Israel's Tech Companies Broke All Records in 2014

In 2013, Israeli tech companies raised $2.3 billion and another $1.2 billion in exits and mergers. 

But in 2014, these companies did even better.  Israeli high-tech companies raised a record $3.4 billion in 2014 from venture capital and other private investors, a 46% rise in investments.  

The data on exits is even more startling:  $15 billion in exits in 2014 alone.  For example, cloud storage giant Dropbox acquired Israel-based startup CloudOn and Amazon is now negotiating to purchase Israeli chip-maker Annapurna Labs.

Reuters reports: 

Investors raised $6.94 billion from selling stakes in Israeli technology companies in 2014, a five percent increase compared to last year, boosted mainly by an increase in stock market listings.  It was the third-highest figure after 2006 and 2012, years marked by major acquisitions of Israeli companies...

BSemites Disrupt NYC City Council Meeting on Holocaust

Once more, those cute BSemites express their affection to the jolly and joyous 1940's. This time, some dozen BS activists decided to disrupt a New York City City Council meeting on commemoration of the Holocaust. See  this report from the Gothamist:

Councilman David Greenfield

A City Council meeting to vote on commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps was interrupted this morning by pro-Palestinian activists—who were angry with Council members over a separate matter. And because this is Israel/Palestine, things of course descended into complete chaos, rhetoric and vitriol. You can hearing some of the protest below, during which activists shout "Palestinian lives matter!"

"Shame on them for hating Jews," said Councilman David Greenfield, according to JP Updates. "But I’m pleased, because we can stop pretending that this is about Israel. What we saw here was blatant antisemitism, good old fashioned antisemitism...They were angry, you know why? Because Hitler did not finish the job."

Robbie Williams Mocks BSemites

In yet another failed letter writing campaign, BSemites have tried to threaten British pop star Robbie Williams, who will be performing in Israel in May.  Several days after receiving the threat, Williams thumbed his nose at the Barghouti group in a video statement:

Tel Aviv, Israel! Me, Robbie Williams, coming to see you. It's like a first date... I've got butterflies in my stomach. I can’t wait. I hope you feel the same way too. 

Tel Aviv, are you ready? Please come to see the show. There'll be singing, there'll be dancing. There will be love, mainly me beaming it to you from my heart into your heads and minds.

Robbie William's performance follows recent performances by Lady Gaga, Tony Bennet, Mark Gardener and others.  As BSemites put it nicely, "the presence of internationally acclaimed artists from the West is meant to affirm Israel’s membership in the West’s privileged club of cultured, liberal democracies." Indeed it does!

New Airline Routes to Israel

In response to growing demand from tourists, more airlines are adding new routes to connect Israel with world capitals.  Easyjet is opening flights from Amsterdam to Tel-Aviv and from Paris to Tel-Aviv.  The airline is also considering flights to the new Israeli airport in Timna, once it is complete.  Meanwhile, China's Hainin Airlines is launching three weekly flights from Beijing to Tel-Aviv, to supplement El-Al flight already covering that route.

Ynet quotes a manager at Easyjet:

Slaven explained last week that the ticket sale was "crazy" and that all the cheap tickets to Paris were sold within a very short period of time. "There is a high demand for this route, and that's the reason why we fought to open it," he said...

The new route will become easyJet’s ninth destination from Tel Aviv and will enable it to fly more than half a million passengers a year into and out of Israel on 37 weekly departures, the company said in a statement.

Multiple Official Delegations Visit Israel

In contrary to some BS propaganda you may have witnessed recently, Israel's foreign relations are as intensive and well as ever. This week Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, is visiting Israel accompanied by a delegation of over 100 Japanese officials. This is in addition to delegations sent from Canada and the United States. See this report from Israel Hayom:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and a delegation of U.S. lawmakers, led by Senator John McCain will all visit Israel this week and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Netanyahu will call on his visitors to take steps to thwart the unilateral diplomatic initiatives currently being promoted by the Palestinian Authority. Japan is a member of the U.N. Security Council and Canada is one of the funders of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Netanyahu will speak with the bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation about halting U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority due to its unilateral moves against Israel.

English Singer Mark Gardener Plays in Israel

English singer Mark Gardener, of the famous Ride band that broke up during the 90's, came to Israel and performed a concert in the Barby club in Tel Aviv. Gardener specifically noted that he came to play music, and that he does not believe in boycotts. YNET News reports:

Gardener has launched a solo career, and also produced and worked with other artists. He was scheduled to perform in Israel last summer, but had to cancel his concert because of the deteriorating security situation during Operation Protective Edge.

But now, he's back in Israel to make up for that concert, and will perform an intimate acoustic set at the Barby club in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

India Strengthens Economic Ties with Israel

Israel's economic ties with the East grows more and more. On January 12, the Israeli minister of agriculture Yair Shamir signed the decleration of the third phase of the 'Indo-Israel Agricultural Cooperation Project' (IIAP). See this report from the Economic Times:

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu

 with Indian Prime Minister Modi

India and Israel have signed a joint agreement to implement the third phase of the agriculture cooperation project for next three years.

A joint declaration 'the Indo-Israel Agricultural Cooperation Project ( IIAP) entering its third phase' was signed on the sidelines of the 'Vibrant Gujarat' summit by Israel's Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir, an official statement said.

In a meeting with India's Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya, the Israeli Minister reviewed the 'Joint Agriculture Project' being implementing in the country since 2008.

Israeli Director Wins Golden Globe

The successful television drama 'The Affair', co-created and directed by Israeli Hagai Levi, won the prize for best tevlevision drama at the Golden Globe awards. JNS reports:

Hagai Levi

An Israeli-directed drama, “The Affair,” won the prize for best television drama at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday.

“The Affair” airs on the Showtime network. Co-created by Israeli director, producer, and writer Hagai Levi, the show details the story of an affair between two married people—told from both the male and female perspectives. 

Actress Ruth Wilson, who stars in the show, also won an award for best actress in a drama series.

2014 Record Year in Overseas Investment in Israeli High-Tech

Sorry BSemites, you really have to try harder. 2014 set a new record for overseas investment in Israeli high-technology industry: 15$ billion were spent in purchasing Israeli start-ups, doubling the 2013 investment.  Read this great article by Yoram Ettinger about Israel's very fictitous 'isolation':

Despite the conventional claim that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated, the multinational accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers determined that 2014 was a record year of overseas investments in Israel’s high-tech industries: $15 billion in acquisitions of 52 Israeli startups (compared to $7.6 billion in 2013), in addition to $9.8 billion raised by 18 Israeli companies in overseas stock exchanges (compared to $1.2 billion in 2013). Once again, Israel’s impact on global medicine, health, agriculture, irrigation, energy alternatives, science, cyber, homeland security and defense, as well as Wall Street, outweighs the impact of the Gaza Strip.

Since 1948, a recycled assumption (e.g., the 1975 “Zionism is racism” UN resolution) has maintained that an anti-Israel global tsunami is about to drown the Jewish state, triggering unprecedented isolation, the collapse of its international standing and the breakdown of its ties with the US, unless it promised — in the unpredictable, unstable, violent Middle East — to redivide Jerusalem, uproot over 500,000 Jewish settlers, and retreat to a 9-15 mile sliver along the Mediterranean dominated by the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria. 

However, the collapse of the USSR (which facilitated the 1991 revocation of the USSR-sponsored “Zionism is Racism”), the affirmation of the US as the dominant super power, the upgraded, mutually beneficial US-Israel relationship and the emergence of Israel as a global commercial and military high tech power, have all enhanced Israel’s global standing, dramatically expanding Israel’s global networking beyond Europe into India, China, Russia, the former Muslim republics of the USSR, Latin America — all irrespective of diplomatic setbacks.

BSemite Conspiracy Theories Reach a New Level

This time, the lovely BS movement has decided that the Israeli Mossad holds the true responsibility on the Charlie Hebdo Magazine attack in Paris. The Free Gaza activist Greta Berlin did not let the facts counfound her common sense, and she has concluded that the attack must be Mossad work. See this report from Algemeiner:

BSemite Greta Berlin

The anti-Semitism at the heart of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel was again laid bare yesterday, as prominent activists from the campaign took to social media to advance the conspiracy theory that yesterday’s terrorist attack against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was carried out by the Mossad. 

Leading the charge was Greta Berlin, a spokesperson for the Free Gaza movement, an organization that has been closely involved with attempts to break Israel’s blockade against the Hamas regime in Gaza. In a Facebook posting, Berlin declared, “MOSSAD just hit the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo in a clumsy false flag designed to damage the accord between Palestine and France…Here’s hoping the French police will be able to tell a well executed hit by a well trained Israeli intelligence service and not assume the Muslims would be likely to attack France when France is their freind (sic.) Israel did tell France there would be grave consequences if they voted with Palestine. A four year old could see who is responsible for this terrible attack.”

Berlin’s colleague, Free Gaza co-founder Mary-Hughes Thompson, echoed those same views in a posting on Twitter. “#Hebdo killings indefensible. Can’t help thinking #JSIL Mossad false flag though. Killers spoke with perfect French accents. Time will tell,” she wrote. Even theInternational Business Times, a more mainstream publication, explicitly asked, “Charlie Hebdo Attack and Mossad Link: Is Israel Venting Its Fury for France’s Recognition of a Palestinian State?”  although the offending item was quickly removed by an editor at the publication.

Our reserachers have come up with suggestions for some other cool BS conspiracies to follow on: Israel is responsible for anchovy pizza, for the last season of Lost, and for the fact that Holywood now needlessly splits every last movie of a series into two parts. We will update on these important investigations.

BS Fails at the Modern Language Association

An effort by the Barghouti group to call for a boycott of Israeli universities at the Modern  Language Association (MLA) flopped when the association refused to discuss the issue.  The BS motion, which required a two-third majority to pass, was instead rejected by two-thirds majority vote (95 to 49).

Legalinsurrection.com reports that "the boycotters came off as silly. Especially after events like this weekend” (a refereence to the attacks in Paris).

This is the second BS debacle since the beginning of 2015:  On January 4, the American Historical Association voted 144 to 54 against a BS proposal.  Both votes are remarkable in that they are not merely rejections of BS proposals but refusals to even consider discussing BS proposals.

American academic associations have rejected calls for BS against Israel one by one, ever since a pro-BS vote by the small American Studies Association led to across-the-board condemnations from 250 university presidents and major academic organizations.

BS Attempts to Harm Economy Fail (again)

A new research commissioned by the Israeli Parliament concludes that BS efforts to damage Israeli export to Europe has proven completely useless. The export to Europe not only did not decrease, but it has risen. Even in the places where BS activity is most profound there has been an increase in Israeli export. The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reports:

According to Knesset commissioned study, as of 2014, the attempts, largely in Europe, to boycott products produced beyond the Green Line have failed and the overall exports to Europe have not only not suffered -- they have risen.

The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement has not harmed the Israeli economy, and in some cases Israel's exports have only grown in the regions in which the movement has the most traction, according to a recent report commissioned by the Knesset Finance Committee…

The study analyzed the economic effects of the BDS movement from 2000 to 2013. The study showed that throughout those years, despite the BDS movement, Israel's gross domestic product rose by 54 percent, its exports rose by 80 percent and in Europe, where the majority of the BDS efforts are, surged by 99 percent.

Plane Hijacker to Promote BSemites in South Africa

The BSemites just can't seem to stay away from those adorable international terrorists. This time, the loveable plane hijacker Leila Khalid is coming to South Africa at the BS movement's invitation, and will be the honor BS guest in Cape Town on February 12. Haaretz reports:

Infamous Palestinian plane hijacker Leila Khaled will be visiting South Africa next month as a guest of the local chapter of the international Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement and Muslim organizations.

BDS South Africa is known for its high-profile, anti-Israel stunts. Last November, It was prevented by court order from protesting outside branches of the Woolworths department store chain. In one of the protests, activists from the Congress of South African Students placed a pig's head in the kosher section of a Cape Town branch.

Born in Haifa in 1944, Khaled joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at a young age and shot to global prominence with a series of hijackings in 1969 and 1970.

BS Dealt Major Blow by yet another Academic Group

The American Historical Association (AHA) declined to address two anti-Israel motions in the association's annual meeting to be held in New York this week. The resolutions, prompted and endorsed by the BS movement, were kept off the agenda with a majority vote of 144 to 54. The Jerusalem Post reports:

The American Historical Association, a scholarly group, declined to put two resolutions critical of Israel to a vote at its annual meeting in New York over the weekend, one year after the American Studies Association joined an academic boycott of Israel.

The motions were kept off the agenda by a vote of 144 to 54.

Daniel Pipes, a politically conservative Middle East scholar and a former AHA member, said that he was “particularly delighted to discern signs of political maturity among the ranks of historians,” stating that “the AHA’s nearly 3-to-1 rejection of the two anti-Israel resolutions confirms the surprisingly sensible and centrist voting on this issue at major academic associations.”

There was no mention of incitement on Palestinian campuses in the resolutions.

Last year, hundreds of masked protesters marched through Al-Quds University’s campus wearing black ski masks and carrying replicas of rockets, according to photos posted on the website of independent journalist Tom Gross and on the Facebook page of the Islamic Bloc of Al-Quds University student group, which is associated with Hamas.

Such a sincere effort failed, maybe the BS would now find some time to promote motions against other countries; North Korea would be a good start.

BSemite in Manchester Caught Delivering Nazi Salute

The BS movement once again shows its sympathies for the nostalgic cheerful days of the 1940's. The Algemeiner reports that a leading BSemite, Tristan Woodwards, was photographed delivering the Nazi Salute outside an Israeli-owned shop in Manchester:

A leading activist in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in the northern English city of Manchester has been pictured giving a Nazi salute outside the Israeli-owned Kedem cosmetics store on King Street, a main thoroughfare in the town center.

The man, identified as Tristan Woodwards, was photographed with his right arm raised and his left arm locked at his side, in the traditional manner of a Nazi salute. Along with some of the other BDS supporters in the photograph, Woodwards is smiling widely.