The media often uses major sporting events,
such as the current FIFA 2014 soccer World Cup, to provide audiences with a
little light relief from the seemingly endless stream of bad-news stories. In contrast, I present you with a blog of
positive news featuring some of the recent achievements of the Jewish State’s
world-class team.
I’ll begin, however, with the tournament
currently taking place in Brazil.
Israel’s world-leading Unmanned Air Vehicles and cameras were
demonstrated simultaneously in the skies above Rio de Janeiro. A Heron UAV made
by Israel Aerospace Industries, fitted with a heat-sensing camera from Israel’s
Elbit Systems helped Brazilian police capture
a criminal gang leader, to prevent violence during the World Cup. The Brazilian Air Force is also deploying Elbit’s
own UAVs in the shape of the Hermes 450 and 900, which are conducting safety
and security missions during World Cup matches.
Back on the ground, Israel’s global
dominance in security systems is in evidence at the 44,000-seat
Arena Patanal World Cup stadium in Cuiaba where Israel’s Risco Group
has implemented a command and control system.
In another city, administrators serving 24 Brazilian Government agencies
will operate the Situator incident
management platform from Israel’s NICE Systems.
We now leave the world of soccer for the
world of medicine to read that Forbes has just produced its list of top 10 world-changing
health tech companies. It
contained no less than six
Israeli firms - ReWalk, uMoove, Telesofia, Surgical Theater, TotallyPregnant
and HelpAround. Surprisingly, it didn’t
include Israeli start-up MobileOCT, which won the 2014
Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project for its
program to help residents in Southern USA detect cervical cancer. MobileOCT’s additional ability to detect
early stage melanomas (skin cancers) was even featured in a program on BBC
World.
The flawed United Nations still performs
some useful global functions. It
distributes satellite images to rescuers in disaster areas, and will now be
enhanced with those from Israeli
satellites. The UN, together
with the World Health Organization, also backed Israeli NGO Wheelchairs of
Hope, designers of the world’s
first affordable, child-friendly wheelchair. (The video of the Israeli charity is in Arabic with English
subtitles.)
Israel’s cup is truly running over, due to
the water technology that it brings to a parched world. California is currently experiencing a
drought of near Biblical proportions and has turned
to Israel to help hydrate its economy.
Trade journal Global
Water Intelligence bestowed its top awards on Israel’s IDE Technologies
in recognition of its water desalination plants at Carlsbad in San Diego,
California and at Soreq in Israel. In
Mexico, Israel’s Desalitech is installing its Closed Circuit
Desalination Reverse Osmosis technology.
Israel’s Blue I Water Technologies is installing high-precision water
quality analyzers in
Beijing, China and also in
India and Paraguay. Israel’s
Mapal Green Energy has now been selected to install its wastewater treatment
systems, by three of the largest UK
water companies serving nearly half the homes in England.
Israel is a world power in renewable
energy. Israel’s Sunflower plans to
construct up to five wind farms in
Finland. Israel’s Ormat
Technologies will soon be generating geothermal energy in Indonesia
and has had its 13th geothermal power plant inaugurated in New Zealand.
Israel’s
parliament building will soon be the most
environment-friendly law-making institution in the world, with 4,600 sq meters
of solar panels on its roof. Knesset
Director-General Ronen Plot paraphrased a Biblical verse "Out of Zion
shall go forth the law of green and renewable energy."
Newly found natural gas deposits have
turned Israel into a real power player which even Turkey
and Egypt have recognized by promising to purchase supplies. Other energetic activities include Israel
Corporation Power’s recent acquisition of power plants in Jamaica, Nicaragua,
Colombia, Chile and Peru. And Israel has even bounced back from the
defeat of its electric car project to celebrate the
racetrack debut of the Aluminium-air battery developed by Israel’s
Phinergy.
Finally, back to the soccer World Cup. Israelis have bought more
World Cup tickets per capita than any other country without a team in
Brazil. And Israeli soccer fans are not
even downhearted that their team didn’t qualify. Their attitude mirrors the ethos of the Jewish State that always
looks to the future and knows that things will get even better. Just the other week, for instance, Israel
came top of their qualifying group and for the first time ever will be heading
to the finals next month of the European under-19 Soccer Championships in
Hungary.
“Come on Israel. Champions!”
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter
containing positive news stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
