“Startup Nation” Receives Praise

David Streeter — November 10, 2009 – 12:01 pm | Israel Comments (0) Add a comment

Startup Nation, the new book by Dan Senor, Senor Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and The Jerusalem Post‘s Saul Singer is receiving critical praise from a variety of journalists, leaders, and analysts from around the world. Most recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the book in his speech to the Jewish Federation of North America’s Annual Conference.

Amity Shales, Senior Fellow in Economic History at the Council on Foreign Relations, provided a positive review and thorough summary to Bloomberg News. In sum, Shales argues:

The Israeli record of innovation has less to do with tribe and more with policy. The Israeli military has also played a surprising role in the process.

Maureen Farrell of Forbes Magazine positively reviewed the book and summarized Senor and Singer with:

Capitalism, the authors remind us, can build booming economies, spawn ideas and give people a way to take big risks. Fail and try again. With the scary state of the world economy, it also provides a window of hope for so many suffering locales around the world: Israel has thrived not despite its obstacles but because of them; maybe other places can too.

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria designated the book as his book of the week, and recommended it to business leaders worldwide, particularly in the Arab world.

 

Also, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach reviewed the book for The New Jersey Jewish Standard and came to some very interesting, if not surprising, conclusions:

Israel is not a victim. Less so is it a tragic nation. Rather, as Startup Nation makes clear, Israel is one of the most highly educated and technologically advanced nations on earth, with one of the fastest growing economies. And it’s time that Jewish newspapers and periodicals stopped the sad, tired, worn story that Israel is about to draw its last breath.

And:

It is time for Israel to begin seriously considering forgoing American economic aid. I understand the military aid. Israel has an insane number of crazies who wish to attack and destroy it. But the economic aid creates an unnecessary dependency, undermines the perception of Israel as a prosperous country, and gives the United States undo influence over Israeli policy.

 

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