Aaron Katsman
www.IsraelNewsletter.com  

As if we forgot that we are living in a dangerous world, today’s newsthat Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a terrorist attack, has reminded the world, and the Democratic party, just how dangerous a world we live in. We are once again reminded that there is a very large movement of individuals bent on the destruction of the west, along with the democratic ideals that the west represents. For some, watching extremists burn the flag of the USA along with that of Israel on the nightly news is meaningless. Many of these people feel that it’s President Bush’s fault we are not well liked. Today’s incident shows that the deep rooted hatred has nothing to do with the current US president, rather for the ideas that the US was founded on. That is what is not well liked by these extremist elements.

With this grim reminder of the dangers still common in the world, I think this means a renewed focus on security stocks. When speaking about security no conversation is complete without looking at Israel. The undisputed leader in security technology, Israel’s security establishment gained fame because of the reign of terror that the country has faced for decades. Nice Systems(NASDAQ:NICE) is one such company. The stock is bucking today’s downward market pressure and is gaining more than 1.5%. Nice is a security company that specializes in two markets: Security and Call Centers. Its security solution empowers security personnel to detect, prevent, and respond to threats in real-time. It also allows them to investigate, and reconstruct criminal and security cases using video surveillance and control services, incident monitoring, and reconstruction solutions. NICE is the market leader in providing fast and efficient solutions for the capture, storage, retrieval and analysis of customer interactions for contact centers, and the enterprise. Nice will be playing an active role in the upcoming summer Olympics in Beijing.

As long as there are bad guys out there they will be a need for a company like Nice.

Disclosure: Author’s fund holds a position in NICE and is long the stock as of 12/26/07.

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Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

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Zack Miller
IsraelNewsletter.com

Globes ran an article on Elbit Systems (ESLT) last week. Company president and CEO Joseph Ackerman spoke about the growth the defense company is seeing. 2008 and beyond seem to be double-digit growth years for the Israeli contractor, with over $4 billion in backlog orders.

The seminal paragraph of the article addresses market demand for Elbit products:

“The budgets of armies around the world have been growing at 3-4% annually in the past few years, and we are growing faster than the market…Our business is military electronics,…there’s always demand for the products. What’s more, today armies buy fewer platforms and more systems, and that’s exactly what we do. Therefore I estimate that in the next three to four years we’ll maintain a two-digit growth rate. 2008 is more or less clear to us, and it will be better than 2007.”

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