Long range challenges for Israel, 30 years later

Almost 30 years ago, I wrote the article Long range challenges for Israel.

Now it is time to review the challenges that I proposed there and see whether they were addressed.

1. The Mideast water shortage problem: Thanks to the big water desalination plants, Israel now has no water shortage problem. Israel now helps Jordan alleviate its water shortage problem. Plans to exchange solar electricity from Jordan’s deserts for Israeli desalinated water are now under discussion.
2. The 1990’s immigrants from the former Soviet Union have been absorbed. Now they are beginning to retire after a career in Israel. Infrastructure for 15-20 million residents in Israel has not been built, but is under discussion. The capital for financing the infrastructure building is available, but not the political will, plans, authorizations etc.
3. A comprehensive network of volunteer organizations to help anyone, who is free from money sucking addictions, overcome the limits imposed by poverty/disability/belonging to a disadvantaged group – has not been built. For this, we need a leader who will inspire the existing organizations and volunteers to identify underserved people and ensure that everyone has where to ask for help.
4. High Frontier – Israel has a lot of activity there. Israeli research organizations and businesses do work in various areas of space exploration, which do not duplicate efforts by other countries, while wisely refraining from investing a lot of money in high-prestige, low-benefit endeavors like launching astronauts to space using Israeli rockets. Israeli “Beresheet” even reached the Moon (albeit not in the way its planners intended it to), and “Beresheet 2” is now being worked on.

Thus, out of the four challenges which I identified 30 years ago:

• One challenge has been met (water).
• Two challenges were partially met, but both of them are being worked on (infrastructure and space).
• One challenge was not met.

We still have work to do with the above challenges. The global climate change imposed upon us a fifth challenge – to stop polluting the air with greenhouse gases by switching to renewable energy sources. We should also recycle all of our trash, both liquid and solid, so that it’ll not pollute land or sea.

So I do not need, at this time, to offer a new set of challenges to keep all of us busy in the next 30 years.