Name: Israel Age: 60 Population: 7.14 million Languages: Hebrew, Arabic, English Pop. per sq. km: 317.8 Adult Literacy: 97.1% Urban population: 91.7% Population under 15: 27.8% Population over 60: 13.3% Human Development Index: 91.5 Human Development Ranking: 23 GDP: $140 billion Exports: $34.5. billion Imports: $36.8 billion Government spending on health: 8.9% Doctors per 1,000 pop.: 3.7

Government spending on education: 7.5%Mobile telephone subsrcibers per 100: 105.3 Computers per 100 pop.: 73.4 Internet hosts per 1,000 pop: 183.7 Venture Capital Funds: 90+ GDP growth: 5.3% Direct Foreign Investment: $14.2 billion Unemployment: 6.8% Standard & Poor Credit Rating: A+ Universities (grant doctoral degrees): 7 Colleges (Bachelors, Masters, B. Ed.): 65 Professional Orchestras: 15 Community Orchestras: 20 Museums: 150+ (highest per capita in world) Professional Theater Companies: 15 Professional Dance Companies: 18

A few of the prestigious international prizes/honors awarded to Israeli artists, scientists and athletes in 2007: 2007 Pulitzer Prize (Breaking News photography): Oded Balilty 2007 Cannes Film Festival: (Camera D’Or Award for First Film) for Meduzot, directors Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret; (Jury Coup de Coeur Award, Youth Prize, International Film Critics Un Certain Regard) for The Band’s Visit, director Eran Kolirin 2007 Berlin Film Festival: (Silver Bear - Best Director) for Beaufort, director Joseph Cedar; (Crystal Bear for Best Feature Youth Jury) for Sweet Mud, director Dror Shaul; (Panorama Prize) for The Bubble, director Eytan Fox 2007 Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Jury Prize) for Sweet Mud, director Dror Shaul 2007 European Film Academy Awards Best Actor to Sasson Gabbai in The Band’s Visit; European Discovery Award for The Band’s Visit directed by Eran Kolorin 2007 Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology (finalist): Itamar Willner, Hebrew University 2007 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics: Moshe Shapiro, Weizmann Institute (2008 winner recently announced: Gershon Kurizki, Weizmann Institute) 2007 Center of Excellence (Newsweek Magazine’s ten best medical departments in the world), Eyal Gur, Microsurgeon at Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv 2007 Overton Prize (International Society for Computational Biology): Eran Segal, Weizmann Institute 2007 David E. Rumelhart Prize (For Contributions to the Theoretical Foundations of Human Cognition): Shimon Ullman, Weizmann Institute 2007 Wolf prize (Chemistry): Ada Yonath, Weizmann Institute 2007 EU Marie Curie Excellence Grant, Hossam Haick, Technion

2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition: Yaron Kolberg (2nd), Ran Dank (4th) 2007 Michael Prize (Epilepsy Research): Alon Friedman, Ben Gurion University 2007 American Tennis Open (quarterfinals): Shachar Peer [Australian Open Finals-Grand Slam 2008: Yoni Erlich, Andy Ram] 2007 World Chess Championship (2nd): Boris Gelfand 2007 UN Montreal Protocol Outstanding Service Award: Dr Michael Garber (for the implementation of the Ozone Protection Program) 2007 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature: Amos Oz, Ben Gurion University 2007 Prince of Asturias Humanitarian Award: Yad VaShem Museum, Jerusalem 2007 UK Medical Futures Innovation Award in Mental Health & Neuroscience to two Israeli startups Biolert and Brainsway 2007 Frost & Sullivan Emerging Technologies Award: 5 Israeli companies out of the 24 European finalists. 2007 World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers list: Given Imaging and Brainsgate 2007 Arup Internt’l Water Technology Competition: Joseph Cory and Eyal Malka, Technion 2007 Some Institutes for Advanced Studies (SIAS) consortium votes in the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University as its tenth member. 2007 World Medical Association names Dr. Yoram Blacher as President 2007 Living Steel 2nd International Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing won by Knafo-Klimor Architects, Haifa 2007 Scientific American ‘SciAm 50’ for worlds’ top 50 scientific innovators: Itay Baruchi, Eshel Ben-Jacob and Beka Solomon, all of Tel Aviv University