Reporting the Inside Story
16/1/13
An accurate picture of life in Israel
cannot be constructed by focusing only on biased negative reporting and
superficial analysis. It requires
looking under the skin at what really goes on inside the Jewish State.
Starting inside the human body, Israel’s
BioControl Medical has implanted its FitNeS vagus nerve stimulation system into
epileptics and reduced
fits by 50%, with no side effects.
Meanwhile, Israeli biotech Enlivex has developed a treatment called
ApoCell that triggers a response from the immune system to reduce
adverse reactions during bone marrow transplants. It prevents Graft vs Host
Disease (GVHD), which affects around 70% of transplant patients. Also inside the Jewish State, a biotech
comprising Israel’s minorities is successfully producing innovative products to guide
neurosurgeons to the required location in the brain. Alpha Omega is a Nazareth company of
Christian and Muslim Arab graduates of Israeli universities.
Two revealing stories emerged from inside
of the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer last week. Firstly, Sheba scientists have isolated cancer stem cells
that fuel kidney cancer in children.
Antibody medication was then used to target specific molecules in those
cells and destroyed the tumors without harming any other cells. But I had to blink hard when I read that US
President Obama’s
step-grandmother has just undergone emergency eye treatment at
an Israeli hospital, far away from Tel Aviv. Sheba hospital also
manages the state-of-the-art “Shalom” La Paz Medical
Center in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and the local staff includes around
100 Israeli doctors.
Inside the heart of many products you find
Israeli technology. Today, if you buy
one of Lenovo’s new Ideapad Ultrabooks, it will include the gesture
control features of Israeli startup, eyeSight Mobile Technologies. With simple hand movements, from a distance
of up to 70cm you can control media player, photo gallery, Powerpoint and PDF
reader. And in a further example,
Colorado’s Spectranetics has just acquired Israel’s Upstream Peripheral Technologies. Consequently Spectranetics’ medical lasers
will soon come equipped with Upstream’s innovative products that reduce
radiation exposure to both doctors and patients.
Many of the foods we put inside us are the
product of Israeli technology. The
latest natural herbal pesticide from Israel’s EdenShield
doesn’t even harm a fly. When it is
sprayed onto the netting surrounding fruit and vegetables, the bugs smell the
aroma of the herb and they
turn tail and fly away. More
Israeli innovations will be on display at Arava Open Day at the end of
January. 250 companies will demonstrate
their products to over 30,000 visitors who will also be entertained with a
farmer’s market, kids’ activities, and gala evening concerts from top Israeli
stars. Meanwhile among the visitors to
a recent
agricultural exhibition were 30
farmers from Gaza who came to purchase Israeli products and learn from
the Israelis.
Staying with the food industry, the popular
Israeli drinks-maker SodaStream has become extremely successful simply by
putting bubbles inside flavored drinks.
It also contributes to the environment by avoiding some of the billions of
plastic bottles that we put inside the garbage trucks each year.
SodaStream’s latest advert makes this sustainability point very cleverly -
however the UK regulators banned it for “denigrating plastic bottle
makers”. Judge for yourself by watching
the replacement
ad and its original
here.
Some of Israel’s beautiful environmental
sites can be found right inside Israel’s capital. Jerusalem’s
Botanical Gardens are literally blooming. Planned developments for 2013 include a children’s interactive
discovery path and an expanded and renovated tropical conservatory. And I fully expect the Secretary General of
the United Nations to “bubble up inside” when he reads that Israel plans to
turn the 64 acres of Gazelle Valley in Jerusalem into Israel’s first
city wildlife park.
I’ll finish with some items featuring some
of the residents that live inside our tiny little country. Members of an Ultra-orthodox (haredi) IDF
battalion saved
the lives of three Palestinian Arabs who were trapped in a car near
Nablus in a raging swollen stream during the recent storms. A left-leaning Israeli newspaper was
surprised by evidence of the surge in applications by East
Jerusalem Arabs for Israeli ID cards; more Arab students taking the
Israeli matriculation exams; more enrolling in Israeli academic institutions;
and a rising number of youth volunteering for national service. Perhaps less surprising was that dozens of
the 600 Christians from the Gaza Strip who arrived in Bethlehem to celebrate
Christmas have
asked to move to Israel. And
then there is Samir – a Muslim Arab
who voluntarily enlisted in the IDF.
Samir was born in Syria but now lives in Israel. “I love the army”, he said proudly.
Lastly, among the 18,000 new immigrants who
in 2012 decided to start new lives inside the Jewish State was 100-year-old
Moises Lederman from Brazil.
"I'm only sorry I didn't come to Israel earlier on, but better late
than never," he said. But the view
of Vivian Hamui from Panama is perhaps even more illuminating. She finds herself living and studying with
Ethiopians, Russians, Spanish, English, Chinese, Americans, Dutch, Venezuelans
and many Arab girls. She doubts if the
same situation could occur inside any other
Middle East country.
It really helps to have inside
information.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
