Israel's global status got another uptick this week when Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba – the Chinese version of Amazon.com – spent three days in Israel, praising it repeatedly as "inspirational" and full of "creativity, wisdom, persistence and vision."
Alibaba is a global giant with 66,000 employees, a market cap of half a trillion dollars, and holder of the largest IPO in financial history. Ma, whose personal wealth is $42 billion, was ranked as the world's "second greatest leader" by Fortune magazine.
This week, Ma compared the State of Israel with Alibaba: both have excelled despite countless obstacles and setbacks.
"There were thousands of times I said to myself and to colleagues at Alibaba: Never give up," says Ma. In Israel, "people are born to believe ‘never give up.’ This is what has made Israel a miracle in only 70 years."
"Rather than read about Israel, you should come here, feel it, and touch it."
In his first visit to Israel, Ma brought along 40 senior Alibaba's managers – a visit closely watched on the global business stage. So the BDS movement could not have been pleased as Ma glowed how Israel "is so peaceful and prosperous... Rather than read about Israel, you should come here, feel it, and touch it."
As part of a $15 billion global expansion, Alibaba is now opening a R&D center in Tel Aviv – focusing on artificial intelligence, computer vision, and other disruptive technologies.
Ma praised the Jewish trait of "chutzpah – the courage to challenge convention," and expressed amazement that in Israel
You don’t have any diamonds here, but you have the biggest diamond exchange in the world. You don’t manufacture cars, but you have the best technology for car manufacturing. You don’t have oil, you don’t have water, you don’t have any resources – but you make yourself so strong.
Beyond the business side of the trip, Ma focused on Jewish heritage and the Jewish people's return to its homeland. Ma visited the Israel Museum, and at the Western Wall echoed core Jewish values: "Teach history, preserve the tradition, and honor what our forefathers did."
Ma's visit to Israel was personal in another important way. Having failed his college entrance exams four times, Ma was genuinely thrilled to receive an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University. Watch his remarkable speech:
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(3) Shoshana-Jerusalem, May 9, 2018 6:10 PM
Where our success comes from
A very good article and and his speech was amazing. But it is so sad that in his few days in Israel it seems that he did not once hear G-d's name mentioned. Didn't anyone tell him that our success is from H-shem, who protects us and watches over us constantly?
He seems to be echoing the voices that he heard here. "kochi v'otzem yadi" my strength and the power of my hand" made all of this for me. That he thinks like that doesn't matter, but what is happening to our country?
(2) Toby Bulman Katz, May 9, 2018 5:04 PM
China is still a totalitarian dictatorship
Jack Ma's remarks are inspiring, and very complimentary to Jews and to Israel. But we must not lose sight of the fact that China remains a brutal dictatorship in which religious freedom is severely circumscribed, media and internet heavily censored, and there are half a million political prisoners. See Amnesty International report on human rights violations. https://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/china/ I have no idea how Alibaba came to be the huge enterprise it is but I do know that China does not have such a thing as capitalist free enterprise. What it even means to be an "entrepreneur" in such a country eludes me. The government picks winners and losers and no large industry exists there without large government subsidies and heavy-handed government involvement. Not a model for Israel to follow.
(1) joshua, May 8, 2018 4:19 PM
personal perserverence
Ma is a great example. Here's a man who failed his college entrance exams 4 x (!) and yet became a teacher. Then, founded a huge company and remains CEO. Not simple. He mentioned thousands of times he had to encourage his colleagues to push through challenges. That quality is probably one of the major keys to his success.