Bibi Tries To Woo Walmart To Israel

Image by Wikimedia Commons

By JTA February 5, 2018

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel is wooing Walmart.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to senior Walmart Inc. executive John Furner at a meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, Bloomberg reported, citing Netanyahu’s economic adviser Avi Simhon.

They reportedly discussed the idea of Walmart opening a retail branch in Israel and also of investing in Israeli technologies, Simhon told Bloomberg.

Simhon, who was present at the meeting, said that Netanyahu offered to “ease regulatory burdens wherever possible to make the market more accessible to them.”

In November reports surfaced that Amazon was in talks to lease at least 270,000 square feet of warehouses to set up a retail shipping center in Israel and also had plans to launch a targeted website for Israeli consumers.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO