NEW YORK — On the 10th floor of 7 World Trade Center, venture capitalists, start-up founders, philanthropists, and Israeli government officials gathered several weeks ago to hear 20 Israeli green-tech start-ups pitch their companies to investors from Hong Kong, Washington D.C. and beyond. But with images of bunker-busters flattening Beirut apartment blocks flashing across attendees’ laptop screens and phones, hydrogen fuel cells were a secondary concern. The next day, Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon would begin.
“What can I say? We in Israel, we still [do] not believe we are in this situation,” Avi Balashnikov, chair of the Israeli Export Institute, chuckled in his opening remarks to the nearly 90 attendees brought to New York by the Israeli Economic Mission to the USA-East Coast. “But events like this, with people like you, who came here to do business, not only to do business, but be involved in our life in Israel—to be here with you is the most efficient thing I can do in the last days.” (Israeli officials later claimed 200 people showed up.) …..more