Some Britons who have emigrated to Israel have taken advantage of this military expertise in business. David, a Cambridge economics graduate who moved to Israel in 2001 and has since worked on three successful start-ups, speaks of how he recruited two recent graduates from elite army units who became an integral part of his company. "They were the most brilliant technologists, while we provided the business framework and support," he tells me. 

While this is something that the British Army might struggle to imitate, it needn't worry. Alon, 31, who works in a start-up hub for a large multinational bank in Herzlya, just north of Tel Aviv, is quick to wave aside the idea that army experience is essential. "The experience is not mandatory for start-ups at all-look at how few elite units there are compared to the numbers of start-up entrepreneurs. On my team, no one has worked in IT in the army." 

 

Alon studied programming at a Tel Aviv high school, one of 20 in the city sharing a technological centre, before getting a degree from Ben Gurion university "Nothing I learnt there I use now, as technology moves so fast," he says. "What it does give you is the experience, the thinking patterns and the confidence to innovate."

How is this innovative know-how fostered? "Having the right culture is very important," says Naomi Krieger, director of the UK-Israel Tech Hub based at the British Embassy. "Here in Israel, to be entrepreneurial and an engineer is cool. I'm not sure this was always the case in the UK — but this is changing rapidly." 

The Tech Hub was launched in 2011 to encourage a stronger partnership between Britain and Israel.  "The hub is not about the usual trade policy of selling things to each other," explains Krieger, but rather "about UK and Israel teaming up their skills in order to be able to do business in the UK, Israel and other places." This includes doing joint business with countries that may not have official diplomatic relations with Israel. The hub also brings start-up and industry delegations to Israel. In 2012 David Cameron appointed venture capitalist Saul Klein to be the UK's first tech envoy to Israel to promote high-tech partnerships between the two countries. Israel is now Britain's largest trading partner in the Middle East — thanks to high-tech, oil no longer dominates trade. 

Of course, you can't ignore politics. One of the reasons that Israel has developed such technological acumen is the conflict with its neighbours that has led to wars, terrorism and economic stagnation elsewhere. Some high-tech success stories carry the stigma of being located in West Bank settlements, like the ultra-Orthodox women working  in a high-tech centre in Modi'in Ilit. On the other hand, innovation coupled with business know-how is spreading to other parts of society:  Israeli Arabs are participating in high-tech entrepreneurship more than ever before. 

One Israeli start-up — SpaceIL — is already moving beyond hitting wayward meteors and aiming to make Israel the fourth country to land on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union and China. "Israel is a science-fiction fantasy coming true," says Keren Elazari, as she heads off to dress up as Lady Gaga for a fancy-dress party.