Broader View

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February 2023

• Terrorist kills 3 in Jerusalem car-ramming attack, including brothers Yaakov Yisrael (6) and Asher Menahem Paley (8); brothers Hallel (21) and Yagel Yaniv (19) murdered by terrorist gunman; another gunman killed Israeli-American Elan Ganeles.
• Israeli settlers riot in West Bank, set fires to homes and cars, and kill a Palestinian civilian.
• Israelis rally and strike, protesting proposed judicial overhaul; business leaders, venture capitalists, local authorities, Nobel laureates; Israeli ex-security chiefs, ex-attorneys general, ex-Shin Bet agents, ex-submariners, and ex-heads of Foreign Ministry and Bank of Israel; National Library chair, elite IDF reservists, public intellectuals, Orthodox and Reform leaders, technology and healthcare professionals, American Jewish and Arab-Israeli leaders, diaspora philanthropists, Hadassah, Zionist youth group Young Judaea, even U.S. President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators, Germany’s justice minister, British legal experts, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (!) caution against reforms; President Isaac Herzog suggests compromise.
• Israeli search & rescue team locates survivors of Turkey earthquake.
• Israel legalizes 9 West Bank outposts, approves construction of thousands of new settlement homes. UN Security Council denounces Israeli settlement activity.
• IDF team rescues 19 from Turkey earthquake rubble, treats hundreds at field hospital.
• Oman opens airspace to Israeli flights.
• New law revokes Israeli citizenship from convicted terrorists who receive “pay-to-slay” financial rewards from the Palestinian Authority.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits France; Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visits Sudan, Turkey, and Ukraine; IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi visits Bahrain; Energy Minister Israel Katz visits Egypt; Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar visits Morocco.
• New adoptions of IHRA definition of antisemitism include the State of Arkansas and city of Richmond, BC (Canada); the American Bar Association (ABA) membership condemned antisemitism, but declined to adopt IHRA definition; Barcelona mayor suspends twinning with Tel Aviv, a move rejected by its city council; South Africa Rugby Union uninvites Israeli team; Israeli diplomat expelled from African Union summit.
• Israel’s economy grew 6.5% in 2022; jewelry exports up over 10%, to $873 million.
• Wiz raises $300 million at $10 billion valuation; Via raises $110M at $3.5B valuation; Enlight Renewable Energy debus on NASDAQ at $2B valuation; Dell acquires Cloudify for an estimated $100 million; OpenWeb buys Jeeng for $100M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in artificial intelligence, cleantech, judo, volleyball, MMA (mixed martial arts), investments in alternative-protein startups, restaurants, and best cities for biking (Tel Aviv).
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Chad, German Justice Minister, U.S. Senators, UK Labour Party lawmakers, French MPs, space-industry leaders, thousands of investors and entrepreneurs at OurCrowd Summit, an Omani blogger, and many others.

January 2023

• Terrorist murders 7 near Jerusalem synagogue; separately, a 13-year-old Palestinian shoots father and son
• Proposed judicial reforms spark widescale protests
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits Belgium, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly visits Jordan
• Israel’s High Court disqualifies Aryeh Deri from serving as a government minister
• Israeli drone attack reportedly targets Iranian missile factory
• Oman criminalizes ties with Israel
• Recent adoptions of the IHRA definition of antisemitism include the government of Croatia; the cities of Florence (Italy) and Kansas City (Missouri), Westchester County, NY and Snohomish County, WA; and the University of Melbourne.
• Israel posts 2% surplus in government budget, first in 35 years; debt-to-GDP ratio shrinks dramatically.
• Israeli freight firm Freightos debuts on Nasdaq via SPAC at $500 million valuation; Revenue Management Solutions acquires Israeli company OrboGraph for over $100M; McKinsey acquires AI startup Iguazio.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in life expectancy, sustainability (hydrogen production), food processing, consumer-electronics innovation, humanitarian service, volunteering, cybersecurity, student film, Internet value, start-up tech company, TIME Magazine’s “best inventions,” Rolling Stones’ top singers of all time (Ofra Haza), Condé Nast Traveler’s hotel ‘Gold List’ (The Jaffa), security workforce management platform, CEO of U.S. chip manufacturer Texas Instruments, most powerful countries and “Most Beautiful Faces.” (Also “ugliest building.”)
• Recent visitors to Israel include the U.S. Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, and CIA director; the Greek Foreign Minister, delegations of U.S. Senators and members of parliament from France and Poland; hundreds of U.S. military personnel for joint exercise; UAE Sheikh Khalid Qasmi for medical treatment; progressive metal band Dream Theater; and many others.

December 2022

• New Israeli government sworn in, led (again) by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in coalition with right-wing and religious parties.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits Bahrain, meets King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and United Arab Emirates, meeting President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
• UN General Assembly asks International Court of Justice for legal opinion on Israeli occupation.
• Leaked EU document shows plan to support illegal Palestinian construction in West Bank Area C.
• Al Jazeera filed a complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court over the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in May 2022.
• Student Government at Case Western Reserve University endorsed BDS; the Nevada Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s eight universities, adopted the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, as did the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and the cities of Tacoma and Mill Creek and Snohomish County, WA.
• Israeli cybersecurity company Snyk raises $196.5 million at $7.4 billion valuation; Ondas Holdings acquires Airobotics; Israeli companies raised over $600M in November, for a total of $14.8B in the first eleven months of 2022.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in software inventions, youth science, artificial intelligence startups, judo, piano, safe countries for tourists, UN “tourist village,” economic performance, and largest LEGO hanukkiah.
• Recent visitors to Israel include German Defense Secretary Benedikt Zimmer, members of the European Parliament, UN ambassadors from 13 countries, 80 mayors and municipal officials from across the world, hundreds of Judo and IRONMAN athletes, 10 international chefs, a Persian leopard from France, 200 Iranian pink flamingos, and many others.

November 2022

• Israel’s 25^th Knesset sworn in after fifth election in three years; Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu leads coalition negotiations.
• UN committee votes to refer Israeli “occupation, settlement and annexation” to International Court of Justice.
• Israelis Shalom Sofer (63); Tamir Avihai (50), Michael Ladygin (36), and Motti Ashkenzi (59); Tiran Fero (18); Aryeh Shechopek (16) and Tadese Tashume Ben Ma’ada (50) killed in separate West Bank terrorist attacks.
• Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visits Greece; IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Aviv Kochavi visits U.S., receives Legion of Merit award.
• FBI opens investigation regarding death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in May during a shootout between the IDF and Palestinian militants in Jenin. Israel denounced the unprecedented probe, saying it won’t cooperate, and the White House disavowed knowledge of it.
• Direct flights bring Israeli fans to Qatar for soccer World Cup.
• Recent adoptions of IHRA antisemitism definition include the cities of Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada; Case Western Univ. student government endorses BDS.
• Israeli and Israeli-founded companies raising capital include Selina (SPAC merger at $1.2 billion valuation), OpenWeb ($170 million at $1.5B valuation), WEKA ($135M), Vesttoo ($80M, $1B), Apiiro ($100M), and Trigo ($100M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in R&D spending, entrepreneur-producing universities, applied science, Intel’s “Rising Star,” bio-engineering, cloud-computing startups, marathon running, swimming, taekwondo, karate, Paralympic shooting, music, luxury hotels, wheelchair dancing, France’s ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ and most frequent elections.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the president of Cyprus, Greek foreign ministry director, U.S. CENTCOM chief, Governor of Missouri, 12 New York City council members, 11 national chess teams, Croatian duo 2CELLOs, migrating great white pelicans, and many others.

October 2022

• Israeli soldiers Sgt. Noa Lazar (18) and Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch (21) and civilian Ronen Hanania (50) killed in separate West Bank shooting attacks.
• Lebanon and Israel agree on a maritime border.
• UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Israel releases biased, damning report.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits White House; Defense Minister Benny Gantz visits Turkey.
• Australia reverses 2018 recognition of west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
• The Supreme Court of Spain rules that anti-Israel boycotts are discriminatory. Recent adoptions of IHRA antisemitism definition include the  Canadian province of Manitoba and Bellevue, Washington; Berkeley Law School student groups ban Zionist speakers; Wellesley Univ. student newspaper endorses BDS and the antisemitic “Mapping Project.”
• Israel’s exports rose by 23.3% in the first half of 2022.
• Israeli startups raised $800 million in September, for a total of $13.5 billion in the first nine months of the year; Mobileye raises $861m in IPO, at valuation of more than $20B; Israel-founded TripActions raises $300M at $9.2B valuation; acquisitions include BrainPOP (for $875M, by Lego’s Parent Company) and Banias Labs (for $240M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in startups, hospitals, sustainability, construction software, soccer, judo, swimming, most powerful women in startups, and the population’s education level.
• Recent visitors to Israel include Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, representatives of 53 nations in the WHO’s European region, Bahraini Agriculture Minister Wael bin Nasser Al Mubarak, Emirati investors and finance leaders, the wife of Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman, migrating pelicans and cranes, and rare pink whipray and dolphins known as “false killer whales.”

September 2022

• Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, in UN address, endorses two-state vision.
• Israeli investigation concludes IDF soldier’s bullet likely killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May; rejects U.S. critique of rules of engagement.
• West Bank violence and Israeli counter-terrorism operations escalate; IDF Maj. Bar Falah killed in firefight; in separate attacks, 84-year-old woman murdered in Holon, yeshiva student injured.
• Israel ratifies free trade agreement with South Korea.
• A new road to Jerusalem, Route 16, opens.
• Recent adoptions of IHRA definition of antisemitism include the cities of Wichita, KS; Stamford, CT; and West Hollywood, CA; the Canadian province of Alberta; Broward County, Florida; the Florida Democratic Party; and the German airline Lufthansa.
• Israeli cybersecurity company Kape Technologies raises $220 million; Google acquires BreezoMeter for over $200M.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in U.S. patents awarded, teen informatics, youth soccer, “digital quality of life” and wealth gain.
• Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits Germany, addresses parliament in Berlin; Defense Minister Benny Gantz meets UN secretary general in New York; Mossad Director David Barnea visits Washington
• Recent visitors to Israel include the UAE foreign minister, military chiefs from the U.S. and Morocco, diplomatic delegations from Pakistan and Indonesia, judges from 71 countries, tennis star Novak Djokovic, a Turkish warship, a rare golden fin tuna, and many others.

August 2022

• Israel completes 3-day “Operation Breaking Dawn” against Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. PIJ fired 1,100 rockets at Israel; Iron Dome intercepted 95% of rockets aimed at populated areas in Israel. The IDF successfully targeted PIJ infrastructure and at least 12 PIJ leaders; at least 15 Gaza civilians were killed by PIJ rocket misfires. 31 Israelis were injured, including a Palestinian worker in Ashkelon. Hamas did not join the fighting.
• East Jerusalem terrorist shoots 8, including 5 Americans, near Western Wall
• Turkey and Israel restore full diplomatic ties; Defense Minister Benny Gantz visits U.S. and Japan, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai visits Morocco; Shin Bet security services head Ronen Bar visits Egypt
• New Mexico adopts IHRA antisemitism definition
• Israeli students accuse Ben & Jerry’s of illegally occupying Native American lands
• Investments in Israeli and Israeli-founded companies include ironSource (acquired by Unity Software for $4.4 billion), Flow ($350 million), DriveNets ($262M), Guesty ($170M); Hibob ($150M), Talon Cyber Security ($100M), and Pliops ($100M). Volkswagen orders $4B of automated-driving technology from Innoviz.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in mathematics, organ transplants, automotive innovation, top universities, running (also marathons), gymnastics, swimming, soccer, badminton, wheelchair basketball, and investments in plant-based food technology.
• Recent visitors to Israel include New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Members of the U.S. Congress, U.S. Navy 5^th Fleet ships and crews, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, Moroccan national wrestling team, Auburn University’s basketball team, Istanbul Basaksehir soccer team, Australian singer Nick Cave, American actress Amber Heard, Turkish-raised former basketball star Enes Kanter Freedom, children from Chad for heart surgery and from Ukraine for cancer treatments, and hundreds of Jewish teens from 7 countries on a leadership and cultural exchange program.

July 2022

• U.S. President Joe Biden visits Israel, signs strategic partnership declaration and technology cooperation
• Yair Lapid sworn in as Israel’s Interim Prime Minister, visits France and Jordan
• Parties of Benny Gantz (Blue & White) and Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope) to run together in Nov. 1 election
• Israel approves transfer of Red Sea islands from Egypt to Saudi Arabia; Saudis approve Israeli overflights
• Israeli court rules that online civil marriages are valid
• IDF reveals Hamas facilities and tunnels under Gaza neighborhoods
• Israel Defense Forces chief Aviv Kohavi visits Morocco; EU Foreign Affairs Council resumes meetings with Israel
• Bosnia & Herzegovina adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism
• Public transportation in Israel is now free to seniors over age 75
• Apple and Yahoo! expand Israeli R&D centers
• Israeli startups raised almost $10 billion in the first half of 2022; Unity Software acquires ironSource for $4.4 billion, HUMAN Security merges with PerimeterX at combined value of $1.5B, Tremor buys Amobee for $239 million, Clearhaven Partners takes over SundaySky for $100M; F2 Venture Capital raises $250 million
• Israelis win international awards and honors in nano-science, film, gymnastics, dance, kickboxing, marathon running, cycling, world’s largest hospital emergency room, and TV scripts sold.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Austrian Chancellor, U.S. Secretary of State, rapper 50 Cent, rock band Pixies, European Muslim leaders, Italian Air Force F-35s, over 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries for Maccabiah Games; European soccer teams, millions of jellyfish, and many others.

June 2022

• Knesset disbands; elections scheduled for November 1
• Israel and the UAE sign free trade agreement; Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visits UAE; Egypt, Israel, and the EU sign gas deal; Defense Minister Benny Gantz visits India, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visits Turkey, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked visits Morocco.
• Israel eases abortion access in response to U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
• Ben & Jerry’s sells Israel and West Bank business to Israeli licensee, ending boycott controversy and legal battle; U.S. Appeals court upholds Arkansas anti-BDS law; Alphabet (Google’s parent company) stockholders reject BDS initiative; indie band Big Thief cancels Israel shows under BDS pressure
• Israeli government budget deficit near zero, lowest in 14 years.
• New adoptions of IHRA definition of antisemitism include the state of Tennessee, Canadian province of British Columbia, the Latin American country of Columbia, New York’s Governor, and the Israeli Knesset.
• Investments in Israeli and Israeli-founded startups include Coralogix ($142 million), Vayyar ($108M at $1+ billion valuation), Aidoc ($110M), Perimeter 81 ($100M at $1B valuation), and Pixellot ($161M, $500M); Leonardo DRS buys RADA for $670 million, Qualcomm acquires Cellwize for $350M; funds raised for Israeli venture investments include Viola Credit ($700M), Israel Secondary Fund ($312M), Greenfield Partners ($200M), and Titan Capital ($100M); GM invests in automotive startup UVeye.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in mathematics, high-school robotics, tech and ag-tech ecosystems, R&D investment, innovations, cybersecurity (also for railways), gymnastics, soccer, Para swimming, wine, design, Emmy for program host, vacation spots, vegetables, world’s biggest vegan food festival, and most frequent elections.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Italian Prime Minister, EU President, German Vice Chancellor, IAEA Chief, education experts, sports managers, young entrepreneurs; business leaders from Latin America, Italy, and Egypt; Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Italian opera legend Andrea Bocelli, film director Quentin Tarantino, and many others.

May 2022

• Two axe-wielding terrorists from Jenin murder Yonatan Havakuk (44), Boaz Gol (49) and Oren Ben Yiftah (35) in central city of Elad on Israel’s Independence Day.
• Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh (51) killed in the crossfire between the IDF and armed Palestinian militants in Jenin. The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of causing her death, but refused to cooperate on an investigation.
• Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi quits, then re-joins, government coalition
• Nebraska adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism, along with Australian state of Victoria and Melbourne suburb Glen Eira; BDS resolutions pass student governments at UC Riverside, Marquette University, Louisiana State, and Univ. of Sydney, while the Univ. of Melbourne student union rescinds earlier endorsement.
• Khaled Kabub sworn in as Israel’s first Muslim Supreme Court justice
• Tens of thousands march in “Celebrate Israel” New York parade
• Unemployment in Israel falls to 2.9%, a 50-year low
• Augury acquires Seebo for $100M; other Israeli companies raising capital include cybersecurity startup Semperis (over $200 million), StarkWare ($100M at valuation of $8 billion), Optibus ($100M at $1.3B), Unit ($100M at $1.2B), Pyramid Analytics ($120M), and Masterschool ($100M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in neuroscience, high-school robotics, chess, mixed martial arts, kickboxing, special-needs judo, healing destination, and LGBTQ-friendly cities
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Ecuador; foreign ministers of the Netherlands, Turkey, Kosovo, and Surinam; EU Parliament president; the governor of Arizona; International music bands Maroon 5, Air Supply, and Deep Purple; over 300 young European soccer players, and many others.

April 2022

• Terrorist opens fire at Tel Aviv bar, murdering Eitam Megini (27), Tomer Morad (27), and Barak Lufan (35); Ariel security guard Vyacheslav Golev (23) killed in separate shooting attack.
• Hamas-affiliated Palestinian rioters and Israeli security forces clash on Temple Mount
• Yamina MK Idit Silman left Israel’s coalition government, imperiling its majority
• Israel and UAE sign free trade agreement
• Arizona, Tennessee, Ohio, and Alaska adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism, bringing total to 25 states; Simon Fraser University and Melbourne Univ. student governments and Harvard’s student newspaper endorse BDS, while Univ. of Liverpool students reject one and Univ. of British Columbia condemns student union’s BDS vote.
• Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe returns to Earth from a successful mission to the International Space Station.
• Israeli startups raised $2.3 billion in March and a total of $5.6B in the first quarter of 2022; new investments include RapidAPI (raised $150 million at $1 billion valuation), Island ($115M, $1.3B), Capitolis ($110M, $1.6B), Viz.ai ($100M, $1.2B); Intel acquires Granulate for $650M, Turn/River Capital buys Tufin for $570M, Liberty fund acquires Zimperium for $525M, ITT buys Habonim for $140M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in chemistry, high-school mathematics, universities, kids’ chess, energy technology, design innovation, Judo, TV, billionaires, and “Apple Scholars.”
• Recent visitors to Israel include the president of Germany’s Bundestag Bärbel Bas, U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State Yael Lempert, 12 U.S. mayors, two dozen Christian parliamentarians, childhood cancer survivors, academics from Morocco, British rock band Jethro Tull, Eurovision artists, and Columbian superstar singer Maluma, and others.

March 2022

• Israel hosts Negev Summit with foreign ministers of U.S., UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Egypt to discuss regional cooperation
• ISIS-linked terrorists murder 11 in separate attacks in Beer Sheva, Hadera, and B’nai Brak, including two Ukrainian nationals and Israeli-Arab Christian and Druze police officers
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses Israeli Knesset; compares situation to Holocaust, critiques Israeli mediation and lack of aid to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia; later backtracks
• Israel supports Ukraine with a field hospital, trauma care, medical and humanitarian assistance and supplies (including electric generators and water purification kits), food, logistics, telemedicine services, anti-Russia protests, and accepting Ukrainian refugees (including 10,000 new immigrants and Jewish orphans)
• U.S. Congress passes spending bill, including $4.8 billion in security and missile defense funding for Israel; 68 Senators sign letter rejecting Human Rights Council open-ended Commission of Inquiry on Israel
• Israeli Supreme Court freezes eviction of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah while property ownership is sorted out
• Middle East Studies Association endorses academic boycott of Israel; anti-Israel resolution withdrawn at Univ. of Virginia; Univ. of Toronto withholds fees to Graduate Student Union over BDS promotion; Sierra Club cancels, then reinstates, Israel trips; Iowa and Kansas adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism; Iowa bans state business with Israel boycotters; Colorado to divest pension funds from Ben & Jerry’s parent company
• Amnesty International USA Director Paul O’Brien says Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state; all 25 Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives condemn statement. UN Human Rights Council report accuses Israel of apartheid
• Toy giant LEGO and retailer Carrefour enter Israeli market; Israeli companies raising capital include Veev ($400 million), Axonius ($200m at $2.6 billion valuation), Autobrains ($120M), Connecteam ($120M), Glilot Partners ($220M seed venture fund), and Finaro (acquired for $575M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors for hospitals, cybersecurity, gymnastics, “exceptional contribution to the humanities or the arts” (author David Grossman), most innovative companies, happy country, and fewest sick days taken.
• Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with Russian Prime Minister Putin in Moscow and German Chancellor Scholz in Berlin to discuss Ukraine war; Bennett also visits Egypt for discussions with President Sisi and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed; President Isaac Herzog visits Turkey, France, and Jordan; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visits Jordan, Romania, and Slovakia; Defense Minister Benny Gantz and police minister Omer Barlev visit Jordan; Energy Minister Karin Elharar visits France; Members of Knesset visit Indonesia; IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi visits Bahrain; senior military officials visit Morocco.
• Recent visitors to Israel include Canada’s Trade Minister former U.S. VP Mike Pence, French Members of Parliament, musicians and the national karate team from Morocco, actor Henry Winkler, and many others.

February 2022

• Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz visit Bahrain, signs security agreement; Economy Minister visits Morocco; police chief visits UAE.
• Israel’s entry restrictions lifted as new COVID-19 cases plummet; total deaths to date pass 10,000.
• Israeli economy grew by 8.1% in 2021, highest rate in 21 years.
• Seven additional U.S. states (Alabama, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Massachusetts) adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism; definition also adopted by Duke Univ. Student Government.
• Intel acquires Israeli firm Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion; CHEQ raises $150 million at $1B valuation; Testim acquired for $200M.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in young scientists, skiing, water polo, restaurants, democracy, whisky, and world’s largest strawberry.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the German Foreign Minister, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister, dozens of U.S. Members of Congress, Emirati parliamentarians, Sudanese and Turkish officials, and others.

January 2022

• Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits UAE, meets ruler Mohamed bin Zayed
• Israel’s serious COVID-19 cases rise, but deaths down by half as omicron wave subsides; 8,725 deaths to date attributed to COVID
• Two Israeli officers killed in helicopter accident; two others in West Bank friendly-fire incident
• Dispute with Bedouin community over Negev tree planting turns violent
• Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz meets Jordan’s King Abdullah
• Public universities in Arizona and Florida cut ties with Middle East Studies Association over BDS endorsement; U.S. states Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming adopt IHRA definition of antisemtism
• Israeli-introduced UN resolution condemns Holocaust denial
• New Israeli “unicorns” (startup companies valued at over $1 billion) include Paradox (raised $200 million at $1.5 billion valuation), Salt Security ($120M+, $1.5 billion), Firebolt ($100M, $1.4B), BigPanda ($190M, $1.2B), Pentera ($150M, $1B), and Placer.ai ($100M, $1B). Other large funding rounds include a Grove Ventures VC fund ($185M), Redefine Meat ($135M), Remilk ($120M), ImmPACT Bio ($111M), and Island ($100M). Google acquires Siemplify for $500M; Driivz acquired for $200M. Israeli tech companies raised a total of $25.6B in 2021.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in scientific research, tennis, ironman triathlon, entrepreneurial companies, cleantech ecosystems, and “tech behemoths.”
• Recent visitors to Israel include Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos, the commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and Commander of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, Thyssenkrupp chairman Rolf Wirtz to sign a $3.4 billion submarine deal, 5 Moroccan musicians, an Iranian Jewish woman for medical treatment, 1,700 athletes from 12 countries for Eilat ironman triathlon, and (possibly) Indonesian government officials to discuss COVID-19.

December 2021

• Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visits the United Arab Emirates; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visits Egypt; Defense Minister Benny Gantz hosts Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
• New interview exposes Trump-Netanyahu rift, prompting Evangelical rebuke.
• Uptick in terror attacks include stabbing, shooting, and car ramming attempts; Yehudah Dimentman (25) murdered in ambush on West Bank road.
• Israel sees surge of COVID-19 cases, but not hospitalizations or deaths (totaling 8,243 to date).
• Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; 129 countries vote for UN General Assembly resolution ignoring Jewish ties to Temple Mount (19 fewer than in 2018).
• Academics of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) voted to advance BDS resolution, rejected by other Middle East scholars; City University of New York Law School student government passes anti-Israel resolution; New South Wales (Australia) government adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism; New Jersey and Illinois divest pension funds from Ben & Jerry parent company; International Olympic Committee prohibits countries that ban Israel from hosting competitions.
• Tech boom and widespread COVID vaccination fuel 7% growth in Israel’s economy in 2021; exports reach record $140 billion; tech exits jump 520%. New “unicorns” include Tipalti (raised $270 million at $8.3 billion valuation), Innovid (raised $251M in $1.3B SPAC), Fundbox (raised $100M at $1.1B valuation) and Noname Security ($135M at $1B). Other investments include Fireblocks ($400M, $8B), Claroty ($400M), Future Meat ($320M, $600M), Moon Active ($300M, $5B), Aleph ($300M VC fund), HoneyBook ($250M, $2.4B), Verbit ($250M, $2B), UBQ Materials ($170M), Stoa ($136M), TransitTech ($130M, $3.3B), First Digital Bank ($120M), 1E Therapeutics ($120M), Autobrains ($101M), CyCognito ($100M, $800M), ControlUp ($100M). Recent acquisitions include XM Cyber (at $700M), Screenovate (by Intel, est. $150M), GK8 ($115 million), and Imvision (by Intuit, $50M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in physics, kiteboarding (in Oman!), swimming, gymnastics, Para taekwondo, digital-health startups, accessibility innovation, health applications, female innovators, documentary film, diversity in the space sector, decline in COVID-19 morbidity, and (not an honor) world’s most expensive city.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Greek Prime Minister, Cypriot President, Russian Foreign Minister, U.S. National Security Advisor, 12 UN ambassadors, 80 international beauty queens, international Flag Football and youth soccer teams, Congolese children for life-saving heart surgery, and others.

November 2021

• Israeli government passes budget, first in three years
• Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visits Morocco, signs defense cooperation agreement; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid signs cooperation agreement with Britain
• Israeli couple detained in Turkey for 8 days after photographing Erdogan residence
• Israel bars tourists amid new COVID-19 concerns; pandemic claims 8,196 lives to date
• 4 Palestinian families reject Supreme Court compromise over disputed Sheikh Jarrah properties, one family agrees to return home to Jewish owners
• Serbia opens trade office in Jerusalem; anti-Israel student government resolutions at Duke University and the Univ. of Toronto at Scarborough rejected by the school administration; soccer organizations in Italy and Austria adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism; Canada’s largest labor union rejects BDS; South Africa government withdraws support from Miss SA Lalela Mswane for planning to participate in Miss Universe contest in Israel.
• Israeli firms raise record $3 billion in October. Recent deals include Deel (rasied $425M at $5.5B valuation), Celsius Network ($400M, $3B), HoneyBook ($250M, over $2B), Verbit ($250M, over $2B), Cato Networks ($200M, $2.5B), Lusha ($205M, $1.5B), Fabric ($200M, over $1B), Augury ($180M over $1B), Hibob ($150M, $1.65B), OpenWeb ($150M, $1B), Arbe Robotics ($118M IPO); companies acquired include XM Cyber (sold for $700M), Celeno ($315M), and Triple Jump ($300M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in entrepreneurial and entrepreneur-producing universities, video technology and international Emmies, innovation CEO, positive-impact companies, swimming, water polo, judo, Jiu-Jitsu, bodybuilding, fashion design, and best inventions.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Columbia, Foreign Minister of Ireland; Members of the U.S. Congress and European Parliament; U.A.E., Bahrain, and U.S. naval forces and Marines; pop-rap group Black Eyed Peas, and others.

October 2021

• Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets in Washington, D.C. with U.S. VP Kamala Harris and Secretary of State, PM Bennet visits Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• U.S.-Israel tensions rise over Israel outlawing six terror-sponsoring NGOs, West Bank construction plans, and proposed U.S. consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem.
• Israeli startups raised over $2.2 billion in September. Recent funding rounds include TripActions (raised $275 million at $7.25 billion), Wiz ($250M at $6B valuation), Orca Security, Valens, Immunai ($215M, over $1B), and Hailo ($136M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in specialty medical treatments, history research, medical technology, water innovation, judo, artistic gymnastics, marathon running, and a Nobel Prize in Economics
• Recent visitors to Israel include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, presidents of Switzerland and Congo, foreign ministers of Sweden and India; air force teams from 8 countries, five European astronauts, and others.

September 2021

• Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman; Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Sinai, speaks at UN General Assembly, and meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and American Jewish leaders; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visits Bahrain; Defense Minister Benny Gantz meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah
• Six Palestinian terrorists escape from Israeli prison, recaptured
• Progressive U.S. Democrats block Iron Dome funds in budget bill; separate 420-9 vote approves $1 billion funding
• Hundreds of Iraqi leaders call for normalization with Israel
• Israel moves to U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility
• Arizona, New Jersey, Texas, and Florida move to divest from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever over “Occupied Palestinian Territory” boycott; anti-Israel resolutions fail at Seattle City Council, withdrawn at Burlington (VT) City Council, and shelved by Los Angeles teachers’ union, but passed by U.K. Labor Party conference; Madrid Assembly (local parliament of Spain’s main region) adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism.
• Israeli companies raise over $1 billion in August; recent investments include cybersecurity company Snyk (raised $300 million at $8.5B valuation), digital investigations company Cellebrite (IPO raised $370M at $2.4B valuation), payment platform company Melio (raised $250M at $4B valuation), payroll platform Papaya Global ($250M at $3.7B valuation), image-editing software company Lightricks ($130M at $1.8B valuation), streaming software firm Qwilt ($70M from Cisco, at a valuation of $800M); Israeli companies acquired include Guardicore (purchased by Akamai for $600M), DSPG (also at $600M), Itamar Medical ($538M), Voyage81, and Agent Vi.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in machine-learning research, soccer, baseball, Paralympic swimming (two more gold medals) and rowing, tree conservation, world-record interview “marathon”, digital quality of life, technology ecosystem and Time Out’s most fun city (Tel Aviv), and TIME’s “Most Influential People” (Prime Minister Naftali Bennett).
• Recent visitors to Israel include four U.S. Democratic Senators and Kashmiri-British pediatric neurosurgeon Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, for surgery to separate Israeli conjoined twins.

August 2021

• Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visits Washington DC, has “wonderful meeting” with President Biden
• Border Police Staff Sergeant Barel Hadaria Shmueli (21) fatally shot by Hamas operative on the Gaza border
• Fourth wave of infections brings Israel’s COVID-19 death toll to 7,043; booster shots approved for all who have received two doses
• Israeli Supreme Court suggested compromise in Sheikh Jarrah real-estate dispute
• Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visits Morocco, inaugurates diplomatic mission in Rabat
• South Korea adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism
• Israel’s economy grew by 15.4% in the second quarter of 2021
• New Israeli “unicorns” include insurance technology company Hippo (raises $550 million at $5 billion valuation), fraud management platform Riskified ($368M IPO, $3.3B), cloud backup startup OwnBackup (raised $240M, $3.35B), blockchain firm Fireblocks ($310M, $2B), cybersecurity insurance firm At-Bay ($185M, $1.3B), Internet-of-things company Wiliot (raised $200M); financial tech company Rapyd raises $300M, reaches $10B valuation; Cisco buys cloud startup Epsagon for $500M, Bioventus buys cartilage-implant maker CartiHeal for $500M, Check Point Software acquires Israeli cloud security startup Avanan for over $250M, Nanox acquires Israeli healthcare AI pioneer Zebra Medical Vision for $230M, Swedish company Embracer Group buys mobile-games startup CrazyLabs, Microsoft purchases video-streaming platform Peer5.
• Israelis win Olympic gold medals in gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics, 7 Paralympics medals; other international awards and honors in universities, high-school physics, taekwondo, tennis, and high jump.
• Recent visitors to Israel include Japan’s Foreign Minister, Egypt’s Intelligence Minister, U.S. CIA director, two French soccer teams, western pygmy blue butterflies, and others.

July 2021

• Israel begins administering third COVID-19 vaccine to over-60’s
• Three Israeli filmmakers released after 20 days in Nigeria prison
• Ben & Jerry’s will end ice cream sales in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”; anti-Israel resolutions adopted by United Church of Christ, defeated at National Education Association (NEA)
• New Israeli “unicorns” include advertising tech firm ironSource (raised $2.1 billion at $11B valuation!), cybersecurity firms SentinelOne ($1.2B at valuation of nearly $9B) and Cybereason ($275M), Alpha Tau Medical ($367M), facial-recognition startup AnyVision ($235M), and content discovery firm Outbrain ($160M); HP buys Israeli data-protection company Zerto for $374 million
• Israel rejoins the African Union as observer
• Israelis killed at 1972 Munich Olympics honored at Tokyo Olympics
• Israelis win international awards and honors in computer science, high-school informatics and Mathematics Olympiad, artificial intelligence; gymnastics, acrobatics, and teen acrobatic gymnastics; taekwondo, tennis (and another), judo, surfing, softball, equestrian sports, jiu-jitsu, global cyber powers and smart hospitals.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Germany, Czech Defense Minister, Greek Foreign Minister, 38 members of the French parliament; 25 social-media stars from the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco; troops, jets, drones, and crews from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, British Royal Air Force, and 3 other countries; 12 Iranian expats and dissidents, and many others.

June 2021

• Israel’s 36^th government sworn in, a coalition of two left-wing parties (Labor, Meretz), two centrist parties (Yesh Atid, Blue & White), three right-wing parties (New Hope, Yamina, and Israel Our Home), and one Islamist party (Ra’am); Naftali Bennet is 13^th Israeli prime minister.
• Isaac “Bougie” Herzog elected Israel’s 11^th president
• Israeli President Reuven Rivlin meets with President Biden; Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets Sec. of State Tony Blinken in Rome, visits UAE
• 100,000 attend Tel Aviv Pride Parade, largest gathering since COVID
• Israel condemned by the Seattle teachers’ union and Canada’s largest labor union; student governments at Yale, Univ. of Oregon, and three northern California colleges; faculty members at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Franklin & Marshall, and many others; condemnation rejected by social-work schools group; hundreds of journalists demand that media coverage stop “obfuscating Israel’s oppression of Palestinians”; Philadelphia food festival canceled after excluding Israeli vendor; new adoptions of IHRA definition of antisemitism include the governments of Switzerland, Texas, and Quebec, and the Graduate & Professional Student Association of the Univ. of California San Diego.
• Israel becomes first country to ban fur
• Israeli startups raised $8.6 billion in the first five months of 2021; new Israeli “unicorns” (companies valued at $1 billion or more) include workplace-collaboration platform Monday.com (raised $574 million at $6.8 billion valuation!), cybersecurity companies Transmit Security (raised $543M at $2.2B valuation), Exabeam ($200M/2.4B), and Claroty ($140M/$1B); software companies WalkMe ($287M/$2.5B), Gong ($250M/7.2B), and Verbit ($157M/$1B); chipmakers NextSilicon ($120M/$1.5B) and Hailo ($110M/$1.1B), logistics platform Bringg ($100M/$1B), and music education startup JoyTunes ($50M/$1B).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in architecture, artificial intelligence, food technology, pain-management technology, gymnastics (and another), tennis, judo, archery, pandemic resilience, World Economic Forum “Technology Pioneers,” and National Geographic Society “Emerging Explorer”
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Honduras, foreign minister of Greece, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, an Emirati student, British Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond, and many others.

May 2021

• Over 11 days, Hamas and other Gaza terrorist groups fired 4,340 rockets toward Israel; IDF “Operation Guardian of the Walls” struck terrorist infrastructure, weapons, tunnels, and leaders; 13 killed in Israel including Ido Avigal (5), Arab-Israeli father and daughter in Lod, Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, (21), and three foreign workers
• A property dispute between Jewish owners and Palestinian tenants in Sheikh Jarrah, fueled by religious and nationalist tensions, escalates to riots in Jerusalem and elsewhere
• Proposed coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid will unseat Prime Minster Netanyahu
• Israel ends most COVID-19 restrictions as new cases continue to drop and 59% of population fully vaccinated; pandemic deaths to date total 6,411
• UN Human Rights Council to investigate Israel over alleged war crimes
• Gaza conflict prompts anti-Israel statements and condemnations from TV hosts John Oliver (see also rebuttals) and Trevor Noah, academic communities (Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Brown, Jewish and Israel Studies), student organizations (Univ. of Michigan, McGill), British actors’ union, Seattle City Councilmembers, the UN Human Rights Council, rabbinical students (others disagree), teachers’ unions in Los Angeles and San Francisco; Jewish Google employees, Biden campaign staffers, over 600 musicians, and many others; Israelis and Jews face physical assaults in New York, Los Angeles, London, and elsewhere.
• Cambridge (MA) City Council rejects BDS resolution; Univ. of Minnesota students adopt IHRA definition of antisemitism; federal court invalidates Georgia anti-BDS law
• Israeli fintech startup Global-e Online valued at $3.55 billion in NASDAQ debut; payroll company Deel raises $156 million at $1.25B valuation; cybersecurity company Wandera acquired for $400M and ag-tech company Prospera acquired for $300M, Cisco buys communications technology startup Sedona Systems for a reported $100M; other Israeli companies raising funds include cybersecurity companies Forter ($300M, $3B valuation), Wiz ($120 million), and Deep Instinct ($100M); and fintech startups HoneyBook ($155M at $1.1B valuation) and Sunbit ($130M at $1.1B valuation).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in literature, basketball, gymnastics, swimming (also Para), F2 car racing, “edge AI,” Gartner “Cool Vendors,” disruptive companies, and pandemic technology innovation.
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Secretary of State, UK Foreign Secretary, the Foreign Ministers of Germany, Czech Republic, and Slovakia; Indiana Governor, Egypt’s intelligence chief, and more.

April 2021

• 45 dead, over 150 injured from stand collapse and stampede at Lag B’Omer festival at Mount Meron.
• Prime Minister Netanyahu tasked with forming a new government, but coalition negotiations
• After 6,346 COVID-19 deaths and 80% of over-16 population (over 5 million people) fully vaccinated, Israel appears to have achieved herd immunity, drops outdoors mask requirement and reopens schools.
• Israel implicated in explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility.
• Sudan rescinds Israel-boycott law.
• NASA names two asteroids after Arab-Israeli Technion student Aseel Nama who found them.
• Israel responds to International Criminal Court that it does not recognize the Court’s jurisdiction.
• Idaho and West Virgina pass anti-boycott laws, bringing total to 33 U.S. states; recent adoptions of the IHRA definition of antisemitism include the student governments of the Univ. of Notre Dame, Univ. of Iowa, Penn State, Cal Poly, Long Beach City College, the Univ. of Manitoba (but failed or withdrawn at UPenn and Michigan State); the municipalities of Hamilton (Ontario), Neuilly (France), and Sharon (Massachusetts); and the Global Imams Council. Pomona student government passes BDS bill; New Zealand’s sovereign wealth fund divested from 5 Israeli banks over West Bank operations.
• Israeli companies raised record $2.8 billion in March; companies raising funds include retail data company Trax ($640 million), database software developer Redis Labs ($110M), medical device company Memic ($96M); Yum! Brands acquires online ordering platform Tictuk Technologies, Qualitest buys pharma software testing company Comply, Cofense acquires anti-phishing company Cyberfish for estimated $100M; Innoviz, maker of sensors for self-driving cars, debuts on Nasdaq.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in high-school girls’ math, judo, Paralympic rowing, tennis, women leaders in artificial intelligence (AI), ecologically friendly and AI startups, sustainability, movie acting, Bible knowledge, kidney donations, oldest journalist, per-capita GDP, and longest megillah scroll.
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; UK minister for pandemic response, Michael Gove; aviation, business, tourism, hospitality and arts leaders from the UAE; hundreds of American teenagers to study in Israel; Kurdish and Yazidi babies from Iraq and two young men from Gambia for life-saving medical treatments, and dozens of sharks off Israel’s Mediterranean coast.

March 2021

• Elections to 24^th Knesset, Israel’s fourth in two years, produce inconclusive results, with a majority for right-wing parties split between pro- and anti-Netanyahu factions, and an anti-Netanyahu majority widely spread ideologically
• COVID-19 cases drop (total death toll is 6,201) as most Israelis fully vaccinated, along with Palestinians, Jordanians, and Filipinos who work in Israel; Israel closes vaccination sites and reopens to international travel
• Iran blamed for explosion and missile hit on Israeli-owned cargo ships, bombing at Israeli embassy in Delhi, and last month’s Mediterranean oil spill attributed to Iran
• Israel’s supreme court recognizes non-Orthodox converts as Jews for citizenship purposes
• Israeli scientists grow mouse embryos in artificial wombs
• Embassy of Kosovo and Czech diplomatic office open in Jerusalem
• 2,000-year-old biblical scrolls and other ancient artifacts found in Dead Sea cave
• Utah outlaws BDS for state contractors, while UCLA student government adopts “stealth” anti-Israel resolution. Biden administration “enthusiastically embraces” IHRA definition of antisemitism. Other recent adoptions include the state of Kentucky, Global Student Forum, representing students’ federations of 118 countries; the student governments at the Univ. of Texas, UC San Diego, Michigan State, Univ. of Georgia, Syracuse Univ., and Kennesaw State Univ. (Georgia) and students at the Univ. of Minnesota; Middlesex University (London) Board of Governors, and the Town of North Hempstead, NY, but rejected by the city of Strasbourg (France).
• Boston Scientific acquires surgical business of Israel’s Lumenis for $1.07 billion; PayPal acquires Israeli crypto security firm Curv for nearly $200 million; Japan’s Olympus buys medical-device company Medi-Tate for $300M.
• Companies raising funds include e-commerce marketing startup Yotpo ($230 million at $1.4 billion valuation), cybersecurity firms Snyk ($300 million at $4.7 billion valuation!), Wiz ($130M at $1.7B valuation), Orca Security ($210M, $1.2B valuation), Aqua Security ($135M, $1B valuation), Fireblocks ($133M), and Axonius ($100M); software-development platform Incredibuild ($140M), bus-schedule planner Optibus ($107M), construction technology firm Veev ($100M IPO), and workforce management company Papaya Global ($100M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in top universities and hospitals, mathematics, basketball, gymnastics, sailing, tennis, jazz, innovative companies, national happiness and resilience, telecommuting, culinary destinations, COVID vaccination, largest matzah and highest matzah tower.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, Brazil’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, incoming UAE ambassador Mohammad Mahmoud Al Khajah, new UN Middle East Peace Coordinator Tor Wennesland, Denmark’s national soccer team, American guided missile cruiser USS Monterey holding joint exercises with the Israeli navy in the eastern Mediterranean, a German air force transport plane en route to Afghanistan, Nigerian international basketball player Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, and more. The Pope and two American B-52 bombers overflew Israel but did not stop.

February 2021

• Israel’s COVID-19 death toll reaches 5,738; highly effective vaccine prevents 98%+ of hospitalizations and deaths, now available to Israelis over age 16 and some younger teens, foreign workers, and Palestinians who work in Israel; new drug cures 100% of moderate/serious cases at Ichilov Hospital
• 39 parties register to run in March 23 elections
• International Criminal Court claims jurisdiction over Palestinian Territories, a claim rejected by Israel, U.S., American Jewish organizations, and many other countries because “Palestine” is not a state and Israel (like the U.S.) is not a party to the Rome Statute
• Israel and Muslim-majority Kosovo establish diplomatic ties
• Major oil spill dumps tons of tar along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, closing beaches, sickening cleanup volunteers, and killing a 17m (55 ft.) whale
• Tel Aviv University nanosatellite launched into Earth’s orbit
• In Russia-mediated deal, an Israeli civilian who entered Syria exchanged for two Syrian Druze shepherds who crossed into Israel—and, reportedly, Israel buying Russian COVID-19 vaccines for Syria
• U.S. State Department affirms support for IHRA definition of antisemitism; definition officially adopted by the U.S. state of Kentucky and the City Councils of Paris and Nice, France, and the student senate of the Univ. of California at Santa Barbara
• U.S. federal court overturns overly broad Arkansas anti-BDS law; University of Toronto tells graduate students’ union it cannot use student fees for discriminatory anti-Israel BDS campaign; BDS resolutions passed student governments at UC Irvine (disavowed by the administration), failed at Florida State Univ.
• U.S. Senate votes 97-3 to keep its embassy in Jerusalem
• Israeli startups raise record 1.44 billion in January; U.S. equity firm acquires Israeli online genealogy platform MyHeritage for $600 million; Palo Alto Networks acquires cybersecurity startup Bridgecrew for $156M; cybersecurity company CYE raises $120 million; financial AI developer Earnix raises $75M at $1 billion valuation
• Israelis win international awards and honors in film and film technology, TV acting, pediatric endocrinology, innovative economies, film and film technology, TV acting, tennis, judo, sustainability, FDA breakthrough medical device, TIME magazine’s most influential people, craft whisky, and (again) COVID-19 vaccination rates.
• Recent visitors to Israel include Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, Egypt’s energy minister Tarek el-Molla, 600 athletes (including exiled Iranian champion Saeid Mollaei) for international judo tournament, and a 6-year-old boy from Ethiopia for cardiac treatment.

January 2021

• Israel has had 643,006 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,786 deaths from the beginning of the pandemic through January 31; it has administered over 4.7 million vaccine doses, the highest per-capita rate in the world, slowing new infections; vaccines show very promising early results
• Greece and Israel agree to 20-year, $1.68 billion defense deal
• Georgia Tech Univ. and the student government at the University of Georgia adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism
• New York City mayor candidate (and former presidential candidate) Andrew Yang denounces BDS as “rooted in antisemitic thought and history”
• Israeli companies raising capital at billion-dollar-plus valuations include Playtika (raised $1.9 billion at NASDAQ debut, at $11B valuation), Rapyd ($400 million at $2.5B valuation), Nano Dimension ($332M, $1.4B), DriveNets ($208M, $1.3B), OwnBackup ($167M, $1.4B), TripActions ($155M, $5B), K Health ($132M, $1.4B), and Melio ($110M, $1.3B)
• Israelis win international awards and honors in research scientists and young scientists, innovation in energy, vision technology, speech recognition, and consumer electronics; video technology, judo, soccer, healthiest cities, and Michelin-star restaurant
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and head of the military’s Central Command Kenneth McKenzie

December 2020

• 800,000 Israelis, starting with Prime Minster Netanyahu, receive COVID-19 vaccines; to date, Israel has had 419,312 confirmed cases and 3,314 deaths, and is in its third nationwide lockdown
• Failing to pass a budget, Israel’s government coalition unravels; elections set for March 23; parties in flux as MKs Gideon Sa’ar and Ze’ev Elkin quit Likud
• Morocco and Bhutan will normalize ties with Israel
• Esther Horgan (52), mother of six, murdered in an apparent terrorist attack
• Israel accepted to International Energy Agency
• Tufts Univ. students pass anti-Israel resolution (rejected by the administration); new adoptions of IHRA definition of antisemitism include the student governments of Northeastern University and the of Manitoba, and British soccer’s Premier League
• Lidar (light detection and ranging) startup Innoviz goes public via $1.4B special purpose acquisition company (SPAC); Entrée Capital raises $125M to invest in Israeli startups; Israeli tech exits hit record $15M in 2020, including 27 IPOs on Tel Aviv exchange; Cloud security company Wiz raises $100M; 15 Israeli “unicorns” reach $1B market valuation
• Israelis win international awards and honors in COVID-19 vaccination rate, electrical engineering, surgical devices, synthetic biology, food technology, chess, taekwondo, artistic gymnastics, sailing, NASCAR racing, film star, Forbes’ Under 30, “most beautiful face,” and tunneling
• Recent visitors to Israel include Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, Portugal’s Foreign Minister Santos Silva, an advisor to Pakistan’s Prime Minister; U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and UN Ambassador Kelly Craft; Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Moroccan diplomats, Bahraini women’s rights activist Mashael Al-Shemeri, and 11 young Emirati and Bahraini social-media “influencers”.
• Also arriving (as immigrants/olim, not visitors) were hundreds of Jews from the Falash Mura community of Ethiopia and the Bnai Menashe community of India and Jewish-American convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

November 2020

• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Saudi Arabia, meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
• COVID-19 has claimed 2,864 lives in Israel since the pandemic began
• IDF strikes Syrian and Iranian military targets in response to explosives found on Israeli side of border
• Iron Dome intercepts rockets from Gaza (apparently launched in error) over central Israel; IDF responds against Hamas targets
• Palestinian Authority restores ties, security cooperation with Israel; resumes accepting tax revenues; returns ambassadors to UAE & Bahrain; considering changes to “pay-to-slay” policy
• Israel issues tenders for 1,257 new homes in Jerusalem neighborhood/settlement of Givat Hamatos
• Microsoft opens new campus in Herzliya, with offices for 2,000 employees
• New adoptions of IHRA definition of antisemitism include Cambridge University (U.K.), the student governments of Brooklyn College and St. Lawrence Univ. (New York), and the Orillia (Ontario, Canada) City Council; San Francisco State student government endorses BDS and calls for divestment; Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign issues a statement opposing antisemitism and supporting Jewish and pro-Israel students who express their Zionism
• Salesforce invests in app-tracking software startup AppsFlyer at valuation of $2 billion; two additional “unicorns” valued at over $1B are SentinelOne (raised $267 million at valuation of over $3B!), Cato Networks (raised $130M) and Forter ($125M); Snapchat snaps up call-center technology Voca.ai for $70 million; Intel buys Israeli data science startup Cnvrg.io for $60M; Ibex Investors raises $100M venture fund to invest in Israel; other Israeli companies raising capital include Hippo ($350 million), ION Acquisition Group ($225M), SimilarWeb ($120M), Kape ($115M), and Inuitive ($106M). Overall, Israeli tech companies raised over $8.8B in the first 10 months of 2020, including nearly $800M in October and $1.1B in September.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo (x2), basketball (x2), rhythmic gymnastics, windsurfing, R&D spending, research universities, personalized medicine, cardiology, insurance and real-estate technologies, cloud-technology companies, “technology challengers,” TIME magazine’s “Best Inventions,” New York Times’ “Notable Books,” best country for female entrepreneurs, smart-city innovation, wheelchair-friendly cities, and beach cleanup
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits West Bank settlement and Golan Heights; calls BDS campaign antisemitic ‘cancer’; U.S. will label settlement goods “Made in Israel”
• Other recent visitors to Israel include Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, Minister of Industry, and royal family member; Malawi foreign minister, diplomats from 13 EU states, cargo flights from Azerbaijan, 100,000 migrating cranes, and many others.

October 2020

• Sudan agrees to normalize relations with Israel, a move applauded by Egypt and U.S. Jewish groups (but not Hamas)
• Rate of COVID-19 infections slows; as of Oct. 30, Israel has 738 patients hospitalized and 2,511 deaths to date; Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in critical condition at Hadassah Hospital
• IDF detects new Hamas infiltration tunnel from Gaza into Israel
• U.S. passports will list “Jerusalem, Israel” as birthplace of citizens; first such passport issued to Menachem Zivotofsky
• Muslim-majority Albania adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism, as do the parliament of Ontario, Canada; the Global Imams Council; New York University; student governments at Pace Univ., Foothill College, and the Univ. of Buenos Aires; top Uruguay foreign ministry official fired for anti-Israel UN vote
• U.S.-Israel scientific cooperation extended to West Bank insitutions
• Israeli startups raised $1.1 billion in September; Cisco buys Israeli cybersecurity firm Portshift for $100 million; AbbVie buys Luminera skin-care company; Israeli and Israeli-founded companies raising capital include Next Insurance ($250 million, led by Google), urban farming network Infarm ($170M), BioCatch ($168M), Tipalti ($150M), SimilarWeb ($120M), and Papaya Global ($40M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in artificial intelligence, artistic cities, digital readiness, fighting corruption, startup hubs, wildlife photography, “Engineering Emmys,” women leaders in cybersecurity, and highly-paid actresses.
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Secretaries of Defense and Treasury, UAE ministers of economy and finance, U.S. Air Force F-35 jets and crews, and migrating flamingos.

September 2020

• Israel signs peace agreements with UAE and Bahrain under the umbrella Abraham Accords
• Accelerating second wave brings Israel’s COVID-19 deaths to 1,547 to date, with new lockdown, political turmoil
• Israel’s population reaches 9.2 million, 74% Jewish
• Kosovo announces diplomatic relations with Israel; Serbia, Malawi, and Chad will move embassies to Jerusalem; Israel signs defense deals with Italy and Czech Republic
• Israeli kibbutz temporarily changes its name to honor Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Israel and Hamas agree to de-escalate border violence
• Arizona State Univ. student government, the nation of Kosovo, and the city of Barrie (Ontario) adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism; students at Columbia Univ. and the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pass BDS resolutions
• Israeli startups raised $650 million in August; Israeli companies raising capital include cybersecurity startup Snyk ($200 million, at total valuation of $2.6 billion), database-software developer Redis Labs ($100M, at valuation of over $1 billion), Melio ($144M); CheckPoint Software acquires Odo Security; Singapore’s government holding company acquires Rivulis Irrigation
• Israelis win international awards and honors in bird photography; innovation in Germany, healthcare, climate technology, and storage solutions; literacy programs, Fortune “40 under 40” influential businesspeople, entrepreneur-producing universities, Fast Company “Most Creative People in Business,” great countries for vegans, contributions to Catalan culture, and senior membership in the U.S. National Academy of Inventors.
• Recent visitors to Israel include Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator for the US Agency for International Development; a diplomatic delegation from Chad, a giant manta ray fish, and (unfortunately) destructive Formosan termites.

August 2020

• Israel and the United Arab Emirates agree to normalize diplomatic and trade relations; first commercial TLV-DXB flight overflies Saudi airspace
• Israel has had 922 COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the Pandemic
• Rabbi Shai Ohayon (39) fatally stabbed in terror attack near Petah Tikva
• Israel offers medical and humanitarian aid, solidarity with Lebanese people following Beirut blast
• Hamas arson balloons cause dozens of fires along Gaza border; in response, Israel strikes Hamas targets
• Israel delivers Iron Dome batteries to U.S. military using world’s largest plane
• Undergraduate Student Government VP at of Southern California resigns due to antisemitic and anti-Israel harassment; Florida State University adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism; Democratic Socialists ask NYC Council candidates not to travel to Israel
• Israeli tech companies raised nearly $700 million in July; Israeli and Israeli-founded companies raising capital include medical-imaging startup Nanox ($615 million), sales-intelligence platforms Gong ($200M) and ai ($45M), e-commerce marketing platform Yotpo ($75M), blood-testing startup Sight Diagnostics ($71M), cybersecurity companies Perimeter 81 ($40M), Silverfort ($30M) and CyCognito ($30M), corporate morale platform Thriver ($33M), data-automation startup Explorium ($31M), and weather-forecasting startup ClimaCell($23M).
• Israelis win international awards and honors in mathematics, high-school chemistry, rhythmic gymnastics, startups, quantum computing, game-changing companies, foodtech innovation, European Women in Tech, affordable Internet access, and “the world’s most expensive coronavirus mask”
• Recent visitors to Israel include S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, and U.S. Air Force F-35A crews and planes from the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron for joint exercises with the Israeli Air Force

July 2020

• Israel undergoing second wave of COVID-19 infections, with 70,036 total cases and 502 fatalities through July 31
• Tensions rise with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border
• Israelis protest Netanyahu corruption, inept coronavirus handling
• U.S. Democratic Party 2020 platform supports two-state solution, security assistance to Israel, undivided Jerusalem, Palestinian people; opposes settlement expansion, unilateral annexation
• Archeologists uncover large Kingdom of Judah (7^th-8^th C. BCE) complex in Jerusalem
• Israel’s Ofek 16 reconnaissance satellite transmits first images
• Missouri becomes 32^nd U.S. state with anti-BDS law; British production company Boiler Room calls for Israel boycott, then backtracks after backlash, including a passionate plea from Israeli club owner Yaron Trax; Spain’s Balearic Islands pass anti-BDS law; Spanish court voids municipal boycotts; NYU condemns graduate student union call to boycott NYU’s Tel Aviv program; Florida State University Student Senate, whose president previously posted antisemitic comments online, adopts IHRA definition of antisemitism, as do government of Spain and Univ. of York (UK)
• Israeli startups raised nearly $700 million in June; Israeli tech firms raised $2.5 billion in Q2 in 170 deals. Recent funding rounds include travel system TripActions ($250M), corporate travel company Gett ($100M), biotech company Prilenia Therapeutics ($62M), e-commerce startup Global-e Online ($60M), Cloud backup startup OwnBackup ($50M), electric-vehicle charging platform ElectReon ($50M), and creative-content platform Artlist ($48M). Israeli-founded online insurers Lemonade (raised $319M in NYSE initial public offering) and Hippo Enterprises (raised $150M) are new “unicorns,” each valued at over $1 billion.
• Israelis win international awards and honors in startups, technology innovation, startup ecosystems, Apple design, iPhone photography, TV acting, and animated film
• Recent visitors to Israel include Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and a pod of 15 bottlenose dolphins.

June 2020

• COVID-19 continues to spread in Israel, with 24,688 total confirmed cases and 320 deaths (including a 19-year-old) through June 30
• Israeli phone company and ambulance service partner to convert phone booths into public defibrillator stations
• Israel’s High Court strikes down settlement law infringing on Palestinian property rights
• UC Davis student government passed BDS resolution, vetoed by student government president; European Court of Human Rights overturns conviction of French boycotters; National Lawyers Guild settles BDS lawsuit, agrees to reject anti-Jewish and anti-Israel discrimination
• 1920s sailboat anchors found in receding Dead Sea
• Tel Aviv will recognize same-sex couples for municipal benefits
• NetApp acquires Israeli cloud company Spot for reported $450 million; National Instruments buys data analytics software company OptimalPlus for $365M; Microsoft acquires IoT security company CyberX for $165M; Israeli venture capital funds Red Dot raises $200M, Team8 raises $104M; freelance services platform Fiverr raises $120M on NYSE; fintech startup Pagaya raises $102M; data-recovery startup Zerto raises $33; cancer therapy company Alpha Tau raises $26M; medical imaging company Nanox raises $20M from SK Telecom
• Israelis wins awards and honors in tennis, neuroscience, online cybersecurity course, disruptive companies, Europe’s outstanding startups, “cleantech,” World Economic Forum technology pioneers, startup ecosystems, and Mexican expats
• Recent visitors to Israel include Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, German foreign minister Heiko Maas; U.S. presidential adviser Avi Berkowitz, NSC official Scott Leith, and Iran point person Brian Hook; a Syrian baby for heart surgery, two sperm whales, and thousands of virtual attendees at OurCrowd pandemic investment conference.

May 2020

• With high court’s approval, Benjamin Netanyahu’s assigned to form new Israeli government; 35^th government sworn in, its first policy priority coronavirus and the resulting economic crisis
• Jewish terrorist convicted of murder in 2015 Duma arson
• Iran attempted a cyberattack on Israeli water and sewage facilities; Israel reportedly retaliated against Iranian port
• First direct commercial flight from UAE lands in Israel, bringing medical supplies for Palestinians, but PA rejects shipment as “normalization”
• Prime Minister Netanyahu’s corruption trial opens
• As of May 31, Israel has had 17,071 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 284 fatalities
• Large bipartisan majorities in U.S. Congress call to end International Criminal Court investigations of Israel
• Israeli coronavirus-related innovations include antibody, plasma, stem-cell, and antiviral treatments; breathalyzer, ultrasound, and CT diagnosis, and a one-minute test; vaccines and  micro-needles; sterilization device, masks (incl. a self-cleaning mask and one for the hearing impaired) and face shields, disinfectant, patient monitoring, privacy-sensitive contact tracing, and medical clowns
• Missouri and Oklahoma pass anti-BDS legislation
• Israeli startups, amid pandemic, raised nearly $1 billion in April; Intel buys Israeli transit-app startup Moovit for $900 million; Microsoft acquires cybersecurity company CyberX for $165M; chip maker Xsight Labs raises $50M; automotive data services platform Otonomo raises $46M
• Israelis wins awards and honors in film, mathematics, “Webby” online excellence; Haifa Univ. professor Wendy Sandler inducted into prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Israel to discuss annexation, Chinese investments, COVID-19, and of course Iran

April 2020

• Prime Minister Netanyahu and Blue & White leader Benny Gantz agree to form emergency unity government
• COVID-19 has claimed 219 lives in Israel, with 15,870 confirmed cases
• Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan and U.S. National Institutes of Health join forces on COVID-19 research
• On 72^nd Independence Day, Israel’s population nears 9.2 million, 74% of them Jewish
• Israel honors memories of 23,816 fallen soldiers and 4,166 terror victims on Memorial Day—with physical distancing and closed cemeteries
• The Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) is full for the first time since 1992
• Israelis win international awards and honors in high-school math
• Israeli and Israeli-founded companies raising capital include BioCatch (cybersecurity, $145 million), VAST Data (data storage, $100M) Cato Networks (cybersecurity, $77M), Tyto Care (telehealth, $50M), Glassbox (customer-analytics, $40M), Bringg (on-demand delivery, $30M), and CyberMDx (medical cybersecurity, $20M). In total, Israeli high-tech firms raise a record $2.74 billion in Q1/2020.

March 2020

• From Israel: Coronavirus tests and treatments, risk assessment and respirators, coexistence and cooperation, masks and more
• Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party wins Knesset plurality, but falls short of majority for forming right-wing coalition; Blue & White’s Benny Gantz gets mandate to form new government, but instead splits party and enters unity talks with Netanyahu
• Interim Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein defies Supreme Court, resigns to avoid vote to elect successor
• Israel records 4,831 COVID-19 cases and 18 deaths as of March 31; Israelis ordered to remain within 100m of home; thousands return from abroad to quarantine
• Israeli cycling team races in UAE
• Ethiopian-Israeli Eden Alene will represent Israel in four languages at 2020 Eurovision Song Contest
• Oklahoma passed anti-BDS legislation; Columbia Univ. President Lee Bollinger and more than 70 faculty members condemned the BDS movement ahead of campus-wide divestment vote; UC Berkeley Chancellor condemned display glorifying Palestinian terrorists and a student’s anti-Palestinian statement; Brown University advisory committee recommendation divestment from companies “that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.”
• Sudan allows flights to Israel over its territory
• Israeli cybersecurity firm Checkmarx acquired by private-equity firm for $1.15 billion; Flywire Payments buys healthcare payments startup Simplee for a reported $100 million; Synopsys acquires semiconductor startup Terrain EDA; oncology company Ayala Pharmaceuticals files for $50M IPO; AI chipmaker Hailo today raises $60M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in marathon running, “mathematics Nobel,” universities, hospitals, Fast Company’s “most innovative” firms, food tech and ag-tech companies, and artificial-intelligence startups
• Recent visitors to Israel include singer Lionel Ritchie; hip-hop artists Lecrae, Derek Minor, and Tony Tillman; two NFL football players training with IDF soldiers, and hundreds of American troops for joint military exercise

February 2020

• Palestinian Islamic Jihad fires 90 rockets and a drone at Israel from Gaza in two days; IDF responds against PIJ targets in Gaza and Syria
• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Uganda, meet with Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan
• UN releases list of 112 companies doing business “related to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” including Jerusalem
• Austrian parliament unanimously condemns BDS campaign; University of Illinois student government passes BDS resolution
• Private equity firm buys Israel-founded cybersecurity company ForeScout for $1.9 billion; business- intelligence company Sisense raises $100M at $1.1 billion valuation; Cisco invests in software testing automation company SeaLights Technologies
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo, speed skating, half marathon, restaurants (plus one in Paris), photography (also animal photography), film, innovation, and climate technology.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Governor of Texas, Gov. of Maryland, an orca whale, a record 309,000 tourists in January, and many others.

January 2020

• President Trump unveils “Deal of the Century” peace plan; Palestinian Authority and Hamas reject the plan, as do Iran and Turkey; the governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, Australia, and Britain express appreciation; Israelis widely support it
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicted on corruption charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust
• Israel hosted its largest diplomatic event ever at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau (see Visitors, below)
• Israeli-American Naama Issachar pardoned in Russia after serving 10 months of a 7½-year prison sentence for passing through a Moscow airport with 10 grams (about ⅓ of an ounce) of marijuana
• Israel begins pumping gas from Leviathan field, exporting to Egypt and Jordan; Israel, Greece and Cyprus sign huge gas-pipeline deal
• U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Arizona anti-BDS law as regulating commercial activity, not speech; American Historical Association rejects anti-israel resolution for the 4th time; South Dakota Governor signs anti-BDS executive order
• 30 parties register for March elections; Labor, Gesher, and Meretz will run jointly, as will the New Right, National Union, and Jewish Home
• Gazan reunited with Jewish Israeli mother 30 years after being abducted by his Palestinian father
• Israeli tech companies raise record $8.2 billion (!!) in 2019; Insight acquires Israeli security-software maker Armis at $1.1B valuation; marketing analytics firm Appsflyer raises $210M and cybersecurity startup Snyk raises $150M, each at a valuation of over $1 billion; Mimecast acquires cybersecurity startup Segasec Labs for approx. $40 million
• Microsoft launches cloud datacenter in Israel
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo, skiing, debate, energy efficiency, business software, “Cool Vendors,” “game-changing companies,” travel destinations, and longest scooter journey
• Recent visitors to Israel include Britain’s Prince Charles: the King of Spain; the presidents of Russia, Germany, France, Argentina, Bulgaria; U.S. VP Mike Pence, and many other world leaders for Holocaust Forum; 500 “Christian Birthright” college students; Austrian biker Fabio Wibmer, Jordanian singer Aziz Maraka, and many others

December 2019

• Failing to form a governing coalition, short-lived 22nd Knesset dissolves; new elections scheduled for March 2; Prime Minister Netanyahu reelected Likud leader by a landslide
• U.S. House of Representatives passed H.Res. 326, reaffirming support for a two-state solution and opposing unilateral annexation, largely along party lines
• New express train cuts Jerusalem–Tel Aviv travel time to about 30 minutes
• International Criminal Court opens investigation of alleged Israeli war crimes, despite questions of jurisdiction
• French parliament passes resolution equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism; Portugal joins International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance; Brown Univ. advisory committee urges college to divest from companies ‘facilitating rights abuses in Palestine’
• President Trump issues Executive Order clarifying that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, including requirements for federal funding of higher education, apply to discrimination rooted in antisemitism
• Israel tech exits double to $9.9 billion in 2019; Intel buys Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) firm Habana Labs for $2 billion; medical technology fund Peregrine Ventures raises $115 million; 1-800 Contacts buys online vision-testing startup 6over6 Vision
• Israelis win international awards and honors in sailing, marathon running, molecular biology, restaurants, sustainable food, smart-transportation cities, foodie destinations, best and fastest-growing tourist destinations and cities, best countries for female entrepreneurs, TV shows, best Eurovision, design art, large Pride parade, and popular scientific “Breakthrough of the Year”
• Recent visitors to Israel include Ireland’s foreign minister, 23 UN ambassadors, 11 U.S. Secretaries of State, 650 Christian businessmen from 40 countries, director Quentin Tarantino, UK chef Jamie Oliver, a record 4.55 million tourists in 2019, dozens of sharks, and many others.

November 2019

• Prime Minster Netanyahu indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust
• Like Netanyahu, Benny Gantz could not form a governing coalition
• IDF airstrike in Gaza kills Islamic Jihad leader Bahaa Abu al-Atta; Islamic Jihad responds with rocket barrage, triggering sirens all the way to Tel Aviv; IDF strikes terror targets in Gaza; two days of fighting end with tentative ceasefire
• Israel intercepts rockets fired from Syria, responds against Iranian, regime, and Islamic Jihad sites in Syria
• U.S. new stand on settlement legality hailed by Israel and opposition party Blue and White and condemned by Palestinians, UN Security Council, EU, Russia, Turkey, Jordan, the Vatican, the Arab League, J Street, and U.S. Democratic presidential candidates
• Naftali Bennett appointed interim Defense Minister; his New Right party merges with Likud
• Human Rights Watch director and BDS activist Omar Shakir deported from Israel after Israeli Supreme Court affirms decision not to renew his work visa
• Bolivia renews diplomatic ties with Israel after decade-long break; Danish-autonomous Faroe Islands Atlantic archipelago recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
• U.S. “deeply concerned”; Israel, American Jewish leaders, and Dutch parliament reject EU ruling requiring labeling for products from Israeli settlements
• California Democratic Party rejects anti-Israel amendment to platform; University of Cape Town rescinds academic boycott of Israel
• Israeli agricultural enclaves in Jordan Valley returned to Jordan after  25-year lease
• Baring Private Equity Asia acquires Israeli medical-device firm Lumenis for $1.2 billion; Ribbon Communications buys ECI Telecom for $486 million; Proofpoint buys Israeli-founded cybersecurity company ObserveIT for $225 million; Israeli fraud-prevention company Riskified raises $165M at valuation of >$1B; Veera Systems acquires pharmaceutical analytics company Crossix for $430M; radar-sensor firm Vayyar Imaging raises $109M, healthcare software company Viz.ai raises $50M, video analyzing startup Viisights raises $10M, precision agriculture startup Agritask raises $8.5M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in high-school robotics (in Dubai!), ju-jitsu (in Abu Dhabi!), basketball, Thai boxing; promising startups, entrepreneurship; innovations in synthetic biology (vegan honey), consumer-electronics, life sciences, agtech/foodtech, wi-fi technology, and more; humanitarian leadership; travel destinations, cities recognized for their beauty (Jerusalem), vacations (Tel Aviv), and environmental leadership (Ashdod); restaurants, and medical assistance to NATO.
• Recent visitors to Israel include former Australian prime minister John Howard; European Parliament members; S. Congresswomen, military chiefs, and governors; soccer superstar Lionel Messi, Argentina and Uruguay national soccer teams, fighter jets and crews from 4 countries; Arab journalists; a badger from Syria, and many others.

October 2019

• Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to form new governing coalition; Benny Gantz given the opportunity to try, invites Netanyahu to unity government
• Czech parliament condemns boycotts of Israel; European mental-health association ENMESH reverses earlier decision, will hold conference in Israel after all; Spanish court issues injunction against municipal boycott of Israel; Oslo’s City Council bans Israeli settlement goods and services from public procurements; after Univ. of Illinois Chancellor condemned “anti-Semitic content” in presentation, the student governement passes resolution differentiating anti-Zionism from antisemitism
• Israeli hi-tech firms raise $2.24 billion in third quarter of 2019; British private equity firm CVC invests $400 million in Israeli advertising-technology company ironSource; medical device company AngioDynamics acquire Eximo Medical for $46M; Israeli medical device company Body Vision raises $20M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in gymnastics, baseball, kickboxing, economics, and Miss Congeniality
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Vatican diplomat Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, actor Kevin Spacey, motivational guru Tony Robbins, Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish children for emergency medical treatment, 437,000 other visitors in September, and many others.

September 2019

• Elections for 22nd Knesset bring new deadlock; after failure to establish broad coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu tasked again with forming a government
• During campaign, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that if reelected he would apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley
• Proposed BDS resolution fails at American Political Science Association (APSA); Anglican Church of Southern Africa votes to boycott Israel; AMCHA Initiative report finds spike in anti-Israel antisemitism on college campuses; Israeli government report unmasks BDS antisemitism; Iran suspended from world judo over Israel boycott
• Israeli Air Force appoints female flight squadron leader
• Baxter buys Israeli-American medical-device maker Cheetah for $190 million; McDonald’s buys Israeli-founded voice AI startup Apprente
• Israelis win international awards and honors in gymnastics, swimming and Paralympic swimming, baseball, windsurfing, 10K running, film schools, entrepreneur-producing universities, venture funding per capita, early-stage startups, cash-sniffing dog, and pizza.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the president of Honduras, prime minister of Ethiopia, Chelsea Football Club delegation, American police officers, singer Lionel Richie, British comedian John Cleese, thousands of migrating pelicans, and many others.

August 2019

• 32 parties (now 31) registered for September 17 elections
• Dvir Sorek (19) stabbed to death; Rina Shnerb (17) killed and her brother and father injured by IED blast at West Bank hiking spot
• Kentucky becomes 26^th state to pass anti-BDS legislation; Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) rejects Israel boycott
• Salesforce buys Israeli-founded ClickSoftware for $1.35 billion (!!), Amazon purchases Israeli startup E8 Storage for $60M; software startup Lightricks raises $135M at $1 billion valuation; Siemens Healthineers acquires Israeli-founded Corindus Vascular Robotics for $1.1 billion
• Israel signs free-trade agreement with South Korea
• Honduras and Pacific island nation Nauru recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo, windsurfing, gymnastics, luxury restaurants, and cyber-security “Black Unicorns”
• Recent visitors to Israel include 72 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives; South Korean Trade Minister; Greek, French, and U.S. navy forces; Miss Universe pageant organizers; 21 flag football teams; a whale shark, and many others.

July 2019

• Violent protests follow fatal police shooting of Ethiopian-Israeli Soloman Tekah (19)
• Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz speaks at UN Environment Conference in Abu Dhabi, the first Israeli official to travel to the UAE; foreign ministers of Israel and Bahrain meet publicly in Washington DC
• Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visits South Korea
• Israel & U.S. successfully test Arrow-3 missile defense in Alaska
• Israeli F-35 jets reportedly hit Iranian targets in Iraq
• U.S. House of Representatives votes overwhelmingly to reject the anti-Israel BDS campaign
• Israeli government approved building homes for 700 Palestinians and 6,000 Jews in West Bank’s Area C
• Jerusalem court finds Palestinian Authority liable for terrorism against Israelis
• Canadian court rules wines produced in West Bank settlements cannot be labeled “Made in Israel”; European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation cancels 2021 conference in Jerusalem; National Education Association defeated anti-Israel resolution; students at Univ. of Münster (Germany) reject BDS
• Israeli right-wing parties unite under Ayelet Shaked; Labor Party elects past chairman Amir Peretz to lead it in next election, merges with Orly Levy-Abekasis’ party, Gesher; Nitzan Horowitz wins Meretz leadership
• The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) awarded $8.2M to nine joint U.S.-Israel projects
• Bridgepoint acquires Israeli software testing company Qualitest for reported $420 million, Google buys Israeli cloud storage company Elastifile for reported $200M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in debate, judo (and another), youth basketball, synchronized swimming, youth baseball, track, Paralympic rowing, show jumping, high-school mathematics and physics, debate, innovation and innovative countries, technology pioneers, medical devices, best cities, and combatting human trafficking
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Croatia, British Home Secretary, U.S. Energy Secretary, 35 French parliamentarians, Washington DC Mayor, Arab journalists, music superstars Jennifer Lopez (JLo), Sir Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Disturbed, Bon Jovi, Milton Nascimento, and Slash; Rwandan children for cardiac care, lacrosse players from 16 European countries, and many others.

June 2019

• The national security advisers of the U.S. (John Bolton) and Russia (Nikolai Patrushev) met in Israel to discuss Syria, Iran, and regional issues
• British Society for Middle Eastern Studies passes Israel academic boycott resolution
• Broadcasting and streaming startup LiveU acquired for $200 million; Palo Alto Networks buys cloud security company Twistlock
• Israelis win international awards and honors in gymnastics, tennis, soccer, judo, sailing, fencing, air-rifle shooting, chess, wine, cheese, “Webby” digital arts, “Transformational Businesses,” Google Play “Social Impact,” AI/machine learning, law technology, innovation hubs, top universities, and patent-producing universities
• Recent visitors to Israel include Chile’s President, New York Governor, Qatari experts, French Muslim leaders, American military cadets, 300 Palestinian farmers, actor Neil Patrick Harris, 8,000 cybersecurity experts, Tachtouch the Lebanese monkey, and many others.

May 2019

• Israel celebrates 71st Independence Day
• Israel’s 21st Knesset is sworn in – and dissolves itself 4 weeks later, triggering new elections in September, after Prime Minister Netanyahu fails to form governing coalition
• Hundreds of wildfires sparked by Lag B’Omer bonfires, electrical faults, and Palestinian incendiary balloons amid record heat
• The Netherlands won Eurovision 2019, hosted in Tel Aviv to much fanfare (and some political controversy)
• Hamas, backed by Iran, launches hundreds of rockets from Gaza into Israel; IDF strikes Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets; 4 Israelis killed, hundreds wounded; rockets damage kindergarten in Sderot, hospital in Ashdod, many homes before reaching yet-another ceasefire
• Nuvei acquires Israeli payment technology company SafeCharge for $889 million; Vimeo acquires video-creation company Magisto for a reported $200 million; Salesforce buys AI startup Bonobo
• Faculty at NYU department vote for “non-cooperation” with university’s Tel Aviv campus; DePaul U. faculty condemns Prof. Jason Hill for supporting Israel; student government at UC Davis repeals divestment resolution and at California Polytechnic condemns antisemitism and blocks BDS; German parliament condemns BDS as antisemitic
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo, ice hockey, badminton, Riga half marathon, high-school physics, scientific progress, restaurants, architecture, best countries for “digital nomads,” Bible knowledge, strongest currencies, life-science-startup ecosystems, female innovators, and Buenos Aires Book Fair booth
• Recent visitors to Israel include UN ambassadors from a dozen countries, the governor of Florida, U.S. mayors, Sichuan (China) provincial government and industry officials; pop diva Madonna; tens of thousands of tourists from Muslim countries, and many others.

April 2019

• Body of IDF Sgt. Zachary Baumel, missing since 1982, repatriated by Russia and buried in Israel
• Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft crashes into the moon
• Airbnb reverses ban on West Bank settlement listings; Arizona House votes to deny public contracts to Israel boycotters; student governments at Cornell, Univ. of Maryland and (for the sixth time) UC Santa Barbara reject Israel divestment
• Israelis win international awards and honors in European Cup basketball, rhythmic gymnastics, high school basketball, healthiest diet, technological innovation, most influential countries (#8), and oldest pro soccer player.
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Senators Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), a Kurdish delegation from Iraq and Syria, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, 52 Imperial College London students from 30 countries, hundreds of students for an autonomous-car competition, participants from 50 countries at Forbes Under 30 Global Women’s Summit, hordes of black beetles, and many others.

March 2019

• Hamas rocket from Gaza destroys home in Mishmeret (central Israel), injuring 7; IDF retaliates against Hamas targets; rocket fire on Israel continues until Egypt brokered uneasy ceasefire
• U.S. recognizes Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights; EU rejects move
• World’s longest salt cave uncovered near Dead Sea
• IDF soldier Gal Keidan (19) and Rabbi Achiad Ettinger (47) shot dead by near Ariel; Palestinian terrorist later killed in shootout with IDF
• Rockets from Gaza fired toward Tel Aviv and border towns; IDF strikes Hamas targets in response
• Nvidia to buy Israeli chip maker Mellanox for $6.9 billion; McDonald’s to acquire Dynamic Yield for personalized menus for estimated $300M; Stryker acquires orthopedic device maker OrthoSpace for $220 million, I.D. Systems buys Pointer Telocation for $140M; Alibaba buys InfinityAR
• BDS rejected by student governments at Columbia Univ. and Swarthmore College but divestment resolution passed at Brown University; Pitzer College president vetoes College Council vote to suspend study abroad program in Haifa
• Israelis win international awards and honors in Judo, rhythmic gymnastics and artistic gymnastics, Special Olympics, European Cup soccer, innovative and promising companies, most powerful countries (#8), world’s best hospitals (Sheba, #10), and best cities (Tel Aviv, #21 in the world, #1 in Middle East).
• Recent visitors to Israel include the prime minister of Greece; presidents of Brazil, Cyprus, and Liberia; foreign minister of Hungary, U.S. Secretary of State; 4,600 athletes from 80 countries for Jerusalem Marathon, more than 10 million butterflies, and many others

February 2019

• Prime Minister Netanyahu to be indicted for bribery, corruption
• 47 parties register for April 9 elections; Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid join forces to challenge PM Netanyahu; Netanyahu orchestrates merger of right-wing party with extremist fringe
• Israel opened first embassy in Rwanda
• Israeli spacecraft Beresheet successfully launched
• Israel exposes terrorist ties of pro-BDS organizations; University of Oregon Constitution Court and Georgia State University student government rule BDS illegal; University of Cologne (Germany) student parliament condemned BDS
• Palo Alto Networks acquires Israeli cybersecurity company Demisto for $560 million, Qlik will buy Attunity for $560M, Symantec buys Israeli cybersecurity company Luminate for $200M, Google to acquire data-migration company Alooma for reported $150M; Walmart buys AI startup Aspectiva
• Israelis win international awards and honors in healthiest countries, innovative AI startups, mobile innovation, Paralympic swimming, film (including an Oscar), photography, and wine travel destinations
• Recent visitors to Israel include the prime ministers of Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Hungary; UN ambassadors from 40 countries, Kuwaiti businessmen, celebrity chefs, thousands of runners at the Tel Aviv marathon, and many others

January 2019

• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Chad, announces renewed diplomatic relations with Muslim country
• Record Israeli exports reach record $100 billion in 2018
• Israel opened new Ramon International Airport near Eilat
• Intel to invest $11 billion in new manufacturing facility in Israel; Samsung buys Corephotonics for $155 million; Advanced Medical Solutions Group acquires medical-adhesive maker Sealantis for $25M; Verint Systems buys emergency-response technology company NowForce, Amazon buys cloud-computing startup CloudEndure; Israeli startups raised record $6 billion in 2018
• Former Israeli minister Gonen Segev pleads guilty to spying for Iran
• Malaysia loses swimming competition after excluding Israelis; HSBC divests from Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems; Airbnb faces discrimination lawsuit and Florida sanctions after banning Israeli settlement homes; judge upholds Arkansas law against Israel boycotts; BBC rejects calls for Israel Eurovision boycott
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo, building heating and cooling, travel destinations (Jaffa, Eilat, incredible hotels, and Israel overall), college debate, food innovation (again), travel technology, innovative economy and global “innovation champion”
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Ukranian President, Romanian Prime Minister, Japanese Trade Minister; officials from Iraq,  the UAE, and the Russian military; actress and comedian Rosanne Barr, competitive surfers from 26 countries, a record 4.12 million tourists in 2018, and many others

December 2018

• Israel destroys Hezbollah attack tunnels on Lebanon border, including one that penetrated 40 meters into Israeli territory, a violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701
• Hamas terrorist shoots pregnant woman (killing her baby, who dies after premature delivery) and 6 others; in a separate attack, soldiers Yosef Cohen (19) and Yovel Mor Yosef (20) murdered
• Knesset dissolves, schedules April 9 elections; parties reshuffle as former IDF chief Benny Gantz forms new party, Jewish Home splits, with Ministers Bennet & Shaked forming “New Right” party
• Australia recognizes “West Jerusalem” as Israel’s capital
• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Brazil, meets president-elect Jair Bolsonaro
• Israel signs cybersecurity deals with Japan, Greece, and Cyprus, and technology-cooperation agreement with Brazil
• Acclaimed Israeli author Amos Oz (79) died
• UN General Assembly approves 6 anti-Israel resolutions, rejects Hamas condemnation despite majority of votes
• Student government at Ohio State Univ. rejects BDS; NYU students support, administration opposes BDS resolution; Israel boycotts declared illegal for cities in Chile, rejected by Madrid City Council; chancellors of all 10 University of California campuses reiterate their “standing opposition” to academic boycotts of Israel; New England police forces cancel training in Israel; UK Pink Floyd Experience band cancels, then reinstates Israel performance; Illinois cites Airbnb for violating anti-boycott law
• IBM’s Red Hat buys Israeli data storage startup NooBaa
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo (again); TIME “Genius Company”, Forbes “Women In Tech”; most educated countries; AI/big data; innovation in medicine, imaging, food (and another), and pools; jazz, wine, restaurants, travel technology, and tourism growth
• Recent visitors to Israel include the prime minister of Greece, president of Cyprus, dance professionals from 45 countries, navy vessels from France, Italy, Spain and Britain, and many others

November 2018

• Israeli officer and 7 Hamas leaders killed after blown cover of IDF intel mission in Gaza; Hamas launches 460 rockets at southern Israel, killing one and injuring dozens; anti-tank missile hit Israeli bus, critically injuring an IDF soldier; Israel targets Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels and TV station; Israeli Defense Minister resigns over controversial ceasefire
• Labor party MKs revolt against Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay
• Kentucky bars state contractors from Israel boycotts; Canadian Federation of Students endorses BDS; Airbnb removes listings in Israeli settlements; Pitzer College faculty votes to terminate Haifa study-abroad program; Israeli academics dropped from conference in South Africa; CNN dropped commentator Marc Lamont Hill after he supported the elimination of Israel
• Wikimedia publishes 28,000 photos from Israel, 1900-1946
• Iranian fake news campaign triggered 2016 Pakistani threat to Israel
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blocks U.S. military aid to Israel
• Mueller Water Products acquires Israel’s Krausz for $140 million; Symantec acquires cybersecurity startup Javelin Networks
• Israelis win international awards and honors in high school debate, judo (again), marathon running, artistic gymnastics, film, healthcare technology, retail technology, best inventions, consumer-electronics innovations, and ‘game changing’ technologies
• Recent visitors to Israel now listed here

October 2018

• Kim Levengrond Yehezkel (29) and Ziv Hajbi (35) murdered, another injured by Palestinian co-worker
• Aysha al-Rabi (45) killed by a rock thrown at her family car, allegedly by a Jewish extremist
• Rocket from Gaza (apparently triggered by lightening) destroys Beer Sheva home, mother and three children saved; Iran-backed terror group Islamic Jihad fires 30+ rockets at Israel; IDF bombs Gaza military targets, including 95 Islamic Jihad targets
• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Oman for official diplomatic discussions with the Arab state’s ruler
• Hamas instigates new riots at Gaza border, challenges naval blockade
• Jerusalem takes over municipal services in UNRWA “refugee camp”
• New Israeli law absolves food donors from liability if they follow food safety requirements
• Israeli Supreme Court permits American pro-BDS student Lara Alqasem to enter after 15-day detention
• Jordan ends lease of border areas included in 1994 peace deal with Israel
• 2,000-year-old Hebrew inscription of “Jerusalem” name uncovered at construction site
• NASA signs agreement with Israel Space Agency for moon-bound mission
• U.S. places consular services for Palestinians under Jerusalem embassy; Sec. Pompeo: No change of US policy
• PM’s wife Sara Netanyahu goes on trial for fraud
• UAE ambassador attends pro-Israel event, seated with Israeli envoy
• University of Michigan disciplines professor who refused to recommend a student for study in Israel; a second instructor withholds similar recommendation letter; another UM class compares Netanyahu to Hitler
• Israeli robotic surgery company Mazor Robotics acquired by Medtronic for $1.64 billion; cybersecurity companies Imperva and Sygnia acquired for $2.1B & $250M, respectively; software-update company JFrog raised $165 million;
• Israelis win international awards and honors in youth swimming and gymnastics, gymnastics (again), judo (in Abu Dhabi!), peace and sports, documentary film, climate innovation, healthiest countries, best hotels, refugee integration, education technology, sustainability, “genius companies,” NASCAR racing, and Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• Recent visitors to Israel include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese vice president Wang Qishan with 2 ministers and 12 deputy ministers, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, Punjab (India) Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Bundestag President (speaker of the German parliament) Wolfgang Schäuble, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet warship USS Ross, the bands America and Jethro Tull, actor Gerard Butler, German volunteers who renovate homes of Holocaust survivors, thousands of Jewish leaders at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America, and dozens of Israel supporters on a Swedish “friendship boat.”

September 2018

• American-Israeli Ari Fuld, 40, murdered by Palestinian teenager; fatally stabbed, he saves another’s life
• Hamas reignites violent protests at Gaza border
• Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman visited Georgia, Azerbaijan; signed security cooperation agreements
• Paraguay moves Jerusalem embassy back to Tel Aviv; in response, Israel closes Asunción embassy
• Medtronic buys Israeli surgical robotics company Mazor for $1.6 billion; Chinese companies acquire ColorChip for $300 million and medical device firm Keystone Heart; Mantis Vision buys AI startup BrainVu, TransEnterix purchases Medical Surgery Technologies; financing raised for business-intelligence platform Sisense ($80M), diagnostic company MeMed ($70M), fraud prevention company Forter ($50M), cancer-radiation therapy firm Alpha Tau ($29M)
• Israelis win international awards and honors in accessibility technology, high-school physics and chemistry, judo (again), gymnastics (again), innovative cybersecurity startup, cloud computing, top universities and universities for entrepreneurs, healthcare efficiency, film, and hot startups
• Recent visitors to Israel include Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Zulu King Nkosi Zwelakhe Mthethwa, Hong Kong’s Finance Minister Paul Chan, Prince Constantijn van Oranje of the Netherlands, Swedish heavy-metal musician Yngwie Malmsteen, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, singer Suzanne Vega, American veterans with PSTD on an archeological dig, Afghan children and a Kurdish-Iraqi baby for heart surgery, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and 1,500 boys and girls at the 50^th International Children’s Games

August 2018

• 19 Israelis injured after hundreds of rockets were launched from Gaza; IDF retaliates against Hamas headquarters and other targets; confrontation ends with an uneasy ceasefire
• Mossad blamed for assassination of senior Syrian rocket scientist
• Israeli Air Force appoints first female flight squadron commander
• Pepsi buys Israeli drink-machine maker SodaStream for $3.2 Billion; Israeli high-tech firms raised $1.6 billion in Q2/2018; Standard & Poor’s upgrades Israel’s credit rating
• Israelis win international awards and honors in women’s 10,000-meter run, gymnastics (and another and another), windsurfing, Paralympic swimming, blind bowling, sustainable-development business, top universities, high-school robotics, debate, sports technology, travel destinations, and highest-paid actresses
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee; the head of Egyptian intelligence, the Greek warship HS Prometheus with hundreds of cadets, sailors and officers; reggae star Ziggy Marley, Beach Boys icon Brian Wilson, Canadian rocker Alanis Morissette, Columbian superstar musician Carlos Vives; legendary New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera; 40 American student-government leaders as well as 30 College Democrats and College Republicans leaders; 73 young scientists for a summer program at the Weizmann Institute, African agriculture specialists, Yemeni-Egyptian writer and activist Dr. Elham Manea, first Birthright group from Uganda, 10 American firefighters, Cypriot soccer team Apoel Nicosia, thousands of hot-air balloon pilots and fans, and 293,400 other tourists in July 2018.

July 2018

• July ust4 2018 ceasefire ends a day of heavy shelling in Israel’s south—rockets and mortars from Gaza, IAF air strikes on Hamas targets
• Yotam Ovadia, 31, murdered in a stabbing attack in West Bank settlement of Adam
• Israel evacuates 800 civil-defense volunteers from Syria
• IDF shoots down Syrian fighter jet that penetrated Israeli airspace
• Israel passes controversial “Jewish nation-state” law
• IDF Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi, 21, killed by sniper fire from Gaza
• Israeli will head UN Human Rights Committee
• Israeli and French navies conduct joint exercises
• S. and Israel establish joint energy cooperation center
• Dutch firm com buys Israeli online food ordering firm 10bis for $158 million; Facebook acquires social email startup Redkix
• Israelis win international awards and honors in most powerful countries (again), research universities, emergency-medicine technology, youth basketball, tennis (again), girls’ chess, windsurfing, economic returns from technology innovation, and technology for the aging population
• Recent visitors to Israel include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian military chief Valery Gerasimov, U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani with other senior government officials from Indian state of Gujarat, World Jewish Congress leaders from more than 50 countries, 30 American first responders, NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, 5 Iraqi Yazidis training as medical clowns, lacrosse teams from almost 50 countries, NBA basketball star Draymond Green, English music star Ozzy Osbourne, Canadian rocker Alanis Morissette, pioneering grunge rock group Alice in Chains, electronic DJ duo The Chainsmokers, alternative rock musician Mark Lanegan, Colombian band Bomba Estereo, 20 Rwandan children for heart surgery, and a record 2.1 million tourists in the first half of 2018.

June 2018

• Arson kites and incendiary balloons from Gaza cause fires in southern Israel, destroying fields and damaging a nature preserve; Hamas fires rockets into Israel; IDF destroys Hamas undersea tunnel
• Philips buys cardiac imaging company EPD Solutions for $300 million
• Israelis win international awards and honors in wheelchair tennis, Tony music awards, counter-terrorism technology, World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers, UN Population Awards, ATM security, and university brands
• Israel participating in large international military drills in Europe and the Pacific
• Spanish cities of Valencia and nearby Sagunto vote to boycott Israel, but Spanish court rules such boycotts unconstitutional; Argentina’s national soccer team cancels game in Israel; U.S. Presbyterian Church condemns Israel
• Recent visitors to Israel include Britain’s Prince William, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Ireland’s deputy prime minister Simon Coveney, Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkēvičs, head of the Tibetan government-in-exile Lobsang Sangay,S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Indonesian Muslim Leader Yahya Staquf, Russia’s Military Police chief Vladimir Ivanovsky, former CIA Director Gen. (ret.) David Petraeus, the Philadelphia Orchestra, trauma-management experts from 16 countries, thousands of cyber-security professionals from 60 countries, 2,000 delegates to the AJC (American Jewish Committee) Global Forum, sports-science experts, former New York Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani; 21 U.S. police officers participating in the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, 10 American university presidents, ex-Beatle Sir Ringo Starr, singer-songwriter Don McLean (“American Pie”), Norwegian pop band A-ha, world-renowned Spanish opera singer (and Three Tenors member) José Carreras, legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis; French, Algerian and Moroccan dance troupe Hervé Koubi; Miss Iraq 2017, 3 elite fashion & beauty bloggers, and a rare blue whale.

May 2018

• An estimated 50,000 Palestinians—on a jihadi campaign for “return” organized by Hamas, funded by Iran—riot on Gaza border; dozens, most of them Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, killed while planting bombs, hurling rocks, or attempting to breach fence. Other Gazans fired live ammunition (including machine guns), planted IEDs at the fence, or launched arson kites and drones toward Israeli fields and homes.
• Dozens of mortars and rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, hitting a house and kindergarten and injuring 3 soldiers; mortar hits Gaza power line, cutting electricity to the Strip. IDF targets Hamas and Islamic Jihad installations, including submarines and a tunnel into Israel; Hamas announces unilateral ceasefire.
• New U.S. embassy opens in Jerusalem; Guatemala and Paraguay follow suit
• IDF strikes Iranian military targets and air-defense systems in Syria in response to Iranian rocket attacks on Israel. The U.S., Britain, EU, even Bahrain support Israeli action.
• Israel wins Eurovision song contest with “Toy” by Netta Barzilai
• Israel exposes captured secret Iranian nuclear files, supports U.S. withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal
• IDF Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky killed by marble slab dropped on him during West Bank arrest raid
• Israeli cabinet approves major funding to develop Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem
• Israel and Panama sign free trade deal
• Anti-Israel resolutions pass student governments at Barnard College and Univ. of Oregon; vote canceled at UC Santa Barbara; Louisiana bans state contracts with Israel-boycotting companies
• International Flavors & Fragrances acquires Frutarom for $7 billion, medical technology developer V-Wave raises $70 million; Tyson Foods invests in Israeli clean-meat startup Future Meat, Canon will acquire video-analytics firm BriefCam, Google buys cloud migration company Velostrata; Mexico’s TV Azteca invests $7M in social-music startup MUGO
• Israelis win international awards and honors in cybersecurity, innovation, film, Time’s Most Influential People, artificial-intelligence startups, and of course the Eurovision song contest
• Recent visitors to Israel include Japanese President Shinzo Abe, Guatemala president Jimmy Morales, Paraguay president Horacio Cartes, Panama president Juan Carlos Varela, former German president Christian Wulff, Minister-President of Flanders Geert Bourgeois; U.S. delegation opening the new embassy, led by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and 12 members of Congress; Norway’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, British members of Parliament, former U.S. presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, European intelligence officials, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, 176 cyclists from 22 teams at the Giro d’Italia bike race (including teams from Bahrain and the UAE), Brazilian soccer idol Ronaldinho, heads of 20 foreign air forces, sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, British jazz-funk band Jamiroquai, rapper Azealia Banks, German folk-pop duo Milky Chance, Cuban pop king Enrique Iglesias, English rock band alt-J, reggae rap superstar Matisyahu, thousands of food and agricultural-technology industry executives, international students at Model UN conference, 3,000 Christians from 40 countries at the March of the Nations, and 700 young entrepreneurs from 38 countries at the Forbes Under 30 summit.

April 2018

• 10 Israeli teens killed in flash flood during school trip near Dead Sea
• Hamas leads weekly riots on Gaza-Israel border; Palestinians hurl fire bombs, Molotov cocktails, burning tires, and explosive-laden kites across border, storm and attempt to breach fence; dozens of rioters and instigators killed
• Students at George Washington University and Barnard College vote to divest from Israel; 51 student groups at New York University pledge to boycott Israel; Dublin’s city council endorses BDS; city of Durham, NC bans police training with Israel; Cambridge, MA rejects BDS resolution; Wisconsin governor signs law prohibiting state agencies from participating in anti-Israel boycotts
• Technion-Israel Institute of Technology receives $50M gift to support a new quantum science & engineering center
• Palo Alto Networks acquires Israeli cybersecurity company Secdo for $100M, Medtronic buys surgery technology developer Visionsense for $75M, Nike buys computer vision startup Invertex, Porsche invests in AI startup Anagog, social investing platform eToro raises $100M, nutrition analytics firm Nutrino raises $8M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in cybersecurity deals, judo, rhythmic gymnastics, blind golf, Para shooting, youth Bible knowledge, green cities, population health, and healthy longevity
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, UN ambassadors from 40 countries, head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Joseph Votel, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich with other Intel executives and 300 Intel drones, 300 international technology investors and venture capitalists, 25 Eurovision contestants, European judo champions, Nineties boy band Backstreet Boys, and (again) a record number of tourists

March 2018

• Adiel Coleman (32) stabbed to death in Jerusalem; separately, IDF soldiers Ziv Daos (21) and Netanel Kahalani (20) killed in car-ramming attack on the West Bank
• Hamas instigates Palestinian riot along Israel-Gaza border; at least 10 Hamas members among Palestinian casualties
• Israel admits 2007 attack on Syrian nuclear facility
• The UN Human Rights Council passes five anti-Israel resolutions
• Coalition crisis ends without new elections
• Israel’s unemployment rate reaches 45-year low
• Florida governor signs anti-BDS bill; students at the University of Minnesota and Trinity College Dublin adopt anti-Israel resolutions; University of Illinois and Univ. of Ottawa students reject similar measures; two Spanish courts overturn cities’ Israel boycott
• KLA-Tencor to buy Israeli tech firm Orbotech for $3.4 billion; Broadridge acquires startup ActivePath; transit-app company Moovit raises $50m
• Israel strengthens ties with Zambia
• Israelis win international awards and honors in judo, top universities in Asia, luxury hotels, photography, youth handball, ju-jitsu, and paramedic training in Ecuador; Israel named world’s 11^thhappiest country and one of its strongest economies
• Recent visitors to Israel include a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki, now-U.S. Undersecretary of State Heather Nauert, U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and 10 other Democratic lawmakers, former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi, UK Government Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues Sir Eric Pickles, 2,000 American sailors and soldiers aboard the aircraft carrier USS Iwo Jima, the vice president of Greece’s opposition party Adonis Georgiadis, 750 HP customers from 50 countries, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, CBS News president David Rhodes, ‘Superman’ actor Dean Cain, actress Mayim Bialik, American guitarist Steve Vai, 19 heads of prestigious Latin American universities, 11 members of the New York State Assembly, 24 student leaders from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, 7 American professional football players, three teen survivors of Florida school shooting, over 200 Caribbean-American pastors and congregants, and 4,000 runners from 72 countries participating in the Jerusalem Marathon

February 2018

• Israel intercepts Iranian drone from Syria, targets launch vehicle; after F-16 downed, Israeli Air Force destroys Syrian-Iranian air defense installations
• Police recommend indicting Prime Minister Netanyahu on corruption charges
• Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal (29) stabbed to death by Arab-Israel teen; two IDF soldiers attacked by mob in Jenin, rescued by Palestinian Authority police
• Four IDF soldiers injured by IED on Gaza border; Israel retaliates against Hamas targets
• Israeli & Egyptian companies sign 10-year, $15 billion natural gas deal
• BDS initiatives fail at Northeastern Univ. and Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP)
• Israel strengthens ties with Greece and India; relations with Poland strained following controversial “Polish Holocaust Law”
• Israelis win international awards and honors in film, top universities in Asia, Olympic ice skating, Judo, luxury hotels, most educated countries, most innovative companies, and civil defense cooperation with Panama
• Recent visitors to Israel include senior Russian government officials, 49 representatives of 25 countries’ parliaments, members of the Brazilian Senate and Congress, 30 mayors from around the world, Serbian National Assembly President Maja Gojkovic, thousands of U.S. soldiers and Marines for Juniper Cobra joint exercise with IDF, seven current and former NFL players, U.S. Representative Alan Clemmons (R-SC), U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, former CIA director Gen (Ret.) David Petraeus and another 15,000 attendees from 80 countries at CyberTech conference; thousands of investors from over 90 countries at OurCrowd Summit, nine Arab journalists from Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria; American business accelerator executives; and huge flocks of starlings.

January 2018

• U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visits Israel, prays at Western Wall, speaks at Knesset, promises embassy move in 2019
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits India, warmly received
• Rabbi Raziel Shevach (35), father of 6, murdered in West Bank drive-by shooting
• UN indefinitely postpones settlement blacklist
• Student government at Ohio State passes anti-Israel divestment resolution; New Orleans City Council rescinds BDS-backed human rights resolution
• Record Israeli exports in 2017 exceed $100 billion; Israeli high-tech companies raised $5.24B in 620 deals
• SuperMeat, an Israeli startup developing lab-made chicken meat, raises $3 million
• Israel signs new trade agreements with India, expanded air transport agreement with Canada
• Israelis win international awards and honors in architecture, artificial intelligence, sustainability, consumer-electronics startups, powerful and innovative countries, and WeWork Creator awards
• Recent visitors to Israel include, in addition to US VP Pence, the foreign ministers of Germany Sigmar Gabriel, Norway Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide and of Ireland Simon Coveney, American comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, Egyptian sociologist Saad Eddin, 1,000 emergency responders from 35 countries, 80 college students from 13 countries for a coding and entrepreneurship fellowship, and 200 African-Americans from New York

December 2017

• President Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, announces embassy move from Tel Aviv; UN resolution condemning the move faces U.S. veto in Security Council, but passes in the General Assembly (128 countries for, 9 against, 35 abstentions, 21 absent); in response, U.S. cuts funding for UN
• Guatemala announces it, too, will move its embassy to Jerusalem; Honduras and Panama follow; others may come soon
• U.S. House of Representatives passes Taylor Force Act targeting Palestinian funding for terrorists
• Rockets from Gaza hit southern Israel and are intercepted by Iron Dome; IDF retaliates, targeting Hamas infrastructure
• IDF destroys Hamas tunnel into Israel
• Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Israel signed an MOU for constructing an underwater gas pipeline
• Following U.S., Israel announces withdrawal from UNESCO
• New Jersey has divested from Danish Danske bank due to its Israel boycott; New Zealander singer Lorde canceled planned Israel concert
• Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to buy Israeli QR code startup Visualead; Israeli startups raised over $4.6 billion so far in 2017
• Israel’s Elbit Systems wins $46M NATO contract
• Israelis win international awards and honors for artificial intelligence, digital education, film, young scientists, most prolific inventors, innovative technology, antibiotic-resistance research, water security, para table-tennis, and GQ’s Wonder Woman of the Year
• Recent visitors to Israel include parliament heads from six African nations (Ghana, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda); Florida Governor Rick Scott with a delegation of nearly 70 Florida business and education leaders; the head of Britain’s armed forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, and the Royal Navy’s flagship vessel, the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean; presidents of leading American universities, 150 German-speaking Jewish leaders, 30 Jewish social-media mavens, 19 law-enforcement officials from Massachusetts, senior medical professionals from 20 countries for mass-casualty training; an interfaith delegation from Bahrain, a Syrian refugee baby for life-saving surgery, and 3.6 million others (including 48,000 Birthright participants) in the first 11 months of 2017

November 2017

• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Kenya; meets with leaders of African nations Rwanda, Gabon, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, South Sudan, Botswana, Namibia and Ethiopia.
• Israel deploys Iron Dome aerial defense system aboard a naval ship to protect offshore energy resources and maritime and coastal installations
• Germany’s Continental AG buys Israeli startup Argus Cyber Security for $400 million (est.)
• Anti-Israel BDS resolutions were defeated at the University of Maryland and University of Ottawa, but passed at the University of Michigan and York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies; a court in Seville, Spain, halted a boycott of Israeli products by the City Council of La Roda de Andalucia
• Israelis win international awards and honors in cardiovascular innovation, film, innovative use of underground space (a cemetery!) and soccer in China.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the speaker of the Swedish parliament Urban Ahlin, Illinois governor Bruce Rauner with a university delegation, mayor of San Antonio (Texas) Ron Nirenberg with a trade delegation, officials from the U.S. National Security Council, UK Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and (now former) Secretary of State  for International Development Priti Patel, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, Russian spy chief Sergey Naryshkin, hundreds of pilots and air support team members from 7 countries, 45 members of the Indian military, mobile- and financial-technology investors, “Saturday Night Live” actress and comedian Michaela Watkins, rock star Boy George and his band Culture Club, Australian rocker Nick Cave, international entrepreneurs and journalists, 110 Turkish volunteers (including descendants of Ottoman sultans), and tens of thousands of migrating cranes.

October 2017

• IDF destroys tunnel from Gaza into Israel, killing 12 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants
• Israeli Air Force destroys a Syrian surface-to-air missile battery that had previously fired towards IAF planes
• Israel discovers Russian hack of classified U.S. materials via Kaspersky antivirus software
• U.S. Army will use Israeli Trophy system to protect American tanks
• Israeli representative was elected by the General Assembly to UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
• Chinese company Playtika acquires Israel’s Jelly Button Games; data-storage company Infinidat raises $95 million on $1.6B valuation; funding also secured for medical-technology companies CathWorks ($16M), Magenta Medical ($15M), farming company Phytech ($11M), Agumedics ($8M), Elivex ($8M), Colospan ($7M), Vensica ($2M), and ElastiMed ($1M) and automotive-tech companies Via ($250M), Innoviz ($65M), and StoreDot ($60 million); Israeli high-tech funding reaches record amount in Q3/2017; Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba launches Israeli research hub
• The governors of Wisconsin and Maryland forbid state contracts with Israel-boycotting companies; Green Party of Bavaria (Germany), Austrian National Union of Students, and students at the University of Winnipeg (Canada) reject BDS campaign; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the campaign to boycott Israel the product of a “leftist-Islamist alliance … a totalitarian ideology”; peasants and farmers wing of the Communist Party of India joined the BDS movement; McGill Student Society removes pro-Israel students from board
• Israelis win international awards and honors in gymnastics, Judo, Thai boxing, tennis, NASCAR; Paralympic rowing, youth swimming, and bocce; food security, footbridges, best bars, and McArthur “genius” grants. Gold-medalist Judoka Tal Flicker sings Israeli national anthem after host UAE bars Israeli symbols.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull, Governor-General of New Zealand (head of state) Patricia Reddy, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, American Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, 26 parliamentarians from 14 countries, American sailors and officers aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard, 130 Christian journalists from 30 countries, venture capitalists, automotive and alternative-fuel executives, legendary British singer Sir Cliff Richard, Colombian pop star Singer Malum, Spain’s national soccer team, descendants of Australian soldiers who fought in Palestine in World War I, thousands of Christian pilgrims, and Puerto Rican survivors of Hurricane Maria.

September 2017

• Palestinian terrorist opens fire at settlement check point, killing policeman Solomon Gavriyah and security guards Youssef Ottman and Or Arish
• Israeli rescue team warmly received by Mexico earthquake survivors; other Israeli aid teams arrive in Florida, Texas, and Haiti
• Prime Minister Netanyahu visits Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico; meets in New York with President Trump, Egyptian president Sisi
• Israeli jets reportedly struck a chemical-weapons and missile facility in Syria
• Israeli Supreme Court strikes down ultra-Orthodox draft exemption, allows restaurants to claim kosher status without official Rabbinate approval
• Esther Hayut unanimously elected next Israeli Supreme Court president
• On the eve of Rosh HaShanah 5778, Israel’s population tops 8.7 million. Its birth rate of 3.11 is the highest among developed nations.
• Israel expresses support for Kurdish independence
• The British Secretary of Communities, the student parliament at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, and the King of Bahrain denounce boycott of Israel; mayor of Berlin will deny city resources to BDS groups; Canada’s largest private-sector labor union adopts BDS motion
• Israeli pharma giant Teva sells assets for $1.38 billion; SAP buying identity-software company Gigya for $350M; Daimler invests $60M in fast-charging battery technology company StoreDot; IBM is buying the Israeli data center start-up Cloudigo; Bet Shemesh Engine will supply $640M of jet-engine parts to Pratt & Whitney
• Israeli exports up 6%, foreign investment in Israel up 7% year-over-year, to $12.6B; foreign-currency reserves at record high
• Israel strengthens ties with Switzerland, Latin American countries, Bahrain and other Arab states
• Israelis win international awards and honors in drug research, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Paralympic table tennis, soccer, basketball, judo, high-school debate, film, blind bowling, London restaurants, and automotive cyber-security
• Recent visitors to Israel include Iowa governor Kim Reynolds with members of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel with a trade delegation and mayors of 8 other U.S. cities, 52 American law-enforcement officers from 12 states, water professionals, 1,200 agriculture students from Asia and Africa, Kurdish activist Diliman Abdulkader, officials from the University of Arizona and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México signing a cooperation agreement with Ben Gurion University, singer Chrissie Hynde with The Pretenders, Russian ice-skating Olympic champion Yulia Lipnitskaya for medical treatment, 7 international “mega-bloggers,” 253,800 tourists in August (including Bangladeshi-born Shadman Zaman), and (maybe) Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

August 2017

• Israeli crisis unit helping Hurricane Harvey victims
• City of Frankfurt (Germany) outlaws municipal funding for anti-Israel BDS activities
• S&P upgrades Israel’s debt outlook
• Mexican firm to invest in Israeli drip-irrigation company Netafim at $1.9B value; Australian company buys social gaming firm Plarium for $500M; Signet Jewelers to buy online jewelry retailer R2Net for $328M; depth-sensor company Oryx Vision raises $50M, digital testing company Applause sold to U.S. investors;
• Israel strengthens ties with African Muslim-majority countries Senegal and Guinea
• Israelis win international awards and honors in teen kickboxing, tennis, judo, triple jumping, innovation institutions, and health systems
• Recent visitors to Israel include 51 Members of both parties in U.S. Congress, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, 28 American West Point cadets and Naval Academy midshipmen, 60 European teen basketball players and an American National Basketball Association delegation led by Commissioner Adam Silver, 12 international modern-dance troupes, comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien, Actor Jonathan Lipnicki, and dissident Iranian blogger Neda Amin

July 2017

• Three Israeli Arabs shoot & kill two Israeli Druze policemen at Temple Mount; Israeli authorities closed the Mount for two days, then installed metal detectors at the entrance, then removed them after deadly riots and installed security cameras instead; Palestinians celebrate victory; Palestinian Authority urges “struggle,” freezes security cooperation with Israel
• A 19 year old Palestinian stabbed to death Yossi Salomon (70), his daughter Chaya (46) and son Elad (36) at their Shabbat dinner table at their Halamish (Neve Tzuf) family home
• Israeli security guard shot and killed a Jordanian attacker who stabbed him and a passerby at the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, prompting a recall of embassy staff to Israel and a diplomatic rift between Israel and Jordan
• Avi Gabbay wins Israeli Labor Party primaries
• UNESCO adopts resolutions denying Jewish history in Hebron and Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem
• Israel signs water deal and ‘historic’ energy agreement with Palestinian Authority
• North Carolina becomes 22^nd state to pass anti-BDS legislation; Mennonite Church USA to divest from companies doing business in Israeli-occupied territories; United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ condemn Israeli treatment of Palestinian children; statement against Israel boycotts from top entertainment-industry executives, the Pitzer College board of trustees, and a Tunisian NGO; City Council of Onda (Spain) cancels Israel boycott; Canada required special labels for Israeli settlement wines, then promptly reversed the requirement
• Israel strengthens ties with India, Ukraine, the central European countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic) and Tanzania
• Israeli pharmaceutical company NeuroDerm acquired for $1.1 billion by Japanese pharma giant; Symantec acquiring cybersecurity company Fireglass for $250M; Toyota invests $14 million in Intuition Robotics; cybersecurity company PerimeterX raises $23M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in biomedical research, universities for math, best airports, cancer research, agricultural innovation, exact sciences, digital innovation, cybersecurity, high-school chemistry, tennis, “iconic houses,” under-20 basketball, and most popular actor (“Wonder Woman” Gal Gadot)
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of India Narendra Modi and of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadéra, Prime Ministers of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman and of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Rwanda President Paul Kagame, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush with thousands of sailors and officers, investors in frontier technologies (augmented reality/virtual reality, sensors, computer vision, robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles, and space), legendary bands Radiohead and Guns N Roses, the Pixies, pop diva Britney Spears, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (the Jersey Boys), UN ambassadors from 9 countries; 10,000 athletes from 80 countries (including Ronald, son of Brazil’s legendary soccer player Ronaldo) for Maccabiah (“Jewish Olympics”) games, 75 Christian, Jewish and Muslim youth on an interfaith peace summit, Yazidi activists, super sperm-donor (“Sperminator”) Ari Nagel, University of Pennsylvania students, and 10 American pilots who volunteered for Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War

June 2017

• 23-year-old Border Policewoman Hadas Malka fatally stabbed by a terrorist in Jerusalem
• Israeli government suspends plans for egalitarian prayer at Western Wall, prompting sharp protests from Jewish Agency, American Conservative and Reform Jews, and Israeli opposition and other leaders
• Shelling from Syria spills over into Israeli Golan, raising tensions
• President Trump extended the waiver allowing the U.S. Embassy to remain in Tel Aviv, but reiterated his intent to move it to Jerusalem in the future
• Modern Language Association rejects BDS resolution; Kansas and North Carolina pass anti-BDS laws; Swiss Parliament votes to end funding to BDS organizations; Spanish courts reverse city boycotts
• Israeli esthetic medical products company Syneron Medical acquired for $397 million; Microsoft buys Israeli cloud-solutions firm Cloudyn for $50-70M, Honeywell acquires cybersecurity company Nextnine for $35M; Porsche invests in Israeli automotive innovation; Israeli startups raise over $400M in June, including $8M for career-search AI company Workey
• Israel renews diplomatic relations with Nicaragua and strengthens ties with India and New Zealand; Israel’s UN ambassador elected VP of the General Assembly session
• Israelis win international awards and honors in IoT security, Paralympic kayaking, top universities, literature (the Man Booker International Prize), tennis, cool startups, and vodka-label design.
• Recent visitors to Israel include the president of Pacific island nation Nauru Baron Waqa, American UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Indian Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, White House advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Democratic and Republican campaign officials, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Albanian national soccer team, sports industry leaders, cyber security and education technology experts, Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, British electronic duo Pet Shop Boys and rock stars Rod Stewart and Tom Jones, 18 pro football Hall of Famers, 10 former high-ranking US military officials, Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, artists and performers from Mediterranean countries, female Australian business leaders, about 30,000 participants in the Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade, a Birthright group from India, and a record 347,000 tourists in May.

May 2017

• UNESCO resolution denying Israeli links to Jerusalem slammed by U.S. & Israel, applauded by Palestinians
• Czech Parliament recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
• UN removes support and Norway demands return of funds for Palestinian women’s center named after terrorist
• Governors of all 50 U.S. states signed statement rejecting the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign; Nevada and Texas passed anti-BDS laws; BDS motions failed at Spanish city Lérida, student senates of George Washington Univ., UC Santa Barbara, and Teaching Support Staff Union at Simon Fraser Univ., but passed at California State University (CSU) Long Beach; leader of Norway’s main opposition group condemns trade union Israel boycott vote; other anti-BDS statements from Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Rep. Shelley Berkeley, and the Berlin Social Democratic Party.
• Microsoft buys Israeli cyber security company Hexadite for $100 million; Canada’s Stingray Digital buys Yokee Music for $40 million, Dutch game developer GamePoint acquires Luck Genome for $12.5M
• Israel strengthens ties with Japan, India, and Canada’s Province of Québec
• Israelis win international awards and honors in medical research, agribusiness innovation (and another), young scientists, best country for women in the Middle East (a low bar!), chefs, high-school robotics, wheelchair tennis, and life expectancy
• Recent visitors to Israel include U.S. President Donald Trump (with wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, among others), German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard with a large trade delegation, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Archbishop of Canterbury, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, U.S. Air Force pilots taking part in a joint exercise, U.S. Navy ship USS Ross, pop superstar Justin Bieber, rock legends Aerosmith, three Indian navy ships, Jordanian sheikhs, a nearly 1,000-strong ”Mega-Mission” from Montreal, transportation executives, and a record almost 350,000 tourists in April (plus at least one rare bird, a long-billed dowitcher)

April 2017

• Israel intercepts drone from Syria, reportedly strikes arms cache near Damascus airport after Iranian cargo arrives
• Gaza women, entering Israel for medical treatment, tried to smuggle explosives
• On eve of 69^th (re-)birthday, Israel’s population is 8.7 million: 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, 5% other
• All 100 U.S. Senators signed a letter to UN Secretary General warning the UN to stop anti-Israel bias
• Anti-boycott motions pass state legislatures in Kansas and Texas; European Union rejects commercial boycotts;  boycott and divestment measures fail at Bath University, Columbia University, University of British Columbia, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, but passes student senate at Tufts University (then rejected by trustees) and Pitzer College; Ohio purchases record $61M in Israel Bonds
• Apple buys Israeli cybersecurity startup RealFace; Snap acquires Israeli photo-filter patent, U.S. private equity firm buys e-commerce platform R2Net at $300M valuation, SeatGeek acquires ticketing software company TopTix for $56M, MRI systems developer Aspect Imaging raises $30M
• Israelis win international awards and honors in innovation (and another), universities, gymnastics, amputee marathon, and honey; Israeli economy ranked world’s 3^rd most stable
• Recent visitors to Israel include Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades (again); U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis; German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, the energy ministers of Greece, Italy, and Cyprus; UK International Trade Minister Lord Price; U.S. Vice Admiral James Syring, Director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency; 28 Eurovision Song Contest contestants, former antisemite and granddaughter of founder of the Westboro Baptist Church Megan Phelps-Roper; deputy prime minister of Azerbaijan for medical treatment, and a record 739,000 tourists in the first quarter of 2017

March 2017

• Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing
• Israel approves first new settlement in 20 years, will limit future settlement growth
• UN anti-Israel report withdrawn, after rejection by UN Secretary General and U.S. outrage; head of issuing body resigns; Britain criticizes “unacceptable” anti-Israel bias of UN Human Rights Council
• Israeli-American teen arrested for JCC bomb threats
• Intel acquires Israeli automotive tech firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion (!); Chinese electronics giant Midea acquires Servotronix for $170 million; Palo Alto Networks acquires cybersecurity firm LightCyber for $130M
• Anti-boycott motions pass state legislatures in Arkansas, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Switzerland and adopted by Spain’s ruling party; Israel boycott and divestment proposals defeated at Georgetown Univ., Ohio State University, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Western Ontario, but passed at the University of Michigan-Dearborn; Student Council at University of Turin (Italy) votes to boycott the Technion
• Israel renews diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, strengthens ties with China, Vietnam, and Cambodia
• Israelis win international awards and honors in baseball, photography, ecological architecture, fencing, artificial-intelligence startups, water innovation, and Germany’s Order of Merit; Israel ranked among world’s healthiest, happiest, and most powerful countries
• Recent visitors to Israel include the President of Slovakia Andrej Kiska, Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel, President of Zambia Edgar Lungu with 9 members of his cabinet, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, U.S. lawmakers considering Embassy relocation to Jerusalem, UNESCO ambassadors, President Trump’s advisor Jason Greenblatt, German politicians and journalists, Brazilian political leaders, the head of U.S. European Command Gen. General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, actors Richard Gere and Hugh Laurie, top executives of major U.S. television networks (CNN, Fox TV, NBC, HBO), travel professionals and bloggers, legendary rock band Yes, British DJ Fatboy Slim and comedian Eddie Izzard, Iranian dissident musician Shahin Najafi, Canadians with special needs, hundreds of sick children from Gaza for medical treatment in Israel, thousands of Egyptian Coptic Christian pilgrims, 975 Diaspora Jewish dads, and 234,000 other tourists in February

February 2017

• Prime Minister Netanyahu met in London with British Prime Minister Teresa May, in the White House with President Donald Trump, in Singapore with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and in Sydney, Australia with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
• Following court ruling, Israel forcibly evacuates illegal settlement outpost Amona; Knesset passes controversial Regulation Law, retroactively legalizing other settlements built on private Palestinian land
• Islamic State in Gaza launched four rockets toward Eilat; three were intercepted by Iron Dome; no injuries reported
• Israel’s economy grew at an annual rate of 6.2% during the fourth quarter of 2016; unemployment fell, exports and foreign reserves  increased, the budget deficit was reduced, and private equity investments hit a record high.
• Apple buys Israeli  Facial Recognition Firm RealFace; Celanese Corp. acquires Israeli plastics company Nilit Plastics for an estimated $250 million.
• Israel strengthens ties with India, Japan, Turkey, many African countries, and even Qatar
• Israelis win international awards and honors in cryptography, R&D spending, startup schools, best countries to raise a family, and the German government’s Knight Commander’s Cross
• Recent visitors to Israel include Turkey’s Minister of Tourism Nabi Avci, NFL (American professional football) players, actor/martial artist Chuck Norris, the band Coldplay, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, Marseilles celebrity chef Lionel Levy, university provosts and deans, Indonesian Muslim leaders, Latin American youth leaders, Brown University student leaders, 5,000 delegates from 80 countries to crowdfunding conference, Australian Aborigine leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine, 1,800 runners at Tel Aviv Marathon, and 210,000 tourists in January (including tens of thousands of Chinese tourists)

January 2017

• ISIS-inspired, Hamas-blessed terrorist rams truck into soldiers in Jerusalem, killing Yael Yekutiel (20), Shir Hajaj (22), Shira Tzur (20), and Erez Orbach (20)
• Police officer Sgt. Maj. Erez Levi (34) killed in car-ramming attack amid demonstration over demolition of illegal construction in Bedouin village Umm al-Hiran
• Prime Minister Netanyahu under two separate corruption investigations, one involving allegedly inappropriate gifts from a wealthy businessman, the other for alleged collusion with a newspaper publisher
• Israeli soldier who shot a disarmed terrorist in Hebron convicted of manslaughter
• Israel’s High Court rules for women’s prayer at Western Wall
• Israel deploys Arrow-3 long-range missile defense system, capable of intercepting nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles; successfully tests David’s Sling, designed to stop long-range rockets, drones and cruise missiles
• U.S. Congress rejects anti-settlement UN Security Council Resolution 2334
• Microsoft invests in Israeli cyber security company Illusive Networks; Israel tech companies raised record $4.8b in 2016, and exits total $10b
• Michigan passes anti-BDS legislation; Modern Language Association rejects Israel boycott (and future boycott motions), as does (for the third time) the American Historical Association; Valencia region adopts Israel boycott while another Spanish town reverses BDS endorsement
• Israelis win international awards and honors in mathematics, Bible knowledge, travel destinations, junior tennis, blind golf, Sahara Desert motorcycle race, great world powers, innovative economies, clean technology, hotels, and restaurants
• Israel strengthens ties with Brazil, Egypt, Turkey, the Vatican, and NATO
• Recent visitors to Israel include Polish President Andrzej Duda, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma, Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende, French Senate president Gérard Larcher, members of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, the Minister of Finance and a trade delegation from British Columbia, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker with dozens of 50 business and academic leaders, former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus, former New York Mayor and President Trump cyber security advisor Rudy Giuliani, South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (daughter of Robert Kennedy), former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, 10 Jewish major league baseball players,  Hollywood TV stars, over 80 Columbia University graduate students, a delegation of French physicians, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ winner Eliana Girard, English comedian Ashley Blaker, 350 young professionals from around the world, 5 bloggers with over 10 million combined followers, wounded Syrians seeking medical treatment, and 2.9 million others in 2016, plus dozens of sharks off the Mediterranean coast

December 2016

• UN Security Council, with U.S. abstention, passes “shameful” Resolution 2334 condemning all “settlement activity,” including in Jewish areas of Jerusalem; decision excoriated from the right and from the left