Apple's Tim Cook pledges more growth in Israel during meeting with Israeli president

Posted:
in General Discussion edited February 2015
A meeting this week between Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin reportedly included assurances from Cook that the company intends to continue growing its operations in the region, a large part of which are focused on chip design.



Apple CEO Tim Cook meets with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem. | Via the Wall Street Journal


"We've hired our first individual in Israel in 2011 and we now have over 700 people working in Israel directly for us," Cook said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Israel and Apple have gotten much closer together over the last three years than ever before, and we see that as just the beginning."

The balance of Cook's conversation with Rivlin remains unknown, but it is likely to have revolved around economic development.

The new research facility in Herzlyia is Apple's second in Israel, joining an existing outpost in Haifa. The 700 employees manning those offices were largely boosted by the acquisitions of Israeli startups Anobit and PrimeSense, as well as the hiring of numerous former Texas Instruments chip designers after that firm shuttered its Israeli operations.

Apple is one of hundreds of western technology companies with research facilities in Israel, as the nation churns out an impressive array of technological advances. A focus on scientific education and massive investments in technology by the government and the Israeli Defense Force have led to a surplus of engineering talent that rivals that found in Silicon Valley.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.
  • Reply 2 of 16
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post



    I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.



    The US benefits SIGNIFICANTLY from Israel on many fronts. How many billions does the US throw at our enemies to keep them in check (no pun intended) - might as well just flush it down the toilet.

  • Reply 3 of 16
    I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.

    Not me. I never want Apple to be in a position where they are being subsidized or bailed out. They'd be so compromised, their every product would be subject to scrutiny beyond what China just did for political reasons.
  • Reply 4 of 16
    Tim Cook is a smart cookie. Going around the world meeting world leaders and highlighting how many jobs Apple is creating in their countries. Also emphasizing clean energy is excellent.

    Next stop Asia I presume where he can boast about new research center in Japan and then bolster Apple's already dominant position in CHina.
  • Reply 5 of 16
    Smart move. When I lived in Israel (1979), it was still a blue-collar, agricultural country. My kibbutz raised chickens and made screws. Now the country is a high-tech powerhouse. Some of that resulted from the immigration of well-educated Jewish-Russian scientists after the fall of the USSR. Most of it is because Jews tend to be smart and value education.

    Their misfortunate is that some of their neighbors are among the stupidest people on the planet. Imagine your neighbors were:

    1. A talented electrical engineer and software designer.

    2. The chief of medicine at a top-notch hospital.

    3. The head of a firm that builds and remodels homes.

    That's Israel among its neighbors. You'd be taking advantage of them for advice and perhaps job leads wouldn't you? Of course you would.

    Not so these stupider-than-stumps Palestinians. In Gaza, rather than taking well-paying jobs with Jewish firms just up the road in Tel Avi or making sure their kids get a good education, they spend every penny they can steal from international aid digging tunnels, so they can sneak out and kill Jewish kids attending a preschool.

    I said they were stupid, but hate-filled idiots might be more accurate. There's no reason to feel sorry for them. They deserve their misery and more. They're a perfect illustration of the politics of hate. You can find similar examples around the world.

    Israeli prime minister Golda Meir put it perfectly when she said, "Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

    She made that remark in 1957 and it remains true today, almost sixty years later.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Inkling View Post



    Smart move. When I lived in Israel (1979), it was still a blue-collar, agricultural country. My kibbutz raised chickens and made screws. Now the country is a high-tech powerhouse. Some of that resulted from the immigration of well-educated Jewish-Russian scientists after the fall of the USSR. Most of it is because Jews tend to be smart and value education.



    Their misfortunate is that some of their neighbors are among the stupidest people on the planet. Imagine your neighbors were:



    1. A talented electrical engineer and software designer.



    2. The chief of medicine at a top-notch hospital.



    3. The head of a firm that builds and remodels homes.



    That's Israel among its neighbors. You'd be taking advantage of them for advice and perhaps job leads wouldn't you? Of course you would.



    Not so these stupider-than-stumps Palestinians. In Gaza, rather than taking well-paying jobs with Jewish firms just up the road in Tel Avi or making sure their kids get a good education, they spend every penny they can steal from international aid digging tunnels, so they can sneak out and kill Jewish kids attending a preschool.



    I said they were stupid, but hate-filled idiots might be more accurate. There's no reason to feel sorry for them. They deserve their misery and more. They're a perfect illustration of the politics of hate. You can find similar examples around the world.



    Israeli prime minister Golda Meir put it perfectly when she said, "Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."



    She made that remark in 1957 and it remains true today, almost sixty years later.



    Wow. I wonder why this kind of information never makes it to the media (NOT!).

     

    Most wars and conflicts are fomented my hidden third parties.

  • Reply 7 of 16
    inkling wrote: »
    Smart move. When I lived in Israel (1979), it was still a blue-collar, agricultural country. My kibbutz raised chickens and made screws. Now the country is a high-tech powerhouse. Some of that resulted from the immigration of well-educated Jewish-Russian scientists after the fall of the USSR. Most of it is because Jews tend to be smart and value education.

    Their misfortunate is that some of their neighbors are among the stupidest people on the planet. Imagine your neighbors were:

    1. A talented electrical engineer and software designer.

    2. The chief of medicine at a top-notch hospital.

    3. The head of a firm that builds and remodels homes.

    That's Israel among its neighbors. You'd be taking advantage of them for advice and perhaps job leads wouldn't you? Of course you would.

    Not so these stupider-than-stumps Palestinians. In Gaza, rather than taking well-paying jobs with Jewish firms just up the road in Tel Avi or making sure their kids get a good education, they spend every penny they can steal from international aid digging tunnels, so they can sneak out and kill Jewish kids attending a preschool.

    I said they were stupid, but hate-filled idiots might be more accurate. There's no reason to feel sorry for them. They deserve their misery and more. They're a perfect illustration of the politics of hate. You can find similar examples around the world.

    Israeli prime minister Golda Meir put it perfectly when she said, "Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

    She made that remark in 1957 and it remains true today, almost sixty years later.

    That's a lot of propaganda to sift through.
  • Reply 8 of 16
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Not me. I never want Apple to be in a position where they are being subsidized or bailed out. They'd be so compromised, their every product would be subject to scrutiny beyond what China just did for political reasons.

    I agree on handouts but surely tax benefits and the like are welcome and I would think are involved as elsewhere.
  • Reply 9 of 16
    Not to take this off-course even further, but...I wouldn't call all Palestinians stupid or hate-filled. Many of them do seek employment with Israeli companies and often, despite BDS's best efforts, look for Hebrew on packaging of goods to determine that the products are of higher quality than those with Arabic.

    The problem is mostly related to Arab culture which often seeks to blame others for misfortunes it brought upon themselves. Al-Naqbah (the catastrophe) in 1949 was the doing of the Arab League who told most Palestinians to leave the area to avoid the fighting. They said to come back when they had secured all the land from river to sea (Jordan river to Mediterranean...in other words: everything). That didn't happen. Yes, Israelis did some bad things to the Palestinians back in early days, but Palestinians also did some pretty terrible things to Israelis as well. Neither side is free of guilt, but Israelis took to the land and began making the best of what they had, while Palestinians took to being victims and not letting go of decades old hatred. In Israel, you have Rechov Sum Sum (its version of Sesame Street which it emulates closely and is very well connected to the American version), but in Palestinian territories, you have kids shows promoting violence and spouting hatred of Israelis and Jews. There is proof of it even on YouTube.

    If you want a good write-up of the problems Palestinians face today and why they should try harder to move on, look no further than the writings and speeches (also on YouTube) of Palestinian Bassem Eid. He clearly points out all of the problems Palestinians have and shows that most of them can be pointed right back at other Palestinians...like Yassir Arafat, Abu Mazen (Mamoud Abbas), Hamas and UNRWA. These people and organizations have propagated the idea of being victims and refugees and then line their pockets with donations from the west and the rest of the Arab world continuing to leave Palestinians to live in terrible conditions. Spokespeople for Palestinians don't really want statehood otherwise they would have accepted one of the multiple times it has been offered to them with Israel in total agreement or near total agreement. Victimhood suits these people just fine as long as the money keeps coming in.

    Bassem Eid said it best: (paraphrased) "If Abu Mazen were to come to the table with Netanyahu, Netanyahu would ask who are the people he represents. Abu Mazen would say, "my wife and children".

    I do not believe Palestinians are idiots...many are actually brilliant people...who are stuck between a rock and a hard place (Fatah and Hamas). If they could elect actual leadership and move on and actually build an economy, stop provoking Israel, and focus on bettering themselves as a people, they would be in a far better situation than what is today still the status quo.
  • Reply 10 of 16
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member

    partial quote ...

    I do not believe Palestinians are idiots...many are actually brilliant people...who are stuck between a rock and a hard place (Fatah and Hamas). If they could elect actual leadership and move on and actually build an economy, stop provoking Israel, and focus on bettering themselves as a people, they would be in a far better situation than what is today still the status quo.

    Your last paragraph while being true assumes there will be any land left to call Palestine. The current swiss cheese area they are left with would be hard to do much with regardless of a good government and friendly relations with neighbors.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    Your last paragraph while being true assumes there will be any land left to call Palestine. The current swiss cheese area they are left with would be hard to do much with regardless of a good government and friendly relations with neighbors.

    Perhaps thats true. Israel does also need to stop building settlements and I don't agree with them continuing to do so despite the fact that I am a Zionist. However, settlements are not the true obstacle to peace like every critic of Israel likes to throw out there. To put it into perspective, originally, Israel was going to be a much smaller portion of the land, and the Jews agreed to the boarders. The Arabs did not. The land itself is already a tiny sliver. Again, I state that it's time to move on and make life better however possible. The sanctions put upon the Gaza Strip by Israel (after it peacefully left the land...for the purposes of peace) were only put there after Hamas fought a bloody battle with Fatah over the land and won...only to turn around and use it as a base of operations for rocket attacks and other terrorist activities against Israel. Israel actually left behind several industrial buildings and some infrastructure...which Hamas hastily destroyed to thumb its collective noses at Israel. Disarm Hamas, oust Fatah and think about what you can do...even with so little...rather than continuing to support violence. That's the real obstacle to peace.

    When the Jews began returning to Palestine in the later part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century (though there has been a constant, if small, presence of Jews in the land ever since the major expulsions), the land was barren and unkempt...as little as it was. Jews changed that. Why can't Palestinians? Change the leadership, change the attitude and mentality and watch the opportunities between the two nations flourish. People start companies in their basements and garages with next to no money...now they are enormous multi-national corporations. Anything is possible. I believe the Palestinians have it in them...they just have to want it enough to do what needs to be done.
  • Reply 12 of 16
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Perhaps thats true. Israel does also need to stop building settlements and I don't agree with them continuing to do so despite the fact that I am a Zionist. However, settlements are not the true obstacle to peace like every critic of Israel likes to throw out there. To put it into perspective, originally, Israel was going to be a much smaller portion of the land, and the Jews agreed to the boarders. The Arabs did not. The land itself is already a tiny sliver. Again, I state that it's time to move on and make life better however possible. The sanctions put upon the Gaza Strip by Israel (after it peacefully left the land...for the purposes of peace) were only put there after Hamas fought a bloody battle with Fatah over the land and won...only to turn around and use it as a base of operations for rocket attacks and other terrorist activities against Israel. Israel actually left behind several industrial buildings and some infrastructure...which Hamas hastily destroyed to thumb its collective noses at Israel. Disarm Hamas, oust Fatah and think about what you can do...even with so little...rather than continuing to support violence. That's the real obstacle to peace.

    When the Jews began returning to Palestine in the later part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century (though there has been a constant, if small, presence of Jews in the land ever since the major expulsions), the land was barren and unkempt...as little as it was. Jews changed that. Why can't Palestinians? Change the leadership, change the attitude and mentality and watch the opportunities between the two nations flourish. People start companies in their basements and garages with next to no money...now they are enormous multi-national corporations. Anything is possible. I believe the Palestinians have it in them...they just have to want it enough to do what needs to be done.

    Perhaps the Palestinians could do a better job. If they had a non-swiss cheese area to work with, they would of course, on top of all the other obstacles you mention, need a white knight country prepared to give them billions of dollars every year and the benefit of many people from all over the world with high levels of education to move there and help. This isn't going to happen.
  • Reply 13 of 16
    Perhaps the Palestinians could do a better job. If they had a non-swiss cheese area to work with, they would of course, on top of all the other obstacles you mention, need a white knight country prepared to give them billions of dollars every year and the benefit of many people from all over the world with high levels of education to move there and help. This isn't going to happen.

    Perhaps they need not look much further than to Israel. There have already been some positive interactions between Israeli farmers and Palestinian farmers. The Israelis showed some of the Palestinian farmers how to farm land with very little water (the Israeli method of drip irrigation). Israel already ships in food and bulding materials (often used by Hamas for digging smuggling tunnels and tunnels for sneaking into Israel to kidnap Israelis). Israel is at least trying in that respect. There is already so much showing of support from countries all over the world for the Palestinian people...especially in the form of aid money. I think if Palestinians want statehood and peace (as opposed to their leadership), they could have both and use the money they already receive and, with a little help from Israel, do all of what they need to begin sustaining themselves. Maybe I'm just a hopeless optimist. I don't know.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post



    I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.



    From what I understand the billions the US sends over there is predominantly military aid to help finance the development of defensive systems like Iron Dome etc. I don't think the US has sent any civilian aid there in years, the country doesn't need it anymore...modern efficient economy and so forth. 

     

    I think its a shame that every time Israel comes up in forums that are not related to politics, the politics still come into it. I'm sure most of the people over there just want to get on with their lives and prosper like almost everybody else, and maybe wish at times they could be somewhere quieter like New Zealand or something! 

  • Reply 15 of 16
    1983 wrote: »

    From what I understand the billions the US sends over there is predominantly military aid to help finance the development of defensive systems like Iron Dome etc. I don't think the US has sent any civilian aid there in years, the country doesn't need it anymore...modern efficient economy and so forth. 

    I think its a shame that every time Israel comes up in forums that are not related to politics, the politics still come into it. I'm sure most of the people over there just want to get on with their lives and prosper like almost everybody else, and maybe wish at times they could be somewhere quieter like New Zealand or something! 

    This is something I often fear everytime Israel is mentioned in these types of articles. It becomes click bait for people who are generally on the extreme ends of either side. I support Israel in many ways and often disagree with them in many more. I'm kind of like a lot of people here when it comes to Apple...we generally support Apple in most ways, but we're often their harshest critics as well. Thankfully, this thread hasn't devolved into a flame war. My original post was meant to stop that...or at least slow it down.
  • Reply 16 of 16
    v900v900 Posts: 101member
    Perhaps the Palestinians could do a better job. If they had a non-swiss cheese area to work with, they would of course, on top of all the other obstacles you mention, need a white knight country prepared to give them billions of dollars every year and the benefit of many people from all over the world with high levels of education to move there and help. This isn't going to happen.

    You seem to forget all the billions of dollars that Palestinians get every year from the gulf countries, US and EU.

    There is a massive amount of infrastructure projects all paid for with EU funds. If you ever take a drive on the West Bank, you'll see a sign ever couple of miles, announcing yet another project paid for by EU and/or OECD.

    And the UN of course also get to play white knight... Not only do they feed many of the people in the West Bank and Gaza, (thereby taking a major load of the back of Fatah and Hamas, and ensuring that feeding the people doesnt interfere with getting Mercedes limousines for the PA and weapons for Hamas) the UN also pays for healthcare and free education for Palestinians.

    That explains how Palestinians have been "occupied" for decades, and still is one of the best educated populations in the Middle East, better educated than people in neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.
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