My sadness at the collapse of Better Place
- Israel’s all-electric car infrastructure company – was somewhat compensated
by the knowledge that failure in the Start-up Nation is not the same as failure
elsewhere in the world. Some of
Israel’s more radical innovations don’t succeed, but the entrepreneurs (and
employees) usually get back on their feet quickly with another venture – all the
better from having learned
from their previous mistakes. As a
former director said, “The dream is not over. It’s only the beginning.”
Whereas Israelis are prepared to see the
demise of an ailing business, they will move heaven and earth to make the life
of a sick person better. The parents of young Noam Naor, who died in a tragic
accident, donated one of his kidneys to save
the life of a 10-year-old Palestinian Arab boy at Schneider’s children
hospital. And at Rambam hospital in
Haifa, Israeli-Arab Mohammed Eckert received a kidney from the son of
Israeli-Jew David Ben-Yair, whilst simultaneously David received a kidney from
Mohammed’s wife. David said,
"Here, in our country, and in the world at large, we have to realize that we have
the power to save people, all people."
I read a staggering statistic last week that
over a
fifth of the world’s biotechnology originated in Israel. This was based on the biotech industry’s
annual turnover of $120 billion. But in
Israel, commercial interests don’t drive all medical research and
treatments. Insurance companies were
not prepared to cover expensive insulin pumps. So Israeli biotech Valeritas has
developed a cheap, reliable, disposable mechanical pump
for delivering insulin to type 2 diabetes patients. And financial factors were hardly the main
issue when an Israeli-led international research team discovered a rare
genetic disease affecting in-bred Arab families. Five
Palestinian Arabs at Sheba Hospital and two Moroccan Arabs in Munich
are suffering from a bone marrow mutation, called congenital neutrophil defect
syndrome. Now Israeli doctors are
working on a potential treatment.
The lives of the victims of the Oklahoma
tornado will be a little better thanks to specialist
trauma counseling from Israeli humanitarian organization IsraAID. And whilst helping friends is
non-negotiable, does the world know that every week Israel delivers tens of thousands of tons of
goods into the terrorist-run Gaza mini-state?
Israel’s technological innovations
frequently make life better for the less fortunate. Israeli start-up OrCam has developed a camera-based system
that will “read”
to the visually impaired whilst on the move. So the partially sighted can read a newspaper or a menu, cross
the road safely or simply pick up a can of vegetables in a grocery store and
read its label.
Israeli children get better educational
opportunities, thanks to the proliferation of technology in the Jewish
State. Israel’s “Computer
for Every Child” project is designed to close the digital gap and allow
Israeli boys and girls from families with reduced means to receive the latest
technology, such as computer tablets.
Over 55,000 computers have been distributed to all sectors of Israeli
society: Ultra-orthodox, Arab, Bedouin, Druze, new immigrants, special needs
children, etc. Meanwhile, teenagers
from the WIZO Nachlat Yehuda School and Youth Village in Rishon Lezion, an agricultural
high school that specializes in life sciences, took their agriculture
matriculation exam last week. The
curriculum covers animal care and dairy cow production. And now Apple Inc. is launching the first entrepreneurship
development center of its kind at the Amal High School in Hadera. Sixty
students will develop iOS-based apps for iPads and iPhones.
I often report news that proves that
Israel’s minorities have a better life in the Jewish State than anywhere else
in the Middle East. This week it’s the
turn of the Druze of the Golan, who are too afraid of Syrian dictator Assad to
become Israeli citizens. However, a
recent biased article in an anti-Israel UK newspaper led me to discover that
the Mayor of the Druze town of Majdal Shams says that living in the State of
Israel “is
a privilege”. And that Shefaa Abu Jabal is the first Syrian Druze
woman resident of Israel to graduate
from an Israeli university.
The future looks better in the Jewish State
than in most countries. In recent news,
Israel’s growth
exceeds most of the other OECD countries and unemployment is one of the
lowest at 6.9 percent. Despite having one of the lowest mortality rates and
highest life expectancies, Israel spent the fifth
least on health (7.7% of GDP).
And then there’s
the gas… The skies
are now open and Ryanair plans to bring 4-5
million tourists to Israel. As Daniel Pipes writes,
John Kerry’s statement that Israelis have “a
sense of accomplishment and of prosperity” indicates, “Israel’s enemies
should give up and find some other country to torment”.
Finally, as Israel’s Mapal bubbles make
wastewater clean across the world, I even found a
positive news story from the BBC that mentioned that Israel’s work to
re-flood the Hula valley had made life better
for an endangered indigenous Israeli species – the Hula Painted Frog.
“The dream is just beginning”
You’d better believe it!
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
