RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://bit.ly/1aYGyua

1. (Bloomberg, Gwen Ackerman and David Wainer, January 8, 2014): “Israel’s technology industry is growing up and the stock market is benefitting. Investors and entrepreneurs are increasingly choosing initial public offerings (IPO) over buyouts, with eight Israeli companies raising $361MN in 2013, the most since 2007. While mergers and acquisitions still represent the highest proportion of transactions, with $6.3BN in 2013, Israeli companies opting for listings from London to NY are closing the gap…. Owners of Israeli companies no longer seek to sell their early-stage companies to get a speedy return on their money…. Israel’s Enzymotec raised $71MN in September, and its shares have almost doubled since then. Israel’s Eix.Com garnered $127MN from investors in November; Israel’s largest IPO in the US in more than six years, and its stock is up 48%. Technology companies contribute about 80% of Israel’s industrial exports…. Among the largest Israeli technology companies changing hands in 2013 were the purchase of Waze by Goggle for $966MN and Cisco’s acquisition of Intucell for $475MN. Other companies have resisted buyers. Check Point grew by raising money from selling shares, multiplying in value since its 1996 NASDAQ IPO and is now worth $13BN.”

2. In 2013, twenty Israeli companies were acquired, for over $4BN, by foreign companies, compared to $3.9BN in 2012, $5BN in 2011, $1.6BN – 2010, $1.3BN – 2009, $2.6BN – 2008, $3.6BN – 2007, $10.1BN – 2006, $3.4BN – 2005 and $0.7BN in 2004 (Globes Business Daily, Nov. 13, 2013).

3. In 2013, Israeli companies raised $1.565BN on Wall Street, compared to $627MN in 2012, $1BN – 2011, $400MN – 2010, $190MN – 2009, $200MN – 2008, $1.84BN – 2007, $974MN – 2006, $1.16BN – 2005 and $1.25BN in 2004 (Globes, Nov. 13, 2013).

4. The NY-based International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) acquired Israel’s Aromor for $88MN (Globes, Jan. 16). Canada’s Dorel acquired Israel’s Tiny Love for $50MN (Yedioth Achronoth, Jan. 12).

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4270/hizballah-preparing-for-war-with-israel Hizballah continues to entrench itself in the Syrian civil war, while facing a string of radical Sunni bombing attacks in their Lebanese strongholds. The terrorist organization is also facing renewed international backlash regarding its alleged role in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. These challenges contribute to the group’s deterioration in […]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/australia-fm-dont-call-settlements-illegal-under-international-law//

In an exclusive interview with The Times of Israel, Julie Bishop suggested that, contrary to conventional diplomatic wisdom, the settlements may not be illegal under international law. She refrained from condemning Israeli initiatives to build additional housing units beyond the Green Line or from calling on Israel to freeze such plans, merely saying the fact that settlements were being expanded showed the need for the sides to quickly reach a peace agreement.

“I don’t want to prejudge the fundamental issues in the peace negotiations,” Bishop said. “The issue of settlements is absolutely and utterly fundamental to the negotiations that are under way and I think it’s appropriate that we give those negotiations every chance of succeeding.”

Asked whether she agrees or disagrees with the near-universal view that Israeli settlements anywhere beyond the 1967 lines are illegal under international law, she replied: “I would like to see which international law has declared them illegal.”

The position that settlements breach international law — adopted by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and many other states and international bodies, but rejected by Israel — is based on an interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 49, paragraph 6, states that an occupying power “shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Violations of the convention are considered war crimes under international law. Israel is a party to the convention and therefore bound by it.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-Fray-Sovereignty-Yes-but-beware-of-annexing-Area-C-338475
Partial annexation of Judea-Samaria will solve none of the problems Israel faces today, and exacerbate many

As we know, Area C includes the entire Jewish population and along with it a small number of about one hundred thousand Arabs.

– Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Sovereignty, Issue 2, January 2014

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

– Sherlock Holmes, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”

As readers will recall, last week I mentioned that a new edition of the political journal Sovereignty was recently published by Women in Green and the Forum for Sovereignty. The journal carried various ideas for alternatives to the two-state paradigm. Among them was my proposal for a tripartite “Humanitarian Paradigm,” the details of which I have elaborated on here in numerous columns.

Laudable initiative, lamentable proposals

The journal is certainly an eminently laudable – and long overdue – initiative, in that it highlights the need for concerted intellectual endeavor to break the stifling stranglehold that the two-state paradigm has had on the political discourse since the early 1990s.

Lamentably, however, it has been a platform for several suggestions that are likely to be no less detrimental than the two-state principle they aspire to supplant.

Map of the West Bank.Last week, I focused attention on the grave dangers of policies which advocate annexing the entire area of Judea-Samaria and conferring permanent residence – and subsequent citizenship – on Palestinian-Arabs living there.