ITEM 1: (There are) “around 600 tech start-ups based in the heart of Tel Aviv, a city of  400,000 people. This compares with the 300 or so young technology companies in the “Silicon Roundabout” area of east London.”

ITEM 2: Guiliano Pasapia, mayor of Milan and currently visiting the Holy Land, has described his hosts as a leader in technology and innovation. He views strengthening cooperation with Israel as something that will help his city towards new prosperity.

ITEM 3: China signs a significant new high tech agreement with Israel this month, specifically to bolster the Shenzhen region.

It is no accident that these pieces of news have come to light in the very week that Microsoft dedicates its latest r&d centre near Tel Aviv. Look at Samsung, which employs around 200 people in Israel, and who have created around 80 patents since 2007. The Galaxy series of phones, one of the world’s best sellers in 2012, contains camera technology developed at their Israeli plant.

Flip over to LG, a smaller outfit in Israel. Its new technology is being used by Better Place, one of the leading pioneers of battery-powered cars. And all of this commerce – as well as their competitors – is using computers with Intel technology, a company that has three large where the previous, current and next round of chips were designed.

There have been concerns that seed capital and foreign direct investment to Israel have been less available in 2012. What is clear is that to date, there are many investors who have received their money back several times over.