‫משרד ראש הממשלה‬
THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE
‫مکتب رئيس ال ُحكومة‬
Translation
10/12/2012
PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the New Google Headquarters in Tel Aviv
There are moments of satisfaction as Prime Minister and this is one of them. To come
here and see this grand expression of initiative, creativity and free thought soaring
upwards is truly moving, and it also reminds me of several things that may bring into
focus how quickly we are progressing.
I am a little older than you are, and 40 years ago, after five years of military service, I
attended MIT University. I would like to tell you about three things that will make it
clear to you the extent of the change we are experiencing. Since I was five years older
than most of the young students at MIT, I thought that I should make up for lost time.
The way it worked then, once you took your test, say in mathematics, and you passed
it, the semester was over. Well, I studied a little and I went to take my first test in
mathematics. I went down the long hallway at MIT to the large classroom and I saw a
huge gathering of students. There was a great din as they fought with each other at the
entrance to the exam room. After making my way into the heart of the crowd, I saw
what they were fighting over – there was a student there who held a medium sized
apparatus, and the question was whether or not he was allowed to enter with his
device. Of course, we all had rulers with us, slide rules, and he had an electric device
– it was a pocket calculator. I don't know what pocket it would have fit into, but it was
the first pocket calculator. In the end, they decided not to let him in with his
calculator.
After that, I went to the student center, where people were avidly watching a television
series that was already iconic at the time. On the show, there were wondrous things
that were, of course, completely imaginary. For example, people spoke to each other
on the telephone, but it wasn't really a telephone – it had no cord and it opened and
closed like a military two-way radio, but much more compact. It sounds like fiction.
And you could talk to a computer and tell it: "Give me information about… Meir
Brandt". And it would give you the information within one second. It sounds like
fiction. But, maybe 3-D printing, maybe that too is on the way. I don't know.
That is how things were then, and I was intrigued so I decided to take a special class
called "Entrepreneurship". Five students attended that class, and three of them were
Israeli – I was one of them. The school would bring people to that class. One of the
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‫משרד ראש הממשלה‬
THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE
‫مکتب رئيس ال ُحكومة‬
people they brought was a young man in his early 20s named Raymond Kurzweil, and
he brought with him something he developed in his garage; he called it the "Kurzweil
Reading Machine for the Blind. It decoded text based on an analysis of certain rules
of characters – how an 'A' looked, or 'B', and from that what the words meant. These
were fed into a computerized reading of the words with strange-sounding phonetics.
Of course, you know what that developed into, what direction it took and all that is
happening now.
I am telling you things that happened 40 years ago. What appeared fictional then has
become part of our daily life. We moved past all that and are quickly moving onward.
The world is developing in this direction; it is flying in this direction; and we are
flying at the front of the pack. I attribute tremendous importance to this subject, to the
breakthroughs in human knowledge, to the tremendous advancement of technology,
the ability to create conceptual products, products of the brain. This is the greatest
added value, and it is potentially our greatest wealth in terms of the resources a society
has. We are influenced by these resources, and you represent that. In my opinion, this
is something we must continue to advance.
It is true that we live in a kind of anomaly, because alongside this fantastic race for
progress, there is also regression, especially in our region – societies are going back to
the Middle Ages – and this is a complex struggle. However, in the end, knowledge
and freedom will win, and human curiosity will triumph, as will the desire to choose.
Therefore, I attribute great importance not only economically, but also culturally, to
this struggle, this race of which we are a part.
Contrary to what some people think, without entrepreneurship, it does not matter if
you have all the rest – if there is no freedom of entrepreneurship, room for initiative
and an environment that supports it, all the other investments will lead nowhere. That
is why encouraging entrepreneurship and nurturing an environment that supports
entrepreneurship and business development is essential, and it is what sets the State of
Israel apart over the past few years, because in the end, it is not the government that
advances most of the industry in this field, it is you as entrepreneurs.
With regard to education, it too is important to help us rise to the top of the pyramid of
industry, entrepreneurship and technology. When I was head of the opposition, I
thought, "How can we make a change in the education system in Israel?" and someone
told me, "It's simple". They brought me a slide on which there was an arrow and at the
very top of the arrow was written, "input" and below it was written "output". From
everything I have learned from the private sector, from the military and from public
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‫משרד ראש הממשלה‬
THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE
‫مکتب رئيس ال ُحكومة‬
life, the arrow works exactly the opposite. In other words, you know what the output
is – direct the input accordingly, direct your investment and do not think of the result.
Think of the investment; think of the result; and build the investment from the results.
Education increases the competitive ability of Israeli students in the main fields – in
mathematics, science, language, and I would also add, in our roots. Here you build the
virtual rooms at the entrance to the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book, and I
believe this is very important. We do not forget our roots, where we came from. Well,
that is the second thing we must do: develop education – entrepreneurship and
education.
Another thing, which is something you already mentioned, that I must say I am very
excited about, that I think provides value to what you do here, and I was very moved to
hear you say: that despite the digital and virtual world in which we live, there is no
replacement for actually meeting, sitting down with another person, talking to them,
communicating with one another, in order to share thoughts and create things and new
ideas. Involving people, different publics, in our lives is something that can contribute
greatly to us. I mean involving the ultra-orthodox public in the labor market,
involving the Arab sector, Muslim women, ultra-orthodox men and their spouses. I
think this will add a great deal more creative force and industrial power.
What I am ultimately asking you is to succeed. For the country to succeed, we need
you to succeed. The sky is your limit, and I hope you ascend much higher than that; I
am certain you will. Good luck and congratulations on the new center. Thank you.
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