I transcribed this as best as I could from an interview.
"Well, Israelis are very entrepreneurial - we have very, very good ideas.
My experience as an Israeli entrepreneur is that today the flat world enables the talent - that knows how to connect to the global marketplace - that the physical location is meaningless. I believe the world now seeks talent. And if the talent exists in Jerusalem and in Israel, investors find the talent. So if you look ahead to how the world will develop, the physical locations are less important than talent.
That's one of the areas that Israel excels in. I don't know if you know, but Israel as a whole, after Canada, is the second-largest hi- tech country practically almost in the world. We have more public companies than NASDAQ - than any other European country. So when you look at how to plug into the global marketplace, Israel knows how to do that quite successfully and quite well.
There's over $2 billion invested in hi-tech companies in Israel every year as venture money, as investors - and that's practically in the last 15 years. Those investments have very strong returns. So by definition if you want to invest in the future in hi-tech and in new innovative ideas, you will want to come and you will want to take a look at Israel and in Jerusalem.
The entrepreneurs that know how to translate their ideas to business - let me give you an example of what is happening in Jerusalem: we have today - because of the strong investments in the generic research done in the Hebrew University - today we have a company that is now developing, using nanotechnology, a method to bring drugs to a special place in the body where it needs it, for example only in cancer cells; or to bring anaesthesia to an area, to only one location, with very little side-effects. These are methods that dramatically improve the ability to treat patients. These ideas are so innovative that they sometimes sound like science-fiction. And these ideas can change the world for the good.
'What do you think about security ...'
Let me share with you some facts, some statistics: Jerusalem is one of the safest cities in the world. We're a population of 800,000 people - in 2010 we had nine murders; in 2011 we had five murders; this year we have one, so far.
It's probably a combination of two things: the first is that when the economy goes up, crime goes down; and the second point which is probably quite innovative, is the way that the security forces work, and the police. Today I believe Israel knows how to manage terror and crime better than anyone. And in many, many ways we're exporting that knowledge - better than anyone!
The combination of a very, very effective, positive economy, side-by-side to extremely effective policing and security measures - the combination of the two creates one of the safest cities in the world - and one of the nicest opportunities for people to enjoy."
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