I encountered an online ad, offering these.
2% per year, at the lowest class of bond, and a one year bond.
Better for longer term.
Does anybody know anything about these?’
Legit?
Or scam?
I don’t know about the specific ad you saw, but buying Israeli bonds is extremely commonplace. All growing up my parents bought Israeli bonds through our synagogue. We cashed them in to finance our trip (back) to Israel when I was 12 (my parents had lived in Israel for many years before I was born).
How would one find a legitimate source?
I’m not Jewish, and I’d prefer to avoid a brokerage fee.
That’s beyond me- we always did it through our synagogue. Sorry.
How about buying them directly from the source?
Yes, that is the website I found.
But, is it the real site?
If it’s not the real site, they’ve gone to a tremendous amount of trouble, what with setting up a couple dozen sales offices throughout the US.
And if you’re still suspicious, call the Israeli Embassy in Washington and ask them how to invest.
Doesn’t every other Bar Mitzvah boy in the diaspora have a few they want to sell?
No, those are trees planted in Israel. 
Yes, they are legit. There are Israel Bonds’ offices throughout the U.S. Each of my kids accumulated several of them throughout the years, and we cashed the bonds in as they matured.
A first pass at determining if a site is legit is to run a whois on it. Check the creation date and such.
For this site: Creation Date: 19-oct-1996. (Updated Date: 20-oct-2013).
That’s one really long con if it’s fake.
They are legit. Israel has some inserting hi-tech companies emerging.
You’re better off with tax free bonds that pay roughly 4%. Yes they can be long term, but they also can be sold if needed.
Are those US savings bonds?
Interest on US Savings Bonds are subject to Federal income tax. But not state or local income taxes (nor many other taxes).
Municipal bonds are not subject to Federal taxes on interest. But if you sell them for profit then capital gains taxes apply. They might be subject to state income tax if from a different state. The interest might also affect your alternate minimum tax. And so on and so on.
I presume that all US federal and state taxes apply to interest and capital gains on foreign bonds.
That’s a risky bet to take in a time when (like now) most people expect interest rates to rise over the years to come. If you buy a fixed-interest rate bond now, then any future rate increase will drive down the price you’ll get when you sell.
Unless you wait for maturity. Or you could buy into a muni fund like American Funds’. Depends on what the OP is looking to accomplish with his money.
Future rate increases will drive down prices of all bonds so diversification is not going to help (much) in alleviating interest rate risk. The bond fund is going to lose value too.
Prices are driven down if you sell early in a rising rate environment. Waiting until maturity date doesn’t affect that. Bond funds are down, but their yields are doing fine - if someone is using them for income (now or in the future), it’s a decent play.
The OP didn’t ask whether he should buy Israeli bonds or any sort of bonds at all. Personally, I think one should be mostly invested in equities, and not things like bonds, particularly if you’ve got a while until retirement. And you may be retired for several decades, so even then, you should have some money in equities.