ICT is being used by 90% of the research population, and the Internet by about 50% of the students. The main purpose for ICT use by high school students is for computer games and word processing followed by spreadsheet, programming and information retrieval. Minor linkage was found between the Internet usage and school related tasks. In general, more boys used ICT more extensively than girls did. Differences among age groups were found mainly with respect to the use of complex applications, rather than general Internet usage. Self reported perception of ICT knowledge points that one tenth of the students are computer illiterate, two thirds are basic users, and only about 25% are skilled users [48].

Culture and Political Stability
The obstacles to growing e-commerce and e-business is politically stability and culture of trust.  As of this publication, Prime minister Ariel Sharon is critically ill and HAMAS (which is considered a militant group by many countries) is in power in Palestine. Economic embargo against Palestine by Israel and many western countries has already started and the whole world is waiting for the ramifications to middle east peace.

Israeli culture like many other cultures does not put much trust on merchants and vendors (some one you know compared to some one you don't know) compared to western ones. This is some times a hindrance to develop many e-commerce business. But the atmosphere is changing as enhanced security solutions would promote secure transactions.

Payment technologies
Israeli's hesitancy of entering credit card information over the Internet is the number one reason Israeli consumer have not engaged in e-commerce. Subtitute payment arrangements include using Israel Postal Authority. The Israel Postal Authority is interested in developing infrastructure that would allow customers to pay through the Postal Bank, transfer the products through its messaging service, and facilitate deals with electronic signatures.

Major web sites and web portals
All most all Government ministries have their own web site with links to main online gateway, http://www.gov.il/. The web site is available in English, Hebrew and Arabic. http://mainportals.com/Israel3.shtml web site list the top Israeli web portals.

The following table is a list of major Israeli Internet portals[55]

Portal	English	Hebrew	Russian
Bazz.co.il (for youth)		+
Dapey Reshet		+
Discover Israel	+
Government information	+	+
Grippo.co.il (Spanish)
Hareshima.com	+	+
Israel Online		+
Kipa.co.il		+
Maven.co.il	+
Moreshet.co.il		+
MSN.co.il		+
Nana.co.il	+	+	+
Netex.co.il	+	+
Souz.co.il			+
Science.co.il	+
Tapuz.co.il		+
Yellowpages (Dapey Zahav)	+	+
Meta Search sites and Engines	English	Hebrew
A.co.il		+
Start.co.il		+

Israel aircraft industries is IT intensive and defense industry in general needs no additional emphasis. Many IT specific industries have spawned out of personnel who used to work for defense companies. Commerce One, Inc. was involved in the creation of the first global B2B e-marketplace with Bank Hapolaim, Compaq Israel, The e-marketplace allows companies of all sizes to save time and money by moving their business commerce on-line.  The e-marketplace will be connected to the Commerce One Global Trading Web, the world's largest B2B trading community. The proposed service will encompass the purchase of indirect goods and services that are not related to the production cycle. On the buying side, companies will be able to optimize their purchasing function by automating their purchasing processes, in a secure manner. on the supply side, suppliers will have access to a new distribution channel.

Israel is home to almost 2000 high-tech companies and is a critical site location for some of the world’s pre-eminent technology leaders. Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, IBM, 3Com, Intel, and others all operate research facilities in Israel. The percentage of Israel’s population engaged in scientific and technological activities, as well as the rate of investment in research and development are among the highest in the world.