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Exhibit 12.1

Certification
of Principal Executive Officer pursuant to 17 CFR 240.13a-14(a), 
as adopted pursuant
to §302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

I, Eric Paneth, certify
that:

| | 1. | I
have reviewed this annual report on Form 20-F of Orckit Communications Ltd.;
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| | 2. | Based
on my knowledge, this annual report does not contain any untrue statement           of a
material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the           statements
made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were           made, not
misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;
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| | 3. | Based
on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information
          included in this report, fairly present in all material respects the financial
          condition, results of operations and cash flows of the company as of, and for,
          the periods presented in this report;
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| | 4. | The
companys other certifying officer and I are responsible for           establishing
and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in           Exchange Act
Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial           reporting
(as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d  15(f)) for           the
company and have:
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| | (a) | Designed
such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure
                    controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to
ensure that                     material information relating to the company, including
its consolidated                     subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within
those entities, particularly                     during the period in which this report
is being prepared;
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| | (b) | Designed
such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal
                    control over financial reporting to be designed under our
supervision, to                     provide reasonable assurance regarding the
reliability of financial reporting                     and the preparation of financial
statements for external purposes in accordance                     with generally
accepted accounting principles;
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| | (c) | Evaluated
the effectiveness of the companys disclosure controls and
                    procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the
effectiveness                     of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the
end of the period covered                     by this report based on such evaluation;
and
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| | (d) | Disclosed
in this report any change in the companys internal control over
                    financial reporting that occurred during the period covered by the
annual report                     that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely
to materially affect, the                     companys internal control over
financial reporting; and
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| | 5. | The
companys other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our           most
recent evaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to the           companys
auditors and the audit committee of the companys board of           directors (or
persons performing the equivalent functions):
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| | (a) | All
significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation
                    of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably
likely to                     adversely affect the companys ability to record,
process, summarize and                     report financial information; and
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| | (b) | Any
fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees
                    who have a significant role in the companys internal control
over                     financial reporting.
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Date: May 9, 2007

| |  | By: /s/ Eric Paneth
Eric Paneth, Chief Executive Officer
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