With the third highest number of patents per head, one of the highest spending on research and development as percentage of its economy and the highest concentration of startups per capita Israel has a lot to offer to its European neighbors beyond politics.

Israel's geography provides a rather challenging environment: about 60% of Israel's surface is an arid desert region, precipitation (rain, snow, etc.) has an average of 435 mm per year – the lowest being in southern Israel with less than 30 mm per year (in comparison to France with 867 mm per year for instance), a lack of arable land and natural fresh water resources.

In spite of these challenges Israelis managed to turn their country to the land of start-ups and innovation it is today - with a high degree of creativity and inventiveness. As "necessity is the mother of innovation" the most obvious inventions Israel came up with are related to agriculture. But Israel is also at the origin of high-tech revolutions in many other fields such as medicine as you can see below. As a global player Israel helps to face the challenges we are dealing with worldwide.

Lots of frequently used commodities and technologies were invented in Israel. Examples include:

·         Agriculture:

Tomaccio cherry tomatoes – widely used on the European market - that ripen slowly and stay fresh in transportation

Drip irrigation that releases water in controlled, slow drips to provide precise crop irrigation 

·         Internet and computer technology:

USB flash drives

Instant text and online messaging (e.g. Viber and ICQ)

MobileEye, a collision avoiding technology to prevent accidents 

Technology behind Kindle, Xbox and PlayStation 3 and Windows NT and XP

MacBook Airflash memory chip

Antivirus software, wireless charging and digital printing

·         Medicine:

PillCam, a swallowable pill size camera, the first Capsule endoscopy solution to record images of the digestive tract 

Spine Assist and other surgical robots

Tumor melting ultrasound

Heart attack risk assessment

Radiation-free breast cancer diagnostic instrument

·         Other daily commodities:

EpiLady, the first electric hair remover/ epilator, Waze, a GPS-based traffic app, solar water heaters, SodaStream, Rummikub and Mastermind