When I return to Israel from overseas trips
I always marvel how fresh and exciting the discoveries and innovations that I
collect from the Israeli news are. But last week, even I couldn’t anticipate
the vast number of astonishing stories recently reported in the Jewish State.
In the operating theatre at Petah Tikva's
Beilinson Hospital, Israeli doctors performed two groundbreaking
procedures. Firstly, they surgically
removed a 15cm
long tumor from a woman's womb midway through her pregnancy without
harming either her or the fetus. Then in
a first of its kind event, Beilinson doctors used innovative technology to remove
a massive blood clot from the lungs of a 43-year-old woman who was
declared clinically dead after suffering an amniotic embolism during a C-section. Both the mother and her new baby daughter are
now doing well.
Would it surprise you to learn that Israeli
hospitals are uniting Israelis and Arabs? A study conducted at Schneider Children's
Medical Center found that parents from the Arab sector, whose children have
been treated in Israeli hospitals, feel a stronger sense of solidarity with the
State of Israel.
It really would be unexpected if
Hamas senior member Nayef Rajoub’s recent
spine surgery at Israel’s Assuta hospital changed his negative
attitude towards the Jewish State. That
was indeed the case with Mohammed Dajani, who heads Israel’s tiny Wasatia political party. He was educated to hate Israelis, but
completely changed when his father had his cancer treated in an Israeli
hospital.
Israel’s major research breakthroughs often
come out of the blue. Israeli bio-tech MeMed has developed a
simple blood test to reduce the overprescribing of antibiotics that is
the chief cause of resistant bacteria.
MeMed has discovered a
protein in blood called TRAIL that dramatically increases in patients
infected with viruses but decreases in bacterial infections. Another Israeli bio-tech, NRGene, together
with Tel Aviv University scientists took just
3 months to map out the genome for wild Emmer wheat – a task that had
eluded dozens of scientists from 55 countries.
It will now be easier to develop varieties of wheat that will thrive in
drier, hotter climates and help
relieve world hunger.
Recent unexpected international events
include that of Hebrew University Professor Renata Reisfeld accepting an
invitation to join the editorial board of the Tehran-based
International Journal of Environment, Energy and Waste. And international plane spotters were
amazed to watch the mid-air refueling by an Israeli tanker plane of a
flight of Jordanian F-16 Vipers, which were flying together with Israeli Air
Force planes on route to exercises in the US.
But hats off to Master’s graduate Haisam Hassanein, an exchange student
from Egypt, who defied
expectations in becoming the valedictorian of Tel Aviv University. He delivered
a remarkable speech, emphasizing that Arabs must question their assumptions
about the Jewish State.
Here now are three relatively new Israeli-developed
apps that could help you out of an unexpected situation. Tens of thousands of Israelis have used the
app Polly to
find a car parking space in Tel Aviv’s congested streets. Polly uses GPS, crowdsourcing, municipal
information and its own algorithm to guide drivers to streets where spaces are
more likely to be available. Polly is
now being expanded to Jerusalem. Next,
why should children expect to play on
their computer rather than take regular exercise? Israeli Eylon Porat hooked up his daughter’s
computer to an exercise bike that she has to pedal in order to unlock games on
the computer for a certain time period. And
if you suddenly get an
unexpected problem, Angels Nearby will connect you to somebody who wishes
to help. Angels Nearby uses a search
engine to connect people based on the type of help needed, “trust level”
(everyone, Facebook friends only, friends of friends), and location.
To conclude, Felix and Feige Bandos
certainly didn’t
expect to make Aliya at their time of life. But at ages 94 and 90 respectively the two
Holocaust survivors arrived in Israel to a warm welcome from their family. "I'm glad I'm here," Felix said
upon arrival. "This is the right place to be.”
Finally, I certainly didn’t expect Israel
to host a
global UN event next week, but 200 scientists from 40 countries will be
in Tel Aviv to attend the Animals Committee of the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). It coincides with a related unexpected event
- Rotem, a rare
Israeli sand cat, has just surprised staff at Ramat Gan Safari by
giving birth to a
litter of three kittens.
Israel - surpassing expectations.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing positive news stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
