Transcript
A (0:00)
Foreign.
B (0:04)
You are listening to an art media podcast.
A (0:09)
So Yael, what's your number?
B (0:10)
Mine is 52, which is according to the Israel Export Institute, the number of Israeli companies that are currently participating at rsa, which is the annual cybersecurity conference here in San Francisco. Yes, I am in San Francisco and yes, it is the middle of the night, so take it with a grain of salt because this is only the companies that obviously have been registered with the Israel Export Institute. My hunch is that it's many more, but I name it this week because as you know, with everything going on in Israel, it has been a huge challenge to get out of the country and into this conference. And this conference is pivotal for many of these companies for their growth and for their business strategy. I am here now and let me tell you, it's like a secret club of the Israeli founders. Everybody knows what's happening all the time in Israel and yet has to kind of put on a straight face and go get business done. So 52 for now. What's yours?
A (1:02)
Actually it's cool. The S in RSA not many people know is Adi Shamir is an Israeli professor who's one of the top cryptographers in the world. The guy that gave the early days blockchain their kosher stamp in terms of its invincibility. So RSA is always a reminder of how embedded Israel is in the whole cryptography and cyberspace. Mine is 6060 basis points on the 5 year Israeli credit default swap. That's sort of a marker of how risky the the global markets are seeing the Israeli government's debt. These are pre October 7th numbers, Yel. And we are in the middle of the war at the peak war. I think investors are pretty clear in terms of what future they see for the Israeli economy. Just to give the sort of adverse number in early October or I would say November, we were at 132 basis points. So double the spread that we have right now. I think this is a very optimistic sign that even though a rocket just fell here in Tel Aviv and the barrage continues, the global markets see the Israeli economy flourishing post war. That's a great sign. But I think you win, you personally win for being in San Francisco right now. All numbers and figures that show how tremendously dedicated the Israeli tech industry is our big winner. So I concede before we even ask.
B (2:20)
All right, I'll take it. Let's go.
A (2:30)
It is 2:30pm here in Israel. Blue sky, some still remainders of rocket interceptions. When you have a clear sight of the sky, you can still see those.
