opinion
Iran Not the Only Threat That Middle
East Countries Can Unite Around
BY AVI HASSON
W 20
APRIL 7, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Israelis can’t do it alone. Innovation cannot exist without
collaboration: whether among scientists, entrepreneurs,
companies or countries. There’s no way of achieving any of
our goals by working in independent silos.

JeanUrsulaw / gettyimages
hen the foreign ministers of
four Arab countries, the United
States and Israel gathered last week
for the fi rst time, they did not sit in
Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, or its military
headquarters in Tel Aviv. The historic
ministerial for Egypt, the United Arab
Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Israel and
America took place at Sde Boker in
the Negev Desert.

The secluded kibbutz, where
Israel’s fi rst prime minister, David
Ben-Gurion, lived out his last years
with his wife, Paula — and where
they are both buried — symbolizes
to Israelis the grit, innovation and
social solidarity necessary to build a
modern state.

By choosing that spot, the six
countries were showing their readi-
ness to confront shared challenges
through those very same traits. The
18 months since the signing of the
Abraham Accords among Israel, the
UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan
(which did not send a representative)
have demonstrated that the benefi ts
of cooperation extend far beyond
security and survival to include long-
term prosperity for all the people of
the region.

“What we are doing here is making
history, building a new regional archi-
tecture based on progress, tech-
nology, religious tolerance, security
and intelligence cooperation,” said
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid,
echoing Ben-Gurion’s assertion that
history is made, not written. Lapid
was not alone. The ministers agreed
to form working groups on health,
food security, energy, tourism, secu-
rity and education.

Israel, though historically poor in
natural resources, has emerged in
recent years as a world leader in the
fi eld of innovation and entrepreneur-
ship. Start-Up Nation Central, the
nonprofi t I lead, which is dedicated
to strengthening the Israeli inno-
vation ecosystem and promoting it
around the world, regularly tracks
and reports on the constantly grow-
ing and maturing Israeli high-tech
industry, and has a fi rsthand view
of how that impacts Israel’s inter-
national relations. We see how the
same attributes that drove Israelis
to excel in innovation — ingenu-
ity, agility and a willingness to take
risks — make it a magnet for foreign
governments, investors and corpo-
rations. Long established in cybersecu-
rity and fi ntech, Israel’s innovation
ecosystem is now well-positioned
to help tackle some of the major
threats of our times. Hundreds of
companies are active in the fi elds
of health tech, agritech and climate
tech, helping provide solutions to
problems all over the world.

But Israelis can’t do it alone.

Innovation cannot exist without col-
laboration: whether among scien-
tists, entrepreneurs, companies or
countries. There’s no way of achiev-
ing any of our goals by working in
independent silos. We look forward
to the day when we can conduct
business, design research programs
and exchange tourists with the hun-
dreds of millions of people who live
in countries we cannot yet visit or
even call on the phone.

The Abraham Accords aff ord us
the opportunity to show the value
of those partnerships. They are a
striking example of what we call
“Innovation Diplomacy” — leverag-
ing innovation as a frictionless chan-
nel to tackle shared challenges and
achieve common goals.

“The Abraham Accords are making
the lives of people across your coun-
tries more peaceful, more prosper-
ous, more vibrant, more integrated,”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken said in his closing remarks of
the Negev Summit. “They’re allowing
governments to focus their energies
and attentions on the issues that are
actually aff ecting the lives of our citi-
zens and making them better.”
I applaud the secretary of state
for his words and call on American
and regional leaders to build on the
promise presented in last week’s
historic summit by developing a
regional forum that focuses on fi nd-
ing technological solutions to our
shared challenges.

In his speech, UAE Foreign
Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed
Al Nahyan lamented 43 years of
not “knowing each other better, of
working together, and of changing
the narrative that many generations
of Israelis and Arabs have been liv-
ing,” that were squandered since
the signing of the 1979 peace agree-
ment between Egypt and Israel. In
the interest of future generations,
we must not waste any more time. JE
Avi Hasson is CEO of Start-Up Nation
Central, a nonprofi t organization that
addresses the Israeli innovation eco-
system’s most pressing needs and
broadcasts its strengths to the world.