Seventeen years after Microsoft began operating in Israel, the company's founder and chairman, Bill Gates, arrived yesterday for his first visit to the country.
In one respect, it is surprising that Gates has never visited Israel, which is considered second only to the United States as a source of new technologies for software, communications, semiconductors and life sciences. The country may be small, but it has become a huge target for multinationals. Steve Ballmer, second only to Gates, visited about a year ago.