One of the downsides, among many, of living in a country involved in perpetual wars as we here seem to be, is that it is easy to forget there are thousands of other things going on simultaneously that are positive, worthy of praise, and even a cause for amazement.
Much of it seems counterintuitive, but then again, our whole success here often appears to be counterintuitive.
An item appeared recently in C-TECH, a dedicated English-language technology and start-up news channel published by the financial daily Calcalist, about Israeli defense giant Elbit.
It indicates that the company has an order backlog worth $32 billion, mostly built around airborne lasers for use in asymmetric warfare.
That number is simply amazing for a country our size and worthy of further exploration.
Israel’s annual GDP is $720b., which means that Elbit has an order backlog equal to 4.4% of Israel’s GDP. In itself, $32b. is also larger than the GDP of Armenia, Jamaica, Brunei, Lebanon, and the Bahamas, to provide some perspective.
Founded in 1966 as Elbit Computers Ltd. to build electronic and computer systems, the company has grown into a major defense supplier, with its recent growth aided by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as a broader European military buildup.
All of this continues to translate into a growing demand for Israeli-made weapons, electronic warfare systems, and other defense technologies.
Calcalist noted that the $32b. backlog “gives Elbit an unusually large amount of work already contracted for future years, but it also illustrates the scale of the transformation underway in the defense industry.
“Governments are not simply replacing weapons consumed in recent conflicts. They are investing in new capabilities, expanding ammunition stocks, and upgrading military systems designed for increasingly complex battlefields.”
However, that demand has been only one element of Israel’s industrial growth even during a time of war. There are other indicators of growth as well, illustrated, for example, by the large foreign investment in, and buyouts of, Israeli companies just during this past July, to wit.
China’s Tencent is in negotiations to acquire SuperPlay, a top-performing mobile gaming studio, from Israel’s Playtika for an estimated $1-1.5 billion.
Singapore’s BandLab Technologies acquired Israel’s Aiode, an AI-powered digital music studio, for tens of millions of dollars.
The deal adds Aiode as a third primary platform alongside BandLab and Cakewalk, focusing on ethically sourced, fully licensed audio-to-audio models created in direct collaboration with professional session musicians.
Cisco, headquartered in California, made a $150-200 million strategic investment in Israeli cybersecurity start-up Zafran, extending its total funding significantly.
California’s Cribl acquired Israel’s CardinalOps, an AI-native detection engineering start-up, in a deal estimated to be about $100m. The acquisition expands Cribl’s footprint into security operations (SecOps) and establishes a new office in Tel Aviv as well.
Another California firm, Instacart, acquired Arpalus, an Israeli artificial intelligence and computer vision start-up, for an undisclosed sum estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.
The deal marks Instacart’s first acquisition of an Israeli company and aims to boost real-time supermarket shelf intelligence and inventory accuracy.
California’s ServiceNow acquired Israeli start-up ai.work for a reported tens of millions of dollars.
Founded in 2024 by former WalkMe executives, ai.work built an enterprise AI agent platform designed to automate internal service and operational workflows across complex business systems.
Looking into the future
What is really interesting in all of this is that so many countries that have been critical of our activity in Gaza and other locations over the past three years have no hesitation in coming to Israeli companies to buy our technology – even while they erroneously accuse us of genocide and apartheid.
Clearly, we produce what the world’s governments want even if they disagree with our politics.
For Elbit, the record backlog is an opportunity, but it also creates a manufacturing challenge. Elbit has been expanding its production infrastructure as orders accumulate.
According to reports by the company, Elbit added approximately 2,000 employees over the previous year and plans to recruit another 2,000, including for the expansion of its Ramat Beka complex.
The company has previously said that some production lines increased output as much as tenfold as demand surged. That expansion is necessary if Elbit is to turn its backlog into revenue without allowing production bottlenecks to erode profitability.
All of this bodes well for future growth.
Informed analysis indicates that Israel’s economy in 2027 is projected to experience a strong growth rebound of about 4.4% to 5.6%, driven by recovering private consumption, stabilizing post-conflict normalization, and a rebound in construction and tourism.
Inflation is expected to hover near a stable 2.1%, while the fiscal deficit narrows to roughly 4.2% of GDP.
As we approach a new year, let us hope that the economists are correct and that this counterintuitive country that we call home will continue to prosper in every way possible.
The writer, a 42-year resident of Jerusalem, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and a Board Member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).