by Yoram Ettinger
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry says that "if we do not resolve the issues
between Palestinians and Israelis, if we do not find a way to find
peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel."
However, a thorough examination
of Israel's international standing reveals an increasingly splendid
integration of the Jewish state -- economically, technologically and
scientifically -- irrespective of the Palestinian issue.
Contrary to the Kerry school of thought, and based on a reality check,
the Palestinian issue has never been a core cause shaping the Middle
East, a crown jewel of Arab policymakers and the crux of Israel's
relations with the Arab countries and the international community. While
the diplomatic talk highlights the Palestinian issue, the diplomatic,
commercial and industrial walk reveals that policy-makers and the
international business community do not embrace Kerry's "Palestine
First" assessment and his "Isolation Warning/Threat."
Thus, the Turkish Statistics Institute documented an expansion of the Turkey-Israel trade balance,
despite the brutal anti-Israel ideology of President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan. The institute reports a 56 percent export increase, to Israel,
during the first five months of 2013, compared with the same period in
2012, while imports from Israel increased by 22% during the same period.
The Israel-Turkey trade balance was $3.4 billion in 2008, rising to $4
billion in 2012. Turkey's requirements in the areas of industry,
medicine, health, agriculture, irrigation, education, science,
technology and defense -- and Israel's unique innovations in these areas
-- have prevailed over Erdogan's anti-Western, anti-Israel, and
pro-Hamas Islamist orientation.
The London Financial Times
reported that "in six hours of [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's]
talks with the Chinese leadership, they spent roughly 10 seconds on the
Palestinian issue, while revealing an unquenchable thirst for Israeli
technology."
Highlighting Israel's intensified
and diversified global integration, the China-Israel 2013 trade balance
exceeded $10 billion, providing a tailwind to the currently negotiated
free-trade agreement, and inspired by Chinese investments in some 50
Israeli high-tech companies. The Japan Times reported a growing Japanese interest in Israeli business opportunities, tripling the number of reviews of Israeli companies.
Moreover, foreign investments in
Israel soared in 2013 to a seven-year high of $12 billion, including $4
billion in acquisitions of Israeli companies by global giants such as
Google, IBM, Cisco, AOL, Facebook, Apple and EMC. Furthermore, since
January, Israeli companies have raised over $500 million on Wall Street,
and Deloitte Touche, one of the world's top CPA firms, crowned Israel
as the fourth most attractive site for foreign investors, behind the
U.S., China and Brazil.
According to the British Economist Intelligence Unit,
"Israel's cluster of high-tech companies, investors and incubators is
enjoying a boom which has not been witnessed since the global tech
bubble burst more than a decade ago." Neither Kazakhstan's billionaire
Kenges Rakishev, nor Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim allowed the
"Isolation Warning/Threat" to stop their flow of investments in Israel's
high-tech sector.
In fact, Israel, the "Start-Up
Nation," has become a critical Pipeline Nation which transfers to the
American high-tech industry a plethora of cutting edge technologies and
applications developed by Israeli brain power, providing some 200 U.S.
high-tech giants with an edge over their global competitors and
contributing to U.S. employment, research and development and exports.
As stated by Microsoft's new CEO, Satya Nadella: "The two Microsoft
research and development centers in Israel constitute a strategic
factor, enhancing Microsoft's capabilities in many areas."
This was echoed by Google's
Chairman, Eric Schmidt, who invests in Israel also through his private
venture capital fund, Innovation Endeavors: "Israel will have an
oversized impact on the evolution of the next stage of technology.
Israel has become a high-tech hub. Israel is the most important
high-tech center in the world after the U.S."
Unlike Secretary of State John Kerry, businessman Warren Buffett does have confidence in Israel's long-term viability, realizing that Israel's economic and technological capabilities are the derivatives of Israel's brainpower and fiscal responsibility (since 1985), independent of the Palestinian issue.
Unlike Secretary of State John Kerry, businessman Warren Buffett does have confidence in Israel's long-term viability, realizing that Israel's economic and technological capabilities are the derivatives of Israel's brainpower and fiscal responsibility (since 1985), independent of the Palestinian issue.
Hence, on the eve of Israel's
2006 war against Lebanon's Hezbollah, Buffett invested $4 billion in an
Israeli company, located next to the Lebanese border, recently expanding
that investment by $2 billion. Buffett followed in the footsteps of
Intel, which has invested $11 billion in its four research and
development centers and two manufacturing plants in Israel; IBM, which
just acquired its 13th Israeli company; Motorola, which established in
Israel a research center second only to its Houston center;
Hewlett-Packard, which owes 55% of its 2012-2013 development to its
seven Israeli research and development centers; and the leading Silicon
Valley venture capital funds, Sequoia, Benchmark, Greylock and Accel,
which operate successful Israel-dedicated funds.
Astute observers of the Middle
East -- who do not subordinate reality to their wishful thinking -- are
aware that the Arab tsunami is not an Arab Spring; that the Arab street
in general, and Egypt in particular, are not transitioning towards
democracy; that Iran is committed to the pursuit of military nuclear
capabilities; that Syrian President Bashar Assad has not been forsaken
by Russia and Iran; and that Arab leaders are apprehensive of
Palestinian subversion and terrorism.
Likewise, astute investors have
realized that the ongoing wars and terrorism that have beset Israel
since 1948 have been but bumps on the road of Israel's unprecedented
surge and integration into the global economy and technology, bolstered
by Israel's Leviathan-size offshore natural gas explorations.
Yoram Ettinger
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7957
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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