Showing posts with label Boston marathon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boston marathon. Show all posts

Israel Boycotters are in a World of their Own



Here is my third and final medical analysis of the pointlessness and futility of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) crazies who target Israeli goods and services.  (For those who wish to be reminded of parts one and two, they can be read here and here.)  Again, please remember that all my examples are taken from news items that were published only in the last 4.5 months.  If I included all the medical work that Israel was doing, this article would run to hundreds of thousands of words.

I proved previously that BDS-ers have no heart, brains or spine – otherwise why would they boycott the country that is developing treatments for those areas of the body.  Now I suggest that the whole BDS idea is not only wrong - it is nonsense.  There is no sense whatsoever in boycotting a country that is working on restoring the senses of millions of people. 
-         Have they not heard that Tel Aviv University Professor Karen Avraham has discovered the reason for genetic hearing loss?
-         Have they lost sight of the benefit of Israel Technion’s research into substituting damaged retinas with a new area of the eye that has been turned into photoreceptors? 
-         Did they not read that US President Obama’s step-grandmother underwent emergency eye treatment at an Israeli-run hospital in Equatorial Guinea?

Would-be boycotters:
-         Do not have the guts to admit that Israeli research into colon disease is the best in the world.  Israel’s BiolineRX’s BL-7040 oral treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) could bring relief to 1.4 million individuals in the US alone. 
-         Obviously cannot stomach the fact that scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered at the cellular level how the gut’s immune system maintains a healthy balance.
-         Will be really “down in the mouth” when they realise their doctors cannot use the video and endoscope system from Israel’s Peer Medical.

I wish the BDS crowd would grow up:
-         But how can they if they boycott the human growth hormone developed by Israel’s Prolor Biotech? 

It is the end of the line for childless BDS-ers who boycott Israel’s innovative fertility treatments.
-         Cytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection (IMSI) developed in 2004 by Benjamin Bartoov of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University is at the core of the recently opened IVF centers in New Delhi. 
-         A research team from Israel’s Technion has produced human eggs using cells from the amniotic sac that surrounds a baby in the womb.  Experts believe that donation of the amniotic sac will be more acceptable than egg donation from fertile women – but not to BDS-ers.

Life is just too complicated for BDS-ers:
-         And they should end it all, now that they know three Israelis invented the science of Biogerontology (the study of longevity and the aging process) and that Israel recently hosted the eighth European Congress of Biogerontology.

The despicable BDS-ers cannot have any wish to save life. 
-         They would have added to the deaths of those murdered in the Boston Marathon bombings through refusing Israel’s help train Boston medical staff for a mass-casualty event.
-         They have no pity for the Boston children who would have been permanently scarred but for the post-trauma help from the Israel Trauma Coalition.
-         They would rather say “Roger and Out” to reducing emergency response times with the innovative call centre system from Israel’s NowForce, now operating in Missouri or to any training with Magen David Adom – Israel’s emergency first response service.
-         They would happily switch off Israel’s EarlySense “under the mattress” patient vital signs monitoring system currently being distributed to hospitals across the United States.
-         They would tell you to hand back your Oxitone wrist-worn blood-oxygen monitor that warns of any sudden deterioration in an “at risk” patient’s condition.
-         No sweat to them that more Africans have to die from tropical diseases rather than allow Ben Gurion University students to carry out an extensive educational medical and sanitation program in Ethiopia.

The warped world that the BDS-ers inhabit has no desire:
-         To cure measles; the US National Institutes of Health wants Ben-Gurion University to discover why the measles virus persists
-         To recognise Downs Syndrome; Israel and Singapore established World Down Syndrome Day in 2006 and over 400 participants attended this year’s event at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem in April.
-         To cure autism; Osnat Zomer-Penn received the L’Oréal-UNESCO “Women in Science” prize for determining its genetic basis.
-         To treat osteo-arthritis; Moebius’s injectable solution was demonstrated at US road shows in February.

Finally, ALEH - Israel’s largest network of facilities for children with severe cognitive and physical disabilities - has pioneered a virtual reality (VR) facility to allow their residents to go on occasional field trips in simulated environments.  BDS-ers, however, live permanently in a Virtual world.  I advise them all to undergo cognative therapy until they can recognise the real world in which Israeli medical innovations are indispensable.

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

Good News is Infectious



I have now been compiling my weekly newsletter of positive news articles about Israel for over two-and-a half years.  When I started, I was often met with the comment “Is there any good news?”  These days, only Ha’aretz readers react that way.  In far more cases, people excitedly pass me their own sources of good news stories concerning the Jewish State.  This infectious state of affairs means that some weeks I have to omit stories because there is just too much good news for people to absorb.

I chose this week’s title because of four medical news items highlighting Israel’s work to eradicate the danger to life from bacterial and viral infections.  In the first, Israel marked International Week for Encouraging Vaccinations by announcing that the Prevnar vaccination program introduced in 2009 had reduced annual cases of pneumonia in Israel by 70%.  The rotavirus vaccine, added in 2010, has reduced gastrointestinal illness in children by 60%.  Meanwhile, a group of researchers from the Hadassah Medical Organization has located a gene that explains the reason for recurrent life threatening infections and bone marrow failure in children. 

In Tel Aviv, Reuth Medical Center announced that a six-month trial of Cupron’s anti-bacterial copper-embedded linens, resulted in a huge reduction in patient bacterial infections. Reuth will now be the world’s first hospital to fully deploy copper-embedded textiles in all its patient-related hospital textiles. And to prevent the spread of the super-bug MRSA, Israeli hospitals have imposed a strict set of procedures including isolation wards, dedicated staff, mandatory hand-washing and daily reports, which have cut the incidence of the deadly antibiotic resistant bacteria by over 70 per cent.


Diagnosing infectious diseases and any other ailments will become easier at Tel Hashomer’s Sheba Medical Center now that doctors are using the new smart-phone app from Israel’s Elad Systems.  They can retrieve the medical files of patients in real time to view medical tests, prescriptions and sensitivities as well as data on hospitalization, operations and clinic visits.  Israeli medical innovations such as these are responsible for reducing mortality rates and extending life expectancy both in the Jewish State and in the rest of the world.  So it is appropriate that Ben-Gurion University of the Negev recently hosted the eighth European Congress of Biogerontology - the study of longevity and the aging process - a relatively new science, invented by three Israelis some 40 years ago.

A positive attitude can also be infectious, as highlighted by Bedouin IDF officer Lieutenant colonel Magdi Mazarib, the highest ranked member of the elite Bedouin trackers who help protect the borders of the Jewish State.  Comparing life in the Jewish State to every other state in the Middle East, he stated proudly in Al Arabiya, “The state of Bedouin in Israel is better, as far as the respect we get, our progress, education. It’s a different league.”  Perhaps Qatar’s Prince Khalifa Al-Thani has caught his enthusiasm.  He announced his intention this November to make the first official visit to Israel of a member of the Qatari royal family in order to promote high-tech cooperation between Qatar and Israel.  Finally, with this item featuring Turkish TV commentator Ceylan Ozbudak and Muslim scholar Adnan Oktar, there’s almost an “epidemic” of support for Israel.

Not only an infection can be caught.  The perpetrators of the Boston marathon bombings were apprehended thanks to Israeli technology.  BriefCam enabled investigators to summarize an hour of surveillance video footage into only one minute and also zoomed in on people and objects that moved during the filming. The system then tracked the suspects from the beginning of the video.


The interest generated by Israeli technology is truly infectious and the innovative companies themselves often receive industry awards for catching the attention and imagination of their peers.  Israeli “smart-water” network and software management firm Whitewater was named a 2013 Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer at a ceremony in New York.  Whitewater was described as one of the “game-changing companies in the field of clean energy technology and innovation.”  Israeli agro-tech Sol-Chip has just won the Technical Development Award in the 2013 IDTechEx Energy Harvesting & Storage Europe Conference in Berlin.  Sol-Chip’s solar-powered sensors monitor the quality of the soil, irrigate automatically and even keep track of grazing cattle. 


I’ll finish by transmitting two further examples of infectious enthusiasm.  It was certainly heartwarming to hear the many positive reasons for making Aliya from dozens of Americans immigrating to Israel with Nefesh b’Nefesh.  But I only hope that Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul-General in New York, can spread his message and make it go viral.  “A nation is not defined by its problems. We need to begin a conversation about what we bring to the table as a country.” He continued, “In today’s tech environment it is not about winning debates, but building relationships with people with influence and relevance, people who matter.”

So there you have it.  I hope you’ve now caught the bug!

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

Journey to the Center of the Earth



Some of the earliest maps of the world placed Jerusalem right at its center.  Today, the world maintains a central media spotlight on tiny Israel.  So following the annual commemoration of Earth Day, which promotes global sustainability, I thought that I’d take you on a virtual tour, focusing on the Jewish State’s central position and how it works to sustain the planet and its inhabitants.

Israel itself commemorated Earth Day in Jerusalem with the opening of the Cool Globes exhibition, which consisted of 18 one-ton models of the Earth each highlighting a solution to environmental problems. This was followed by the world’s first full-length movie screening, powered by solar energy.  Then after the sun had set, the lights were turned off, to highlight the need to save energy.  Even the Israel Defense Force published an Earth Day summary of how it protects not just the people of Israel, but its environment too. This includes wastewater recycling, solar power, re-using water from air-condition units, filtering bacteria from ship water, recycling engine oil and switching to natural gas. 

Israel’s Weizmann Institute has developed some literally “groundbreaking” technology to repair the earth that grows our food.  Eco-friendly catalysts are introduced into the soil to break down the dangerous chemicals in pesticides into inert compounds.  Israeli start-up Catalyst Ag Tech is now commercializing the system.  Meanwhile, 24 Israeli companies including Mekorot, Amiad and Blue I promoted Israel’s technologies to prevent polluting the earth.  They flew to the Wasser Berlin trade fair to market their water and wastewater and management solutions.


Israelis are frequently at the center of environmental projects all over the Earth.  A delegation from Ben Gurion University’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research toured the Galapagos Islands and signed a cooperation agreement with the Directorate of the National Park to promote the conservation of the endangered biological diversity of the islands.  Closer to home, Israeli and Jordanian authorities worked together to save a rare Egyptian vulture. The bird was born in Israel but flew into power lines in the Jordan valley.  The Jordanians contacted Israeli nature organization SPNI, which obtained permission from both governments to collect the vulture.  The injured bird is now recovering at Ramat Gan Safari Hospital.

The needs of the Earth’s population occupy much of Israel’s time and resources.  Israeli biotech SciGen developed and manufactures the most effective Hepatitis B vaccine on Earth.  It is soon to be authorized for use in most countries where it should prevent many of the 1.2 million deaths from the virus each year.  Israel’s success in vaccine development has encouraged the US National Institutes of Health to fund a two-year study at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev into why the measles virus persists in its target cells and establishes chronic infection, long after resolution of its acute phase.  A recent measles epidemic in the UK city of Swansea highlights why this research is so important.

World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan praised Israel’s national health infrastructure on her first visit to Israel.  She said, “I’ve come here to learn from your excellent health system”.  She also visited Gaza children at Tel Aviv’s Dana-Dwek Children’s Hospital.  And the Israeli director of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Professor Kevin (Ilan) Tabb, found himself at the center of attention when his staff treated 24 victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, plus the surviving Chechen bomber.  Professor Tabb is also a board member of Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem.

Israeli universities are world-recognized centers of scientific excellence.  Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have just developed the first photonic topological insulators that prevent light from scattering irrespective of any defects in the materials that they flow through.  The transport of photons of light is central to today’s computing and electronic communications. Meanwhile, 40,000 students have signed up for the new 9-week on-line course “Synapses, Neurons and Brains” presented by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  In addition to the USA, Europe etc., its central fascination has attracted registrations from Lebanon, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Morocco and Algeria.


Finally, the adoption by the Israeli Government of Europe's “Open Skies” policy will bring even more tourists to the Jewish State than the current record numbers.  But Jorgen Nilsson kept much closer to the ground during his recent journey to the Center of the Earth.  Jorgen - a knight in the Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus - arrived at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem after a six-months, 4,500-kilometer (2,800-mile) pilgrimage from Sweden to Jerusalem.


Stay focused!

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

Israel is at the Cutting Edge


 
Over the 65 years that the modern State of Israel has been in existence, the sharp minds of its scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs have been responsible for developing thousands of cutting-edge innovations that are still making a huge impact on our lives.  They include the solar water heater, amniocentesis testing, drip irrigation, desalination, Intel computer chips, instant messaging, the flash memory drive and a whole lot more.  Latest news shows that this creativity continues.

The first three recent medical items are intended to reduce surgical cutting to a minimum.  The area of medicine known as cell therapy has already begun to regenerate organs and repair diseases without traditional surgical methods.  There are 18 Israeli companies developing or marketing cell-based treatment products - and they all attended this week’s Israstem Conference in Ramat Gan.  Next, Israeli start-up Lev-El Diagnostics has teamed up with Sheba Medical Center researchers to create a mathematical algorithm that could save lives.  Normally patients with heart disease have to wear heart monitors for 24 - 48 hours before the results can be analyzed. The algorithm can diagnose problems in just one hour.  Finally, Israeli start-up Oxitone has developed a blood-oxygen monitor that can be worn on the wrist by those “at risk” to warn of any sudden deterioration in their condition. 


When there is no option other than to perform major surgical operations, Israeli help is of course available.  Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital were extremely grateful to the Israelis that helped set-up their disaster team two years ago.  Following another terrorist incident, Asael Lubotzsky knew exactly what he was cut out to do. When he finally recovered from the horrendous injuries caused by a Hezbollah rocket attack in 2006, he became an Israeli doctor.


Most of the beneficial results of medical science come at the end of years of cutting-edge research and development. Israel’s BiolineRX announced positive results from the Phase IIa clinical trial of BL-7040, an oral treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease affect as many as 1.4 million individuals in the US alone.  Sometimes a sudden breakthrough occurs, as happened when researchers at Tel Aviv University gave high-frequency “bursts” of electrical stimulation to rats and produced the same destructive plaques as found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. 

The Israelis working at the cutting-edge of Israeli medical science are the product of the Jewish State’s top Universities and scientific institutions.  46 per cent of Israel’s population has a college degree - only Canada has more.  So it was gratifying to read a rare positive article in the New York Times about Israel’s Technion Institute.  It also featured one of the 20 percent of students at the Technion who represent Israel’s 20 percent Arab minority.  Students at nearby Haifa University are busy promoting the State.  A Muslim Bedouin girl, several Druze, a Pole and 26 Israeli Jews are training to represent Israel as unofficial ambassadors.  Muslim Ayat Rahal said, “I want to show a true picture of Israel. It’s not all protests.”  And dozens of Haifa’s 800 overseas students from 40 countries wanted to let the world know that they share the desires and ambitions of local Israelis.


Dozens of multinational companies have established cutting-edge research and development (R&D) centers here in the Jewish State.  Israel’s high-tech industry - in the form of the Israel Advanced Technologies Industry group brought together representatives of 17 R&D labs of multinational companies, including Intel, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, HP, Oracle, Philips and GE, who talked about the innovations and contributions they make to their parent companies.  And when Israel builds an industrial park you know it is going to be something special.  Such as the new industrial park in Nazareth, built to promote economic cooperation between the region’s diverse Jewish, Christian and Muslim citizens.  It is modeled on nearby Tefen Industrial Park, designed to bring together industrial, educational and cultural facilities all in one space to foster innovation, growth and peace.

Eight Israeli companies received the 2013 Red Herring's Top 100 Europe Award, given to Europe's leading private companies in recognition of their cutting-edge innovations and technologies.  Next year’s awards are likely to include the emergency response system from Israeli start-up NowForce, that cuts response times down to under 3 minutes at the fraction of the cost of traditional call center systems.  And the smartphone application Everything.me, which dynamically displays almost everything you may need at the push of a button.


Finally, thanks to all these innovations, Israel’s $91 billion annual exports make Israel the 38th largest exporter in the world, although it has only the 97th largest population in the world.  And these exports are likely to improve further following the new Free Trade Agreement between Israel and India. This will expand the market for Israel’s cutting-edge healthcare, agriculture, irrigation, renewable energy, aviation, IT and water management products.

Israel’s innovations continue to keep us at the edge of our seats.

Keep tuned for another slice of the action.

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