Hard Look / An agenda acceptable to all

On Sunday night, I spent the evening at a parents-teacher meeting at which we were told the municipality could no longer finance "small" classes with 25 to 30 kids each.

The next morning, the headline of Haaretz read, "Eli Yishai seeks to expand area, budget of West Bank settlements." The article elaborated that Interior Minister Yishai, chairman of the Shas party, told the Yesha council of settlements that he would be allocating tens of millions of shekels to developing West Bank settlements.

Putting aside possibly feminist reaction to this peacock response to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo, I thought: What would have been my reaction if the headline had read "Yishai to allocate a third of West Bank development budget to incorporating new Israeli water and electrical technology in new building initiatives."

It would have been a beacon of light to all, regardless of personal politics. Money would be allocated not just to a small, nonproductive segment of the population: it would actually serve high priority economic interests. Allocating funds to develop the local clean-tech industry is probably as important to our kids as it should be to the settlers' kids.

Israel has many young companies developing technologies the world desperately needs, including in the field of water treatment and tapping renewable energy. Meanwhile, Israel's traditional high-tech sector has been losing some of its edge. It is high time, and a national priority, for Israel to cultivate the new industrial seeds.

For Israel's early-stage companies to compete globally, they must first prove their ability to scale up projects and show a decent return on investment.

If Israeli government funds are not allocated to allow proof of concept, the chances of this industry rising and closing the gap opened by countries such as Germany and Spain is questionable.

Yesterday, the Reut Institute held a conference in Tel Aviv, to publicize and advance its "Israel 15" plan, aimed to place Israel among the world's 15 most developed nations, in terms of quality of life. "Leapfrogging" to a higher quality of life requires sustainable high growth. Closing the gap with most developed nations is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

With 40 kids to a class and scanty government funds allocated to raising these children and our nascent industries, I doubt that will happen.

The author is the business development manager at I.B.I.