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Israeli Kibbutzism Contain Startling Businesses – and Drive the ‘Start-Up Nation’
The Israeli economy was booming in 2023. According to International Monetary Fund figures, total GDP had reached $664 billion, and per capita GDP hit $58,270 — the 13th highest in the world.
Hamas’ vicious attack on Israel changed that, as Reuters reported that after months of war, the Israeli economy contracted significantly during the fourth quarter of 2023. However, even with fighting continuing, we can hope for a strong economic rebound, as thousands of reservists return to their normal lives.
The Israeli technology sector accounts for the majority of Israel’s exports, so it was reassuring to see that Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest generic drug company in the world, reported that the war has not affected manufacturing.
The approximately 270 kibbutzim in Israel comprise only a tiny fraction of the population, but account for 10 percent of industrial production. Kibbutzim in the south bore the brunt of the genocidal Hamas attack, and those in the north are coping with rocket attacks from Hezbollah. So I wondered how another Israeli technology company, this one based on a kibbutz, was making out.
Kibbutz Shamir, founded by Romanian Holocaust survivors in 1944, is located in Upper Galilee at the western edge of the Golan Heights. Shamir Optical began to manufacture eyeglass lenses in 1972, as part of the effort by kibbutzim to diversify from agriculture
Shamir began to manufacture progressive lenses in addition to its existing line of lenses in 1984, and this led to the company’s remarkable innovative success. (Full disclosure, I am a retired professor of Optometry and Vision Science.)
Progressive lenses have been around since the late 1950s and early 1960s. They are used to correct presbyopia, a universal human condition associated with aging, in which the lens inside the eye becomes less flexible and is unable to change shape to enable light rays from near objects, such as reading material, to focus on the retina.
The first bifocals, attributed to Benjamin Franklin, consisted of a split lens, with an upper half for distance vision and the lower half for near. However, in 1959, a French engineer, Bernard Maitenaz, working with a French company, Essilor, produced the first progressive lens, in which the prescription varies continuously and there is no bifocal line.
Progressive lenses have to undergo a process of continual redesign and improvement as the visual demands of modern society change. The ability of Shamir Optical to produce valuable algorithms to optimize the manufacture of progressive lenses led, in 2005, to the company being the first kibbutz enterprise listed on the NASDAQ exchange.
In 2011, when Essilor, the world’s largest producer of ophthalmic lenses, bought a 50 percent share of Shamir for $130 million, the company was delisted. Essilor purchased the remaining 50 percent in 2022 for an amount said to be hundreds of millions of dollars. Shamir Optical remains a separate brand, and research and development continues at Kibbutz Shamir. Today, the company, with 2,500 employees in Israel and abroad, operates 18 laboratories worldwide.
In a 2022 interview in The Jerusalem Post, Shamir’s CEO, Yagen Moshe, described how the COVID pandemic forced everyone to become more dependent on computers for communicating. He mentioned two innovations: a lens with an anti-reflective coating called “Expression,” designed to remove unwanted reflections during video calls, as well as the “Autograph Intelligence” lens, a progressive lens tailored to each patient’s visual needs.
However, an even more exciting innovation, announced in the midst of war with Hamas, concerns a lens designed to prevent myopia in children. In myopia, there is a mismatch between eye size and eye focus ,and light rays that enter the eye focus in front of the retina. The prevalence of myopia is increasing rapidly. Today, more than 40 percent of Americans are myopic, and the numbers in Asian countries, such as China and South Korea can be as high as 90 percent.
Shamir Optical has developed a spectacle lens, the “Shamir Optimee,” where the optics of the outer zone of the lens differs from the center, resulting in myopic defocus at the outer (peripheral) retina. A study published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology showed that this lens significantly reduces myopia progression in young children. Shamir is not the only company making multifocal lenses for myopia control, but the company’s experience in producing progressive lenses gives it an advantage. Given worldwide concern for the myopia epidemic, this lens may end up as Shamir’s most important innovation.
After the United States, Israel is home to the largest number of start-up companies in the world. In fact, the Israeli kibbutz — a blend of Zionism and socialism — can be thought of as Israel’s first start-up.
In recent decades, the kibbutzim have transitioned from being solely agricultural, to also providing industrial goods and services. A majority of kibbutzim, including Shamir, have also shifted to embrace private ownership and differential salaries, while still trying to protect the ideology of equality as much as possible.
Shamir Optical is not the only kibbutz start-up success. There are many others, such as the drip irrigation system developed by the firm Netafim on Kibbutz Hatzerim, and Plasan, a company on Kibbutz Sasa, that produces armor vehicle protection. Nor is Shamir Optical the only enterprise associated with Kibbutz Shamir. The kibbutz, which has a population of about 900, also generates income from the production of toiletries and honey, as well as from tourism.
Far from being a relic of the past, the idealism, and sense of purpose that characterizes the traditional kibbutz still exists, and enables the kibbutzim of today to compete successfully in the development of new and innovative technologies. The example of Kibbutz Shamir suggests that the current war will not reduce the level of Israeli innovation.
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, who taught at the University of Waterloo.
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Antisemitic Incidents at Argentina Local Soccer Match Spark Official Investigations, Condemnations
Fans of Argentinian soccer club All Boys marched through the streets before their match against Atlanta soccer club, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag alongside Iranian and Palestinian flags. Photo: Screenshot
Argentinian authorities and soccer officials have launched investigations following antisemitic incidents by Club Atlético All Boys fans during Sunday’s local match against Atlanta.
Atlanta, a soccer team based in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, has deep historical ties to Argentina’s Jewish community, which has long been a significant presence in the area.
This latest antisemitic incident took place outside the stadium before the game had even started.
All Boys fans were seen waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, carrying a coffin draped with an Israeli flag, and handing out flyers bearing messages like “Free Palestine” and “Israel and Atlanta are the same crap.”
Before a football match today against the Argentine sports club Atlanta, which is closely associated with the Jewish community, fans of the opposing team, All Boys, waved Islamic Republic and Palestinian flags while parading a coffin draped in an Israeli flag through the streets.… pic.twitter.com/IQs4v6eoFz
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 29, 2025
Then, during the match — which ended in a 0-0 draw — a drone carrying a Palestinian flag flew over the stadium, while some fans reportedly chanted anti-Israel slogans.
Local police confirmed they have issued citations to individuals accused of inciting public disorder and related offenses.
On Monday, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) condemned the incidents as “abhorrent” and confirmed the organization has opened a formal inquiry into the events.
“This is not folklore. This is discrimination,” the statement reads.
Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich also announced that a criminal complaint has been filed, citing “acts of violence, expressions of racial and religious hatred, and public intimidation.”
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, condemned the incidents and called on both local authorities and the soccer officials to “take firm action against these acts of hatred.”
“We urge the authorities to take all necessary actions and apply the full force of the law,” the statement reads. “Violence and discrimination must have no place in our society.”
Repudiamos enérgicamente las expresiones antisemitas ocurridas hoy en las inmediaciones del estadio Malvinas Argentinas.
Exigimos a las autoridades correspondientes, a la AFA y al Club All Boys que actúen con firmeza ante estos hechos de odio.
La violencia y la discriminación no… pic.twitter.com/3AmY7IQscY— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) June 29, 2025
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Argentina has experienced a surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Jewish hate crimes.
According to a recent report by DAIA, Argentina experienced a 15 percent increase in antisemitic activity last year, with 687 anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded — up from 598 incidents in 2023 — marking a significant rise nationwide.
The study indicates that 66 percent of the antisemitic incidents originated in the digital realm, with a significant rise in Nazi symbols and conspiracy theories, but there was also a 34 percent increase in reported physical assaults, with such hate crimes rising in schools and neighborhoods.
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Iranian nuclear program degraded by up to two years, Pentagon says
A satellite image of Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility. Photo: File.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran’s nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the U.S. military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was “probably closer to two years.” Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.
“We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department [of Defense] assess that,” Parnell told a news briefing.
U.S. military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
The evolving U.S. intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran’s program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday’s briefing.
Such conclusions often take the U.S. intelligence community weeks or more to determine.
“All of the intelligence that we’ve seen [has] led us to believe that Iran’s — those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated,” Parnell said.
Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran’s nuclear program have been.
Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.
A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran’s nuclear program was severely damaged.
According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.
“No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged,” Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.
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Switzerland Moves to Close Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s Geneva Office Over Legal Irregularities
Palestinians carry aid supplies received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Switzerland has moved to shut down the Geneva office of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US- and Israeli-backed aid group, citing legal irregularities in its establishment.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
With a subsidiary registered in Geneva, the GHF — headquartered in Delaware — reports having delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
According to a regulatory announcement published Wednesday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce, the Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) may order the dissolution of the GHF if no creditors come forward within the legal 30-day period.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Swiss decision to shut down its Geneva office.
“The GHF confirmed to the ESA that it had never carried out activities in Switzerland … and that it intends to dissolve the Geneva-registered branch,” the ESA said in a statement.
Last week, Geneva authorities gave the GHF a 30-day deadline to address legal shortcomings or risk facing enforcement measures.
Under local laws and regulations, the foundation failed to meet several requirements: it did not appoint a board member authorized to sign documents domiciled in Switzerland, did not have the minimum three board members, lacked a Swiss bank account and valid address, and operated without an auditing body.
The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these vehicles are more neutral.
Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort.
The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.
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