Good News, Israel

Quote for the Week
Compliments of Anglo Saxon Raannana Real Estate

The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.

Benjamin Disraeli (British politician and author. [See last three items])

* If Polonius of Hamlet fame was correct, and we believe he was, when he said that ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ then Sara Palin, former governor of Alaska, is a very wise lady indeed, and we believe that too. She had but two words of advice for Israelis; ‘Stop apologizing!’ To us, used as we are to being overwhelmed by a welter of words from well-meaning visitors intent on telling us how to run our show, Ms Palin was a breath of fresh air. Like former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, all potential candidates for president in 2012, she and husband Todd were here for a two-day, private visit [their first to the Holy Land]. They promised to come back and we at GN ISRAEL would add that they will always be more than welcome.

* Dell’s* Israeli R&D center currently has 70 employees, and is the first of its kind in Israel. It will focus on developing storage technologies and cloud** computing solutions, which will be embedded in Dell products worldwide. The Company is expected to launch a major hiring campaign, whose first target is to double the center’s manpower by the end of the year, ultimately turning the center into a global leader in the field. With its brain intensive economy will Israel become the R&D center of the world? Could be, could be.
[*Dell Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation. ** When you switch on a light you don’t have to know how a generator works for the light to come on, the electricity supplier does it for you, the same with cloud computing, you press the keys and the system delivers the services]

* Squash is a game for the very fit and the lightning fast and two young Israelis have proved their mettle on the courts of Europe; Daniel Poleshchuk won the under 17 age category and Ido Burstein was the under 13 title taker at the Welsh Junior Open in Cardiff earlier this week. The event, part of the European Squash Federation’s junior circuit, marked the first time that Israel has won two titles at any squash competition. Poleshchuk, who was the top under-15 player in Europe, was placed first in the older category just one month after his 15th birthday. A rising star obviously.

* We said that 2011 would be an M&A [Mergers and Acquisitions] year and here are a few, announced this week, to prove our point and to add to an ever-growing list;

o $360 million changed hands when Provigent Ltd., an Israeli provider of semiconductors; [why semi, we ask ourselves, why not get a full conductor and finished? Well, first of all a semi conductor is a material with electrical conductivity half-way between that of a conductor and an insulator but more important they are a basic necessity for modern electronics and that’s good enough for us] was acquired by Broadcom Corporation, based in California and with a 2010 revenue of $6.82 billion.

o There has been a merger between Sapiens, IDIT I.D.I. Technologies Ltd and FIS Software, the two last being Israeli companies that develop enterprise software solutions for insurance, pensions and financial companies. Sapiens, US based and also in the insurance software solutions business will fork out $75 million in cash, shares and options to purchase shares, for the privilege of taking over.

o Snaptu, a fast, stylish, all-in-one app, produced in Israel, that includes all your mobile essentials in one place: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, News, Weather, Sports, Movies, Sudoku and much more – Good Heavens, what next – has been acquired by Facebook and market sources estimate that the cost to the Company was between $60 million and $70 million.

o While we may not have our own oil…yet, and we won’t be able to go on saying that for much longer, we do have a fuel company operating in the US, part of the Delek Group Ltd. and they have just acquired a controlling interest in a refinery in Arkansas, which produces 80,000 barrels of black gold a day. The cost? $145 million in shares, cash and liquidation of debt.

o Hot off the press and right up to the minute comes the announcement that US Company, McAfee Inc. acquired Sentrigo Inc., an Israeli developer of solutions designed to protect databases from hackers and unauthorized users as well as monitoring regulatory compliance. The companies did not disclose the size of the deal, but it’s reportedly between $30-40 million.

* Our hearts go out to the Japanese people who are being subjected to unspeakable loss and suffering in the wake of a cataclysmic earthquake and Tsunami. The quiet dignity and fortitude with which they bear this onerous and terrible burden is an inspiration. Israel will send two airplanes, with a team of fifty doctors, nearly twenty tons worth of humanitarian aid and fifty tons worth of medical equipment intended for an Israeli field clinic which will be established in the town of Minamisanriku which has been totally destroyed. The Israeli clinic will provide the Japanese with pediatrics, internal and orthopedic medicine. A field X-ray lab and a blood test lab will also be built on location.

* Right now our kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit unites Israelis more than most other factors and some 250,000 students attending state religious schools, that’s a quarter of a million kids ranging in age from three, the first year of kindergarten to eighteen the matriculation year will give practical expression to their concern for his welfare by devoting their spare time to studying the entire Bible and Mishna in his name. Each age group has received a selection of chapters and together with their teachers, education students, school principals and inspectors will put their heads down and work their way through the material. What a great undertaking. What a worthy cause.

* Staying with our outstanding young people; Nine students from the Ohel Shem high school in Ramat Gan have succeeded where even the best of Israel’s diplomats have failed – they’ve conquered the General Assembly of the UN. The challenge? To prepare a two minute video which will answer the question – “What will the world look like in 20 years”. Competing against about 3,000 teens from around the world they presented a vision on film of a world free of hunger and with peace in the Middle East, Africa as a thriving continent no longer a part of the third world and, not satisfied with mere electric powered cars they had theirs flying in the sky. The crown prince of Norway presented the Israeli high school students with the award for the outstanding clip to applause from the Assembly, something not often heard in that august chamber.

* The really GN would be that army service would no longer be a part of life here but unfortunately that’s not yet the case so we end this week’s GN with a salute to all the young women and men in the March IDF draft who represent a record number of soldiers requesting to serve in combat units, 79.5 % of all the draftees to be precise. And nobody should imagine that serving in these elite sections of the army is a stroll in the park. It involves these youngsters giving their all in the service of their country. God bless them.