ISRAEL 
HIGH-TECH & INVESTMENT REPORT

from the December 2009 issue


Born 25 Years Ago

With this issue we celebrate 25 years of publication. When we began there was no Internet or email and contact with our readers was rare. For us it was the beginning of on age of great excitement as we chronicled the development of Israel's high-technology.

We met the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, when he visited Elscint in Haifa.

We spoke at length with Israel's President Ephraim Katzir. Katzir was a chemist who opened a new world of chemistry.

We spent time with Efi Arazi, the brilliant founder of Scitex. Arazi revolutionized computer graphics and created a world class company.

Eli Hurwitz introduced us to the world of generics.

Professor Michael Sela of the Weitzmann Institure introduced us to copaxone, now a drug buster with annual sales of more than $3.0b.

Dan Tolkowsky introduced us to the founding of high-tech when General Charles deGaulle banned the sale of military materiele to Israel after the Six Day War.

We met with Baron Edmond Rothschild who came to Israel to celebrate the minting of a gold Rothschild medallion.

We met with David Ben-Gurion whose interest in irrigation was keen.

We were given the opportunity at the Jerusalem Post to write about high-tech and we introduced the Israeli public and the Post's overseas readers to the greatness of Israeli high-tech.

We wrote about our nine Nobel Prize winners.

The first use of drones in knocking out the SAM missile bases in Lebanon was a major achievement. We lamented the cancellation of the Lavi jet program. We wrote about Ilan Ramon, Israel's astronaut who perished in the untimely crash of the Explorer satellite.

We hailed Warren Buffet's purchase of Iscar a $4.0 billion stake in that company.

The late 1990s brought with it the exciting period of the dot.com era. Israelis were quick to climb on the bandwagons as tens of companies succeeded in going public, making their founders instant millionaires. Yosi Vardi along with his son and several other youngster created Mirabili, instant messaging. The sale set a new record at that time of more than $400m.

Israel's satellite program brought Israel into the exclusive group of countries with a satellite capability.

Israel revolutionized agricultural irrigation by creating drip irrigation which brought the supply of water directly to the root of the plant.

Solar energy also became a major field of expertise and more recently so did desalination .

Our website has become a popular place to get information about Israeli high-tech. When we first established the site we were happy to get a few hundred monthly visitors. Today we are on the borderline of 100,000 monthly viewers.

We thank our readership for their faithful following. We notice that some of our readers have been with us for more than 20 years.

As we celebrate our first 25 years, we dedicate ourselves to a future that will bring us all of the excitement that accompanies innovation and achievement.



Reprinted from the Israel High-Tech & Investment Report December 2009

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