Looking for a place (in Israel) to live? Not really happy with the overcrowded cities, but don't want to move to a failing kibbutz or a Moshav? Afraid to move to the settlements?

Then this new city/kibbutz/moshav might be for you. A "Start Up Kibbutz" or a "Hi-Tech Moshav".

It is unclear what it will be, because they are not yet sure. They are negotiating with the Israel Lands Authority for tracts of land and then will begin the design and actual planning. TheMarker today has an article and interview (in Hebrew) with Amir Gal-Or, the founder of the idea and the engine behind the project, and the director of the Infinity Fund, about the new place.

Basically it will be, if it works out and gets off the ground, a kibbutz in the Southern sector of Israel. But this will not be a kibbutz like any other kibbutz. This will be a place for the best minds in Israel to live. A place where the technological entrepreneurs will gather along with all those who work with them (lawyers in the industry, accountants, teachers, etc..).

Or as Gal-Or puts it, "We will not have a cow barn in the center of the kibbutz, rather an advanced media center. We will not have cows, but computers, video screens and advanced communications equipment. By us, in the communal dining room, we will create and not eat."

Last I heard, even people in the hi-tech industry need to eat, so I am not sure what he meant by that last part. But it must be great to live on a kibbutz and not have to hope the house they allocate you is not placed downwind of the cow barn!

"In the center of the kibbutz will be an advanced technological center that will allow you to feel as if you are in new York. It will have a video conference with the highest quality communications system. There will be tens of screens and channels.."

Gal-Or concludes the interview by saying that the old method of establishing communities - kibbutzim and settlements - is behind us. people do not do that anymore. He wants to energize a renewal of establishing settlements, but on the basis of our brains. "This will be a settlement of brains."