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New England-Israel Business Council

Per their website, the New England-Israel Business Council "fosters partnerships, investment opportunities, and other collaborations that build mutually beneficial business ties between Israel and New England, and its regional hub city of Boston." NEIBC promoted and publicized the "Massachusetts-Israel Economic Impact Study," a 2016 study which attempts to demonstrate how economic ties to Israeli companies benefit the state of MA. The study claims that Israeli businesses "generated over $18 billion in economic benefit" to MA and "supported over 27,000 jobs" in MA in 2015.

In addition to arguing for the value of Israeli industry to the MA economy, the Massachusetts-Israel Economic Impact Study acknowledges the crucial role of the US in bolstering the Israeli economy and saving Israel from its growing political and economic isolation. The study notes: "Boston is a Gateway for Israel to U.S. and Global Markets Israel has a small home market, with only about 8 million people, and not much of a regional market due to their neighbors’ struggling economies, civil wars, and animus to the Israeli state. While Israel’s small population is well suited to early stage market testing, success and return on capital only come by tapping into America’s larger market and establishing partnerships that can help Israeli firms globalize." (p. 6)

The Massachusetts-Israel Economic Impact Study claims to highlight the economic impact of 200+ 'Israeli founded businesses' on the Greater Boston area (p.4, p. 11), businesses mostly in IT (p. 12), with a significant cluster in the field of cybersecurity (figure 9, p. 11; see also this source). The emphasis of the study is on the 'innovation economy' (p. 6) and conforms to a multi-year effort at rebranding Israel as a "start-up" nation driving technological innovation in order to whitewash over the realities of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and theft of Palestinian resources. In the greater Boston area, the 'innovation economy' is widely associated with skyrocketing rents and gentrification (see, e.g. John Summers, on the situation in Cambridge).

120 Wells Ave, Newton, Massachusetts, 02459, United States

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