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Jewish News 8 December 2016
Opinion
Technology and food are changing Israel’s narrative ALEX BRUMMER
CITY EDITOR, THE DAILY MAIL
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t the end of the session on technology at the Jewish NewsBICOM policy conference, the reaction of the audience was a mixture of pride and frustration. Pride that Israel’s high-tech and science sector is viewed so positively in Britain and that shared trade, finance and cyber security have drawn the two nations closer together. Frustration that even in a period when Israel’s security and settlement policy is not dominating UK headlines, much of what the public hears and reads is of disturbances on university campuses, boycotts and antiZionism. Bad news drives out the good news. The reality is more nuanced. Post-Brexit, the £5 billion or so of two-way trade between Israel and the UK is obviously very valuable to UK commerce. But it is what we don’t always see that is often most fascinating. When barely a day passes without cyber-
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MUCH OF WHAT THE PUBLIC HEARS IS OF DISTURBANCES ON CAMPUS, BOYCOTTS AND ANTI-ZIONISM attacks on British institutions, almost all the victims look to Israel for solutions. BAE systems, the UK’s largest aerospace and defence group, has set up cyber-security operations in Israel. Among the best places to track Israel’s changing role and image is in the pages of The Financial Times. The newspaper may sell fewer copies than The Big Issue in the UK, but its presence online (behind a paywall) and in the hotels and lobbies across America and in business capitals gives it enormous traction.
Last week, the German writer Frederick Studemann was in Beer Sheva in the Negev. What astonished him was a cluster of buildings with the corporate logos of Deutsche Telekom, EMC, Lockheed, PayPal and others plastered over them. He found they had clustered in the desert to tap into Israel’s world of venture capitalists, computer engineers and ‘world-class cyber security’. What struck Studemann was less the hardware and more the human capital of ‘highly trained former conscripts’. When president-elect Donald Trump talked about building a barrier or fence along the Mexican border, rather than a wall, media attention immediately turned to Israel. The FT suggested it was an opportunity for Magal Security Systems, the world’s largest provider of perimeter security. The company’s shares doubled on the Tel Aviv stock market in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election win. Israel has the technology of border sensors, advanced cameras and monitoring equipment. Much of this has been tested on the controversial fence between Israel and the Palestinian
territories and, more recently, Egypt and Israel’s Sinai border. India has turned to Israel for help in building a ‘smart fence’ with Pakistan. It’s not just security and technology transforming Israel’s image. We should not underestimate the soft power of the cuisine of Yotam Ottolenghi, who forms part of a changing Israeli narrative. In his image, there has been a flowering of Israeli-style restaurants in hipster London such as the Palomar in Soho. The FT’s John Reed last month noted ‘Israel is homeland to global TV show successes’. He wrote that Netflix (home to House of Cards) had bought the rights to Fauda, an Israeli TV series about a military undercover operation seeking a Hamas militant. The much-acclaimed Homeland series is derived directly from Israel’s Prisoners of War and Shtisel, an Israeli series about the strictly-Orthodox community, has recently been sold to Amazon to be screened as Emmis. Gradually, the contemporary narrative of Israel as land of occupation, boycott and war is being displaced by a story of technology triumph, science and culture. Long may it last.
The vital role of JLGB in the high-tech revolution WES STREETING LABOUR MP, ILFORD NORTH
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he industrial revolution that is currently sweeping the world at an unprecedented pace and scale offers limitless opportunities if we’re prepared to reach out and grasp them. The story of one of my young constituents, 16-year-old Zachary Igielman, exemplifies the powerful role that Jewish education and youth movements can play in helping the young digital natives of today to become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Zach has a passion for technology and this summer he met 17-year-old Jake Blumenow from Liverpool while they were both on tour in Israel with JLGB. While visiting the Google offices in Tel Aviv and then, a week later, visiting the Google Campus in London, they found that their shared interest in technology quickly developed into brainstorming ideas for new
inventions and business ideas. Their latest business idea, MakeTronix, aims to help young people understand how the technological world around us works, with the aim of helping them to create and modify their own technology. Their first product is the MakeTronix Alarm, a nicely-packaged piece of kit that allows people to create their own alarm. Using Raspberry Pi – a creditcard-sized, single-board affordable computer – the kit comes complete with a circuit board, tutorials and lesson plans, making it ideal for young people to teach themselves how to program and create the device, or for teachers to use in schools. These entrepreneurial teens have not only designed the technology and gained approval from the Raspberry Pi community, they’ve also had the prototype produced in China and are now crowd funding the £1,200 needed to manufacture the product for market. Zach’s school, Kantor King Solomon High School in Barkingside, clearly sees the potential of its student and the educational value of his
product, as it has expressed interest negotiating an investment deal! I’d strongly encourage Jewish News readers to visit maketronix.co.uk and join me in supporting Jake and Zach in their crowdfunding initiative, but there are wider lessons to learn. The first is the powerful role that JLGB has played in bringing Jake and Zach
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TECHNOLOGY WILL SHAPE OUR CENTURY; IT IS VITAL PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HOW TO HARNESS, ADAPT AND CREATE IT
together and exposing them to the vibrant tech industries of both the UK and Israel. The second is the supportive role being played by schools like Kantor King Solomon in nurturing the talents and interests of their students. The third is the central lesson that Zach and Jake are trying to teach everyone: that technology will shape this century and it is absolutely critical that people understand how to harness, adapt and create it. That’s why I believe that computer science should become the UK’s fourth core science. The challenge is to make sure we are able to create for every young person the support network surrounding Jake and Zach’s experience through JLGB, through their exposure to the tech industry in the UK and Israel and through their supportive schooling. In the meantime, the least we can all do is put our hands in our pockets to help Zach and Jake to realise the potential of their business idea. I have a feeling these boys are going places.