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JERUSALEM, Nov. 26, 2003 — Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres is 80 years old, yet he is far from a seaside retirement. He’s still busy promoting peace in the Middle East and participating in day-to-day politics as chairman of the opposition Labor Party.
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Recently, he’s also been busy promoting a little something for his country’s future: nanotechnology.
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While he’s widely known as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Israeli prime minister, Peres gets a little less worldwide attention as one of the founding fathers of Israel’s high-tech industry. That’s why many nanotech observers were surprised when Peres was chosen as the keynote speaker at September’s World Nano-Economic Congress in Washington, D.C. But even in these troubled times in the Middle East, Peres is hard at work promoting nanotechnology as a means of maintaining Israel’s scientific and technological position in the world.
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“Imagine a computer the size of a pin, or tiny robots 1/800th the size of a human hair which can navigate inside a human body and attack and destroy malignant cells like those that carry cancer or other terminal diseases,” Peres said in a recent interview with Small Times in Jerusalem.
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Even if Peres’ idea of nanotechnology is a trifle overly optimistic, it does fire the imagination. And it helps raise money, not to mention a potential for national prestige.
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Israeli officials see their country’s nanotechnology program as a potential example to other smaller nations not only in the Middle East, but also in Eastern and Central Europe where, like Israel, there are highly trained scientists, but limited financial resources.
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Peres believes that nanotechnology will bring about an economic revolution, and Israel should be in the picture. So he is leading an effort to raise money for the Israel Nanotechnology Trust, which will use the funds to enhance Israel’s nanotechnology infrastructure.
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Peres says it is possible to raise up to $300 million from private individuals and organizations.
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“In the past, major donors had forests and buildings throughout Israel named after them. In the future, they can have nanoscientific discoveries or developments named after them.”
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Peres does not view his promotion of peace with the Palestinians and advocacy of nanotechnology as entirely separate endeavors. He believes that the two are complementary. “My efforts to promote nanotechnology are part of the national effort to give the economy a techno-scientific orientation, which will bring Israel many economic benefits and much scope for cooperating with neighboring states,” he said. “This cooperation will help promote their economic growth and increase the standard of living of its citizens, and this is one of the best ways to promote a lasting and equitable peace.”
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In the meantime, the Israeli government already has shown support for nanotechnology, according to Einat Wilf, the trust’s managing director.
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“We are a small country with limited financial resources,” Wilf said. Yet, according to her calculations, the Israeli government invested a larger portion of its 2002 gross domestic product (GDP) in nanotech than did Japan or the United States. Israel committed $20 million, or about .02 percent of its GDP. Japan spent about $630 million, or .016 percent and the United States earmarked around $600 million, or .005 percent of its GDP, she said.
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“What really counts in the long run is the actual money invested,” she said. “If we want to keep abreast of global developments in nanotechnology, we must invest more. That is what the trust is all about.”
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Nano with a national goal
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Israel has at least 25 private companies developing nano products and more than 200 ongoing research projects in Israeli universities and institutes. But whether Israel’s research efforts should serve its national interests or simply serve science is under debate.
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Israeli scientists can choose their research topics, but some experts argue that this freedom does not make economic sense in a country with limited financial resources. Moshe Shahaf, general partner of Vertex Israel, the country’s second-largest VC fund, said that while academic freedom is important, he’d prefer to channel limited resources into specific areas “in which Israel could specialize.”
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In the dry, hot Mideast, that means water and energy could be top priorities — areas which Wilf said are useful to the economic well being of the country. Israel has targeted those two areas, along with telecommunications and software, as most suitable for development.
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The country already is strong in the telecom and solar energy sectors, and could maintain or expand its position through nanotech, Wilf said. As an arid nation, Israel could benefit from nanotech-based methods for purifying and desalinizing water. “While Israel’s leading position in the development of software places it in a good position to develop algorithms to manage the complexities of nano processes,” she said.
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Ron Folman, a researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, agrees that while academic freedom should be supported, “for the sake of financial expediency it stands to reason that large investments should be coordinated by a scientific national organization that would at least ensure minimum redundancy in capital equipment.”
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But Uri Sivan, a professor at Technion, Israel’s leading technological institute, warns that restrictions could stifle the still-young field. “The best way to realize Israel’s potential to become a leading nanotechnology global research center is by giving scope to the existing ideas and research capabilities in this country,” he said. “With time the system will find the best areas in which to specialize.”
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Nano-Zionism
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Regardless of where Israel’s researchers decide to focus, the major stumbling block is still lack of money. And that, Wilf said, is where the philanthropic trust can step in.
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Here, too, is where Peres can help out the most — by using his influence on major private philanthropists and Jewish organizations around the world. He’s doing this by presenting nanotechnology not as an Israeli national project, but rather one on the scale of the entire Zionist endeavor, which has been a worldwide process of Jewish nation building since the late 1800s. By promoting nanotech as a Zionist project, Peres, a major figure in Zionist history himself, is announcing the importance he places on nanotechnology’s potential role in the historical narrative of Zionism.
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Peres also believes this project can renew the partnership between Israel and worldwide Jewry, which is often severely strained over issues of war and religion.
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But even if the Israel Nanotechnology Trust raises its goal of $300 million, that is still not enough to create a world-class nanotech industry. That would need to come through financing by the business sector in the same way it financed Israel’s creation of a vibrant general high-tech industry. The government started the ball rolling some 10 years ago with generous credits, but since then some $20 billion dollars have been invested by the private sector. Half of these are direct investments by Israeli VC funds and the other half direct investments from overseas VCs as well as private and institutional investors.
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Shahaf, of Vertex Israel, sees no problem with the same thing happening in Israel’s nanotechnology industry. “Venture capital funds will eventually invest in nano projects. In the meantime, I know that there are some good nanotechnology startup companies around. We would be willing to invest in these, if their technology is viable, the business plan potentially profitable and will be commercialized in a life span of not more than five years.”
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Meanwhile, it’s the government that is taking the lead. Mody Sandberg, Israel’s minister of science and technology, would eventually like to promote nanotech cooperation with Western countries such as Germany and the United States. But for now, he’s happy to talk to Russia. Israel and the Russian Federation have set up a binational research fund to finance joint scientific projects, including nanotechnology.