Start-up Nation

being a railroad official in Baghdad to an unskilled nobody. We suffered a terrible loss of identity. Looking back, I’d call it cultural repression. Behind their lofty ideals of ‘one people,’ they [the Jews of European origin] were acting superior, paternalistic.” Quoted in Donna Rosenthal, The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land (New York: Free Press, 2005), p. 116.

CHAPTER 8

. The Diaspora: Stealing Airplanes

1. Fred Vogelstein, “The Cisco Kid Rides Again,” Fortune, July 26, 2004; http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/07/26/377145/index.htm; and interview with Michael Laor, founder of Cisco Systems Development Center in Israel, February 2009.

2. Marguerite Reardon, “Cisco Router Makes Guinness World Records,” July 1, 2004, CNET News, http://news.cnet.com/Cisco-router -makes-Guinness-World-Records/2100-1033_3- 5254291.html?tag=nefd .top; retrieved January 2009.

3. Vogelstein, “The Cisco Kid Rides Again.”

4. Marguerite Reardon, “Cisco Sees Momentum in Sales of Key Router,” TechRepublic, December 6, 2004, http://articles.techrepublic .com.com/5100-22_11-5479086.html; and Cisco, press release, “Growth of Video Service Delivery Drives Sales of Cisco CRS-1, the World’s Most Powerful Routing Platform, to Double in Nine Months,” April 1, 2008, http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/prod_040108c.html.

5. Interview with Yoav Samet, Cisco’s corporate business development manager in Israel, Central/Eastern Europe, and Russia/CIS, January 2009.

6. Interview with Yoav Samet.

7. Richard Devane, “The Dynamics of Diaspora Networks: Lessons of Experience,” in Diaspora Networks and the International Migration Skills, edited by Yevgeny Kuznetsov (Washington, D.C.: World Bank Publications, 2006), pp. 59–67. The quote is from p. 60.

8. Jenny Johnston, “The New Argonauts: An Interview with AnnaLee Saxenian,” July 2006, GBN Global Business Network, http://thenewar gonauts.com/GBNinterview.pdf?aid=37652.

9. The information in this passage is drawn from Anthony David, The Sky Is the Limit: Al Schwimmer, the Founder of the Israeli Aircraft Industry (Tel Aviv: Schocken Books, 2008; in Hebrew); and the interview with Shimon Peres. Regarding the accounts of Peres and Schwimmer flying over the Arctic tundra and Schwimmer’s meeting with Ben-Gurion in the United States, see also Shimon Peres, David’s Sling (New York: Random House, 1970).

CHAPTER 9

. The Buffett Test

1. Interview with Yoelle Maarek, former director, Google’s R & D Center in Haifa, Israel, January 2009.

2. Joel Leyden, “Microsoft Bill Gates Takes Google, Terrorism War to Israel,” Israel News Agency, 2006, http://www.israelnewsagency.com/microsoftgoogleisraelseo581030.html; retrieved November 2008.

3. Quote from a transcript of a documentary film interview conducted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in 2007, provided to the authors.

4. Dan Senor is an investor in Vringo.

5. Interview with Alice Schroeder, author of The Snowball, 2008.

6. Uzi Rubin, “Hizballah’s Rocket Campaign Against Northern Israel: A Preliminary Report,” Jerusalem Issue Brief, vol. 6, no. 10 (August 31, 2006), http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief006-10.htm.

7. Interview with Eitan Wertheimer, chairman of the board of Iscar, January 2009.

8. Dov Frohman with Robert Howard, Leadership the Hard Way: Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught —and How You Can Learn It Anyway (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008), pp. 1–16. All quotes from Frohman in this passage come from this book.

9. Interviews in this passage with senior Intel executive were on background, December 2008.

10. Interview with Eitan Wertheimer.

CHAPTER 10

. Yozma: The Match

1. Jennifer Friedlin, “Woman on a Mission,” Jerusalem Post, April 20, 1997.

2. Interview with Orna Berry, partner in Gemini Israel Funds, and chairperson of several Gemini portfolio companies, January 2009.