Time to rebuild the economy, education, and emotional health of Israel's citizens - opinion

During the period when Yuli Tamir was education minister (2006-2009), our company put together a two-day education conference at Tel Aviv’s Carlton Hotel under the auspices of the Paul & Katherine Merage Foundation. 

The Foundation has done, and continues to do, seminal work in identifying up-and-coming business people in Israel’s tech community and providing them with additional tools to assist in their leadership development. 

Yuli Tamir provided an overview of what the Education Ministry in Israel was all about and shared an interesting insight that has remained with me all these years. 

She related (this is not an exact quote) that the calculation of how many students should be permitted to enroll in each university in Israel each year was in the hands of two relatively recent university graduates sitting in a basement room at the Education Ministry using what passed for analytical algorithms in those days.

Hearing this, I was struck by (a) the fact that this decision was in the hands of two people with relatively little practical experience and (b) how much responsibility was placed in those hands. 

I recall questioning Tamir about this, and she indicated that they both had brilliant minds and, save for their age and lack of experience, could handle more responsibility “upstairs” where the long-term planning strategies of the ministry were being debated. My guess is that 20 years later she has no recollection of the conversation.

This all came to mind when I started being concerned about who, in each of Israel’s ministries, is planning the country’s future once the current hostilities end and we begin trying to get back to the new normal, whatever that will look like. 

At which point it occurred to me that perhaps we should consider a wholesale restructuring of all of our operating ministries in order to leverage the “brilliance” of the people we traditionally kept in the basement and move them “upstairs.”

At the end of the war

At the end of the war, Israel will be challenged to address the needs of a population that, emotionally and psychologically, is very different from the one that existed on October 6. In addition, Israel’s standing in the world has been significantly damaged, as has its economy. 

Certain sectors like tourism, inbound investment, and construction will all have to be rebuilt in the new post-war reality. 

The best people to do this may well be some combination of the 40–55-year-olds who have good minds and solid experience combined with the 25–30-year-olds whose intelligence has been augmented by a long reserve experience and who are very much committed to effecting change.

Israel would do well to consider “cleaning house” and moving people who have already served in various ministries for 25-30 years to pension.

They could then be replaced by a younger cadre, who are more technically savvy, not afraid of AI and its capacity to make changes for the better, and who are highly motivated to help create a new vision of Israel – more creative, efficient, and attractive to foreign investment than ever before. 

To provide the experience they might be lacking, the ministries could tap the experience of top professionals who would be consultants as needed, rather than full-time employees.

In a word, we need to move the people in the basement “upstairs” where they can use their creative juices to make Israel’s next 25 years of existence the best they can be in order to remain the regional technical power even at age 100.

To make all of this happen, of course, will take incredibly competent political leadership and vision. It is not clear that we have such people in politics today, but there are captains of Israeli industry who can and should be consulted to direct this effort. 

The hopefully new political echelon will have to do something that is counterintuitive, that being NOT to play politics but to devote all their energy to rebuilding the country in areas that need the most attention: the economy, education, industry, and the emotional health of our citizens.

For sure we have the knowledge to do all this if we have the will to make it happen. The most motivated people in the country today are the “miluimnikim,” – those who have done extensive military reserve duty and know what they are fighting for. Let’s use them.

The writer has lived in Israel for 40 years and is the founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.