In the upcoming September 2011, Wired presents their first annual look at the continent's rising stars. Talking about Israel's "Silicon Wadi," Wired writes that "the strip has produced so many widely adopted high-tech products -- from ICQ instant messaging, through wireless-internet technologies to USB memory sticks -- it is often seen as the closest international rival to California's iconic Silicon Valley."

Israel is a juggernaut of R&D, 4.5% of its economic output is immediately reinvested, making Israel number one in the world for R&D as a percentage of GDP. And the Holy Land is home to R&D departments of some of the world's most important tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Intel.

In the past few years, authors like Dan Senor have chronicled the importance of "chutzpah" in making Israel a tech startup juggernaut with books like Start Up Nation. The article in Wired magazine highlights not only Israel as a whole, but a small strip in Tel Aviv itself called Rothschild Boulevard. Speaking of the tech mecca within the tech mecca, the authors write, "stretching from Neve Tzedek in the south roughly to midtown, Rothschild is an elegant, treelined avenue popular with pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers enjoying the city's almost unending sunshine. On the pedestrian walkway that runs down its centre, a strip of hip, outdoor cafés is home to creative types on their laptops, thanks in no little part to the city's free, widespread Wi-Fi network."