This past week in Israel demonstrated how innovation can function as a powerful form of diplomacy. Against the backdrop of PLANETech Week, Cyber Week, AI Week, the Women in Tech Israel Summit, the International Convention for Energy and Business, and the ICI Meeting (Innovations in Cardiovascular Intervention) Conference, the “Start-Up Nation” became a global convening ground for innovators, investors, and ecosystem leaders from across the United States, India, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Australia and beyond.
Throughout the sessions and host locations, what emerged was more than a showcase of technological excellence; it was a living example of how direct engagement through science, entrepreneurship, and problem-solving can reshape perceptions, build trust, and reopen dialogue with audiences whose opinions are evolving.
What delegates encountered went far beyond technology. They experienced an innovation culture defined by urgency, collaboration, and a deep sense of responsibility to address real-world problems. Across climate, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and health, Israeli founders and researchers spoke less about disruption for its own sake and more about social-impact solutions designed to operate under pressure, adapt quickly, and serve global needs. This ethos, visible across disciplines and geographies, is what elevates innovation from a commercial asset into a diplomatic strategy.
Cyber Week brought international leaders together to discuss the future of digital resilience. AI Week highlighted breakthroughs that are shaping healthcare, security, and various industries. ICI highlighted advancements in cardiology intervention. Hosting 27 events around the country last week, PLANETech Week showcased Israeli solutions addressing urgent global challenges, including water scarcity, food security, energy efficiency, and decarbonization.
"Our goal was to connect Israeli technologies to global markets to ensure deployment and the use of these technologies for more resilient and adaptive industries," said Rotem Trivizki, director of PLANETech. "At the same time, we see this as a way to building trust that goes beyond politics. It's about building trust with the people of Israel, and strengthening working relationships. Ultimately, we all have one planet to live on, and this goes beyond any border or conflict."
For many visitors, the sheer density of innovation was striking. But even more impactful was witnessing how Israelis innovate: with urgency, collaboration, and a sense of responsibility to solve real-world problems.
This is where innovation becomes diplomacy
As renowned Israeli diplomat and nation-branding expert Ido Aharoni often emphasizes, public opinion is not evenly divided between supporters and detractors. Roughly 20% of people are firmly supportive. Approximately 10% are deeply and ideologically opposed and are unreachable through facts or dialogue. However, the decisive audience, he argues, is the 70% in the middle: those who may not be well informed or ideologically fixed, yet remain open to listening.
It is precisely this middle that Israel must focus on, and innovation-led engagement is one of the most effective ways to connect.
During the course of the week, I spoke with international delegates whose perspectives underscored this dynamic. One advisor to early-stage companies from California shared that he arrived in Israel with no fixed views beyond what he had absorbed from international media coverage, much of it overwhelmingly negative. After several days meeting Israeli founders, researchers, and operators, his understanding shifted. Experiencing the ecosystem firsthand, its openness, ambition and sense of mission gave him a more nuanced, human view of Israel that no headline or commentary could convey.
Yet for many participants, the most impactful moments occurred outside conference halls.
An American who leads a Women in Tech chapter in Japan shared that the most impactful part of her visit was not a keynote or a panel, but traveling south to the kibbutzim. At Kibbutz Be’eri, she listened to survivors describe the events of October 7 not through news footage or social media, but face-to-face. That direct encounter, she said, fundamentally changed her understanding of the country and its people. It was the same dynamic at work throughout the week: when people experience Israel firsthand, complexity replaces caricature.
Later, I shared a personal story with her. I told her about being in a park with my children and meeting another mother with a toddler. When I asked the child’s name, she replied, “Be’eri.” Across Israel, children born since October 7 are being named Be’eri, Oz, and Nir, names tied to the kibbutzim and communities that were attacked. It is a quiet but powerful expression of resilience, one that visitors can only grasp through presence. This, too, is diplomacy, not scripted, not performative, but rooted in shared humanity and lived experience.
She had tears in her eyes. That story stayed with her, and so will her advocacy for Israeli-based innovation that can improve lives worldwide.
This is the power of innovation-led, people-centered diplomacy. When visitors come to Israel through the lens of business, science, and technology, they are not shielded from complexity; they are invited to engage with it. They see a country that is simultaneously grieving and building, mourning and inventing, processing trauma while continuing to contribute solutions to the world.
In a moment defined by polarization and information overload, Israel’s most effective diplomatic asset may not be louder messaging, but intentional proximity. Innovation-led engagement offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity for people to see complexity firsthand, to meet those building while grieving, and to understand a nation not through ideology or headlines, but through human experience and shared purpose.
Rebuilding Israel’s global reputation will not be achieved solely through slogans or reactive communications. It will require sustained investment in convening, exchange, and ecosystem-building that invites the world into Israel’s reality rather than speaking at it. When innovation is paired with openness and resilience, it becomes more than an economic engine or technological advantage. It becomes a bridge capable of reaching the large, persuadable middle that ultimately shapes global opinion and long-term relationships.
The writer is a partner with FINN Partners’ Israel team and a communications and media relations expert focused on environmental and healthcare innovation, helping Israeli companies translate breakthrough technologies into global impact.