There are occasions when I think that the international
media must possess a device comparable to Harry Potter’s “cloak of
invisibility”. It hides Israel’s achievements so skillfully that most of the
inhabitants of this planet must be under the illusion that some unseen magician
is responsible for half of the world’s innovations. Well the aim of my blogs is
to expose the media’s sorcery and reveal what’s really going on.
Israeli doctors definitely have a magic
touch. How else can they perform such
delicate operations? Like the two
three-hour operations reconstructing
the faces of twin 14-year-old Muslim boys at Haifa’s Ramban hospital. A
genetic defect caused their cleft palate and nose, and fused fingers.
Meanwhile, the Jewish State is the country of choice for Syrian doctors to send
the wounded from their own civil war.
The latest Syrian casualties to be taken
to Israeli hospitals included a 16-year-old
boy suffering from gunshot wounds, a 13
year-old girl and two boys aged
nine and fifteen. Even the normally anti-Israel Lebanese
Daily Star is reporting the phenomena. In total, Israel has now treated
over 100 Syrians.
There was a touching
encounter recently when 10-year-old Yakub Ivachisad, the Palestinian
Arab boy who received one of the kidneys from deceased Israeli boy Noam Naor,
was visited in Schneider Children's hospital by Noam’s parents. I was also particularly touched
to read about a typical day for Israeli Diana Bletter, interacting with
Muslims, Christians, Druze, Ethiopian Jews and a Baha'i woman.
I may now be touching
a nerve with some people, by mentioning “dental implants”. Israel’s
RegeneCure has developed a safe bone augmentation system using an innovative
synthetic membrane. Alternative animal-tissue-derived products can be
contaminated. Additionally, RegeneCure’s
membrane degrades slowly, giving the natural bone more time to regenerate. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is
applying a
lighter touch in its medical
research for children. It will
establish a center focusing on incurable genetic diseases, building new models
for testing drugs for children and synthesizing new molecules suitable for
them.
As I stated in my introduction, my aim is
for the world to see Israel in a new light.
They would, if they have been touched
by Eye from Zion, an Israeli organization that provides free ocular
medical treatment to needy populations around the world. Photographer Vardi
Kahana has documented some of those whose eyesight has been restored in a new
photographic series entitled “Field of Vision”. Another Israeli humanitarian organization is MASHAV (Israel’s
Agency for International Development Cooperation) which is working with the United
Nations World Food Program (WFP) in South Sudan and alleviating the hunger
crisis in the Horn of Africa. The Executive Director of WFP has just visited
Israel for the first time, to
touch base with MASHAV leaders.
In contrast, Arab leaders were completely out of touch when they failed
in their bid to block Israel from leading the UN Entrepreneurship for
Development Debate. They couldn’t
touch Israel as it showcased its agriculture, solar energy and medical
equipment to developing countries.
I will now touch on a few of the latest
Israeli innovations in the hi-tech arena.
When discussing a touchy medical subject with a new doctor, you no
longer need to worry that he / she hasn’t got access to your records. One touch of
your smartphone and Israeli-developed Hello Doctor will retrieve
everything you need. Israeli startup
Architip has an app that will touch
up the image of any archaeological feature you are looking at. Point your smartphone at the ruin and
Architip will display how the site used to look. It will come in handy when viewing the latest
discoveries in Jerusalem that prove Jewish
connections stretching back at least two millennia. Finally, Israel’s N-trig has announced that
its DuoSense touchpad
controller provides a single sensor for both pen and touch to Sony’s
VAIO® Duo 13 Ultrabook.
Israeli start-ups are a soft
touch when it comes to good causes.
Israel’s OurCrowd is the first Venture Capital Funding Organization to
insist that its portfolio companies donate a portion of equity to a charitable
foundation. Start-ups allocate shares
to the non-profit Tmura. If the
start-up is taken-over, Tmura gives 90% of the share value to charitable
projects.
We’ll be touching down this week with a few
atmospheric news items. With tourist numbers touching
record levels, Israeli Yaniv Emanuel, flew the world’s longest
commercial plane – the new Boeing 747-8 into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion
airport. One of Israel’s first-time visitors
was Dr. Qanta Ahmed who saw the country ‘as God sees it.’ The Muslim physician,
and daughter of Pakistani immigrants to the US, was smitten by its magical
natural beauty, history and modern achievements that came into vivid focus on a helicopter tour
of the Jewish State.
Finally, Israel’s newest pilots now include
21-year-old Lt B who made Aliya from New Jersey in 2009. For many years the Jewish State has worked
its magic on the high flier, who said, "I knew from a young age that
Israel was an amazing country, and that I was destined to fall in love with
it."
Magic!
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
