Does the Start-Up Nation brand need a rebrand? - with Yonatan Adiri and Yael Wissner Levy

**Dan Senor** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_3** (0:46)
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**Dan Senor** (0:52)
It's a real politik analysis. It's like, yes, Israel is unpopular. Yes, there's a lot of noise around Israel, but we kind of need Israel. And I think that transcends. That's in the tech scene. That's in capitals, in countries around the world that want to make sure they have a good intelligence, strategic and military relationship with Israel. So it's less romantic. It's less quote unquote about shared values. And it's more about what can we get out of this relationship? Do we need it? The brand hasn't expired for cold blooded strategic decision makers sitting atop companies or sitting atop governments. I think with the quote unquote public, it's a different situation.
It's 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 2nd in Israel. It's 12 p.m. on Thursday, July 2nd in New York City, where we Americans are preparing to celebrate and honor the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding and independence. So much to honor and celebrate. It's also why we are taping this a few days early in bringing you one of the most popular episodes of one of our other Ark Media podcasts, What's Your Number.
What's Your Number covers the outsized impact of Israeli companies on the world stage and the latest developments affecting Israel's own economy. It's co-hosted by Yonatan Adiri, an Israeli entrepreneur and a former advisor to Shimon Peres, and Yael Wissner Levy, Chief Communications Officer at cybersecurity company TenZai, and a former speechwriter and journalist herself. Yonatan and Yael asked me to be their guest on their What's Your Number podcast in a different capacity than when I host Call Me Back. They wanted me on in the capacity as co-author of the book Start-Up Nation, The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, which I co-wrote with Saul Singer over a decade and a half ago. Yael and Yonatan put me on the spot about whether Israel can still be considered a Start-Up Nation. And if that brand and the reality behind it are in trouble, especially as it seems that the walls are closing in on Israel from just about every corner of the world. It was a spirited conversation, forcing me to ponder some issues and challenges facing Israel that I typically don't get to kick around in my other conversations on Call Me Back. Before this conversation, I want to say a few words about my friend Zaki Djemal from Tel Aviv whose life was tragically cut short a few months ago. He was just 38 years old. A memorial service was held last week for him in New York City as he had many friends and investors around the world who could not be at his funeral in Israel.
I got to know Zaki through his venture fund, where he backed some of Israel's most innovative start-ups and mentored promising Israeli entrepreneurs. Zaki was also civically engaged, working with organizations like Israel Aid around the world and also working locally on efforts to deepen Jewish-Arab-Israeli ties inside Israel.
Zaki was in New York City when he suddenly died. During that visit, he sent me a white paper he had been working on titled Becoming Indispensable, National Security, Interdependence and Israel's Next Economic Chapter. He wanted to meet to discuss the paper. We never did get together on that trip, but Zaki's paper was still in draft form. With this paper, as with everything he did, he was always building for Israel's future, thinking about Israel's future, brainstorming about Israel's future, believing in Israel's future, including literally right up to the day he died. We will link to that draft in the show notes, as my sister Wendy Singer, who was helping him with the paper, has since published it in the Times of Israel. We will also link to the memorial service for him. If you want a model for having impact, including through the private sector, Zaki's life was as impressive a model you will find.
May his memory be for a blessing. Now on to today's conversation.