Just in time for the hot tourism season, Delta Airlines launched its new daily service between Tel Aviv and New York this week. The airline says this new route will add 100,000 seats annually to accommodate for the tourism boom from last year. Israeli airliner El Al also plans to increase its number of weekly flights, creating some healthy competition in the skies. Fly on!

More from YNET

Looks like our cellphones are going to get all dressed up for the ball…

From the NYT:

February 7, 2008
Modu Unveils Flexible Phone With “Jacket” Range
By REUTERS
Filed at 12:02 a.m. ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With a nod to the notion that mobile phones have become fashion accessories, Israel’s Modu says it can make $1 billion in revenue by selling “jackets” for its tiny new cell phone that give the device new functions as well as a new look.

Start-up Modu’s plan is to sell a range of casings along with its cell phone so that consumers can cheaply transform phones into anything from a messaging device, a music player or a gaming device, according to founder Dov Moran.

The phone morphing system goes on sale with three service providers in Russia, Italy and Israel in October, around the same time the company expects top fashion houses to have developed phone jackets for style conscious users.

By January next year the phone will also slot into consumer electronics devices it calls “modu mates” such as digital photograph frames, cameras, clocks or navigation systems to give such devices wireless connectivity.

Israel plans to go electric by 2011. For the first time in history, we’ll see recharging stations and battery-exchange points to make electric cars practical on a mass scale. TIME magazine calls Israel’s new plan “far more sophisticated than anything that precedes it.” Now all we need are the matching futuristic jumpsuits.

From Time:

The Israeli government announced a major initiative to push the nation’s drivers toward electric cars on Monday, a move meant to both lessen dependence on foreign oil and address the environmental and health hazards of gas-burning vehicles.

It is not the first time a government has tried to promote electric cars on a mass scale. A 1990 California mandate requiring automakers to sell zero-emissions vehicles famously flopped. But the Israeli attempt is far more sophisticated than anything that precedes it. It aligns policy makers and a major car company with an outfit prepared to build hundreds of thousands of electric charging stations across the country. In an interview with TIME, Israeli President Shimon Peres called the project, “an experimental lab, a pilot project, before it’s applied to other, bigger industrialized nations.”

Automaker Renault-Nissan will manufacture the cars and Better Place, a California start-up founded by former SAP executive Shai Agassi, will build the infrastructure, which may eventually consist of 500,000 charging points and up to 200 battery-exchange stations. A pilot involving a few dozen cars will start later this year in Tel Aviv. A few hundred vehicles are expected to be on the road by 2009, with production scaled to the mass market by 2011. On Jan. 13, Israel slashed the tax rate on cars powered by electricity to 10% in order to encourage consumers to buy the vehicles once they are available.

Read full story here.

Watch a video from JerusalemOnline about Israel entrepreneur Shai Agasi and his electric car revolution.

Two bits of news this week that speak to the growing role of Israel in today’s global economy, mixing it up (as usual) with foreign business partners:

They’re buying us:
IBM has paid a reported $300-350 million to acquire XIV, a storage technology firm based in Tel Aviv. IBM picked up XIV to enhance “its position in emerging storage opportunities such as Web 2.0 applications, digital archives and digital information.” And it’s not as if IBM is a newcomer - they’ve been running operations in Israel since 1949.

And we’re buying them:
Israel Discount Bank has announced it will be purchasing an 11% stake in the Dutch firm Kardan Financial Services to “enable the bank to play a role in the financing sector in Eastern Europe through a strategic partner.”

Not bad for a country of 7.2 million that started out 59 years ago growing oranges.

This story speaks for itself. From our friends at Israel21c:

The secret weapon of the stars - Israeli bodyguards

By Susan Karlin December 09, 2007

Lindsay Lohan totes one to dance class. Eva Longoria takes one shopping. Jennifer and Brad shared one before their divorce.

It’s the latest celebrity craze since adopting African babies - an Israeli bodyguard with training from the Israel Defense Forces.

Recently, Lohan unveiled her new bodyguard - an unnamed ex-Israeli Army specialist. Kevin Federline’s lawyer hired IDF-trained Aaron Cohen, founder of the Beverly Hills-based IMS Security, to serve Britney Spears’ camp with subpoenas for their custody battle. Even that dubious friend to the Jews, Mel Gibson, has relied on one to part the waters for him. For more than a decade, Avi Korein was Gibson’s personal bodyguard before he opened his own Beverly Hills security firm, Screen International Security Services.

So what’s the allure of these Israeli security mavens? According to industry experts, it’s a combination of discretion and training.

The World Economic Forum has just announced its annual list of Technology Pioneers for 2008. Out of 273 nominees, 39 visionary companies were selected, including three Israeli companies!

The judging panel included some of the world’s leading technology experts, academics, and venture capitalists.

To be selected as a Technology Pioneer, a company must be involved in the development of life-changing technology innovation and have potential for long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership, show the signs of being a long-standing market leader – and its technology must be proven.

The 2008 Technology Pioneers are invited to participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting taking place in Davos, Switzerland from January 23-27, 2008.

Congratulations to the three Israeli companies that made the list:

Nothing against socially conscious Starbucks, but sometimes their coffee is a bit over-roasted and has the caffeine effect similar to that of jet fuel. So we welcome Elite’s arrival with open mouths and can vouch for its great taste.

From Globes:

Elite Coffee-To-Go to US

Strauss chair Ofra Strauss says the group is building on its experience with Max Brenner Chocolate.

Yael Gross-Englander 19 Nov 07

The Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STEL) coffee carts are set to enter the US market, group chairman Ofra Strauss told the annual conference of the Kibbutz Industry Assocation yesterday. The company operates its takeaway coffee business in Israel through the Elite Coffee-To-Go chain.

Strauss added that the success of its gourmet chocolate subsidiary Max Brenner Ltd. had prompted a rethink of the group’s retail strategy. “We’ve learned from Max Brenner how to manage a uniform international brand worldwide, and how to manage retail. This is a skill which, if we acquire it properly, will enable us to consider launching additional brands in the future,” she said.

Make way everyone. Israeli investor and real estate magnate Yitzhak Tshuva just imploded the old New Frontier casino to make way for a new vegas megaresort… awesome. I guess the days of 25¢ slots are long gone. No more blue headed grandmas clogging up the gaming floor…

Above is a rendering of the digs.

From AP:

New Frontier Casino Imploded
By RYAN NAKASHIMA – 3 hours ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The New Frontier casino-hotel was imploded early Tuesday, giving a violent end to the second property to open on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 16-story hotel tower was felled with over 1,000 pounds of explosives before a group of reporters and bystanders to make way for a multibillion-dollar resort bearing The Plaza brand, which is set to open in 2011.

Elad Group owner and Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, who is partnering to build an $8 billion megaresort where the New Frontier stood, shook hands and gave hugs after the tower went down.

An easterly breeze helped to quickly dissipate the dust.

Here’s the latest from “Telecom Israel” an annual event featuring the best of tech from Israel. Brought to you by Israel Up Close.