Israel Active

The Israel Airports Authority reports that 1.4 million passengers passed through Ben Gurion airport in July, up 4.5% from last year. In July there were 9,576 incoming and outbound flights, a 1.5% rise. The summer vacation peak saw 60,000 passengers come and go on 390 flights on a single day.

There are many books and articles that try to answer that. “Start-up Nation” and “The Israel Test” are probably the best. Mitt Romney gave his thoughts during his recent visit. Here is another in an opinion piece from Jordan Weissmann.

A Bloomberg News report estimates that Israel has enough natural gas to last for 150 years. So it must decide what it is going to do with it. (A great situation to be in.)

The Anhui province of China has selected the Israeli company Agricultural Knowledge Online (AKOL) to supply agricultural survey and monitoring systems. China is ramping up its agriculture production using Israel’s advanced computerized technology.

Israeli wastewater treatment solutions provider Aqwise has raised $4.5 million to expand its projects, especially in India. Aqwise is one of Deloitte’s Israeli Fast 50 Technology companies and also on the “Global Cleantech 100”.

Tazpit News Agency is the first Israeli media company to collaborate with a Pakistani media group. Toronto based Weekly Press Pakistan (WPP) will carry Tazpit’s stories in Urdu. Tazpit director Amotz Eyal said that the link-up has “exposed millions to news and balanced information coming from Israel.”

Israeli industrial companies have taken advantage of the global slowdown in the first half of 2012 to buy 40 small and medium-sized companies in Europe and India. In all of 2011 there were only 20 such acquisitions by Israeli industrial companies overseas.

Tel Aviv municipality’s finance committee has voted to allocate NIS 6 million to make free wireless Internet available all over the city. Tel Aviv will apparently be the first city to offer free Internet on such a broad scale.

Bezeq has launched a scheme whereby customers donate part of their Internet service to support free wifi for other Bezeq customers. So you can surf the net away from home and others can surf when outside your home.

Israeli CleanTech start-up WateRevive has won a $40 million contract to purify water from the Leachate Landfill - one of China’s municipal waste heaps.