Israel Active

A financial organization has just discovered the investment opportunities in the Jewish State.

%. November’s reduction from 6.9% was accompanied by an improvement in the overall labor force participation rate, which rose 0.2% to 63.9%. The figures demonstrate that more people were actively seeking and successfully finding work in November than in October.

Eight Israeli companies were awarded the President’s Export Award for 2011. They included Kamada - developers of advanced cystic fibrosis medication. Another, SodaStream was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2007 but in 2011 exported $584 million worth of machines and soda cartridges.

The successful Israeli drinks-maker SodaStream saves the customer hundreds of plastic bottles every year. SodaStream made a very clever advertisement, which the UK regulators banned for “denigrating plastic bottle makers”. You can see both the original ad and its replacement here.

Israel’s Peer Medical has developed a video system and endoscope to help doctors detect more cancerous polyps and other risks. Peer has merged with Atlanta-based EndoChoice, which markets endoscopes. The ideal “marriage” brings jobs to Atlanta and Israeli technology to the world.

Colorado’s Spectranetics has acquired the products of Israel’s Upstream Peripheral Technologies. Upstream’s innovations reduce radiation exposure to both doctors and patients when lasers are used to clear blockages in leg arteries and to reduce the time needed to clear those blockages.

Test drilling at Israel’s Aphrodite-2 exploration well in the offshore Ishai field 100 miles west of Haifa has encountered a gas layer of 49 feet. By late February they will confirm if estimates of 3.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are accurate.

Israel’s IDE Technologies has won a $650 million contract to help build and then run the largest water desalination facility in the United States. The plant will be constructed at Carlsabad, in San Diego County, California and will produce up to 200,000 cubic meters of drinking water a day.

Many Israeli companies launched onto the New York City stage in 2012 thanks to personal introductions, trade events and roadshows, Israel Technology days, International exhibitions and visits by delegations of US companies to Israel.

Israel has launched an offshore platform for natural gas, a step towards energy self-sufficiency for the first time in history. The platform, taller than Israel’s highest building, is located at the Tamar gas field, 24 miles west of the southern port city of Ashkelon. Production is scheduled to start in April.