Israel briefly made cars in the 1950s and 1960s: the Sussita, the Carmel and the Sabra, which, unusually, had a cactus for its logo

The cars sold poorly, but entered popular myth: Israelis today will tell you they were irresistible to camels, who liked to munch on their fibreglass bodies. Israel lacked — and today still lacks — both the requisite industrial depth and the domestic car market needed to rival the incumbent auto industries of the US, Europe or Japan.

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