Friday, October 7, 2011

Time is running in Israel's favor

Enclosed you'll find my October 2, 2011 "Israel Hayom" newsletter OpEd. A


Hebrew edition is available.



You may disseminate as widely as possible.



Speaking engagements may be scheduled per list of topics on my website

(http://www.TheEttingerReport.com(.



Happy New Year, 5772,



Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought", יורם אטינגר, "במחשבה

שנייה"



www.TheEttingerReport.com



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Time is running in Israel's favor

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought"

"Israel Hayom" newsletter, Oct. 2, 2011

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=576



Time is running in Israel's favor, in contrast with conventional wisdom, as

evidenced by the "global economic walk" and irrespective of the "global

political talk."



At the outset of the Jewish New Year, 5772, Israel's Gross Domestic Product

(GDP) is $240BN – with 3% deficit, 5.7% unemployment, 3% interest rate and

3% inflation - compared with $38BN GDP in 1990 and 1BN in 1949. Israel's

credit rating has been recently upgraded by Standard & Poor, ranking it

among the top OECD economies.



In 1948 Israel had no significant export, compared with $6.7BN current

account (mostly trade balance) surplus in 2010, featuring the US, Europe and

India as the chief trading partners. Notwithstanding disturbing Turkish

statements, Israel-Turkey trade volume has surged 140% since the Islamic

party, AKP, assumed power in 2002: $3.45BN in 2010 compared with $1.4BN in

2002. Irrespective of political tension, the first quarter of 2011 features

a 40% increase in the mutually-beneficial Israel-Turkey trade over the first

quarter of 2010.



In 2011, Israel takes pride in robust exports despite the global economic

meltdown, due to its highly specialized lines of exports, which correspond

to vital global needs in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical devices,

biomed, agriculture, water technologies, energy alternatives, software,

laptop computers, telecommunications and defense industries. The latter

features Israel as the fifth largest global defense exporter. The NY-based

"Trading Economics" reported a $1BN Israeli current account surplus in the

first quarter of 2011.



Recently, the Houston-based Noble Energy discovered proven offshore natural

gas reserves, which will transform Israel – by 2014 - from nearly total

reliance on imported energy, to a major exporter of natural gas.



The Jewish New Year, 5772, highlights the Jewish State as "a shining high

tech city upon a hill," attracting leading global companies, venture

capitalists and investment banks, which seek unique manpower and

cutting-edge innovative technologies. The European Community appoints

Israelis to head its high-technology commissions. Microsoft's CEO, Steve

Ballmer, calls Microsoft as much an Israeli company as an American company,

because of the importance of its Israeli technologies, such as Kinect gaming

motion-sensor interface, the fastest rising consumer electronic product in

history. The same applies, increasingly, to Google, Cisco and eBay and

Apple's memory systems for its iPhones, iPods and iPads. According to

Intel's CEO, Intel would have been devastated by the competition, if not for

its four research and development centers and two manufacturing plants in

Israel, which developed its most advanced microprocessors, Pentium,

Sandbridge, Atom and Centrino. Leading American venture capital funds,

Sequoia, Greylock, Accel and Orbimed have become frequent investors in

Israel, and some 400 global high tech companies have established research

and manufacturing presence in Israel. IBM and Computers Associates (CA)

just made their ninth and tenth acquisitions of Israeli companies

respectively. Overseas investments in Israel's high-tech exceed any single

European country and France and Germany combined.



The American defense industry has been a major beneficiary of Israel's

unique technological and battle capabilities. Thus, the current generation

of the F-16 features over 600 modifications, introduced by Israel, making it

a global success and enhancing the American employment, research and

development and export infrastructures. Northrop Grumman's robotics division

cooperation with – and sales to – Israel have dramatically upgraded the

quality of its products, as has been the case with hundreds of US defense

systems employed by Israel.



In retrospect, Arab wars and terrorism, geo-political constraints and

limited natural resources have been nothing but bumps on the path of an

unprecedented Israeli economic, technological, educational and defense

surge, which has benefitted humanity at-large.























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