Israel's rise as a tech hub has quite a few similarities to Silicon Valley's early history. Having good schools and a frontier spirit seem like key ingredients. Perhaps most important is the involvement of military spending in seeding research which leads to new technologies, which in turn spin off from their government-funded roots and form new private companies, which then seed other new companies, venture capitalists move in, more companies are seeded, the cycle continues. Another 50 years and continued military support from the US, and Israel will surely be an excellent complement to the valley.