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Some posters on this forum would like you to believe that Israel is nothing but a country of imperialism, colonialism, “illegal” settlements, violent, oppressive “occupiers”, suicide bombings and repression. So would the mainstream media. Here are some of facts about Israel that neither those posters nor the MSM will post or print, for fear of spoiling their agenda… (and admitting the truth).
‘War-torn’ land is in fact economic, scientific, cultural powerhouse
Yoram Ettinger
1. Bankruptcy rate in Israel is one of the lowest in the world (19% increase during the first half of 2009), compared with the US - 45% increase, Spain - 58%, Spain - 75% and Switzerland - 15% (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27, 2009).
2. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has rebounded to its September 10, 2008 (meltdown) level, scoring a 50% surge (Yedioth Ahronoth, July 27).
3. Sequoia Capital and Tanya Capital led a $15.5MN round of private placement by Israel’s Kontera (Globes, July 24). Intel Capital, Cisco, Greylock Ventures and Menlo Ventures participated in a $13MN round by Israel’s AeroScout (Globes, June 29). The Boston-based media giant, Medtronics, invested over $10MN in the Israeli VC fund, TriVentures (Globes, June 23). Motorola Ventures, Stata Venture Partners, Argonaut and Walden participated in a $10MN 4th round by Israel’s Amimon (Globes, July 15). Arts Alliance Digital Ventures invested $9MN in Israel’ YCD Multimedia (Globes, June 23). Innogest, Italy’s largest venture capital fund, invested $8MN in the Israeli-Italian company, beeTV (Globes, June 4). The Boston-based Globespan Capital and Spark Capital invested $7.5MN in Israel’s 5min, their 3rd investment in Israel (Globes, July 24).
4. Intel VP for Technology and Manufacturing Group and GM of Intel Israel (6 plants, 6,500 employees!), Maxine Fassberg: “We have developed breakthroughs in Israel that have changed the face of computerization…In Israel, we are developing and manufacturing network and communication products as well as microprocessors – in parallel to spearheading the mobile domain in Intel Corp. Among the technologies developed here are MMX, which constitutes the basis of the Pentium processor, platforms for Intel Centrino mobile computers and the Intel Core 2Duo processor. In addition, the first fast Ethernet and first wireless LAN were developed here…” (Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2009).
5. The Med’s best-kept secret (excerpts of Willy Stern, The Weekly Standard, July 27, 2009):
“Perhaps nowhere else on the globe does there exist a greater discrepancy between perception and reality than Israel. The press portrays the country as a savage land racked by war and terrorism... The reality, though, is a country of 7.4 million people whose stock market and economy are humming along quite nicely (at least in contrast to the rest of the globe) and whose citizens revel in their chic Mediterranean lifestyle…
“In Israel, life goes on. The Western media just doesn’t notice… Israel has become a vibrant, functioning jewel of a nation tucked into the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv looks more like San Diego or Barcelona than Baghdad or Kabul. On a recent five-mile run along Tel Aviv’s beach, I saw Israeli yuppies cycling the boardwalk on $1,500 mountain bikes, teenagers in wetsuits surfing the breakers, a deep-cleavaged Russian model (nobody seemed to know her name) doing a photo shoot in a skimpy bikini whilst middle-aged Israeli men gawked, rows of yachts docked at the Tel Aviv marina, a stream of private planes on final approach to small Sde Dov Airport, and two Israeli soldiers in khaki uniforms making out in the sand and drinking Heineken. A nation at war? It seemed more like high season at Coney Island…
“Israel has a world class cultural scene. Want to see Franco Zeffirelli and Daniel Barenboim? No problem. The Alvin Ailey Dance Company visits. The opera plays to audiences at 97 percent capacity. Even at lower pay, (Israel) attracts the best talents from around the globe…
“Israel enjoys top universities, upscale restaurants, million-dollar homes, hoity-toity architecture, and the like. In the fourth quarter last year, when the global economy went all to hell, Israel’s annual, quarter-over-quarter rate of GDP was only off 0.5 percent, the best figure in the industrialized world. (The United States was off 6.3 percent and Japan 12.1 percent.) ‘Think about the resistance of our economy in recent times,’ suggests Zvi Eckstein, deputy governor of the Bank of Israel. ‘Our prime minister (has a stroke). The war in Gaza. The war in Lebanon. The government gets replaced. But we’ve maintained a stable macroeconomic structure and a strong high-tech sector…’
What’s the secret? A very conservative banking system… No mortgage crisis… A current account surplus since 2003… Negligible inflation… Prudent governmental fiscal policy… Healthy integration into the world economy. Last year, 483 Israeli high-tech companies raised a whopping $2.08BN (only US companies raised more). All the major tech players – Google, Microsoft, IBM – have large research centers in Israel. They go where the talent is… ‘Israel is today the third-hottest spot (after Silicon Valley and Boston) for high-tech venture capital in the world…’ Israel produces more science papers per capita than any other country. Israel lags behind only the United States in number of companies listed on NASDAQ. Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce has a university degree; only the United States and Holland have a higher number. Israel leads the world in scientists and technicians per capita…
“The cell phone? Developed in Israel. Ditto for most of the Windows NT operating system and for voice mail technology. Pentium MMX Chip technology? Designed in Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Developed in Israel. The list goes on. Firewall security software originated in Israel. The latest breakthrough is the ‘PillCam,’ a video camera that can be swallowed and aids physicians in diagnosing intestinal cancer…it seems the other Israel - the land not of terrorists but of milk and honey and goats - may finally be being discovered.”
All this and more under conditions of an Arab boycott for the first three-and-a-half decades of its existence, with enemies that only want to see it “wiped off the map” because of their own rampant racism and intolerance. What could have been achieved if Israel did not have to allocate such a large proportion of its budget to the defense establishment? Yet the Arab/Muslim world and the far left hate Israel—primarily because of its success in adversity.
Here’s just a few more reasons for those who want to hate us…
When NASA needed help storing data from its lunar space probe, it turned to Israeli company Sital Technology for the technology.
As evidence of its leading role in research and development, Israel has been chosen to head the largest R&D network in the world, the “Eureka initiative”, a pan-European, inter-governmental initiative that supports European innovation and sees investments of €1.5 billion every year.
An Israeli inventory and shipment tracking system could make the difference between your company’s profit and loss, and even closure and survival.
BriefCam’s technology eases the time-consuming process of identifying assailants, thieves, and intruders anywhere from an airport, to a power plant or a border crossing.
As pirate attacks on ships sailing the high seas rise, Israeli security teams are finding themselves in increasing demand. Meet the new pirate busters.
Californians are interested in Israeli clean tech companies like GreenRoad, TaKaDu, AquaPure, and solar energy company ZenithSolar.
Israel’s Cam-Trax is prepared to go Nintendo, the Wii’s manufacturer, one better; the company’s CamSpace system brings the power of Wii-style gaming interaction to any PC, using a simple webcam and free software.
When you’re dyslexic regular spell checks don’t help. You need something even more basic to ensure you get your message across correctly. Enter Israel’s Ghotit.
A joint Israeli-American study has identified a drug that could prevent changes in the brain that lead to epilepsy after brain trauma.
An Israeli biotech company is developing a new peptide that could be used to treat sepsis and septic shock by preventing a cascade of toxic super-antigens in the body.
More than 25 years of research by an Israeli professor has culminated in nanocapsules that can slip through our bodies’ defenses to deliver more curing power.
Prescription drugs mixed inadvertently with over the counter medications can be a lethal cocktail hospitalizing hundreds of thousands of people every year. Now an Israel company has the solution.
Dr. Fuad Fares has a huge secret. It’s big enough to make sure his laboratory is locked tight when he’s not there. The Israeli scientist has been looking into the potency of ancient herbal treatments, and has discovered what he believes is a new family of antioxidants.
As the World Health Organization declares swine flu a pandemic, an Israeli company has begun clinical trials of a universal flu vaccine that could protect against almost every type of flu virus.
An Israeli company believes it can unlock the energy in plant chromosomes to double the yield of traditional biofuel crops and even revolutionize the industry.
An Israeli designed electric scooter is causing a stir with all those looking for an alternative solution to get about.
These are just some—not all—of this past month’s (July 2009) items about innovative contributions, advances and benefits to humanity from Israel… and what has the Arab/Muslim world that would so dearly love to “wipe us off the map” done for humanity lately?
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