Tech cheers for Zion: Cutting edge products, more than Sodastream

A swallowable camera, an exoskeleton to enable paraplegics to walk and a device that can see through walls were some of the incredible cutting-edge products showcased at an Israel technology fair at the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center. Sodastream, whose Superbowl ad with Scarlett Johansson made it a focus of the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement, was one of many products featured.

Israel is producing “ideas that can really transform the world as we know it,” said keynote speaker Nadav Kidron. Israelis traveling abroad are routinely asked, “What’s with the Palestinians, what is Israel doing to the Arabs?,” a comment that should be changed to, “Look what Israel is doing to help the world,” he said.

Kidron, CEO of Oramed Pharmaceuticals, pointed out that “most parts of the world are enjoying the technology of Israel. How does a small tiny country produce so much innovation?”

Even the head of Abu Dhabi’s “mossad” shopped for security tech in Israel, flying to Europe and via private jet with no passport to get there, he said. “They will get the best — even if it’s made in Israel.”

Much of the technology made in Israel is not labeled as such since the companies “still pay a price” for that association, although in his field — health care — they “can say it’s made in Israel; if they (patients) need it they will get it anyway,” Kidron said.

He said that 2013 was an “excellent year with $2.5 billion raised by Israeli companies. With six million people, per capita that’s a lot of money invested.”