Tel Aviv at sunset, Israel Startup Israel
Israel High Tech Scene September 23 – September 29
New Startups / VC Funding
Israeli Startups Digma, Creednz and Fhenix Make Small Raises
Fhenix, an Israeli startup that develops a confidential blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), raised $7 million in a Seed round of funding led by Multicoin Capital and Collider Ventures. At the same time, Creednz, an Israeli startup that offers a platform to secure corporate finance teams so they can avoid payment scams and prevent financial losses, finalized a $7 million fundraising round led by Blumberg Capital with participation from Elron Ventures and Moneta VC.
And Israeli startup Digma raised $6 million in seed funding for its continuous feedback platform to validate developer and GenAI code… Read More Here
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Politics
Benjamin Netanyahu Tells American Media Palestinians Do Not Want Peace
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the rounds of the US news networks, giving interviews before returning to Israel from New York. Netanyahu spent the week in the city where he attended the opening of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. In one, he basically said that the Palestinians do not want Israel to even exist.
In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier on his show Special Report, Benjamin Netanyahu responded positively to comments made by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about reaching a peace deal between his country… Read More Here
President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi Announces Embassy Move to Jerusalem
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing with his diplomatic push on the sidelines of the opening of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, making the most of the gathering of world leaders in New York for the event. Now the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, announced that Israel will open an embassy in Kinshasa and the DRC will move its embassy to Jerusalem, making it the ninth nation to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol.
This came one day after Paraguayan President Peña informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that it was his intention to return the Paraguayan Embassy to Jerusalem by the end of the year. At the same time... Read More Here
Science/Culture
Weizmann Institute of Science Finds Cancer Alters Cellular Waste-Processing Machinery
A recent study by Prof. Yifat Merbl’s team at the Weizmann Institute of Science has delved deep into the cellular source of antigens – the waste-processing machinery known as the proteasome – and discovered a previously unknown mechanism that allows cancer cells to slip by immune system defenses. Their findings were published in Nature Cancer.
This comes after in August researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science also announced they identified a biomarker that they say may one day enable a subgroup of lung cancer patients to benefit from relapse-free treatment… Read More Here
Ancient Tomb of Greek Courtesan – Hetaira – Uncovered In Israel
The discovery of a tomb of a courtesan (hetaira – in Ancient Greek) dating from the late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE in Jerusalem by the Israel Antiquities Authority is a significant find. It is rare to find evidence of the Hellenistic period in the Jerusalem region, and this tomb provides a unique glimpse into the life and death of a courtesan during this time.
The fact that the courtesan was cremated is also significant, as cremation was not a common practice in the Jewish tradition at this time. This suggests that the courtesan may have been Greek or of another culture…. Read More Here
Howard Stern and Donald Trump Are At War
Donald Trump declared war on Howard Stern. Or maybe it was Howard Stern who fired the first shot. In any case, the former president never forgave Stern for saying that Trump should never have run for President and that he was a terrible President.
And Howard Stern and Donald Trump. Stern was even a guest at Trump’s wedding to his third and current wife Melania and Trump attended Stern’s wedding to… Read More Here
Jewish Leaders Go After Elon Musk
Elon Musk, the controversial founder of Tesla and owner of Twitter – is anyone really calling it ‘X’ – is now, so it seems, at war with Jewish leaders from around the world. 147 Jewish leaders signed on to an open letter condemning Musk for allowing the proliferation of antisemitism on Twitter. The group calls itself “X Out Hate.”
“As Jewish leaders of all backgrounds, current and former leaders of Jewish organizations, artists, and activists from all over the country,” reads the letter, “we have watched in horror as a new stage in antisemitic discourse has spread like wildfire on one of America’s largest social media networks. All of this has been... Read More Here
Mergers and Acquisitions
Palo Alto Networks Looks to Acquire Dig Security for $400 Million
Palo Alto Networks, an American cyber security firm, is looking to buy Israeli cloud data security startup Dig Security for as much as $400 million. Reports indicate that talks for a buyout have been going on for months and are now in their “most advance stage.”
The news comes just after reports indicated that Palo Alto Networks was looking to acquire another Israeli cybersecurity firm, Talon Cyber Security, for as much as $600 million…. Read More Here
Other Business Stories
Delek Group’s Ithaca Energy Gets Green Light to Drill for Oil in North Sea
Israel’s Ithaca Energy, a subsidiary of Yitzhak Tshuva’s Delek Group, together with Norway’s Equinor have taken the final investment decision to progress Phase 1 of the Rosebank development on the UK Continental Shelf, together investing $3.8 billion in the development. The move came after the North Sea Transition Authority (“NSTA”) granted consent for the development of the field on 27 September 2023. Ithaca Energy owns a 20% working interest in Rosebank.
The BBC called the Rosebank oil and gas field the UK’s “largest untapped oil field.” And this is why the decision to open it up is controversial. Environmentalists… Read More Here
Jamie Dimon Warns Against Interest Rates Rising To 7%
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, issued a dire warning to the US Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates up to as much as 7%. The Fed said that it may issue another quarter point increase in the rate before the end of the year, but that it would then cut the rate in 2024.
Central banks the world over have been raising their rates in an attempt to lower high global inflation. The inflation problem began in 2021 as the world came out of the Covid shutdowns and supply chains could not meet the sudden increases in demand. Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, which caused disruptions in supply chains. Also, sanctions imposed on Russia in… Read More Here
