Israel Can Prevent It

I usually publicize the positive achievements of the Jewish State. This week, however, I want to illustrate that much of Israel’s work also goes into counteracting the negative side of life in the modern world.

Disease prevention is a top priority of Israeli medical research.  Israel’s Avraham Pharmaceuticals has just announced successful interim results in a Phase 2b clinical trial of ladostigil, which prevents patients suffering mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from progressing to the more serious Alzheimer’s disease.  Meanwhile, New Jersey Department of Health has approved the OncoGxSelect diagnostic test for lung cancer developed by Israel’s Rosetta Genomics.  The test can help clinicians prevent the disease spreading by detecting genetic mutations responsible for the tumors.

The recent innovations of two Israeli companies will help prevent heart attacks.  First, Israel’s Eximo has developed a patented hybrid catheter, which is connected to a pulsed laser system, for the treatment of blocked arteries associated with Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD).  Then Israel’s DiACardio has just won the 2015 Shengjing Global Innovation Award in Beijing China, for its revolutionary software to decode echocardiograms. 

The mission of “Eye from Zion” is to prevent permanent blindness.  Volunteer doctors from the Israeli-Jewish organization performed cornea surgery, plastic surgery and removed tumors and cataracts to restore the eyesight of 90 adults and children in the Muslim country of Kyrgyzstan - many patients had been blind for years.  Next, a recent study by the Israeli Health Ministry as to why the incidence of HIV was six times less in Israeli men than those in Netherlands or France, revealed that circumcision prevented the disease from spreading in the heterosexual community.  And if you are concerned about preventing potential development problems in your baby, you may wish to join the on-line community launched by Israel Technion Professor Eli Ben-Sasson and his wife Ayelet. With their CROwd-based INteractive Clustering (CROINC) site, parents can check their child’s progress with other parents and compare against actual scientific and medical facts.

Israelis work globally on the ground, preventing drought, hunger and epidemics.  Israeli water technology is benefiting hundreds of millions in China, Latin America and Africa.  Israel’s TAHAL Group is to construct and operate a water supply system for 131 villages in the Indian state of Karnataka. Israeli experts are speaking at JNF water summits in 10 US cities.  The Philippines is to use Israeli greenhouse technology to increase food production.  And Israel’s Evogene is developing crops with microbial properties to prevent infestation from insects.  Meanwhile, Israel maybe unable currently to prevent natural disasters, but IDF humanitarian missions have prevented the subsequent loss of thousands of lives in Japan, Haiti, Nepal and the Philippines.

Above the ground, there has been phenomenal recent demand for the C-MUSIC system from Israel’s Elbit, as a countermeasure to prevent terrorist missile attacks launched at civilian and military aircraft.  And further up, in outer space, Israel and the US have signed the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) agreement to prevent satellites and other objects colliding in space and ensure safe spaceflight operations.

One disease that Israel cannot prevent is anti-Semitism, but it can prevent Diaspora Jews suffering its effects, by bringing them home to the Jewish State.  With help from our Christian friends, 108 Jews from war-torn Ukraine just arrived to a warm welcome at Ben-Gurion Airport, to make a new start in the land of their spiritual forefathers.  And children of the on-going massive wave of French immigration were treated to free summer camps in order to prevent problems with childcare during the school holidays.

Finally, Israeli lifeguards, naval police and the Shavei Zion diving club all worked together to prevent a tragedy for a dolphin that had stranded itself on the rocks at Acre (Akko) beach.  Swimmers watched in amazement as the exhausted animal was rescued and then taken for medical treatment by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

Israel – where prevention is as good as a cure.

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 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

Going the Extra Mile

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/going-extra-mile

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4787

So many Israeli innovations and activities are outstanding - not because they are created out of thin air, but because they take an existing concept to a whole new practical level.

Here are some medical examples.  Artificial skin has already been invented.  Some types, known as electronic skin (e-skins), are even sensitive to pressure (i.e. touch). But only scientists at Israel’s Technion have fused resin and gold particles to make a sensor that can detect pressure, temperature and humidity.  Integrated with the current e-skins it can be applied to a prosthetic limb to give the wearer more life-like sensations.  In the same vein, Israelis may not have invented the heart stent, but Israeli biotechs have completely redesigned the original crude devices and extended them for brain and other blockages. Israel’s Allium Medical recently announced that its urinary tract stents are to be distributed in Brazil and now China.

Israeli scientists’ extensive exploration of the body’s immune system has certainly paid off. The healthcare giant Bayer is funding Israeli biotech Compugen’s development of antibody-based therapeutics for cancer immuno-therapy.  And immunology skills helped surgeons at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center to conduct the world’s first ever transplant between two living HIV carriers.  They prevented the rejection of a wife’s (donor) kidney by the husband’s (recipient) compromised immune system.  Then, when Israelis do produce a unique innovation, they continue to work to improve it.  The latest version of Given Imaging’s internal intestine camera, Pillcam SB 3, has so much better resolution, efficiency and coverage, that 62 percent of the Crohn’s patients using it have had their treatment changed as a direct result. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWHGj21VGmk

Israel’s Save A Child’s Heart charity is definitely unique and has been going the extra mile for many years.  Surgeons at SACH are currently repairing the hearts of 22 international children, including three Iraqis and seven from the Palestinian Authority.  Israel also goes miles out of its way to deliver goods to Gaza.  In July, 6,639 trucks laden with over 150,000 tons of food, humanitarian products, electrical goods, construction materials etc. entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.  In return, Gaza terrorists fired six rockets into Israel.  Meanwhile, approximately one million Palestinian Arabs received permits to enter Israel as tourists during Ramadan and its concluding holiday Eid al-Fitr – 200,000 more than last year.

Israel is making great strides in creating new possibilities for people with disabilities. In September, Israel is hosting the International Symposium on Quality of Life and Well-being of People with Disabilities. And the Reut Institute has opened up a whole new dimension by launching a project / competition in which students use three-dimensional printers to manufacture inexpensive helpful devices for people with special needs.

Weizmann Institute scientists are extending the boundaries in another dimension.  They have managed to control the production of microscopic nano-wires. Using gallium nitride (GaN) Professor Ernesto Joselevich and his team have built a tiny microprocessor component, which makes possible a whole new world of powerful microchips.  And we should be very quiet when talk about the special product manufactured by Huliot of Kibbutz Sde Nehemia.  Acoustic insulated pipes shield apartment residents from the somewhat embarrassing sound of flowing sewage. The unique plastic compound is environmentally friendly and Huliot has received orders from six European countries.

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

I was totally blown away by two news stories last week.  Israeli outdoor events planner Ilan Elmaliach went the extra mile when his colleagues failed in their attempts to erect a tent in a strong wind. His experience as a skydiver inspired him to design a portable aerodynamic sunshade that flows with the wind rather than fights against it.  Then the Indo Asian News Service gave Israel’s Technion full-blown credit for “solving the world food crisis”.  Israeli scientists have modified a longevity hormone in the genes known as zytokinin to produce “super plants” that grow more crops on less water. The fruit and vegetables produced also have a much longer shelf life.

There are two extra-special stories to conclude this week’s blog. Firstly, in 2011 six children from one Yemenite Jewish family and four from a second family were spirited out of Yemen and flown to Argentina.  Last week the ten children were flown to Israel, to be reunited with their parents who were simultaneously brought to Israel from Yemen in a secret operation.

Finally, thirty Israeli children suffering with cancer were about to depart Ben Gurion airport for a fun holiday at Camp Simcha in the USA. But 11-year-old Imbar had to disembark in tears as she had lost her passport.  Just as the jet taxied along the runway, someone on board found Imbar’s passport. El Al’s management made an unprecedented decision and authorized the plane to return to pick her up.

Israel – where “ordinary” just isn’t enough.

 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

Happy birthday Israel - Presents for all

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/happy-birthday-israel-presents-all

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4442

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.co.il/2013/04/happy-birthday-israel-presents-for-all.html

On Tuesday Israelis will be celebrating the 65th anniversary of Israel’s independence.  It is usual for people to be honored with presents on their birthday, but the Jewish philosophy is that it is better to give than to receive.  Here, therefore, are some of the Jewish State’s most recent contributions to the world.

Israel constantly bestows gifts to medical science. Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have just discovered the mechanisms that the body uses to shut down the immune system.  This knowledge may soon help patients with cancer and HIV.  Nearby, at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, scientists have found the genetic cause of PCD (primary ciliary dyskinesia), responsible for lung infections, sinusitis, frequent ear infections and fertility problems. In half of these cases, the heart, liver, stomach and spleen grow on the wrong side of the body.  Early diagnosis can reduce risks of subsequent damage.  Hadassah is also helping establish a new medical center in Varna, Bulgaria for bone marrow transplantation.

Israeli renewable energy technology could soon be used to fuel celebrations everywhere.  Ben Gurion University and the University of Michigan have just announced that they are to forge a research partnership on developing renewable technologies.  The program will research advanced vehicle fuels, solar energy and thermoelectric materials, which convert heat to electricity.  And a simple innovation by Sergey Biryukov at Ben Gurion University’s National Solar Energy Center could generate even more power from solar panels.  To remove dust from frequent storms Sergey came up with the idea of using an electrical field to “charge” the dust particles and repel them from the panels.  It looks just like someone blowing out birthday candles!

Many countries are already receiving benefit from Israeli clean technology.  One example is Israel’s Ormat Industries, which transforms energy from underground heat sources into electrical power.  Ormat has designed a 330-megawatt geothermal power plant in Northern Sumatra and will supply it with two geothermal energy converters.  About 2000 miles to the North East, China’s Guangdong Province Water Company is currently installing 75 water analyzing and control units supplied by Israel’s Blue I Water Technologies.

Two companies with close ties to Israel have also been celebrating recently.  Computer giant IBM Israel has enjoyed 40 years at its Haifa center where it developed the RS/6000 computer, ultrasound equipment and a HIV database.  Meanwhile, can you imagine how many “happy birthday” greetings have been sent via mobile phones in the 40 years since Martin Cooper of Motorola made the very first cell phone call in 1973?  Much of that technology was developed at Motorola’s development center in Haifa.

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

If you enjoy live rock music, then the Rock Independence Party on April 15 will be right up your street. The Rishon LeZion Park Amphitheater will be the venue to some of Israel’s biggest names in rock including Aviv Geffen, Barry Sacharov, Balkan Beat Box, Hadag Nahash, Mashina and Elisha Banai.  Alternatively you could simply relax on Tuesday with a bottle one of Israel’s award-winning wines.  I imagine that their taste is far superior to those that were produced in the 1500-year-old wine press discovered during the construction of a wedding hall near Hamei Yoav, east of Ashkelon in southern Israel.

If you live overseas, why not make a plan to visit Israel during its 66th year?  Don’t make excuses. Follow the example of 104-year-old Eleanor Hall from Richboro, Pennsylvania who is making her first pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  We can even provide luxury accommodation for your dog.  KelevLand will pamper your pooch with the best possible treatment – from mineral water on tap, to tummy rubs and acupuncture.  It also includes Israel’s DogTV television channel of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k6Q8orj92iM

Finally, anyone suggesting that Israel doesn’t have sufficient international friends to celebrate its birthday with should read the new extensive report by Bar-Ilan Professor Efraim Inbar. It states that Israel’s international status has improved thanks to its social, economic, technological, financial, and diplomatic achievements. With its new energy reserves, water and agricultural technologies, things can only get better.

So let me wish everyone - Many happy returns to Israel.

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