Dateline: Tel Aviv
The reason I came to Israel was to see the institutional inventions that I expect Israeli's to generate. The main piece of the puzzle is now in place. For the first time in 3,000 years Jews are politically unified in Israel. Everyone agrees on the fence and the permanent separation from Palestinians. There is a deep feeling of consensus on that point.
Israel is already a society who's major export is R&D (research and development) in many tech and medical fields. Israel in peace time (now is such a time of relative peace) can grow faster than any other country in history (over 10% per annum). Israel should be creating new institutions. After a 1,000 year period of shtetle status quo, Jews are ready to explode with social invention.
So far I have only found five such innovations to report on. Multi-person-casualty procedures, In-vitro-fertilization morals, medical charity, Cinematheque and Azure. I will cover Azure later.
Multi-person casualty procedures weren't required in the past two weeks, so I haven't seen them. Fortunately. When a mass murder of civilians occurs TV covers the scene and covers the nearest admitting hospital. The whole live event is on TV so that the hundreds of emergency personnel involved can make individual decisions and act with the greatest possible speed. (Phones would be unreliable as everyone is phoning everyone. Every Israeli, reports to me, losing a friend or family member in a mass murder).
Lives are saved as a result. We desperately need this procedure in the U.S. but we will only get it after enough people have died needlessly.
I'm told, but have not confirmed, that Israel is the location for many of the in-vitro-fertilizations for Europeans and for most Middle Easterners. Israel has the most IVFs per capita in the world.
Many IVFs result in twins, some in triplets. The Israeli medical establishment decided to ban the birth of triplets resulting from IVF, and the responsibility to make sure that such births don't happen is laid on the IVF team. Triplets are socially and economically destructive for most families. This is good moral policy. IVF creates the problem, the medical teams doing IVF should be responsible for the outcomes.
Israeli's often tell me how much they love their medical system. They say it spontaneously. Medical care is free and comprehensive.
In Jerusalem I found a charity called Yad (hand of) Sarah. This group provides medical equipment free to everyone. Walkers, oxygen generators, hospital beds at home --- everything. They even install handles in bathrooms. All equipment gets returned and re-cycled. In the U.S. some equipment is rented, most is sold to users who give them or throw them away.
Lia Van Leer, in Jerusalem, created Cinematheque for film lovers. It is a nice movie theater --- you pay less than $100 per year to join. Six days a week, year round, from 1pm to 1am the theater shows new and old films continuously. The monthly list of films is mailed to members. See as many films as you want.
This last innovation occurs in a society that already overflows with music, symphonies, live theater, art museums, ubiquitous galleries and fashion boutiques.