - founder of Packard Bell
Efi Arazi - founder of Scitex
Safra Catz - president of Oracle
Idan & Yerach Feigenbaum - founders of SpeedBit (developers of Download Accelerator)
Eli Harari - founder of SanDisk
Yoav Hollander - founder of Verisity
Morris Kahn - founder of Amdocs
Daniel M. Lewin - founder of Akamai Technologies
David Perlmutter - mobile platforms manager of Intel (developed Centrino wholly in Israel)
Zack Rinat - founder of NetDynamics, Model N
Bob Rosenschein - founder of GuruNet, Answers.com (Israeli-based)
Gil Schwed - founder of Check Point
Zeev Suraski & Andi Gutmans - founders of Zend Technologies (developers of PHP)
Ariki & Yossi Vardi, Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser & Amnon Amir - founders of Mirabilis (developers of ICQ)
Amnon Landan - founder of Mercury Interactive

[since so much of modern military high technology is computer drive, well, all those computer companies give the Israeli a huge advantage over adversaries in this field. They DO NOT HAVE BE DEPENDENT UPON OTHERS FOR TECHNOLOGY, THEY DEVELOP IT THEMSELVES.]

According Martin van Creveld, the Israeli has at least the second or third most powerful military in the world. In no small part to high technology and brain power of the home grown Israeli.

coolbert.