On the occasion of Israel's 74th birthday this year, we publish the article "The State of Israel: an example to follow", written by Andreas N. Angelakis, Polish water resources engineer, agronomist and member of the World Water Resources Society and Gideon Oron, University Professor Emeritus Ben-Gurion of the Negev. The article contains interesting facts about Israel's achievements in science and technology and was first published on the news portal of Crete www.patris.gr:
The State of Israel was founded in 1948. It has a population of 9.293.900, an area of 20.77 km2 and is located in the eastern Mediterranean. Before its establishment, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), founder of political Zionism, who promoted the idea of a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel, envisioned a state that would not only be the natural homeland of the Jewish people, but also an important intellectual, cultural and scientific center. When the State of Israel was founded, the scientific and technological infrastructure of the country was already planned, which facilitated its further and rapid organization.
In general, contemporary Jewish society is increasingly divided between the secular liberals (usually more educated and more affluent) and the orthodox (i.e. ultra-orthodox, modern orthodox and traditional religious Jews) centered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, respectively.
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In Israel there are 9 Universities, most of which are included in the top 100 worldwide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_ universities _and_colleges). We have 25 Universities, almost all of which are ranked above the first 500 worldwide. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion of the Negev and Weizmann are among the world's top 30 universities for IT and computing. Students enjoy privileges according to their performance, regardless of country of origin, color or gender. In Israel, "excellence is rewarded". It should be noted that a young Greek with excellent performance at the Weizmann Institute receives monthly 5.900 shekels, i.e. approximately €1.430 for his studies.
Jewish scientists are admirable and worthy of imitation. They hold leadership positions in almost all the top universities in the US, and elsewhere and excel in engineering, economics, politics, or philosophy, but also in relatively new scientific disciplines such as astrophysics, neuroscience, and others. All because they are hardworking , dynamic, intelligent, united and creative.
It is worth noting that 20% of Nobel Prize winners worldwide, i.e. 232 Nobel laureates, are of Jewish origin. Israel's leading polytechnic, the Technion in Haifa, is ranked 8th on the list of institutions with the most Nobel laureates of the 21st century! On the contrary, in our country there are unfortunately only two Nobel prizes up to now (those of Elytis and Seferis) and indeed not in sciences, but in literature and poetry. So what is the "secret" of the multi-layered successes of the Jews? Is it genetic? Absolutely not, because the Jews of the Middle East before the creation of the state of Israel, had nothing special to show for it.
Let us refer to the example of the management of their water resources. Israel is a landlocked country. Average annual atmospheric precipitation ranges from 800mm/year in the northern part of the country to 35mm/year in the city of Eilat, in the southernmost part. The annual demand for an agricultural crop ranges from about 600 m3 of water per year per hectare (e.g. for cotton) to about 1200 m3 of water per year per hectare (e.g. for alfalfa), which means a real water shortage.
In 1964, the National Water Carrier project was built, about 130 km long, transporting about 400 million m3/year from the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) to the landlocked areas of the country for urban and agricultural use. However, since recent years have seen a significant decrease in the flow of water in the Galilee and a significant increase in salinity, the conversion of Lake Kinneret into a tourist resort has been promoted with a significant reduction in the agricultural use of water from the lake.
Today, about 40% (1,00 billion m3 /year) of the water used is produced by desalination plants (photo) with modern reverse osmosis methods. In addition, the state water agency built pioneering municipal wastewater treatment plants to reuse it mainly for irrigation. Thus, about 70% of the used urban water (about 600 million m3 per year), is reused treated urban waste that is mainly used for irrigation. Various treatment methods are used to clean them, but activated sludge is the most common. The Dan area unit collects the raw waste of the greater Tel-Aviv area (about 2 million inhabitants). After treatment, secondary treatment effluents are injected into the local sandy aquifer. Several kilometers south of their application ponds, the high-quality effluents are pumped from the aquifer and transported about 70 km south, for irrigation. In recent years, the outflows of liquid waste are improved by desalination processes, before their application to the water table, in the event that the concentration of salts, mainly due to evaporation, increases significantly.
Finally, various types of rainwater collection and storage tanks are widely used in Israel. Problems such as the increase in the concentration of salts, which are created mainly due to evaporation, are also treated with desalination processes.
It is remarkable that with these approaches, one of the most arid countries in the world was transformed into a country with sufficient water resources. This has been achieved because the science and technology of water resources has developed very rapidly, and the country is now at the forefront of the world, developing exemplary technologies related to conservation, modern recycling and efficient use of water.
It is also noteworthy that the next country in the world, which has significantly increased the reuse of treated wastewater effluents, in recent years, mainly for irrigation, is Cyprus. For the reuse of secondary treatment effluents, produced in the winter months, they are stored in both surface and underground reservoirs, following the model of other developed countries. In the case of coastal underground aquifers (reservoirs), they are simultaneously protected from water inundation.
In conclusion, Israel is the leading state on the planet with the strongest presence of digital security companies, behind only the US. The experiment, which is underway at the Gav-Yam Negev Hi-Tech technology park in the Negev desert, aspires to add even more added value to the technology industry. But this park is not an affair that only concerns the world of technology. It is a real estate experiment, which one can say is a global phenomenon. His ambition is to acquire within the next 2-3 years 10.000 employees, of which 7.000 will be experts in the field of modern technology.
All this is happening because there is planning, consensus and continuity, evaluation and meritocracy in the educational, technological and scientific process, unprecedented for such a small state, relatively new and under very difficult conditions.
Source: Website patris.gr, 28.3.2022, "The State of Israel: An example to follow", by Andreas N. Angelakis and Gideon Oron