Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon, met in his office with Google Executive Chairman Eric E. Schmidt. The Prime Minister gave him a Google doodle that he had drawn in accordance with suggestions he had received from websurfers in Israel. The drawing is composed of an Israeli flag, a man sitting under an umbrella in the sun and the crystals discovered by the winner this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Prof. Dan Shechtman as a symbol of Israel’s standing at the forefront of science and technology. The Prime Minister said, “This is Israel – science, sun and Google.” Schmidt said that Prime Minister Netanyahu was the first leader in the world to have drawn a doodle.
Google Executive Chairman Schmidt gave Prime Minister Netanyahu a framed picture of the Isaiah Scroll as a symbol of the Dead Sea Scrolls project that Google is leading in conjunction with the Israel Museum in the framework of which the scrolls will be posted on the Internet. The project is part of Google’s decision to promote historical preservation and heritage on the Internet.
Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Schmidt for the gift and said, regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls and the doodle, “This is the past and this is the future.”
Regarding historical preservation, Prime Minister Netanyahu called on Israelis to upload old clips to the Israel State Archives YouTube channel in order to preserve Israel’s national memories.
Schmidt told the prime minister that even though this was his first visit to Israel, he sees it as a start-up nation and added that he believes that the fact citizens are drafted into the army gives them a great advantage as high-tech workers. He said that it was his impression that they are more mature, independent and organized in comparison to other workers and added that their good way of dealing with the competitive environment has led them to many achievements. Schmidt told the prime minister, “We appreciate that Israeli engineers, whose quality is very high, are developing things here that are being used all over the world.”
Mr. Netanyahu told Schmidt, “The more science penetrates to more places; the world will be a better place. We would like to see the Internet reaching places that restrict access and your contribution on this issue is phenomenal.”
Mr. Schmidt said, “The decision to invest in Israel was one of the best that Google has ever made.”
The two men also discussed cooperation between the State of Israel and Google in medicine, science and defense against cyber attacks, as well as alternatives to oil that could render certain regimes less relevant.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
“Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Schmidt for the gift and said, regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls and the doodle, “This is the past and this is the future.””
So, the dead sea scrolls are our past and Netanyahu’s Doodle to the Google is our future as it says “From Zion Technology should come forth and the word of…”
The continuation of this is to sickening. When will we stop tolerating all this fake???
Jewish Common – when computers as we know them are long forgotten about, but the Holy Torah still exists, then it will be clear where our expertise lies. Having said that, there will probably be Jews, including Israeli and frum ones, at the forefront of whatever will come next to transform the world.
#2 Computers or whatever else comes next may be useful and convenient but they will not transform the world into a better place as only Torah will, when we learn to all use it and properly.
Whenever there are other things that create the false impression that this is what we as Jews have to be proud about and the past is as relevant as ” The Dead… Scrolls” We should be at the forefront protesting it and bring up the real truth of who we are and what we are about.