Business as usual for Tower

We are used to seeing Israeli CEOs meeting or talking with US investors and customers during Middle East security crises, explaining that it's business as usual in Israel.

We are used to seeing Israeli CEOs meeting or talking with US investors and customers during Middle East security crises, explaining that it's business as usual in Israel.

Businesses are open, and company production is unchanged.

It is rarer to see an American CEO who resides in Israel and has to calm down US investors, but this is precisely the case of Russell Ellwanger, the CEO of Tower Semiconductor.

Tower's Fab 1 and Fab 2 in Migdal Ha'Emek in the lower Galilee have 1300 employees.

This is normally a serene area, but in the recent fighting, it has been hit by Katyusha rockets fired by Hizbullah from Lebanon.

The company's fab have not been affected, but try telling that to Americans.

"When you watch CNN, it looks like the whole country is in flames", says Ellwanger.

"That's OK; the news always has a sensationalist aspect".

"What we've mostly heard from customers is concern about us and the wish to know that everything is all right".

"No one is worried about our ability to continue normal production".

"Like every other Israeli company, we have emergency plans, but we're far from that, and it's not the situation".

"There is no sense here of clear and present danger".

"It's business as usual".

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