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I'm hoping that my home country Tunisia can replicate (at least somewhat) the Israeli success story.

I don't believe I'm the only one in Europe that has a special sympathy for your country. But trying to replicate Israel spirit? I don't think so. It's like when people over here talk about making an "european SV", not very realistic. I neither see my country doing anything similar if you find consollation in that :-)

There are two reasons. One that someone pointed in a downvoted comment nearby: funds from governments (Israel and USA). The other one is a ruthless killer instinct. Both are shared by SV. If you've been around here for long enough, you might remember a couple of references that show clearly both factors. For government backing there was an article about SV origins in WW2. The other one is a YC standard interview question about how founders "hacked the system" for their own profit.

Yesterday I got in a somewhat esoteric argument about how righteous people get very strict about abstract ideas like environment protection. This is the default actitude for many smart people. So the questions that matter are: are your government willing to put a lot of money to grow a sharp industry, and is "selfishness" taboo in your society? Otherwise, we're doomed :)

I definitely agree with you that attempting to blindly replicate another country's success is a recipe for failure. Success stories like Israel and SV, or even Taiwan in the semiconductor sector, were formed due to very specific circumstances and needs, and probably arose without anyone really intending them to.

I guess what I was trying to say is that I'm hoping Tunisia learns what it can from Israel and other successes. I think we have the environment and the human capital to at the very least attract foreign companies to setup offices in Tunisia. Ideally, we would start our own local companies to compete on the global stage. And as you've kindly mentioned, this requires serious interest by the government, and from what I've seen, this is starting to become the case.

SV?

Silicon Valley

I was so confused because I thought we were talkin about Nation State's developed after WWII as the parent said

Why do you have special sympathy for Tunisia?

I could be wrong here, but they kicked off the Arab spring and so far seem to be the only ones that have descended into Islamism. As far as middle eastern countries go, Tunisia seems like a good one to set an example.

On the mark.

Edit: well, after writing this, I hope you don't mind if I point that Tunisia is not middle east and that you probably wanted to write "haven't" ;)

>As far as middle eastern countries go, Tunisia seems like a good one to set an example.

Except Tunisia isn't in the Middle East, it's in North Africa; which is as eastern geographically as Western Europe and as similar to the Middle East in terms of culture and way of life because of shared religion as the U.S. is similar to Peru.

Really different cultures and world views.

Interestingly, Israelis were actually fundamental in the founding of Singapore's military. At the request of the Singaporean government, Israel sent many advisors. It was pretty much an organization copy of Israel's, IIRC.

For those who haven't read Startup Nation, the authors don't argue that the bonds formed in the military are sufficient for Israel startup culture. Rather, the military's unique culture and relatively flat hierarchy in which subordinates can and do challenge superiors (at a frequency unique among militaries) are other important factors in creating the startup nation. But of course, there's yet more discussed, which do indeed fill up the book's pages.

I am decidedly unimpressed by what the Israeli IT sector has been able to achieve, despite the strong branding effort as a 'Startup Nation'.

There can be no question that Israel is firehosed with money, both from states and private sources and everything in between. I personally know of at least a few of the biggest corporations in this medium-size European country that has a stated policy of buying practically any Israeli technology that is punted. Lots of other large multinationals pour money into Israel as a point of policy, see Coca-Cola, Google, Procter&Gamble and many others.

They have very little to show for it in my opinion, in fact the only successful IT companies I know of out of Israel are ICQ (!) and Fiverr. They have a bunch of B2B businesses, but a lot of their revenue can be chalked up to official or unofficial support programs as mentioned, which is probably why they, and their products, are mostly completely unknown outside their small niches.

I also heard accounts from from several IT workers in Israel that the work culture is quite inefficient if not downright lazy.

Another factor in Israeli success must have been immigration. It's the last of the settler "frontier" states, and it has an open door immigration policy for people of Jewish ancestry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah

I definitely believe this makes an impact. From a biased American perspective, if I was a non-Israeli Jew living in a country that was outside of the US, Canada or Western Europe, and I am young and seeking more opportunity, moving to Israel would look like a very attractive option. Israel is very happy to woo young, and educated minds to their country which brings in fresh perspectives, which I would assume is great for startups, especially he many that target global markets.

Muslim and respect Israel. I don't think that can go together! You are impressed by their technology success, I understand it, I do either. But respect!

I respect what they have been able to achieve given their situation (geographic location, limited resources, small population).

As I said in the beginning, I am completely against the illegal settlements, the blockade of Gaza, and other similar issues. I regard my fellow Palestinians as brothers and sisters. That doesn't mean that I cannot respect what Israel has been able to build.

I misunderstood. my apologies.

It's fine bro, I can see how my words could be misinterpreted.

I as a muslim too respect jews and israelis as a hardworking , intelligent community but that does not mean we need to agree with everything they do as righteous .

I feel the same way. Unfortunately every criticism of Israel is equated with anti-semitism which is ridiculous.

I don't think there is a government that has ever existed that has not made a mistake. As an American, I can proudly criticize specific actions of my government I may disagree with, but I still feel, despite its flaws, generally does relative good for a majority of its people and the world. I feel similar about the Israeli government. Yes, they too, like the American government, and <insert other government here>, have made decisions not so well-received in the past, and likely in the future. But overall, I feel the Israeli government, like the American government, does much more good for its people and in the world than otherwise. Despite how you feel about the Israeli government, I cannot think of another government that takes in wounded people, who may be willing to risk their lives to destroy your very government, and provides medical aid without question.

What do you mean by 'despite how I feel about the Israeli government?

Voting this down doesn't change its reality. I'm voting this up. At least it's honest!