Most of the story or “narrative” we hear about Israel is highly-charged, political (left-leaning), filled with violent images. Often the narrative is of the supposed Big Bad Israeli Soldier mistreating the defenseless Palestinian. Or the whacked-out unshaven settler ruining the lives of otherwise perfectly happy moms in burkhas. Or ungrateful Israeli leaders who won’t get in line and cooperate with the naive plans of a US President who has never visited them.

These images take all the nuance out of what life is really like there – they make for easy sound-bites but do not reflect the reality on the ground fully.

For people who don’t have a personal connection of some sort that takes them behind what I have come to call the CNN Curtain, this violent conflict narrative may be the only one they know.

I founded Israeli Wine Direct, in part, to broaden people’s understanding of what Israel is all about. To help people of all backgrounds discover The Real Israel. The one with real people going to real jobs raising real kids and facing a daily reality that their existence both personally and collectively is literally up for debate. Find a moment to take out a map of the region if you haven’t ever done so. Israel is surrounded by neighbors publicly swearing to destroy her and her people, boycotting her goods, digging tunnels to smuggle weapons inside of her and kidnap young soldiers.

In spite of all this (maybe in part because of it?), Israel today is the most innovative and entrepeneurial nation on the planet. Period.

Most technology and most medical devices we all benefit from have an Israeli fingerprint. Israeli technology is inside much of the stuff we rely on every day.

The informal, anti-hierarchical, always-dissatisfied temperament of most Israelis creates just the right breeding ground for so much progress (while often ruffling feathers along the way, no doubt).

I have always been mesmerized with the way great wine brings people together across countries and cultures and backgrounds.

I see Israeli wine as one of Israel’s greatest cultural Ambassadors, re-branding Israel in the minds of Americans even in some small incremental way.

The re-birth and re-emergence of a premium Israeli wine scene is not only a true and exciting story but it’s also a counter-narrative to the narrow bad-news CNN narrative.

Just like Intel (which has a major operation inside Israel and frankly has been saved as a company by brilliant Israeli engineers) talks about Intel Inside, I have become a bit obsessed with the idea of Israel Inside.

I want to place – and I need your help placing – Israeli wine Inside the homes of as many Americans and retailers and wine bars and restauarnts as possible.

Not merely because so much Israeli wine tastes greats and rocks and comes from the Birthplace of Wine. It is all of that and more.

But also because great Israeli winegrowing – the fact that young highly-trained Israelis in some of the most important and ancient wine regions in the world are producing wine that translates place (and what a PLACE!) so well – is a counter-narrative to the nightmare images foisted on all of us by a mainstream media hell-bent on simple one-dimensional reporting and “Action News”. Wine lets you taste the place, building positive associations that the people and the place deserve.

To dig deeper into what makes the Real Israel tick – PLEASE READ Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle as soon as you possibly can!!

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