A Link in the Chain: Israel not reaching its potential

Israel is ranked 38th in the world according to the Economist's Quality of Life Index; and 23rd according to the 2007/2008 UN Human Development Index.

For some countries that might be enough but it's not enough for Israel.

We face the greatest gap between our potential, based on exposure to technology and education, and our achievements. The quality of our life is at the bottom of the developed world, and we don't have to be there.

The idea of Leapfrogging Israel's Quality of Life isn't just a nice thing to do. It's crucial for our survival - otherwise, we just won't be competitive.

Competitiveness is critical for a country like Israel because the world is going global. And in this world, there's fierce competition over important resources - technology, people and investments.

These resources are mobile and they can easily move from place to place. In order to succeed, a country has to be attractive, and attractiveness is measured competitively.

Since people nowadays have so many choices, they need reasons to want to live somewhere. There is nothing stopping someone from getting up, packing their bags and moving to Palo Alto.

Today, Israel is one of the biggest exporters of highly educated people in the world. I believe that in the future, we could become one of the greatest exporters of quality educational programs, if we put our minds to it.

In order to leapfrog into one of the leading 15 countries in the world, Israel needs to initiate a bottom-up process.

This includes mobilizing the key sectors of society including Arab citizens, the Ultra-Orthodox, people from the development towns and periphery, from the big cities, philanthropists, the Jewish world and government ministries to create a shared vision that can motivate us all to reach this country's potential.

This was one of the aims of the recent ISRAEL 15 Vision Conference organized by the Reut Institute and is the organizing logic that will guide our work in the future.

Gidi Grinstein is the founder and president of the Reut Institute.