Many readers say that they are amused by
some of the articles in my positive weekly Israel newsletter featuring
Israeli innovations, discoveries and humanitarian activities. Here are a few recent examples.
Israel’s Amit Goffer invented the ReWalk
exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to walk upright. Unfortunately, Amit is a quadriplegic.
After explaining repeatedly that ReWalk
couldn't help him, he went on to invent UPnRide which allows him (and
other quadriplegics) to move around vertically.
Students in International Space University’s Space Studies Program at Israel’s Technion Institute had a group selfie photo taken. Nothing strange there, I hear you say, but they arranged for the photo to be taken from a height of 520 kilometers by the EROS-B satellite, built by Israel Aerospace Industries and operated by Israel’s ImageSat International.
Many people cannot bear to be without Wi-Fi
for a moment – even whilst on holiday.
So Hornblower Niagara Cruises (the official Canadian Tour Boat operator in Niagara Falls)
has deployed the FiberinMotion® mobility solution from Israel’s RADWIN to
provide high-speed
wireless connectivity onboard its boats. So now you can “surf” (the Internet) from the
edge of the most powerful waterfall in North America.
Israel’s Skitza Print has produced a
concrete bench from a paper mold. Skitza used their Israeli Highcon Euclid
digital cutting machine to produce a 4000-layer mold from recycled paper, making
a spectacular two-meter bench (entitled Morpheus) using Israeli Eco-concrete. The bench was exhibited in Taipei until
mid-August.
Of course there are many bitter-sweet
examples of Israeli humanitarian activities. These include treating wounded Syrians (often
by female
Israeli medics) and repairing the hearts
of children from
Arab countries, Gaza
and the Palestinian
Authority. But the real chutzpa
is when relatives
of Hamas
terrorist
leaders and PA
“No co-operation with the Occupation” officials
choose to have medical
treatment in Israeli hospitals.
It gets little publicity, but contrary to
the Arab boycott, Israel performs a vital function to Arab states in facilitating
the importing of goods from Europe. Israel
has just built a railway
line from Haifa to the Jordanian border to handle this trade - the
previous route through Syria is no longer available for obvious reasons. Trade between Israel and Jordan has increased
by 65% since 2010. Some say that even migratory birds may have
changed their route to go via Israel after Saddam Hussain’s army set fire to
the Kuwaiti oil wells and caused the
largest oil spill in history!
On that subject, Israel's Wildlife Hospital
has opened the first blood bank
in the world for birds that arrive injured to the country during migration. Hospital veterinarians realized that they
could better treat the birds if they had a blood bank for them because, much
like humans, birds have different blood types.
The international media enjoys attacking the
Jewish State for not accepting more African Muslim migrants. Yet hundreds of Eritrean asylum-seekers marched
in Tel Aviv in support of a UN probe into the Eritrean regime,
considered one of the world's most repressive.
One typical demonstrator said, "for a march like this one we would
already be dead in Eritrea."
Whilst South Africa officially gives Israel
the “cold shoulder”, in reality it has been enlisting Israel’s help with building
four power
plants, combating drought,
purifying polluted
water, detecting viruses in blood
tests, saving trapped
miners, installing Wi-Fi
on buses, training farmers
and medical
teams and broadcasting the Africa
Cup of Nations. Imagine the amount
of trade when they stop their “boycott”!
Some countries in the European Union have also not been overly friendly to Israel on the political front recently. So it was a nice to hear that the Belgium city of Antwerp greeted Israeli President Reuven Rivlin with the Israeli national anthem “Hatikvah” (The Hope) played on the bells of the city cathedral.
Please take a look at the peppers sold in
Europe’s supermarkets during January and February. If they are marked “Dutch Peppers”, don’t
believe the labels. They will have actually
been grown in greenhouses in the Arava
desert beside the Dead Sea and then exported to Holland. European
peppers cannot be propagated commercially in the middle of the Northern
Hemisphere’s winter due to the lack of sunshine. Ironically, Yasser Arafat was offered part of
the Arava desert in a land swap peace deal in 2000 but rejected it, saying that
the land was unusable!
Finally, one particular amusing story is
about Israel's Mapal Green
that purifies the wastewater of nearly 50% of all the households in
England. It is even now used by Thames
Water Authority, which once boycotted Israel products because it had "many
and valued Arab clients". So I tell
all BDS supporters living in or visiting the UK that they must NEVER flush
their toilet in case they inadvertently promote Israeli technology. My wife wrote a letter
about this in the Jerusalem Post.
The Letters' Editor decided to give it the title "Go with the
flow"!
Keep smiling – Israel is making the
world a happier place.
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
