Three weeks? Yes just Three weeks

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/three-weeks-yes-just-three-weeks

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4598

During the last three weeks, I published three blogs (here, here and here) that rubbished the Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) idiots who insist on shooting themselves in the foot by refusing any of Israel’s medical innovations.  I have just looked back at what Israelis have been working on in all areas over the last three weeks and I can hardly believe that so much has been achieved.  So let me bring you up to date on just the medical and clean technology advances.

In medical news, we heard that the technique treating cancer conceived 30 years ago by Weizmann’s Zelig Eshhar is now curing patients across the USA.  Other related Israeli innovations include:

-         A medication to prevent women’s ovaries being damaged during chemotherapy.

-         A new probe with two cameras that can detect cancerous polyps in the colon.

-         A derivative of an Israeli mushroom that appears to be effective against pancreatic cancer.

Concerning the brain:

-         Tel Aviv University researchers have invented a gel and implant to repair damaged nerves

-         Ben Gurion University’s future CARES center will boost its top research into stress-related illness.

-         Israel’s Reuth Center is using a computerized shoe to teach people with brain damage how to walk again. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OUmgViA2D0Y

Heart-warming news includes:

-         Discovery at Hadassah Medical Center of an area of the body that can grow new heart muscle tissue. 

-         An implant under development at Israel’s MitrAssist that will fix a leaky heart mitral valve.

Recent successful heart operations include:

-         Rebuilding the chest to protect the exposed heart of a baby born without a breastbone.

-         Performing a heart transplant on a 28-year-old Israeli-Arab – the oldest patient at a children’s hospital.

-         Save A Child’s Heart doctors saved the life of a 4-year-old Syrian girl born with only one ventricle.

In medical research:

-         Israeli biotech Cell Cure received a government grant to help develop its macular degeneration treatment.

-         Scientists at the Israel’s Technion have constructed an advanced biological computer.

-         Life Science guru Dr Ido Bachelet demonstrated what Israel’s microscopic robots can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-5KLTonB3Pg

In Agro-technology, Israel has been innovating in order to benefit the world

-         Israel’s Volcani Center has developed processes to keep fruit and vegetables fresh for months.

-         Israeli firm Indolive is helping farmers to grow olives in the deserts of western India.

-         Israeli start-up TIPA are expanding production of their environmentally-friendly food packaging.

-         And the Hebrew University’s ran an International Symposium on balancing technical progress with health.

In Water technology:

-         Israel’s Netafim, the pioneer of drip irrigation, won the 2013 Stockholm Industry Water Award.

-         UK’s Anglia Water has bought an advanced sewage treatment system from Israel’s Mapal

-         23 Israeli companies presented their innovative water products at “Wasser Berlin”

-         IBM Israel announced new software to interpret utility meter readings and sensors and detect water leaks.

-         And the Israeli water authority has opened the Degania Dam to replenish the flow of the Jordan River.

On the energy front:

-         The Israeli government is subsidizing the replacement of electric water heaters to solar powered systems.

-         1.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas has been discovered at the Karish prospect in Israeli territorial waters.

In approximately three weeks time, we will enter a sad period of the Jewish calendar known as “the three weeks”. Jewish tradition says that the last day of the three weeks will one day turn into a festival of celebration and usher in a new age of prosperity and peace.

I can’t wait.

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

Israel Boycotters are in a World of their Own

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/israel-boycotters-are-world-their-own

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4573

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.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

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

An Outstretched Arm

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/outstretched-arm

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4391

One of the items that we put on the Passover plate is a shank bone, to remind us of the (metaphorical) outstretched arm that the Eternal used to deliver the Children of Israel from Egypt, over 3000 years ago.  Today, the Jewish State emulates that symbol by the far-reaching impact of its scientific and humanitarian work.

The effects of Israel’s medical research and innovations reach across the globe.  They include two major recent successes in cancer treatment.  Firstly, early trials of NiCord stem cells from Israel’s Gamida Cell have proved successful in maintaining the health of blood cancer patients.  Then researchers at Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Center have used cancer cells to fight cancer.  They stimulated T-cells in the immune system using proteins from melanoma (a severe form of skin cancer) to produce cytokines, which can fight other cancers in the body.  Israel has also shown the world that rates of cancer can be reduced by early diagnosis and treatment.

In other medical news, Israel’s Enopace Biomedical has developed a device that provides an alternative to heart transplants.  Its innovative pacemaker for the arteries is implanted in a 30-minute procedure while the patient is awake.  Another medical breakthrough was achieved by Tel Aviv University Professor Karen Avraham who has discovered the reason for genetic deafness – the cause of 50% of hearing losses.  The result brings new treatments for hearing disorders within reach.

Israel also reaches out to “the other”.  The Keren Shalom crossing reopened after Hamas closed it last week and 1,118 trucks delivered 31,338 tons of goods to Gaza. They included three trucks from Turkey – the first since the Mavi Marmara incident.  Read also how Orit saved the lives of Palestinian Arabs when she served as a medic in the Israeli army.  Meanwhile, Israel has begun a six-year project to improve the job prospects of its Arab community.  And the Israeli organizers of the Jezreel Valley Hot Air Balloon Festival successfully reached for the sky to attract Jordanian and Palestinian Arab entries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ld8zHfK2cp4 

In the Jewish State, religious freedom is so important that sometimes it has an even wider reach.  Take for example, the first “International Jerusalem Symposium on Green and Accessible Pilgrimage” which commences in April.  It combines interfaith dialogue with urban sustainability.  And Yoni and Shoshana Rappaport are using their hands and arms to turn the desert green by planting many thousands of the amazing Argan tree in Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev.  The Argan tree can survive on minimal rainfall yet produces a healthy oil from its fruit.  Please support their work.

Israeli President Shimon Peres stretched out his arm to greet five new ambassadors – from Chile, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zambia. They presented their credentials and then expressed their hope to develop technological and strategic connections with the Jewish State.  As I write, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be reaching out for US President Barack Obama’s hand. After which, he will show him a series of technological products by Israel’s high-tech industries in a special exhibit set up in the President’s honor.  The products are in the fields of renewable energy, accident prevention, medicine, search and rescue, and robotics.  The PM will also hand the US President a microchip containing 200-micron size copies of both the American and Israeli Declarations of Independence, attached to a Jerusalem stone seal that stretches back 2000 years to the Second Jewish Temple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVnI9-8N3yw&feature=youtu.be

The technological age of the Internet has reached almost all of us – certainly those reading this blog.  So it was especially satisfying to read Professor Shafi Goldwasser of Israel’s Weizmann Institute was joint winner of the 2013 Turing Prize for her pioneering work that brought about computer cryptography – securing transactions on the Internet.  The Turing Prize is considered to be the “Nobel Prize” of computing.  But wait – some examples of Israeli technology mean that you soon won’t need to use your arms at all.  The voice recognition system from Israeli startup VocalZoom includes an optical microphone that “reads your lips” by sensing vibrations on your face. And with the eye-tracking software from Israel’s Umoove, you can scroll through text on your smartphone’s screen simply by gazing down. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_396149&feature=iv&src_vid=P5hkdu3xnzg&v=imeXVbPWn8E

For the third consecutive time, and the fourth in her life, Israeli windsurfer Lee Korzits reached out and took first place at the RS-X Windsurfing World Championships.  With fellow Israeli Maayan Davidovich taking the bronze, it was the first time that two Israelis have shaken hands on the winners’ podium.  And permit me to stretch the metaphor of ocean waves to sound waves in order to link to Barbra Streisand’s first ever concert in Israel this June.  Maybe she will perform her hit “My honey’s loving arms”, but I’ll settle for a repeat of her 1978 rendition of “Hatikvah”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8uPHaioopKM

Finally, when the long arms of Israel reached out and brought Yityish Aynaw from Ethiopia to the Jewish State, she had no idea of her destiny.  On becoming the new Miss Israel she said, "Ten years ago I was walking around barefoot in Ethiopia and I never imagined that one day I would be in the Land of Israel, meeting the Israeli President and the President of the United States.”

With Israel, freedom is within everyone’s reach.

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

Israel Sets the Pulses Racing

Israel Sets the Pulses Racing

27/2/13

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/israel-sets-pulses-racing

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/4323

Life in the Jewish State is never boring, and the activities of Israeli politicians can sometimes raise stress levels significantly. But if you look beyond an all too frequent selection of sensationalist negative news reports, an exciting and pulsating picture of Israel’s achievements is revealed.

Israel’s goal as far as cancer is concerned is to discover treatments that can maintain the pulse of the sufferer indefinitely.  A team of 11 scientists from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot has found a combination of two antibodies to attack aggressive breast cancer tumors, causing them to collapse and die.  Another group of Weizmann Institute scientists has developed a microscopic device that is injected into your body to search for genetic malfunctions in your cells.  If it finds any, it emits a pulse of green light to highlight the diagnosis. The scientists are now working on upgrading it to destroy the cancerous cells.

As blood pulses around the body, it carries many vital biological organisms.  Weizmann Institute graduate Prof Jonathan Kipnis has discovered that the immune system’s T-cells not only fight infections but they also govern intelligence.  And another group of Weizmann scientists has discovered a pseudo-education system in the colon.  Newly arrived monocytes are taught how to maintain a healthy balance in the gut by resident immune cells. But if you get an infection or eat the wrong food, the new pupils run wild!  Finally, your pulse may have started racing when you first met your life partner, but Bar-Ilan University’s Psychology Professor Ruth Feldman found that the blood hormone oxytocin is a major factor in keeping couples together.

The PA propaganda machine never fails to rush to accuse Israel of all sorts of false crimes.  But the reality is that IDF medics race to save the lives of Arabs wherever called upon.  As in the case of the Palestinian Arab motorcyclist who suffered severe abdominal bleeding in a crash with a mini-bus near Shechem / Nablus.  Or the seven Syrians wounded in battles between Syrian army forces and rebels near the border with Israel.  Even a terrorist with the blood of 21 Israelis on his hands.  And the hope for the future is with Palestinian Arabs such as those working for SodaStream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl85AL1l0H0

Israel’s clean technology is racing ahead of the competition.  Israel’s Atlantium is using pulses of ultra-violet light to purify water. It renders germs harmless without damaging equipment or generating high levels of ozone.  Meanwhile South America and India are going Blue thanks to Israel’s Blue I Technologies’ advanced water controllers and analyzers. Israel is able to turn the arid wastes of the Negev desert into fertile soil for agriculture.  Or as Israeli President Shimon Peres said in the latest KKL-JNF video “Israel is contrary to nature”. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK0nEV5dWBA&list=SPE2E17062DDBAC026

We return to fizzing SodaStream, which was voted Israel’s most innovative company just before Samsung announced that its Four Door Refrigerator would incorporate a built-in SodaStream carbonated water dispenser.  Users will be able to select up to three levels of carbonation for their sparkling water. To quote a Samsung VP, “it brings a new experience to the kitchen”.  For those who like a stronger beverage, however, Gush Etzion residents from Scotland and the United States have teamed up to create Lone Tree Brewery, which works to make “the best beer possible.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HA_d8TZOIZE

Positive messages about Israel were racing across the Internet following the visit to the Jewish State by six Serbian bloggers.  “If we could, we would stay in Tel Aviv forever”, they posted.  “The people are wonderful, the food is outstanding, the views are splendid, the soldiers walk around with big guns and huge smiles and they are much nicer than our civil servants."  Everyone can get a buzz by supporting Israel during Buy Israel Week.

Finally, immense feelings of elation accompanied a recent edition of the BBC’s longest-running radio show “Desert Island Discs”. Non-Jewish Zionist writer Julie Burchill was invited to play the eight records she would most like to listen to on a desert island.  She chose “Hebrew Man” by Israel’s Ehud Banai and the theme song from the movie “Exodus”.  But I gave her a standing ovation when her top choice of the Israeli National Anthem “Hatikvah” radiated over the airways.

Come back next week, to keep your finger on the pulse.

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