Israel’s survival at stake, says Nobel laureate

TORONTO — Israel’s very existence is at stake because the Israeli government invests far too little in scientific research and education, says Israeli Nobel Prize laureate Aaron Ciechanover.

Aaron Ciechanover [Sheldon Kirshner photo]

In a dire warning during a recent visit to Toronto, the outspoken scientist declared, “If we lose our technological advantage, we may not be able to survive.”

He added, “Israel doesn’t have natural resources. We’re floating on sand, not oil. Our only resource is human. If we don’t invest in research, we’ll lose everything we have.”

“Or we may become a Third World country,” he added in a stinging rebuke of Israeli government policy.

Ciechanover, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry with American Irwin Rose and Israeli Avram Hershko, issued his scathing critique in an interview at the University of Toronto, where he delivered a lecture on his  groundbreaking work on protein degradation.

“Unfortunately, the Israeli government is investing less and less in scientific research and relying instead on miracles, donations from abroad. There is a lack of appreciation in the government for scientific research.”

Ciechanover – a professor at the Technion in Haifa – lamented that Israel’s educational system has deteriorated in recent years, judging by test results in subjects ranging from mathematics to reading comprehension.

“It’s pathetic,” said Ciechanover, the director of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute. “It’s disastrous, in my opinion. We’re betraying the deepest Jewish values.

In a reference to Israel’s security, he said, “We’re surrounded by countries that don’t recognize us. Our existence is not secure. We have to outsmart our enemies, and that will only come from education.”

Again mincing no words, he observed, “Only by wisdom and cleverness can you win wars. Our defence system is completely dependent on education. Yet the president of the Technion has told me that his budget is being cut.”

Ciechanover said that Israel needs peace in order to prosper. “I hope that the people who think we can live by the sword are wrong.”

In a reference to the concept of territorial compromise, he said, “We have to sacrifice for peace, divide the land in some way. I want to believe that Arab mothers want their children to grow up in peace.”

Asked why Israel is not dedicating sufficient funds to maintaining its universities at the highest possible academic level, he replied, “It’s a mystery. I don’t know. There are all kinds of mysteries. Politicians are short-sighted. Education is a long-term enterprise.”

Despite his sombre warning, Ciechanover acknowledged that the state of scientific research in Israel at present compares favourably to that of Canada, Europe and the United States, and is far more advanced than in the Arab world.

“They’re not players in the game,” he said of the Arab scientific establishment. “They (Arab nations) don’t invest in science and technology. I don’t have Egyptian or Saudi peers.”

Turning to another topic, Ciechanover lashed out at international attempts  to boycott Israeli academics and universities.

“It shows a basic misunderstanding of academic life,” he said. “By boycotting us, you’re stopping a transfer of information. What does it achieve?

“Academic life is based on freedom. We’re talking about science, not politics. The only way to settle any problem is by talking, not by boycotting. Politics should be kept out of academia.”

He himself keeps resolutely away from politics. “You don’t want to touch it, even with a 10-foot stick.”

Ciechanover charged that organizers of anti-Israel boycotts are anti-Semitic, pure and simple.

“First they blame Jews, and now they have Israel to blame. This is hidden anti-Semitism, a new form of anti-Semitism. These people are anti-Semites. They are motivated by anti-Semitism.

He claimed that Canadians are among the leading proponents of boycotting Israeli scholars and universities.

Ciechanover, who was due to fly to Germany to give a lecture following his trip to Toronto, said he feels uncomfortable in that country.

“I will never forgive or forget,” he said, referring to Germany’s central role in the Holocaust.

Ciechanover, whose Polish-born parents settled in Palestine in the 1920s, explained he agreed to go to Germany in the interest of fostering scientific cooperation and peace.

“I’m there to promote international collaboration. That’s the way to prevent the next disaster and future holocausts.”

Asked how the Nobel Prize has personally affected him, Ciechanover replied that it has humbled him profoundly. “I’m humbled by the complexity of nature and by the fragility of life,” said Ciechanover, who keeps his Nobel Prize in a bank vault. “I’m humbled by other people’s talents.”

He has been extremely busy travelling since winning the prize. “It’s an overwhelming experience. You get opportunities to see the world and Jewish communities in places like Ecuador and Paraguay.”

He also sleeps much less, three hours rather than his usual six hours per night.

In a self-deprecatory observation, he mused, “Nothing has changed. You’re the same old fool.”

When not travelling, lecturing or teaching, he continues his research. In awarding the Nobel Prize to Ciechanover and his two colleagues, the Nobel committee cited their discovery of “ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation,” one of the cell’s most important cyclical processes. Thanks to their research, it is now possible to understand, at a molecular level, how a cell controls a number of central processes in the body.

“It’s an ever expanding field,” he said. “The more we know, the more we’re aware of what we don’t know. It’s really a growing field.”

Ciechanover, who was born in 1947, considers himself a patriotic Israeli.

“I grew up with the country. I went to military service, like everyone else. I participated in two wars, in the Six Day War as an orderly and in the Yom Kippur War as a physician.

He is pleased to learn that the Technion, the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital have agreed to a student exchange.

George Fantus, the associate dean of research at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine, disclosed that the program is expected to start in the summer of 2010.