Once a barren strip of desert, the Arava today has some 600 farms supplying more than 60 percent of Israel’s exports of fresh vegetables and 10% of ornamentals.

A workers district in Tel Aviv provides the unlikely backdrop for a burgeoning contemporary and street art world.

Clients include Golda Meir, David Ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, but now Kastiel, Israel’s most famous name in fine furniture since 1942, is opening a new line geared to smaller budgets.

WatchLock is an innovative new locking product devised jointly by Israeli companies that specialize in locking mechanisms and GPS tracking.