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<br /> Despite it’s political turbulence, <keyword id="6355882" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="israel">Israel</keyword> is strengthening its startup ecosystem. The <keyword id="6370579" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="proof">proof</keyword> being <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword> based <keyword id="6354512" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Infosys">Infosys</keyword> beefing up its operations in the country, a key person has been appointed to supervise overseeing startup <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> and acquisitions in Israel.<br />
<br /> In a news report by The Economic Times it has been learnt, <keyword id="24211" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="chief-executive">chief executive</keyword> <keyword id="6369763" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vishal-Sikka">Vishal Sikka</keyword> has appointed <keyword id="2845467" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jake-Klein">Jake Klein</keyword> for the role.<br />
<br /> Klein had a similar function at SAP, where he was a senior vice president overseeing startup investments and helping <keyword id="497995" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="SAP-Ventures">SAP Ventures</keyword> expand in Israel.<br />
<br /> At Infosys, he has been appointed as <keyword id="2845800" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="vice-president-of-corporate-development-in-Israel">vice president of corporate development in Israel</keyword>. Infosys, India's second-largest software exporter, has set aside at least a quarter of its $500-million Innovation Fund for investments in countries like India and Israel, ET reported in March.<br />
<br /> Sikka is keenly tracking startup hubs in <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> and Israel as Infosys hunts for disruptive solutions for new-age digital problems faced by customers such as <keyword id="6374849" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bank-of-America">Bank of America</keyword> and <keyword id="6374528" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Toyota">Toyota</keyword>.<br />
<br /> Top rivals such as cross-town peer <keyword id="10862" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wipro">Wipro</keyword> have also initiated conversations with <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="venture-capital">venture capital</keyword> funds in the region such as <keyword id="2756215" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jerusalem-Venture-Partners">Jerusalem Venture Partners</keyword>.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="296842" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ray-Wang">Ray Wang</keyword>, founder and <keyword id="6364480" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chairman">chairman</keyword> of Constellation Research, said it makes sense for Infosys to tap into Israel now, given the new direction the company is attempting to move in under Sikka.<br />
<br />
"The goal is to tap into the most innovative tech regions. Just like organizations tap into the Silicon Valley, Israel is a hot spot for innovation," Wang told the ET. "There are a couple ways to do this. One, create a corporate venture group in a central location. Second, embed your team in the hot spots. Both work, it just depends how much scale you want."<br />
 <br /> (Image: <keyword id="-101" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Times">India Times</keyword>)<br />
 <br />

Infosys is going to Israel and
it has a strong plan in place

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Getty Images / Thomas Peter-Pool</span></p><p class="caption">The world's development hinges on the US and China finding a way to co-exist.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The US and China are currently engaged in a trade war that could have ramifications for the entire global economy.</strong></li><li><strong>Israel, which has significant economic ties to both countries, is particularly vulnerable to a global trade war.</strong></li><li><strong>Legendary Israeli venture capitalist Erel Margalit told Business Insider that "the world's development" hinges on China and the US finding a better way to coexist economically.</strong></li><li><strong>Margalit called economic development the most successful driver of social change in China, said it's important that such development continues.</strong></li></ul><p>The US and China engaged in the first shots of a potential trade war last week when the Trump administration announced a 25% tariff <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-china-tariff-full-list-of-goods-products-2018-6">worth $34 billion</a> on Chinese products, including televisions, aircraft parts, nuclear reactors, and vehicles.</p><p>China responded <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-trade-war-tariff-product-list-fish-soybeans-pork-cars-coal-2018-7">later that day with $34 billion worth of tariffs</a> of its own, primarily on agricultural products.</p><p>A full-blown global trade war could <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-12/trump-s-trade-war-and-the-470-billion-hit-to-the-global-economy">cost the world economy $470 billion</a> by 2020, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Economics.</p><p>Meanwhile, one country with significant ties to both countries' economies is looking on nervously.</p><p>Israel is <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-could-get-hurt-in-Trumps-trade-war-with-China-560221">particularly exposed</a> to a global trade war. The country exports 30% of its GDP in goods and services and derives significant investment and growth for its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/05/iteq-an-etf-targeting-israels-booming-tech-sector.html">booming technology sector</a> via the US and China.</p><p>The episode has left some Israeli businessmen, like legendary venture capitalist Erel Margalit, feeling caught in the middle.</p><p>"The Chinese and the Americans need to find a better way to coexist from an economic standpoint. It's extremely important for the world's development," Margalit told Business Insider. "China is developing new business models today that are ahead of anyone else."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Margalit is the founder of <a href="https://www.jvpvc.com/story/">Jerusalem Venture Partners</a>, one of the country's oldest and most successful venture funds. The company has created and invested in over 120 companies in the US, Israel, and Europe. As of 2015, it also <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/23/alibaba-jvp/">includes investment from Alibaba</a>, China's biggest tech company.</p><p>While Israeli tech has long relied on American investors, it has increasingly turned to China in recent years. China's total investment in Israel <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2121498/why-israel-new-promised-land-chinese-investors">tripled to $16 billion</a> last year.</p><p>"We believe that China will be the largest investor in the Israeli market in the technology sector. It will surpass the US," Edouard Cukierman, the French-Israeli chairman of Cukierman Investments House and managing partner at Catalyst-CEL, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Chinese-investors-flock-to-Israel-for-unlikely-reasons-518600">told The Jerusalem Post in December</a>. "For many years, the Israeli hi-tech industry has been supported and led by American investors. Companies aimed for NASDAQ or the US market for exits, for IPOs."</p><p>The number of Chinese financial firms that invested in Israeli tech companies <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/Despite-hopes-Chinese-investment-is-flatlining-in-Israel-543164">doubled</a> from 18 in 2013 to 34 in 2017, but Chinese investment in venture capital funds has gone down over the same period.</p><p>As Margalit looks at the global economy, he said it's important to continue building "new dimensions of cooperation" between China, the US, and other global economies. But, he said, it needs to be done in a way that respects intellectual property and is non-threatening. Anyone against that, he said, is "crazy."</p><p>"The biggest social change in China is happening economically, not through Jeffersonian democracy," Margalit said. "People need to understand it. It's important for everybody that continues to happen."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-fearless-at-work-2018-6">What it means to be 'fearless' at work and how you can get over your fear</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

A legendary Israeli venture capitalist explains why anyone against cooperation with China is 'crazy'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Business leaders are speaking out on Election Day — including Starbucks founder Howard Schultz.</li><li>Schultz and JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon called for unity. Neither has endorsed a candidate.</li></ul><p>Election Day has finally come, and executives at some of the biggest companies are speaking out — with former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz urging a peaceful transition of power and Elon Musk reiterating his support for Donald Trump to the end.</p><p>Major players like Musk and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/which-billionaires-support-donald-trump-campaign#steve-schwarzman-2">previously endorsed former President Trump</a>. On the other side, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-billionaires-investors-kamala-harris-mark-cuban-reid-hoffman-2024-8#michael-bloomberg-4">business heavyweights</a> like billionaire Shark Tank star <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-mark-cuban-campaign-swing-states-sec-chair-2024-10">Mark Cuban</a> and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman have been campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris.</p><p>While some business leaders have been voicing their political opinions ahead of Election Day, others have been reluctant: As Business Insider's Bryan Metzger recently wrote, some of that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jamie-dimon-bill-gates-ceo-avoid-criticizing-trump-2024-10">hesitancy could be driven by fears of retribution from Trump</a> if he's reelected — or could simply be based on the belief that wading into politics is bad for business.</p><p>Here's what some of the biggest business leaders in the US are saying Tuesday ahead of the election results:</p><h2 id="2def0177-407a-4684-b191-b59992c8a4c0">Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz</h2><div type="image" title="Howard Schultz" height="2000" width="3000" msid="114994483" hostid="261" sizebytes="90930"></div><p id="2def0177-407a-4684-b191-b59992c8a4c0"><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-coffee-howard-schultz-steve-jobs-bill-gates-acquired-podcast-2024-6">Howard Schultz</a>, who served several tenures as CEO of Starbucks over the course of four decades, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/howardschultz_we-do-not-know-yet-the-path-america-will-activity-7259321042072936451-SONT?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop">took to LinkedIn</a> on Tuesday to emphasize the gravity of this election and urge a peaceful transition of power.</p><p id="2def0177-407a-4684-b191-b59992c8a4c0">"Make no mistake, this election is the most consequential decision our citizenry will take," Schultz wrote in his post.</p><p id="2def0177-407a-4684-b191-b59992c8a4c0">"Once every vote is counted and certified, we must accept the results of the election and ensure the peaceful transition of power," he said. "In an age of rapid information distribution infecting so many of us with false narratives and lies, we have to remind each other of our founding ethos as a country."</p><p id="2def0177-407a-4684-b191-b59992c8a4c0">While the former CEO has not announced his support of a presidential candidate this election cycle, he previously <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-billionaire-howard-schultz-endorses-biden-for-president-2020-9">endorsed Joe Biden in 2020</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-endorses-hillary-clinton-2016-9">Hillary Clinton in 2016.</a></p><h2 id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman</h2><div type="image" title="reid hoffman" height="2784" width="4176" msid="114994464" hostid="261" sizebytes="523510"></div><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0"><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reid-hoffman">Reid Hoffman</a>, who cofounded LinkedIn and is now a partner at VC firm Greylock Partners, posted a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/reidhoffman/status/1853590670218506599">video message on X</a> on Tuesday to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/reidhoffman/status/1815103690912723274">reiterate his support</a> of Harris.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"My message for American voters and Russian bots: don't vote for the guy too busy selling you a scamcoin," Hoffman wrote on X above his video message. Trump launched his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1846326266011762820">own crypto coin, $WLFI</a>, in October, following <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-going-for-crypto-bro-vote-world-liberty-financial-2024-9?utm_campaign=business-sf&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social">his foray into the decentralized finance market</a> with the crypto exchange platform, World Liberty Financial.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"Vote for Vice President Harris, who knows how to put business —and the American people — first," Hoffman's post said.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"She understands the importance of founders," Hoffman said of Harris in his video, adding, "She wants founders to succeed. And just for the country, not for her."</p><h2 id="60b847de-6405-451a-8d80-80908abc8781">Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk</h2><div type="image" title="Elon Musk smirking" height="2001" width="3000" msid="114994470" hostid="261" sizebytes="314740"></div><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">One of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-superpac-donations-politics-2024-10">Trump's most outspoken supporters</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-america-super-pac-2024-10">biggest donors</a>, billionaire SpaceX and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-ceo-elon-musk">Tesla CEO Elon Musk</a> continued his steady stream of posts on X on Tuesday.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">In addition to re-posting several pro-Trump messages from other X users, Musk wrote a few election-related posts of his own.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">In response to a video of MSNBC's Joe Scarborough criticizing Trump supporters and listing a number of Trump's more extreme statements, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853820794083647548">Musk wrote</a>, "The legacy media hope that a hoax a day keeps DJT away. It won't work."</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">The billionaire <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853691543007137814">wrote another post</a> speculating that Trump will win Pennsylvania in a landslide if the same number of the state's Republicans vote in person for Trump this year as they did in 2020.</p><h2 id="2edf3c98-1b95-4c92-af6c-1f0adcf75720">Billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla</h2><div type="image" title="Vinod Khosla." height="2020" width="3030" msid="114994462" hostid="261" sizebytes="340034"></div><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0"><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-vinod-khosla-fixing-ai-image-2024-10">Vinod Khosla</a>, an OpenAI investor and founder of Sun Microsystems, has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-billionaires-investors-kamala-harris-mark-cuban-reid-hoffman-2024-8#vinod-khosla-7">pledged his support for Harris</a>. His name is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.vcsforkamala.org/signatories">one of hundreds</a> on the list of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-investors-raise-money-for-kamala-harris-over-zoom-2024-8">VCs for Kamala</a>.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">On Monday, Khosla made his opinions about Trump clear on X, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/vkhosla/status/1853476975169732827">criticizing the former president</a> for suggesting he may support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s call to ban some<strong> </strong>vaccines.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">Khosla, who has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/vkhosla/status/1815096257867923740">previously tussled with Musk</a>, responded on Monday to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853329249614131365">a post from the X owner</a> that suggested all independent and swing voters are siding with Trump.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"Plain wrong," Khosla <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/vkhosla/status/1853584790609633640">wrote in response to Musk</a>. "I am an independent that isn't voting for Trump."</p><h2 id="b0378ce8-c632-491e-bde9-e9905a3ec8a3">Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick</h2><div type="image" title="A man stands at a Trump/Vance podium" height="2769" width="4300" msid="114994465" hostid="261" sizebytes="238422"></div><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">Howard Lutnick, the CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald and cochair of Trump's transition team, reaffirmed his support of the former president in identical Election Day posts on X and Truth Social.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"Today is the day. I am proud to vote for President <a target="_blank" class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21" href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a>," Lutnick <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/howardlutnick/status/1853792377086828718">wrote</a>. "He will protect the American workforce, unleash our country's ingenuity, and strengthen our economy. Join me in going to the polls and we will Make America Great Again."</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">Lutnick has suggested to <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/howard-lutnick-donald-trump-transition-committee-20241023.html"><u>The Philadelphia Inquirer</u></a> and to the <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://www.ft.com/content/8a8a470d-4bf6-4ac5-9f25-ad546eee31af"><u>Financial Times</u></a> that loyalty to Trump will be one of the most important factors in deciding possible appointees for a second Trump administration.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">And the Wall Street financier's name has been floated as a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-be-in-trump-cabinet-billionaires-buiness-leaders-2024-5#howard-lutnick-4">potential member of Trump's Cabinet</a> for roles including Treasury Secretary or US ambassador in Jerusalem, according to <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-05/howard-lutnick-emerges-as-trump-s-no-1-salesman-on-wall-street?embedded-checkout=true"><u>Bloomberg</u></a>.</p><h2 id="dc2eb88c-c930-44c2-9d96-aa9959bb918b">JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon</h2><div type="image" title="Jamie Dimon" height="562" width="1000" msid="114994476" hostid="261" sizebytes="23796"></div><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon hasn't publicly endorsed a candidate this year, but he called in a statement for all Americans to rally behind whoever's elected next.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"Our country is now concluding one of the hardest fought and at times divisive elections in our recent history," Dimon said.</p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">"Soon it will be time for all of us to unite behind our president-elect and all of our national leaders. We must begin the work of bringing our nation together and focusing on the pressing economic and global issues before us." </p><p id="c7bb2462-e280-4964-84de-5af18eb3cdd0">Dimon's wife, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/judith-dimon-door-to-door-michigan-canvassing-votes-kamala-harris-2024-11">Judith Kent, was on the campaign trail for Kamala Harris</a> over the weekend.</p><h2 id="40098c61-dfdc-420a-b85d-2cfc49e9516b">Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey</h2><div type="image" title="Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus and Anduril Industries, speaks during The Wall Street Journal's WSJ Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California on October 16, 2023." height="2009" width="3013" msid="114994478" hostid="261" sizebytes="346272"></div><p id="40098c61-dfdc-420a-b85d-2cfc49e9516b"><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-palmer-luckey">Palmer Luckey</a> — who founded defense tech company Anduril as well as VR company Oculus, which he later sold to Meta for $2 billion — urged people to get out and vote on Tuesday.</p><p id="40098c61-dfdc-420a-b85d-2cfc49e9516b">"Pokemon Go to the Polls!" Luckey <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/PalmerLuckey/status/1853833958313873758">wrote on X</a>.</p><p id="40098c61-dfdc-420a-b85d-2cfc49e9516b">Luckey was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaire-palmer-luckey-profile-trump-facebook-meta-ten-takeaways-2024-8">one of few tech executives to support Trump</a> during his first presidential campaign, and has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/american-vulcan-palmer-luckey-anduril">criticized other Big Tech leaders</a> for only jumping on the Trump bandwagon later in the game.</p><p id="40098c61-dfdc-420a-b85d-2cfc49e9516b">The sometimes controversial billionaire, who has said that his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/PalmerLuckey/status/1791264464135942354">"big league support for Donald Trump is no secret,"</a> has also been criticizing the Harris-Walz campaign's Fortnite Map <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/PalmerLuckey/status/1853195620506652898">on X</a> in recent days.</p><h2 id="d29c4181-4a9e-44c5-84dc-5b7d5a1ca15d">Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth</h2><div type="image" title="Meta' CTO Andrew Bosworth" height="2691" width="3969" msid="114994487" hostid="261" sizebytes="670952"></div><p id="d29c4181-4a9e-44c5-84dc-5b7d5a1ca15d"><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-meta-executive-andrew-boz-bosworth-metaverse-2021-11">Andrew Bosworth</a>, Meta's chief technology officer, posted on Threads Tuesday about his excitement that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/political-text-message-spam-election-stop-2024-11">political texting spree is coming to an end</a>.</p><p id="d29c4181-4a9e-44c5-84dc-5b7d5a1ca15d">"Happy no more political text messages day, to those who celebrate!" Bosworth <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.threads.net/@boztank/post/DB_waAiPa4K">wrote on Threads</a>, adding in a follow-up message, "(I voted weeks ago by mail. Go vote, if you haven't already)."</p><h2 id="1513d187-6021-4c9a-99fa-8953a7d997f3">Manufacturing and business leaders weigh in</h2><p id="1513d187-6021-4c9a-99fa-8953a7d997f3">The National Association of Manufacturers and more than 600 business leaders from across the manufacturing sector <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://nam.org/600-manufacturing-and-business-leaders-pledge-to-work-with-next-president-urge-national-unity-ahead-of-americas-250th-anniversary-32528/?stream=series-press-releases">released a letter</a> on Tuesday addressed to the "president-elect," whoever that may be.</p><p id="1513d187-6021-4c9a-99fa-8953a7d997f3">In it, the leaders pledge to work with the incoming president, while stressing the importance of national unity and a peaceful transition of power.</p><p id="1513d187-6021-4c9a-99fa-8953a7d997f3">"The days following a hard-fought election have always been a time for healing, finding common ground and renewing our focus on what unites us as a people," the letter said. "The peaceful transition of power is a hallmark of our democracy and is essential to ensuring continued confidence in the rule of law—a commitment that has made America exceptional."</p><p id="1513d187-6021-4c9a-99fa-8953a7d997f3">The letter's signatories include executives at major companies, including General Motors, Eli Lilly, Lockheed Martin, General Mills, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Penske, and Panasonic.</p>

Company executives are speaking out on Election Day: Starbucks' Howard Schultz calls for a peaceful transition of power

<ul class="summary-list"><li>New York City's ambition to become the global leader in the cybersecurity industry came a little closer to realization with the opening of the JVP International NYC Cyber Center on Monday. </li><li>The city partnered with Israeli venture capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) to establish a Soho-based hub for cybersecurity-focused startups looking to recruit, network, and scale up. </li><li>28 startups are currently housed within the center, offering products and services that range from fighting financial cybercrime to monitoring baby sleep patterns. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>For the past two years, New York City has been pushing an initiative to leapfrog Silicon Valley - and the rest of the world's leading tech hubs - in one particular industry: cybersecurity. </p><p>And with the opening of the city's Soho-based international cybersecurity center on Monday, New York just moved one step closer to realizing its ambitions. With the help of Israeli venture capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), 28 companies - already occupying five floors in the building - are scaling within the center and using its resources to recruit talent and meet potential clients. </p><p>"To us, this center is a great opportunity to take companies with promising ideas, partner them with the expertise of JVP and get them into conversations with companies who need their services," James Patchett, the head of New York's Economic Development Corporation (EDC) told Business Insider. "They can take their company from an idea with a little business behind it, to a real, full blown business." </p><p>JVP, a firm that has previously backed cybersecurity unicorns like CyberArk and Chromatis, hopes that the center will will help put a few more feathers in its cap. Many of the companies that have already joined the center already have ready-to-market products, which range from financial analysis technology, and protection against financial cybercrime, to tools for monitoring baby sleep patterns. </p><p>"The thing that was most interesting for us was the startups, the young companies, the universities," JVP President Eral Margalit said, describing the center's potential. "We're asking companies ... Why don't you use New York as your center and grow into a unicorn in the city in the next three to four years?"  </p><p>And international companies have quickly taken JVP up on its offer. Access Fintech, a fintech developer with a base in Tel Aviv and London, just moved into the center this October. Roy Saadon, the CEO, said they were one of the first tenants in the building and said it already offers a "focused space to collaborate," with other startups in their Series A and B rounds of funding. The center has already hosted workshops held by McKinsey and as well as universities and recruiters, he said. </p><h2>A $100 million bid to create 10,000 jobs</h2><p>The center is part of a <a href="https://edc.nyc/program/cyber-nyc">$100 million broader initiative</a> that New York City has poured its resources into developing, to take advantage of a lucrative industry that is increasingly in demand from the finance, healthcare and media industries.</p><p>The Cyber NYC project links the JVP center with another Chelsea-based cyber hub (developed in partnership with another Israeli company, Sosa), as well as a network of universities (Columbia, NYU, CUNY, and Cornell) that is helping develop talent. </p><p>The EDC says the new center, along with the rest of Cyber NYC's initiatives, should help create an additional 10,000 jobs in the industry, more than doubling its current size. </p><p>By helping international companies also find a spot at the JVP International Cyber Center, the EDC hopes to build on the "network effects" that already exist thanks to the city's many job seekers and a ready pool of companies that rely on cybersecurity to protect the sensitive information they work with. </p><p>"Part of it is about really advancing the ecosystem here," Patchett said. "When you start to see a certain amount of momentum in the industry, other people have to be there because there's so much activity happening." </p><h2>Tapping into a global market worth more than $110 billion</h2><p>The global cybersecurity market was worth $116.5 billion in 2018, <a href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cyber-security-market">according to Grand View Research</a>. And it's a market that keeps growing. </p><p>Cybersecurity and privacy companies raised close to $10 billion in funding through 2019, <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/lists/2019-privacy-and-security-funding-rounds/038ff3ab-9a21-49b9-9378-215353e6f327/funding_rounds">according to data from Crunchbase</a>. That's an 11% increase from funding raised last year, and a whopping 482% increase in funding compared to that raised back in 2010. </p><p>And the opportunity for New York, with its dense concentration of Fortune 500 companies, is immense. </p><p>"We all need to be a little hungry and open up," JVP's Margalit said. "And just act a little bit like a startup ourselves."</p>

New York City thinks it can overtake Silicon Valley and become the leading hub for cybersecurity, beginning with this newly opened Soho center

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/michael-moritz/">Sequoia Capital</a></span></p><p class="caption">Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Sequoia, a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm and an early investor in the likes of Apple and Google, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/sequoia-shuts-israel-fund-2016-9" target="_blank">shut down a dedicated fund</a> for startups in Israel at the end of last month.</p><p>Sequoia Israel - a Sequoia subsidiary that raised five funds to invest specifically in Israeli startups, with the last two funds in the region of $200 million (£154 million) - was folded into Sequoia's US operation in Silicon Valley. That means any money that was left in Sequoia Israel's funds will now be added to Sequoia's US funds. </p><p>At the time, Business Insider reported that the closing of the fund could "raise a few eyebrows" in the so-called "Startup Nation" and lead to questions about the calibre of the young tech companies that are coming out of the country but it turns out that the move may have been motivated by different reasons.</p><p>Sequoia never publicly explained why it chose to shut down its Israel fund but a Jerusalem-based tech investor gave his take on the events.</p><p>Elie Wurtman, managing partner at early stage VC fund Pico, highlighted that a number of Silicon Valley venture capital companies have shut down their Israel funds or folded them into their larger US funds in recent years.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Brian Ach/Getty </span></p><p class="caption">Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital speaks onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 at The Manhattan Center on April 29, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for TechCrunch)</p></div><p></p></div></div>"I think it's a cultural thing," said Wurtman, who used to invest millions of dollars through a dedicated Israel fund that was established by Benchmark Capital, only to be shut down several years later.</p><h2>Nothing beats Bill Gurley</h2><p>"I think the true benefit of the Silicon Valley funds are the Silicon Valley partners. I think it was doing a disservice to companies here [in Israel] to have the international brand without the international partners. I have a great network of people in the US and Europe and elsewhere. But it's not the same as Bill Gurley sitting in Sand Hill Road."</p><p>Google's venture capital arm, Google Ventures, or GV as it now likes to be known, made a similar move last year when it <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-ventures-is-shutting-down-its-dedicated-european-fund-2015-12" target="_blank">folded its European fund into its US fund</a>.</p><p>Setting up regional offices allows VC funds to "have the flare of the brand without the real deal," said Wurtman, before going on to say: "I think the local investors can better service the companies."</p><p>Sequoia and Benchmark will continue (and are continuing) to invest in Israel's new technology companies, despite not having dedicated funds anymore, according to Wurtman. "I don't think that's changed," he said. "I don't think Silicon Valley or the East Coast funds have pulled out of Israel. It's just that they're not franchising their names any more. That's a nuance which I think is important and probably healthier for the industry. My interpretation is it brings the relationships with the companies closer to Sand Hill Road."</p><p>Sequoia did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-clean-iphone-smartphone-2016-9">Your iPhone is disgusting - here are the 3 best ways to clean it</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1vMW9hMzE6gi1srv7Oj8K1DPh8G-NTMM" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Why one of the world's biggest VC companies may have shut down its Israeli startup fund

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Business Insider/Julie Bort</p><p class="caption">BillGuard's community manager Marina Boykos left the U.S. to work at an Israeli startup in Tel Aviv</p></div><keyword id="6355882" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="israel">Israel</keyword> calls itself the "<a href="http://startupnationbook.com/">startup nation</a>." Israelis say that technology is the country's No. 1 export.</p>
<p>By some counts, Israel is home to 4,800 <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> today. It's also home to least two dozen accelerator/incubator programs in the Tel Aviv area, alone, including some run by Microsoft and Google.</p>
<p>There are more incubators in other cities, too, including a program in Jerusalem run by Jerusalem Venture Partners on a campus so big it has its own restaurant <em>and</em> nightclub. </p>
<p>All of this is to say that as a startup hub, Israel is second only to Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>So it's not easy to name the nation's hottest, most exciting startups because everywhere you turn there are young companies doing really cool things.</p>
<p>Business Insider recently spent a week exploring Israel's super hot startup community, meeting with founders, employees and venture capitalists. </p>
<p>(<em>Disclosure: Microsoft and Jerusalem Venture Partners paid some of the travel expenses for this trip.</em>)</p>
<p>We asked everyone to name the nation's coolest, hottest startups.</p>

The 20 Hottest Startups From Israel

Inside the wild world of 'The Points Guy,' Brian Kelly: A massively profitable media empire and claims of non-stop partying, drugs and extravagant spending

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Waze and FeeX co-founder Uri Levine</p></div><p></p></div></div>This summer, it's raining unicorns - tech startups valued at more than $1 billion - and as a result the Israeli tech scene is going absolutely crazy.</p><p>Business Insider just spent a week in Israel meeting with over a dozen tech companies, and VCs. They all told us:</p><p><strong>Everyone is dreaming of becoming the next unicorn.</strong> Instead of selling their startups for $1 million to $30 million, founders are turning down multi-million acquisition offers wanting to build big companies.</p><p><strong>2015 is a record-breaker for </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>VC funding.</strong> For the first half in 2015, 342 companies have attracted $2.1 billion, up from 334 companies nabbing $1.6 billion in the first half of 2014.</span></p><p><strong>The private equity bankers have arrived in droves</strong>, including Blackstone, SilverLake, KKR, Apax Partners, TPG, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, and they're writing writing huge checks.</p><p><strong>Chinese investors are swarming the country</strong>, joining Israeli VC funds as limited partners as well as doing a lot of huge, direct investments into startups, too.<br /><br style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Chris McGrath/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>"If we're going to do $4 billion in venture in 2015, the estimate I heard is that at least $500 million of that will be Chinese money, and that's direct investment not including the LP stuff," Israeli powerhouse VC Jon Medved told Business Insider. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"And I think that's probably underestimated." </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Medved, founder of </span><a href="https://www.ourcrowd.com/">investment startup OurCrowd</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and is widely known as one of the fathers of Israel's tech startup scene.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Chinese investors are "at all the parties" a startup founder told us.</span><br style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><br style="line-height: 1.5em;" /><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The joke here is that Israeli border control needs to open up a special customs line "just for Chinese investors with bags of money that they can just get in the country for free," Medved quipped.</span></p><p> This hot economy has led to ... </p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Big well-funded Israeli companies starting to acquire other Israeli companies for big sums of money, too.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The first crop of Israeli serial entrepreneurs, such as Avigdor Willens, who sold Annapurna to Amazon earlier this year for a reported $350 to $375 million. Willens sold his first company, Galileo, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">for $2.7 billion in stock back in 2000 to Marvell Technologies.</span></li></ul><h2>It started when Google dropped a billion on Waze</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">Israeli flags fly in Jerusalem</p></div><p></p></div></div>When Google bought Waze for $1 billion in 2013, it was a milestone event for the country, says Medved. </p><p>"Billion-dollar companies are now all over the place. Waze was the first and most important," he told us.</p><p> Waze co-founder Uri Levine explained to Business Insider, "This was the first time a billion-dollar app, and a consumer app, came out of Israel," and it set "a new beacon for Israel" telling entrepreneurs to aim higher than a quick exit.</p><p>The next year, Japan's Rakuten (the eBay of Japan) acquired Israeli messaging app Viber for $900 million  and unicorn fever in the country began.</p><p>Over and over, startup founders told us they had no interest in selling their successful companies, some of which were doing millions of dollars in revenue, some of which were doing hundreds of millions in revenue.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>They wanted to grow their companies past $1 billion to many billions.</p><p>"Israel entrepreneurs are obsessed with building unicorns,"<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Hillel Fuld, CMO of Israeli startup Zula told us.</p><h2> Billion dollar startups include …</h2><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Taboola (who raised $117 million in February, $157 million total)</span></li><li>IronSource (who raised $105 million in two rounds from private equity funds run by JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley),</li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Outbrain (who filed confidential SEC documents for an IPO at a reported $1 billion valuation)</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Conduit, who said it was the first Israeli internet unicorn, in 2012</span></li></ul><p>There's also a new crop of public tech companies worth $1 billion:</p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">MobileEye: IPO'd in 2014, with $12 billion market cap today</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">CyberArk, also IPO'd in 2014, market cap of about $2 billion</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Wix, IPO'd in 2013, market cap of about $900 million</span></li><li>And there's some half-unicorns, like Varonis Systems, which IPO'd in 2014 and has a market cap of nearly $600 million, nothing to sneeze at.</li></ul><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Asian money everywhere </span></h2><p> "The Asia stuff is very dramatic, very real and very new," says Medved.</p><p>"China is the big story. But Japan for example - there had never been a visit of a Japanese Prime Minister to Israel before. In all the years of Israel's existence, what did they have to come here for? This year, the Japanese Prime Minister shows up for four days, all tech." <br /><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>OurCrowd</span></p><p class="caption">OurCrowd founder, Jon Medved</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Meanwhile, Korea's Samsung Ventures has now made "8 investments here over the last year," says Medved. Plus, "there are now Israeli companies going to list on the Singapore exchange."</p><p>Israel will also be hosting the Indian Prime Minister for the first time. In February, Indian company Infosys (now run by SAP's former US CTO Vishal Sikka) bought Israeli company Panaya for $200 million. India has plans to build an R&amp;D center here. </p><p>Still China overshadows them all. Investment are pouring in  from Baidu, Fosun, Alibaba, Tencent, RenRen and others.</p><p>Famous Chinese angel investor (and billionaire) Li Ka Shing and his Horizon Ventures fund are all over the country.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Horizon was an early investor in Waze. And he's invested in about 29 Israeli startups, including Waze founder Levine's latest baby, FeeX, (raised $9 million).</p><p>If there's a downside to all of this, its that Israel is starting to experience a severe talent shortage. They are now poaching each other's employees and trying to keep employees from leaving by offering better and better Valley-like perks.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Julie Bort</span></p><p class="caption">IronSource CEO and co-founder Tomer Bar Zeev and deputy CEO and co-founder Omer Kaplan</p></div><p></p></div></div>IronSource, for example, flies its 550 employees to one exotic offsite meeting every year. The whole company just got back from Greece.  </p><p>"Once a year, we party," CEO Tomer Bar Zeev told us. "That builds culture.  It's one of the best investments we can make, investing in the company."</p><p class="p2">If that fails, Chinese billionaire <span>Li Ka Shing has an answer. He</span> also donated $130 million to Israel's Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology (like the MIT of Israel), one of the largest ever donations received by an Israeli university.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/israeli-firm-solar-power-energy-business-invention-2014-9">An Israeli Company Just Solved Solar Energy's Single Most Mystifying Problem</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1jbHlvcDqSkVm1c2NvsGYgno10q1fVAD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The startup scene in Israel is going bonkers, and the Chinese are swooping in

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/begley/3365546017/in/photolist-68tGYN-97f9XB-7bhmBb-68pj8t-698XPP-68pizt-68txbo-698Zzn-69daTA-69d8Eo-69dak5-69d9bu-hcuBV">D.Begley/Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">Joel Spolsky, Stack Overflow CEO.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Joel Spolsky was blogging before it was called "blogging."</p><p>Back in 2000, Spolsky was the founding CEO of Fog Creek Software, a startup that got its beginning building tools for software developers. He began writing his thoughts about running a company, working for and competing against Microsoft (he was on the Excel team back in the 1990s), and other topics of interest to the programming community, in a space called "<a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/">Joel on Software.</a>"</p><p>Some of those posts got a million readers or more, Spolsky tells Business Insider. </p><p>Even more than a decade later, they're fascinating and useful for anybody in tech startups - my favorite, "<a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/">Fire and Motion</a>," takes a lesson Spolsky learned in the Israeli army and applies it to startup productivity - but Spolsky has moved far beyond blogging.</p><p>In 2008, he and business partner Jeff Atwood leveraged Joel on Software's popularity to create a Q&amp;A site for developers, <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">Stack Overflow</a>, which quickly grew to prominence thanks to the relevance of its answers (and subsequent high placement in organic search results on Google). They expanded that product into the Stack Exchange Network, which includes other Q&amp;A sites and an invitation-only job-hunting site called <a href="https://stackoverflow.blog/2011/02/careers-2-0-launches/">Careers 2.0</a>.</p><p>That network now gets more than 100 million visitors a month, says Spolsky, but the most remarkable part is that they're completely free of the trolling, hate speech, and other deplorable behavior that plagues almost every other large online community, from Reddit to Twitter to every single website's comments section. </p><p>How did Spolsky do it? By paying attention to history and actually trying to learn from the mistakes of his predecessors. As he put it: </p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Long before I started Stack Overflow I read this post by Clay Shirky called <a href="http://www.shirky.com/writings/herecomeseverybody/group_enemy.html">A Group is its Own Worst Enemy</a>....He investigated early online communities, forums, and discovered that everybody that built one of these communities or was involved in it observed the same thing, which is the community starts out great when it's small, but at some point the bored teenager wanders in or the first troll, and then these communities all exhibit the same problems when they get larger. To his chagrin, they would all write essays and academic papers about what went wrong with their community and the only thing that these papers showed clearly is that they hadn't read all the previous papers by all the other people that tried to build online communities and observed the exact same thing. So they were pretending that they had just discovered America when there were already 30 other papers in the literature of that exact syndrome."</p><p>With Stack Overflow, Atwood and Spolsky built in rules from the beginning to prevent the site from being destroyed by trolls or spammers. For instance, they instituted something called the <a href="http://stackoverflow.blog/2009/04/a-day-in-the-penalty-box/">Penalty Box</a>: if a user exhibits bad behavior like spamming the site with the same question over and over again, or gets a lot of complaints, or even just shows no interest in learning or improving, they're suspended from being able to post on the site. If they keep it up, their account is deleted.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>merlinmann</span></p><p class="caption">Anil Dash, who became Fog Creek's CEO in December.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Earlier this month, Fog Creek hired blogger and online activist <a href="http://anildash.com/">Anil Dash</a> as its CEO in part because of his work helping Stack Overflow maintain its compass:</p><p>"One of the things I love about him is that he is very dedicated to social justice in software. He's been on the board of Stack Overflow for a long time and Stack Overflow has never had a hate speech problem."</p><p>Spolsky will remain CEO of Stack Overflow, which now has 300 employees.</p><h2>Silicon Valley and the squishy, icky problems of morality</h2><p>So why do so many other online communities miss the mark?</p><p>Spolsky took the example of Twitter, which tries to have it both ways: on one hand, it's making editorial decisions regularly, like which user accounts to verify, but it's also pretending to be a completely value-neutral service "like the phone company."</p><p>There have been similar problems at other online giants throughout the history of the internet: Facebook publishes obviously fake news stories in the same font as every other kind of content because of a once-upon-a-time "design decision," and Google refused to suppress an anti-Semitic site that appeared at the top of search results for the word "Jew" in 2004.</p><p>"Maybe Silicon Valley likes to believe in the neutrality of technology in some way, or they just don't want to think about those problems, or they don't want to think of the implications of the problems."</p><p>There's a growing cultural backlash against this amoral Silicon Valley view of the world - <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/12/19/13600538/silicon-valley-grow-up-donald-trump-election">Recode's Kara Swisher</a> recently wrote that the tech industry's blithe attitude toward automating people's jobs is akin to the self-indulgent boys who were turned into jackasses in "Pinnocchio," while VC Roger McNamee <a href="http://fortune.com/silicon-valley-startups-fraud-venture-capital/">recently wondered to Fortune's Erin Griffith</a> if we're about to see a big wave of fraud exposed at venture-funded startups: <span>"What if Theranos is the canary in the coal mine?"</span></p><p>The bigger danger is that this attitude paves the way for worse, as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/programmers-confess-unethical-illegal-tasks-asked-of-them-2016-11">organizations ask programmers to perform unethical or illegal acts</a>, and the banality of the daily work makes it easy to say yes. Where's the line? When do people say stop? As Spolsky recounts:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Why did the Nazis all go along with [Hitler's] plan? That was a huge question people could not understand, how the entire German nation went along, and the shocking part of it was the banal stuff. There are exhibits in the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem showing the IBM punchcards for the databases that are tracking people that are put into ovens, and the idea that there are people doing this everyday, boring, mundane office work that was comparable to any other kind of mundane, boring, office work and not really understanding - or certainly understanding but somehow allowing it to happen because it was just punching cards."</p><p>The tech industry loves to pretend everything it does is ever and always new, with each generation casting itself as the saviors from past generation's mistakes. But history does have valuable lessons for anybody willing to learn and pay attention. </p>       <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-women-find-attractive-in-men-2016-12">Women are more attracted to men with these physical traits</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="5iZzMyeDranDSEuGX60cVb5VL_qjvfSz" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Online communities don't have to be hate-filled cesspools - and this guy proved it

<p><div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Alain Jocard</p><p class="caption">French President Francois Hollande gestures during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) in Jerusalem November 17, 2013.</p></div></div></div>PARIS<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> (Reuters) - The hero of </span><keyword id="6354785" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="France">France</keyword><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">'s top movie comedy of the moment is a French foreign minister who complains about American isolationism and says the Germans must be humored - but above all kept off the U.N. Security Council.</span></p>
<p>One reason for the box-office success of "Quai d'Orsay" - named after the 19th century palace by the River Seine where France conducts its world affairs - is how closely it flirts with real-life policy.</p>
<p>Another reason, underlined by a weekend poll showing two-thirds of French mired in pessimism about the next decade, is that it transports local audiences into a domain where their country continues to flex real muscle.</p>
<p>November has been a torrid month for France, rapped by the European Commission for failing to reform its economy and hit by a new sovereign debt downgrade. Nationwide anger at rising taxes has sparked often violent protests, notably by Breton livestock workers up in arms over a planned road freight levy.</p>
<p>Yet abroad, it has exuded self-confidence and strength: it played hard ball in major-power nuclear talks with Iran that brought a landmark deal on Sunday; it is gearing up for a risky new peace intervention in ex-colony Central African Republic; and some 1,200 French troops took part in a NATO exercise in eastern Europe - five times more than the U.S. contingent.</p>
<p>It would be just as premature to declare France an emerging world superpower as it would be to pronounce the euro zone's second largest economy beyond hope of repair.</p>
<p>But the disconnect between its domestic fragility and international robustness is all too real - and is re-defining French ties with strategic allies and trading partners alike.</p>
<p>"The logic is: 'I intervene, therefore I am'," said Dominique Moisi, senior adviser at the French Institute for International Affairs.</p>
<p>"The more France feels inferior economically, the more it wants to be active diplomatically - it reminds it of past greatness and is also popular with the French themselves."</p>
<h3>WHY CHANGE?</h3>
<p>This French paradox is all the more deep-rooted because it stems from things that Paris cannot - or will not - change.</p>
<p>While the French are no fans of small government, there is wide acceptance that public spending which consumes 57 percent of national output is a drag on the economy. Yet no leader of any political hue has dared bring it down meaningfully.</p>
<p>Strict labor law has given those with permanent contracts some of the best worker rights in the world. That has distorted the jobs market by encouraging more and more employers to offer precarious temporary contracts - but reform is proving a long haul as beneficiaries of the current system resist change.</p>
<p>Likewise, France's power on the world scene stems from a set of circumstances which it is in no hurry to change.</p>
<p>France's permanent veto-wielding seat on the U.N. Security Council next to those of the United States, Russia, Britain and China was set in the U.N. Charter signed after World War Two.</p>
<p>That veto has given it real leverage in talks over Iran's nuclear program and just about every major international affair. Talk of reform to replace the two European seats with joint European Union representation has never got very far.</p>
<p>Like Britain, France has a strong army and a public opinion historically inured to war. But France's 1958 constitution, drawn up after the collapse of the short-lived Fourth Republic, gives its presidents unparalleled leeway on defense matters.</p>
<p>Those powers allowed Francois Hollande to make a snap decision in January to send French troops to Mali to head off an al Qaeda-backed advance on the southern capital Bamako.</p>
<p>On Syria, while Britain's David Cameron lost a parliament vote in August on military action and the United States' Barack Obama finally backed away from a confrontation with Congress, French jets were already on standby.</p>
<p>"In the Syrian conflict, the Gulf countries in particular noted that the French decision to use military force was not dependent on parliamentary approval," Bruno Tertrais, analyst at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research said.</p>
<p>"All three countries (France, Britain, the United States) have security pacts in the Gulf but France is considered to be a bit more credible politically."</p>
<p>French diplomats were furious at having to stand down their forces at the last minute. The Syrian episode confirmed French suspicions that the United States, no longer as dependent on the Gulf for its energy, was less focused on the region.</p>
<p>That paved the way for the stance France took as defender of Gulf and Israeli interests in the first Geneva talks with Iran this month when it rejected a sanctions-freezing pact Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius dismissed as a "fool's game".</p>
<p>Tehran and even some allies vented their frustration. The country that a decade ago was branded "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" by some in the United States for opposing the Iraq war was now denounced as "gun-slinging frogs" by hard-line Iranians.</p>
<p>Yet the French line allowed Hollande to declare on Sunday that the final November 24 deal "respected all the demands made by France". Proliferation experts agreed that new restrictions imposed on Tehran in return for sanctions relief made it harder for the Islamic state to acquire any atomic bomb.</p>
<h3>CONTRACT-HUNTING FOR FRANCE</h3>
<p>Influence brings friends - and trading partners.</p>
<p>With European growth prospects bleak, France has told its diplomats to venture forth and seek business. Fabius wants to beat former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's record of circling the world 38 times during her 2009-2013 tenure: in 18 months, he has already managed 17.5 revolutions.</p>
<p>Hollande is at it, too. As with last week's trip to Israel, he travels with an entourage of up to 50 CEOs from French blue-chips such as nuclear firm Areva and defense group Dassault.</p>
<p>"Every time we sign an engineering deal, it means French jobs," Guillaume Pépy, the head of state rail company SNCF said on the Middle East trip. "We hunt in a pack."</p>
<p>The campaign has had some notable successes: power engineering group Alstom secured a 4-billion-euro order for rolling stock - the biggest in its history - during Hollande's trip to South Africa in October.</p>
<h3>CAUTIOUS AT HOME</h3>
<p>But trade diplomacy will not be enough to put the domestic economy to rights. And France's high-profile policy stances risk irking trade partners: now it has backed the Iran deal, it must convince Israel and the Gulf states it did not go soft.</p>
<p>The real imponderable is why Hollande and his government do not act with the same decisiveness at home as abroad.</p>
<p>True, unlike on foreign and defense issues, any major domestic economic reform does have to go through parliament - but then Hollande's Socialists have a majority in the lower house where most legislative power resides.</p>
<p>There is also the risk of falling foul of trade unions who could bring the country to a standstill. But the last time they did that was in 1995; subsequent laws require them to maintain a minimum service in areas such as transport and education.</p>
<p>Those close to Hollande say he is preoccupied by two main dangers: the threat of an internal rebellion in theSocialist Party he led for over a decade before becoming president; and the risk of spontaneous street protests.</p>
<p>"The Turks got caught out by a row over a public park," he recalled earlier this year of violent protests that exploded over an urban redevelopment plan for an Istanbul park.</p>
<p>Such comments explain why Hollande has only tinkered with France's deficit-laden pension system and allowed unions and employers to strike a modest compromise accord on labor law rather than imposing more ambitious reform.</p>
<p>A poor score for his Socialists in local and EU votes early next year could prompt party allies to withdraw their support unless he ditch reform altogether and buy growth with more public spending. A survey by pollster BVA this month showed one in two French already back a dissolution of parliament.</p>
<p>"Francois Hollande has understood this," said Moisi. "It is much easier to deal with foreign powers than with certain factions in the French Socialist Party."</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier, Elizabeth Pineau and Julien Ponthus)</p>

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