Good News, Israel

Compliments of Anglo Raannana Real Estate

Quote for the Week

I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.

(James Joyce Irish author of ‘Ulysses’ that chronicles a day in the life of Leopold Bloom. A good summary of the history of the State of Israel, we would say)

· We reported some time back (GN Israel 19 03 10) that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. had won the tender to acquire Germany’s Ratiopharm GmbH. Well after a stunning Q2, their best ever,(GN Israel 30 07 10) the Company announced this week that the deal is done, all sewn up, ahead of schedule too, we suppose when you’ve got it you’ve got it. It cost them €3.625 billion plus €186 million in accrued interest, seems like a lot of money but where does it leave the world’s largest purveyor of generics – and its lucky shareholders – besides a little less flush with cash? It will turn Teva into the number one generic company in Europe [as well as the rest of the world], holding the leading market position in ten EU countries, as well as ranking in the top three in seven others. So, cheap at the price.

· Sores and ulcers that don’t heal come in different shapes and sizes but whatever the shape and whatever the size they are anything but GN. Israeli Company LifeWave Hi-Tech Medical Devices Ltd. has developed Bioelectrical Signal Therapy [BST] that causes wounds to boost the body’s naturally occurring electrical currents to stimulate the wound healing process. Is it novel? Yes it is. Is it pioneering? Same answer, but it’s also tried and tested and has already obtained international UL [Underwriters Laboratory US] safety standard certification. LifeWave’s most recent achievement is marketing approval for the treatment of these chronic sores from Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA). But most important of all it means relief from the agony of diabetic ulcers, bed sores, pressure ulcers and the like and that is GN indeed.

· Soon after claiming the Vancouver Challenger tournament for the third time in his career – the previous occasions were in 2005 and 2008 -, Dudi Sela was back where he belongs, among the top 100 players on the professional circuit and with a vengeance, climbing 16 places in the ATP rankings to reach No. 91 in the world thanks to his 7-5, 6-2 victory over Ricardas Berankis. Sela’s win over the Lithuanian came a mere two hours after he defeated No. 1 seed Taylor Dent 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals. As we said, back where he belongs.

· We liked the following news item: aphids which are insects measuring from a millimeter to ten millimeters in length and which nourish themselves on sap, the life blood of plants causing them to wither and die and making the said little monsters the bane of farmers’ lives. Enter sheep, goats and cattle which like browsing on the bushes almost as much as the aphids don’t like being eaten along with the greenery so the insects, artful little critters that they are, fall to the ground en masse as soon, and this is the important part, as they smell the animals’ breath. They then have to walk to the next plant; a life threateningly perilous journey [is this for real we hear you ask? We’ve checked and it is]. Enter scientists from Haifa University who found out all this fascinating stuff, and they think they’ve hit on something really significant: artificially replicate the animal’s breath and you may help develop harmless – unlike most insecticides – ways of killing off harmful pests. There we have it folks the ultimate in terminal halitosis.

· High tech products and services, which account for very close to half of Israel’s total industrial exports, totaled $1.97 billion in July, nearly 6% more than in June. According to the Bank of Israel, exports in this sector rose by an annualized 51% in the three month period May-July, after increasing by 39.4%, calculated for a full year, in January-April and all this in spite of the prophets of doom who have warned of the dire consequences to us because of the slow economic recovery in the rest of the world.

· Our perennially peripatetic President Peres left on Wednesday on visits to Bulgaria and Romania. Our First Citizen was lavish in his praise of the Bulgarian People for their valiant stand against the Nazis’ genocidal racist ideology during World War 2 in which almost the entire Jewish population in the Country survived. President Giorgi Parvanov bestowed the Stara Planina, the country’s highest honor, on our President as a symbol of the friendship that exists between the two countries. After the stop in Bulgaria, Peres, accompanied by Israel Air Force Commander Nechushtan, continued to Romania to attend a memorial service for the six IAF and one Romanian airmen killed in the Black Hawk helicopter accident late last month and said the following to Hermina the widow of Captain Stefan-Claudiu Dragnea, of the Romanian Air Force “You are as precious to us all as any Israeli wife who has lost her loved one.” The right words with the power to heal we would say. Throughout the visits Israel’s premier ambassador presented Israel’s position as only he can. Next stop? South Korea with a high powered delegation of businessmen et al … but that as they say is another story.

· Summer is definitely heating up and so is the tourist trade. We last reported on numbers of tourists, record numbers we would add, in GN Israel 16 07 10 and here is an update. First, records are continuing to be broken; for instance 280 000 good folk visited us in July, an all time record for the month and the ninth consecutive month of new records. But it’s not only the numbers, our visitors expressed increased satisfaction across the board, with archaeological sites and tour guides leading the field and restaurants, the sea and beaches not far behind. But the most heartwarming figure for us at GN was the score given to Yossi and Sara Citizen for their attitude to our guests, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest – the tourists gave us 4.3 up from 3.9 in 2008. Now that’s GN.

· We have a soft spot for Delta Galil Industries Ltd. Why we hear you ask? We’ll tell you: First it’s not easy when you’re major competitors – we won’t name names but if your thinking China and India you’re right – are paying sweat shop wages and you aren’t. Second because the Company is creating jobs on the periphery [a relative term, because in a country the size of Israel the periphery is about an hour and a half away from the center and we don’t mean by plane either] and third we have a sentimental attachment to the shmatter business – the rag trade to our non Yiddish speaking readers – it’s a Jewish thing. Back to Delta which makes intimate apparel, a very genteel way of saying ladies underwear, and continues to improve result wise. The Enterprise saw a 15% growth in sales in the second quarter of 2010 to $156.7 million, [the fifth consecutive quarter in which Delta reported improved results] compared with $135.9 million in Q2 last year. With $4.5m net profit compared with $200 000 in ‘09. Obviously everybody is committed to getting it right and that’s GN.

· Ramadan is being observed right now by our Muslim citizens and like all other sectors of the population some of them are lacking the basics with which to celebrate. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews to the rescue. Rabbi Yechiel Epstein the founder tells us that the IFCJ is determined to help those in need in Israel and so they have distributed food packages in 58 towns and villages for Ramadan just as they do for Pesach and Rosh Hashanah. A Jewish run organization whose main contributors are Evangelical Christians extending a hand to our Muslim citizens. Sounds right to us.