Israel’s Strategic Futures Institute: israelstrategicfutures.org/en

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📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

It’s the 6th week of positive WYNDEX in a row. To be more exact, for the period between September 15th and September 27th, the WYNDEX grew by 1.95%, beating the S&P by 1.34% and NASDAQ by 0.87%. One notable mover on the green is 3D Printing innovator Stratatys systems, gaining 10.35% for the period. In the red we have two notable movers: Lemonade.com shedding ~15% and MobilEye shedding 7.11% over renewed downgrades.

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Microsoft has stopped providing some of its cloud & AI services to Israel’s Ministry of Defense after deciding that certain uses of its technology violated its policies.
• Israel’s metro project is advancing, with more details emerging on the country’s $100B subway buildout. Tenders for various lines are now under way, as well as conversations about whether the metro should run on Shabbat…

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with Professor Eugene Kandel, Chairman of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and former head of the National Economic Council. Eugene is also the former CEO of Start Up Nation Central, and more recently embarked on a new project called the “Israel Strategic Future Institute,” which he started with his partner Ron Tzur. The two have come out with a blueprint for Israel’s future which consists of a completely reimagined structure for both Israeli society and government. The goal? None other than to ensure Israel isn’t heading toward economic collapse.

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

Hosts - YONATAN ADIRI and MICHAL LEV-RAM

Executive Producer - ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY

Sound and Video editing - MARTIN HUERGO

Music - MIDNIGHT GENERATION

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📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

WYNDEX is beating S&P and NASDAQ, again. Our index is in the green for a few good weeks now - gaining 1.84% last week, 0.5% above the S&P and +0.3% above the NASDAQ Composite. Also, we can now officially welcome Via to the WYNDEX, opening in the green with a great IPO, pricing the share at $46 and closing at $49. In the red, the two dominant ones were MobilEye (7.41%) and SolarEdge (15.83%).

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• A new report shows a notable decrease in first-time investments and new fundraisings among Israeli VCs in the first half of 2025: The study, conducted by IVC, a data & research firm, law firm Gornitzky, and the accounting firm KPMG, said that in the first half of 2025, Israeli funds raised $260m, compared to $1.2b in 2024 and $2.2b in 2023.
• The attack in Qatar’s impact on the Abraham Accords: Five years into these historic agreements, which established diplomatic and economic relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors in the Gulf, Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar is creating some new tensions.  

🔎And our Long Play today is a conversation about Israel-India relations, and the role the world’s most populous country can play especially now, at a time of increasing isolation for Israel. Co-host Yonatan Adiri shares insights from his recent time on the ground in New Delhi, analyzing the unique relationship between the two countries, their recently signed investment pact, and what an even deeper, future partnership could look like. 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

Hosts - YONATAN ADIRI and MICHAL LEV-RAM

Executive Producer - ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY

Sound and Video editing - MARTIN HUERGO

Music - MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

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𝕏 Michal on X

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📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

The WYNDEX is in the green for its fourth week in a row. That said, this week the Wyndex fell below the NASDAQ’s 2.91% post-labor day rally. This week we saw most of the movement (4.5% through 8.52%) outside the cyber domain. Digital bulls (Etoro, Oddity, Global E, and Wix) continued their march and lifted the index up. Palo Alto Networks and Cyberark with a modest rise of 2%. Two notable red dynamics: Varonis completed an acquisition of Slashnext (an AI native email security company) for $150mm total deal value and suffered a %5 share price decline. And the ICL group shed 5.59%. 

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Israel’s state comptroller issues a damning report on the government’s handling of civilian affairs post-Oct. 7th: The report charges that civilians “experienced the failures of the Israeli government firsthand” - including those evacuated from homes in the North and South, reservists who have been continually drafted, and business owners who have been impacted by the war. 
• India and Israel have inked a bilateral agreement: Not a lot of details yet but it’s being hailed as a “strategic step” to open doors for Israeli & Indian investors, strengthen Israeli exports, and provide more certainty for both countries in doing business with each other. (India is already one of the biggest purchasers of Israeli arms.) 

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with Oren Zeev, a solo venture capitalists who has backed many companies started by Israeli founders: Houzz, Decart, Navan (formerly TripActions), and Riverside, to name a few. We talk to Oren about the current state of the IPO market & other opportunities for exits, what he’s seeing from Israeli founders today, and what it means to be a “solo VC/GP.” 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

Hosts - YONATAN ADIRI and MICHAL LEV-RAM

Executive Producer - ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY

Sound and Video editing - MARTIN HUERGO

Music - MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

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𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

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📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

A classic August hibernation week for Wall Street, with both S&P and NASDAQ with a fraction of a percent movement - compared to a whopping 2.44% rise in the WYNDEX. 

Topping the movers this week is Monday.com with 8.49% in the green. Other notable moves in the green are Elbit with 6.5% and Nova Measurements with 4.17% on the back of the stunning Nvidia earnings report. In the red, we have Lemonade shedding 6.9% and ZIM losing 5.29% after news of Turkey closing its ports to Israeli shipping companies turned into a stark reality.

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• New data shows increasing signs of growing consumer weakness in Israel as household savings difficulties emerge. Case in point: Only 28% of households now manage to save money at the end of the month (compared to 40% before the war). This is also the first August in five years in which we see a decline in credit card activity compared to the previous year. What does this all mean?
• Serbia comes into the light as the client of the recently reported $1.6 billion defense deal led by Elbit, which was first without mention of the client country due to “political sensitivity.” This is yet another sign that Israel’s defense tech sector is continuing to grow. 

🔎And our Long Play today is a dive into the current state of Germany’s economy and why the European country’s future is interlinked with Israel’s. With a GDP of around $4.5T, Germany is the third largest economy in the world (after the US and China and just ahead of Japan) + of course the largest in Europe. It is also Israel’s second-largest trade partner and a long-time supporter of Israel, defending it from European sanctions. Now, as Germany’s economy stagnates - and the future of its political leanings seems uncertain - where does that leave Israel? We analyze the current challenges plus discuss new opportunities for the two countries to work together. 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

Hosts - YONATAN ADIRI and MICHAL LEV-RAM

Executive Producer - ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY

Sound and Video editing - MARTIN HUERGO

Music - MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

📺 YouTube

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

📩 Write to us here

📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

WYNDEX is up 3.16% this week, beating both NASDAQ which ended the week with 0.56 in the red and S&P with 0.34% in the green. The market is starting to digest the Palo Alto Networks/Cyberark deal as these two now complete a second week in the green. This is also following the news of the company’s founder, Nir Zuk, stepping down. Monday.com is slightly in the green this week after shedding nearly 30% of its market cap last week. And topping the greens this week is Israeli 3D Printing leader Stratasys with a 17% gain.

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Israelis are withdrawing funds from “self improvement” savings accounts at a higher rate than before. Could this be a worrying economic trend?
• The Israeli Cabinet is approving a budget increase, which includes $473 million toward Gaza humanitarian relief. We discuss how Israelis feel about this line item and what it means for the overall budget.

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with tech investor Michael Eisenberg, all about Israel’s ability to attract top talent, and what new incentives for those making Aliyah can do to push these efforts along. Michael is co-founder of Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm Aleph. He was an early backer of startups like Lemonade and Wix (both WYNDEX companies), and he’s also an influential voice not just on tech & investing but also economics and policy, not to mention Judaism. 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY - Executive Producer

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

Theme Music by MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

📺 YouTube

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

📩 Write to us here

📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

After two weeks in the red, the WYNDEX is back in the green, with 3.3% growth, outperforming both S&P and NASDAQ. After a rough stretch, PANW and CARK are back in the green with 6% gains each. But the big story of the week is a massive drop in one of Israel’s golden digital innovators, Monday.com, which shed 29% this week despite posting strong Q2 earnings. 

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Israeli marketing analytics platform Appsflyer is reportedly in talks to be acquired by a PE firm at a valuation at or above $3.5B

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with Netta Barak-Corren, a legal scholar and cognitive scientist, law professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, about her work combatting Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) targeting of Israeli academia.

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY - Executive Producer

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

Theme Music by 

MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

📺 YouTube

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

📩 Write to us here

📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

WYNDEX is in the red. We covered a two-week period this time (July 28 - August 8th) and the numbers aren’t so nice to look at: WYNDEX shed 4.41%, mainly driven by a 18.31% decline in PANW and a 14.52% decline in CyberArk.

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field signs largest export agreement in country’s history - with Egypt
• Israeli AI committee calls for 25B shekel budget over five years, and publishes a critical assessment of the current state of Israeli AI 

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with Lux Capital’s Josh Wolfe, a New York-based investor known for his bets on scientific and technological breakthroughs, all about the boom in defense tech and Israel’s increasing role in the sector 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer 

MICHAL LEV-RAM - Editor

ADAAM JAMES LEVIN-AREDDY - Executive Producer

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

Theme Music by MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

📺 YouTube

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

📩 Write to us here

📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

It’s the second week in a row in which the WYNDEX is rising over 1%, beating both S&P and NASDAQ. This week we’re at a 2.19% increase for the Wyndex, compared to 1.33% for S&P and 0.71% for the NASDAQ. Etoro leads the pack with 14.62%, in anticipation for a product update which is garnering a lot of attention. Word around the street (and retail investor forums) is that the recent GENIUS Act is about to fuel significant growth for the crypto friendly product. 

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Intel’s continued decline: The semiconductor company reported earnings July 24, and while the company beat analyst expectations on quarterly revenue, it also announced even more cost cutting efforts: it’s in the process of cutting 15% of its workforce, canceling projects across the globe, and now it looks like it will also spin off its networking unit. None of this bodes well for Intel’s activities in Israel, where it’s still one of the largest tech employers. 
• New report on how desalination is critical to the Gulf’s future; could Israel play a role here? An interesting article from the Atlantic Council came across our radar last week, all about how the Gulf states’ future (or at least their ability to truly diversify their economies by leaning into tech and AI) could rely on their ability to develop large-scale desalination capabilities + marry these with their data center buildouts. We talk about Israel’s desalination “blueprint” and if/how it could apply to the Gulf.  

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with Nir Hirschmann Rub, CEO of the Crypto, Blockchain, Web 3.0 Companies Forum. On the heels of “Crypto Week” in the U.S., we talk about the state of crypto in Israel… and some of the unique challenges & opportunities the industry faces in the country. 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer 

MICHAL LEV-RAM - Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

Theme Music by 

MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

📺 YouTube

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

📩 Write to us here

📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

The WYNDEX is back in the green, up 1.99% on the week, beating the S&P500 by 1.32% and the NASDAQ by 0.52%. We’re seeing most of the losses from last week regained, with big winners being Lemonade with a strong recovery (+10%) and Palo Alto (+4.48%). 

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• Netanyahu’s government may be safe for now, but key budget dynamics are on the line: The Defense administration is asking for an additional $12 billion aiming at a $42 billion budget (8% of GDP, 20%+ of budget!).
• Over in the U.S., Congress approves first major crypto legislation; could Israel be next? The landmark “Genius Act” has been signed into law, establishing a federal framework for stablecoins progress. Could similar legislation happen in Israel?

🔎And our Long Play today is a 10-part look back at the war in numbers:

1. $7 billion in direct damages from the October 7, 2023 invasion
2. >300,000 reservists approved for conscription by the Israeli government
3. 68,500 residents displaced from the North
4. 80%, the drop in tourism to Israel when comparing Dec 2023 to Dec 2022
5. 23%, the drop in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in the month following Oct 7
6. Q1 2024, when the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange exceeded pre-war levels
7. $32 billion, Google’s acquisition of Israeli-founded cybersecurity company Wiz
8. $12 billion additional rise in military budget coming out of the Iran war
9. 1.3 billion shekels, cost of damages and displacement from the Iran war
10. Multiple downgrades by the rating agencies - and how they got it wrong in the end

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

(00:00) Intro

(03:04) WYNDEX Update

(04:33) Big Shorts

(12:06) Long Play

(32:00) Words of the Week

(33:15) Outro

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer 

MICHAL LEV-RAM - Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

Theme Music by 

MIDNIGHT GENERATION

Find us on:

📺 YouTube

📸 Instagram

💼 LinkedIn

𝕏 Michal on X

𝕏 Yonatan on X

📩 Write to us here

📈Our WYNDEX update for today:

A red week for the WYNDEX, losing 5.85% on the week starting July 7th. After a few consecutive weeks in the green we saw the WYNDEX entering correction territory with losses across most equities.

🎯Our Big Shorts for today:

• United is back, baby: The airline, which has historically offered more flights to Israel than any other US-based airline, says it will resume daily nonstop flights July 21 - ten days ahead of schedule. 
• Israel and the US sign a “memorandum of understanding” for AI and ENERGY collaboration: The agreement is designed to advance cooperation in applying AI to strengthening the energy grids in Israel and the US, and to encourage research, innovation and the development of joint policies.

🔎And our Long Play today is an interview with Liran Shlush, Associate Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Dept. of Molecular cell biology in Rehovot. Liran’s lab was in the building that received a direct hit from an Iranian missile in mid June. Just days after, he and his research partner Amos Tanay published a study that could have huge implications for early detection of leukemia. We talk to Liran about what happened, his research, and the state of Israeli collaboration with other global institutes. 

📅 New episodes drop every Wednesday

What’s Your Number? is hosted from Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley by Yonatan Adiri — Israeli entrepreneur and former advisor to President Shimon Peres — and Michal Lev-Ram, Israeli-born Silicon Valley-based tech journalist and contributing editor at Fortune. Together, they unpack the headlines, trends, and data driving Israel’s  economy and its future. 

⚖️ LEGAL DISCLAIMER

This podcast offers general business and economic information and is not a comprehensive summary for investment decisions. It does not recommend or solicit any investment strategy or security. 

🎧 CREDITS:

ILAN BENATAR - Producer 

MICHAL LEV-RAM - Editor

MARTIN HUERGO - Sound Editor

GABE SILVERSTEIN - Research

Theme Music by 

MIDNIGHT GENERATION