In these blogs I highlight that there is another (positive) way to look at the Jewish State. You can quote historical facts to anti-Israel activists with no effect. But when they hear that their mobile phones only work thanks to the Israeli software inside them, they begin to think differently. In a similar way, the Jewish State has adopted some radical alternative strategies in order to tackle some quite complex problems.
UK paramedics and ambulance drivers often complain that their control centre doesn’t understand the problems that medics face in the field because of the remote physical distance between them. So this video of Israel’s new Magen David Adom emergency command & control vehicle will certainly get their lights flashing because in Israel we can bring the control centre to the scene of the incident. I only realised at the end of the film that the interview takes place inside the vehicle!
Hundreds of companies are trying to find efficient ways of generating fuel from plants. Well Israel has at least two that are manufacturing fuel from algae. Early last month I came across Seambiotic that was using algae to convert carbon dioxide from power plants. This week it’s UniVerve, which has developed a complete process to produce animal feed and fuel. And another clean-tech Israeli company, Ludvine, has found a way to turn hot into cold, with its solar-powered air-conditioning unit.
In the medical industry, Teva Pharmaceuticals has found an excellent way of selling its Over The Counter (OTC) products. It has formed a partnership with Proctor and Gamble called PGT Healthcare, which it predicts will generate $4 billion revenue by 2020. The technological age has had a huge impact on everyone’s way of life. The Digital Life Design Summit at Tel Aviv Port seeks to evaluate and understand how the digital lifestyle affects life and design.
The standard medical advice on how to lose weight is to consume fewer calories. But researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center Children’s hospital looked at the problem of overweight kids another way and found that drinking water increases the metabolic processes in their bodies, providing a highly effective mechanism for burning energy and calories. The municipality of Jerusalem has a classic way of entertaining the capital’s children during the month of November. Its Lions of Jerusalem festival brings medieval knights, princesses and magicians onto the streets of the Old City every Thursday evening. Entrance is free.
The Israeli government is trying to ensure that little gets in the way of Muslims wishing to enjoy the festival of Eid-al-Adha. Despite a roadside bomb, rock attacks and stabbings, many checkpoints have been removed and extra permits have been issued to allow Arabs to enter Israel and visit families. So how do you bring diverse communities together – especially Jews and Arabs? How about a circus school? In the nine years since the school was formed at Kfar Yehoshua, Muslims, Jews, Ethiopians, Russians, Druze and Christians have met regularly to juggle, jump and laugh.
The circus brings Jewish and Arab youth together.jpg)
Several US citizens have been looking recently at the Jewish State in a different way. US Embassy staff stated that they consider their Israel location as ‘the Miami of the Middle East’. Meanwhile two former senior aides to presidents Clinton and Bush presented a detailed analysis that contradicted Obama’s aides and confirmed that Israel is definitely a strategic asset for the USA. In sport, Israel has provided America’s basketball stars an alternative way of keeping active during the USA’s current season’s lockout. The Israeli Super League has introduced several NBA players to their rosters and added a totally unique dynamic to the current basketball season.
Israel’s supporters are finding some unusual ways to show their solidarity with the Jewish State. A delegation of motorcyclists from the United States, made up mostly of Evangelical ministers, are travelling at full throttle in their ‘Run for the Wall Israel’ campaign. It includes a nine-day motorcade across the country. It is also gratifying to hear that the blog itself is the new way of getting Israel’s message across. Five International mega-bloggers were ‘blown away’ by the amazing experience they had when they visited the Israel Technion. They are now using their links to the Information Superhighway to tell their two million readers that Israel is way beyond anything that they would have heard about from the traditional media.
Finally, last week Israel celebrated the 20th anniversary of Operation Solomon – the historic action Israel took when it realised that the only way to rescue 14,000 Ethiopian Jews was to airlift them to the Jewish State in just 36 hours. At the ceremony at the President’s house several young Ethiopian-Israelis, who have since made their way into Israeli society, were honoured for their achievements. But the route Yaroush Vanda took deserves special mention, as she was one of nine babies born in flight. She is now an officer in the IDF.
Way to go!
Michael Ordman writes a weekly newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.