Good News Israel

Compliments of Anglo Saxon Raanana Real Esate
Quote for the Week

“That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. [Read item 2]

We’ll start this week with a brief item but one that is jam packed with significance and joy: in March the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 %, not finished yet, in April the figure was 5.8%, the lowest ever since the establishment of the State. We make two comments, neither of which we can prove; this figure must be approaching zero unemployment, that is when everybody employable – and sadly there will always be those who are not – is employed and we believe that nobody but nobody would have predicted this even as little as a year ago. Long may it last.

Universities teach and do research, sometimes in the oddest things and engage in lots of other activities. Hebrew University has Yissum that commercializes and markets all these theoretical goings on so here are two new patents that rather took our fancy; Juliet may have had it right [see Quote for the Week above] but rose growers and exporters have the problem in reverse and that which they call a rose doesn’t have a scent at all, sweet or otherwise. Beautiful they are but that’s it. Enter doctoral student Oron Gar and Prof Dani Zamir, a little cross breeding here and a little genetic tinkering there and eureka, not only do our roses look good they smell wondrously.

And that’s not all, these very clever people at HU have perfected an electronic device that emits a sonic beam that focuses on the objects around a blind person and by means of gentle vibrations allows him to ‘see’ and reconstruct everything in his immediate environment. Tested on sighted press reporters they succeeded in learning to navigate a darkened maze blindfolded, in no time at all. What a boon!

Givot Olam Oil Exploration LP has begun production at the Meged 5 well near Rosh Ha’Ayin and says that output from the well’s section 8b is 800 barrels a day. OK, OK so it isn’t Saudi Arabia at 12 m barrels a day but we’re getting there*. But Givot added that the oil production process will operate automatically on Saturdays and Festivals. The company has obtained a rabbinical ruling that the automatic process complies with Jewish religious law (Halakha) see, we think about these things here in the Holy Land. *Israel has shale oil deposits which almost equal Saudi Arabia’s total oil reserves and we quote ‘Israel has a deposit of shale oil of 250 billion barrels. Saudi Arabia has total reserves of 260 billion barrels. So Moses took the right turn after all.’

If we’re talking energy we need to tell you about talks between the IEC which provides the country with electricity and Tamar partners Noble Energy Inc who are the gas guys. The negotiations were on and then they were off and now they’re about to restart in the coming days. What’s at stake? $20bn that’s what. Yes the Israel Electric Corp is about to put in an initial order for that amount of gas. Let’s get $20bn into perspective. First it’s more than the annual GDP of Estonia, Bolivia or Paraguay, then it’s ten times more than the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands, isn’t that the world’s largest offshore tax haven? Well there you are. And when the deal is done a lot of that money will be staying in Israel which is where it belongs.

It’s been a long time since Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich, Israel’s star tennis duo have won a tournament together, three years in fact but last week all that changed and after a rain delayed final and a change of venue the pair claimed their 13th career title on Sunday night, defeating Grigor Dimitrov and Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3 in the AEGON International men’s doubles competition. Roll on Wimbledon.

A €5m contract to supply hundreds of personal locator beacons to the French Ministry of Defense was announced by Elbit Systems this week. The PLB is carried in an air or ship’s crew’s emergency vest and an internal switch automatically activates the beacon upon aircrew bailout or naval crew abandoning ship, facilitating rescue procedures. The deal was closed in the face of fierce competition from the established manufacturers of the device. Elbit won it quite simply because their product is superior, a good enough reason. Hot on the heels of this sale the Company has won a $15 million contract from Italian defense contractor Elettronica SpA to supply antiaircraft countermeasures for Italian Air Force aircraft. Elbit Systems announced the contract at the Paris Air Show Le Bourget probably the first of many to come.

And while we’re at the Air show we’ll share the following with you; as air shows go it is probably the biggest and the best and if you’re anybody who is anybody in the aerospace industry it’s definitely the place to be seen and that’s why the Israeli mission comprised 15 companies representing Israel’s top defense systems manufactures. There are a total of 2,100 exhibitors and 28 international pavilions of which Israel’s NIS6m; 1000sq meter stand has been voted in the top five. But down to business. Along with all of Israel’s established merchandise three Israeli defense systems are premiering at the show: the now famous Iron Dome short range missile defense system already proven in the field, the “Magic Wand” medium range missile defense system, currently being tested; and “Windbreaker,” which is an anti-tank missile defense system.

Flag football is a close replica of the gridiron game but without the armor plating and the bone crunching. It also happens to have a dedicated following here not only that they are also very good world class in fact so no one was surprised when both the ladies and the men came home last week with medals won at the Big Bowl in Walldorf, Germany last week. While at one stage both teams looked like they were looking at Gold some dramatic and unexpected reversals left the ladies with silver and the men with bronze they also left a clear message that they will be the teams to beat come the European Championships in France in September.

Back to the Air Show and the deals are going down. Israel Aerospace Industries signed a memorandum of understanding there on Tuesday to jointly develop a new version of an early warning system for Airbus Military’s C295 aircraft, a turboprop light to medium transport plane the first turboprop platform that IAI has fitted with its sophisticated early warning device.

Two weeks ago we dealt with the first team, the Israeli billionaires and now it’s the turn of the second team, the local millionaires, all 10 153 of them. Anyone with net liquidity, assets minus liabilities, of $1m is automatically in the side. So where does our team stand in the universal league tables? Well worldwide there was an increase of 8.3% from 2009 to 2010 and the Holy Land players increased by 20.6% in the same period so we’ve got to be somewhere near the top. And that’s a pretty good way to end this week.