Military-technical cooperation (MTC) is an important component of the Israeli-Indian cooperation. This article provides the periodization of the military-technical cooperation of the two countries. Both the factors contributing to the strengthening of bilateral cooperation in this area and the factors that are an obstacle to this are analyzed. A brief overview of the available literature on this topic is provided, while the opinion of not only Israeli and Indian authors directly, but also experts from other countries is studied. The works of Russian researchers are considered separately. The authors come to the conclusion that, despite the mutual interest of the two countries in the development of military-technical cooperation, one should not expect the formation of a strategic alliance between the two countries on the basis of cooperation in this area. A special place in the work is given to the issues of competition between Russia and Israel in the Indian arms market.

The acceleration of digitalization processes, caused, in particular, by the pandemic of the new coronavirus, makes it possible to more seriously consider new technologies as a tool for solving a number of socio-economic problems, both at the local and regional and, more broadly, global levels. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that today Israel, not being an exception, has become a participant in the process of involving digital technologies to solve government problems, and the study of such opportunities can become a new contribution to the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The agreements on cooperation between Israel and a number of Arab countries in the Middle East reached in 2020 contribute to increasing the degree of integration of this state into regional processes. The authors of the article set themselves the goal of demonstrating the opportunities that digital technologies open up to ensure interaction between the business communities of Israel and Palestine at the present stage, even in the context of the ongoing conflict. Among the materials, in addition to the collection of scientific classical proven literature of specialists in the Middle East, the authors used scientific and practical developments in the field of economics and crisis management, which made it possible to more accurately assess the situation and obtain reliable results. Among the methods, the authors used the method of decomposition of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the allocation of levels of digitalization and the subsequent construction of the concept of the possible use of digital interaction between the two countries. The result of the study was the development of their own multi-level concept for the development of such interaction, based both on their understanding of digital transformation processes and on the specifics of regional development processes. The central element of the concept developed by the authors of the article is the so-called interaction platforms (IP), which, in fact, being modern online platforms, de facto form a virtual space to ensure the interaction of the two communities in the economic, financial, educational, and social spheres. Thus, the article shows that digitalization makes it possible to overcome the existing barriers to economic development, especially for Palestine. It enables the business community of both countries to considerably reduce the significance of the current unfavorable geopolitical situation and intensify the economic component of bilateral relations. Moreover, the mechanisms we propose can operate in the context of an ongoing conflict, which is of paramount importance, since in this case there is a possibility of a gradual improvement in the economic situation in Palestine.

Being the foundation of the financial system of the state, the banking sector is key in a number of development areas. Since money is an extremely sensitive instrument, banks are generally fairly conservative institutions. However, the acceleration of the pace of scientific and technological progress, the expansion of its scope more and more affect the financial sector of the economy as a whole and banks as its central component. The article shows that in the first two decades of the XXI century Israel’s banking system has undergone a significant transformation. The main objective of the reforms was to reduce the level of concentration in this sector. It was also essential to improve the transparency of the functioning of the country’s banking system. In general, it should be noted that, despite the rather strong resistance from the leadership of the largest banks in Israel, by the beginning of the third decade of this century, the country’s banking system came up in much better “shape” than it was before the reforms began. Meanwhile, nevertheless, the level of concentration in it is still quite high. It seems that the processes of digital transformation, which, albeit slowly, but occur in the country’s banking system, will make it even more efficient and adequate to the requirements of the modern economy. Digital platforms are democratic and transparent by their very nature. Their introduction by Israeli banks will significantly increase the transparency and decentralization of the national banking system. At the time of this writing, digitalization processes in this area are only at the very beginning, so at this stage it is difficult to say how successful their results will be, despite, of course, the high transformational potential of digital technologies, which was mentioned earlier.

This paper evaluates the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on social and economic development of Israel. We begin with a short description of the state of affairs in Israel from social, economic and political points of view before the advent of pandemic. First, we analyze the role of ongoing Israeli political crisis in the current environment, describe leading political actors’ reaction and list some politically-destabilizing factors. We proceed with an analysis of COVID-19 impact on various economic branches and on Israeli economy as a whole. We provide estimates of adverse impact of the coronavirus on some important industries, such as tourism, energy, diamonds and air transport, supplemented by Bank of Israel economic forecast for post-crisis development. Additionally, we describe how high-tech sector as one of the drivers of Israeli economy is trying to adapt to the new environment brought by the pandemic. Despite the negative shocks on exports and labor markets, Israeli high-tech sector is flexible and ready to reorganize itself to better react for changing market conditions. This has already been reflected in the way how entrepreneurs and researchers are channeling their efforts into high-demand areas such as medicine and telecommunications, which in itself suggests existence of positive trends in the industry. We conclude our paper with a brief summary and a forecast of the development of Israeli economy. Despite diverse opinions on the efficiency of anti-crisis measures adopted by Israeli government, we admit that the current crisis is a substantial challenge for Israeli society but we also maintain that COVID-19 pandemic will not pose any existential threat to Israeli national economy.