6 | JANUARY 13 • 2022 

essay
A Look at Israel: 2022 
D

espite entering the 
third year of the glob-
al pandemic, it seems 
that 2022 is looking quite 
positive for Israel, albeit with 
some challenges. Over the 
last 12 months, 
Israeli tech IPOs, 
as well as merg-
ers and acqui-
sitions, jumped 
a massive 520% 
over the previ-
ous year, with an 
unprecedented value of $81.2 
billion, compared to $15.4 
billion in 2020. In addition, 
2021 was a record year for 
funding of tech companies 
and startups, reaching $25 bil-
lion in investments. Analysts 
are identifying this massive 
growth partly as a result of the 
development of a new busi-
ness culture.
Today, the maturing Israeli 

entrepreneur is aiming to 
build a strong local company 
and take it public, rather than 
developing technology and 
then selling it, which was the 
model of the last two decades. 
This massive growth will be 
challenged in the coming year 
by the current shortage of 
approximately 13,000 skilled 
workers in the tech sector.
Israel’s Energy Minister 
Karine Elharrar has 
announced that 2022 will be 
the year of renewable energy. 
Her ministry will be setting 
up, for the first time, a depart-
ment with funds of $320 
million that will invest in a 
national plan for researching 
and developing clean energy. 
As a result, the Minister said, 
“gas can wait,” and will halt 
the search for natural gas off 
the Mediterranean coast to 
pursue and optimize renew-

able energy projects.
The last decade has seen 
young Israeli families discov-
ering that home ownership is 
almost unattainable. Housing 
prices have been rising con-
tinually, and 2021 witnessed 
the highest rise in a decade, at 
10.3%. According to the Alrov 
Institute for Real Estate, an 
average Israeli couple would 
both need to work 27 years 
to buy a standard four-room 
apartment. The good news is 
the Bennett government has 
recently developed a four-year 
plan from 2022 to increase 
the supply of housing and 
ultimately reduce prices, with 
the aim to narrow the gap 
between supply and demand 
by 2025.
I hoped we would not be 
writing about COVID-19 by 
now, but here we are in that 
familiar scenario. Israel is 

currently closed to tourism 
while waiting to see what the 
new Omicron variant has in 
store for us. The good news: 
Israeli biotech company Bonus 
BioGroup has developed a cell 
therapy for treatment of severe 
cases of COVID. The recent 
trial had a 94% success rate, 
with 47 or the 50 patients sur-
viving conditions of life-threat-
ening respiratory distress.
Although closed off to 
the world, the Israeli econo-
my is open and vibrant and 
COVID rates remain low. We 
hope 2022 will be the year of 
renewed tourism and that we 
will see you here soon. 

Naomi Miller is Director of Israel 
Partnerships at the Michigan Israel 
Business Accelerator and Israel 
Representative and Missions 
Director for the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit. 

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