WEBVTT

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My name is Avi Yoresh.

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I'm a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, which is based here in Washington,

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D.C.

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And I recently authored a book called, Thou Shalt Innovate, How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs

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the World, which features 15 innovations that have gone global, 15 Israeli innovations that

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have gone global and positively influenced the lives of billions of people around the

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world.

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What's the inspiration behind this innovative power of the Jewish minds?

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I normally attribute it to a number of different items, but primarily we've had a prophetic

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tradition over the course of 3,000 years.

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Our prophets have been telling us for about 3,000 years, be a light onto the nations.

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Everything in Jewish history and in Jewish culture, our prophets primarily have been telling

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us to take the mundane and turn it holy.

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For example, on Saturday nights, when we separate between the Sabbath and the rest of the week,

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we make special blessings.

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When we eat, we make special blessings.

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When we go to the bathroom, we make special blessings.

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Everything in our lives in Judaism revolves around taking something very ordinary and elevating

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it.

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Now Jews as a whole, we're not a nation of saints, but we do believe that the purpose

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in life is to take something ordinary and elevate it.

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And this is baked in to the cultural DNA of the state of Israel.

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When Ben-Gurion declared the state of Israel 70 years ago, he did two things.

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One, he encouraged all Jews to come back to the state of Israel and participate in this

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modern day miracle.

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And the other, he declared, he said, he baked in a messianic principle.

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And he said, Israel has the responsibility and the privilege to tackle some of the world's

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greatest challenges in the 20th century.

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In the United States and other parts of the world, Jews have come to believe that this

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concept is known as tikkun olam, or making the world a better place.

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And in Israel, primarily, this idea of tikkun olam, this idea of making the world a better

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place, has been manifested through technology.

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If one person can walk, perhaps all of us can solve the idea of not having to be in a wheelchair.

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If we can grow vegetables and one person can eat, perhaps we can solve world hunger.

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And in Israel, this technology is helping improve the lives of billions of people when it comes

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to science, when it comes to medicine, when it comes to applications, when it comes to

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saving lives, when it comes to technology.

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All of these ways in which Israeli technology innovation is leveraged around the world.

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When it comes to water, when it comes to birds, when it comes to medicine, Israeli technology

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is being used around the world to improve the lives of billions of people.

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And I think your viewers, especially in Turkey, are going to be certainly aware of the fact

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that in Turkey, we're experiencing in the last few years, massive, massive water crisis.

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In large part because of drought, but also because of climate change.

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And as we prognosticate and as we look forward over the course of the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years,

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we're seeing massive water crises around the world.

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But for your viewers in Turkey, Israel has completely solved its water crisis.

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In 2013, it declared water independence from the water, from its neighbors, and from the

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weather.

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And it did this primarily through a few means.

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One, it uses drip irrigation.

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Drip irrigation is a small plastic tube which drips water.

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It's used by farmers around the world.

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Over a billion people around the world use this irrigation system.

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It uses a third less water and it doubles the yield.

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So that's one way.

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Secondly, Israel recycles all of its water.

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When you go to the bathroom and you flush the toilet, Israel removes the waste and then

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recycles 90% of its water and then it uses it in the irrigation system.

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The second country down uses about somewhere 12, 13, 14% and in the United States we only

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recycle 8% of the water.

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There's a big difference between 90% and 8%.

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Or take, for example, desalination.

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Israel has six desalination plants which are used by the population to drink water.

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I mean, Israel has also created, has built the largest desalination plants in California,

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in India, and China.

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As a result of mastering this technology, Israel has a surplus of water, not a deficit of water.

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And as you look over the course of the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, as Turkey experiences a

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massive water crisis, it should look to Israel to solve its water crisis.

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This technology can be used around the world and people should benefit from that particular

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knowledge and that technology.

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So let me start by saying that Israel's hand is outstretched in peace and it's outstretched

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in a desire to really help humankind through its technology.

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Since the Middle Ages and possibly before, we have been reciting a prayer called the Elenu

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prayer.

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Three times a day, we're instructed to repair the world.

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We believe we're partners with God in spreading morality and social justice.

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In the Mishnah, our classic rabbinic code since the second century AD, we're told no less

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than 10 times that we have to repair the world for the sake of those who are less advantage

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than we are.

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The prophet Isaiah calls on all of us to be a light onto the nations.

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And as you look at this DNA, Israel is acting as a light onto the nations.

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It is using its technology and improving the lives of billions of people.

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Take for example, in recent years Israel created the two most used drugs around the world for

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multiple sclerosis.

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There are 2.5 million people around the world who experience multiple sclerosis and two of

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the top drugs treat over a million people.

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Almost 50% of these people are using drugs that are coming from Israel.

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Or take for example, in Turkey, there are 1.2 million traffic accidents a year.

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About 20%, about 200,000 people either die or are injured as a result of these particular

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traffic accidents.

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About 10 years ago, Israel created an unbelievable application.

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First of all, they trained a massive number of emergency responders, EMT, to get to the scene

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of a crisis as quickly as possible.

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In order to get there, they have an application on their phone.

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The five nearest people to the scene of an emergency get an alert to get there as quickly

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as possible.

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And to get there, they use a, not an ambulance, an ambulance generally in Israel and in the

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United States, and I suspect around the world, it takes about 20 minutes to get to the scene

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of an emergency.

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But there are, in Israel, the average is three minutes, not for an ambulance, but for an

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emergency responder to get there.

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It's three minutes.

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And in cities, major cities, it's 90 seconds.

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The number of lives that are saved is a very, very short amount of time.

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This is not meant to replace ambulances, but to get there, they use a half ambulance,

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half motorcycle.

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So you have emergency responders everywhere in Israel.

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They use an application on their phone in order to get alerted.

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And to get there, they use a half ambulance, half motorcycle called an ambu-cycle to get

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there extraordinarily quickly.

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Millions of people every single year, their lives are saved as a result of this particular

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technology.

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If I were to experience a heart attack right here, right now, generally, it depends on the

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level of heart attack, but you really, in order to effectively treat someone, you have

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about six minutes.

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So if an ambulance takes 20 minutes to get there, you're losing a massive number of life

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can be saved if you can get there in three minutes or less.

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And this is technology that is usable all over the world.

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In fact, 20 countries around the world are now using this particular technology in order

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to save life.

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Or take, for example, in Turkey.

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There's a massive infrastructure project that's taking place, primarily in the form of an airport

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on the European side of Istanbul, the European side of the continent.

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Unfortunately, it's blocking, or it will block when it's fully completed.

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It blocks birds that are migrating from Europe to Africa.

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Israel has about a billion birds that fly through its aerospace every single year.

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And as a result of one scientist who flew at the birds and mapped out their migration patterns,

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Israel doesn't have a problem when it comes to birds hitting planes.

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Unfortunately, if Turkey is not careful, it will find, when it builds this airport,

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with planes that are taking off or landing, it will find birds hitting it.

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In fact, in the United States, one bird every single day hits an airplane.

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And that's, in large part, why we see not a small number of airplane accidents,

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including in 2009 when an airplane was forced to land on the Hudson River

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through a very famous movie that came out because of a bird hitting a plane.

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Israel solved this problem.

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It has the ability to help other countries around the world

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to leverage its technology and its know-how.

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You cannot divert birds. Birds are not able to, you can't instruct a bird, move here or go there.

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We have to deal with the birds, not the birds deal with us.

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And so Israel has put in place loud speakers, dogs that bark, scarecrows,

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but primarily it's through understanding the patterns of birds,

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when they fly, when they do not, where they fly, and where they do not.

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But you have to fly with the birds.

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You have to understand their migration patterns in order to ensure

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that when there's high numbers of birds that are going in, that you avoid them.

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And that you have zones where planes do not fly, take off, or land as they go in or go up.

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Israel's hand is outstretched in peace.

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The State of Israel is here to take its technology and help Muslims around the world.

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Israeli technology is used in places like Turkey, like the Arabian Gulf.

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It's used throughout the world.

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Part of the cultural DNA of the State of Israel is to help solve some of the gravest challenges.

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And the State of Israel is there to help anyone which wishes to use its tech and improve their lives.

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Farmers around the world are leveraging this technology.

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Muslims are using this technology.

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Christians are using this technology.

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Israel has its hand outstretched in peace.

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Thank you.

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And I hope that you will buy, it's all featured in my book, Thou Shalt Innovate, How Israel, How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World.

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All of these examples are featured there.

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In fact, I feature 15 stories and 50 more.

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It's called, Thou Shalt Innovate, How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World.

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In this particular book you'll find 15 examples of how Israeli technology is used globally around the world

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to influence the lives of 15 billion people.

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And I feature another 15 in the back of the book.

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But all of these stories in the book are being used by billions of people to make the world a better place.

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Kristoff

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Thank you so much.

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So, yes, in these stories up here

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the theme of this book was 이것