Looking for an irony? Take a joy trip to the Middle East.

Two weeks ago, the Jewish Chronicle newspaper (UK) featured a story where computer giant, Dell, was suspected of operating a boycott against Israel. Bottom line – the call line made a gross faux pas, and the Dell customer in Israel eventually ended up a happy person.

And today? A complete change around. The Hebrew daily, Yediot, has reported that Dell intends to open an r&d centre in Israel. It will employ around 100 professional, mainly engineers.

The speculation follows a visit to Israel last week of VP Kim Thomson. The focus of the discussions was data storage, an area where several local companies have excelled in recent years.