Israel has become an eco-pioneer/ By Matthew Kalman

When Warren Buffett, the world’s wealthiest man, decided to make his first investment outside the United States, he chose Israel.

“Some Amerircans have come to the Middle East looking for oil so they didn’t stop in Israel. We came to the Middle East looking for brains and we stopped in Israel,” Buffett explained as he put $4 billion into Iscar, a precision tool maker.

“We found that the real trick in business, is not to be a genius yourself, but to go around associating with geniuses; who are already doing a good job, and stay out of their way.”
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Israeli innovations range from Intel microprocessors; to messaging systems, that ensure the safety of nearly all the world’s financial transactions.

These companies all have research and development centers in Israel, drawing on the brainpower of those genius: Microsoft, Intel, IBM. NDS, a firm that designs TV set-top boxes, to unscramble cable and satellite signals,

There are more than 1,000 clean-technology start-up companies in Israel, a country that has attracted more foreign investment in high-tech businesses in the past decade, than all of Europe.

It has more companies quoted on the high-tech NASDAQ stock exchange in New York, than any other country outside the United States.

In innovation, between 1980 and 2000, Israelis registered 7,652.