As the latest fighting between Israel and the Gaza Strip enters its 10th day on July 17, hundreds of rockets have been fired at Israel and hundreds of tons of explosives have been dropped on Gaza. There is still no solution. Though discussions on a cease-fire take place in the background, both parties are still searching for their own “victory image.” In the dire reality of endless sirens and concern for the welfare of the children during the summer break, the Israeli economy is trying to function normally and relay the sense of "business as usual."

And yet, when it comes to the local high-tech industry in the “startup nation,” it really is business as usual. Anyone perusing the high-tech sections of the local economic press would think the stories are taking place in some other country, and a tranquil, peaceful country at that. To illustrate this, here is a brief selection of headlines from the past few difficult days of the conflict: Neebula Systems from Hod HaSharon was sold to the American ServiceNow company for $100 million; Microsoft is in negotiations to purchase the Israeli cybersecurity firm Aorato; Israel’s JFrog raised $7 million from VMWare and Gemini; and Zooz — a company that deals with online payments — closed a $12 million round of funding.

Added to all this is a truly astounding figure: Israeli startups have managed to raise a record amount of funding, with 175 companies raising no less than $1.6 billion in the first half of 2014. The problem is, Israel’s economy, much to the chagrin of many, still does not begin and end with high-tech companies in the center of the country. Outside that flourishing greenhouse, the Israeli economy is paying an increasingly steep price each day the conflict continues. No one in those sectors is searching for some “victory image.” All they want is to get through another day and survive until the fighting is over and quiet returns to the region. And even then, in many cases it will take months before they overcome the damage they suffered.

A senior figure in the local tourism industry told Al-Monitor that until just a few days ago, 2014 was considered to be one of the most successful years on record in terms of the number of tourists arriving in the country. “But,” he added, “the year came to a close last week, as far as we are concerned, when the first missile was fired. We call it the ‘half a year lost.’”