Innovation Meets Regulation: Israeli Tech Founders, Government Officials, and the Future of Civil Service, This Afternoon at IDI’s Eli Hurvitz Conference

Press Release | IDI Eli Hurvitz Conference 2025 | May 27, Afternoon Session

The first day of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society continued Tuesday afternoon, during which innovation met regulation, putting some of Israel’s top tech founders in conversation with government officials to consider growth engines for the Israeli economy. Day-one of the conference then concluded with consideration of whether the civil service sector is under attack or on its way to reform.

Join us tomorrow, May 28, for day-two of the conference, featuring, among others, MK Yair Lapid, MK Benny Gantz, Minister Zeev Elkin, Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur, MK Avigdor Lieberman, and dozens of other national and local policymakers, business executives, and civil society leaders.

Keep an eye on our X page for real-time quotes translated to English, and follow along with our conference program and livestream.

Key quotes from today’s afternoon session:

Tomer Lotan, former Director General, Ministry of Internal Security; Visiting Senior Fellow, Israel Democracy Institute: “This term ("Deep State") alone places a black mark on the foreheads of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of public sector employees, and brands them as an opposing force in Israeli society. It causes immense harm and distracts from a critical conversation about just how difficult public administration in Israel really is".

Arnon Bar-David, Chair of the Histadrut, gave an impassioned speech about the direction of the country: “The most important growth engine right now is for this government to either end its term or to change direction. When that happens, we’ll be able to move forward and grow…When government ministries don’t function, and when unqualified people are put in charge, performance suffers—and the state ceases to function. We need the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community in the workforce if we want to continue developing the country, and we need them to enlist together with our children to serve and fight in Israel’s wars".

Michal Fink, Head of the Growth, Innovation, and Strategy Division at the Ministry of Economy and Industry laid out the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s concrete plan: "The Ministry of Economy's growth plan has four keys components - increasing the scope of exports of the Israeli economy, increasing GDP and productivity in the economy, expanding the scope of investments from abroad in the Israeli economy, and optimizing the utilization of the economy's resources, including regional and sectoral diversification and development".

Eli Groner, former Director General, Prime Minister’s Office discussed the need to run government more efficiently: "If we had 16 government ministries instead of 37, the billions of shekels we would save would pale in comparison to the improved services the Israeli citizen gets from its government. Anyone who comes from the business sector understands that mergers and acquisitions happen to give better services to customers, and the same should happen here. The bureaucracy exists to serve the citizens, and not itself".

Prof. Eugene Kandel, Chair of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and Chair of RISE Israel painted a concerning picture of the future of Israel’s tech industry: “So many of the Former Soviet Union immigrants came from the engineering and deep tech fields. But those who came in the 90s are now retiring, which means that high-tech is shrinking in terms of manpower. We also see an outflow of skilled labor from Israel, and in academia, we have a structural weakness, as we cannot compete in AI with countries offering triple the salaries".

Amir Shukron, Co-Founder and CEO, Bariks Health spoke about his experience as a founder and CEO while serving in the reserves in the IDF special forces Alpinist Unit during the war: “At a certain point, I wasn’t thinking about startups or my responsibility as a CEO—I was involved in a major event.” He describes eventually learning that a software manager on his team was missing - and ultimately killed in captivity. “To this day, many people aren’t fully aware, but the shockwaves of October 7th are still hitting us constantly…I believe that true victory is not only in maneuvering and toppling Hamas. It’s also when companies, like three of the companies [on this panel] will produce new products, develop in the Gaza Envelope region, and hire more people. That’s our victory over the enemy. That’s what we’re trying to achieve".

Shira Lev Ami, Head, National Digital Agency discussed the opportunities posed by digitization in the government: "Digital allows us to build public sector infrastructure that is hard to dismantle. Policy decisions that are made can be relatively easy to reverse. But when we build digital platforms that change processes, they pass the point of no return—and then it’s hard to go back. Even when the government has excellent ministries, it struggles with coordination between ministries and various authorities—and integration can leap forward when there is digital connectivity".

Stay with us tomorrow, as the conference continues. Click here for the livestream and conference program.