Tiny and facing perpetual adversity, Israel has grown a spectacularly successful entrepreneurial economy in the midst of a global economic meltdown, with $2 billion in foreign investment capital invested there in 2008 alone.

The country currently has the highest density of startups in the world (3,850, or one startup for every 1,844 Israelis). Over the last few decades, Israel’s high-tech innovations have spread on a global scale.

Dan Senor, author of ‘Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle,’ wants to make sure people know this. Senor will speak about his book and the Israeli economy 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco.

“People find it refreshing to have a discussion about Israel that is not conflict-centric,” said Senor. “While so much of the debate is about the threats and the moral obligation that the world has to Israel, there’s another part of the narrative: what the world can learn from Israel. That’s what we focus on.”

Senor and co-author Saul Singer learned certain conditions unique to Israel have contributed to the country’s mega-million-dollar success. Among the contributing factors: Israel’s pervasive military culture, which fosters independence and quick-minded individuality; that Israel is forced by regional conflicts to export to the world; and Israelis’ ability to innovate on the fly.

Those innovations include everything from PC anti-virus software to the AOL instant messenger and the Intel Pentium microprocessor chip. Israelis also created medical devices such as radiation-free breast cancer diagnostics and the “Gut Cam,” an ingestible video pill camera that diagnoses abnormalities.

I believe the period between 2000 and 2006, during which the second intifada took place, is especially significant in explaining Israel’s economic expansion. Israel’s share of the global venture-capital pie doubled. The country managed to persuade investors to decouple the security threat from the economic situation.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation in Israel