The companies earlier won the Red Herring Europe 100 Awards.

The editorial staff of the Red Herring international media company evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration.

The competition was first held in 1996. Past winners include Google, Yahoo, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, YouTube and eBay.

Over the years, numerous Israeli start-ups have won the Red Herring Europe 100 Awards, including 16 companies in 2009, four of which made the Global list. In 2009, three Israeli start-ups also made the Red Herring North America 100 Awards: Correlix, Promisec and OpTier, all of which are headquartered in New York and have R&D centers in Israel."

The military innovation I want to talk about is Israel's Merkava 4 tank. It has a crew of four, weighs about 65 tons, is about forty feet long including the main gun, and fires 120mm rounds. It entered full production in '01, and the first battalion of Merkava 4's entered service with the IDF in '04. The Ministry of Defense plans to maufacture up to 400 Merkava 4's.

A friend of mine who drove a Merkava (3, the predecessor to this one, but what I'm about to say applies to this one) explained me why the 1500 horsepower v-12 diesel engine of the tank is in its front, with a fuel tank, and two fuel tanks in the back. The IDF's policy has always been that every man should come home, no matter what happens in battle, and so the engine itself is employed as a last defense. By putting it in front of the tank, though it is less protected, the humans inside are safer.

Such is a state built on Jewish values. Some of you may have noticed the big deal made of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Gilad Shalit, who has been the hostage of Hamas in Gaza for almost four years now (it will be four this coming June 25th). Israel's hostage exchanges typically mean releasing many, many, prisoners (most of them terrorists, all in jail for a good reason) to save the lives of just one or two Israelis. People wonder, why is one kidnapped soldiers worth so much to Israel? For the same reason the engine is in the front of the Merkava. The sons (and daughters) of Israel risk their lives to defend the Jewish State, and the Jewish State recognizes the responsibility this entails to protect them from harm at all costs. As the Talmud says, "All of Israel are responsible for one another".

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Please remember that we have a new Parade route this year - from 57th to 74th Streets (instead of 57th - 79th Streets, as in past years). This means more concentrated fun and celebration, so join us on Fifth Avenue this Sunday!