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Israel’s Entrepreneurial and Innovative Power Can Help Overcome This Crisis
An aerial view shows vehicles on fire as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel October 7, 2023. REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
Numerous testimonies clearly illustrate that crises and catastrophic events — and the period of uncertainty that often follows them — are the most opportune times to abandon a “business as usual” approach, and to opt instead for innovation and entrepreneurship as a lever for renewal and growth.
Recent crises such as global pandemics, financial crises, and wars demonstrate that the most effective way to navigate successfully in crisis situations is through entrepreneurial thinking, which stimulates creative solutions, the development of new products, and the establishment of innovative processes.
What is entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial thinking?
Some define it as the ability to identify or create high-potential opportunities to increase existing value through smart utilization of resources. Others call it the relentless pursuit of opportunities that require resources not readily available. Regardless how it is defined, entrepreneurship is clearly the driving force behind the tremendous growth of the economy and technology in recent decades.
In the rapidly changing landscape of the 21st century, economic growth and prosperity are propelled by the ability to innovate and foster entrepreneurship. In the contemporary business world, innovation serves as a means to create value. Over the past decades, entrepreneurial start-ups have emerged as major drivers of global markets.
A defining characteristic of these start-ups is their remarkable ability to grow rapidly and disruptively innovate. A brief glance at global statistics in the field of start-ups reveals that there are currently around 150 million worldwide, with approximately 50 million more added each year. This averages to about 137,000 new startups established every day. While only about 10% survive, the numbers speak for themselves.
In rare cases, a brilliant idea is enough to spark a process that will turn it into a genuine solution to a pressing problem. But without courage, perseverance, determination, and true belief in the goal, even the best ideas are unlikely to evolve into successful products or processes. These attributes are not only the most prominent characteristics of the successful entrepreneur but are also essential for overcoming and emerging strengthened from crises.
The strong connection between crisis management and entrepreneurship has proven itself throughout history, particularly in recent decades. Examples like the recovery of Japan and Tokyo from the devastation of World War II highlight the role of entrepreneurs in the revitalization process. Visionaries like Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic; and Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda, represent the entrepreneurial spirit that drove the recovery. Emphasis on innovative production methods, commitment to quality and revolutionary approaches to mobility and transportation contributed significantly to the revival of Tokyo’s industrial base and laid the foundations for Japan’s economic resurgence after the war, illustrating how entrepreneurship can act as a powerful force for recovery and change.
Another example is the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which turned large parts of the city into islands of devastation. Economic and social entrepreneurs were the driving forces behind the city’s recovery, rebuilding social and community infrastructure. Social initiatives such as the Make It Right Foundation sought not only to provide housing options but also to address systemic issues and create sustainable solutions, focusing on the community’s recovery. Initiatives that included unique business models, such as Community Land Trusts and public-private partnerships, highlighted the role of entrepreneurship not only in the reconstruction of buildings but also in the reconstruction of the community itself. The establishment of the Idea Village accelerator, which supported local entrepreneurs, also contributed to the city’s recovery by fostering economic resilience and creating a sense of community capability in the rebuilding process.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic presented the world with new challenges that required revolutionary initiatives and rapid responses to the new situation. Many entrepreneurs worldwide, including in Israel, mobilized to address these challenges.
Many companies redirected their planning and production capabilities to meet the growing demand for personal protective equipment. Numerous technological start-ups emerged and provided innovative solutions for remote work and online education. The pandemic emphasized the need for agility, adaptability, problem-solving skills, and the ability to innovate. Many governments recognized the potential of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and implemented measures such as grants, loans, and fast-track regulatory processes to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in various fields, such as the rapid development and distribution of tests and vaccines.
These efforts demonstrated how entrepreneurial initiatives serve as a significant catalyst for recovery and resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges. The key takeaway from these cases is that nurturing an environment that encourages and supports entrepreneurship is crucial for building sustainable and resilient communities capable of adapting, recovering, and thriving after disasters.
On October 7, 2023, Israel experienced a catastrophe. The murderous attack by Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas on the southern communities left the region devastated and the communities shattered and scattered across the entire country.
In response, the Israeli government declared the establishment of a “Resurrection Administration” that will focus on the recovery of the region. The administration will operate for a five-year period and will report directly to the Office of the Prime Minister. The initial budget allocated to it stands at one billion shekels. Its object is to restore residents to their homes and strengthen the social and economic infrastructure of the region.
The decision to establish the administration is undoubtedly a major step in the right direction towards revitalization. A statement by Brig. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Edri, who heads the administration, made clear that its mission will not end with the rehabilitation of all infrastructure and the return of the residents to their homes, but will also include strengthening and developing the local economy, creating new job opportunities, and expanding growth into new dimensions.
To achieve this complex vision, the healing power of entrepreneurship and innovation must be enlisted. The administration should turn to entrepreneurship and innovation as a primary tool that will enable the rapid healing of the region. It should do so by putting mechanisms in place that will encourage entrepreneurs and capital owners to invest their time and money not only in reviving but also in further developing the infrastructure, economy, and local communities of the region. This will support the reconstruction process and attract visionaries and skilled workers to the region who can help transform the local economy, currently based mainly on agriculture, into a booming hub of hi-tech and innovation.
The State of Israel is unique in that it has maintained economic growth while remaining embroiled in a prolonged military conflict ever since its inception. Over the years, Israel’s growth strategy was, and still is, directly tied to its level of investment in innovation and entrepreneurship. In the Global Competitiveness Report for 2018/19, which ranked 141 countries, Israel was ranked first in entrepreneurial culture. Israel’s risk capital-raising rate is among the highest in the world per capita and it is often referred to as the “Start-Up Nation”.
Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship is more than capable of rising to the challenge created by the October 7 catastrophe, but words alone will not suffice. The Israeli government must put its money where its mouth is and actively push towards turning the vision into reality.
Nir Reuven is a researcher at the BESA Center, an engineer, and a former officer in the Merkava development program (the main Israeli battle tank). He has held several management positions in the Israeli hi-tech industry and is an expert on technology. Currently he is co-manager of the Sapir College Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. He is working on his Ph.D. and lectures at Bar-Ilan University. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
The post Israel’s Entrepreneurial and Innovative Power Can Help Overcome This Crisis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Blocks Ramallah Meeting with Arab Ministers, Israeli Official Says
A closed Israeli military gate stands near Ramallah in the West Bank, February 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after Arab ministers planning to attend were stopped from coming.
The move, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government announced one of the largest expansions of settlements in the West Bank in years, underlined escalating tensions over the issue of international recognition of a future Palestinian state.
Saturday’s meeting comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, that is due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood, which Israel fiercely opposes.
The delegation of senior Arab officials due to visit Ramallah – including the Jordanian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian and Bahraini foreign ministers – postponed the visit after “Israel’s obstruction of it,” Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the block was “a clear breach of Israel’s obligations as an occupying force.”
The ministers required Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Saudi source told Reuters that Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud had delayed a planned trip to the West Bank.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
Palestinians want the West Bank territory, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the core of a future state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
But the area is now criss-crossed with settlements that have squeezed some 3 million Palestinians into pockets increasingly cut off from each other though a network of military checkpoints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the announcement this week of 22 new settlements in the West Bank was an “historic moment” for settlements and “a clear message to Macron.” He said recognition of a Palestinian state would be “thrown into the dustbin of history.”
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Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday as officials waited for Hamas to respond to the latest ceasefire proposals.
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close but Hamas has said it is still studying the latest proposals from his special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the proposals.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
At the same time, a separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on the social media platform X.
NO BREAD IN WEEKS
The World Food Program said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Overnight on Saturday, he said trucks had been stopped by armed groups near Khan Younis as they were headed towards a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and hundreds of desperate people had carried off supplies.
“We could understand that some are driven by hunger and starvation, some may not have eaten bread in several weeks, but we can’t understand armed looting, and it is not acceptable at all,” he said.
Israel says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
The post Gaza Aid Supplies Hit by Looting as Hamas Ceasefire Response Awaited first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Hamas said on Saturday it was seeking amendments to a US-backed proposal for a temporary ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, but President Donald Trump’s envoy rejected the group’s response as “totally unacceptable.”
The Palestinian terrorist group said it was willing to release 10 living hostages and hand over the bodies of 18 dead in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. But Hamas reiterated demands for an end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, conditions Israel has rejected.
A Hamas official described the group’s response to the proposals from Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff as “positive” but said it was seeking some amendments. The official did not elaborate on the changes being sought by the group.
“This response aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to our people in the Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.
The proposals would see a 60-day truce and the exchange of 28 of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, along with the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that among amendments Hamas is seeking is the release of the hostages in three phases over the 60-day truce and more aid distribution in different areas. Hamas also wants guarantees the deal will lead to a permanent ceasefire, the official said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to the Hamas statement.
Israel has previously rejected Hamas’ conditions, instead demanding the complete disarmament of the group and its dismantling as a military and governing force, along with the return of all 58 remaining hostages.
Trump said on Friday he believed a ceasefire agreement was close after the latest proposals, and the White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to the terms.
Saying he had received Hamas’ response, Witkoff wrote in a posting on X: “It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward. Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.”
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had killed Mohammad Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza chief on May 13, confirming what Netanyahu said earlier this week.
Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the group’s deceased leader and mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was the target of an Israeli strike on a hospital in southern Gaza. Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied his death.
The Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said on Saturday it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza, including sniper posts and had killed what it said was the head of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site.
The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.
On Saturday, aid groups said dozens of World Food Program trucks carrying flour to Gaza bakeries had been hijacked by armed groups and subsequently looted by people desperate for food after weeks of mounting hunger.
“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” the WFP said in a statement.
‘A MOCKERY’
The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade earlier this month.
The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the start of the war 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.
“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery of the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main U.N. relief organization for Palestinians, said in a message on X.
Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Program and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.
A separate system, run by a US-backed group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been delivering meals and food packages at three designated distribution sites.
However, aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, which they say is not neutral, and say the amount of aid allowed in falls far short of the needs of a population at risk of famine.
Amjad Al-Shawa, head of an umbrella group representing Palestinian aid groups, said the dire situation was being exploited by armed groups which were attacking some of the aid convoys.
He said hundreds more trucks were needed and accused Israel of a “systematic policy of starvation.”
Israel denies operating a policy of starvation and says it is facilitating aid deliveries, pointing to its endorsement of the new GHF distribution centers and its consent for other aid trucks to enter Gaza.
Instead it accuses Hamas of stealing supplies intended for civilians and using them to entrench its hold on Gaza, which it had been running since 2007.
Hamas denies looting supplies and has executed a number of suspected looters.
The post Hamas Seeks Changes in US Gaza Proposal; Witkoff Calls Response ‘Unacceptable’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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