Economy and Technology

In January 2023 Israel’s minister of justice announced proposals for radical changes in the legal system that would have virtually ended the separation of power between the courts and the Knesset or parliament. This resulted…

In 2018, a record 4.1 million tourists visited Israel from all over the world. The figure is particularly impressive, given the security incidents in this period, the extensive coverage of security-related events by the foreign press and social media, and the BDS campaign. While global tourism between 2007 and 2018 increased 60 percent, tourism in Israel in the same period rose 100 percent.

From the Tel Aviv based, INSS, The Institute for National Security Studies, their annual review of Israel’s domestic and foreign policy challenges is available. Released by one of Israel’s most prestigious think tanks, their 2021 Strategic Overview contains more than a dozen thoroughly researched topics. This publication has no peer for excellence and analyses. Its authors are highly respected for their competence in respective fields of specialty, and in the coherence that each of them brings to their essays.

Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people have been put out of work and the result is a massive loss of output and a collapse in the demand for goods and services. There is great uncertainty regarding the development of therapeutics and prevention; health services face massive pressure and many countries have abandoned orthodox economic policies to support households, firms, and financial markets. Conventional economic theory has once again been put to the test and found wanting. The Middle East has been hit by two large overlapping shocks: COVID-19 and the collapse in oil prices.

Israel is in a state of emergency: schools are closed, businesses are shut, and people continue to lose their source of income. Optimal handling of this dramatic challenge demands a combined strategy. The primary thrust, prevention, protection, and containment, must be complemented by a strategy to promote societal resilience as the secondary effort.

How did a tiny country without a significant manufacturing sector become so important to the Fourth Industrial Revolution – and how will that help us all? While the Third Industrial Revolution introduced technologies such as robotics, 4.0 innovations digitize, simplify, connect, safeguard and generally improve every step of production. This tiny country in the Middle East ranks third in I4 venture investments (after the US and China) and second in early-stage investments.

The world’s central address for supporting research, development and commercialization of plant-based and cultivated meat protein alternatives is the Good Food Institute, founded in 2016. The nonprofit’s branches in the United States, Asia Pacific, India, Europe and Brazil seek to bring sorely needed solutions to the largest populations. So why has GFI has opened a branch office in little Israel?

It’s November 2020, just days before the US presidential election, and a video clip comes out showing one of the leading candidates saying something inflammatory and out of character. The public is outraged, and the race is won by the other contender. The only problem: the video wasn’t authentic. Israeli startup Cyabra’s technology detects expertly doctored videos as well as the bots powering fake social-media profiles.

Israeli sound engineer’s social business uses sand and water to capture motion of soundwaves, enabling people with hearing impairment to enjoy music. Mordechai Braunstein’s CyMagic uses no algorithms or fancy technology. It’s simple physics: the natural effect of sound on matter.

US doctors already use IceCure’s ProSense to destroy benign breast lumps. Soon they’ll be using it for malignant liver and kidney tumors. The device uses minimally invasive cryoablation to destroy the tumor by freezing it rather than surgically removing it.

In technology, digital health, tourism, exports and other verticals, Israel has seen steady growth through the past decade. The year 2019 broke records across Israel’s economy. From tourism to tech, exports to the illusive “unicorn (a privately held company with a valuation of over $1 billion),” Israel scored higher in many categories than it ever had.

The Leviathan natural gas field has finally begun production, after long delays that pushed its start date to the last day of 2019. Flowing from undersea deposits located eighty miles off Israel’s coast, supplies will henceforth pass through processing facilities on the Leviathan rig constructed six miles offshore, then reach the mainland at the village of Dor and enter a gas grid that runs the length and breadth of the country.

Israeli researchers find significant overlap between Alzheimer’s-related mutations and those producing certain intellectual disabilities. Researchers believe that autism is caused by mutations in the egg or sperm or during pregnancy, particularly in the activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) gene. A new Tel Aviv University study published in Molecular Psychiatry found that ADNP mutations continue to occur in old age and accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute and Prof. Eugene Kandel, CEO Start-Up Nation Central, open the two day conference, welcoming senior executives from the public and private sectors. They’ve come together to work on a long-term vision for Israel’s economy and for addressing the market’s core issues.