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

 

Israel Opens Doors

The modern Jewish state was established after the world closed its doors to European Jewry.  Today, Israeli innovations are opening doors to millions across the planet who had previously thought that their window of opportunity was firmly shut.

Many sufferers from strokes, dementia, fibromyalgia and burns could be released from their “locked-in” existence now that Israel’s Assaf Harofeh Medical Center has opened the world’s largest high-pressure oxygen chamber.  It has a capacity for 150 patients per day and can also treat victims of diving accidents, carbon monoxide poisoning, radiation damage and bone infections.  Meanwhile, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, scientists have discovered that the visual cortexes of the blind from birth are similar to those of the fully sighted.  It has provided an open opportunity for the blind to be trained to “see” sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J9AGklNDUc

Open-minded Israeli doctors have known for some time that there is a genetic link between over eighty autoimmune diseases.  This has opened a new line of research leading to the discovery by scientists at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem that the rheumatoid arthritis medication Baricitinib is effective in the treatment of Alopecia Areata, whose symptoms are hair loss.  And research by Hebrew University of Jerusalem psychologist Professor Ariel Knafo has shown that children who mimic each other’s body language for mere minutes each day are more likely to open-up to others and share feelings of similarity and closeness.  The findings could open the way to new therapies for developing positive social behaviors in disruptive children.

Israel is open to sharing the credit for discoveries that can benefit humanity.  This has led to many joint research agreements between Israeli and international scientists, including recently with the UK’s Royal Society and also with France’s Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission.  Israel has also opened its doors to Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of India’s Maharashtra state who wants to replicate Israel’s agriculture technology in one of the most populous areas in the world.

Recent news is full of multinational companies wanting to open research and development centers in Israel.  German energy giant RWE AG is opening an Israeli innovation center in order to develop technology for a smart grid metering system that will keep track of how consumers use electricity.  Canadian handset maker Blackberry finally opened up in Israel by buying Israeli device security company WatchDox, whose 100 employees will form the core of Blackberry’s new Israeli R&D team.  And US video production giant Avid Technology’s purchase of Israel’s Orad Hi-Tec and its slick graphic technologies will result in the opening of Avid’s new Israeli R&D facility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyJ4TFMYAN4

Now that Israel has signed Europe’s “Open Skies” agreement, it has opened up the country to the likes of Europe’s biggest airline Ryanair, which is eager to open up new routes between Tel Aviv and Europe.  The airways are also buzzing with the news that a consortium of top Israeli companies and universities is studying 3D printing technologies that could open up a radical new way of designing and manufacturing aircraft components.

Israel has some beautiful geographic features, including its award-winning beaches, which are now open right through until October.  However, I admit that I was openly surprised to read that the usually anti-Israel UNESCO recently added Israel’s open cave system at Beit Guvrin to its list of World Heritage sites.  Unfortunately, not all openings in the ground are positive, as the recent earthquake in Nepal has proved.  But it again has highlighted the openhearted nature of Israel in sending rescuers and humanitarian aid to save human lives wherever and whenever it can.

In Israel, the door of opportunity is open to anyone who has the desire to succeed.  One such example is Ilit Geller, the female CEO of Israel’s TradAir, who operates in the traditionally “man’s world” of Foreign Exchange trading.  And please watch this video of young Aaron Shapso – a Circassian (Sunni Muslim) from the village of Kafr Kama.  Aaron is the captain of the youth soccer team Maccabi Haifa Nahalal, which is open to children of all religions and ethnic groups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15BIKfcb1eo

Finally, Avraham Nagusie epitomizes Israel’s open-door policy. Nagusie was a shepherd in Ethiopia before immigrating to Israel in 1985. He then graduated with degrees in Social work and Law and a PhD in Education. Now at 57, he has opened the door to Israel's parliament by becoming a lawmaker in Israel’s 20th Knesset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fp6gaeUhE8 
  

Israel – it’s an open miracle. 

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 begins a New Year

The Jewish New Year is a time of exciting new beginnings, and there is no better place to observe them than in the Jewish State itself.

Israeli medical discoveries and advances are announced every week, but the impact of the most recent innovations is simply staggering.  Technion scientists are the first in the world to manufacture cancer-killing chemicals inside the tumor itself.  These directly target the tumor, fooling the cancer’s defense mechanisms and avoiding the usual harsh side effects of chemotherapy.  Over at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yotam Bar-On has developed new antibodies to attack the flu virus.  These antibodies disrupt virus’s ability to evade the immune system’s natural killer cells.

At Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, a cutting-edge brain catheterization procedure was broadcast live to thousands of doctors attending the world’s largest cardiovascular conference in Washington DC.  And at the same hospital, doctors have begun using a robot to unblock arteries remotely.  The robot is more accurate than human hands and avoids any radiation risk to surgeons.  The robot is manufactured by Corindus – founded by two Israeli scientists.

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

Further new Israeli treatments include the bladder cancer product BC-819, developed by Israel’s Biocancell Therapeutics, which has just completed a successful clinical trial.  Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, sufferers of severe Glaucoma will now be able to receive treatment using the innovative CO2 laser IOPtiMate manufactured by Israel’s XLVision Sciences.  Finally, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a new cocktail of genes that are extremely effective in turning adult cells back into stem cells. These stem cells, when transplanted, can renew previously damaged tissue or organs.

The New Year will see the culmination of hundreds of new Israeli technological ventures.  Israel will build its first bio-waste power plant at Neot Hovav in the Negev that will generate 5 megawatts of clean energy and process over one hundred thousand tons of organic waste per year.  A new National Photonics and Electro-Optics Research Center will allow professionals and students to delve into the exciting new science of light and optics. 

The Israeli government will establish a new hi-tech authority - the National Technical Innovation Authority - to enhance Israeli innovation and bolster economic growth. And Israel’s Algatechnologies is to build a new factory at Kibbutz Ketura that will grow new forms of beneficial micro-algae for use in foods, medicines and cosmetics. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcEjEztv11c

The New Year promises to enhance relationships between the Jewish State and other forward-thinking countries.  “The sky’s the limit” when it comes to new ties between Israel and India, as Israel’s Prime Minister stated at his meeting with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi in New York.  Israel’s Economic Office in Delhi has already been busy matchmaking Israeli and Indian companies.  Even a well-established relationship was strengthened when the US Senate unanimously adopted the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act that will lay the foundation for expanded US-Israel cooperation in defense, energy, agriculture, and other key sectors. 

We can only wish that future Israeli-Arab relations mirrored the words of exiled Syrian opposition leader Dr. Kamal Al-Labwani, who visited wounded Syrians being treated at Israel’s Ziv Hospital. "This moving humanitarian gesture is an opening for rapprochement between the two peoples and hope for peace on quieter days," he said.  And if other Arab leaders visited Israeli hospitals, such as Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, they would see young Israeli patients start the school year.  Jews, Moslems, Christians, Druze, plus Arabs from Gaza - all study together in their year groups.  And whilst we are dreaming of new beginnings, listen to the “Dream it. Do it” New Year message from the students of Israel’s Technion – in 14 languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2vBAPg0YJk

Finally, there is no better way to start a new year than by starting a new life.  24,800 new immigrants to Israel did precisely that in the last 12 months - a 28% increase on the previous year and the highest number in the past five years.  For the first time in history, more immigrants arrived from France (nearly 6,000) than from any other country, and many more are expected in 5775.  An even larger number of new arrivals had far less distance to travel. A record 176,230 Israeli babies were born in 5774 - the next generation of new beginnings.

Happy New Year.

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

Celebrate the Old and the New

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/celebrate-old-and-new

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4807

 

We will shortly bid farewell to the old Jewish Year 5773 and welcome in New Year 5774.  It is a good time to look both forwards and backwards at some of the latest innovations and discoveries that are making an historic impact on our lives.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was established many years ago, but its new BioDesign program is a revolutionary production line for medical innovation. Student teams take clinical problems from Israeli and American hospitals, evaluate the commercial potential and design a solution that can be marketed almost immediately.  In its first year, BioDesign has generated:

-         The GuideIN Tube robotic device to fix an air tube safely for enabling patients to breathe

-         The Sagiv device for inserting intravenous tubes into small veins

-         A tool to take measurements for dentures, replacing a 100-year-old long-winded method

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zeVMleN-3E&feature=youtu.be

In the “olden” days, torn knee ligaments and damaged cartilage were “end-of-story” events for sports men and women.  Now, following recent European approval and promising trials, two Israeli devices - Tavor’s Knee-T-Nol tendon implant and CartiHeal’s Agili-C regeneration implant – are literally rebuilding the lives of injured athletes. 

Israel’s Technion Institute is over 100 years old but its graduates are positively flowing with inventions.  One of the latest is the surgical glue Seal-V that will stop the unwanted flow of blood following operations.  Seal-V is fast bonding, safer than protein-based or synthetic-based alternatives and has just received the European CE mark of approval.  Technion students certainly got “stuck in” inventing a new way to perform the traditional Jewish New Year activity of dipping apple in honey.  Using an ancient weapon – a crossbow – suitably updated, they shot a piece of apple at a balloon filled with honey, high above Israel Technion’s campus.  Why?  To show that the Technion aims higher!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ym7Airptw4

Chess is another old traditional activity that Israelis have enhanced using modern technology. Deep Junior, a program written by Israelis Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky, and running on a Dual 12 core Intel Xenon I5 2.7 GHz computer, won the World Computer Chess Championship in Yokohama, Japan.  Junior has now won six of the last eleven tournaments.  The world’s ancient coral reefs are also benefiting from Israeli technology. The Technion’s Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) laboratory measures the ocean flow to analyze the health of the ecosystem that lives on these fragile colonies. And ancient man may have invented fire, but when the flames get out of control, Israeli technology is needed to put them out.  Following the Carmel forest fires last year, Israel’s Ministry of Public Security used theoretical models and live feeds to develop the Matash Fire Forecasting System - the first operational system of its kind in the world.  It has already helped to control and extinguish forest fires in Israel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuVxcupe2SQ

Man has been growing crops for many millennia, but only now have Israeli scientists discovered how to turn previously inedible plants into new food crops to feed an ever-hungry world.  And isn’t it amazing that almost every week Israel is discovering ancient resources of natural gas close to its coastline.  This energy supply has just begun to add significant new power to the Israel economy.

Simultaneously, as our peace negotiation “partners” deny any Jewish connection to our country, Israelis are digging up thousands of artifacts pertaining to ancient Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. At the City of David excavations in Jerusalem, archaeologists unearthed a 2700-year-old Hebrew inscription on a pottery fragment from the first Temple period. It contains a name that matches the Biblical figure Zechariah son of Benaiah.  Meanwhile, in Ashdod harbor, a wall from the same period of history has been excavated that was built during the time that the Assyrian king Sargon II was destroying the local Philistine army.  The prophet Isaiah (see chapter 20) warned Judah’s king Hezekiah to stay out of the fight – advice, which Hezekiah heeded.

The Arabs expelled the ancient Jewish communities of North Africa long ago, but those Jews that resettled in France are now immigrating to Israel in increasing numbers. A 10% increase in Aliya since the beginning of 2013 is expected to swell to 2500 new immigrants by the end of the year – almost double the rate for previous years.  And a total of 331 North Americans landed at Ben Gurion Airport on August 13, 2013 to start new lives in the Jewish State.  The flight marked the 50th Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight since the group began mass Aliya flights to Israel in August 2002.

Finally, Israelis are actually redefining the term “old”.  Whilst Israeli humanitarian organization such as Tevel b'Tzedek are extending life expectancy in countries such as Nepal, Israel itself has been recognized by Bloomberg as having one of the best healthcare services in the world.  The average life expectancy in the Jewish State is now 81 years.  So the final item should not really be a surprise. Yitzhak Pundak fought in Israel’s War of Independence. He then commanded the Nahal Brigade and the Armored Corps after the War. In 1971 Moshe Dayan appointed him Governor of Gaza, but his 1954 promise of promotion was not fulfilled.  Now at one hundred years of age, Yitzhak at last received the rank of Major General.

  

Israel - Where even the old are young.

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