[Edit: all is clear now, see my other reply]

Speaking from Israel, I’m just as confused as you are. My best guess: Israel’s reputation (before the war) as a “Start-Up Nation” was well earned, a lot of technology and innovation was happening here. Arguably still is (hard to tell with all the war stuff). So generally it made sense to invest in Israeli startups simply to advance technology in general.

But this is obviously an EU-centric program. All other countries listed are EU. So it’s still weird.