The Exchanges

Q so we're just all safe. Uh, Israel has less than ten million people that produces more tech stars per capita than almost any other country in the world. Are there things we can learn from Israel from all of this? Like obviously we can't all have a network of global Jews helping us and we, Does the military service or other parts of the culture things that can be copied?

A Yeah, I think, I think there are a lot of things we can learn, but I'd want to start with this because this is a place where I think America and the rest of the world can also take some great guidance. If you're at 8200, of course, which is the most famous of the Israeli military units in tech and in cyber, although there are many, um, when you leave the military, believe it or not, you're actually encouraged to take that technology with you. Now, I don't mean if it's top super secret, but they want you to take that technology. What happens? You build a company, look at Checkpoint. They were the original folks, three guys out of the 8200 back then, they took that technology and they built a twenty billion dollar company, so not only has it funded the treasury, but there have been hundreds and hundreds of companies that have been spun out of that. Look at Mobileye, right? Bought by Intel for sixteen billion, just went public for 22. The leading company in the world, driving autonomous cars, that came out of necessity from the military. When they left the military, they took it, and look what they were able to do with it. So I think working closely, more closely with our militaries is one major lesson. Uh, To learn.

AI assessment note: “working closely, more closely with our militaries is one major lesson”

Q How, how would you describe this, this scotch for us, Yitz?

A Uh, first of all, you know, there are several different regions. This is an Isla. Um, Isla is the region where some of the peated, the most peated and smoky whiskeys come from. This particular, uh, whiskey is very, uh, rare, and it's very unique because it was a single barrel. I love single barrels. Blending is great, but single barrels is, and sometimes in my opinion, it's just more honest and more is a great, a greater expression of what you're drinking, and this was in a sherry butt first filled, uh, barrel. Uh, from 20, now almost 30 years ago, but 28 years ago. Uh, I bought it when I was 26 years old. Let it sit for two more years. Uh, and then we bottled it to perfect, really perfect perfection. I have, I have to say. L'chaim.

AI assessment note: “This is an Isla. Um, Isla is the region where some of the peated”

Q we're going to talk about. You know, but, but actually on that topic, how did the conventional foreign policy establishment miss this opportunity? They've been focused on things around this for so long, trying to do two state solutions, trying to do other things. They completely missed this, and suddenly it seems like a very different approach was able to work here. Like, what was that different approach? What happened?

A Well, first of all, they were trying to solve the wrong problem. Uh, and I think if you're trying to solve the wrong problem, you're never going to get the right problem solved. There's no question that the issue and the, the, the solution to the Palestinian people will be found, especially with all that's going on in the region. But really, economic prosperity is what drives so many people today, especially in the region, especially where we've come from and they've come from. And this was approached really from, from the perspective of defense. There was a lot, a lot of stuff that went on behind the scenes around airplanes and sharing of information. Uh, Jared and his team led with that. Certain compromises.

AI assessment note: “they were trying to solve the wrong problem... this was approached really from, from the perspective of defense”

Q a, this is a 28 and this happens to be a really good year, but it's a great whiskey at 16 as well. And you can do it. Uh, what's an example of a five, 10,000 dollar bottle that you like? This is, what was, this is me. This is like a 5000 dollar bottle. What's like a 10,000 dollar bottle. And why does it cost more? How's that work?

A Right. So I, so I love going for the Distilleries that are no longer in existence. There's a, there's a number of reasons I like doing that. First of all, believe it or not, most probably in the olden days, they did things better than they do today, number one. Number two, if you want to buy something that's 40 years old, or 35 years old, or 30, you can't buy it from a distillery that started a year ago, obviously. So you need to be able to go back in history. Now, since many of these distilleries were closed, it's a little known fact that this whiskey was used as blending whiskey until 20 years ago. When Diageo bought, uh, Brora, which is what we're going to talk about in a minute, they bought Brora, and they bought, um, other of these distilleries, Port Ellen, one of the most famous of them, it was used as blending whiskey.

AI assessment note: “I love going for the Distilleries that are no longer in existence... Brora... Port Ellen”

Q big part of it, and, and, and necessity, You know, Dan Sinor, I know, who's a mutual friend, he wrote Startup Nation. He attributed it to four things. I'm curious what you think about it. One of them is bottom-up culture, one's military service, one is maybe chutzpah, and then the last one is like the global network, the interconnectedness of Jews. Like, what do you think of those four?

A Well, I, I call it the one percent Moses. Um, there was a period of time, one percent Moses, 99% business. For a period of my life, I actually sold Israeli software in the U.S., and I couldn't get anyone to take my call. So I said, would you rather The UJA called you, or me call you, because remember, you can write off 50% of an investment when the UJA, the United Jewish Appeal calls, you can only write off 33% for, uh, for charity, but I used that one percent Moses to get in the door, and then the rest I sold, and the way we were able to convince people, now see what the opportunities are in Israel. So the number one, it was really leveraging the diaspora Jews was a very big part of it. You know, Dan talks about it, every talk, everybody talks about it, but Chutzpah, and the most famous story of all of them is when Intel came To Israel today, Intel is the largest, one of the very largest employers in Israel. Many of the chips are, are built there both from an engineering perspective and a, you know, and from a production. The, the president or the CEO would come and they would call him as first name basis and challenge and attack him in a room would ever having met him before.

AI assessment note: “leveraging the diaspora Jews was a very big part of it... but Chutzpah”

Q Why would they talk to you now and not before?

A You know, unfortunately, sometimes things happen at leadership levels that doesn't necessarily trickle down to the people. Now, the leadership, I must say, of Bahrain, United Emirates, the UAE, took the bold move to create a platform for peace. This is not the end all and be all, that's G to G, but really where the essence of peace is, and where I'm feeling it the most, is B to B, because that's what drives commerce, and that's what drives growth and economic benefit, but also the P to P. I would say The most important part of all of this is the person to person, the people to people. One of my first visits when I went to the UAE was actually, ah, an organization that does early childhood development under one of the, you know, one of the families, ah, um, auspices, and they were more interested in understanding how Israel deals with early childhood education than how they do cyber, and that was a great way to-

AI assessment note: “leadership, I must say, of Bahrain, United Emirates, the UAE, took the bold move”