Deals under the radar: These are the Israeli tech companies already operating in the UAE

[dani191]

Opinion: Israel hastened to normalize relations with the first Arab state to operate a nuclear reactor
Why did Israel choose to whitewash relations with the United Arab Emirates now? It is possible that the operation of the nuclear reactor was a catalyst for the processes that began earlier

Ami Rohex Dumba | 18/08/2020 Contact author

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Photo: Haim Tzach, p

The announcement of normalization with the United Arab Emirates, as exciting as it is, is not surprising in light of the extensive ties between the countries in recent decades. Those who have only just been exposed to the relationship are invited to read about projects that AGT has done in the distant past with the state. AGT is a company owned by Matti Kochavi, an Israeli businessman. For the benefit of working in Abu Dhabi, local stars and partners have set up a company called Logic. The hardware and human capital were provided by Israeli defense industries.

Not new: Security projects in the Gulf state

The company has implemented, among other things, huge security projects in the Gulf state. And everyone knew, everything was on the table. Israeli workers from a variety of Israeli industries flew to the Gulf with private jets leased by the company. Some made intermediate landings in Jordan, then in Cyprus to obscure the flight path. Official fig leaf for informal ties. Some of the Israeli products were flown to the United States or another destination outside of Israel, Israeli symbols were deleted from them, and they were sent to Abu Dhabi.

Depends on who you ask, but the estimates are obvious that the deals related to Israelis and Abu Dhabi rolled in billions of dollars during the years leading up to the official normalization. Of course, all defense exports from Israel require the approval of the Ministry of Defense, and in the case of a country with unofficial ties, it is likely that the prime minister was also in the picture.



Why do I have normalization now?

If relations were so good, why actually need partial normalization? Why is it now so important to whitewash the relationship? This is when such an agreement sandals Israel politically in everything related to the West Bank. Netanyahu's annexation aspirations in the current term do not stem from nowhere. It was Yigal Alon more than fifty years ago who outlined the "Alon Plan", on the basis of which Israeli governments have since pushed for settlement in Judea and Samaria. This plan has been the basis for settlements since while demonstrating Israeli governments' illegal construction activities The East of Israel.

This is a plan that states that Israel must maintain a foothold in all major topographic locations, including a continuum of Israeli control along the border. Well, despite the security importance to the State of Israel, Netanyahu waived the annexation. The declaration of normalization seems to be the last nail in the coffin of the idea of "one state between the Jordan and the high school." The rulers of Abu Dhabi, and those from other Gulf states such as Bahrain who are probably also on the way to normalizing relations with Israel, will exert the most pressure to establish a Palestinian state.

The White House in the "Plan of the Century" also declared that there would be a Palestinian state. Normalization, by the way, was part of the plan of the century. And the plan was pushed by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump. He is also the one who pushed for normalization with the UAE. Well, does Israel knowingly give up important territories for its future security, agrees to a Palestinian state, and all this in exchange for normalization that has been going on below the surface for years anyway?



Stop, realism is in front of you

Well, I would like to offer another thesis. The United Arab Emirates is the first Arab country in the Middle East to operate a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. True, the catalogers will say, an electric reactor is not condemned as a reactor for producing plutonium for the purpose of a bomb. but. An examination of the moves of the United Arab Emirates will show that it is investing in three important elements related to a military nuclear program - space, nuclear and missiles. And the offensive cyber company, one of the best in the world, is based in the Gulf state.

The United Arab Emirates is one of the most advanced countries in the Middle East in the space context. This is a country with a plan to send astronauts to Mars, it will soon launch a new navigation satellite, it has extensive cooperation agreements with NASA to develop capabilities and more. All space operations are supported by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center. The country has launched a number of intelligence satellites under the Falcon Eye brand in joint production with France.

In the nuclear field, the state recently operated a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. The country has signed a 123 agreement with the US from 2009 requiring it not to use nuclear technologies for military purposes. Indeed, such a reactor is very difficult to produce plutonium for the bomb (requires separation device, operating regime incompatible with power generation, and fuel cycle control). United Arab Emirates.) However, such a reactor produces human capital expert in the nuclear field, if and when the state wants to launch a military nuclear program, it will not declare it before Jerusalem or Washington.
Why would such a country want a military nucleus? Because of Iran. On the day that Iran unveils a bomb, does an experiment, or simply declares that it has, the nuclear race that has already begun with the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal will be accelerated. Revolutionary Guards, including attempts to carry out local terrorism and interference in domestic politics, with a nucleus, will lift Iran's levers.

In the field of missiles, the United Arab Emirates purchased several dozen Scud missiles from North Korea somewhere in the late 1980s. Together with fighter jets in its possession, the state can, in theory, with an order from the ruler, try to convert these measures in favor of carrying nuclear weapons. One explanation is that Abu Dhabi maintains secret ties with Pyongyang, in favor of a future option of developing missiles and nuclear weapons. The deal was then made by al-Mutlaq Technology, according to the publication of thediplomat. Another company whose name is linked to arms deals in the country is International Golden Group.

In the cyber field, a company called DarkMatter operates in the country. The company is considered to have excellent offensive capabilities, including collection capabilities in cyberspace. Articles in Israel revealed that the company also tried to recruit Israelis to its ranks. The company competes, among other things, directly with the Israeli NSO.

All the answers are correct



In conclusion, there is no clear answer to the question of why Israel has now chosen to whitewash relations with the United Arab Emirates. This may be a convergence of processes that began in the past year. Maybe it's pressure from the White House. Maybe Trump wants a political achievement about two months before the US election when the polls are in Biden's favor. Netanyahu may also want a political achievement if he is planning an election towards the end of the year. And it may also be a classic realistic consideration In the end, hello, for the most part, do with the strong that threaten you.

In the context of the nuclear ambitions of the United Arab Emirates, under normalization, if it is indeed discovered that the country is aiming for a bomb following Iran, Israel will be in trouble. Under the Begin Doctrine, the fate of any nuclear program in any country in the Middle East is such a fate for Iraq and Syria. But what happens when it comes to a country with which Israel has a peace agreement?

 

[dani191]

Dark Matter, Leading UAE Hacking Firm, Entices IDF Cyberwar Veterans at $1-Million a Pop, Israeli Media Report Censored

October 29, 2019 by Richard Silverstein 9 Comments

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Headquarters of UAE intelligence agency and Dark Matter

Haaretz reported recently week that the UAE spyware company, Dark Matter, the commercial subsidiary of UAE intelligence, has hired Israeli veterans of Unit 8200, the IDF SIGINT intelligence branch. The Israelis are enticed with astronomical salaries and perks, some as high as $1-million yearly excluding bonuses; along with villas on the seashore. In fact, an Israeli head-hunter told an Israeli reporter that offers below $400,000 aren’t even worth discussing with clients. They work at Dark Matter offices in Singapore or Cyprus.

The UAE company’s main rival is NGO Group, the international leader in cyber-hacking technology. The latter was recently sold to the UK venture capitalist, Stephen Peel, at a $1-billion (“unicorn”) company valuation. When NSO witnessed a sudden exodus of some of its top employees, a private investigator it hired discovered that Dark Matter was responsible for hiring away its top talent.

The UAE does not recognize Israel or have diplomatic relations with it. It’s ironic that Israel is sharing some of its most advanced cyber-weapons with a state which for decades expressed hostility towards it. But in the new regional reality created by Israel’s alliance with Sunni Gulf states against Iran, the unthinkable is now distinctly thinkable.

Much of this new commerce and military-intelligence sharing must be done under the table, because the Arab states still maintain a pro forma antipathy toward Israel. This poses an obstacle for Israelis wishing to work for such a company, since even having a passport with an Israeli visa stamp would disqualify a visitor from entering the UAE.

That’s why Dark Matter maintains offices outside the region in Cyprus and Singapore. Thus Israelis may work for the company without having to step foot in Abu Dhabi. It allows the UAE company to have its cake and eat it too. Similarly, many Israeli arms exporters also maintain subsidiaries outside Israel, routing export sales through them in order to shield the fact that their customers are often Gulf states. It is a fig leaf that satisfies Arab nations whose citizens might be angry were it known that Israel is providing surveillance technology used to monitor them.

Though Dark Matter claims only to take on clients who want defensive cyber-security protection, news reports cast doubt on the claim. They confirm that Dark Matter takes assignments from the UAE intelligence service which are offensive in nature and target those viewed as threats to the regime.

Reuters reported earlier this year, that Dark Matter had hired NSA veterans in a similar fashion to work on projects targeting human rights activists, journalists and other deemed opponents of the regime. In effect, the company operated as a semi-official branch of the country’s intelligence services. It absorbed the expertise of the U.S. employees and transferred it to UAE employees, so that it could develop native talent that operated at the same level as the most advanced global firms.


Dark Matter CEO, Karim Sabbagh

However, the U.S. employees balked when they learned that their targets were not criminals, drug dealers or terrorists, but rather political dissidents. Also, Dark Matter eventually tasked them with spying on U.S. citizens. One such employee reported this to the FBI which began an investigation into the company, which is ongoing.

In its earlier stages of technological development, the UAE intelligence service paid NSO Group $100-million to purchase its major spyware product, Pegasus. It used the malware to track human rights activists in the kingdom and intercept their communications. This is how Ahmed Mansour, one of the most prominent of these figures was arrested, convicted and imprisoned by the authorities there.

However, the intelligence services faced a major constraint in using NSO’s technology. Contractual obligations prohibited them from targeting either Israeli and American individuals. They resolve the problem by abandoning the Israeli spyware company entirely. Now, instead of buying the product, UAE goes direct to the source and hires away NSO engineers and Unit 8200 vets to develop spyware for itself. UAE and the Gulf states have become increasingly reliant on Israeli technology to control and police their repressive societies. Billions of dollars worth of advanced surveillance gear has been exported over several years by Israeli entrepreneurs like Mati Kochavi to these Gulf dictatorships in order to preserve stability and ferret out dissent amongst the citizenry.


Faisal Abd al-Aziz Mohamad al-Bannai, Dark Matter founder and former intelligence chief

Unit 8200 is the single largest unit in the Israeli army. Equivalent to the NSA, it is the jewel in the crown of the Israeli intelligence apparatus. Its mission is to spy on Palestinian and Arab targets, to detect which individuals are ripe for recruitment as Israeli informants, and monitor those targeted for missions or assassination.

These intelligence veterans are an especially good fit for Dark Matter, not only because they have some of the most advanced skills in the world, but because they are already trained to spy on Palestinians and others deemed hostile to Israel in the Arab world. They have language and technical skills to employ the most advanced methods of spying on their targets.

Unlike the NSA veterans mentioned above, many of these Israelis do not have moral compunctions about spying on behalf of an Emirati dictatorship. Not to mention that there is already a vast Israeli technology infrastructure employed on behalf of these repressive Sunni regimes. Adding human capital to this flow of expertise is a natural extension of the entire surveillance enterprise.

In many ways, these new cyber-security relationships are attractive. They reap huge financial rewards for Israeli businessmen like Kochavi and the Israeli companies which produce and export the equipment. They strengthen relationships with regimes Israel deems critical to its alliance against Iran.

There is no hesitation on the part of Israel’s cyber-security and weapons export sector in doing business with some of the most repressive regimes in the region. In fact, it does business with countries with even worse human rights records like South Sudan, Myanmar, and the Philippines, which have been accused of genocide. As for UAE, many see it as a patriotic duty now that Israel has allied itself with these Sunni states in the fight against Iran.

Darker Reasons for UAE-Israel Sharing of Spyware Secrets

But some Israelis warn of the dangers of permitting foreign states to learn the most advanced secrets of Israeli intelligence:

“Th[is] is de facto smuggling of Israeli intellectual property without any supervision of the [Israel Defense Ministry’s] Defense Export Controls Agency,”

Asked whether the Israeli programmers had received approval to work for Dark Matter, the defense ministry responded:

“In regard to Israeli citizens who ask to transfer supervised security intellectual property to a foreign entity…this is an activity that is required by law to be done with a sales and export license.”

The ministry refused to say whether these workers had obtained such permission. One way in which they bypass these prohibitions is to renounce their connection with Israel. Presumably, this means they’ve renounced Israeli citizenship (though that isn’t clear from the reporting). The defense ministry can then say that it no longer has any jurisdiction over the actions of the individual, who could be offering Israeli military secrets to an Arab state. Another method is for Dark Matter to create a subsidiary owned by a non-UAE citizen. They have such an arrangement with a company in Cyprus which is owned by a German citizen who is a UAE resident. In this way, the Israeli cyber-hackers can hire prominent Israeli lawyers to draft legal opinions vouching for the legality of the employment arrangement, since the employer is not the citizen of a hostile Arab state.

Why would Israeli intelligence and military look the other way at such leakage of its secret tools? Ronen Bergman recently wrote a piece for Yediot Achronot which answers this important question:

UAE maintains secret contacts with Israeli intelligence. Such contacts with a country which borders Iran would be far more important than any other considerations. “You’re dancing two dances at once,” explains a security source…”Israel has many interests in common with UAE, including its strategic importance.”

In fact, Bergman notes that it was an Israeli foreign ministry official serving in the Gulf (possibly UAE…and yes, there apparently are such diplomats there though there are no official relations between the countries) who alerted the Israeli journalist to the phenomenon.

To highlight how sensitive the reporting of such relationships is to the Israeli military, the English version of Bergman’s Yediot article has disappeared from the website. Either the military censor or a judicial gag order has likely caused it to be censored. Oddly, the original Hebrew version remains accessible.

History has proven that a country which today is an ally can become an enemy tomorrow, and vice versa. Should Dark Matter take on as a client an Israeli enemy, it would be able to then turn Israeli technology against Israel itself. And there would be little Israel could do. But Israel is willing to take the chance that its most valuable spyware will get into the hands of Dark Matter and UAE intelligence because the two countries are allied in an effort to both monitor and sabotage their mutual arch-enemy, Iran.

The U.S. has encouraged and facilitated such cooperation between the two countries:

Israel and the United Arab Emirates held secret meetings arranged by the U.S. in recent months to share information and coordinate efforts to counter what they see as the increasing threat posed by Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the clandestine diplomacy.

The meetings were convened by Brian Hook, the State Department’s top official for Iran, and are the latest sign of a steady thaw between Israel and Gulf Arab nations, largely brought about by their shared antipathy toward Tehran.

Israel has also participated in high tech expos in UAE designed to showcase Israel’s cyber-hacking prowess. These interchanges have been approved and facilitated by the highest level of Israeli intelligence.

I approached Dark Matter for comment and received no response.
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/...cyberwar-veterans-at-million-dollar-salaries/

 

[dani191]

Dark Matter, Leading UAE Hacking Firm, Entices IDF Cyberwar Veterans at $1-Million a Pop, Israeli Media Report Censored

October 29, 2019 by Richard Silverstein 9 Comments

Share this:
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Headquarters of UAE intelligence agency and Dark Matter

Haaretz reported recently week that the UAE spyware company, Dark Matter, the commercial subsidiary of UAE intelligence, has hired Israeli veterans of Unit 8200, the IDF SIGINT intelligence branch. The Israelis are enticed with astronomical salaries and perks, some as high as $1-million yearly excluding bonuses; along with villas on the seashore. In fact, an Israeli head-hunter told an Israeli reporter that offers below $400,000 aren’t even worth discussing with clients. They work at Dark Matter offices in Singapore or Cyprus.

The UAE company’s main rival is NGO Group, the international leader in cyber-hacking technology. The latter was recently sold to the UK venture capitalist, Stephen Peel, at a $1-billion (“unicorn”) company valuation. When NSO witnessed a sudden exodus of some of its top employees, a private investigator it hired discovered that Dark Matter was responsible for hiring away its top talent.

The UAE does not recognize Israel or have diplomatic relations with it. It’s ironic that Israel is sharing some of its most advanced cyber-weapons with a state which for decades expressed hostility towards it. But in the new regional reality created by Israel’s alliance with Sunni Gulf states against Iran, the unthinkable is now distinctly thinkable.

Much of this new commerce and military-intelligence sharing must be done under the table, because the Arab states still maintain a pro forma antipathy toward Israel. This poses an obstacle for Israelis wishing to work for such a company, since even having a passport with an Israeli visa stamp would disqualify a visitor from entering the UAE.

That’s why Dark Matter maintains offices outside the region in Cyprus and Singapore. Thus Israelis may work for the company without having to step foot in Abu Dhabi. It allows the UAE company to have its cake and eat it too. Similarly, many Israeli arms exporters also maintain subsidiaries outside Israel, routing export sales through them in order to shield the fact that their customers are often Gulf states. It is a fig leaf that satisfies Arab nations whose citizens might be angry were it known that Israel is providing surveillance technology used to monitor them.

Though Dark Matter claims only to take on clients who want defensive cyber-security protection, news reports cast doubt on the claim. They confirm that Dark Matter takes assignments from the UAE intelligence service which are offensive in nature and target those viewed as threats to the regime.

Reuters reported earlier this year, that Dark Matter had hired NSA veterans in a similar fashion to work on projects targeting human rights activists, journalists and other deemed opponents of the regime. In effect, the company operated as a semi-official branch of the country’s intelligence services. It absorbed the expertise of the U.S. employees and transferred it to UAE employees, so that it could develop native talent that operated at the same level as the most advanced global firms.


Dark Matter CEO, Karim Sabbagh

However, the U.S. employees balked when they learned that their targets were not criminals, drug dealers or terrorists, but rather political dissidents. Also, Dark Matter eventually tasked them with spying on U.S. citizens. One such employee reported this to the FBI which began an investigation into the company, which is ongoing.

In its earlier stages of technological development, the UAE intelligence service paid NSO Group $100-million to purchase its major spyware product, Pegasus. It used the malware to track human rights activists in the kingdom and intercept their communications. This is how Ahmed Mansour, one of the most prominent of these figures was arrested, convicted and imprisoned by the authorities there.

However, the intelligence services faced a major constraint in using NSO’s technology. Contractual obligations prohibited them from targeting either Israeli and American individuals. They resolve the problem by abandoning the Israeli spyware company entirely. Now, instead of buying the product, UAE goes direct to the source and hires away NSO engineers and Unit 8200 vets to develop spyware for itself. UAE and the Gulf states have become increasingly reliant on Israeli technology to control and police their repressive societies. Billions of dollars worth of advanced surveillance gear has been exported over several years by Israeli entrepreneurs like Mati Kochavi to these Gulf dictatorships in order to preserve stability and ferret out dissent amongst the citizenry.


Faisal Abd al-Aziz Mohamad al-Bannai, Dark Matter founder and former intelligence chief

Unit 8200 is the single largest unit in the Israeli army. Equivalent to the NSA, it is the jewel in the crown of the Israeli intelligence apparatus. Its mission is to spy on Palestinian and Arab targets, to detect which individuals are ripe for recruitment as Israeli informants, and monitor those targeted for missions or assassination.

These intelligence veterans are an especially good fit for Dark Matter, not only because they have some of the most advanced skills in the world, but because they are already trained to spy on Palestinians and others deemed hostile to Israel in the Arab world. They have language and technical skills to employ the most advanced methods of spying on their targets.

Unlike the NSA veterans mentioned above, many of these Israelis do not have moral compunctions about spying on behalf of an Emirati dictatorship. Not to mention that there is already a vast Israeli technology infrastructure employed on behalf of these repressive Sunni regimes. Adding human capital to this flow of expertise is a natural extension of the entire surveillance enterprise.

In many ways, these new cyber-security relationships are attractive. They reap huge financial rewards for Israeli businessmen like Kochavi and the Israeli companies which produce and export the equipment. They strengthen relationships with regimes Israel deems critical to its alliance against Iran.

There is no hesitation on the part of Israel’s cyber-security and weapons export sector in doing business with some of the most repressive regimes in the region. In fact, it does business with countries with even worse human rights records like South Sudan, Myanmar, and the Philippines, which have been accused of genocide. As for UAE, many see it as a patriotic duty now that Israel has allied itself with these Sunni states in the fight against Iran.

Darker Reasons for UAE-Israel Sharing of Spyware Secrets

But some Israelis warn of the dangers of permitting foreign states to learn the most advanced secrets of Israeli intelligence:

“Th[is] is de facto smuggling of Israeli intellectual property without any supervision of the [Israel Defense Ministry’s] Defense Export Controls Agency,”

Asked whether the Israeli programmers had received approval to work for Dark Matter, the defense ministry responded:

“In regard to Israeli citizens who ask to transfer supervised security intellectual property to a foreign entity…this is an activity that is required by law to be done with a sales and export license.”

The ministry refused to say whether these workers had obtained such permission. One way in which they bypass these prohibitions is to renounce their connection with Israel. Presumably, this means they’ve renounced Israeli citizenship (though that isn’t clear from the reporting). The defense ministry can then say that it no longer has any jurisdiction over the actions of the individual, who could be offering Israeli military secrets to an Arab state. Another method is for Dark Matter to create a subsidiary owned by a non-UAE citizen. They have such an arrangement with a company in Cyprus which is owned by a German citizen who is a UAE resident. In this way, the Israeli cyber-hackers can hire prominent Israeli lawyers to draft legal opinions vouching for the legality of the employment arrangement, since the employer is not the citizen of a hostile Arab state.

Why would Israeli intelligence and military look the other way at such leakage of its secret tools? Ronen Bergman recently wrote a piece for Yediot Achronot which answers this important question:

UAE maintains secret contacts with Israeli intelligence. Such contacts with a country which borders Iran would be far more important than any other considerations. “You’re dancing two dances at once,” explains a security source…”Israel has many interests in common with UAE, including its strategic importance.”

In fact, Bergman notes that it was an Israeli foreign ministry official serving in the Gulf (possibly UAE…and yes, there apparently are such diplomats there though there are no official relations between the countries) who alerted the Israeli journalist to the phenomenon.

To highlight how sensitive the reporting of such relationships is to the Israeli military, the English version of Bergman’s Yediot article has disappeared from the website. Either the military censor or a judicial gag order has likely caused it to be censored. Oddly, the original Hebrew version remains accessible.

History has proven that a country which today is an ally can become an enemy tomorrow, and vice versa. Should Dark Matter take on as a client an Israeli enemy, it would be able to then turn Israeli technology against Israel itself. And there would be little Israel could do. But Israel is willing to take the chance that its most valuable spyware will get into the hands of Dark Matter and UAE intelligence because the two countries are allied in an effort to both monitor and sabotage their mutual arch-enemy, Iran.

The U.S. has encouraged and facilitated such cooperation between the two countries:

Israel and the United Arab Emirates held secret meetings arranged by the U.S. in recent months to share information and coordinate efforts to counter what they see as the increasing threat posed by Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the clandestine diplomacy.

The meetings were convened by Brian Hook, the State Department’s top official for Iran, and are the latest sign of a steady thaw between Israel and Gulf Arab nations, largely brought about by their shared antipathy toward Tehran.

Israel has also participated in high tech expos in UAE designed to showcase Israel’s cyber-hacking prowess. These interchanges have been approved and facilitated by the highest level of Israeli intelligence.

I approached Dark Matter for comment and received no response.

Relatedhttps://www.richardsilverstein.com/...cyberwar-veterans-at-million-dollar-salaries/

 

[dani191]

Deals under the radar: These are the Israeli tech companies already operating in the UAE
Cooperations in the fields of insurtech, biomedicine, fintech, agtech and cyber lead the way, but the potential for future purchases and investments is vast
Sophie Shulman, Hagar Ravet, Meir Orbach11:5118.08.20
TAGS:

• UAE
• Israel
• Business
• Investment
• Insurtech
• Agtech
• Cybersecurity

"I'm very active on Linkedin, I have tens of thousands of contacts and I receive around 10 new requests a day, but something weird happened last Friday. I was swamped with new follower requests. I thought my account was hacked, but when I began looking through the names and the account's analytics I saw that they were all businessmen and senior executives from insurance companies in the United Arab Emirates," Yariv Yanay, Director of Business Development and Innovation at Hachshara Insurance Company Ltd, told Calcalist.



Yanay is one of the founders of the go Digital Insurance application developed by Hachshara for digital car insurance. "I approved all the requests and already set Zoom meetings with them. They ask serious questions that show that they know what they need from us. A representative from a big insurance company there asked me a very specific question about one of our developments in UBI (usage-based insurance) while someone else was interested in learning about dealing with claims digitally, and another inquired if the product suits a B2C market. It was apparent that they had done their homework."



Israel has become an insurtech powerhouse over recent years, even though local consumers aren't aware of the services being offered by many of the companies. "Right now I feel like they are checking us out because they have heard that Israel is an insurtech superpower," noted Yanay. "The potential isn't just in the possible sale of products to the UAE, but that this can also lay the infrastructure for entering the rest of the Arab world and places like Jordan and Egypt. I take part in many international conferences and until now it was very obvious we were outcasts."

Dubai in the UAE. Photo: Courtesy

By complete coincidence, Yariv's brother, the CEO and President of biomed company Pluristem, announced on Monday that the regenerative medicine company developing a platform of novel biological therapeutic products has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center (ADSCC), a specialist healthcare center focused on cell therapy and regenerative medicine.





Alongside insurtech and biomedicine, the fintech sector has also generated plenty of interest in the UAE. The Israeli fintech sector, which includes 530 startups, attracted record funding of $2 billion during 2019. "This looks like a match made in heaven," said Shmulik Ben-Tovim, president of the Fintech Community of Israel. "While Israel is regarded as a tech powerhouse, but an undeveloped financial center, in Dubai there is the exact opposite situation. Israeli fintech companies will literally be entering a desert."





"Israel nowadays is mainly known in the Gulf states for its aesthetics medical innovation as Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a young and rich population," noted Adi Nov, deputy manager at ICIC - Israel Credit Insurance Company. "Another strong sector is agtech, specifically irrigation technology. There is also business in the plastic industry and some fashion, mainly swimwear and underwear."



According to Paris-based insurance company Euler Hermes, which holds shares in ICIC, Israel's areas of expertise are similar to those of the U.S. which is the third-largest exporter to the UAE after China and India and is responsible for 10% of the imports in the weapons and tech sectors.



Israel's tech companies weren't waiting around for Donald Trump's announcement that Israel and the UAE had agreed to normalize ties, with many companies doing business in the region for several years. Most of them do so via a local distributor, but companies like Cybereason, which is based out of the U.S., have offices in the UAE. "The UAE is a very special and significant market," said Shai Horovitz, Chief Revenue Officer at Cybereason. The leading investor in Cybereason' is the Vision Fund, with half of its $100 billion under management coming in from the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. As a result, the Israeli cyber company has relationships in the region dating back many years.



There are several Israeli cybersecurity companies currently operating successfully in the UAE, including Check Point, which states on its website that it has representation in Dubai; CyberArk which works with a local distributor, and IntSights that has significant sales in the region.




"There is a clear need for cybersecurity products due to geopolitical reasons. The Emirates encounter the same threats that our western clients are facing. The same actors that threaten large financial institutions and government agencies in Europe and the U.S. are also acting against the UAE's interests," explained Horovitz.



Guy Nizan, co-founder and CEO of IntSights, said that Israeli tech is received very well in the region. "It is an advantage because the client recognizes Israeli tech as a brand. moreover, they understand the importance of security and are willing to invest a lot in the sector."





And it isn't just Israeli cybersecurity which is prospering in Dubai. There are several other Israeli tech companies that have made a name for themselves, including Cato Networks, whose core product is a cloud service and operates a server farm in Dubai. Israeli giant Monday.com has also become well known in the UAE over the past three years and is partnering with several companies in the region. "We have over 700 clients in the Persian Gulf and over the last year the company increased its sales in the region by 300% and is planning on reaching sales of $5 million by the end of 2021," said Barak Zigdon, partnerships and global resellers manager at Monday.com. Software company JFron Ltd is also selling to clients in UAE.



One sector with a great potential in the area is agtech, mainly due to the dry climate in both Israel and the UAE. "We have been talking to different actors in the UAE about promoting desert agriculture projects," said Or Haviv, partner and head of ventures at Arieli Capital. "There is no done deal, but we were already discussing it prior to last week's announcement. The UAE wants to learn how to do agriculture in the desert and gain produce which is at the level of that grown in Israel. There is a plan to send a delegation from the UAE to Israel so that they can undergo training at Ramat Negev."



Alan Feld, co-founder and managing partner at Vintage Investment Partners, believes that the UAE is open to investing in Israeli tech in addition to purchasing its products. "I believe that we will very soon see investments in VCs and Israeli companies. They have a VC industry and they also want us to invest in their companies."





"The entire region is a desert and in the middle of it they built an amazing airport and one of the best tourism systems I've seen," added Feld, who was in the UAE in February. "They want to diversify their sources of income and not be so dependent on the price of oil. They see themselves as a regional technology center and Israel is a good source of technology for them."



Boaz Dinte, managing general partner at Qumra Capital, added: "Over the past two years we have received more and more approaches from people in the region who are interested in investing in Israeli funds and Israel in general. From a personal standpoint, I was a little wary as I didn't know what the consequences would be for the fund if we received money from the Gulf. I was uncertain what it would mean and if it would put constraints on the fund, but now it has clearly become legitimate."
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3845539,00.html

 

[ayodhyapati]

Deals under the radar: These are the Israeli tech companies already operating in the UAE
Cooperations in the fields of insurtech, biomedicine, fintech, agtech and cyber lead the way, but the potential for future purchases and investments is vast
Sophie Shulman, Hagar Ravet, Meir Orbach11:5118.08.20
TAGS:

• UAE
• Israel
• Business
• Investment
• Insurtech
• Agtech
• Cybersecurity

"I'm very active on Linkedin, I have tens of thousands of contacts and I receive around 10 new requests a day, but something weird happened last Friday. I was swamped with new follower requests. I thought my account was hacked, but when I began looking through the names and the account's analytics I saw that they were all businessmen and senior executives from insurance companies in the United Arab Emirates," Yariv Yanay, Director of Business Development and Innovation at Hachshara Insurance Company Ltd, told Calcalist.



Yanay is one of the founders of the go Digital Insurance application developed by Hachshara for digital car insurance. "I approved all the requests and already set Zoom meetings with them. They ask serious questions that show that they know what they need from us. A representative from a big insurance company there asked me a very specific question about one of our developments in UBI (usage-based insurance) while someone else was interested in learning about dealing with claims digitally, and another inquired if the product suits a B2C market. It was apparent that they had done their homework."



Israel has become an insurtech powerhouse over recent years, even though local consumers aren't aware of the services being offered by many of the companies. "Right now I feel like they are checking us out because they have heard that Israel is an insurtech superpower," noted Yanay. "The potential isn't just in the possible sale of products to the UAE, but that this can also lay the infrastructure for entering the rest of the Arab world and places like Jordan and Egypt. I take part in many international conferences and until now it was very obvious we were outcasts."

Dubai in the UAE. Photo: Courtesy

By complete coincidence, Yariv's brother, the CEO and President of biomed company Pluristem, announced on Monday that the regenerative medicine company developing a platform of novel biological therapeutic products has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the UAE-based Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center (ADSCC), a specialist healthcare center focused on cell therapy and regenerative medicine.





Alongside insurtech and biomedicine, the fintech sector has also generated plenty of interest in the UAE. The Israeli fintech sector, which includes 530 startups, attracted record funding of $2 billion during 2019. "This looks like a match made in heaven," said Shmulik Ben-Tovim, president of the Fintech Community of Israel. "While Israel is regarded as a tech powerhouse, but an undeveloped financial center, in Dubai there is the exact opposite situation. Israeli fintech companies will literally be entering a desert."





"Israel nowadays is mainly known in the Gulf states for its aesthetics medical innovation as Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a young and rich population," noted Adi Nov, deputy manager at ICIC - Israel Credit Insurance Company. "Another strong sector is agtech, specifically irrigation technology. There is also business in the plastic industry and some fashion, mainly swimwear and underwear."



According to Paris-based insurance company Euler Hermes, which holds shares in ICIC, Israel's areas of expertise are similar to those of the U.S. which is the third-largest exporter to the UAE after China and India and is responsible for 10% of the imports in the weapons and tech sectors.



Israel's tech companies weren't waiting around for Donald Trump's announcement that Israel and the UAE had agreed to normalize ties, with many companies doing business in the region for several years. Most of them do so via a local distributor, but companies like Cybereason, which is based out of the U.S., have offices in the UAE. "The UAE is a very special and significant market," said Shai Horovitz, Chief Revenue Officer at Cybereason. The leading investor in Cybereason' is the Vision Fund, with half of its $100 billion under management coming in from the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia. As a result, the Israeli cyber company has relationships in the region dating back many years.



There are several Israeli cybersecurity companies currently operating successfully in the UAE, including Check Point, which states on its website that it has representation in Dubai; CyberArk which works with a local distributor, and IntSights that has significant sales in the region.




"There is a clear need for cybersecurity products due to geopolitical reasons. The Emirates encounter the same threats that our western clients are facing. The same actors that threaten large financial institutions and government agencies in Europe and the U.S. are also acting against the UAE's interests," explained Horovitz.



Guy Nizan, co-founder and CEO of IntSights, said that Israeli tech is received very well in the region. "It is an advantage because the client recognizes Israeli tech as a brand. moreover, they understand the importance of security and are willing to invest a lot in the sector."





And it isn't just Israeli cybersecurity which is prospering in Dubai. There are several other Israeli tech companies that have made a name for themselves, including Cato Networks, whose core product is a cloud service and operates a server farm in Dubai. Israeli giant Monday.com has also become well known in the UAE over the past three years and is partnering with several companies in the region. "We have over 700 clients in the Persian Gulf and over the last year the company increased its sales in the region by 300% and is planning on reaching sales of $5 million by the end of 2021," said Barak Zigdon, partnerships and global resellers manager at Monday.com. Software company JFron Ltd is also selling to clients in UAE.



One sector with a great potential in the area is agtech, mainly due to the dry climate in both Israel and the UAE. "We have been talking to different actors in the UAE about promoting desert agriculture projects," said Or Haviv, partner and head of ventures at Arieli Capital. "There is no done deal, but we were already discussing it prior to last week's announcement. The UAE wants to learn how to do agriculture in the desert and gain produce which is at the level of that grown in Israel. There is a plan to send a delegation from the UAE to Israel so that they can undergo training at Ramat Negev."



Alan Feld, co-founder and managing partner at Vintage Investment Partners, believes that the UAE is open to investing in Israeli tech in addition to purchasing its products. "I believe that we will very soon see investments in VCs and Israeli companies. They have a VC industry and they also want us to invest in their companies."





"The entire region is a desert and in the middle of it they built an amazing airport and one of the best tourism systems I've seen," added Feld, who was in the UAE in February. "They want to diversify their sources of income and not be so dependent on the price of oil. They see themselves as a regional technology center and Israel is a good source of technology for them."



Boaz Dinte, managing general partner at Qumra Capital, added: "Over the past two years we have received more and more approaches from people in the region who are interested in investing in Israeli funds and Israel in general. From a personal standpoint, I was a little wary as I didn't know what the consequences would be for the fund if we received money from the Gulf. I was uncertain what it would mean and if it would put constraints on the fund, but now it has clearly become legitimate."
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3845539,00.html

very good , now middle east is going to settle for peace and amity .

 

[Imran Khan]

very good , now middle east is going to settle for peace and amity .

as UAE was in war with israel ??? UAE did not throw a stone on israel in last 50 years of thier history . those whom are fighting will keep fighting with terrorist state of israel .

 

[dani191]

Friendly adversaries: How Israelis secretly helped build up the UAE’s military capabilities
Companies like Aeronautics and Logic, took part in the Gulf State's biggest defense projects all while keeping an extremely low profile
Udi Etsion15:2018.08.20
TAGS:

• UAE
• Drone
• Logic
• AGT
• Aeronautic
• United Arab Emirates
• Mossad

High salaries, special flights on private jets, alongside a demand for strict confidentiality that forced Israelis to make phone calls to home from out at sea, where no one could hear them talking to their families in Hebrew. Such was the life of the Israelis who for the past decade have had a major hand in building the UAE’s security infrastructure.





As early as 2009, was when Israeli UAV manufacturer Aeronautics Ltd., then headed by Avi Leumi, first signed a deal to sell its Dominator drones to Abu Dhabi. It was just the appetizer: in collaboration with Italian company Piaggio Aerospace, the Israeli company offered to sell the Arab country a giant UAV based on an Italian-made manned aircraft, in a project worth $500 million, dubbed “Sea Wolf.” The planned deal had even drawn investments from VC funds like Viola Ventures and KCPS.

Former Aeronautics CEO Avi Leumi

Aeronautics employees began carrying out clandestine training sessions with the drone operators in Abu Dhabi, flying under foreign passports, introducing themselves to the soldiers they instructed using foreign names to blur the Israeli connection. The officers knew the truth, but the Israelis were forbidden to leave the military bases they were working in or the hotels they were put up in.




Despite the lavish settings, it wasn’t an easy or alluring life for them. The young employees, mostly in their late twenties and early thirties, some of them family men, faced difficulty maintaining contact with home. They were forbidden to speak to their families in Hebrew for fear of exposing themselves, so in order to bypass the prohibition, they’d enter the sea with phones wrapped in nylons, move a distance away from the coast and then dial Israel to speak to their wives and children. Despite the inconveniences, however, Aeronautics had no difficulty recruiting team members for the project by offering generous salaries.




The trouble was that contrary to Leumi’s promises, the Ministry of Defense did not approve the Israeli involvement in the development and delivery of the giant drone to the Gulf state. A plane that arrived from Italy to be converted for unmanned flight remained parked for many years in an Israeli landing strip. After Leumi was fired from the company, his successor was surprised to find a letter of commitment sent by Leumi to Abu Dhabi confirming that the company owed the state $18 million paid to it as an advance on the project, a debt that accompanied the company for many years until it was paid off. The Italians ended up completing the deal with other partners, but it was not a success.




The unfortunate turn of events did not prevent Aeronautics from taking another bite of the UAE apple. After Leumi’s departure, he maintained his ties in the Gulf and linked the company to another deal for the purchase of Orbiter drones by Abu Dhabi. This one, worth $20 million did go through.

AMos Malka. Photo: Tzvika Tishler

Another Israeli company that made handsome profits from doing business with Dubai is Logic Industries Ltd., run by Amos Malka, a subsidiary of Mati Kochavi’s AGT. The cybersecurity company accumulated $8 billion worth of contracts for the sale of observation intelligence planes, a coastal protection system, and a land-border defense network. The company also built a national command and control network. It is believed that the network of CCTV cameras that aided the Dubai police to hunt for the people behind the 2010 assassination of Hamas military chief Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh—allegedly Israeli Mossad agents—was built by Israelis.




Related Stories:

• Deals under the radar: These are the Israeli tech companies already operating in the UAE
• Report: Secret clause of Israel-UAE deal lifts U.S. embargo on sale of F-35s to the Gulf state
• Israeli-based Pluristem and Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center sign deal to collaborate in development of cell therapies

Logic recruited several companies run by former IAI, Elbit, and Rafael managers, was aided by Bird— A small Herzeliya based defense company, and a Dutch partner, to carry out the project. Israeli know-how, combined with parts purchased in Europe, is what made up the largest defense undertakings in the Persian Gulf. Lots of money flowed into the projects and even relatively junior managers pulled in salaries of $200,000 a year.

A private jet on the tarmac of Ben Gurion International Airport. Photo: Amit Shaal

At the start of every week, 50 Israelis would take off to a third country in the region and from there, without stamping their passports, would board private executive jets to take them to Dubai. They would do the same route back on the weekend. “The company’s motto at the time was ‘money is not a problem,’” said a former Logic employee. The projects were completed near the end of 2015 and Logic subsequently closed down.




Some of the big Israeli defense contractors tried to enter the UAE market through Logic’s projects. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. tried to get its Proctor unmanned patrol boats into the UAE coastal defense project, but the deal was not completed
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3845579,00.html

 

[Prince Kassad]

Finally, peace can prevail in the region. Thank-you UAE to take the first step, Hope other Islamic will embrace peaceful attitude to