Good News From Israel
These GOOD NEWS stories about Israel’s positive efforts are intended to help you put in perspective some of the anti-Israel oriented reports in the media. Adapted from www.israel21c.org they are brought to you by Temple Isaiah’s Israel and World Jewry Committee. We need your help! If you are interested in joining our committee contact Temple Isaiah member Herb Thier (contact info available in the members-only section of our website).
Good News from Israel: Friday, July 23, 2010
Low-volume girl lives the high-fashion dream
A quiet, unassuming, laid-back woman who grew up on a kibbutz in northern Israel is becoming a successful fashion designer. She has women like Kim Kardashian, Kate Hudson, Chelsea Clinton and Sarah McLachlan all clamoring for her designs, and the fact that her clothes have graced the covers of a slew of international fashion magazines including Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan indicate her success. She says she designs clothes for women like herself: “Women who wake up in the morning and go to the gym, go to work and have to accomplish things. Then they come home, see their kids or have drinks with their husbands and go out to dinner with friends. And they need one garment that they can wear from morning to evening, feel comfortable in, wear it all year round and can still wear it if they travel to a warm or cold country. This is the way I think.”
Using GPS to track crowds and evaluate our health
Where are you right now? Are you walking, riding the train, or speeding down the highway on your way to work? How you move around your city and community reveals a lot about you: Based on GPS (Global Positioning System) readings that pinpoint your coordinates, doctors can interpret the health of your body and evaluate surgery, mall or theme park operators can better manage crowds, and urban planners can design cities for people around the things they really like to do. Using GPS data, Hebrew University (HU) scientists have developed a new processing algorithm and database that can help application developers to create high-tech devices and tools to shed light on the way people move in their communities. They have already published a scientific paper in the journal Spine, about how their tool - based on GPS signals - can help physicians to estimate the health of a patient’s back before and after surgery.
Israeli engineering students improve life in Nepal
A group of 30 Israeli engineering students decided to open a chapter and a goodwill project of their own last year. They are now working through Engineers Without Borders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution in Nepal, while providing a much-needed source of energy. They found a way to make their own impact on one of the biggest local issues in Nepal: Women in their 40s suffer from severe respiratory problems caused by the local cooking fuel. The country is grappling with deforestation as wood is harvested for fuel for cooking, while animal and human waste continue to pollute Nepal’s abundant waterways.
Combining their engineering skills with their desire for social action, the Israeli students designed an easy-to-construct anaerobic (without air) digester. It is a composter for all kinds of waste (including human excrement) that transforms its byproducts into biofuel for cooking gas.
Good News from Israel: Friday, July 16, 2010
Prize-winning patience and love
Rockets never fell on upstate Gloversville, New York, where Rosa Naveh grew up. Yet the psychologist empathizes with the immigrant population that predominates in Sderot, the working-class Israeli town whose proximity to the Gaza Strip has brought it nine years of Qassam missile attacks. Naveh recently received Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev’s Spitzer Prize for Excellence and Innovation in the Field of Social Welfare for her directorship of the nine-year-old Center for Children and Parents in Sderot. Though the Qassam attacks have more or less stopped - the psychic damage has not. Naveh trains her six part-time therapists, and social work students from BGU, to take a gentle, low-tech approach. The clients referred by municipal social workers - troubled families of children aged six to 12 - are guided to fill the voids in their lives.
Israel’s Delivery Woman
There are few things that make Prof. Daphna Heffetz, CEO of pharmaceutical start-up TransPharma, happier than being in the lab, but a multimillion-dollar payment might be one of them. Recently, TransPharma announced a $35 million licensing and development agreement with Eli Lilly for its ViaDerm-hPTH (1-34) product. The drug delivery system comprises a handheld electronic control unit that uses radiofrequency to create microscopic microchannels in the outer layer of the skin, allowing for transdermal delivery of a wide variety of drugs from a patch. TransPharma and Lilly will both fund and participate in phase II clinical development activities..
Luring low- and high-tech to the Negev desert
In a tribute to founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, two former IDF colonels have set up a technology incubator designed to green southern Israel. The largely unpopulated Negev desert in Israel’s south comprises 66 percent - some 6,700 square miles - of the country’s total area. With the resort town of Eilat at its southern point and the bustling city of Beersheba at its north, the remainder of the arid Negev is a development challenge. It is in tribute to Ben-Gurion and his dream that two former Israeli army colonels founded Green Group in the Negev town of Yeruham last year. Envisioned as a technology incubator for a range of start-ups designed to provide employment and services to the area and grow its population, Green Group has drawn interest and about $5 million in investment pledges from private investors.
Good News from Israel: Friday, July 9, 2010
Forget the World Cup, think soccer robotics
The Israeli national team didn’t make the cut for this year’s World Cup soccer tournament. But that doesn’t faze Israelis who are more known for their high tech prowess, over sport, any way. Using their brains instead of brawn, a group of Israeli researchers and their students headed to Singapore for six days in June to coach their own kind of soccer team—one made of robots at the annual RoboCup tournament. They might not have won the prestigious tournament, but in the good spirit of robotics and diplomacy the team played against Texas and Austria, practiced with Turkey, and was even invited to come with their robots to Iran. The team was pretty confident of a win but what happened is their software crashed. They had to work hard in order to help the robots step up to a reasonable competition.
New ‘Fat-finder’ holds out hope of fat-busting drugs
Scientists in Israel have developed a ‘fat-finder’ that can help to accelerate the study of new fat-melting drugs. The microscope-based cell scanner devised by Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers in tissue engineering can measure a broad number of variables in the way that drugs affect fat cells. It should speed up research into fat-busting drugs and could have additional uses for other drug development and therapy. The software-based tool, reported on in a recent issue of the journal, Tissue Engineering, fits onto a microscope like a pair of goggles and allows a scientist to measure a broad number of physical parameters in the Petri dish, while investigating fat cells. They might explore how fat cells change when given insulin, or how they react when treated with new experimental drug compounds. Normally these kinds of questions need to be investigated with intensive pre-clinical and clinical trials - an expensive and time-consuming process.
Quenching your thirst with the sea
Champagne glasses containing the finest fresh water were raised in a toast last month to celebrate the opening of Israel’s third desalination plant, this one in the northern city of Hadera. Lauded as the largest reverse osmosis desalination facility in the world, the plant that takes water from the Mediterranean Sea and makes it safe to drink is expected to produce 127 million cubic meters of water each year - enough to meet the water needs of one in every six Israelis. It was the government that put in place the plan to create the desalination plant, to meet the demands of a growing population and an imperiled water supply, dependent almost entirely on winter rainfall.
Good News from Israel: Friday, July 2, 2010
Brave brains: Neural mechanisms of courage
A fascinating new study combines snakes with brain imaging in order to uncover neural mechanisms associated with “courage.” The research published in the journal Neuron, provides fascinating insight into what happens in the brain when an individual voluntarily performs an action opposite to that promoted by ongoing fear and may even lead to new treatment strategies for those who exhibit a failure to overcome their fear. To study the neural mechanisms associated with moments of real-life courage participants had to choose whether to advance an object closer or farther away from them while their brain was scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The objects used in the study were either a toy bear or a live corn snake. Prior to the study, participants were categorized as “fearful” or “fearless” depending on how they responded to a validated snake-fear questionnaire. Brain imaging during the task revealed that activity in one brain region correlated positively with the level of subjective fear when choosing to act courageously but not when choosing to succumb to fear. According to the Weizmann researchers the results support an intriguing aspect of human behavior, the ability to carry out a voluntary action opposite to that promoted by ongoing fear, namely courage.
A birth control pill for men
By jamming the biochemical machinery of sperm, an Israeli professor has created a new pill that could finally place the responsibility of birth control with men. The female birth control pill, commonly referred to as ‘The Pill,’ is not 100 percent effective, and some women’s bodies don’t react well to the extra hormones. So far, the new pill has been tested on animal models in a pre-clinical setting, and has been found to work wonderfully on mice. “What we found is that by treating the mice with our molecule we can get sterility for a long period of time; in the lower dose, about one month, and in the higher dose we found three months of sterility. “Later on the male mouse can become fertile. It’s reversible,” he promises. The mice behaved nicely,” the researcher reports, “they ate and had sex;, all their sex behavior was retained, which is a very important consideration for human men. A man who takes this pill could also be sexually active later on and have children.” If all goes according to his plan, a new male birth control pill could be on the market within the next five years.
Good News from Israel: Friday, June 25, 2010
Pre-empting multiple sclerosis
A breakthrough finding from Israel may lead to earlier diagnosis, more effective intervention, and perhaps even a cure for the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis (MS) has devastated the lives of two million people around the world. The disease is more prevalent in cold climates and attacks twice as many women as men. There is currently no cure. Now, research from Israel may pave the way for a diagnosis before symptoms appear and debilitation sets in. Earlier diagnosis of the disease will allow earlier medical intervention - and perhaps even lead to a cure. Prof. Anat Achiron , Director, Multiple Sclerosis Center at Sheba Medical Center has uncovered a new way of detecting MS biomarkers in the blood. Her findings were published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease and are expected to pave the way for a diagnosis of MS before symptoms can appear, allowing for earlier treatment.
Go with Springo to cut through the tangled Web
A new web navigation service based solely on search term popularity, Springo may give Google a run for its money - or at least augment its service. Unlike Google, Springo aims to be a web navigation service. Google offers users a Web search with results based mostly on search engine optimization, internal links, and the amount of money a company has paid to get on its top page. In its light version as a free toolbar download, Springo can be positioned to sit on the left of the Google search page. When queries are made, it gives searchers visual results based solely on search term popularity. Their mission is to improve the way people navigate the web through a database built over the last four years that contains all the leading websites of the US market, organized by different topics, and ranked by real time user traffic.
Who says old folk can’t drive?
The current assumption is that older people make poor drivers and that past their prime, drivers’ skills steadily diminish. A new study published at Israel’s Ben Gurion University finds that a driver’s ability to detect hazards does not degrade significantly with age. The research suggests that older experienced drivers ((average experience 37 years), pay more attention to risky road situations and pedestrians on a curb, than their more youthful inexperienced counterparts do. The study is to be published in the July issue of the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.
Good News from Israel: Friday, June 18, 2010
Surveillance systems from Israel
Video surveillance systems have become a vital tool in enabling authorities to trace criminals and terrorists. Israel is one of the leading players in the field. After the attempted bombing in New York’s Times Square just over a month ago, no one can be in any doubt of the significance of video surveillance systems. Within hours of the car being discovered, police had used surveillance camera footage in a nearby shop to identify a suspicious looking man seen near the vehicle. It’s not just terrorism, for crime too, police today turn immediately to surveillance cameras to try to discover what took place. It’s no surprise that Israel, with its security needs is a world leader in this field. Israeli video security companies provide some of the most advanced solutions in the world, selling to authorities all over Europe, the US and Asia. Their most common innovation - smart video surveillance systems that not only observe, but also analyze, alert and deliver results to security personnel.
True 3D play is only months away
Microsoft’s newest XBox video game console is generating excitement among gamers worldwide. Its core component - a radical new 3D, sensing technology - was developed by Israel’s PrimeSense. Gaming is a $20 billion annual business in the US alone. Tel Aviv-based PrimeSense - is at the heart of the latest developments sweeping the industry. The company’s 3D sensing technology, is set to become the central feature of Microsoft’s latest XBox video game consoles. XBox users will be able to place themselves literally ‘in the game,’ by attaching a box made by PrimeSense to their systems. Anything a user does ‘live’ will be reflected in the actions of the avatars, that play the game on-screen. If you’re playing tennis, for example, you just move your arm in a racket-swinging motion when you see the ball coming at your avatar - and your avatar’s arm moves, swinging the on-screen racket and, hopefully, hitting the ball back at your opponent. Your avatar does whatever you do.
Conserving the living laboratory of Acre
A partnership between the archeological site/urban center that is the Israeli city of Acre and Rome, Italy, will help to conserve and preserve Acre’s important historical heritage. Declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO, Acre (pronounced “Akko” by the locals) has been a living conservation laboratory. Its history is apparent in its citadels and fortresses, churches and mosques. A new partnership with the City of Rome will give a boost to Acre’s efforts to protect its unique history. The May inauguration of the International Conservation Center ‘Città di Roma’ celebrated a generous donation to Acre from the Mayor of Rome. Overseeing and conserving the local treasures is a complex project. Its territory has belonged to the Israelite tribe of Asher, the Greeks, the Crusaders and the Ottomans, and it is now home to an Israeli Arab population. Acre is an archeological site, a historical city and a living city, according to archeologist Shelley Ann Peleg, director of the Conservation Center.
Good News from Israel: Friday, June 11, 2010
Building peace and green architects
Despite recent troubles over the Gaza flotilla raid, Palestinian architecture students will be joining their counterparts in Israel for a one-week workshop this summer designed to introduce them to green building practices. The workshop, from July 25 until August 1, is being organized by the Greek-founded NGO Ecoweek, and run by Israeli-Greek green architect, Elias Messinas. It includes seminars and practice sessions with some of the world’s hottest green architecture experts. In Israel a handful of architects already work solely as green architects. In the West Bank, green training in architecture is still very limited. Some 15 to 20 students from the West Bank are expected to take part in the 120-person seminar.
Success for MediWound burn care trial
Israel’s MediWound yesterday reported a successful Phase III clinical trial of its lead product¸ Debrase gel dressing for the treatment of second and third degree burns. The trial included 175 patients at 25 medical centers around the world.
The final analysis of the trial found statistically significant success in the trial’s two primary goals. Debrase reduced the number of patients who required surgery to remove burned tissue. The number of patients who required skin transplant surgery over the burned area was also reduced. Results also included shorter treatment time to heal the burned tissue, and reduction in blood loss involved in removal of the burned tissue. The company, intends to submit a marketing application for Debrase with the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) later this year.
Solar energy from the pea on your plate
Solar energy is often inefficient and difficult to utilize in cloudier climates. The solution to these difficulties may lie on your dinner plate. A nano-machine found in the common pea plant has changed light into electricity, in the laboratory ofby Prof. Nathan Nelson of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biochemistry.
“The research aims to come close to achieving the energy production plants obtain when they convert sun to sugars in their green leaves,” Nelson explains.
The Israeli scientist and his team have created a solar energy device from a plant protein structure. “One can imagine our amazement when, upon illumination of the plant protein crystals we synthesized and placed on gold-covered plates, we were able to generate a voltage of 10 volts. This won’t solve our world’s energy problem but could be assembled in power switches for low-power solar needs.
Oldest man in the world lives in Israel
An envoy from the Guinness Book of World Records is due in Israel any day now to formalize 115-year-old David Pur’s title of Oldest Man in the World.
Three of Pur’s nine children are still alive, along with 18 grandchildren and 56 great-grandchildren, according to a report from Israel National News (INN).
Born in 1895 in what was then Persia and today is Iran, Pur became an adviser to the Shah, who admired his mastery of languages, including Persian, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic and French. He later added Tagalog, while learning to care for Filipinos. He and his family came to Israel in 1948.
Pur still listens to the news of the day on radio and television, and discusses current events with his grandson, Israel Defense Forces Gen. Yoav Mordechai.
The old man is known for his smiles and for laughing and joking with the various members of his large family, who visit him daily. “The main thing is not to lose your optimism,” he says.
Today, the man who smoked for nearly 110 years and has a glass of brandy and some nuts for breakfast seems to know instinctively what recent Israeli research has proved - that increasing vegetables and cutting out trans fats and processed foods can reverse hardening of the arteries. “I avoid meat and fried foods, and eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible,” he says.
Good News from Israel: Friday, June 4, 2010
Microalgae discovery could lead to new cholesterol treatment
Israeli scientists have isolated a strain of microalgae which produces large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids that could be used to reduce blood pressure, chronic inflammation and blood cholesterol level, lowering the risk of heart attacks. The researchers from Ben-Gurion University discovered that the algal mutant, a microscopic algae found in freshwater, is capable of accumulating up to 15 percent (dry weight) of a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) called DGLA. PUFA’s are necessary as components of brain cell membranes and have various nutritional uses. The discovery of the microalgal mutant and its high content of DGLA could impact treatment of life-threatening diseases, such as chronic inflammations, multiple sclerosis and arteriosclerosis,.
Keeping online information private and secure
If you’re a prosecutor doing research on the online legal database Lexus-Nexus, how can you be sure that the defense attorney isn’t accessing your searches and ferreting out your case strategy? And does the government really need access to everyone’s personal business - like flight itineraries - to be sure there aren’t any terrorists onboard your plane? While online databases and other services make our lives easier and government-censored and supplied data no doubt keep us safer, more and more Americans are taking sides in the ‘security and privacy’ debate. Prof. Yehuda Lindell, a cryptologist at Bar Ilan University’s Department of Computer Science has a $3 million grant from the European Union that says he can show governments and companies how online information can be both private and secure.
Mutants promise tons of tastier tomatoes
Israeli and American researchers have discovered the yield-boosting power of a single gene, which controls when plants make flowers. This gene works in different varieties of tomatoes and, crucially, across a range of environmental conditions. The scientists at the Faculty of Agriculture, at the Hebrew University and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), New York recorded spectacularly increased yields, as well as improved taste, for hybrid tomato plants. “This discovery has tremendous potential to transform both the billion-dollar tomato industry, as well as agricultural practices designed to get the most yield from other flowering crops,” according to the involved scientists. The team made the discovery while hunting for genes that boost hybrid vigor, a revolutionary breeding principle that spurred the production of outstanding hybrid crops like corn and rice a century ago.
Good News from Israel: Friday, May 28, 2010
Teaching the ABC of love
When it comes to creating a better mental life for sick, underprivileged and gifted children everywhere, educators worldwide are turning to the expertise of one Israeli researcher The US National Institute of Mental Health, through the University of Michigan, has developed a new training program that gives healthcare workers and educators in Africa working with children who are HIV-Aids survivors the tools to assess and promote the education of these children. Out of thousands of possible methods and models, the institute chose one developed by Prof. Pnina Klein of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. Klein’s approach, which is being used successfully to help children all over the world, is called Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC). The range of the MISC method is surprising, as it targets children with developmental disabilities, children from low-income families and gifted children. It is an intervention program that is individually tailored to each child, based on analysis of videotaped parent-child interactions.
Building an electronic human brain
We already have mechanical and computerized devices that can stand in for human limbs and organs. Now Prof. Henry Markram is working on a computerized version of the human brain, down to its finest synapses. In fact, Markram, who did much of his research at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, states that if his Blue Brain Project goes well, “we anticipate that the brain model we develop will have most, if not all, human cognitive capabilities.” Working with a number of international researchers, including Prof. Idan Segev of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the project aims to “reverse engineer” the workings of the brain - beginning with the brains of small mammals, says Markram, and culminating in the human brain, a goal that he hopes to achieve by the close of the decade.
A delivery system to fight the flu
Israeli biopharmaceutical firm NasVax has signed a deal with Swiss pharma giant Norvartis to develop new vaccines together, including influenza-fighting strains. The agreement will allow Basel-based Novartis, to use the NasVax patented VaxiSome delivery system a technology which helps boost the body’s response to a vaccine. VaxiSome is currently used in immunotherapy to fight the body’s autoimmune response to vaccines for inflammatory diseases like lupus erythematosus, which attack healthy tissue and cells, causing rashes and related ailments.
Good News from Israel: Friday, May 21, 2010
Exploring the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Explorer is a state-of-the-art research ship owned and operated by Israeli non-profit EcoOcean. Active since 2004, EcoOcean, which is now collaborating with the legendary Cousteau family on marine education and research, also works with many other Israeli and international organizations and universities to explore the mysteries of the ocean about 120 days a year.
Teams on the 60-foot vessel study anything from plankton, to the effects of large desalination plants on sea life and the environment. In its research travels, the ship’s crew has visited and collaborated with like-minded specialists in Jordan, Eritrea and the area near the Black Sea.
Seeding a green need for feed
New varieties of wheat, oats and barley are constantly being produced to meet the world’s demands for grains that can grow faster, be hardier and withstand pests and drought. Apparently the world needs better-cultivated algae seed as well. And while algae may sound like an obscure plant to be cultivating, according to Nellya Litae, VP of business development at Israeli company TransAlgae, it makes perfect sense.
TransAlgae, she says, has set its sights on becoming the Monsanto of algae seed. Based on the research of Prof. Jonathan Gressel from the Weizmann Institute of Science, TransAlgae has already produced a handful of genetically altered algae strains to meet the needs of food for fish, and biomass for biofuel.
Algae are used as an alternative and possibly healthier feedstock than fish parts in fish farms (aquaculture) and are also billed as one of the best feedstocks for creating plant-based biofuel.
A meeting of biotech minds
It’s in Israel, and it’s the second largest biotech convention in the world. Initially its attendees were mainly Israeli academics, but the highly focused meeting of minds soon caught on, with its founding researchers and start-ups grabbing the attention of high-caliber pharma companies and investors. The event has since been instrumental in closing multi-million dollar deals for pharmaceuticals and devices.
Held by the Israel Life Science Industry (ILSI), the conference, called the Biomedical Innovation Summit this year, is chaired by two industry specialists - Rut Alon from Pitango Venture Capital, who chairs the ILSI, and Israel Makov, former president and CEO of Teva, who now chairs Given Imaging.
Good News from Israel: Friday, May 14, 2010
Moving closer to stem cell therapy
Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center has announced a breakthrough in methods for cultivating embryonic stem cells that enables the next step in the development of stem cell therapy, and the world has taken notice. Hadassah’s advance, reported in the prestigious journal Nature Biotechnology, takes stem cell researchers closer to realizing their dream of manufacturing mass market stem cell treatments for disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and age-related macular degeneration. Companies in the US and Hadassah’s technology company are planning clinical trials on humans. The a novel technique that allows researchers to grow and cultivate embryonic cells in suspension - paves the way for making this therapy available to everyone, not just the rich.
Israeli and Jordanian women, in business, for peace
They arrive with ideas for waste management, new media, health clinics and environmental education, speaking Arabic or Hebrew. Funded by the US federal government, 10 aspiring women entrepreneurs - five from Jordan and five from Israel - are heading to the University of Wisconsin this month to engage in a mini-MBA experience that will hopefully advance peace in the Middle East.
The focus is on women first because there is a social impact. They are changing the social fabric of society. The ultimate goal from the US side is to promote business development and improve trilateral relations among the US, Jordan and Israel. Funded with a two-year grant from the U. S. State Department amounting to nearly $300,000, the project with other funding is expected to run for at least the next six years, so that a real tri-lateral network can take root.
NOTE: The following excerpt from “The American Thinker” tells of real “GOOD NEWS” for Israel and why we need to keep spreading the story.
NYT begrudges Israel’s membership in the OECD
Israel’s success in gaining membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a big deal. The 31-member, Paris-based group is an elite club of developed, open-market, democratic economies. Membership inspires investor confidence and opens more avenues for trade. Israel has been knocking on OECD’s door for more than 15 years. And on Monday, May 10, it was finally admitted. A single objection would have kept the door closed. But all members voted “aye,” including Turkey, with a government headed by an Islamic party. In so doing, Turkey brushed aside an all-out campaign by the Palestinian Authority to block Israeli membership in OECD.
This is not the way the New York Times reported Israel’s accession to OECD. Instead, a 10-paragraph article by their Jerusalem bureau chief three and a half paragraphs are devoted to the usual anti-Israel diatribes by the Palestinian Authority—while failing to report a vehement rebuttal by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
Good News from Israel: Friday, May 7, 2010
SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT THIS WEEK—TALKING POINTS ABOUT ISRAEL FROM THE INTERNET
Geography:
Israel is only 1/6 of 1% of the landmass of the Middle East.
The Sea of Galilee, at 695 ft. below sea level, is the lowest freshwater lake in the world and The Dead Sea is the lowest surface point on earth, at about 1,373 feet below sea level.
Israel is the only nation in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in it’s number of trees.
Jericho is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the world.
Demographics:
Israel ‘s population is 2% of the population of the Middle East.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees per capita in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers and has the highest number of engineers, physicians, scientists and technicians per capita in the world. Israel has the largest percentage of its workforce employed in technical professions in the world.
Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation in the world, per capita.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian population has grown over the last 50 years and is the only country in the Middle East where Christians, Muslims and Jews are all free to vote.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where women enjoy full political rights.
Economics:
Israel has the largest number of startup companies per capita in the world. Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies outside of the US and Canada.
Israel was the first country to have a free trade agreement with the United States.
Apart from the Silicon Valley, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world.
Electronics:
The cell phone was developed in Israel at Motorola’s largest development center.
Culture:
Hebrew is the only case of a dead national language being revived in all of world history. Hebrew had not been spoken as a native tongue by anyone for centuries. Today it is the native tongue of millions of people.
Israel has more museums, orchestras and books published and read per capita than any other nation in the world.
Israelis, per capita, are the world’s biggest consumers of fruits and vegetables.
Of the 175 UN Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. Of the 690 UN General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel
Good News from Israel: Friday, April 30, 2010
Israel’s sexiest undercover agent
High-tech T-shirts that wick away perspiration; a strappy corset bought for Valentine’s Day; comfy undies from Target; shape wear from Spanx - it’s a little-known secret that many of America’s sexiest and most cherished “under things” are designed and developed by an Israeli textile company. Delta Galil is Israel’s “undercover” agent abroad. In business since 1975, the company supplies many of America’s favorite labels and undergarment name brands, weaving the Israeli high-tech spirit into form-fitting, functional and attractive items in the process. Delta develops new products and product lines to keep buyers such as Victoria’s Secret, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and other customers happy
Making ends meet, with dignity
Gigno Beyenah Ethiopian immigrant, is still having trouble making ends meet 11 years after arriving in Israel. Two years ago he bought his first apartment, in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. The trouble was that he couldn’t afford to pay his mortgage. Then a friend told him about the Israel Free Loan Association (IFLA), a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization that offers interest-free loans to the working poor. Last year he turned to the IFLA for a loan to help pay his mortgage: “I’m paying off the bank over 30 years. Without this loan I could have defaulted. It didn’t solve all my problems, but it certainly relieved the immediate worry,” Beyenah said.
Science on the train
This year, Israelis who opt to travel by train are getting more than just a ride - they’re getting an education. Thanks to “Scientists on the Train” an initiative from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Rail Service, train passengers are being treated to lectures by some of the university’s most prominent professors. A professor chooses a train to lecture in and passengers are invited to attend, free of charge. A recent lecture was dedicated to National Science Day, celebrated in Israel to mark Albert Einstein’s birthday. Einstein was one of the founders of the Hebrew University and bequeathed his intellectual property to the institution. The lecture series is designed to open peoples’ minds to new ideas and to show the public that professors don’t just live in ivory towers but use science and other types of research to improve the lives of everyone.
Good News from Israel: Friday, April 23, 2010
Could pregnancy be the fountain of youth?
Researchers at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University are mimicking processes that occur in pregnancy and helping older animals’ liver cells to regenerate better and faster. An Israeli professor has found new evidence that pregnancy may be a source of the elusive “fountain of youth” that all drug developers would love to find. Using a novel formula to trigger the effect of pregnancy, what the researchers believe they have discovered may lead to a new class of compounds that could heal a number of organs that degenerate over time as we age. The news has been reported in the journal Genes & Development. The goal is to adapt the trigger for regeneration they found in prebnancy to more organs, but they caution, that the drug development process may take a decade or more.
One step closer to a youthful complexion
When people want a youthful complexion these days, they often turn to Radio Frequency (RF), a relatively new cosmetic procedure that can tighten the skin, treat cellulite, remove scars and stretch marks and even treat acne. While it’s no doubt a safer option than surgery, the less invasive RF treatment can still be painful and lead to burns, putting off many prospective clients. Now an Israeli company, Endymed, uses multiple energy sources that interact to provide controlled delivery of energy to the various skin levels. By playing off the different RF energy levels to create a thermal pattern that’s strong enough to make the desired changes, the patient isn’t hurt. The process already has FDA approval for facial tightening and studies indicate it is safer, less painful, and more effective long-term.
A match made in water
Water-rich Brazil and water-poor Israel have found that they’re a good fit, with each country’s handicaps and blessings contributing to the cooperation between them. Brazil is the most water-rich country in the world, owning an estimated 12 percent of the world’s freshwater resources, most of it in the Amazon Basin. Despite its abundance of water there are areas in the country, mainly in the northeast, where water stores are scarce. Aware of Israel’s reputation as a water technologies enabler, Brazilian cities, companies, and even the planning committee for the Olympics Rio 2016 Summer Games, are looking to Israel for help to combat water loss through leaky pipes, provide better water treatment, and of course, new solutions for water management in agriculture and irrigation technologies.
Good News From Israel: Friday, April 16, 2010
It looks like a pen but it can foil a bomb
TATP is a peroxide bomb detonator and an explosive of choice for airport bombers. Collaboration between an American researcher and Prof. Ehud Keinan of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology has culminated in a new way to foil terrorists carrying TATP-based explosives. Resembling a pen - although you can’t write with it - the device is a new weapon in the arsenal shared by airport security personnel and police. Operated by touch, the sensitivity of the device is quite high, as it can identify as little as five micrograms of TATP, an amount that can’t be seen by the human eye. At a cost of about $25 per unit, the explosives tester is being sold through Israel based Acro Security Technologies.
US giant Autodesk looks to Israeli R&D
When graphics giant Autodesk recently bought Israeli startup PlanPlatform, in addition to gaining a web interface for its design software tools, it acquired a ready-made R&D facility in Israel, which top Autodesk executive Amar Hanspal describes as “one of the most exciting startup and R&D scenes in the world.” The company, which is now looking to buy new Israeli technologies to expand its local R&D team, has evolved far beyond its staid reputation as a maker of modeling and design software, and is now on the cutting edge of computer graphics of all kinds - like the 3D graphics in the Hollywood sensation Avatar, which were developed using a device that interfaced with Autodesk’s Motionbuilder software. “I’m really impressed with the level of entrepreneurial energy and the willingness to take risks that I’ve seen here Hanspal enthuses. We’re proud to be associated with Israel.”
A refuge for prophets, people and wildlife
It may measure only 77 square miles, but it contains a unique forest of Aleppo pine found nowhere else on earth. That’s one of the reasons why The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Carmel Mountain range on the outskirts of Haifa, Israel, an international bio-reserve. To protect and preserve the rare forest and wildlife in the Carmel Mountain region, known biblically as the place of refuge for the Prophet Elijah, and in ancient history as an archeological hotspot for human settlement, the University of Haifa has set up the Center for the Study of the Carmel in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.. UNESCO recommended that there be a research institute to investigate and research this biosphere, and Haifa University is the only example in the world where you have a university inside a UNESCO bio- reserve.
Good News From Israel: Friday, April 9, 2010
Arab women from Jaffa are joining the workforce
The mixed Jewish-Arab city of Jaffa next to Tel-Aviv boasts an impressively diverse population with a rich cultural mix, but it has its share of hardships. Women in Jaffa, especially those in the Arab community which comprises about 50 percent of the city, don’t enjoy the same opportunities as their Jewish counterparts. Thanks to an economic empowerment program, however, more of those women are now moving into the workforce and into more highly-skilled jobs. In partnership with Cisco Systems which has an Israel subsidiary and the Peres Center for Peace located nearby, the Arab Jewish Community Center (AJCC) in Jaffa had 21 women graduates from its Al Amal, Women’s Economic Empowerment Program.
“The low participation of Arab women in the Israeli workforce is a result of racial and gender discrimination,” stated the executive director of the AJCC. Targeting Arab women in Jaffa, the courses provided by Al Amal seek to help this disenfranchised group of women enter the workforce.
Israelis and Jordanians unite for emergency preparedness
The tragedy that struck Haiti recently is a vivid wakeup call for authorities in Israel and neighboring countries. The area surrounding Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the city of Jericho controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and Amman, Jordan are all at risk from a major earthquake that could topple the region. A new joint project between the Jordan Red Crescent and Ben Gurion University of the Negev is the catalyst for Jordanians and Israelis to pool resources and create a partnership so that in the event of such a crisis, their two countries will have emergency forces to handle the situation. The three-year academic medical emergency training program teaches young Jordanians and Israelis how to work together as a frontline team in a concerted regional response to emergency scenarios.
Good News From Israel: Friday, April 2, 2010
More work, less play for Israel’s endangered dolphins
Extensive commercial fishing trawlers endanger the Common Bottlenose Dolphins in the Mediterranean, both by poaching their food supply and catching them in their nets, according to a new study carried out at Haifa university. The study illustrates for the first time the characteristics of the dolphins inhabiting the sea region off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. This dolphin population is stable and at any given time numbers about 350. Of these, the researchers are personally familiar with 150 dolphins on a first name basis as they can identify them by the dorsal fin, the dolphin’s “fingerprint.” Dolphins off the coast of Israel spend most of their time in search of food while those in other parts of the world are far busier with social activities, it seems clear that they are coping with a deficiency in food resources. “There is a stable dolphin population off the shores of Israel. So as to preserve this population we must declare extensive marine nature reserves, so as to regulate fishing and bring an end to sea pollution. Regrettably, we are not considerate enough of the dolphins,” concludes Scheinin the study director.
Forests’ role as carbon sinks
It is believed that planting forests is one way to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the atmosphere. But, according to a new Israeli study, it may be time to rethink the forests’ role in cleaning up this greenhouse gas, because it could take decades before forests are actually effective in reducing CO2 emissions.
In the January 22 issue of Science, Professor Dan Yakir from the Weizmann Institute’s Environmental Sciences and Energy Research unit has found that what once seemed like a straightforward formula—that planting forests removes greenhouse gases converting the CO2 to plant matter, may not be so simple and clear after all. During a nine-year study they found that forests can and do directly absorb and retain heat, but that there are some conditions where the heat-retaining effects of the forests are so strong, that they cancel out the benefits of lowering CO2 gases in the atmosphere. The numbers vary with location and conditions but we now know it will take decades of forest growth before the ‘cooling’ CO2 sequestration can overtake these opposing ‘warming’ processes. “Overall, forests remain hugely important climate stabilizers, not to mention the other ecological services they provide, but there are tradeoffs, such as those between carbon sequestration and surface radiation budgets, and we need to take these into consideration when predicting the future according to the study.
Good News From Israel: Friday, March 26, 2010
Omanoot: Israel Through Art (“omanoot” is “art” in Hebrew)
It is putting Israeli art on the international table, at face value. The portal, which supplies English-language teaching materials about Israeli art and artists to American schools and universities, offers an apolitical window into the rich life of Israel. “Art is a way to get insight into the Israeli people,” says Lindsay Leigh Citerman, Omanoot. Most of the time, art doesn’t reflect a country’s government, but rather a country’s people. Unlike what Americans might see on CNN or read about in the Wall Street Journal, meeting Israelis through their art narrows the gap that keeps us from knowing one another. Omanoot presents different aspects of art from Israel. In addition to providing a database of artists - categorized according to film, music and visual art - it offers free lesson plans for educational organizations, schools and universities seeking access to the Israeli art world.
Coatings for life
Small tubes called stents that are placed in the body to strengthen weakened and flabby arteries have saved the lives of thousands of people. Once the arteries are repaired, the stents are no longer needed, but surgeons have had no choice but to leave them in - until now. In a seemingly un-related development, a new wound dressing could dramatically reduce the 70 percent of people with severe burns who die as a result of related infections. A study published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Applied Biomaterials demonstrates that, after only two days, this dressing can eradicate infection-causing bacteria. The connecting link between these two exciting medical developments is the new soluble fibers developed by Israeli Prof. Meital Zilberman of the Tel Aviv University (TAU) Department of Biomedical Engineering. The fibers can be used to deliver infection-fighting antibiotics that dissolve when the job is done, and as coatings for biodegradable stents which dissolve after a pre-programmed period of time.
Computerized discovery platforms find medical ‘gold’
Compugen’s proprietary computer models analyze how proteins and peptides are created and work in the human body. Using this knowledge they can predict and select product candidates in many key areas of unmet medical need. Using Compugen’s computer-based platform, pharmaceutical companies can help develop new drugs for a variety of diseases and ailments. Pfizer and others are keenly interested in Compugen’s technology to predict novel molecules for use in medicine, including critical “biomarkers” for diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and ovarian cancer.
Good News From Israel: Friday, March 19, 2010
Israel’s Airport Security Approach
No-one understands security like the Israelis, that’s why some of the world’s best new innovative airport security technologies are being developed in Israel.. Since the attempted terror attack on board a US airplane last Christmas day, airport authorities around the world are in a race to find novel solutions to fight terror. Israeli strategic and technical tactics feature high on their lists. What’s the secret to the country’s success in keeping Ben Gurion Airport terror free? At Ben Gurion Airport you can take a coffee on board. Airport security personnel don’t care what you take on the plane. “The security in Israel checks you as a passenger, and not the luggage. If you are cleared as a person then who cares what you bring on the plane with you?”
Let the Web content roam free
Web publishers worldwide are in dire need of new revenue streams. The content-is-free culture of the Internet is killing off venerable companies and preventing new ones from achieving their potential. Amobee Media Systems, located on Israel’s central coast in Herzliya, hopes to reframe the equation by allowing publishers to make their products available to consumers in exchange for embedded advertising. Mobile phone users are no different in their diffidence to paying for news, videos, messaging or games. It’s one thing to brag about your startup’s nifty new iPhone app; it’s another to actually make any money. For example, Amobee can automatically roll commercials before, during and after a video clip, or place a dynamic banner inside the menu of a game. In 2008, the Obama campaign used Amobee’s software to target a young audience in four states, primarily via the mobile WAP interface.
Amobee has certainly got the chops to succeed. The company has 28 customers including some of the largest operators in Europe and Asia, like Vodafone and Telefonica (there are Amobee customers in the US, too, but they haven’t been disclosed yet). Big brand advertisers including Coke, Adidas and Nike are also using the system. Even more impressive, the company has raised more than $42 million in its four and a half years of existence. Amobee has offices in Israel and Redwood City, California.
Giving voice to peace
A group of pre-teen and teenage girls in Jaffa is proving to their societies, their families and themselves that peace is attainable. Singing together in the Voices of Peace Choir, these young Arabs and Jews are bringing a new tune to the neighborhood. Founded in 2002 by Shlomo Gronich an eminent Israeli musician, and the Arab Jewish Community Center in Jaffa, the Voices of Peace Choir has performed in a wide variety of venues throughout Israel and abroad, conveying its message of peace and friendship through its songs and through the very fact of its existence.