Israel is on the brink of war with the Palestinians and I donÕt blame them. American diplomats have decided to play devilÕs advocate and side with the PLO on many of their issues for the past decade. In 2000, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat bullied former Israeli leader Ehud Barak into signing away half of Jerusalem at Camp David and then stormed out of the negotiations saying that it wasnÕt enough. Since the evil attacks of September 11th, Arafat and the new Israeli leader Ariel Sharon have traded barbs and bombs at an alarming rate. I canÕt see the two of them getting out of this without a big, bloody fight. The loss of human life is horrible, but what about the toll on the thriving tech sector in Israel and its affect on the United States?
Israel, for many twentysomething techno-geeks in America, is nothing more than the dusty land where actress Natalie Portman who plays Luke SkywalkerÕs mom in the new Star Wars movies was born. However, there is a substantial and growing high-tech community in Israel. From web hosting and site design to high-speed network hardware and infrastructure, the Israeli high-tech community services big international markets like the Pacific Rim and the US along with the Mideast, Mediterranean and Eastern European markets with high quality and efficiency. Companies like MetaLink and Harmonic Data Systems are leaders in telecommunications hardware and satellite broadband in the European and Australian markets, respectively. There are no fewer than two dozen Internet service providers in Israel which is amazing given that Israel is about the twice the size of Delaware.
Constellation 3D has offices in the US, but labs in Israel where they have been at the forefront of developing fluorescent multilayer or Òblue laserÓ DVDs. This new technology is a method of storing up to 140 gigabytes (GB) of data on a clear plastic disc for basically the same price of existing CD/DVD technology. Constellation has a credit card sized version of this technology they hope to market for use in personal digital assistants, digital cameras and MP3 players that will hold 5 GB and be cheap enough to be disposable. As a comparison, standard dual-layer DVDs hold 4.7 GB of data right now and the engineers at C-3D have come up with a first-generation product that holds 28 times that amount. Think about what the second-generation product six months down the line will be likeÉ
Israel is a leader in biotechnology with the respected Weizmann Institute. Although they may not have the name recognition that companies like Abbot Labs or Merck do, the Weizmann scientists are an integral part of decoding the human genome, nerve and brain cell regeneration, bioengineering better plants for food crops, advances for halting that most evil of diseases, cancer. The Weizmann Institute also invented the lightweight reading glasses that so many of us take for granted.
However, thereÕs not much good news from any of the aforementioned companies in the past couple of weeks. IÕm no stock expert or anything, but all the Israeli companies I mentioned that are publicly traded all have jagged red lines going straight down left-to-right on their charts. I donÕt think that these guys can blame it on sluggish Asian sales the way Intel, Oracle and Dell have tried to. These Israeli companies are in trouble because there are fifty rock throwing Palestinian teenagers in their parking lots twelve hours a day. IÕll bet they wish they had OracleÕs problems in Asia rather than constantly worrying about getting their office window shot out with an AK-47 by some idiot Palestinian teenage wannabe martyr tossing themselves on their desk and detonating a belt full of C4.
Since 1994, the United States has screwed Israel over by pushing for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians no matter what the cost. Israel has become almost as mistrustful of America as the Palestinians are because of our insistence on concessions to Arafat to keep the peace. If we side with the Palestinians, youÕll see the tech-heavy NASDAQ take a dive because there are so many Israeli interests that are tied to American economic well being. If we side with Israel, the Arab world will retaliate against us by cutting oil exports and maybe even some more terrorism. Of course, that means that the stock market still crashes, but itÕll be the Dow Jones, the NASDAQ, the Nikkei and every other market. Arabian fortunes are built on the American peopleÕs buying power. Remember, America buys more oil than anyone else so if America stops buying, the Saudi princes wonÕt be able to afford more pretty Western wives they covet so much.
Technology has solved so many problems in the world, but the Palestinians arenÕt complaining about the non-existent Òdigital divide.Ó Palestinians are blowing up Israeli civilians in the mistaken mindset that the United Nations will give Israel to them. A Palestinian couldnÕt care less about high-speed DSL and 50MB of free web space. I know the Palestinians think that they deserve that land, but Israel has fought harder and for longer than they have for the tiny parcel of land they live on right now. ÒPalestineÓ started off as a province the Romans transplanted Arabs into and named to hack off the Israelites. There is no historical Palestinian language or culture. During World War II, PalestineÕs leader Amin Al-Husseini called for jihad against Great Britain and collaborated with Nazi Germany in the hopes of eradicating the Jewish people from the face of the Earth. Anyone that says Palestinians have a right to murder Israeli civilians because of ÒIsraeli occupationÓ of their lands doesnÕt know history.
I donÕt get why none of the Arabs brokering these Òpeace talksÓ have figured out that the entire Palestinian population could live in a corner of Saudi Arabia and not be bothered. Hey, it worked for the Mormons and when was the last time you saw a kid with a black tie and white button up shirt on a bicycle blowing himself up in a Costco in Utah?
Email me with your comments on this or any other tech-related subject.
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