Israel Immersion: Background on People and Organizations

People

Assaf Harlap, Founder, Middle East Education Through Technology

Middle East Education Through Technology - M.I.T.

Programming peace
ynetnews.com, Yonatan Gur, 18 August 2009
Middle East Education Through Technology program brings together Israeli, Palestinian high school students for IT, business classes over summer vacation. 'The idea was to bring together future Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but not in some forest in Switzerland,' says program's leader

Assaf Harlap
Portrait Project, Harvard Business School, 2011

Bashar Masri, Chairman of the Board of Massar International

Bashar Masr , information from the Massar International website

It's not politics - it's just business
Ynetnews.com, Danny Rubinstein, 6 January 2011
Bashar Masri's plan to purchase Israeli real estate firm plagued by debt is rocking the business sector, right-wing elements. This may be the first time a Palestinian takes over an Israeli public company - Digal Investments & Holdings, which is building luxury apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem. Proposed deal emerges as micro-cosmos of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but Masri insists: 'It's just business'

A Shining City On a Hill
Time, Stacy Perman, 21 March 2011
Sitting in his ramallah office, Bashar Masri, the managing director of Bayti Real Estate Investment Co., watches the construction of the first planned city in Palestinian history - which is going on 9 km away - in real time on multiple split screens on his computer.

INTERVIEW: The Man Behind Palestine's Green City Rawabi - Bashar Masri
Green Prophet, Arwa Aburawa, 2 May 2011
We speak to Bashar Masri, the man behind Rawabi, Palestine's first planned and green city. Since announcing plans to build Palestine's first planned and green city back in 2008, the Rawabi project has faced its fair share of criticism.

Architect eyes tony Palestinian city with eco-mindset and fast Internet
The Christian Science Monitor, Ilene R. Prusher, 14 May 2010
Bashar Masri is spearheading the first planned Palestinian city, pending Israeli approval. His young team - who order pizza and work through lunch - envision a 21st-century city conscious of its ecological impact and equipped with a fiber-optic network.

Building A 21st-Century Palestinian City
The New York Jewish Week, Gary Rosenblatt, 28 June 2011
Meet Bashar Masri, 50, a wealthy Palestinian-American businessman and entrepreneur, who operates on a grand level. He is working toward changing the very dynamic of Palestinian life, modernizing the society's outlook through housing. Born in Nablus and educated in Egypt and the United States, he moved from Washington, D.C. to Ramallah about 15 years ago because, he told me recently, of "the chance to build a nation from scratch."

Booky Oren, Chairman, Miya Arison Group

Booky Oren
Biography, Bloomberg BusinessWeek

"Israel - A Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and the Water Arena"
Tomorrow 2009 Conference, October 22, 2009

Q&A: An Interview with Miya's Booky Oren
Industrial WaterWorld and Water & Wastewater International, Carlos David Mogollon, September 2008.
The editor of WWi and IWW had an opportunity to interview Baruch "Booky" Oren, the CEO and president of Miya, at the International Water Association's World Water Congress in Vienna, Austria, in September 2008.

Israelis start firm to fight global water shortage
Reuters News, Mark Heinrich, 8 September 2008
Israeli investment firm Arison Group launched a global company on Monday to combat a critical shortage of drinking water in many nations caused by leaking pipes and poor management. Incorporated in 2006 but launched publicly today, the company called Miya has drawn an initial investment of $100 million, and several hundred employees have been hired, including experts in water conservation. The company is based in Israel and has subsidiaries in South Africa, Romania, Canada, Australia, Croatia and Switzerland, officials said.

Daniel Shapiro, U.S. Ambassador to Israel

Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro's biography at the U.S. State Department's Web Site

Briefing on the Upcoming Visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Dan Shapiro, Senior Director for The Middle East and North Africa
White House Press Releases and Documents, 2 July 2010 (transcript)

Palestinian official "surprised" by US official's remarks on proximity talks
BBC Monitoring Middle East, 5 July 2010 [Factiva link]
The Palestinian [National] Authority yesterday disapproved of a statement by Daniel Shapiro, official in charge of the Middle East dossier at the White House, about progress being made in the proximity talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, allowing the two parties to move on to direct negotiations.

Swearing-In Ceremony for Dan Shapiro, Ambassador to Israel
Washington, D.C., July 8, 2011 (transcript of remarks by Hillary Rodham Clinton)

Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro submits his credentials to President Shimon Perez
Youtube.com, August 3, 2011

Israeli president welcomes new US envoy, hails Obama
BBC Monitoring Middle East, 4 August 2011 [Factiva link]
Aware that many Israelis feel US President Barack Obama is unfavourably disposed to Israel, President Shimon Peres sought to assure new US Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro, who arrived in Israel two weeks ago, that he does not share that opinion.

Ambassador Daniel B. Shapiro remarks to the Jewish People Policy Institute
Youtube.com, September 6, 2011

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Delivers Keynote Address at Prestigious Diaspora Reportage Award Ceremony
B'nai B'rith International Web Site, 1 November 2011
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel B. Shapiro delivered the keynote address at the B'nai B'rith ceremony in Jerusalem for the 2011 Award for Journalism Recognizing Diaspora Reportage. There, he addressed issues such as the ongoing rocket attacks on southern Israeli cities from Gaza, the U.S.-Israel alliance and the Palestinian bid for U.N. membership.

Daniel Zajfman, President, Weizmann Institute of Science

On Peace
Seed Magazine, Daniel Zajfman, 21 January 2011
History-not to mention differing languages, cultures, and values-can make peace difficult to achieve. Science is a common ground upon which nations can collaborate to improve our world.

A Conversation with Prof. Daniel Zajfman and Andrew Heyward
Youtube.com, March 2011
Andrew Heyward, former President of CBS News, interviews Professor Daniel Zajfman, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The conversation took place in March 2011, at a gala dinner in New York City celebrating the achievements of the Weizmann Institute.

Weizmann Institute head slams Israeli industry's short-term outlook
GLOBES: Israe's Business Arena, Stella Korin-Lieber, 20 April 2011
Prof. Daniel Zajfman urges Israeli businesses to invest in long-term research, "The business world demands rapid success. The TASE tomorrow, reports in a week. I live in ranges of 20 years, Weizmann Institute of Science President Professor Daniel Zajfman told "Globes".

Head to Head / Weizmann President Daniel Zajfman, why is it fun to work at the institute?
Haaretz.com, Lital Levin, 7 May 2011
Zajfman, professor of particle physics, explains why the government's demands for increased bureaucracy could ruin administrative culture he claims supports creativity of institute's scientists.

Dorit Beinisch, Supreme Court Justice

Dorit Beinisch,
Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Eliahou, Galia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive.

Defending Human Rights in Times of Terror
The Honorable Dorit Beinisch, President of the Supreme Court of Israel, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, April 16, 2009.

Israeli lawmakers advance legislation that critics say undermines judiciary's independence
Associated Press, Amy Teibel, 3 January 2012, 12:08 GMT
Israeli lawmakers have pushed ahead contentious legislation that critics say undermines the independence of the country's Supreme Court and is part of a broader assault by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Israel's democracy.

Right-wing legislation stirs democracy debate in Israel
Reuters News, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, 16 December 2011, 09:57 GMT
Legislation promoted by right-wing lawmakers in Israel is raising concern that democratic values are under threat in a country that has long billed itself the only democracy in the Middle East.

Israeli court chief confronts political detractors
Reuters News, Crispian Balmer, 2 December 2011, 09:46 GMT
The head of Israel's Supreme Court has accused government allies of waging a poisonous campaign against the judiciary, saying they were undermining the legal system's cherished independence.

Battle on for control of Israel's Supreme Court
The Jewish Chronicle, Anshel Pfeffer, 11 November 2011
LEFT AND right are fighting it out in the Knesset over the future composition of the senior bench of Israel's judiciary. Next week, the Judiciary appointments Committee will select three new judges for the Supreme Court in Jerusalem and the politicians are trying to influence its decisions.

Largest West Bank Outpost Ordered Dismantled by Israel's Supreme Court
Haaretz.com, Chaim Levinson, 2 August 2011
In an unprecedented ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court called on Tuesday for the state to dismantle by April 2012 the largest West Bank settlement that is illegal by Israeli law, the outpost of Migron which is home to some 50 families. The Israeli government received harsh criticism from Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch for failing to dismantle the outpost.

Shoe thrown at Israel's chief judge
BBC News, 27 January 2010
Dorit Beinish was knocked to the ground and her glasses were broken A protester has thrown a shoe at Israel's highest judge, hitting her in the face.

Forsan Hussain, YMCA, Jerusalem

Forsan Hussein takes charge
Jewish Independent, Karin Kloosterman, 4 June 2010
Mahatma Gandhi once said that the happiest man is the one who never left the village. That said, Forsan Hussein, the new chief executive officer of Jerusalem's YMCA, who has been dubbed the "Israeli Obama," left his village in Israel some time ago. But his roots in that village have helped him grow into one of the most influential of Israel's young Arabs - a man whom many believe represents the new generation of Middle East thinkers. His latest challenge is to take the helm at the Jerusalem International YMCA.

Making Connections Across the Cross
Brandeis University Channel, August 9, 2011
Video feature on Forsan Hussein

Commentary: A linkage of faiths at YMCA in Jerusalem
North County Times, Trudy Rubin, 30 December 2011
An article about an institution in Jerusalem that brings Christians, Jews and Muslims together, and about its director, Forsan Hussein, who has bridged divides that seem insurmountable.

Making Connections across Cultures
Brandeis, 2011
Forsan Hussein '00 came to Brandeis to bridge divides. The recipient of a Sylvia and Joseph Slifka Israeli Coexistence Scholarship, which goes to two Israeli citizens a year - one Arab and one Jewish - Hussein designed his own peace building major.

Manuel Trajtenberg, Head of the Trajtenberg Committee

Manuel Trajtenberg
Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University

Israeli Academia, Raising the Bar to an Ivy League Standard
Speech at Tomorrow 2009, October 2009.

Innovation in Medical Technologies: Challenges and Opportunities
Presentation by Dr. Manuel Trajtenberg at the IVEY Medical Technology Innovation Symposium, June 28, 2011.

Meet Prof. Trachtenberg, PM's response to protests
Ynetnews.com, 8-7-11
Netanyahu appoints his former economic advisor as head of government's 'social team'. Ynet learns Trachtenberg has spoken in favor of raising corporate tax, reducing fuel tax and limiting market forces - despite being strong supporter of free market

New team for social change starts work in Israel
Agence France Presse, 9 August 2011
A committee charged with examining the demands of Israel's fast-growing social protest movement met for the first time on Tuesday, expressing hope that their work would provide Israelis with a "better future. The committee, headed by Manuel Trajtenberg, met just two days after being named by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a bid to address public anger about the cost of living and wide income disparity in the Jewish state.

Trachtenberg visits TA 'tent city'
Ynetnews.com, 8-14-11
Head of PM-appointed social team pays surprise visit to Rothschild Boulevard, holds impromptu consultation with protesters

Israeli Panel Offers $8 Billion Plan to Address Economic Inequality
The New York Times, Isabel Kershner, 27 September 2011, pg. A9
A government-appointed committee on socioeconomic change, set up in the wake of the social protests that swept Israel this summer, proposed new policies on Monday that are intended to ease the high cost of living. The plan would cost an estimated $8 billion over five years, to be financed partly by cuts to the defense budget.

Cabinet passes Trajtenberg report
The Jerusalem Post, Herb Keinon and Gil Hoffman, 10-9-2011
Vote comes a week after PM failed to muster necessary majority; Netanyahu backs Steinitz in dispute with Barak, Gantz over cuts to defense budget

Knesset enacts Trajtenberg Committee tax proposals
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 5 Dec 2011
Middle income earners will pay less income tax and the rise in fuel excise is cancelled.

Meir Brand, CEO, Google, Israel

Fireside Chat, Meir Brand, Google Israel Country Director hosting Chad Hurley, CEO & Co-Founder of YouTube, Google Israel's annual event, Dec 13, 2009.

Israel is world leader at utilizing global technologies, says Google VP
Jerusalem Post, Nadav Shemer, November 10, 2011, Pg. 17
Israel's global perspective on technology makes it "one of the most successful markets in the world" at finding opportunities outside its own borders, senior vice president Nikesh Arora said during a brief visit here this week. "This is one of the most tech-value markets, and not just from an in-market situation, but also from the way the Israeli market looks at global technology," he said during a meeting with reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. "The Internet has opened up opportunities outside local markets, and it's fair to say that the market that leverages that the most and uses that the most is Israel."

Google begins collecting Israel images for Street View.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Roy Goldenberg, 12 September 2011
Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today began collecting images for Street View in Israel. Google launched the project at press conference outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, in the presence of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. Jerusalem will be the first Israeli city in which Google will collect images for Street View. In the coming weeks, Google cars and tricycles will drive through Jerusalem's streets, including the Old City and the Mahane Yehuda open air market. Later, the vehicles will collect images in Tel Aviv, Haifa, along the Kinneret and Dead Sea, Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev, Nazareth, and other towns.

Google Israel chief to manage region
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Noa Paragn, 9 December 2009
Google Israel country manager Meir Brand will be appointed to the management of Google Southern and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Brand will serve as the regional manager overseeing operations in Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and South Africa, whose country managers will report directly to him and will be subordinate to him.

Multinationals discover Israel's wealth of hi-tech talent.
The Jerusalem Post, David Shamah, November 18, 2008, Pg. 8
With a rich pool of talent to draw from, large multinational companies have discovered that setting up shop in Israel - taking advantage of engineers, programmers, and even marketing and sales experts - is a wise move. With the need to maximize profit and cut expenses urgent in today's business climate, companies are expanding their research and development activities in Israel, and are doing business with Israeli firms and businesses on an unprecedented level.

Moshe Mor, Partner, Greylock Partners

Moshe Mor - Biographical information from Greylock Partners

Greylock launches activity in Europe, Israel
GLOBES, Israel's Business Arena, Yanay Alfassy, 16 September 2001
US venture capital fund Greylock Limited Partners, which manages $2.2 billion, today launched its activity in Europe and Israel, and appointed Moshe Mor as a managing partner in the fund.

Start-up tips, by Facebook's backer
The Jewish Chronicle, Candice Krieger, 30 October 2008
Moshe Mor is the man for aspiring entrepreneurs to impress. A partner at private venture capitalists Greylock - the backers of Facebook - his job is to invest in technology start-ups in Israel and Europe.

FBI called in over Hamas murder
The National, Marten Youssef, 2 March 2010
Dubai authorities have asked the FBI to investigate the links between suspects in the murder of the Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh and their American-issued payment cards, an FBI source confirmed yesterday. Payoneer, a company in which Greylock Partners invests, issued the cards.

Arabs may have targeted Mabhouh
The Jerusalum Post, 2 January 2012
Following the assassination of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on Jan. 19 in UAE's capital Dubai, sources from the group charged on Tuesday that certain Arab countries may have been complicit in the hit. Sources reportedly said that before the killing, Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence agencies had tracked Mabhouh.

Neta Ziv, Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University

CV, biography and research from Tel Aviv University

Recent articles authored by Professor Ziv

"Credit Cooperative Societies in Early Israeli Statehood: Financial Institutions and Social Transformation", Theoretical Inquiries in Law, vol. 11 (no. 1), 209-245 (2010).
In 1948, when the State of Israel was founded, 125,000 people (about one fifth of the Jewish population) were members of credit cooperative societies, which provided over 20 percent of all market financing. For several years this number continued to rise, reaching a total of 250,000 members in more than 100 credit cooperative societies. Credit associations - part of the thriving cooperative movement of early Zionism - symbolized the attempt to create a new and just Jewish society by fusing socialist and capitalist ideals. From the mid-1950s, however, in a rapid process of centralization of Israel's capital market and financial institutions, almost all credit associations were absorbed into Israel's commercial banks and dissolved. Today, Israel's two largest banks (Leumi and Hapoalim) control over 63 percent of credit provision, and 90 percent of credit is provided to less than 1 percent of borrowers. The official policy of the Bank of Israel is to rule out the establishment of credit associations, credit unions or other non-bank financial institutions. In the light of current renewed interest in "social businesses," i.e., innovative business models designed to achieve desired social outcomes, this Article traces the waning of credit associations in Israel, and the role law has played in that process. Their disappearance from the capital market marked not only a change in economic policy, but also the final abandonment of the ideals which underlay the provision of cooperative financial services: mutuality, partnership and solidarity.

"Regulation of Israeli Lawyers: from Professional Autonomy to Multi Institutional Regulation", Fordham Law Review, vol. 77 (4) 1763 - 1794 (2009).
As for the proposal to appoint a lawyer in a paid position to coordinate and implement the work of the ethics committees, the bar objected to this new position, arguing for the professional interests of participation and democracy. ... With the risk of oversimplification, I suggest that lawyers' self-regulation in Israel has strongly preferred clients' interests and lawyers' self-interests over their duties to the public, to the courts, and to third parties. ... This preference for market allocation of public goods and services has emerged in a broad array of social and economic areas, including the liberalization of currency, financial institutions, and markets and in the privatization of infrastructure development (such as road construction), telecommunications, the labor market, welfare services (Wisconsin Plans), healthcare (the erosion of universal health services and the rise of private healthcare), land administration, public housing, and pensions and other retirement plans. ... This schism had developed over the last two decades, and should be understood as part of a broader institutional realignment of the bar, the state (the Knesset and the MOJ), and the judiciary. ... These shifts are expressed through, as well as influenced by, changes in the regulation of lawyers (or lawyering regulations or standards). ... The next parts exemplify this process by an analysis of two cases: (i) legislation implementing changes in disciplinary proceedings of the bar; and (ii) liability rules developed by civil courts imposing heightened fiduciary obligations upon lawyers toward nonclient third parties.

"Excessive Use of Force as a Means of Social Exclusion: The Forced Evictions of Squatters in Israel", Theoretical Inquiries in Law, vol. 7(1) 167 (2006).
This article discusses the legal concept of excessive use of force by analyzing a particular incident that took place in Israel in the summer of 1997: eighty families, faced with dire housing needs, squatted in vacant apartments in an immigrant absorption center in the town of Mevasseret Zion near Jerusalem. After a period of failed attempts to persuade the families to leave the apartments peacefully, the police moved to evacuate the families, and did so by use of massive force. In the article I describe the violent measures used by the State (police), and analyze the media portrayal of the squatting and the evacuation. I argue that both these forceful measures and the media portrayal of the squatting and evacuation cumulatively took part in constructing the squatters as criminal deviants rather than political protesters. I claim further that we should understand the concept of use of force not only as a means to achieve certain ends by the state, but also as a mechanism through which the state constructs a social problem and presents it in a manner beneficial to its own interests. Excessive use of force, in this sense, is not just a disproportionate response to a real or perceived threat posed by an individual or group, but a means by which the state fosters a belief that the individual or group present some danger, which must be tackled through the use of a certain level of force. By drawing a line between the legitimate (that is, not excessive) and illegitimate (defined as excessive) use of force, the state affirms its monopoly on violence, which ultimately can be used to suppress political resistance.

Peretz Lavie, President, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

President of the Technion, Professor Peretz Lavie -
Technion

Peretz Lavie Appointed New Technion President
American Technion Society, Kevin Hattori, 29 September 2009
Renowned sleep medicine expert Professor Peretz Lavie has been appointed the next president of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, after unanimous approval in June by the Technion Board of Governors. He assumes office October 1, 2009, replacing Professor Yitzhak Apeloig, who is completing his second of two four-year terms.

Entrepreneurship and Academia
Youtube.com, Peretz Lavie, 24 November 2009
Prof. Peretz Lavie, President of the Technion, discusses entrepreneurship in Israel and his personal experience as an entrepreneur.

Alliance Formed Secretly to Win Deal for Campus
The New York Times, Richard Perez-Pena, 25 December 2011
The first secret meeting took place last March, in a place no one would suspect: Beijing. For the second, in July, they holed up in the Cornell Club of New York, rather than a hotel where they might be noticed by outsiders.

Preston Scott Cohen, Gerald M. McCue Professor in Architecture; Chair of the Department of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. Company Web Site

(Tel Aviv Museum of Art Project Page)

Preston Scott Cohen's Harvard University Graduate School of Design Page

Preston Scott Cohen's Graduate Architecture Lecture at California College of the Arts
Youtube.com, February 14, 2011

New Build | The Tel Aviv Museum of Art
T Magazine, ANTHONY GRANT, 28 October 2011,
It isn't every day that Tel Aviv gets a piece of architecture worth writing home about. In fact, one of the easiest arguments to win in the Middle East might be that Tel Aviv's urban core has not sprouted a truly remarkable structure in the more than half a century since the Bauhaus inkwell - which left its curvilinear imprint on hundreds of buildings in "The White City" - began to dry up.

A NEW SPIN TO THE WHITE CITY
Architectural Record, 1 November 2011, 72, Volume 199, Issue 11
A Cambridge, Massachusetts Architect Makes a 21st-century Addition to Tel Aviv's Tradition of Modernism

Museum boosts Tel Aviv art scene
Yahoo!news, 24 November, 2011
Tel Aviv's recently expanded modern art museum, with its dazzling new building no less an attraction than the art showcased inside, has given a home to hundreds of displaced Israeli works and helped boost the city's cultural scene.

Ronny Lempel, Director of Research, Yahoo! Israel

How Search Engines Help Users,
Dr. Ronny Lempel, Director of Research, Yahoo! Israel and Technion alumnus, Nov 20, 2011.

Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister, Palestinian National Authority

Salam Fayyad interviewed by Charlie Rose,
Youtube.com, February 15, 2008 (2010 interview n/a) Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in his only U.S. television appearance during his visit to Washington this week. He discusses what the Palestinian Authority is doing to improve conditions on the ground, and about the challenges of doing this in occupied territory. The most critical thing for continued progress, he said, is for Israeli settlement activity to stop.

There's a light in the Palestinian darkness
The Guardian, Irshad Manji, 20 February 2011 Had enough analysis of how Egypt's Hosni Mubarak blew it? Then read on. Because this column is about looking forward and proving that the Middle East really can be governed with a new, freedom-hungry generation in mind.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad must go, Hamas insists
The Guardian, Conal Urquhart, 28 April 2011
Islamist faction makes demand as part of Palestine unity pact with Fatah, set to be signed in Cairo next week

Survey: Majority of Palestinians want Fayyad as prime minister
Haaretz.com, 20 June 2011
A Palestinian research center found the Hamas candidate is supported by only 22 percent, as opposed to 45 percent backing current prime minister.

AP Interview: Palestinian PM Skeptical of UN Bid
ABC NEWS, Karin Laub, June 28, 2011
U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state would largely be a symbolic victory and would not change the reality of Israeli occupation, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Tuesday.

Palestinians made to pay the price for unity
Arab News.com, Ramzy Baroud, 12 July 2011
PA undoubtedly understands the financial cost of any political adventure that is deemed unfavorable to Israel

SPIEGEL Interview with Palestinian Prime Minister
Spiegel, 9/19/2011
In a SPIEGEL interview, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, 59, discusses controversial plans by the Palestinians to apply for member state status at the United Nations this Friday and why he believes the action should not be considered a unilateral move.

Palestinian PM says reconciliation prerequisite to achieving state
BBC Monitoring Middle East [Factiva link], 15 November 2011
On 14 November, Al-Quds carries an exclusive interview conducted by Mahir al-Shaykh with PNA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah. The following is a summary of the interview. Asked about the future prospects and challenges facing the PNA following the UN admissions committee's failure to issue a recommendation to recognize a Palestinian state, Fayyad says "we must not allow despair to fill our hearts over the September bid and our failure to fulfill the goal to obtain a full membership at the United Nations 'now'. I stress on the word 'now,' which does not mean permanent failure and it will not frustrate us."

Palestinian PM: Ready to leave post once new premier is chosen
English.xinhuanet.com, Saud Abu Ramadan, 20 November 2011
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday that he will quit his post as soon as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and the Islamic Hamas movement agree on the nomination of a new premier.

AP Interview: Palestinian PM hopes to reduce reliance on foreign aid
Associated Press [Factiva link], By KARIN LAUB, 1 December 2011
The Palestinian prime minister said Thursday he wants to reduce his people's reliance on foreign aid drastically in the coming year and hopes to be able to pay for all day-to-day operations of his government by 2013. Salam Fayyad told The Associated Press that the decision was spurred, in part, by what he described as the Palestinian Authority's worst financial crisis since its inception in the mid-1990s. The crisis was triggered by a 2011 shortfall of millions of dollars in foreign aid and Israel's decision last month to suspend the transfer of about $100 million a month in tax funds to the Palestinians.

Salam Fayyad says he will not be leader of unified Palestinian government; Salam Fayyad has stated categorically that he will not continue as leader in a unified Palestinian government, either as prime minister or president.
Telegraph.co.uk, By Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv , 2 December 2011
The acting Palestinian prime minister emphatically reiterated a statement he gave to the Palestinian Al Quds newspaper several weeks ago. "I made a very explicit call on the factions ... to go ahead and agree on a new prime minister. That's my position and nothing has happened since then to change my mind," he said in an interview with Ha'aretz.

Politics not ripe for Palestinian statehood bid - Fayyad
The Jordan Times [Factiva link], Taylor Lukk, 5 December 2011
Global and regional politics are not yet ripe for a Palestinian state, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, as leadership in Ramallah eyes a less than certain future. The Palestinian premier, a champion of institution-building as a path to statehood, said the current political conditions within Israel, the Palestinian territories and across the world are not favourable to lead to concrete steps towards a Palestinian state. "The conditions are not ripe for resumption of a political process capable of delivering an end to the Israeli occupation," Fayyad said in a lecture delivered at the Amman-based Columbia University Middle East Research Centre on Thursday.

Roundup of Palestinian Authority prime minister's activities 10-30 Nov 11
BBC Monitoring Middle East [Factiva link], 20 December 2011

Salim Joubran, Supreme Court Justice

The Israeli Judicial System and the Role of the Supreme Court
Address given at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 6 May 2011.

Left v right
The Economist, 19 November 2011, pg 401
A battle is under way for the control of Israel's judicial system. WHEREAS Israel's voters have been moving to the nationalist and religious right, most of its top judges have clung to a more liberal and secular view of the world. On November 10th Salim Joubran, one of three Supreme Court judges deciding the fate of the country's former president, Moshe Katzav, upheld his conviction for rape. Almost no Israeli batted an eyelid, even though the judge who dispatched the eighth head of the Jewish state off to jail was an Arab, from a community that now makes up one in five of Israeli citizens.

The Outsider
The Guardian, Conal Urquhart, Monday 21 April 2003
The highest court in Israel has appointed the first ever Christian Arab to its ranks. But is it just a token political gesture, or an omen of changes to come?

Shai Agassi, Founder and CEO, Better Place

Shai Agassi
better place.com

The Long Tailpipe
Shai Agassi's blog

Charging ahead: an entrepreneur hits the road with a new approach to the electric car that overcomes its greatest shortcoming.
Smithsonian, Joshua Hammer, Volume 41; Issue 4, 1 July 2010, p. 36 In the middle of 2007, Shai Agassi, a software multimillionaire turned environmental entrepreneur, was pondering how to make an electric car affordable to the average Joe.

Driven: Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road
WIRED MAGAZINE: 16.09, Dan Roth, 8-18-08

'Are you ready to switch?'; The Fluence is the electric car that might just take over Israel - and then the world. Quietly, of course.
Financial Times [Factiva link], John Reed, 18 September 2010, p. 21
On a hot September afternoon near Tel Aviv, Shai Agassi is taking his father, Reuven, out for a spin. Standing around in the heat is a crowd of onlookers waiting for their turn to ride in Agassi Jr's new electric car.

Shai Agassi, CEO, Better Place, is Interviewed on MSNBC - News Program
Financial Market Regulatory Wire [Factiva link], 2 December 2010
Shai Agassi, the Founder and CEO of Better Place, a global electric car company trying to radically change the auto industry.

Electric-Car Firm Has Growing Pains
The Wall Street Journal Europe [Factiva link], Joshua Mitnick , 14 November 2011, p. 21.
For more than four years, Shai Agassi has traveled the world touting an electric car with switchable batteries as the answer to the world's dependence on oil, a pitch that won him acclaim as a cleantech visionary and hundreds of millions in venture financing.

Dan Perry, AP Interview: Pioneer of electric car with removable batteries, Agassi predicts global change
Associated Press, Dan Perry, 27 January 2011
Electric car pioneer Shai Agassi is a man with a startling prediction: Before 2020, he says, more people everywhere will be buying electric cars than those powered by gasoline. "It doesn't mean that oil is not necessary, but we're starting the way out," said Agassi, a former top executive for information giant SAP AG who launched his Better Place venture several years ago.

Shlomo Yanai, President and CEO, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.

Shlomo Yanai
Biographical information from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries

Teva to Acquire Top German Generics Maker for $5 Billion
The New York Times, Natasha Singer, 18 March 2010
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is already the world's leading generic-drug maker, including the United States market. Now, with a $5 billion deal announced on Thursday to acquire Ratiopharm, a top generics maker in Germany, Teva strengthens its position as an international generics powerhouse.

We're in a crisis of leadership
GLOBES, Eli Tsipori, 24 January 2011
Teva CEO Shlomo Yanai sees a paradox in Israel: abounding intelligence and energy, that can't produce worthy leaders. He talks to "Globes" about the state of the country and of his company.

Teva's Shlomo Yanai Sees Benefit From Obama Health Reforms
CHEManager, 2 March 2011
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's largest generics drugmaker, said it stands to benefit from the Obama administration's healthcare reform and other plans aimed at getting cheaper medicines to the U.S. market.

Teva sees wide horizons in Russia
GLOBES, Shiri Habib-Valdhorn, 3 November 2011
CEO Shlomo Yanai tells "Globes" about the venture with P&G, and Teva's expansion in Russia and Japan.

Teva's CEO: Change necessary for survival
GLOBES, Shiri Habib-Valdhorn, 7 December 2011
Shlomo Yanai: Change isn't moved forward; change is led. Leadership is the first thing.

Stanley Fischer, Governor, Bank of Israel

Stanley Fischer's Home Page

Fischer agrees to stay on as governor
The Jerusalem Post, Jpost.com staff, 17 March 2010
The long saga of the new Bank of Israel law ended on March 16th, when the final version of the draft bill completed its Knesset passage. This followed more than a decade of wrangling and delays. While the original 1954 law that established the Bank of Israel had long been seen as obsolete, the delay may ultimately have worked to the advantage of the Bank and the country, by allowing the lessons of the recent global crisis to be incorporated into its provisions. The resolution of this issue has paved the way for the confirmation of Stanley Fischer as governor of the Bank for a second term.

Central bank governor of the year: Stanley Fischer's bold boves show the value of experience
Euromoney, Dominic O'Neill, October, 2010
Israel's resilience during the financial crisis and its aftermath proves that Stanley Fischer is worthy of the respect he commands at the top of the global financial community.

Interview Transcript: Stanley Fischer; 'It's Not True That You Can't Really Affect the Trend'
The Wall Street Journal Online, 19 October 2010
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal's Charles Levinson on Oct. 18, Israel's influential central bank chief Stanley Fischer defended his country's long-running effort to keep a lid on the shekel and says he won't stop, despite criticism over more recent currency intervention by a handful of other countries. He pointed to the good it has done Israel so far.

Prof. Stanley Fischer, Governor, Bank of Israel Speaking at the Herzliya Conference 2011,
Youtube.com, February 8, 2011
Full speech of Prof. Stanley Fischer, Governor, Bank of Israel at the 11th Annual Herzliya Conference on "Challenges to Global Economic Governance: Trade and Monetary Aspects". (Feb 8, 2011).

Fischer: Israel Should Stick to Budget Deficit Aim
The Wall Street Journal Online, By Subhadip Sircar and Khushita Vasant, 14 February 2011
The Israeli government should stick to its budget deficit aim as the current political uncertainty in the Middle East may linger after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power, its central bank governor said, days after the government announced measures to stave off popular protests against rising prices. "As a central banker, I have no comments on the political situation, but in light of the increased uncertainty it is more important than ever that we manage both fiscal policy and monetary policy very well," Bank Of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview Saturday.

Bank of Israel's Fischer Hopes for Minimal Currency Intervention
The Wall Street Journal Online, By Anjali Cordeiro, 28 April 2011
Israel's Central Bank Governor Stanley Fischer said the bank hopes the need for intervention in foreign exchange markets will be minimal but added that it is prepared to intervene if the shekel's value isn't appropriate. The central bank, like those of other growing economies, has recently shown more tolerance for a stronger currency as it fights inflation. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Fischer acknowledged the bank's willingness to accept a stronger shekel, pointing to interest rate hikes earlier this year and to the currency's recent rise.

Fischer calls for rethink on IMF hiring
FT.com, By Tobias Buck, 23 June 2011
Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, has called on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to overhaul the way they pick future leaders, arguing that the two institutions must stop using "technical and irrelevant" criteria. Mr Fischer applied for the post of IMF managing director earlier this month, but was excluded from the race on the grounds that he was two years past the required age limit of 65.

Fischer anxious about high gov't spending; Stanley Fischer told the "Financial Times" that he is monitoring the Israeli government's commitments for future years
The Jerusalem Post, GLOBES Correspondent, 26 June 2011
"We follow with keen concern and attention the government's budget spending. So far we are doing well but they are making commitments for future years that depend on fairly high rates of growth. At 4.5% growth, we have not made any excess commitments, at 3% growth we have. We will just have to monitor that," Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer told the "Financial Times" in an interview on Friday. Fischer also cited high levels of poverty that are focused among the ultra-orthodox and the Arab sectors, declining achievements in the education, and the geopolitical situation, as risks to long-term growth.

Fischer: Protest took me by surprise; "The protest surprised me, because the economy is in good shape - we mustn't pull solutions out of a hat."
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Adrian Filut, 1 August 2011
Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer spoke about the tent protest for the first time today, 18 days after it began. At a press conference he admitted that he was surprised by the social protest, and said that four issues must be dealt with: high home prices, the high cost of living, taxes, and the government's ability to provide the services that the public needs and expects to receive efficiently.

IMF top job: Fischer questions Lagarde's credentials
Euromoney [Factiva link] Dominic O'Neill, 1 August 2011
WHEN GREECE'S WOES threaten the world's second-largest reserve currency, the IMF needs an experienced managing director more than ever. Yet a man in undeniable possession of those skills - Stanley Fischer - was disqualified on the grounds of age.

Fischer Still Seeking New Employment
Global Finance, David Lipkin, 1 November 2011, 6, Volume 25; Issue 10
Former French finance minister Christine Lagarde may have secured the top job at the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF), but some fund insiders are still gunning for Stanley Fischer, governor of the Central Bank of Israel, who failed to secure the top job at the fund after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign over sexual assault allegations.

Fischer's concerns hint at storm ahead
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Avi Temken, 11 November 2011
The word "concern" can describe most thoroughly Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer's mood, at least according to what he said at yesterday's press conference. In the meantime, Fischer is not expressing more than concern. His essential message can be reduced to a warning not to increase expenditures, and not to let the deficit expand beyond that stemming from slowed growth.

Fischer: Israel will get through the crisis; Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer told a press conference that he still sees 3.2% growth in Israel in 2012.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Adrian Filut, 15 November 2011
"The Israeli economy is in pretty good shape. The situation of the global economy is more serious, especially in Europe. We can successfully get through this period if we run the economy properly and responsibly," said Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer at a special press conference today. "The situation in the US is reasonable; not good, but there is growth and there is no risk that the US will enter a double dip recession. The US is projected to have 2-2.5% growth in 2012. That's not impressive, but it's growth, and fairly good growth," Fischer said.

Banks face NIS 460b real estate, mortgage exposure; "Globes" reveals the bank credit exposure figures that worry Stanley Fischer as he fears a fall in home prices.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Eran Peer, 5 December 2011
It is easy to understand why Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanly Fischer is concerned about the real estate market. He has not been keeping his concerns to himself but elaborating on them at every possible forum - from a personal conversation with Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias (that was immediately leaked) through to his appearances before the Knesset Finance Committee.

Fischer: Bank of Israel to cut 2012 growth forecast; Stanley Fischer: Our last forecast was 3.2% and our new one will be similar to the OECD 2.9% GDP growth forecast for Israel
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Adrian Filut, 7 December 2011
The Bank of Israel will again cut its growth forecast for 2012 Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer told the Knesset Finance Committee today. He added that the situation in Europe had improved slightly in terms of decision-making, but warned that if countries quit the Eurozone, "there will be a big mess."

Tal Keinan, Founder, Chairman and CEO, KCPS & Company

Tal Keinan
Biographical information from KCPS & Company

Israel seeks to reinvent itself as finance hub
Financial Times, Tobias Buck, 21 April 2008
Sitting in his office overlooking the Mediterranean, Tal Keinan, who three years ago founded Tel Aviv-based hedge fund KCPS, paints a bright future for Israel's finance industry. "We feel like we are at the cusp of a revolution," says Mr Keinan, whose firm has grown rapidly and now employs 32 fund managers occupying the entire 30th floor of a landmark skyscraper not far from the city's beaches.

Robert Scoble interviews Tal Keinan, co-founder of Semantinet and discovers Life 3.0
The Jeff Pulver Blog, Robert Scoble, 7 May 2008
Robert Scoble interviews Tal Keinan the co-founder of Semantinet.

Headup: A True Semantic Web Search Agent
Searchengineland, Chris Sherman, 16 October 2008
According to Tal Keinan, Founder & CEO SemantiNet, Headup uses a sort of meta database-a graph that describes which sources can provide which types of information about certain things. It also taps into your social networks to leverage the information your friends have left scattered about the web.

High-Tech Holy Land
Silicon Valley 2.0, Morton Landowne, 17 December 2010
Dan Senor, co-author of Start-Up Nation, convened a panel of five of the key players in Israeli technology, all of whom had featured prominently in his book. The panelists included Tal Keinan.

Organizations

Bank of Israel

Bank of Israel

The Bank of Israel - Israel's International Investment Position (IIP), September 2009
allBusiness.com, 23 December 2009
Release date - 20122009 Israel's net surplus of assets abroad over liabilities abroad increased by about $4 billion in the third quarter of 2009, and reached about $6 billion at the end of September.

THE FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF AN ARTICLE IN THE FORTHCOMING ISSUE OF RECENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS: MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE IN 2011 AND 2012
Bank of Israel Press Release, 5 June 2011
The following information was released by the Bank of Israel: The minimum monthly wage is set to be updated to NIS 4,100 in July 2011 and to NIS 4,300 in October 2012.

LETTER OF THE GOVERNOR ACCOMPANYING THE MONETARY POLICY REPORT FOR JANUARY-JUNE 2011
States News Service, 2 August 2011
The following information was released by the Bank of Israel: The Monetary Policy Report for the first half of 2011 (the period reviewed in this report) is submitted to the government, the Knesset, and the public as part of the process of…

NEW STUDY AT THE BANK OF ISRAEL: PRODUCTIVITY OF EXPORTING FIRMS IN ISRAEL
Bank of Israel Press Release, 15 August 2011
The following information was released by the Bank of Israel: Labor productivity of exporting firms in Israel (measured by output per worker) is 32 percent higher than that of non-exporting firms, and total factor productivity (TFP) is 43 percent higher.

Fischer: We cannot cut taxes; 'We have little margin and we can't make big tax cuts, otherwise the deficit will grow.'
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Guy Katsovitch, 18 September 2011
At a press conference today, Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer warned against demands to cut indirect taxes and increase the deficit in view of forecasts of slower economic growth.

BoI: Banks showed resilience in crisis, but fears were real; A Bank of Israel study finds that the main effect of the 2007-2009 financial...
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Eran Peer, 5 October 2011
The Bank of Israel published a report today on the lessons of the global financial crisis in 2007-2009.

New research from the Bank of Israel: The effect of monetary policy on components of the CPI
Bank of Israel Press Release, 22 November 2011
A research paper by Dr. Sigal Ribon from the Bank of Israel Research Department which examines the effect of monetary policy on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) finds that an interest rate increase is reflected in a moderation in the rate of increase of prices of all components of the index, and that the effect on the housing and energy components is greater than the effect on other components.

Fischer: Bank of Israel to cut 2012 growth forecast; Stanley Fischer: Our last forecast was 3.2% and our new one will be similar to the OECD...
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Adrian Filut, 7 December 2011
The Bank of Israel will again cut its growth forecast for 2012 Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer told the Knesset Finance Committee today.

Better Place

Better Place, Inc., an electric vehicle services provider, builds and operates an infrastructure and intelligent network to deliver services to drivers for the adoption of electric vehicles and optimization of energy use in North America, Japan, Australia, China, Denmark, and Israel. Its infrastructure and intelligent network provides electric car drivers with access to a network of charge spots, battery switch stations, and systems that optimize the driving experience. Better Place, Inc. has a strategic partnership with Renault. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Palo Alto, California. It has operations in Israel, Denmark, and Australia.

Better Place

Sites to Refuel Electric Cars Gain a Big Dose of Funds
New York Times, Nelson D. Schwartz, January 25, 2010
Better Place, the closely watched start-up that hopes to create vast networks of charge spots to power electric cars, is set to receive a vote of confidence on Monday, in the form of $350 million in new venture capital.

Electric cars: A Netscape moment?
Economist, 2/6/2010, Vol. 394 Issue 8668, p71-72
THE idea of the "Netscape moment", a fund-raising that signals the spawning of a whole new industry, is dear to Silicon Valley types who think back fondly to the browser firm's spectacular initial public offering in 1995. So it was not surprising that in late January Shai Agassi, a former software entrepreneur, greeted a $350m investment in his company, Better Place, led by HSBC, in just those terms. Better Place, based in Palo Alto, which hopes to be the leading infrastructure provider for the world's growing fleet of electric cars, has raised nearly $700m in two years, making it one of the biggest "clean-tech" start-ups

Charging ahead: an entrepreneur hits the road with a new approach to the electric car that overcomes its greatest shortcoming
Smithsonian, Joshua Hammer , 1 July 2010
IN THE MIDDLE OF 2007, SHAI AGASSI, A SOFTWARE multimillionaire turned environmental entrepreneur, was pondering how to make an electric car affordable to the average Joe. At that point, the alt-electric vehicle--as opposed to electric-gasoline hybrids such as the Toyota Prius--was widely decided as impractical. General Motor's EV I had appeared in 1996 and, despite its cultlike following, the company stopped producing it after three years, saying the program was not commercially successful.

Better Place CEO prefers to raise private money
Reuters News, Poornima Gupta and Peter Henderson, 19:22, 13 July 2010
Better Place, the electric car infrastructure startup will continue to draw on private investors in the near future to fund the setting up of charging stations around the world, founder and Chief Executive Shai Agassi said on Tuesday. "As long as you can take private money, you take private money," Agassi told reporters at a media briefing. "You are allowed to go (ahead) without short-term decision cycles."

Electric cars are all the rage in Israel
Financial Times, John Reed, 17 September 2010
On a hot September afternoon near Tel Aviv, Shai Agassi is taking his father, Reuven, out for a spin. Standing around in the heat is a crowd of onlookers waiting for their turn to ride in Agassi Jr's new electric car. There's a general buzz about the place. The big car we are watching, made by Renault and called the Fluence, looks like a conventional saloon of the kind favoured by Israeli families and businesspeople. In fact, it's the vehicle with which Agassi, his investors and the French carmaker hope to bring battery-powered, zero-emission driving to the Israeli masses. We are watching the first public outing of two production-ready versions of the car.

G.E. and Better Place to Partner on E.V. Charging
NYT Blogs, Jim Motavalli, 24 September 2010
When General Electric announced the WattStation electric car charger last July, it seemed likely that it would need a charging company partner to make sure its E.V. station, styled with a designer touch by Yves Behar, would reach a wider world. It's one thing to produce a nice piece of hardware, but quite another to actively engage with automakers, governments, businesses and interest groups to make sure they get installed, both in public and in home garages.

GE's place in the Better Place puzzle; More is hidden than revealed regarding Better Place's strategic cooperation with GE.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Dubi Ben-Gedalyahu, 28 September 2010
There is more to the partnership agreement signed by Better Place and General Electric (NYSE: GE) last week than meets the eye. The agreement hints at GE Capital's return to the Israeli vehicle leasing market, the moving up of a gear in the Israel Corp. (TASE:ILCO) project to develop a vehicle in China, and a potentially profitable exit for Better Place's investors.

How Better Place became a national project
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Dubi Ben-Gedalyahu, 2 March 2011
The past four years have underscored the direct connection between the price of oil and the rate of progress in developing electric cars. When the price of oil soared past the psychological level of $100 per barrel in 2007, governments and tycoons rushed to the electric vehicle market and turned the concept into a reality.

Changing the batteries
Guardian Unlimited, Bobbie Johnson, 12 March 2011
An Israeli entrepreneur has raised £465m for a battery-switching system to replace charging. But will it work? When Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, chief executive of Better Place, decided to enter the electric-vehicle business in 2007, he knew there were a few serious problems to solve - not least the fact that battery-driven cars weren't popular with the public.

Better Place: Turning Israel into electric car country
The Christian Science Monitor, Daniella Cheslow, 19 April 2011
Israel could be the first country with a nationwide electric car network, thanks to Better Place. A battery swapping station just opened outside Tel Aviv.

Leasing Firms Shy From Electric-Car Rollout
The Wall Street Journal, Joshua Mitnick , 14 November 2011
TEL AVIV -- For more than four years, Shai Agassi has traveled the world touting an electric car with switchable batteries as the answer to the world's dependence on oil, a pitch that won him acclaim as a cleantech visionary and hundreds of millions in venture financing.

Better Place is facing an unknown future; The European financial crisis could negatively affect electric car sales.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Dubi Ben-Gedalyahu, 15 November 2011
Shai Agassi's electric car venture Better Place LLC tends to polarize the Israeli public. On one hand, there are enthusiastic supporters who view the project as an audacious business-environmental vision, with a return that is many times as large as the investment.

Better Place dream and Zim nightmare; Israel Corp.'s Israel Chemicals is the cash cow funding the hopes of Better Place's electric vehicle, and Zim's deepening losses.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena , Eli Tsipori, 20 November 2011
There is a reason that Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) describes Shai Agassi in its financial reports as "a significant person" for Better Place. Without Shai Agassi, and his charisma, his marketing ability and persuasiveness, and his charisma, his marketing ability and persuasiveness, and his complete belief that he is on the right path - without all of this, Better Place would never have been born.

Bialik Rogozin School

Strangers No More (trailer), 2011 Academy Award winning documentary short film about the Bialik Rogozin School in Tel Aviv
Youtube.com, February 1, 2011

EDUCATION IS NOT FOREIGN TO THEM
States News Service, 24 August 2010 [Factiva link]
The following information was released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF): While the status of children of foreign workers is debated in the government, IDF soldiers help the international body of Tel Aviv's Bialik-Rogozin School.

Oscar win highlights plight of Africans in Israel
msnbc.msn.com, 2 March 2011
Students at the Bialik-Rogozin school in a rundown Tel Aviv neighborhood have survived genocide, war and famine. But they were all smiles on Monday after learning that a documentary about their plight had won an Academy Award.

ISRAEL: PRIZEWINNING FILM SAID TO SKIM OVER MIGRANT ABUSE
Inter Press Service, 3 March 2011 [Factiva link]
WASHINGTON, Mar. 2, 2011 (IPS/GIN) - A new report from the Global Detention Project (GDP) on Israel's immigration detention policies reveals the tough reality behind the feel-good story offered in the Academy Award-winning "Strangers No More", an inspirational documentary about students from migrant families who attend the Bialik-Rogozin school in Tel Aviv.

The Charles Bronfman Prize Names 2011 Recipient; Jewish Humanitarian Award Goes to Karen Tal, Principal of Bialik-Rogozin School in Tel Aviv...
prnewswire.com, 14:20, 11 May 2011
NEW YORK, May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Karen Tal, who as principal of a school serving one of the most economically challenged and socially diverse student populations in Israel, has created and grown a model institution that infuses young lives with hope and grabs success and achievement from despair, is the 2011 recipient of The Charles Bronfman Prize.

Children at 'miracle' Tel Aviv school get share of Oscar glory: Documentary told stories of refugee pupils in Israel Some Strangers No More...
The Guardian, 21 June 2011 [Factiva link]
There is not much that is usual about the Bialik Rogozin school in Tel Aviv, so the pupils took it in their stride when two Oscar statuettes were handed around to celebrate the end of term.

Given Imaging, Ltd.

Given Imaging Ltd - Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Sierra Scientific Instruments
Market News Publishing, 06:57, 22 March 2010
GIVEN IMAGING LTD ("GIVN-Q") - Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Sierra Scientific - Instruments Given Imaging Ltd announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Sierra Scientific Instruments for $35 million in cash.

Given Imaging Wins Patent Infringement Lawsuit in Germany
Marketwire, 21 March 2011,
YOQNEAM, ISRAEL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- Mar 21, 2011 -- Given Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ: GIVN), a world leader in specialty GI products and pioneer of capsule endoscopy, today announced that the Regional Court (Patent Chamber) in Düsseldorf, Germany has ruled that the MiroCam capsule endoscopy system manufactured by IntroMedic of South Korea infringes two patents asserted by Given Imaging.

Interview with Nachum Shamir of Given Imaging, Ltd. (GIVN)
Wall Street Transcript; 7/11/2011, Vol. 188 Issue 1, p2-4 [Business Source Complete]
An interview with Nachum Shamir, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of medical diagnostics company Given Imaging Ltd. (GIVN) in the U.S., is presented. Shamir reveals that the company ensures that resources are allocated to its proper places to remain profitable amidst the tough environment. He emphasizes the important contribution of the company's sales of PillCam SB video capsules to its total revenue. Moreover, Shamir expects the continuation of the growth of the PillCam SB business.

Given Imaging grows revenue, but profit falls; Continued weakness in the PillCam producer's primary market, the US, was offset by strong growth in Asia.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Shiri Habib-Valdhorn , 4 August 2011, 421 words, (English)
Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN) continued to suffer from weakness in its primary market for its endoscope gastrointestinal capsules, the US, in the second quarter of 2011, but enjoyed growth in other markets.

Given Imaging develops new generation of pills; Ten years after the IPO of the diagnostic capsule camera company, CEO Nachum Shamir discusses future plans.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, Shiri Habib-Valdhorn , 21 September 2011
In September 2001, Given Imaging, (Nasdaq: GIVN) was a promising Israeli start-up company in the last stages before its Nasdaq IPO. 9/11, which shook up the global capital markets cut their dream short, but only for a short time. In October 2001, Given Imaging became a public company - the first company to go public after 9/11. Given Imaging is about to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its IPO, and last week Nasdaq invited senior company executives to close trading as part of the memorial ceremonies. Last week also saw positive movement on Given Imaging's share price, which rose 15%, following a decline of 36% since mid-July. The company's market cap on Nasdaq and TASE is $500 million.

Given Imaging Ltd - Initiates Pivotal Trial For Pillcam(r) Colon 2 In Japan
Market News Publishing, 04:23, 15 November 2011
GIVEN IMAGING ("GIVN-Q") - Initiates Pivotal Trial For Pillcam(r) Colon 2 In Japan Given Imaging, a world leader in GI medical devices and pioneer of capsule endoscopy, announced the initiation of a pivotal PillCam(r) COLON 2 study in Japan intended to support the Company's planned regulatory submission to Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA).

Google Israel

Google Israel develops Android in Hebrew; The local branch will translate the mobile operating system, saving the importers the work.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 1 March 2010
Israeli mobile users will soon see handsets with Hebrew-language Google Android operating systems. Google Israel Ltd. will translate the operating system's interface into Hebrew and release them to distributors beginning in June.

Google makes first ever acquisition in Israel; LabPixies develops website gadgets for personalized webpage iGoogle, as well as iPhone and Android devices.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 27 April 2010
Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) has made its first ever acquisition in Israel - LabPixies Ltd., a developer of personalized website gadgets for Google's personalized search page iGoogle, as well as for mobile devices. The companies did not disclose the size of the deal, but sources estimate it at $25 million.

Google Books reaches Israel; The goal is to allow online searches of Hebrew books.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 22 July 2010
Google Books, Google Inc's (Nasdaq: GOOG) giant online library and search engine, has come to Israel. The goal is to allow online searches of Hebrew books.

Google Instant based on Israeli development; The new search engine feature finds results while you type search terms.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 12 September 2010
Faster, more efficient. Last week, search giant Google launched Instant, a new feature that seeks to change the search habits of hundreds of millions of users and to improve the way we find the information we are looking for. The new feature enables surfers to find results even while they type in their search terms, without having to hit the "Enter" button or click on "Search". The search engine identifies the first letters typed into the search box, and displays relevant results pages in real time, that update as you type.

Google begins collecting Israel images for Street View
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 12 September 2011
Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today began collecting images for Street View in Israel.
Google launched the project at press conference outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, in the presence of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. Jerusalem will be the first Israeli city in which Google will collect images for Street View. In the coming weeks, Google cars and tricycles will drive through Jerusalem's streets, including the Old City and the Mahane Yehuda open air market. Later, the vehicles will collect images in Tel Aviv, Haifa, along the Kinneret and Dead Sea, Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev, Nazareth, and other towns.

Google strengthens Israel connection; Google's new VP search products Dr. Udi Manber wants Google's R&D center in Israel to double its work force.
Jerusalem Post, Noa Parag, 20 October 2010
All large Internet companies have been trying in recent months to fight back against Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) in its core business areas, such as search engines. For this purpose, they have made alliances, such as Facebook and Bing, the search engine of Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), and between Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

Quietly, Google Puts History Online
The New York Times, Eric Pfanner, 21 November 2011, pg. B4
PARIS -- When the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, home to the Dead Sea Scrolls, reopened last year after an extensive renovation, it attracted a million visitors in the first 12 months. When the museum opened an enhanced Web site with newly digitized versions of the scrolls in September, it drew a million virtual visitors in three and a half days.

Google to set up Israeli incubator in 2012; The incubator will be in Tel Aviv and initially host about 20 pre-seed stage start-ups that are developing open code technologies.
GLOBES Israel's Business Arena, 13 November 2011
Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) plans to open an incubator in Israel in August 2012. Google Israel R&D Center director Prof. Yossi Matias made the announcement at Google Israel's annual developers conference today.

Kinrot Ventures

Kinrot Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in investments in the incubation and seed stage. The firm typically invests in water and clean-tech related technologies. It provides funding to companies based in Israel. Kinrot Ventures was founded in 1993 and is based in Jordan Valley, Israel. As of February 18, 2010, Kinrot Ventures operates as a subsidiary of Gaon Agro Industries Ltd., Investment Arm. According to Capital IQ it has 20 current and pending investments.

Striking the stone
The Economist, 14 May 2011, pg. 399
Water technology Israel aims to be the Silicon Valley of water technology Israeli firms offer technology to slake the world's thirst MOSES parted the waters. Strauss aims merely to separate the waters from their yucky impurities. On May 18th in Shanghai Israel's second-largest food and drinks firm will launch a high-tech purifier that not only filters water but also heats it to exactly the right temperature for making tea. Strauss has forged a joint venture with China's Haier Group, the world's biggest maker of white goods, to distribute it.

Israel carves out surprising role as haven for enterprise.
The Irish Times, Ian Campbell, 20 May 2011, pg. 8
The story goes that it was a 1999 visit to Israel by the then minister for enterprise Mary Harney that helped put the finishing touches to a planned national research organisation. She saw the world-renowned Weizmann Institute and met the Israel Science Foundation. A year later, Science Foundation Ireland was born. Similarities between the high-tech credentials of the countries have been made ever since. Both play host to large US multinationals and have indigenous software companies that export to the world. They each have six universities and aspirations to turn research into commercial opportunity. Closer inspection, however, reveals some stark differences. The Intel and Microsoft presence in Israel is more RD focused and the country as a whole has a thriving ecosystem of innovation that puts Ireland, and most other European states, to shame.

Kinrot Ventures CEO Assaf Barnea on Water Innovations (interview)
TiviPro, July 27, 2011

Israeli water tech firm plans dozen launches
Reuters News, 06:13, 16 November 2011,
Israeli water technology incubator Kinrot Ventures is looking to use its partnership with General Electric to introduce a dozen innovations into the global market in the coming year, its CEO said on Wednesday. With strong government support, Kinrot, which forms and grows water companies, hopes to increase Israel's water technology exports, which doubled in a four-year period to reach $1.44 billion in 2010.

Middle East Education Through Technology (MEET)

Introducing MEET

Middle East Education Through Technology - M.I.T.

Programming peace
ynetnews.com, Yonatan Gur, 18 August 2009
Middle East Education Through Technology program brings together Israeli, Palestinian high school students for IT, business classes over summer vacation. 'The idea was to bring together future Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but not in some forest in Switzerland,' says program's leader

Rawabi

Workers trained in settlements build new Palestinian suburb
Breitbart, May 29, 2010
Amr Khalil has been steering bulldozers over West Bank hilltops for years, but now instead of building Jewish settlements he feels he is striking a blow against them. The 30-year-old is just one of dozens of Palestinians, many of whom used to work in settlements because of lack of other opportunities, who are now laying the groundwork for Rawabi, a massive planned community north of Ramallah.

Palestinians Building New City in West Bank
theisraelproject.org, 31 August 2010
WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 -- The Israel Project issued the following news release: In January 2010, Palestinians broke ground on the site of the future city of Rawabi, the first modern Palestinian community.[1] Rawabi is 6 miles (9 km) northwest ...

Israel may halt new Palestinian city over 'green concerns'
France24.com, 12:29, 6 October 2010
Israel's hawkish environment minister, who backs continuing Jewish settlement in the West Bank, said on Wednesday he was seeking to halt construction of a new Palestinian city over "green" concerns.

Palestinian Rawabi project, monument to Israel's "stranglehold" - Qatari paper
BBC Monitoring Middle East [Factiva link], 08:30, 8 October 2010, 512 words, (English)
Text of report in English by Qatari newspaper Gulf Times website on 8 October [Qatar Editorial: "A New City for the Palestinians but Old Tricks from Israel"]

Palestinian dream city hits snag from Israelx
Weekly Cutting Edge, 23 October 2010, 823 words, (English)
Islamabad: It is billed as a symbol of the future Palestine: a modern, middle-class city of orderly streets, parks and shopping plazas rising in the hills of the West Bank, ready for independence, affluence and peace.

Rawabi Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant Feasibility Study Launched
AMEinfo.com, 9 March 2011
Rawabi, March 9 -- Rawabi issued the following news release: Bayti Real Estate Investment Company today gave the green light to implement the feasibility study for a new regional wastewater facility for the first Palestinian planned city,

Israeli company denies agreeing to join boycott against settlement products
BBC Monitoring Middle East [Factiva link], 10:23, 11 January 2011, 753 words, (English)
Text of report in English by privately-owned Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post website on 11 January [Report by Tova Lazaroff: "Ytong: We're Building in Rawabi, Not Boycotting Settlements"]

A Look at the Planned Palestinian City of Rawabi via JPost TV Segment
Youtube.com, November 4, 2011

Sadara Ventures

(The Sadara Ventures Web Site is currently under construction)

First Venture Capital Fund Targeting Palestinian IT Launched
Palestine News Agency (WAFA), 5 April 2011, 550 words, (English)
RAMALLAH, April 5, 2011 (WAFA) - Sadara Ventures - The Middle East Venture Capital Fund (MEVCF)-announced Tuesday the launch of the first capital fund targeting Palestinian information technology companies.The announcement came in a ceremony held in Ramallah and attended by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.Sadara had announced that it has secured $28.7 million from leading international companies, foundations, and other investors for the fund.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, OCCUPIED : Sadara VC fund gets formal launch
Mena Report [Factiva link], 7 April 2011, 329 words, (English)
Sadara Ventures/ The Middle East Venture Capital Fund is formally launched in Ramallah in the presence of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad. Sadara is established by Yadin Kauffman and Saed Nashef. It has concluded the raising of $28 million, out the $50 million it plans to raise before some weeks.

Excerpt of Prime Minister Fayyad speech at Sadara Ventures Launch
Youtube.com, April 9, 2011

EIB, cornerstone investor of Sadara Ventures First capital fund targeting Palestinian tech companies
European Investment Bank, EIB.org, 20 April 2011
EIB has been the first investor to have committed to the Fund (EUR 5m or approx. USD 7m), which has closed with total commitments amounting to USD 28.7m.

Google Taps Palestine For New Business Development
fastcompany.com, By: Nancy Cook, November 22, 2011
…Bazinga hosted a different caliber of speakers: Google developers, coming with pizza and pastries, company T-shirts, and, most important, a lot of information on how to build a startup with Google products. The event is part of a larger outreach by Google--committing $2 million so far to the territory (split almost evenly between the NGO Mercy Corps' efforts to build an entrepreneurial network, and a Palestinian venture-capital fund called Sadara Ventures…

Supreme Court (State of Israel Judicial Authority)

The State of Israel - The Judicial Authority

Israel Puts Off Crisis Over Conversion Law
nytimes.com, By ETHAN BRONNER, July 23, 2010
JERUSALEM - A growing crisis between American Jews and the Israeli government over a proposed law on religious conversion was averted - or at least delayed - this week, with both sides agreeing to a six-month period of negotiation.

Sun Pharma inches closer to Taro takeover
Livemint.com, 9 September 2010
Mumbai: The Israeli Supreme Court's (SC) Tuesday ruling in favour of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd draws the curtains on the Indian drug maker's three-year-long legal battle to consummate a 2007 merger deal with Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

JUSTICE DENIED: ISRAELI SUPREME COURT ORDERS DEPORTATION OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER MAIREAD MAGUIRE, FOLLOWING ADALAH'S APPEAL
adalah.com, 4 October 2010
Tonight, 4 October 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected Adalah's appeal on behalf Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and ordered her deportation.

Why Eichmann was a lesson in fairness and a free society
The Times [Factiva link], 4 November 2010, 841 words, (English)
Before his appointment to the Israeli Supreme Court, Gabriel Bach was the deputy prosecutor of Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Now retired, Judge Bach told me last week that when the prosecution discovered documents that the defence might consider of assistance to their case, Bach had handed the documents to Eichmann's lawyers.

PETITION TO ISRAELI SUPREME COURT: THE KNESSET'S REVOCATION OF MK HANEEN ZOABI'S PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGES IS ILLEGAL AND MUST BE CANCELLED
States News Service [Factiva link], 7 November 2010, 851 words, (English)
The following information was released by Adalah (the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel): Today, 7 November 2010, Member of Knesset (MK) Haneen Zoabi (National Democratic Assembly-Balad), Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of Israel against the Knesset's decision to revoke her parliamentary privileges for her participation in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May 2010.

Palestinian prisoners leave jails as swap gets under way Israel
CNN.com, 17 October 2011
Palestinian inmates began leaving Israeli jails early Tuesday, setting in motion the historic swap that will trade more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one captured Israeli soldier.

TaKaDu

TaKaDu Ltd. provides a software-as-a-service solution for water utilities to control and monitor water distribution networks, and reduce non-revenue-water. Its solution detects, classifies, alerts, and provides insight on leaks, bursts, DMA breaches, and other network inefficiencies. The company's solution also analyzes existing online data from meters within flow and pressure networks, and in weather and holiday external data. TaKaDu was founded in 2009 and is based in Yehud, Israel.

TaKaDu
Corporate Website

Striking the stone
The Economist, 14 May 2011, pg. 399
Water technology Israel aims to be the Silicon Valley of water technology Israeli firms offer technology to slake the world's thirst MOSES parted the waters. Strauss aims merely to separate the waters from their yucky impurities. On May 18th in Shanghai Israel's second-largest food and drinks firm will launch a high-tech purifier that not only filters water but also heats it to exactly the right temperature for making tea. Strauss has forged a joint venture with China's Haier Group, the world's biggest maker of white goods, to distribute it.

Pipe dreams
The Economist, 4 June 2011, pg. 6
To plug leaks from the water supply, you first have to find them. Funnily enough, that can be done using software. ANY industry that mislays 25-30% of its product in the process of delivering it might reasonably be thought to have a problem. Yet that, according to the World Bank, is the case for the world's water companies. Although water is cheap, it is not free. A report published by the bank in 2006 reckoned that leaks were then costing $14 billion a year. But in order to plug a leak you have to be able to find it. Water mains are hard to inspect, particularly if they are underground. Many are old and thus decrepit. And outright theft is not unheard of, as the poor seek to fill their drinking vessels and the rich their swimming pools. An effective way of detecting leaks, both accidental and deliberate, would therefore be welcome.

Israeli Data Company Makes a Splash in the Water Industry
Circle of Blue, Brett Walton, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 06:30
TaKaDu uses algorithms to save water, energy, and money for utility companies around the globe.

Plug The Water Leaks (video)
CNBC Asia, Mon 04 Jul 11, 08:40 PM ET
Amir Peleg, Founder & CEO of TaKaDu sees a bright future for Israeli water technologies.

Amir Peleg interview on CNBC during Singapore International Water Week, July, 2011 (video)

Amir Peleg interview on CNBC, September, 2011 (video)

Israeli Start-Up Plugs Leaky Pipes With Data
Wall Street Journal , Ben Rooney, September 11, 2011, 8:32
An Israeli start-up is hoping to help solve one of the world's most pressing problems, the extraordinary amount of fresh drinking water that is simply wasted. TaKaDu, based in Yehud on the fifth floor of a modern office block, tackles the problem of automating the detection of leaking pipes and burst mains for companies thousands of miles away.

TaKaDu Wins CleanTech Award
Wall Street Journal Online, Ben Rooney, October 17, 2011, 11:01 PM GMT
An Israeli start-up is hoping to help solve one of the world's most pressing problems, the extraordinary amount of fresh drinking water that is simply wasted. TaKaDu, based in Yehud on the fifth floor of a modern office block, tackles the problem of automating the detection of leaking pipes and burst mains for companies thousands of miles away.

Israeli start-up Takadu helps Londoners save water (video)
BBC News, 1 December 2011 Last updated at 01:19 ET Help Israeli start-up company
Takadu is helping Londoners to save water and avoid costly leaks, by using "smart water" technology. Its co-founder and chief executive, Amir Peleg, explained how his firm helps Thames Water in London. Using complex mathematical equations, Takadu's technology can spot problems in London's Victorian water system before they escalate.

Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Tel Aviv Museum of Art - Herta and Paul Amir Building

A NEW SPIN TO THE WHITE CITY; Tel Aviv Museum of Art | Preston Scott Cohen
Architectural Record [Factiva link], 1 November 2011, 1676 words, (English)
Seen from the flat plaza that wraps around it on two sides, Preston Scott Cohen's radical addition to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art strikes a geometrically independent pose. But this angled and faceted block dressed in precast concrete

Tel Aviv's modern art museum doubles in size to house more homegrown work
Associated Press Newswires [Factiva link], 13:38, 1 November 2011, 506 words, (English)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Israel's main modern art museum is unveiling a striking new wing Wednesday that provides a permanent home for hundreds of works by Israeli artists, a space lacking until now.

Artworks that are an act of reconciliation
The Independent [Factiva link], 2 November 2011, 656 words, (English)
A new Anselm Kiefer show will bring Germany and Israel closer together, says Michael Glover German shakes hands with Jew. A major exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Anselm Kiefer, a man born a Catholic in a small village in the Black

New Build | The Tel Aviv Museum of Art
New York Times Magazine
Design, Travel|By ANTHONY GRANT| October 28, 2011, 11:15 am It isn't every day that Tel Aviv gets a piece of architecture worth writing home about.

Annual Design Review: Herta and Paul Amir Building, Tel Aviv Museum of Art Architect: December 2011
2011 Annual Design Tel Aviv, Israel / Preston Scott Cohen
By:Kriston Capps
In designing the Herta and Paul Amir Building, an expansion to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Preston Scott Cohen of Cambridge, Mass., had to solve a tricky geometry problem. The program called for several rectangular galleries to display diverse collections of work to be situated on a distinctly triangular parcel in Tel Aviv's cultural district.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.
Corporate Website

The King of Low Cost Drugs
Fortune; Kimes, Mina, 8/17/2009, Vol. 160 Issue 3, p88-92
The article presents information on the generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Based in Israel, it is headed by chief executive officer Shlomo Yanai, a former general in the Israeli defense forces. Topics discussed include the lucrative market for generic drugs, and the possibility of Teva moving into the biologic protein therapy sector.

Teva's Hedge on Complex Generics
IN VIVO Blog, McCaughan, Michael; Feb2010, Vol. 28 Issue 2, p19-20
The looming pathway for abbreviated approval of biosimilars opens up opportunities for lots of companies-brand, generic and biotech-to consider whether to play as a true "follow-on" supplier, focus on improved "biobetters," or do both.But no one is in quite the same position as Teva. Teva has a pending application to sell a generic version of Sanofi-Aventis's enoxaparin or Lovenox. Teva's branded multiple sclerosis therapy glatiramer acetate, Copaxone is a complex molecule that can be closely copied, according to Bill Martin, Teva chief executive officer (CEO). If generic Lovenox is rejected, Teva's Copaxone franchise is more secure.

Teva to Acquire Top German Generics Maker for $5 Billion
The New York Times, Natasha Singer, 19 March 2010, pg 2B
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is already the world's leading generic-drug maker, including the United States market. Now, with a $5 billion deal announced on Thursday to acquire Ratiopharm, a top generics maker in Germany, Teva strengthens its position as an international generics powerhouse.

As the Pill Turns 50, A Rivalry Heats Up
BusinessWeek, Kresge, Naomi, 4/25/2010, Issue 4175, p55-55
This article discusses the plan of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries of Israel to compete with Bayer for a bigger share of the birth-control market. Bayer, the giant German pharmaceutical company, has dominated the market for the past 50 years even with cheap generics flooding the market. Teva plans to make acquisitions of women's health care businesses that could help it give Bayer some serious competition.

That Pill You Took? It May Well Be Theirs
New York Times, Natasha Singer , 8 May 2010, pg 4
Pfizer's corporate jet is at the disposal of that drug maker's chief executive, Jeffrey B. Kindler, for business travel and a limited number of personal trips. Top Merck executives also have use of that pharmaceutical company's corporate aircraft. But when William S. Marth, the chief executive of the largest prescription drug supplier in the United States, travels cross-country, he flies commercial. On trans-Atlantic trips, Mr. Marth, who runs Teva North America, shuns first class, opting for business class.

After Long Pursuit, Teva Wins Cephalon
Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, Rockoff, Jonathan D.; Gryta, Thomas, 5/3/2011, Vol. 257 Issue 102, pB1-B2
The article reports that generic-drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has agreed to buy drug maker Cephalon Inc. for $6.8 billion. Teva was said to have been interested in acquiring Cephalon for a number of years, and Cephalon became more agreeable to a combination after having been the target of a $5.7 billion hostile bid from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

Teva's Act III
Business Middle East; 5/16/2011, Vol. 19 Issue 10, p4
Israel's Teva has bought Cephalon of the US, taking the generics maker into the branded drug market. But is the acquisition big enough? With its US$6.8bn acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Cephalon announced on May 2nd, Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is setting the stage for a third act in the company's near-perfect corporate performance.

Threat of Generic Copycat Comes Back to Nip at Teva
The Wall Street Journal, Jonathan D. Rockoff , 25 July 2011
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the generic-drug giant that made a business out of challenging the valuable patents of Big Pharma, is getting a taste of its own tactics.

Teva Can Ease Your Pain
Barron's Online, Johanna Bennett , 25 August 2011
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (ticker: TEVA), the world's largest maker of generic-prescription drugs, hasn't lived up to its enormous potential. At less than $40 a share, the U.S.-listed shares of the Israel-based company have fallen 27% so far this year despite estimates that the $200 billion global market for low-priced versions of branded-prescription medications will nearly double over the next five years.

DA Keeps Limits on Other 'Plan B' Contraceptive
The Wall Street Journal Online, Jennifer Corbett Dooren, 23:47, 12 December 2011
The Food and Drug Administration denied a petition Monday by a reproductive rights advocacy group that sought to lift all prescription requirements for an older version of the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill on the eve of a federal court hearing on the issue.

Unit 8200

Billionaire Boot Camp
Foreign Policy, 1 September 2007
When Jon Medved, a Jerusalem-based venture capitalist, examines the books of young start-ups seeking seed money, one number matters most - 8200. Unit 8200 is the Israel Defense Force's super-secret electronic espionage program.

The Unit
Gil Kerbs, Forbes.com, 02.08.07
Harvard, Wharton and Stanford alumni consistently head the charts of executive leaders, though, on a purely academic basis, others like the University of Chicago's business school rank as high or higher. In Israel, on the other hand, one's academic past is somehow less important than the military past. One of the questions asked in every job interview is: Where did you serve in the army?

A Covert Operation Against Iran
Intelligence Online [Factiva link], 12 November 2009
Egypt played a key part in intercepting a shipment of Iran weapons. Officially, the Israelis say it was pure chance that led to the detection of the vessel Francop flying the Antigua flag and carrying Iranian weapons earmarked for Syria and ...

Elite unit based on team of ex-hackers
The Daily Telegraph [Factiva link], 1 October 2010
Israel demonstrated its intent to conquer cyber warfare in the 1990s by presenting the country's legions of hackers with a choice between prison and working for the state.

Israel's army of tech start-ups
Financial Times, 1 December 2011
The country's booming start-up economy is fuelled by the alumni of the army's secretive and high-tech Unit 8200, says Tobias Buck When Aharon Zeevi Farkash enters the offices of his company south of Tel Aviv, he needs neither key nor code

Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot

Weizmann Institute of Science

Weizmann Institute of Science Campus Photos
Youtube.com, March 23, 2009
Weizmann Institute of Science Campus. This video is compiled from individual photographs.

Governor Patrick Visits Weizmann Institute of Science to Cultivate Life Sciences Partnerships Between Israel and Massachusetts
Mass.gov, 8 March 2011
REHOVOT, Mass., March 8 -- As part of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy Partnership Mission 2011, Governor Deval Patrick today visited the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel to discuss plans to cultivate new investment and partnerships between the Massachusetts and Israeli life sciences sectors.

Science that changes lives
Crain's Chicago Business [Factiva link], 28 March 2011, 570 words, (English)
Weizmann Institute of Science, founded in 1934, is a non-profit research center with headquarters in Rehovot, Israel. The institute's 46th annual Midwest Region Gala Dinner is expected to gross $1 million for the institute's general operating budget, which funds scientific and public seminars. The gala also honors individuals-past honorees include Lester Crown and Leo Melamed-for their philanthropic contributions to science.

Weizmann Institute head slams Israeli industry's short-term outlook; Prof. Daniel Zajfman urges Israeli businesses to invest in long-term...
Globes Israel's Business Arena, 20 April 2011
"The business world demands rapid success. The TASE tomorrow, reports in a week. I live in ranges of 20 years, Weizmann Institute of Science President Professor Daniel Zajfman told "Globes".

2011 Results Announced: Best Places to Work in Academia
marketwire.com, 1 July 2011
NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- Jul 01, 2011 -- The Scientist, magazine of the life sciences, announced today the winners of its 9th annual Best Places to Work in Academia survey. Readers ranked The J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California, as the top institution in the United States and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, as the top international academic institution.

The Weizmann Institute - Where science is a lifestyle
Youtube.com, November 7, 2011
Israel's Weizmann Institute is consistently cited as one of the best places in the world for academics to work.

Yahoo! Israel

Yahoo Opens New Research Lab in Israel
IT Gallery, 14 March 2008
Internet company Yahoo announced that it has launched a new research lab in Haifa, Israel, its first in the region. The Yahoo Research Israel Lab will be led by Dr. Ronny Lempel, an information organization and retrieval expert who will report directly to Dr. Ricardo Baeza-Yates, vice president of Yahoo Research.

Other Resources

• EIU: Israel HU Pin
• CIA World Factbook
• International Entrepreneurship: Israel

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• Country & International

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