Israel Active

The Tel Aviv Local Planning and Building Commission has approved the “Keren HaKirya” plan which includes an 80-story high office tower – to be Israel’s tallest skyscraper. Two 45-story residence towers will also be built on the site, plus another office tower of 50 floors. Planners have nicknamed them "the Toblerone Towers" because of their triangular shape.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Tadir-Gan has won a $45 million contract from Volkswagen to supply engine parts over eight years. Tadir Gan will supply components and products produced at its plants in Afula , Kibbutz Neve Or and Germany.

(Thanks to Atid-EDI) The Scottish Government has deployed the Phoenix System RP from Israel’s Axxana to meet its business continuity goals. Axxana’s disaster recovery system can survive any disaster while ensuring 100% data protection and recovery over any distance.

Explorations at Karish, Israel's newest offshore gas field northwest of Haifa, reveal that the underwater reservoir contains $1.3 billion worth of condensate, a crude oil used for fuel production, on top of potential 1.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

USA Today selected “Pure Chocolate Granita” by Israel’s Max Brenner as one of the best milkshake’s in America. Known as “the Bald Man”, Strauss’s Max Brenner has chocolate bars in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Las Vegas.

Lufthansa’s First Officer, Israeli Yaniv Emanuel, flew the airline’s new Boeing 747-8 from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv. The first arrival of the World’s longest commercial plane also marked the improvements to Ben Gurion airport to satisfy aviation regulations.

May 2013 was a record-breaking month for tourism to Israel. The 336,000 visitor numbers were 5 percent higher than in May 2012. The total for 2013 so far is also a record 1.4 million.

Over a dozen international delegations attended the 2013 BioMed show in Tel Aviv. The German group was also visiting Israeli universities to seek cooperation in research projects. The Italian delegation was looking to buy or invest in Israeli life science companies.

Israel’s OurCrowd is the first Venture Capital Funding Organization to insist its portfolio companies donate a portion of equity to a charitable foundation. Start-ups allocate shares to the non-profit Tmura. If the start-up is taken-over, Tmura gives 90% of the share value to charitable projects.

Here is fastcompany.com’s “6 Israeli Startups To Watch” following Google’s purchase of Israel’s Waze for a cool $1 billion.