Good News, Israel

Compliments of Anglo Saxon Ra’anana Real Estate

Quote for the Week

“The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” –

Ralph Waldo Emerson. This applies to states too. Think Israel.

It was back to school for about 1,942,000 students who began a new academic year in Israel’s 4,400 education institutes. In light of government plans to shorten the summer break as of next year, this would be the last time the school year begins on September 1st. Our President, Prime Minister and a number of Members of the Cabinet were on hand to encourage the kids to do their best in the ensuing twelve months. Were the children happy? They certainly seemed to be, it was a long, long holiday, perhaps too long. Were the parents happy? You bet. Were the teachers happy? Well, for the first time that we can remember there were no strikes or threats of labor unrest so they must have been. If education is Israel’s [not so] secret weapon then we’re ready to do battle.

Are we approaching the miracle cure for all diseases connected with the brain? If you’ve been following the research being conducted by the Deep TMS team down at Brainsway you’ll know that it certainly seems like we’re getting close. Interim results of a study now in progress indicated that the deep TMS procedure was effective in shrinking a specific type of brain tumor in a safe, non-invasive way as a result Brainsway will consider testing the efficacy and safety of the technique on other tumors. In the second trial, preliminary results found that Deep TMS was found effective and safe in treating alcohol addiction. The patients treated by Deep TMS showed a clear and significant reduction in the use of alcohol after the treatment, compared with the control group.

And that’s not all according to studies done at Hadassah, results of the DTMS treatment show so far that it’s effective and safe in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] which disrupts the lives of about 7% of the Israeli population. More to come, the painless, non-invasive treatment is also being used against bipolar (manic depressive) disorder and other psychiatric problems. We asked above if we’re talking a cure all. We’d be prepared to bet on it and that’s GN.

Down on Ahad HaAm St the TASE is humming with rising prices bringing significant gains. On Wednesday all of Tel Aviv’s leading stock indexes gained ground, even though trading was a little thin at a billion shekels. The benchmark TA-25 index rose 1% to 1,133 points and the broader TA-100 index climbed 1.3% to 1,013 points. Indexes tracking smaller-cap companies gained even more: The TA-technology index and TA-BlueTech index (think blue chips among technology companies) both gained more than 1.7%. Today [Thursday] was more nail-bitingly exciting with a good start followed by a roller-coaster ride that finished with prices where they started. The GN is that the TA 25 Index rose 4% for the week and all the other indexes were up.

It’s not often that a downward spiral is GN but it is when you’re talking unemployment where the rate in the second quarter of 2011, according to the Bureau of Statistics has fallen to 5.5% of the civilian labor force. A few facts worth noting; the figure is down from 6% in the preceding quarter; it’s the lowest figure ever recorded; there were 176,000 unemployed in the second quarter; and it’s one of the lowest rates of unemployment amongst the OECD countries.

Israel’s top male tennis seed, Dudi Sela, our highest ranked lady, Shahar Peer and our ever reliable doubles pair of Ehrlich and Ram are all strutting their stuff at the US Open right now and this is how they fared in the first round – the only one played at the time of writing. Ladies first: Ms Peer beat India’s # 1 Sania Mirza on Tuesday evening, with scores of 6-7, 6-3, 6-1. Peer rallied to beat her former doubles partner 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 after losing to her in four of their last five encounters. Mirza looked on the way to another victory after taking the first set but Peer rallied and raced to a convincing win.

Our male star Dudi Sela-ranked #93 in the world pulled off a stunning comeback in the early hours of Tuesday morning local time, to beat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in five sets. Trailing by two sets to love against the world’s number 39, Sela seemed destined for an early exit at Flushing Meadows, but he managed to do something that he has never achieved before as a professional player – coming from two sets down and fighting all the way to a final set where he seemed to be the only one on the court, ultimately winning by three sets to two.

And so to our redoubtable doubles duo of Erlich and Ram who overcame a first-set setback to best Argentine rivals Lucas Arnold Ker and Juan Monaco 4-6, 7-6 (5 ), 6-3. Facing elimination in the second-round tiebreaker, the Israeli team pulled through before taking command in the final set.

It’s all about reducing carbon footprints and saving money and if you can do them both – well you’re on to a winner and this is why installations of solar systems have gotten underway on the roofs of 48 schools and community centers in our capital city. The work should be completed by mid- September, and the company meanwhile is in the process of getting approval to begin an additional 40 at the beginning of 2012. Savings on electricity – considerable. Gains from reductions to carbon emissions – priceless.

Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s second-largest bank by market cap has just beaten out all of Israel’s other banks during the second quarter of 2011 with a net profit of NIS 712 million. How did they manage that? Well with due modesty they said that this substantial profit was due to the strengthening Israel economy. Now they wouldn’t have said it if they didn’t mean it and it certainly is GN.

While we’re on the subject of banks, Israel’s five big banks posted an aggregate net profit of NIS 4 billion in the first half of 2011, 30% more than in the first half of 2010. Their aggregate net profit was NIS 1.86 billion for the second quarter, 14% more than Q2 2010. But should banks be making such enormous profits we hear you ask? When we consider just how rock solid they were in withstanding 2008’s economic Tsunami that swept away so many financial institutions we suppose the answer is affirmative.

Israel has published numerous scientific studies so far this year that puts it in first place worldwide in terms of the number of articles published per capita – 12 studies to every 10,000 people. America is in second place, with 10 studies [to every 10,000 people], followed by Britain, with nine.UNESCO’s statistics indicate that Israel spent 4.7% of its annual budget, on average, on scientific research placing it in first place worldwide. We wonder how many of those 5and 6 year olds starting school this week will be contributing to those journals in twenty years from now.

Our Telegenic PM has got himself a fan club in unexpected places, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are following him closely, on YouTube that is.18% of surfers who have watched video clips of Mr Netanyahu are from Egypt, second only to the US with 23.4% and Saudi Arabia with 11% of viewers came in fourth just after Israel in third place. The largest number of Arab viewers watched his Ramadan message. Are they all fans? Well, perhaps not but you never can tell.