Good News Israel

Compliments of Anglo Raananna Real Estate

Quote for the Week

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”
Winston Spencer Churchill. Prime Minister of England during WW 2. (The man did have a way with words.)

* In case you’re interested in the goings on down in Achad Ha’am Street, we’ll tell you that the indexes are working their way through the roof. The TA 25 rose 0.5% to a new record high of 1,299 points, while the Tel Aviv 100 was up 0.6% to reach 1,198.90. Not to be outdone the Tel-Tech Index moved up 0.26% to 241.56 points. Turnover was a healthy NIS 1.7 billion. So, another day, another record. No wonder then that Israeli investors are increasing their share portfolios by the month. We won’t bore you with the figures but we will mention that asset holdings by Israelis in October measured NIS 2.5 trillion [that’s 2 500 000 000 000] up 1.1% from September and a huge leap of an increase of 12% since the same month in ’09.

* Never let it be said that our government is backward in coming forward on the subject of reducing greenhouse gases and all the nightmarish things that are likely to arise from giving Mother Earth and the atmosphere around her an overdose of these poisons. In fact it – the government that is – has just pledged NIS 2.2bn over the next decade to combating these horrendous effects. The focus will be on green buildings, energy efficiency and clean-tech. Sounds good. Now all they have to do is to actually come up with the greenbacks to pay for it all.

* For the third time in four years, Bank Leumi has been named as Israel’s “Bank of the Year” by international magazine, The Banker, a part of the Financial Times Group. Among the reasons for choosing it as Israel’s leading bank for 2010, the journal cited Leumi’s stability, profitability over time and its high capital adequacy. The long standing CEO of the bank is Ms Galia Maor. As we’ve always said; there’s no holding the ladies back once they’re past the glass ceiling.

* Things got really hot at the Hai Bar Carmel reserve, where they prepare animals for return to the wild, as the flames of the disastrous fire came far too close for comfort. The human care-givers worked furiously and under enormous pressure to protect the animals. And the animals and birds, including rare fallow deer and endangered species of raptors? Well, they seemed to keep their cool throughout. The really GN is that not a single animal was lost and that says a whole lot for the dedication of their keepers.

* Elbit Systems that produces all sorts of intriguing goodies for fighting forces throughout the world, has come up with a simulator that enables the training of forces using a battlefield management system that maintains constant contact between the armies control centers and the boots on the ground and it’s all virtual, slashing training costs and allowing for close monitoring of the system itself. The Company will shortly supply the new simulator to the Royal Netherlands Army in a $10 million contract. This follows the signing of a deal worth $40 million with the Dutch Army for the supply of advanced battlefield management software.

* Monoclonal antibodies serve to detect or purify a substance and are used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. While these drugs are inherently much more difficult to copy and to replicate than small-molecule generics, companies like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. are geared to develop their versions of these medications once the patents have expired and that’s going to happen in 2015. Especially now that the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Europe’s equivalent of the US’s FDA, more or less, has published draft regulations for producing them. These medicines had sales of more than $10 billion in 2009.

* With a great deal of fanfare Israel now has its own Master Chef and we at GN were glued to the TV, along with the majority of all TV viewers who also opted for this time slot, watching…people cooking! One day a very clever psychologist will analyze the whys and wherefores for us of the amazing success of this show. We didn’t get to taste any of the dishes but they certainly looked enticing. Round about the same time but with far less ado a team of professional chefs represented Israel in an international cooking championship, Expogast Culinary World Cup 2010 in Luxemburg. A Jew, a Muslim, a Christian and an Armenian made up the Israeli squad that competed this year. There were those that said that they were chosen on merit alone and there were others who said that they were selected to send a message of goodwill and coexistence, whichever way they arrived in Luxemburg last week to demonstrate to chefs from all corners of the world that they are masters of their art and this they did with a vengeance returning with three gold medals to show that professionalism trumps background any time.

* And while we’re still in the kitchen we mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Israel’s Strauss Elite’s coffee was making a hit in Brazil, the land of coffee. Well they’ve now given the Russians the opportunity to see what the real brew tastes like by acquiring Russia’s Le Caf?. Just another step in the company’s growth strategy in Russia where its business has expanded over the past four years, from a $20 million operation at the end of 2007 to a $160 million enterprise following the latest take-over. The coffee division of Strauss had a turnover of NIS 3.35 billion in 2009, and NIS 2.67 billion in January-September 2010. The moral of the story is; if you do it right, and Strauss obviously does – the sky’s the limit.

* While you can’t eat or drink it, it’s our bet that it’s going to help to save lives. It’s a new Israeli fiber that has revolutionized bulletproof armor. It’s stronger and more robust than steel, and three times as strong as Kevlar, it’s lightweight, flexible and so thin that it is barely visible to the naked eye and it’s all made possible by employing nanotechnology. The carbon nanotube-based yarn can be woven into the strongest-ever man-made material. Kibbutz- based Plasan’s expertise will then enable the design and production of a revolutionary new range of body and vehicle armor. [This item submitted by reader Barbara Becker of Durban RSA and Perth Australia]

* Was there ever a teenager who wasn’t embarrassed at some time or another by acne and, regrettably, in certain cases it can actually be disfiguring but thanks to Oplon, an Israeli Company, despair may soon turn into rejoicing. The three-year-old medical materials company based in central Israel has come up with a unique patch that radiates an ‘energy field’ said to be capable of knocking out acne for good. [It can also keep milk from spoiling, wipe out bacteria inside juice boxes, and even reduce the number of infections associated with hospital catheters.]. But those are not nearly as exciting, or important, as eradicating acne.

* Did anybody ever envisage a shortage of physicians in the land of Jewish mothers? Well there is. Whatever happened to; my son the doctor? But the GN is that Bar Ilan University has gained permission to open a medical school. Even better news; it’s going to open in Safed in the north. And the best news of all is it’s on schedule to open at the beginning of the coming academic year in October 2010.