GoGo.mn invited Her Excellency Irit Ben-Abba, the Ambassador of The State of Israel to China and Mongolia to our "Ambassador" column. We discussed the diplomatic relationship between Mongolia and Israel, the country's education system, child-rearing methods, and about hot topic of the Israel-Hamas war.
Please share your impression of visiting Mongolia. Did you see the Naadam Ceremony?
Of course, it was very impressive for me. I was impressed by the very interesting speech of the president. I found the combination of something that relates to a spiritual message with the current situation about the hope of the new government. It was nice combination of words for the people. He spoke always about the people of Mongolia, which is very nice. And then it was super interesting to see the history of Mongolia. The message was very strong which was about Mongolia being an ancient civilization. Also, Mongolian music is an electronic combination with traditional musical instruments which was super interesting.
And the day before there was the very spectacular two-hour concert in the Music Palace. They divided it into three parts. First part was sort of traditional Mongolian dancing and singing in very colorful, beautiful costumes. The second part was classical music. The third part was Mongolian modern music. There is “The HU” band that I understand performs for the first time in Mongolia. They are really nice. It was also very nice presentation of what Mongolia is in culture through music and dance.
What is the main purpose of your visit to Mongolia?
I am accredited to Mongolia, so I was asked last time to come during Naadam to celebrate with you. So, I thought it was a good opportunity to visit Naadam.
Mongolian people like to talk about politics, and they are engaged in politics and now what you see in the new parliament are young people first time in parliament.
And I also came of course to touch base with people that we are in contact with the foreign ministry just to update them also on the situation back home. So, this is the reason I came here. I also attended the Economic Forum. There was an ambassador's very interesting round table session that I attended. A session on renewable energy and energy transformation was also quite interesting to understand what are the challenges here in Mongolia.
We recently took a big step forward with the recent election, increasing the number of parliament members to 126. We would like to hear your thoughts on this.
We usually don't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. I think this is the wish of the people of Mongolia and this should be appreciated.
Of course, it gave me an opportunity when I was here to really follow and to understand better. Because when you are a bit away and have to rely on news outlets is more difficult. However, Mongolia is a democracy country since the early 90s. And you are a very vibrant democracy here. People like to talk about politics, and they are engaged in politics and now what you see in the new parliament are young people first time in parliament. The generation of youngsters from all parts of Mongolia, not only from the UB.
We are interested in resuming all the aid program in agriculture and public health that we had in the past and to see what we can do in business.
Yesterday there was the reception of the president and there were a couple of parliamentarians, some of them very new. So, it was interesting to talk to them, about how they see their mission, where they come from, and why do they join political life. Very interesting, especially for those who were directly elected through the new system. So, definitely, it's an interesting combination of first and foremost enlarging the parliament with 50 more seats, and then having another method of election and this new coalition of three parties. So, it's interesting to follow and of course, we wish you all the very success to Mongolia.
33 years have passed since Mongolia and Israel established diplomatic relations. What are the highlights and cooperation between the two countries during this period?
Unfortunately, we passed through three years of COVID. Everything stopped and there were no visits. Now we are actually still trying to get out of that period. Our main goal here in Mongolia is first and foremost to keep high-level political dialogue between our countries, and this is one of the things that I just spoke about with the counterparts in the foreign ministry we should resume that. So, this is important the contact with the political leadership here. Parliament is also important, parliamentary delegations also should take place. Now there is a new parliament. The Israel-Mongolia parliamentary friendship league was always very active here in Ulaanbaatar. So, we would like to see the formation of this League in the new parliament and visits to Israel and visits from the Israeli parliament here.
And then civil society is super important. There are some academic exchanges, especially on Mongolian history and archaeology between the Mongolian university and universities back home.
We are interested in resuming all the aid program in agriculture and public health that we had in the past and to see what we can do in business. Some Israeli business companies are operating here but we could always wish for more, especially on tourism.
I heard there are a lot of Israeli tourists that came this year. This is very good that they come, and they know this place and the people. People-to-people exchanges are the most important thing. And I would like to focus on the young generation of Mongolia because it's a very young society. And we need to engage with the youngsters here more than we did before.
Are there any trade exchanges and joint projects between our two countries?
Well, it's not very large. But there are some Israeli companies in IT, telecommunication, in security, and agriculture. But of course, we can do much more.
It has become quite a big market for some of these companies and not only EVs we are importing a lot of raw materials from China
What are the economic relations between China and Israel?
That’s quite extensive. China is the second largest trading partner of Israel. So, we are talking about something to the level of above 20 billion dollars of bilateral trade which for us is quite a lot, being a small country. There's a trade imbalance. China exports to Israel much more than we export to China.
And this year has been very good for the electric vehicles market. A lot of companies are selling EVs in the Israeli market. It has become quite a big market for some of these companies and not only EVs we are importing a lot of raw materials from China we export around five billion dollars’ worth of goods and services. So, China is a big market for us.
Is there a possibility to improve economic relations with Mongolia and expand trade circulation?
I think that we can. But we need to do it in a more focused way, maybe to decide which are the sectors that we want to concentrate on to find the right partners here. I think IT since you are moving into being a very digitalized kind of economy. So, IT should be number one. Secondly, I think in the health sector we can do much more. Israeli doctors come here every year to perform some surgeries such as eye surgeries and cancer. So maybe more in the health technologies something we do with China. For example, sophisticated machinery for what people precision medicine very precise kind of technologies that are needed for specific surgeries.
I think we can do much more there. As I said before, we used to have quite several doctors and nurses coming from Mongolia to be trained in our hospitals. We should presume this through our aid system and not only maybe exchanges between hospitals something we had much more before and stopped during COVID.
I would like to ask about the war. What are the losses in your country as a result of the war between Hamas and Israel?
This is a big topic. And we are still in the midst of the war. I do hope that we can find a way through the negotiators who are mainly the Americans, the Qataris, the Egyptians to reach some kind of cessation of the fighting with Hamas.
We are working on this in these very hours to find some kind of formula that from our point of view the most important thing is to get our hostages back.
How many hostages there are?
There are still around 115. Unfortunately, we are sure that 43 are already dead. We don’t know how many hostages are alive or dead. So, this is the most important thing for us. Also, the most important thing for us is that Hamas has no military capability that they can attack Israel anymore. This is something that was the first target of this war to dismantle totally the military capability of Hamas. So, they will not be able to do it on the 7th of October again. So, this is an important target and we would not like to see Hamas taking over Gaza again and ruling Gaza, not only militarily, but also from the government's point of view.
The first cycle that will last six weeks to release 33 hostages mainly women, children, elderly and wounded
There should be another entity that would govern Gaza, and this is still debated. What is this entity going to be like? So, there are three stages that we are negotiating over which are very much aligned with the Biden roadmap that was adopted by the Security Council a month ago.
And it practically says that there will be three cycles of release of hostages. The first cycle that will last six weeks to release 33 hostages mainly women, children, elderly and wounded. And Israel will release also some prisoners that are kept in our jails, and then there will be a cessation of fighting.
And Gazans will be able to move back to their homes in the northern parts of Gaza. But we are talking about innocent civilians, not terrorists. The second stage again will last another six weeks and the soldiers and males civilians will be released also in the exchange of Palestinian prisoners. And the third stage will be the reconstruction of Gaza. So, this is what we are working on agreement now. It's not easy, but it's reached, for Israel and Hamas both sides really want to get the best out of it. We want Hamas to stop the war against Israel and not to be able to govern and release all the hostages.
This is the most important thing for us. And for Hamas, of course, the most important thing is that they survive. So, to get some kind of one common ground that every side feels comfortable with is not easy.
It's not a ceasefire they just have to move back and then there's no reason why we should enter a war if they move back this is the condition of Israel.
It's a major diplomatic effort. And also, the one other thing that you probably know is that there's sort of fighting going on in the northern part of Israel. Hezbollah which is another terrorist organization that is supported trained and financially supported by Iran. They also started the war against Israel on the 7th of October for no reason and they don't stop ever since. Everyday they launch rockets to Israel. All the northern part of Israel is completely neutralized, and this has to stop as well. Now Hezbollah says that when there is an agreement with Hamas they will stop, but let's see if this is going to happen. If it's not going to happen, then we will have to really engage ourselves in a serious war in Lebanon and this is something we really don't want to have. We have no interest whatsoever in entering a war in Lebanon. But if the Lebanese government doesn't do something to stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel, then it will be inevitable.
What is the condition of Hezbollah?
There is a UN resolution 1701 from many years back that says that Hezbollah cannot go further south toward the border with Israel. It must stop at the Litani River, which is 10 km away from the border with Israel.
So, this is what Israel requests, that they move back to where they are supposed to be. Because throughout the years they moved very close to the Israeli border. They should not be there. And according to the 1701 resolution, the UN peacekeeping forces, which are called UNIFIL, were supposed to stop them from coming down south to the border with Israel. But it's difficult for them to stop the Hezbollah forces and so all the Hezbollah terrorists are just at the border with Israel, and this should really stop. It's not a ceasefire they just have to move back and then there's no reason why we should enter a war if they move back this is the condition of Israel.
Israelis are known to be very intelligent, especially with a great emphasis on raising their children. I heard that most of the leaders of the world's largest companies are Israelis. I also read about the Israeli parenthood method book on how to raise their children. Are these abilities in the genes?
No, I don't think it's genetics. It's just a very small country now, but let's go back to history. We are always small communities all around the world and the only way that they could survive as a minority everywhere was to really put a lot of emphasis on the good education that the children receive. So, they can prosper and can be important people wherever they are like doctors, philosophers, and lawyers everywhere. So, this is how we survive as a minority for 2000 years that we didn't have a land of ourselves. So it’s tradition to put a lot of emphasis on the good education of children. Since ancient times children have started reading and writing already at the age of three. And they were always encouraged to be the people of books, to read a lot, to know a lot about the world, and to be well educated, not smart. So, education was always very, very important. Whenever universities started, especially in Europe, most of the Jews sent their kids to universities, even women, to get a good education.
We don't encourage private schools.
So, education is very much in our minds. This is the most important thing that parents would like to see their kids get the best education for the best human being. And when the state of Israel was created it was understood that education has to be a public education to allow everyone. This is the basic knowledge among parents and the society that if you want your child to prosper and to have a good career and a good future, everyone must get a very good basic education for their kids. Even when I see my 10-month-old grandchild and his parents who are my son and daughter-in-law how much they invest in their child. He already can say a few words because they read a lot of books, and they always talk to him. They never stop talking to their child. So, this is very typical of especially young parents, I don't remember us being like this. But young parents really invest a lot in their kids. Because this is a real asset.
In terms of Israeli education please tell us more about the Israeli education system.
Israeli education system is public. Throughout the country there are very few, maybe not more than five private schools. We don't encourage private schools. So, most of the education is public we have secular public education which caters to most of the population then there are public schools for the Arab minorities because 25% of the Israelian citizens are Arabs, Christians, and Muslims. So, they also have a public education system that is controlled by the government. And then there's a third sector which is the ultra-religious schooling system that is partially controlled by the government. It's compulsory education for 12 years.
What about the universities?
The universities are also public. There are a lot of private colleges, but we have nine public universities that have subsidized tuition. But if somebody doesn't want to go into the difficult process of getting into the public universities they can go to the colleges and pay tuition but then it's very hard.
What are the proudest aspects of the Israeli people ?
Our history is that we always need to let the world know. This is the land that our forefathers lived in. And the document that proves this is the Bible. The Bible really talks about all the places that you can identify in Israel today and the story of the Jews living in this part of the world 3,000 years ago. So, our history is very important and archaeology can prove we were here. It's not that we came from nowhere and decided to take this piece of land. This land belonged to the Jews many, many years ago. There was a famous Jewish temple, that was destroyed two times. Once by the Persians and once by the Romans. It then took all the Jews into exile for 2000 years. So we are back to the land that we always wanted to go back to. In each prayer when the Jews were in exile for 2,000 years, they always prayed next year in Jerusalem this was their wish to go back to the land.
We are only 76 years old. And we moved very fast to be a very modern society, fully democratic, and very complex in its social structure.
So, history is very important for us. We are proud of our history and the language we speak today in Israel was spoken 2000 years ago. It died because nobody spoke Hebrew all these years. Only in prayer books, but people usually knew how to pray, they didn't understand what they were praying. So, when we started coming back at the beginning of the 20th century, Jews started coming back to the land of Israel, we revived the language. Modern Hebrew is very similar to ancient Hebrew. It's like ancient Mongolians and modern Mongolians. For you, you were always here in this piece of land. We were somewhere else, and we came back. So, this is something that also talks a lot about our relationships because we can ancient civilizations can relate to each other much better than you civilization and then we are proud of what we have managed to achieve as a young state.
We are only 76 years old. And we moved very fast to be a very modern society, fully democratic, and very complex in its social structure.
Because there are people that came back home from all over the world. For example, my parents came from Italy. I'm a first generation born in Israel. Now, most Israelis today were born in Israel, but all of them came from various countries around the world, being it from Europe, from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, there were Jewish communities in Iraq, in Syria, in Egypt, in Lebanon and Morocco. So, it's the social structure is something very interesting, how we manage to have all of them be Israelis but come from different parts of the world. And then we still have Jewish immigrants that come every year because there's anti-Semitism that is rising everywhere so Jews are feeling afraid, and they come to Israel mainly from France and even the United States. So, every year we get new waves of immigrants that still come and so integrating them into society this is a major challenge. As I said before 25% of 10 million are Arabs they are not Jews and Christian Arabs, Muslim Arabs, so many groups of minorities inside this big basket of 10 million.
And then there are the secular Jews, those who don't observe the religion very strongly, and ultra-Orthodox who observe the religion very strongly. So, all this is a big mixture that is something that is an asset for us, but also a big liability, how to manage this social cohesion of so many different people with different beliefs, religious, non-religious the military.
In Israel, women serve in the military. Is it voluntary or do women have to serve? What are the advantages of women serving in the military?
It's not voluntary. It's compulsory. The only ones who don't serve in the military are the ultra-religious women. They are exempted. I think when I served in the military most of the units were closed combat units mainly, like the Air Force, and Navy, were closed to women at that time. But since I served many years ago. But in the last almost more than 30 years since the middle of the 90s there's a major change and women are really equal to men they can go to any unit and become combat soldiers, pilots, and tank commanders and they can be divers in the navy, they can do everything. In the most elite units, you also see women. So, this is the big major change of the last 30 years.
So, the advantage is that it gives the women the capability to really promote themselves through military service and find out what their capabilities are. It's as commanders even a lot of women officers in combat units and non-combat units and the integration of women and men in the military is also something that gives power. So, women's empowerment through the military service is super important and this has taken place very strongly in the last 30 years.
But the disadvantage to society is that we lose this generation from the age of 18-25 sometimes.
And in this war, unfortunately, there were a lot of women fighters that were killed. There were these women who were controlling the border between Israel and Gaza, and they were the first ones to be taken as hostages. There are still a lot of women fighting in this world. This was the first time that so many women were engaged in fighting. It's the first time in history in world history that so many women were engaged in war. So, this is the big revolution of the Israeli military. Women are very much integrated into the military in every unit. There's a very well-known intelligence unit, which is called 8-200. And it's a technological intelligence unit, and there are a lot of women there. When they leave the military, they can become very good entrepreneurs and they open up their own companies they get the skills through the military that allows them then when they go to civilian life to be very successful.
A lot of women that were fighters in the military open companies in business and they know how to manage it very well. And especially you see our youngsters get mature, maybe this is not so good, at a very early age. Because they go military service for two years for women and three years for men. So, when they get to the university, they are older than students in other parts of the world, they are not 18, they are already a minimum of 21 because some of them would sign up as officers to extend their military service and after the military service they usually go traveling around the world.
And then when they get to the university, they are already 25 so much older and much more mature than average students around the world. But the disadvantage to society is that we lose this generation from the age of 18-25 sometimes. They are soldiers, then they go traveling. They are not contributing to the economy at all. So, this is a generation that we lose. Everywhere around the world at the age of 21 you graduate from university you start working. But in Israel it’s different. Maybe they feel that they didn't have a chance to see the world because they were in the military instead of traveling.
Thank you for your time.
GoGo.mn invited Her Excellency Irit Ben-Abba, the Ambassador of The State of Israel to China and Mongolia to our "Ambassador" column. We discussed the diplomatic relationship between Mongolia and Israel, the country's education system, child-rearing methods, and about hot topic of the Israel-Hamas war.
Please share your impression of visiting Mongolia. Did you see the Naadam Ceremony?
Of course, it was very impressive for me. I was impressed by the very interesting speech of the president. I found the combination of something that relates to a spiritual message with the current situation about the hope of the new government. It was nice combination of words for the people. He spoke always about the people of Mongolia, which is very nice. And then it was super interesting to see the history of Mongolia. The message was very strong which was about Mongolia being an ancient civilization. Also, Mongolian music is an electronic combination with traditional musical instruments which was super interesting.
And the day before there was the very spectacular two-hour concert in the Music Palace. They divided it into three parts. First part was sort of traditional Mongolian dancing and singing in very colorful, beautiful costumes. The second part was classical music. The third part was Mongolian modern music. There is “The HU” band that I understand performs for the first time in Mongolia. They are really nice. It was also very nice presentation of what Mongolia is in culture through music and dance.
What is the main purpose of your visit to Mongolia?
I am accredited to Mongolia, so I was asked last time to come during Naadam to celebrate with you. So, I thought it was a good opportunity to visit Naadam.
Mongolian people like to talk about politics, and they are engaged in politics and now what you see in the new parliament are young people first time in parliament.
And I also came of course to touch base with people that we are in contact with the foreign ministry just to update them also on the situation back home. So, this is the reason I came here. I also attended the Economic Forum. There was an ambassador's very interesting round table session that I attended. A session on renewable energy and energy transformation was also quite interesting to understand what are the challenges here in Mongolia.
We recently took a big step forward with the recent election, increasing the number of parliament members to 126. We would like to hear your thoughts on this.
We usually don't interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. I think this is the wish of the people of Mongolia and this should be appreciated.
Of course, it gave me an opportunity when I was here to really follow and to understand better. Because when you are a bit away and have to rely on news outlets is more difficult. However, Mongolia is a democracy country since the early 90s. And you are a very vibrant democracy here. People like to talk about politics, and they are engaged in politics and now what you see in the new parliament are young people first time in parliament. The generation of youngsters from all parts of Mongolia, not only from the UB.
We are interested in resuming all the aid program in agriculture and public health that we had in the past and to see what we can do in business.
Yesterday there was the reception of the president and there were a couple of parliamentarians, some of them very new. So, it was interesting to talk to them, about how they see their mission, where they come from, and why do they join political life. Very interesting, especially for those who were directly elected through the new system. So, definitely, it's an interesting combination of first and foremost enlarging the parliament with 50 more seats, and then having another method of election and this new coalition of three parties. So, it's interesting to follow and of course, we wish you all the very success to Mongolia.
33 years have passed since Mongolia and Israel established diplomatic relations. What are the highlights and cooperation between the two countries during this period?
Unfortunately, we passed through three years of COVID. Everything stopped and there were no visits. Now we are actually still trying to get out of that period. Our main goal here in Mongolia is first and foremost to keep high-level political dialogue between our countries, and this is one of the things that I just spoke about with the counterparts in the foreign ministry we should resume that. So, this is important the contact with the political leadership here. Parliament is also important, parliamentary delegations also should take place. Now there is a new parliament. The Israel-Mongolia parliamentary friendship league was always very active here in Ulaanbaatar. So, we would like to see the formation of this League in the new parliament and visits to Israel and visits from the Israeli parliament here.
And then civil society is super important. There are some academic exchanges, especially on Mongolian history and archaeology between the Mongolian university and universities back home.
We are interested in resuming all the aid program in agriculture and public health that we had in the past and to see what we can do in business. Some Israeli business companies are operating here but we could always wish for more, especially on tourism.
I heard there are a lot of Israeli tourists that came this year. This is very good that they come, and they know this place and the people. People-to-people exchanges are the most important thing. And I would like to focus on the young generation of Mongolia because it's a very young society. And we need to engage with the youngsters here more than we did before.
Are there any trade exchanges and joint projects between our two countries?
Well, it's not very large. But there are some Israeli companies in IT, telecommunication, in security, and agriculture. But of course, we can do much more.
It has become quite a big market for some of these companies and not only EVs we are importing a lot of raw materials from China
What are the economic relations between China and Israel?
That’s quite extensive. China is the second largest trading partner of Israel. So, we are talking about something to the level of above 20 billion dollars of bilateral trade which for us is quite a lot, being a small country. There's a trade imbalance. China exports to Israel much more than we export to China.
And this year has been very good for the electric vehicles market. A lot of companies are selling EVs in the Israeli market. It has become quite a big market for some of these companies and not only EVs we are importing a lot of raw materials from China we export around five billion dollars’ worth of goods and services. So, China is a big market for us.
Is there a possibility to improve economic relations with Mongolia and expand trade circulation?
I think that we can. But we need to do it in a more focused way, maybe to decide which are the sectors that we want to concentrate on to find the right partners here. I think IT since you are moving into being a very digitalized kind of economy. So, IT should be number one. Secondly, I think in the health sector we can do much more. Israeli doctors come here every year to perform some surgeries such as eye surgeries and cancer. So maybe more in the health technologies something we do with China. For example, sophisticated machinery for what people precision medicine very precise kind of technologies that are needed for specific surgeries.
I think we can do much more there. As I said before, we used to have quite several doctors and nurses coming from Mongolia to be trained in our hospitals. We should presume this through our aid system and not only maybe exchanges between hospitals something we had much more before and stopped during COVID.
I would like to ask about the war. What are the losses in your country as a result of the war between Hamas and Israel?
This is a big topic. And we are still in the midst of the war. I do hope that we can find a way through the negotiators who are mainly the Americans, the Qataris, the Egyptians to reach some kind of cessation of the fighting with Hamas.
We are working on this in these very hours to find some kind of formula that from our point of view the most important thing is to get our hostages back.
How many hostages there are?
There are still around 115. Unfortunately, we are sure that 43 are already dead. We don’t know how many hostages are alive or dead. So, this is the most important thing for us. Also, the most important thing for us is that Hamas has no military capability that they can attack Israel anymore. This is something that was the first target of this war to dismantle totally the military capability of Hamas. So, they will not be able to do it on the 7th of October again. So, this is an important target and we would not like to see Hamas taking over Gaza again and ruling Gaza, not only militarily, but also from the government's point of view.
The first cycle that will last six weeks to release 33 hostages mainly women, children, elderly and wounded
There should be another entity that would govern Gaza, and this is still debated. What is this entity going to be like? So, there are three stages that we are negotiating over which are very much aligned with the Biden roadmap that was adopted by the Security Council a month ago.
And it practically says that there will be three cycles of release of hostages. The first cycle that will last six weeks to release 33 hostages mainly women, children, elderly and wounded. And Israel will release also some prisoners that are kept in our jails, and then there will be a cessation of fighting.
And Gazans will be able to move back to their homes in the northern parts of Gaza. But we are talking about innocent civilians, not terrorists. The second stage again will last another six weeks and the soldiers and males civilians will be released also in the exchange of Palestinian prisoners. And the third stage will be the reconstruction of Gaza. So, this is what we are working on agreement now. It's not easy, but it's reached, for Israel and Hamas both sides really want to get the best out of it. We want Hamas to stop the war against Israel and not to be able to govern and release all the hostages.
This is the most important thing for us. And for Hamas, of course, the most important thing is that they survive. So, to get some kind of one common ground that every side feels comfortable with is not easy.
It's not a ceasefire they just have to move back and then there's no reason why we should enter a war if they move back this is the condition of Israel.
It's a major diplomatic effort. And also, the one other thing that you probably know is that there's sort of fighting going on in the northern part of Israel. Hezbollah which is another terrorist organization that is supported trained and financially supported by Iran. They also started the war against Israel on the 7th of October for no reason and they don't stop ever since. Everyday they launch rockets to Israel. All the northern part of Israel is completely neutralized, and this has to stop as well. Now Hezbollah says that when there is an agreement with Hamas they will stop, but let's see if this is going to happen. If it's not going to happen, then we will have to really engage ourselves in a serious war in Lebanon and this is something we really don't want to have. We have no interest whatsoever in entering a war in Lebanon. But if the Lebanese government doesn't do something to stop Hezbollah from attacking Israel, then it will be inevitable.
What is the condition of Hezbollah?
There is a UN resolution 1701 from many years back that says that Hezbollah cannot go further south toward the border with Israel. It must stop at the Litani River, which is 10 km away from the border with Israel.
So, this is what Israel requests, that they move back to where they are supposed to be. Because throughout the years they moved very close to the Israeli border. They should not be there. And according to the 1701 resolution, the UN peacekeeping forces, which are called UNIFIL, were supposed to stop them from coming down south to the border with Israel. But it's difficult for them to stop the Hezbollah forces and so all the Hezbollah terrorists are just at the border with Israel, and this should really stop. It's not a ceasefire they just have to move back and then there's no reason why we should enter a war if they move back this is the condition of Israel.
Israelis are known to be very intelligent, especially with a great emphasis on raising their children. I heard that most of the leaders of the world's largest companies are Israelis. I also read about the Israeli parenthood method book on how to raise their children. Are these abilities in the genes?
No, I don't think it's genetics. It's just a very small country now, but let's go back to history. We are always small communities all around the world and the only way that they could survive as a minority everywhere was to really put a lot of emphasis on the good education that the children receive. So, they can prosper and can be important people wherever they are like doctors, philosophers, and lawyers everywhere. So, this is how we survive as a minority for 2000 years that we didn't have a land of ourselves. So it’s tradition to put a lot of emphasis on the good education of children. Since ancient times children have started reading and writing already at the age of three. And they were always encouraged to be the people of books, to read a lot, to know a lot about the world, and to be well educated, not smart. So, education was always very, very important. Whenever universities started, especially in Europe, most of the Jews sent their kids to universities, even women, to get a good education.
We don't encourage private schools.
So, education is very much in our minds. This is the most important thing that parents would like to see their kids get the best education for the best human being. And when the state of Israel was created it was understood that education has to be a public education to allow everyone. This is the basic knowledge among parents and the society that if you want your child to prosper and to have a good career and a good future, everyone must get a very good basic education for their kids. Even when I see my 10-month-old grandchild and his parents who are my son and daughter-in-law how much they invest in their child. He already can say a few words because they read a lot of books, and they always talk to him. They never stop talking to their child. So, this is very typical of especially young parents, I don't remember us being like this. But young parents really invest a lot in their kids. Because this is a real asset.
In terms of Israeli education please tell us more about the Israeli education system.
Israeli education system is public. Throughout the country there are very few, maybe not more than five private schools. We don't encourage private schools. So, most of the education is public we have secular public education which caters to most of the population then there are public schools for the Arab minorities because 25% of the Israelian citizens are Arabs, Christians, and Muslims. So, they also have a public education system that is controlled by the government. And then there's a third sector which is the ultra-religious schooling system that is partially controlled by the government. It's compulsory education for 12 years.
What about the universities?
The universities are also public. There are a lot of private colleges, but we have nine public universities that have subsidized tuition. But if somebody doesn't want to go into the difficult process of getting into the public universities they can go to the colleges and pay tuition but then it's very hard.
What are the proudest aspects of the Israeli people ?
Our history is that we always need to let the world know. This is the land that our forefathers lived in. And the document that proves this is the Bible. The Bible really talks about all the places that you can identify in Israel today and the story of the Jews living in this part of the world 3,000 years ago. So, our history is very important and archaeology can prove we were here. It's not that we came from nowhere and decided to take this piece of land. This land belonged to the Jews many, many years ago. There was a famous Jewish temple, that was destroyed two times. Once by the Persians and once by the Romans. It then took all the Jews into exile for 2000 years. So we are back to the land that we always wanted to go back to. In each prayer when the Jews were in exile for 2,000 years, they always prayed next year in Jerusalem this was their wish to go back to the land.
We are only 76 years old. And we moved very fast to be a very modern society, fully democratic, and very complex in its social structure.
So, history is very important for us. We are proud of our history and the language we speak today in Israel was spoken 2000 years ago. It died because nobody spoke Hebrew all these years. Only in prayer books, but people usually knew how to pray, they didn't understand what they were praying. So, when we started coming back at the beginning of the 20th century, Jews started coming back to the land of Israel, we revived the language. Modern Hebrew is very similar to ancient Hebrew. It's like ancient Mongolians and modern Mongolians. For you, you were always here in this piece of land. We were somewhere else, and we came back. So, this is something that also talks a lot about our relationships because we can ancient civilizations can relate to each other much better than you civilization and then we are proud of what we have managed to achieve as a young state.
We are only 76 years old. And we moved very fast to be a very modern society, fully democratic, and very complex in its social structure.
Because there are people that came back home from all over the world. For example, my parents came from Italy. I'm a first generation born in Israel. Now, most Israelis today were born in Israel, but all of them came from various countries around the world, being it from Europe, from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, there were Jewish communities in Iraq, in Syria, in Egypt, in Lebanon and Morocco. So, it's the social structure is something very interesting, how we manage to have all of them be Israelis but come from different parts of the world. And then we still have Jewish immigrants that come every year because there's anti-Semitism that is rising everywhere so Jews are feeling afraid, and they come to Israel mainly from France and even the United States. So, every year we get new waves of immigrants that still come and so integrating them into society this is a major challenge. As I said before 25% of 10 million are Arabs they are not Jews and Christian Arabs, Muslim Arabs, so many groups of minorities inside this big basket of 10 million.
And then there are the secular Jews, those who don't observe the religion very strongly, and ultra-Orthodox who observe the religion very strongly. So, all this is a big mixture that is something that is an asset for us, but also a big liability, how to manage this social cohesion of so many different people with different beliefs, religious, non-religious the military.
In Israel, women serve in the military. Is it voluntary or do women have to serve? What are the advantages of women serving in the military?
It's not voluntary. It's compulsory. The only ones who don't serve in the military are the ultra-religious women. They are exempted. I think when I served in the military most of the units were closed combat units mainly, like the Air Force, and Navy, were closed to women at that time. But since I served many years ago. But in the last almost more than 30 years since the middle of the 90s there's a major change and women are really equal to men they can go to any unit and become combat soldiers, pilots, and tank commanders and they can be divers in the navy, they can do everything. In the most elite units, you also see women. So, this is the big major change of the last 30 years.
So, the advantage is that it gives the women the capability to really promote themselves through military service and find out what their capabilities are. It's as commanders even a lot of women officers in combat units and non-combat units and the integration of women and men in the military is also something that gives power. So, women's empowerment through the military service is super important and this has taken place very strongly in the last 30 years.
But the disadvantage to society is that we lose this generation from the age of 18-25 sometimes.
And in this war, unfortunately, there were a lot of women fighters that were killed. There were these women who were controlling the border between Israel and Gaza, and they were the first ones to be taken as hostages. There are still a lot of women fighting in this world. This was the first time that so many women were engaged in fighting. It's the first time in history in world history that so many women were engaged in war. So, this is the big revolution of the Israeli military. Women are very much integrated into the military in every unit. There's a very well-known intelligence unit, which is called 8-200. And it's a technological intelligence unit, and there are a lot of women there. When they leave the military, they can become very good entrepreneurs and they open up their own companies they get the skills through the military that allows them then when they go to civilian life to be very successful.
A lot of women that were fighters in the military open companies in business and they know how to manage it very well. And especially you see our youngsters get mature, maybe this is not so good, at a very early age. Because they go military service for two years for women and three years for men. So, when they get to the university, they are older than students in other parts of the world, they are not 18, they are already a minimum of 21 because some of them would sign up as officers to extend their military service and after the military service they usually go traveling around the world.
And then when they get to the university, they are already 25 so much older and much more mature than average students around the world. But the disadvantage to society is that we lose this generation from the age of 18-25 sometimes. They are soldiers, then they go traveling. They are not contributing to the economy at all. So, this is a generation that we lose. Everywhere around the world at the age of 21 you graduate from university you start working. But in Israel it’s different. Maybe they feel that they didn't have a chance to see the world because they were in the military instead of traveling.
Thank you for your time.