The State of Jerusalem Is at the Center of a Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that tests whether a 12-year-old boy can list “Israel” as his birthplace on his American passport. The case was brought on by the parents of Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem in 2002. In 2002, A law that grants Jerusalem-born Americans the right to list “Israel” on their US passports, was passed by Congress. This regulation was passed as part of the  Foreign Relations Authorization Act. The State Department, however, has long refused to implement it. This is the second time that the Zivotofsky family is seeing the Supreme Court; the first was in 2012.

Ari and Nomi Zivotofsky—Menachem’s parents—applied for a US passport for their two-month-old son in 2002. Their request to put “Jerusalem, Israel” as the birthplace was firmly denied. Next, they tried “Israel”, which was dismissed just as easily. Since then, the Zivotofskys has been on a highly contested 11-year campaign to get their son’s passport birthplace record to say “Israel”. They’ve had a tough time.

At first glance, this case seems to be about upholding the academic technicalities of the law. But at the very center of the case is the delicate and deep-seated Arab-Israel conflict. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have declined to uphold the law because of the difficult and tricky geopolitical repercussions. The law, as both administrations believed, would directly contradict the US policy that basically states that no country has sovereignty over Jerusalem until Israelis and Palestinians negotiate a resolution in the Middle East Peace Deal. The problem, however, is that the conflict doesn’t look like it will find a resolution anytime soon.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it could be argued, is as tense as ever. East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, is in a state of political and civil turmoil that is characterized by violent and unstable protests. These political demonstrations have sparked conflicts between Palestinian youths and the Israeli police force. These tensions show no signs of slowing down.

The attorneys for the Zivotofsky family have argued that this case has little to do with the geopolitical ramifications of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. For the Zivotskys, it has everything to do with their sense of pride. They just want their son’s birthplace to be “Israel”. Their argument is that a Jerusalem-born American choosing to identify with Israel is a purely individualistic decision, which according to the law passed in 2002, is Menachem Zivotofsky’s right.

The State Department has framed the issue differently. While the Zivotofskys argue that the case is a matter of personal identity, the State believes that the case could instigate further complications in the already troubled region. There are about 50,000 other Americans that were born in Jerusalem since 2002, and many of them would presumably like their birthplace record to read differently on their passports.

The Israel-Palestinian issue isn’t the only conflict starring in this legal battle. This is also about Congressional power vs. Presidential authority, and which side will acquiesce to the other. Both administrations believed that the provisions passed in 2002 encroached on the power of the executive branch. In particular, the passport mandate was believed to infringe on the Presidents’ power to recognize foreign countries and governments.

For the Zivotofsky family, the resolution is a simple one. They would like to declare Israel as Menachem’s birthplace. For the rest of the world, it’s not so simple. The case could have longstanding repercussions on a complex and divided region.

November 2014

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Tech Boom in Israel Continues With Microsoft Purchase

Companies from all over the world are continuing to consider Israel as a viable option for investment in the high-tech sectors. This has been proven again as it has been reported by The Wall Street Journal that corporate giant Microsoft has signed a letter of intent for investing over two hundred million dollars in the purchase of the Tel Aviv firm Equivio.  Both sides are very quiet at this time on the purchase but it sends the message to others that the State of Israel is open and ready for business from International firms.

The rumors about the above potential transaction first surfaced weeks ago according to the Law Technology Review.  Equivio is a world leader in the platform for predictive coding and text analytics and has a flagship product called Zoom.  There are currently two highly specialized versions for both information governance and e-discovery.  The algorithms generalize samples of texts marked as relevant to the issue at hand to apply the sorting logic to groups of texts, such as legal documentation.

This ground-breaking technology is used by many in the legal field that provides litigation support services to law firms and corporate legal departments.  The purpose of the software is to extract data that is relevant from huge quantities of data in a short period of time.  This is a huge timesaver when it comes to getting what is key in legal documents.  As of this writing, Equivio has over eighty clients outside of Israel that use this technology with high-level groups on board such as the U.S Department of Justice, KPMG, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and the Federal Trade Commission.  You can see why Microsoft is interested in acquiring this Israeli company with a strong list of posted clients such as these.

The company is located in a suburb of Tel Aviv and was founded in 2004 by Amir Milo, CEO, and Yiftach Ravid, VP of Engineering along with Warwick Sharp, VP of marketing and business development.  In addition to the offices in Israel, the firm also has a customer support center based out of Maryland in the USA.

We will see how this all transpires over the coming weeks, but it is a good sign for the Israeli hi-tech industry.

October 2014

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New Israeli Reform Opens Doors Wide For Entrepreneurs

It seems the Government of Israel is serious about attracting more investors and entrepreneurs. The Ministries of Finance and the Economy have recently announced reforms that are aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. The Ministries have announced that a national technology innovation authority will be established and will be based out of the Office of the Chief Scientist. The aim is to allow for a shorter process and fewer delays and to improve the conditions for doing business in Israel.
The overall goal of this new reform is to attract new innovative businesses to the country by making these kinds of businesses in Israel easier to do.  This is a very welcome move and anything that can be done to enhance Israeli innovation and growth is an excellent thing.  It is speculated that a more modern suite of economic tools to choose from will be a big part of this upcoming reform.  Most certainly it is a welcome move and represents the first major change in this area in Israel, in the last twenty years.

It is believed that this new reform, alongside the changes to the market as a result of the Angels Law, will release a burst of energy into many different industries.  This will be great for investors that in the past were hesitant of investing in Israel due to the lack of assistance from the government. Now the state will be able to offer an entire host of expanded options to innovative companies.  It is believed that many of these firms will be from the hi-tech industry.  In the past, all that was offered was in the form of grants.  In the very near future, support will be via innovative ventures such as equity investments, guarantees, and loans.

A big reason for the sweeping reform is the current slowdown in the homegrown hi-tech market.  Having a government office cognizant of the ups and downs of the industry and the ability to adjust quickly to changes will offer great promise down the road.

All of this will mean increased confidence in foreign investors and foreign companies looking to invest and operate in Israel.  Add this all together and it could be similar to pressing the restart button on the hi-tech industry.

September  2014