In a recent study, Israel ranks fourth compared to 30 Arab countries in its standard of living and gross domestic product per capita, and is preceded by only Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. At the end of 2011 Israel preceded nearly all Arab countries. Most figures fail to include the drop in GDP in countries which recently experienced an uprising or change of government.

Israel said on Sunday it plans to build a railway line linking its Red Sea and Mediterranean ports that could handle potential overflow from the Suez Canal on the freight route between Asia and Europe. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the idea of ships dropping off goods in one port to be picked up by a second ship at the other, had stirred interest from major exporters India and China. The project has yet to receive final approval or secure funding.

Israel is putting together a plan for a national investment fund that would tap an anticipated natural gas bonanza to fuel both an export-geared economy and provide a nest egg of $10 billion in under a decade for future generations. Some of the revenues would be invested in strategically critical targets such as education, health, and using some of the proceeds to endow a new set of export-oriented, technology-based industries that would build on what has traditionally been the country's greatest resource: human capital.

According to a report by the Israel Capital Venture Research Center and KMPG, In 2011 546 Israeli or Israel-affiliated high-tech companies raised a total of $2.14 billion from Israeli and foreign VC investors. This is the highest amount raised in the past 11 years since the dot-com crash last decade.

The Bank of Israel said Wednesday in its comparison of prices between Israel and developed countries that private consumer prices in Israel in 2010 were relatively high when one takes into account that income per capital in Israel is lower than the OECD average. OECD figures show that the private consumption price level in 2010 was 20% higher than expected, assuming there is a correlation between income per-capita and product prices.

According to figures released Wednesday by the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute Israeli exports totaled $89 billion in 2011 -- a 4.5% increase compared to 2010. These data do not include the exports of startup companies and acquisitions of Israeli startups by foreign companies. These are impressive figures considering the economic slowdown experienced by most of the world last year, but disappointing in comparison to the Israeli industry's achievements in previous years.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have launched a unique, joint ecological venture -- a first-of-its-kind eco-park. The park will be the product of collaboration between the West Bank city of Jenin and the Gilboa Regional Council, which have joined forces to rehabilitate the Kishon River. The Kishon River is a 70km-long perennial stream, flowing down from the Gilboa Mountains.

Saudi hackers claimed to have released the credit card information of hundreds of thousands of Israelis, after hacking one of Israel's leading sports websites One.co.il. Israeli credit card companies said Monday that the list is repetitive and only actually includes 14,000 Israelis. They say they have blocked all the cards on the list, and will return money to their customers should any purchases be made on the cards.

According to a study commissioned by the National Insurance Institute of Israel, the recent years have seen a significant rise in the number of employed people in the Arab sector, mainly among women. The study also pointed to a general growth in the number of employed women, and in the past two years -- a rise in the number of ultra-Orthodox men joining the labor market. According to the study, the employment rate of the entire population dropped 2% in the past decade.

Despite the slowdown in economic activity and a decline in most economic indexes, the unemployment rate in Israel in October was just 5%, the lowest since 1978's 4.3% jobless level. The October rate, which was released on Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics, translates in human terms into 155,200 Israelis who were seeking employment in October. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz called the decline in the jobless rate evidence of the success of the government's economic policy against the backdrop of the world economic crisis.

Two of the central recommendations made by the Trajtenberg committee on socioeconomic reform - free preschool education and longer school days - are unlikely to become part of the 2012 budget. Netanyahu is expected to announce his decision within a few weeks. The Finance Ministry expects, based on discussions between senior treasury officials and Netanyahu over the past few weeks, the prime minister to backtrack on his previous decision to cut the defense budget over the next five years.

Israel has pledged to release about 1 billion cubic feet of water to restore the biblical Jordan River. Israel, Syria and Jordan have diverted nearly all of the river's fresh water and the trickle that remains is mostly raw sewage. Last year, Israel began building a $106 million complex to remove the sewage water and treat it for agricultural use. But that would have left the river dry.

eBay, which operates the world's biggest online marketplace, is looking into the possibility of launching a Hebrew website. Company executives are expected to visit Israel in the near future to examine the issue. According to sources eBay has been looking for a building in Israel for some time. A third technology giant planning to build a development center in Israel, according to recent reports, is Apple.

Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology will partner to build an applied sciences campus in New York City that officials hope will transform the metropolis into a center for entrepreneurship and technology innovation to rival California's Silicon Valley. In a news conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the schools' proposal had been selected in the multi-billion-dollar competition.

Israel has offered to export natural gas to India. Negotiations for the gas deal are set to intensify when India's foreign minister visits Israel in January. The offer was said to be made by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz during his visit to India last week.