WhatFinger


Yoram Ettinger

Ambassador (Retired) Yoram Ettinger is an insider on US-Israel relations, Mideast politics and overseas investments in Israel's high tech. He is a consultant to members of the Israeli Cabinet and Knesset, and regularly briefs US legislators and their staff. A graduate of UCLA and undergraduate at UTEP, he served amongst other things, as Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israel's Embassy in Washington. He is the editor of "Straight from the Jerusalem Cloakroom and Boardroom" newsletters on issues of national security and overseas investments in Israel's high-tech.

Most Recent Articles by Yoram Ettinger:

At 68 - is Israel isolated?

Secretary of State John Kerry and other Western policy-makers - joined by the “elite” Western media - contend that 68 year-old Israel is increasingly isolated due to its defiance of global pressure to evacuate the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, which tower over Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport and 80% of Israel’s population, transportation, technological and business infrastructure.
- Sunday, May 8, 2016

US investment in – not foreign aid to – Israel

In 2016, Israel is a major contributor to – and a global co-leader with – the USA in the areas of research, development, manufacturing and launching of micro (100 kg), mini (300 kg) and medium (1,000 kg) size satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as well as joint space missions, space communications and space exploration sounding rocket and scientific balloon flights.
- Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Israel-Passover-USA linkage

While Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” – partially based on the teachings of Moses, Judge Gideon and Prophet Samuel – cemented the 1776 American Revolution against the British crown, the Passover legacy cemented the Jewish Revolution (against the Egyptian crown), Jewish nationhood and the Jewish state. The Passover legacy contributed to the foundation of the culture, justice and liberty of the USA, and the special attitude by the American people towards the Jewish state.
- Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Protected Christians in Muslim lands

Bethlehem’s Christian Arab leaders lobbied Israel against transferring the city to the Palestinian Authority. Thus, in 1993, on the eve of signing the Oslo Accord, the Christian mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, urged Israel’s Prime Minister Rabin to annex Bethlehem into Greater Jerusalem – as it was under the Ottoman, British and Jordanian rule of the area - predicting that “transferring Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority would relegate it to a town of many churches, but devoid of Christians.”
- Sunday, April 17, 2016

Islam and 820,000 forgotten Jewish refugees

The violent Islamic intolerance of the “infidel” was reflected by the highly ignored and misrepresented persecution and expulsion of 820,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands, which exceeded the scope of the Palestinian Arab refugees, occurred well before the 1948-49 Arab war on Israel, and persisted following the war.
- Friday, April 8, 2016

Palestinian terror - Lone wolves/institutional

1. In contrast to national liberation movements, Palestinian terrorism targets – deliberately, institutionally and systematically – Arab and Jewish non-combatants, sometimes hitting combatants.
- Thursday, March 24, 2016


Video: The precariousness of Israel’s narrow waistline

1. Pressuring Israel to retreat to the pre-1967 ceasefire lines – which is an 8-15-mile sliver along the Mediterranean, dominated by the Judea & Samaria mountain ridge – ignores Jewish history and represents a victory of wishful-thinking over the 1,400-year-old reality of Mideast violence, unpredictability, doublespeak, tyranny and hate-education.
- Thursday, March 10, 2016

What makes Donald run?

Donald Trump’s fortunes rise as the fortunes of the US seem dimmer, as the image of the US political establishment is deflating, and as the self-confidence of the US working and middle classes is eroding.
- Sunday, March 6, 2016

Is the Palestinian issue the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Erroneous assumptions produce erroneous policies, as has been the case of all US initiatives towards the Palestinian issue, which has been erroneously perceived – by the US foreign policy establishment – to be the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- Thursday, March 3, 2016

The Palestinian issue erroneously perceived

Common sense suggests that simplistic and erroneous assumptions produce simplistic and erroneous policies, as has been the case of all US initiatives towards the Palestinian issue, which has been erroneously perceived – by the US foreign policy establishment – to be the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- Friday, February 19, 2016

America, be wary of a Palestinian state

President Obama and Secretary Kerry intend to advance recognition of an independent Palestinian state by January 20, 2017, the end of Obama’s second term, irrespective of its adverse impact upon the national security and homeland security of the US. Therefore, the President turned down a request by the Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, to make a commitment to veto any UN Security Council resolution, which calls for an independent Palestinian state. According to the President, and the US foreign policy establishment, a Palestinian state would enhance stability, moderation, peace, and democracy.
- Sunday, February 14, 2016

French appeasement déjà vu

The French intent to recognize Palestinian statehood in Judea & Samaria, if the Israel-Palestinian negotiations fail, reflects the French policy of appeasing Palestinian terrorism (since the 1960s) and Islamic terrorism (since 1978).
- Friday, February 5, 2016

Global confidence in Israel’s economy

1. In 2015, Israel's high tech raised $4.43 BN, 30% over 2014. According to KPMG-Israel, Israel's 2015 4th quarter economic performance ran contrary to -- and was more positive than -- the rest of the world. The value of exits through mergers and acquisitions and IPOs climbed to over $9 BN in 2015. The number of investment rounds of over $20 MN grew by 2/3 in 2015. During the first three weeks of January 2016, twenty Israeli high tech startups raised almost $500 MN, mostly from institutional and private investors from the US, as well as from Asia, Europe and Israel (Economist Intelligence Unit, January 27, 2016).
- Friday, January 29, 2016

Land for peace in the Middle East?

US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro believes in “Land for Peace” and echoes the US Administration pressure on Israel to retreat to the pre-1967 ceasefire lines: an 8-15 mile sliver along the Mediterranean, towered over by the mountain ridges of Judea & Samaria. Thus, the US Administration – unlike the US public and Congress - ignores the centrality of Judea & Samaria in Jewish history, religion, culture and nationalism, and provides another victory to wishful-thinking over the 1,400-year-old reality of inherent Mideast/Arab violence, unpredictability, tyranny, doublespeak and hate-education.
- Friday, January 22, 2016

High return on US investment in Israel

The annual US investment in Israel -- erroneously defined as"foreign aid" - has yielded one of the highest rates of return on US investments overseas. Israel is no longer a supplicant, transforming itself from a national security and economic consumer to a national security and economic producer, generating substantial dividends, which exceed the annual investment by its lead investor, the US.
- Friday, January 15, 2016

The volcano of Islamic terrorism

Islamic terrorism has dominated the history of Islam, as demonstrated by the murder of three of the first four Caliphs succeeding Muhammed: Umar ibn Abd al-Khattab (644 AD), Uthman Ibn Affan (656 AD) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (661 AD). Islamic terrorism has been one of the most active and dangerous volcanoes - domestically, regionally and globally - since the initial eruption of Islam in the 7th century. Historically, all Arab regimes have achieved, sustained and eventually lost power through domestic violence, subversion or terrorism.
- Sunday, January 10, 2016

Overseas investors attracted to Israel

1. PricewaterhouseCoopers: Israeli mergers and acquisitions (M&A) totaled $12.6bn in 2015, a 73.3% increase over 2014 ($7.25bn). Moreover, 62 Israeli companies were acquired for $7.2bn, compared to 52 companies and $5bn in 2014, a fifth year in a row with over $5bn. Overseas investment in Israeli companies reached $6.5bn, compared to $3.8bn in 2014, a 71% increase. 2015 experienced a rise in the number of investors from the US, China, Hong Kong and Canada. Israeli entrepreneurs and developers are less inclined to sell early-stage startups, investing more resources to reach mature stage, hence the higher price per transaction/investment (Globes business daily, December 28, 2015).
- Friday, January 1, 2016

The demographic bottom line

1. The gap of the Jewish-Arab fertility rate (number of births per woman) has been closed. From a 6 births gap in 1969 to a 0.06 gap in December, 2014, the Arab rate is 3.17 trending downward and the Jewish rate is 3.11 trending upward, and 3.4 when both spouses are Israeli-born.
- Friday, December 18, 2015

The demographic scaremongering fraternity

Demographic scaremongering has played a key role in the sustained campaign to infect Jews with faintheartedness and fatalism, dissuading Jews from settling the Land of Israel, and luring Israel to concede the historically and militarily critical high ground of Judea and Samaria. This campaign preceded Secretary John Kerry’s speech on December 5, 2015, when he stated: “How does Israel possibly maintain its character as a Jewish and democratic state when from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea there would not even be a Jewish majority?”
- Friday, December 11, 2015

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