5766 A Year In Review

Well it’s here, the New Year, Rosh Hashana or in direct translation “Head of the Year”. According to the the Jewish religion we are now at the eve of the new year and the month of October this year is filled with Jewish holidays. This day also marks the beginning of the ten days of repentance culminating in Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”. This is a good time to take stock of where we are and where we are going, and the newspaper is as good a place as any. 5766 Year in review.

So what’s in the newspaper today?

Positive sign that there may be some action taken by the Palestenian Authority. Cautious optimism. Local police have been street fighting and exchanged fire with Hammas members after those refused to hand in their personal weapons. Abu Mazan, the head of the Palestenian Authority called up Prime Minister Sharon and the President, Moshe Katzav, and wished them both a happy New Year. They discussed a possible time for a meeting in the near future.

Jerusalem is becoming the hotspot for Real Estate in Israel, showing recored numbers of new home purchases, this after a long period of declining population rates for the city. In Tel Aviv on the other hand there has been a noticeable drop in apartment purchases in recent months. Real Estate analysts are pointing at foreign investment and external forces as the reason for the stellar growth. The following are prices for 4 bedroom apartments in Israel in the past 6 months (In US $);

Tel Aviv $243,000
Herzelia $236,000
Rananna $283,000
Natanya $186,000
Haifa $165,000
Kfar Saba $198,000
Hod Hasharon $202,000
Petach Tikva $181,000
Ramat Gan $228,000
Holon $167,000
Jerusalem $192,000
Ashkelon $125,000
Eilat $120,000

President Assad of Syria hosted a shindig for Iranian and Palestentian political leaders and terror groups to discuss the evil ways of the US and Israel. Plans were discussed for future collaboration and the summit was a success said the members. They refused to mention what they had in mind for the new year.

Efrat (30) is in bed in a hospital in Belgium waiting for a Liver donor. Efrat gave birth to Jonathan 30 days ago and 2 weeks later her Liver collapsed. She is unconcious and doctors are giving her only a few more days. If anyone can help the number to call is +972-52-273-7396.
Hundreds have tried to offer their help, but no suitable donor has been found. Could use a miracle right here G-d!

Seven months ago, Arcady Blovstein, a 32 year old bouncer on his first day at work in a night club in Haifa was killed by three assailants. Today the 3 assailants in their early 20’s were arrested. The three were expelled from the club for violent behaviour, armed themselves and returned to kill the bouncer. The deceased left a wife and 2 girls, a 3 year old and a 5 month old.

In a Gefilte Fish (traditional Jewish fish dish) competition sponsored by Maariv, Isaac Zacks was crowned the winner after eating 9 patties in 3 minutes. Technique and speed were claimed to be the reason for the win.

Hila Cohen a judge has been trying to get a settlement in her dismissal hearing. The judge was accused of unbecoming behavior for a judge and the Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, has demanded her dismissal. The judge appealed her case and accused the media and bad press in smearing her name. She refused an 18 month paid settlement and has warned she will appeal unless she receives a “fair” settlement.

The Treasurer for The Jerusalem Great Synagogue is facing some questions after a report from the Justice Department. The report found that the good Treasurer had his mother, late father and 2 brothers on the payroll even though they were doing little to earn these salaries. The Synagogue is the offical home for many religious events and often hosts leading rabbis in Israel.

Good news for Geese in Israel. After a long struggle by animal right activists, the Minister of Agriculture gave up to their demand to halt all forced feeding and stuffing farms for geese. The campaign has been waging for several years and the familiar bumper stickers of “How Much Cruelty Can You Swollow?” were apparently more popular then people thought. Nice one!

And now for the 10 richest people in ISRAEL selected by Maariv:

Number 1:
Shari Arison the 47 year old heiress to the Carnival Cruiselines and part owner of the largest bank in Israel. Shari had a rough time in Israel and after her purchase of the bank got into a nasty, well publicized, smear campaign with the bank employees. She abruptly left Israel and then reurned as abruptly in 2004, a little wiser. Her husband has a sexual harrasement thing going on in court these days.
18.45 Billion NIS or $4.1 Billion

Number 2:
Arkady Gaidamak the 53 year old left Israel twice. A Russian business man that had enough of Israeli mentality left Israel and made his money in France with Francois Miteran’s son selling military choppers and arms in Angola. He later expanded his activities to include natural resources.
16 Billion NIS or $3.55 Billion

Number 3:
Lev Leviev is originally a Diamonds Man. He made his fortune in Russia and later purchased “Africa Israel”, Israel’s largest publically traded real estate owner in the country (he currently holds 64%). His big money was made through contacts in the Russian political elite in the early 90’s, ever since then competition has become more intense as other businessman entered the picture.
15.7 Billion NIS or $3.49 Billion

Number 4:
Chaim Saban is actually a 61 year old American businessman that has been really getting into the Israeli business scene in recent years. He lives in LA and apparently listens to Israeli comedy shows while shaving in the morning.
He has been investing in Bezeq, Israel’s phone company. In the US he was responsible for bringing the “Power Rangers” to Fox in 1993.
14.4 Billion NIS or $3.2 Billion

Number 5:
Sammy Ofer is an 84 year old businessman that recetly split his business from his brother Yuli Ofer. He bought out his brother’s share of “Hachevra Leisrael” an investment company that later had a stellar year with successful
investments in Zim, Israel Chemicals and Oil refinaries.
13 Billion NIS or $2.89 Billion

Number 6:
Stef and Eitan Wertheimer (79 and 54) are a father and son team that has had better years. The father, Stef has had a rough break up from his wife and took some time off. He originally started the industrial parks in Israel and today owns 4 industrial parks and 160 factories. A key deal has been the jet engine blade manufacturing partnership with Pratt & Whitney and Rolce Royce employing 3,000 people in Israel. His son, Eitan, owns the most expensive executive jet in the world, starting price was $45 Million.
12.5 Billion NIS or $2.78 Billion

Number 7:
Michael Chernoy has had a rough time lately and has been accused of trying to control Bezeq through a front man. He made his money in Russia where at some point he contolled RusAL (Aluminum manufacturing), selling his controlling interest and leaving hurridly in the early 90’s. He has 2 pending law suits against him.
9.98 Billion NIS or $2.22 Billion

Number 8:
Morris Kahan (77) a South African that was in the founding group of several hitech companies in Israel (Orek Group, Amdocs and more) and was smart enough to cash out when stocks were in their prime. He is an avid sea lover
and thanks for the fact that he spends so much of his time on his yacht, he was able to pay very little taxes on his business ventures.
8.26 Billion NIS or $1.83 Billion

Number 9:
Yitchak Teshuva started as a defence contractor for the army and went to owning the Plaza Hotel in New York. The developer has lately shown an interest in the Insurance industry in Israel and has begun purchasing
large stakes of the leading companies.
6.5 Billion NIS or $1.44 Billion

Number 10:
Benny Steinmetz started as a diamond man and went on to invest in real estate, technology, communications and Internet companies. Last year Diamond.com owned by Odimo generated $64 million in its Wall Street IPO.
6.15 Billion NIS or $1.37 Billion

Health, happiness and good fortune – Shana Tova.

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