Israel is in Europe too

The United Kingdom has recently been totally absorbed with the Jun 23rd referendum on whether the UK should Remain or Exit the European Union.  The arguments in favor of the Remain camp appear to hinge on its claim that the UK’s economy would collapse if it terminated its EU membership.  UK citizens should not panic, however, but instead take a closer look at the “Israeli model”.

The modern State of Israel has been an “adopted” member of many European entities for some time - mainly due to the unwillingness of surrounding Arab countries in Asia and Africa to accept the Jewish State into “their” continents.  Israel is not a member of the EU, but the current relationship has many mutual benefits.  Using news articles since the beginning of this year, here are some examples of how the relationship benefits both Israel and Europe.

Trade / Economy / Business

Israel has just joined the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol).  Eurocontrol provides advanced control and navigation aviation services for managing and planning air traffic flows over European airspace to reduce delays in flight times.  In another important European transport project - Fresh Food Corridors (FFC), Israel organized the first ever “reefer” (temperature-controlled containers) block train loaded with Israeli fruit and veg from the Slovenian port of Koper to Rotterdam. It arrived 6 days earlier than ships that currently sail non-stop from Israel to Rotterdam.  And Israel is to connect its power grid to continental Europe via a 1,518 km subsea power cable, known as the EuroAsia InterConnector. It will allow Israel to sell its excess electricity generated from natural gas to anywhere in mainland Europe.

Israel’s hi-tech startups are extremely successful in Europe. Eco Wave Power has just completed the installation in Gibraltar of Europe’s first grid-connected wave-energy system.  Stratoscale has won a Red Herring Europe 2016 award for its solution that can get you up and running using Cloud services in a few minutes, whatever computer hardware your company currently uses.  Israel’s Pashut Yarok is exporting “shockpads” - plastic foam safety surfaces for children’s playgrounds - to countries in the European Union. Meanwhile, Israel’s Amiad has opened its first UK office, in Swansea - home of Welsh Water, to support increasing demand in the UK and Europe. 

Israeli startups frequently win European competition prizes.  Israel’s Capitalise won one of five Best in Show awards at London’s FinovateEurope 2016.  The Capitali.se platform uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to read the text of an investor’s investment strategy and convert it into executable market trading instructions.  Staying with in financial arena, European investors are so keen to invest in Israeli companies that International finance giant BlackRock launched an exchange-traded-fund (ETF) that allows them to invest directly in Israel’s top 25 listed companies. 

 

Medical

Europe’s health owes much to Israel’s unique relationship with the continent.  Hardly a week goes by without an Israeli treatment or medical device receiving CE approval.  The latest include LifeSeal, the no-leak sealant solution for patients who have undergone gastrointestinal (GI) surgery.  Another is the neuroAD transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and cognitive training from Israel’s Neuronix that is used to treat Alzheimer’s sufferers.

Sometimes Israel’s proximity to Europe makes medical approval easy – which is why Australian, Canadian and US kids travel to Europe (and Israel) for the ApiFix non-fusion treatment of their Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (twisted spine). 

Israel has just become the first country outside Europe’s geographic borders to be accepted as a full member of the European Federation of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Associations (EFCCA).

Science

Israeli technical expertise really is out of this world.  Israel’s Windward tracks vessels entering Europe and identifies any that broadcast a fake identity.  Israel has been involved with the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, from day one.  Israel’s Rafael Industries made the vital hydrazine thrusters for the Schiaparelli landing module, which on 19th Oct will slow the decent of Schiaparelli to just 2 meters above the Mars surface. 

Hagihon - Jerusalem’s water company - has been awarded a key role on the 4-year EU project to improve governance and social awareness of water environmental challenges.  It involves setting up a Digital Social Platform to share details of water scarcity, security, quality and water consumption-related issues.  Israeli startups receive dozens of grants from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program.  One such is Electroad, developer of Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) that will charge electric buses from the road they are being driven on.  No need for a battery or charging spots. 

Sport

Tiny Israel often makes a big splash at European sports events.  Gal Nevo took home the silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley at the European Swimming Championships in London.  Alex Shatilov claimed his sixth career medal (a bronze) at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Bern, Switzerland.    Ron Atias (ranked 80 in the world) won the taekwondo under-58 kg silver medal at the European Championships in Montreux, Switzerland.  Or Sasson and Timna Nelson-Levy won silver and bronze respectively at the European Judo Championships.  But the biggest recent successes were gold, silver and bronze medals for Israel’s rhythmic gymnastics team at the European Championships in Israel. 

Finally, 8,000 Jews from France decided on their own EU-Exit last year as Aliya from Western Europe hit record levels.  UK Aliya was also up by 25%.  But as Superstar Elton John told 40,000 ecstatic fans at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, there could have been no nicer place for him to open his eight-week European tour. 

Israel – it’s practically holding Europe together!

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com and a searchable archive www.IsraelActive.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

 

The Water of Life

Jewish tradition connects the five books of Moses (the Torah) with water.  For a healthy life, our sages say that you cannot go three days without either.  Recently there have been many news stories from Israel on the theme of water – all focusing on the Israeli priority of saving or benefiting human life.

The main inspiration for this blog was this summary of the miracle of how the drought-ravished Jewish State overcame a full-blown water crisis by investing $4 billion between 2002 and 2010 to develop water technology that keeps its population and industries alive.  Israel’s latest desalination plant, in Sorek, is now at full capacity, producing 627,000 cubic meters of drinking water daily. With the lowest rate of energy consumption in the world, its water is the cheapest and most efficient of any large-scale desalination plant.  Israel has exported this knowledge worldwide.  The San Diego desalination facility uses the reverse osmosis developed by Israel’s IDE Technologies, which has just opened a new office in the drought-ravished state of Texas.  The Norwegian company, EnviroNor, is recruiting Israeli expertise to provide the water-processing technology necessary for its project to convert secondhand oil barges into floating desalination and wastewater treatment plants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIMoaptdDWs

International interest in Israeli water technology has encouraged joint research between the USA’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev.  And Sir Mark Walport - chief scientific adviser to the British Government mentioned the many Joint UK-Israeli water science projects being conducted at UK universities.  And the National Sanitation Foundation International (NSF) has certified the major product lines of Israel’s Amiad Water Systems.  The NSF evaluated that the water produced by Amiad’s automatic self-cleaning screen and microfibre technology is safe for human consumption across the USA and Canada.

Locally, Israeli water technology is restoring the Besor-Hebron River flowing through Beer Sheva, which for decades had been polluted by untreated wastewater from Palestinian Arab towns.  Now a 3-year project has been agreed between Israel, the PA and the Bedouin community to clean up the river. And please read about the water projects of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and its work with Bedouin communities, in its response to slanderous accusations in the New York Times.

You may also have missed the news that Israeli authorities helped alleviate flooding in Gaza from recent rains by transferring four pumps from the Palestinian Authority into the Gaza Strip (contrary to a fictitious report by the AFP news agency that Israel had opened dams).  Israel has also doubled its supply of water to Gaza from 1.3 to 2.6 billion gallons, and was praised for doing so by visiting inspectors from the European Union. 

There was little international recognition of the historic agreement signed by Israel and Jordan for the Red Sea-Dead Sea rescue pipeline project.  The $800 million agreement authorizes the construction of a 65 to 80 million cubic meter capacity desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan that will produce fresh water to benefit both nations.  Nor much fanfare for Israel’s Water Authority opening of a new treatment facility for wastewater from the city of Tiberias that will allow Christian pilgrims to baptize themselves in clean Jordan River water.

Israel also is involved in countering some of the dangers associated with water.  Cyclone Pam has devastated the remote islands of Vanuatu, but already a multi-sector emergency response team from Israel-based IsraAID has arrived and is distributing drinking water.  More Israeli aid teams are on their way.  And should terrorists try to sabotage water systems, Jerusalem’s regional water & wastewater utility, Hagihon, has developed and installed one of the world’s most sophisticated security systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPzlgpi7558

Israeli ingenuity has even developed medical treatments from water. IceSense3, developed by Israeli biotech IceCure Medical, uses frozen water (“cryoablation”) to destroy targeted tumors in less than 15 mins, with no pain.  IceCure has just received a $21 million injection of funds from Epoch Partner Investments to speed up the sales and distribution of its IceSense3 system to treat breast cancer.  And only Israeli scientists could have developed a “safe” virus to kill antibiotic resistant bacteria, from the wastewater of Jerusalem’s sewage system!

Water has also made a major contribution to Israel’s modern economic success.  Israel’s underwater natural gas discoveries are now well known.  However, you may not have realized that Israel’s location between two major oceans has given it a pivotal trading role in providing China with outlets to both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.  And who would have thought that Russia would be importing large quantities of high-quality Israeli sea salt from Israel’s Salt of the Earth to make the salt water for tinned tuna and salmon produced in Russia’s Vladivostok and Korsakov regions.

To conclude we dive beneath the water to wish a “mazel tov” to the members of the scuba diving club in Caesarea that discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off Israel's Mediterranean “gold” coast.  The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the find of 2000 gold pieces, dating back more than 1000 years, was "so valuable that it's priceless". 

And finally, even underwater, Israel’s life-changing scientific ingenuity surfaces - as demonstrated by the laying of the cornerstone of the new deep-sea research labs for Haifa’s Mediterranean Sea Research Center.  The lab will develop underwater robots, vehicles, optics, acoustics and propulsion systems.

  

Israel – keeping humanity afloat!

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Things can Only get Better

Things can Only get Better

5/3/14

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/things-can-only-get-better

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/5277

As readers of my weekly positive newsletter will know, there has been a huge surge in the volume of Israel’s medical discoveries, scientific advances, agricultural innovations, water technology and humanitarian activities recently.  Despite the chaos in many other countries, I believe that better times are on their way for the rest of the world.

Israel’s medical innovations are making a better life for everyone.  The announcement of Israel Technion’s plans to establish an International Center for Cardiovascular Innovation will lead to better ways to treat heart disease – the world’s leading cause of death.  For Israeli Danny Oberman, his 2013 cardiac “incident” led him to develop the GPS-based CathMaps plus - a better method for Android and iOS smartphone users to find the nearest catheterization lab and share their medical history with cardiologists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZxhOuM49zI  

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has better knowledge than most of what visiting foreign Heads of State want from the Jewish State.  As he told delegates at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, their three requirements are “Israeli technology, Israeli technology and Israeli technology.”  For example, Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen cites as his model Israel's success as a "start-up" nation brimming with high-tech innovation.  Finland has been purchasing millions of Euros of Israeli technology.  Similarly, relations between Israel and Cyprus have never been better, according to Cyprus’ Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulines.  There is good cooperation on security, energy, water management, science and technology.

Over 70 young Israeli entrepreneurs showed United Nations representatives better solutions for global problems at the Israeli Designed International Development (ID2) conference in Caesarea.  Innovations demonstrated included plants that give off light at night.  Meanwhile, Israel’s Evogene has launched PoinTar, a computationally based target discovery platform for generating better herbicides.  It identifies key molecules that can be chemically targeted to prevent weed growth.  Staying with agro technology, India’s Dr. Akhilesh Kumar came to work at Israel’s Vulcani Agricultural Research Institute in order to develop better strains of potatoes and solar-powered storage in order to feed India’s hungry population all year round.

Angola’s population will appreciate the better quality drinking water that will flow from fifty filtration systems to be supplied by Israel’s Amiad Water Systems. Amiad also just won one of Israel’s Outstanding Exporter awards.  California, in the grip of its most severe drought since 1977, will be far better off once it completes the Israeli-designed desalination plant near San Diego. Israel’s IDE Technologies is one of the main engineering contractors building the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Kp4IsJ6cQ

Israel has been proficient recently in developing better battery technologies.  The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has boosted the power of sodium-ion batteries with a new type of anode.  Also Israel’s EnStorage received nearly 1 million dollars as a BIRD Foundation grant for its Hydrogen Bromide flow battery development.  Meanwhile Professor Doron Aurbach of Bar Ilan University won the prestigious 2014 International Battery Association Yeager Award for advancing battery technology, especially rechargeable magnesium batteries.

Israeli apps are currently rated better than ever.  Israeli cyber-security companies received eleven awards at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, including Votiro, which won gold in the “Innovations in Next Generation Security” category.  At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Israeli companies picked up five awards.  Israel’s PointGrab’s CamMe won “most innovative app” with EverythingMe one of five finalists.  Wibbitz won “best mobile publishing product or service” for its unique text-to-video technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=955PTWP7-uk

There is just enough room to wish Mazel Tov to my friend, Tel Aviv Radio TLV1’s DJ Antithesis who has found his “better half” and is getting married this week.  There should be some great music at his wedding.  And Israel’s soccer fans will hope for better results from its national team with its favorable draw in the qualifying stages of the 2016 European Nations Cup.

I want to leave you with the knowledge that it is the dedication of the people of Israel that makes life better for everyone.  The staff at Israel’s Beit Issie Shapiro are bringing a better tomorrow to those born with both severe mental and physical disabilities. You would hardly believe that children like Roni, Eytan, Nevo and Liora could, for example, learn to use iPads to help them develop to their full potential.  You can also help Beit Issie and Eytan by sponsoring his dad in the London marathon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZTaWbHi1Ms

Finally two mature Israeli professors have been busy throughout their lives making a better world for all of us. Whilst at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, molecular geneticist Professor Michel Revel developed treatments for MS, ALS and diabetes.  Now at 75 years of age, he works at his own biotech company Kadimastem developing pluripotent stem cells as a regenerative medicine solution for all three diseases.  And I hope that you will find a new biography about renowned Israeli cardiac surgeon Professor Joseph Borman particularly heartwarming. “Open Hearts: A Memoir” describes how during the 1967 Six-Day War he saved the life of critically injured soldier Doron Lancet.  Doron eventually went on to lead the Israeli team that helped map the human genome to give us a better understanding of the causes of genetic diseases.

 

Are we on the way up? 

You’d better believe it!

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Israel Cannot Lose

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/israel-cannot-lose

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/5227

Israelis know that the Jewish State cannot afford to lose a single war or conflict.  In fact prevention of any loss of innocent life is paramount to Israelis.  And a determined “refusal to give up” is almost a national character trait that can be seen in many other aspects of Israeli society.

Israel is one of the top countries working to prevent or reduce loss of life from cancer.  Researchers at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center have just made a major breakthrough by discovering how breast cancer develops resistance to anti-cancer drugs.  The finding should help develop new treatments.  And only Israelis can learn how a killer virus can prevent loss of life.  Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have identified how the HIV virus suppresses the T-cell immune response and can help fight the battle against deadly autoimmune diseases.

Israelis apply the “preventing loss of life” principle right across the world.  Anat from Israel’s il4syrians.org is called “Syria’s Israeli guardian angel”. Her 200 volunteers include former Israeli commandos, doctors, social workers, nurses, and Arabic-speaking trauma specialists who provide relief to thousands of Syrian refugees.  Israel has also not lost track of the hundreds of thousands who lost everything in Typhoon Haiyan.  Agricultural developers from Israel’s Tahal Group are providing technology assistance to help recovery operations in the Philippines province of Davao del Sur.  Americans and Europeans are also currently experiencing extreme weather conditions. Many will therefore appreciate Israel’s ClickSoftware which reduces the huge losses suffered in those countries by helping to schedule employees responsible for repairing damage from storms, fires, earthquakes, gas leaks and burst water mains.

Israeli hi-tech is already the world’s best hope of preventing massive loss of life through drought and global starvation.  At Tel Aviv’s recent WATEC water technology conference, the JNF showcased its innovations for preventing the loss of precious water resources to other drought-ravaged countries and demonstrated how to make non-arable land better suited for agriculture.  Next, take a look at AgriTask from Israel’s ScanTask - the new “Waze” of agriculture – that helps farmers make decisions on irrigating, planting, harvesting and the use of pesticides.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-qde5-jjY

Staying in the water, Israel’s Amiad is benefiting from new US Navy regulations designed to stop the loss of water pollutants from its ships.  All new vessels assembled at the Navy’s Virginia shipyards will be fitted with Amiad’s water filters, including the massive new USS John F Kennedy aircraft carrier.  And whilst we’re afloat, I must highlight that Israel’s Ben Gurion University and Canada’s Dalhousie University are to jointly build an Internationally recognized Ocean studies center in Eilat.  Among the many aims of the center is to avert the loss of endangered marine species.

Two Israeli organizations have recently promoted the Jewish value that no child should lose the opportunity for a decent education.  The first is the Haifa Center for Children with Learning Disabilities (Chi.L.D.) - a dynamic learning and therapeutic center providing children and families with vital educational, social and therapeutic services.  The second is the amazing Israel Center for Excellence through Education, which has developed the CIJE Excellence 2000 program now being exported to the US, Australia, Austria, India, Poland and Singapore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nce1w9RyzoQ

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem is helping to ensure the Jewish State does not lose connection with its lost tribes by sponsoring the immigration of another wave of members of India’s Bnei Menashe to Israel, reuniting them with their families and ancestral homeland.  And Israeli artist Irene Orleansky has partnered with the Abayudaya Jewish Community of Uganda to create "Shalom, Mirembe!" as part of a music collection from Israelites and Jews of Africa and Asia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQu0j_Yjzrs

Here are two recent examples where Israel strives not to lose the connection between its people and their heritage.  Firstly, the Yad Ezer La’Haver ("helping hand to a friend") association arranged for twelve Holocaust survivors to celebrate a joint bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah ceremony, as they lost the chance to mark their coming of age during their youth.  “At the age of thirteen I was in Auschwitz," said one of them. "There wasn't really anyone to talk to about celebrations."  Secondly, please watch this new 7-minute documentary featuring Jewish families who lived in Jerusalem’s Old City for generations, but lost their homes when the Arab Legion evicted them in 1948 after the State of Israel was declared. They returned 19 years later in 1967 after Israeli forces liberated the Old City during the Six Day War.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvKMVOfED1k

Finally, we return to the Israeli determination not to lose a single soul.  On a recent Shabbat morning, two religious students visited our local Netanya Laniado Hospital to distribute sweets and wish everyone a “speedy recovery.”  They sang to a 60-year-old woman who was close to death and by Monday she had revived, amazing the medical staff. “Thanks to them I am alive,” she said.

With Israel’s winning, life-giving team - you cannot lose!

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

Israel is the Key to Life

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/israel-key-life

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4981

World leaders should let Israel concentrate on its mission of providing technology to save lives rather than trying to impose suicidal political deals on our tiny country.  Last week’s positive news from the Jewish State contained a record number of Israeli initiatives and innovations with the potential to save billions of lives.

Arik Dayan, CEO of Israel’s Amiad Water Systems, explained that Israel’s wastewater recycling expertise is essential in order to increase crop yields by 50% within two decades and feed the 8.3 billion people who will inhabit the world.  His exact words were “Filtration will ensure that life as we know it continues.”  

Two other Israeli companies were simultaneously contributing their vital efforts to achieve this goal.  Israeli drip-irrigation pioneer Netafim is leading the United Nations FIGARO project - an international consortium to develop new precision irrigation management technologies to increase water availability for Europe’s water-intensive crops. Meanwhile, several Dutch water and paper industry companies are about to test the groundbreaking wastewater recycling system from Israel’s Applied CleanTech, which is planned to be implemented across the Netherlands and provide huge environmental benefits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqTbxWXamY4

Europe’s recognition of Israeli water technology continued when the French Ministry of Agriculture awarded the National Order of Agricultural Merit to Professor Pedro Berliner of Ben Gurion University for his research into agro-hydrology in desert regions.  Then visitors came from around the world to Tel Aviv in order to see Israeli innovations first hand at The Water Technology and Environment Control (WATEC) Exhibition and Conference.  There was much interest in Israel’s Curapipe, which showcased its Trenchless Automated Leakage Repair (TALR) Solution.  No need anymore to dig up the street to mend a leaky mains water pipe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys5jj9TMYug

Israel reacts quickly, however, to disasters caused by too much water.  A lead IDF team has already left Israel for the Philippines, which was hit by a devastating typhoon over the weekend.  The IDF Home Front Command delegation included experts in the fields of search, rescue and medicine.  IsraAID is also sending a relief team.  The typhoon has also reached Vietnam, which will thank the timely agreement to establish a joint agriculture research and development fund and free-trade accord with the Jewish State.

Israel’s life-giving medical news last week was exceptional – yet again!  Two contrasting new Israeli medical devices will change the lives of patients and surgeons.  The most dangerous time for diabetics is when they are asleep as sudden drops in blood-sugar levels can lead to a life-threatening hypoglycemic event.  The non-invasive Hypo-Sense watch from Israel’s Night-Sense will wake the sleeper well in advance as it can detect problems with pulse and heart activity by analyzing subtle changes in the movement of the hand.  But “life as we know it, Mr Spock” will surely change forever thanks to the amazing 3-D medical holograms produced by Israel’s RealView Imaging. Its interactive visualization holographic system allows physicians to work with the patients’ true anatomy appearing as precise volumetric holograms floating in mid-air.  The system was demonstrated at the world’s largest cardiovascular conference TCT-25 in San Francisco.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIj2xEd_z78

After that, just imagine what advances in Israeli medicine will emerge thanks to a $50 million donation from Nancy and Stephen Grand to Weizmann’s Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine.  The INCPM focuses on genomics, protein profiling, bioinformatics, and treatment discovery to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease.  But let’s not forget that Israeli medics save lives every day.  In one case last week, United Hatzalah volunteer medic Itzik Hillel rescued a one-month-old baby girl who had been left in a hot car. He used a device called ResQme that shatters the car window without causing any risk to the child. Miraculously, the device had been distributed to the Hatzalah medics only the night before.

There’s just enough space left to mention that one of the Syrians rushed to Israel’s Ziv Medical Center in Safed last week gave birth.  The 20-year-old woman was brought to the hospital in active labor by the IDF during the night from a village near Kuneitra, which was under Syrian military curfew with no access to a Syrian hospital.  The hospital also treated three Syrians with shrapnel wounds.  Meanwhile, Arab-Israeli Imad Younis relates how he founded Alpha Omega in Nazareth in 1993 thanks to funding from Israel’s Chief Scientist program.  Today Alpha Omega employs Moslems, Christians and Jews and ships its life-saving brain surgical guidance systems to 500 hospitals and laboratories across the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAvWODm3uaE 

Finally, one Israeli has even proved that there is life after death.  Five years ago, in an explosion in Gaza, newlywed Aharon Karov was momentarily declared dead. Now he’s raising money for OneFamily Fund, the organization that helped him get back on his feet. He has just completed the New York Marathon in 4hrs 14min 31sec.

Just one week in the “life” of the Jewish State.

Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.
www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

For a free subscription, email a request to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com