Sarah Lacy published a seminal piece yesterday on TechCrunch about the Israeli VC and entrepreneur scene.  In an article entitled, “Now that China Is the New Israel…What’s Israel?”, Lacy explores the evolution of the Israel tech industry.  From enrapture in 2000 to finishing 2008 without a single IPO and virtually no exits, Lacy questions whether Israel has just hit a bump in the road or just peaked out.

Lacy explains:

Israeli companies have raised just over $10 billion since the beginning 2001, but acquisitions and IPOs have returned just over $860 million over that almost eight-and-a-half-year period…

Somewhere along the way, the entrepreneur scene here lost its mojo.

So I don’t say this to trash Israel, but facts are facts. In sheer numbers, Israel’s place on the global scale of investing has been dwarfed by China, and matched by the United