The Israel Brand

There has been a lot of debate lately about our efforts to enhance Israel’s brand in the world. It’s true that Israel’s public advocates, i.e.- us young consulari’s down here in the trenches blogging with ambition- work under constant criticism, and are rarely praised for our successes, not that we care or anything. Anyway, we came across this article in Ynet which does a much better job summing up what our long term branding project isrealli all about.

Branding Israel

Effort to brand Israel aimed at enabling outsiders to connect with Israeli reality

Michael C. Kotzin

Research has shown that a very limited, in many ways distorted, image of Israel and its people has been allowed to shape the standard perceptions in the United States and other Western countries.

This is in part because of the relentless circulation of a false view by Israel’s antagonists. It is also in part because of media outlets that find pictures of armed Israelis in uniform and of a concrete wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem - and, let it be said, of black-clad bearded men in prayer next to the Western Wall - to represent the “typical” Israel. And it is in part because the friends of Israel and those making Israel’s case have not been fully conscious of the problem or of ways to address it.

Continue reading The Israel Brand…

Beware NYC, Lev Leviev is Coming

We wrote a few days ago about the Israeli billionaire who recently purchased the historic NYT building which gave the famous square its name. Well today NY Mag’s Intelligencer did a little rundown on our compatriot’s doings in the world.

Meet the Mogul
The Putin pal who just bought the old New York Times Building.
By Ben Smith

Lev Leviev’s $525 million purchase last week of the Times Building on West 43rd Street represents a coming-out party for the Soviet-born, Israel-based Lubavitcher diamond merchant. He now owns huge swaths of Brooklyn and a growing number of Manhattan trophies—and he’s just getting started. “We are going to expand dramatically in the next year,” says Rotem Rosen, the chief of the American branch of Leviev’s holding company, Africa-Israel. Here’s everything you need to know about the new billionaire (worth $2.6 billion, says Forbes) on the block…

Get the lodown at NY Mag

King Herod’s Tomb Discovered in Israel

In an amazing archaeological discovery today Professor Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University announced that his team has uncovered King Herod’s long lost tomb. This is amazing on many levels, none of which are we, here at isrealli, qualified to discuss. So instead, we bring you the New York Times (which may or may not be qualified as well, but that’s for you to decide):

Lost, Then Found: Herod’s Tomb
By Mike Nizza

For decades, archaeologists looking for the tomb of King Herod have focused on one site in particular, based on an account in the first volume of “The Wars of the Jews,” written by the first-century historian Flavius Josephus.

Josephus wrote that a 25-mile funeral procession for the Roman Empire’s man in Judea and the great builder of Jerusalem ended at “Herodium, where he had given order to be buried,” according to a translation at The Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Instead of continuing on about the procession’s final steps, and perhaps revealing further clues about the tomb’s location, the historian evidently considered the chapter done with the next sentence.

“And this shall suffice for the conclusion of the life of Herod,” he wrote.
The omission sets up what The Los Angeles Times has called “one of the Holy Land’s greatest archeological mysteries.”

Continue reading King Herod’s Tomb Discovered in Israel…

Parading on 5th Ave

Everyone who lives in NY knows that fancy 5th ave apartments on the Park come at a steep price. Not only do they cost a gazillion bucks, but you have all those Parades to deal with. The Israel Day Parade was only the latest in a never ending march of humanity on Museum Mile.

From the Daily News:

Thousands of supporters of Israel march in New York

Thousands of Israel supporters marched up Fifth Avenue on Sunday in the Salute to Israel Parade commemorating the 1948 founding of the Jewish state.

Marchers sang “Hava Nagila,” and waved the Star of David flag; many carried colorful paper torches indicating that Israel is the Biblical “light unto the nations.”

“It brings a tear to my eye,” said Devora Cohen, a tourist from Tel Aviv who watched the parade. “I’m very happy.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg led off the parade accompanied by Mayor Uri Lupolianski of Jerusalem.

Continue reading Parading on 5th Ave…

Israel Saves Intel

In recent tech news we learn of a team of Israeli computer engineers who have put the spunk back into Intel’s processors. It’s amazing how much of the latest and greatest in high-tech comes out of “Silicon Wadi” these days.

From The Seattle Times:

How Israel saved Intel
By Ian King

Bloomberg News

Five hundred employees and guests crowded under a white tent half the length of a football field at Intel’s Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters as Chief Executive Paul Otellini put his company’s newest line of computer chips through their paces.

“These are the best microprocessors we’ve ever designed, the best microprocessors we’ve ever built,” Otellini said. “This is not just incremental change; it’s a revolutionary leap.”

Otellini’s pronouncement relegated to obsolescence Intel’s Pentium chip, which once powered more than 80 percent of the world’s personal computers. That wasn’t the only surprise last July.

A camera zoomed in on engineers in lab coats in Haifa, Israel. The video revealed that the chip Intel is counting on to recover from a battering by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) wasn’t invented in Silicon Valley. Instead, Intel is betting on a group of Israeli mavericks and a design bureau 7,400 miles away.

Shmuel Eden, former head of the Israel Development Center, where the new Core 2 Duo was created, says he’s fed up with the perception that Intel’s prowess is fading.

Continue reading Israel Saves Intel…

59 more reasons why I love Israel

Today the JPOST brings us 59 reasons to love Israel. Enjoy:

1. ABC’s Good Morning America chose Jerusalem as one of the Seven Wonders of the world, and they were right. 2. There’s more to unearth. King David was the first king to rule Jerusalem, but his palace was only revealed in the City of David this year. 3. JNF forest rangers remained in the forests to put out fires while Katyushas were falling. 4. Twenty-five thousand volunteers helped replant the forests that did burn. 5. Six thousand spunky Israelis who left their homes during the war pretended they were vacationing on the beach. 6. While Intel Haifa workers were working in an underground shelter, Intel announced the new multi-core processor developed there. 7. During the Lebanon War, a northern kids’ butterfly center was moved to Tel Aviv. 8. Russian-speaking immigrants in the Haifa shelters offered hospitality to the American tourists who came to show solidarity. 9. We ask tourists why they don’t move here (even when the bombs are falling). 10. Banners on tourist buses reveal where the tourists hail from because we care.

Continue reading 59 more reasons why I love Israel…

Milking the Media for All its Worth: ABC.com

The MSM can’t get enough of the fact that we happened to help Maxim Mag with a photo shoot in Israel. Yes the photo shoot helps us portray a different image of Israel to curious young American males, but all of these professional journos act as if all we do is read boy magazines and think of ways to objectify our co-nationals… well hmmm, on second thought…

From ABC.com:

Babes and Bikinis: Israel Plans to Revamp Its Image
Israeli Officials Have Approached a Men’s Magazine to Promote a More Positive Image of Their Country

All countries carry a certain stereotype: Some associate pasta and emotion with Italy, the queen and bad weather with Britain, flashing lights and high-speed trains with Japan, and conflict and religion with Israel.

Israeli officials at the consulate in New York have decided to try to rebrand the negative image associated with their country and have approached Maxim, dubbed America’s most-popular men’s magazine, to launch a public relations campaign to help them.

Continue reading Milking the Media for All its Worth: ABC.com…

Israeli Buys New York Times Building

Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev is poised to be the new owner of the building that gave Times Square it’s name. Great, just what NY needs; more condos.

From Reuters:

NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) - Israeli conglomerate Africa Israel Investments Ltd. (AFIL01.TA: Quote, Profile, Research said on Monday it will buy the New York Times Co. (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research building in midtown Manhattan for $525 million from privately held Tishman-Speyer.

A subsidiary made an initial payment of about $50 million, and would pay the remainder upon completion of the deal, the company said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Continue reading Israeli Buys New York Times Building…