The Hebrew month of Elul traditionally accompanies
calls for the return of the Jewish People to the “correct path” in time for the
upcoming New Year. Whilst the media speculates about Israel’s political
direction, my assignment is to highlight how the Jewish State continues to
steer the world on the route to a better future.
Israeli organizations are heavily involved
in keeping the rest of the world on the right track. The Executive Director of
Israeli charity Beit Issie Shapiro, Jean Judes, spoke
at the United Nations about Community Based Rehabilitation and explained
some of the organization’s innovations to help children and adults with
disabilities in society. And with the
US announcement of the new Power Africa initiative, it is important to
highlight that Israel’s “Innovation:
Africa” has been powering rural East African schools, medical clinics
and water pumping systems with Israeli solar technology for the past five
years, benefiting over 450,000 people.
In South Africa, a police interpreter took the
only available track to miners trapped following their fight with an
illegal rival gang – by means of an instant harness from Israel’s Agilite. The Israeli device received much praise and
was recommended to all South African rescue personnel.
Tel Aviv University
Professor Eugene Rosenberg was tracking
the damage caused by “white plague” bacteria to the corals in Eilat
when he discovered that some corals had immunity. From this, he extracted the natural therapeutic virus BA3, which
can now be used to protect the world’s threatened coral reefs.
+Jpatokal+at+English+Wikivoyage.JPG)
Photo – Eilat Coral -
Wikimedia Commons (WT-en) Jpatokal
Bringing a child into the world can involve
much pain. Successful pain relief from epidural anesthesia relies on the skill
of the doctor to find the right
track for the needle. Now, Israel’s Omeq Medical’s new sensor-based
system eliminates the 30 per cent failure rates and frequent complications by
guiding the doctor to the exact spot.
An international team led by Weizmann Institute researchers has
engineered another medical breakthrough. It has “turned off” the immune
system’s automatic rejection of foreign transplants. The team manufactured weaker immune cells and introduced the
biochemical interleukin-15 to guide them
through the body to the lymph nodes.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have
discovered that flu viruses (including deadly strains) use the protein
neuraminidase to disable the body’s natural killer (NK) cells. The HUJ scientists inhibited the protein and
thus cleared
the way for NK cells to fight the viruses.
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Photo - Influenza_virus_particle - Wiki
Commons
(Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
Those of you tracking Israel’s relationship
with the Palestinian Arabs at grass roots level, should be familiar with the
thousands of trucks of goods and materials that drive through the Kerem
Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza each week. You may, however, have missed reading about
the comprehensive agricultural
seminar that Israel arranged especially for sixty grateful Gaza farmers
to attend, or the hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian Arabs who (mostly in secret)
are becoming business partners and colleagues in joint start-ups that are slowly
transforming the PA economy.
The right track to a
superior world will be laid through a better education for our next
generation. Six-time
NBA All-Star (and prospective Israeli) Amar'e Stoudemire called a “time-out”
from the Maccabiah games and took
to the road to promote science education in areas outside of Israel's
main cities. Israeli schoolchildren are
progressing
exponentially in the field of Mathematics. Israel’s team of High school
and Junior High mathematicians won 6 medals to reach 13th place out of the 97
countries competing at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Santa Marta,
Colombia. A huge improvement on the
31st place achieved in 2012.
Tel Aviv University has also invested in Israel’s future with its new Student
City. The complex covers
nearly a quarter mile and has Energy and Environmental Design gold status. And venture capital
guru Jon Medved used the venue of another of Israel’s top educational
institutes – The Technion – to give an outstanding analysis of Israel’s
innovation success and the direction it now needs to take.
Technologically, Israel is definitely on
the fast track. Israel saw the highest rate of
growth in Internet speeds in the world last year, thanks to the
investment in infrastructure made by communications companies. Israel is at
the forefront of developments into 5G communications. It will also
demonstrate how the Brain-Computer
Interface is turning “science fiction” into “science fact” at BrainTech Israel 2013 - Israel’s
first ever International Brain Technology Conference in Tel Aviv in
October.
Finally, Israel is visibly on
the right track for the world’s migrating birds. The Israeli government is investing 10
million dollars revamping and expanding birding centers to increase the
enjoyment of thousands of tourists that come especially to witness the one
billion birds that make the Jewish State a vital stopping place on their
bi-annual journey.
Join the Israel track – we’re really
flying!
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
