Israel = Hi Tech

Israeli PM Netanyahu Meets with Google Executive Chairman Eric E. Schmidt

Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser to the Israel News Agency

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this afternoon (Tuesday, 19 June 2012), in his office, met with Google Executive Chairman Eric E. Schmidt. The Prime Minister gave him a Google doodle that he had drawn<http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMO/Communication/EventsDiary/spokegoogle190612.htm in accordance with suggestions he had received from websurfers in Israel. 

The drawing is composed of an Israeli flag, a man sitting under an umbrella in the sun and the crystals discovered by the winner this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Prof. Dan Shechtman<http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2011/ as a symbol of Israel's standing at the forefront of science and technology. The Prime Minister said, "This is Israel – science, sun and Google."  Schmidt said that Prime Minister Netanyahu was the first leader in the world to have drawn a doodle.

Google Executive Chairman Schmidt gave Prime Minister Netanyahu a framed picture of the Isaiah Scroll as a symbol of the Dead Sea Scrolls project that Google is leading in conjunction with the Israel Museum<http://googleblog.blogspot.co.il/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html#!/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html in the framework of which the scrolls will be posted on the Internet. The project is part of Google's decision to promote historical preservation and heritage on the Internet.

Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Schmidt for the gift and said, regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls and the doodle, "This is the past and this is the future."

Regarding historical preservation, Prime Minister Netanyahu called on Israelis to upload old clips to the Israel State Archives YouTube channel< target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/user/israelarchive in order to preserve Israel's national memories.

Google Executive Chairman Schmidt told the Prime Minister that even though this was his first visit to Israel, he sees it as a start-up nation and added that he believes that the fact citizens are drafted into the army gives them a great advantage as high-tech workers. He said that it was his impression that they are more mature, independent and organized in comparison to other workers and added that their good way of dealing with the competitive environment has led them to many achievements. 


Schmidt told the Prime Minister, "We appreciate that Israeli engineers, whose quality is very high, are developing things here that are being used all over the world."

Prime Minister Netanyahu told Schmidt, "The more science penetrates to more places, the world will be a better place. We would like to see the Internet reaching places that restrict access and your contribution on this issue is phenomenal."

Google Executive Chairman Schmidt said, "The decision to invest in Israel was one of the best that Google has ever made."

The two men also discussed cooperation between the State of Israel and Google in medicine, science and defense against cyberattacks, as well as alternatives to oil that could render certain regimes less relevant.