A few weeks ago a news story in the Jerusalem Post reported that the government had approved an allocation of over 900 million nis to complete a project involving a high-tech detection system for the defense of scattered settlements in Judea and Samaria. The state of the art system is designed to detect potential threats to the settlements emanating from a great distance providing time for the settlements to defend themselves. OK! Today’s (Wed Oct 31 st) newspaper brings us a report on the brain drain the state of Israel is experiencing. It mentions as a contributing factor the nis1.2 billion cuts in the budget for higher education over the past five years. Charting the decline of higher education in Israel we learn that in the academic year 2001-2002 there was 270 new academic staff hired by Israeli universities. For the year 2004-05 the number was only164. New academic staff is most often hired from the cadre of recent university graduates. In other words the main employment opportunity for an advanced degree graduate is shrinking. Many of these graduates, Masters and PhD’s find themselves seeking employment abroad. These are people who are the product of an investment (however inadequate) made by the state of Israel from primary school on up to post graduate studies. We are apparently in the business of exporting our talented educated young graduates. There has been a 40% loss in available academic positions over the past years, also due to budget cuts. Therefore it is not surprising that 60% of Israelis who earn doctorates in the US choose to stay there. They pay taxes there and contribute to the growth and development of Americas industries. Today we pat ourselves on the back, brag and are justifiably proud of our contribution to the advancement of medical knowledge. We are a leading developer of alternative energy resources. We are a major contributor to the technological advances in all the modern technological fiends. But at the rate of our brain export, what can the future hold for these fields which demand highly educated people to maintain our position of leadership in these endeavors? But not to worry. We have chosen to invest almost a billion shekels in protecting scattered settlements in the hills of Judea and Samaria.
