We are Modern Orthodox and are a constituent member of the United Synagogue

Service Times

Israel Update 17.4.19

Chag Pesach Sameach to my readers. HRG

BERESHEET MISSION

It was a bittersweet end for SpaceIL’s Beresheet probe, the first privately funded lunar lander sent to the moon. During the landing attempt the main engine cut out and communication was lost, ultimately resulting in Beresheet crashing into the moon’s surface. But before its untimely demise, Beresheet was able to turn its camera toward the lunar surface one final time to snap a stunning last image of the moon’s surface.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheetlander, we congratulate SpaceIL,the Israel Aerospace Industries and the State of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit….I look forward to celebrating their future achievements.”

On Sunday, SpaceIL chairman Morris Kahn announced he was launching project Beresheet 2 immediately, adding: “We started something and we need to finish it…” Opher Doron, general manager of the Israel Aerospace Industries’ space division, said engineers believe there had been a failure with one of the telemetry (altitude) measurement units, which caused a chain of events that ended up cutting the main engine about 10 km. (6 miles) above the moon’s surface. Without the main engine, the spacecraft could not properly brake in time to make a gentle landing.

The fact that a craft built at a cost of $100 million met most challenges of the journey and manoeuvres along the way is extraordinary. Making it through liftoff, the extreme conditions of space, manoeuvres to leave earth’s orbit, the longest route a manmade object has ever taken to the moon and the complex “trapping” of the moon’s orbit, SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries showed that it is possible to (almost) reach the moon at one-tenth of the cost of previous journeys

ETHIOPIA

Israel has sent firefighters to help extinguish the large fires raging in Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains,

CO-EXISTENCE

Ital Levy, an Afula resident with 12 years of teaching experience, practices an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. For the last three years, she has been teaching Hebrew at three different schools in Umm al-Fahm, an Israeli-Arab town…Despite the positive feedback Levy has experienced, sometimes the harsh reality hits home. In July 2017 three terrorists from Umm al-Fahm killed two Israeli Druze policemen at the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem.

DRUZE CITIZENS

Gadeer Mreeh, 34, a former news anchor, will become the first female Druze member of Israel’s Knesset for the Blue and White party.

Col. Ala Abu Rukon, 47, currently serving as the IDF military attache to China, has been appointed military secretary to Israeli President Rivlin. A Druze resident of Usfiya, Abu Rukon has served in the IDF for the past 25 years in the paratroopers brigade and the intelligence branch.

ATTACKS THWARTED

Two M-16’s and an airsoft gun along with 15 magazines and hundreds of bullets were found after a Palestinian family with young children in the car was stopped at a checkpoint near Jerusalem.The driver’s wife, young daughter and days-old son were also in the car. The weapons were intended for terrorists and criminals within Israel.

Israeli forces on Saturday arrested three Gazans, one carrying a knife, who crossed over the border fence with the Gaza Strip.

ATTACKS LAST WEDNESDAY

An explosive device was thrown at a bus near in the West Bank on Wednesday night. The device did not explode but damaged the bus

An Israeli police car was hit by a firebomb near the Arab Shuafat neighbourhood in Jerusalem on Wednesday night. No injuries were reported but the car was damaged.

A Palestinian woman was arrested after attempting to stab a member of the security forces during a routine security check of bus passengers at a checkpoint near Jerusalem, last Wednesday.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have unveiled a 3D print of a heart with human tissue and vessels calling it a first and a “major medical breakthrough” that advances possibilities for transplants. Scientists hope one day to be able to produce hearts suitable for transplant into humans as well as patches to regenerate defective hearts.

The 3D-printed heart is not yet functional and doesn’t pump. However, the Israeli work on the engineered heart has more immediate value in making a cardiac patch, a piece of functioning heart tissue to repair heart attack damage.

First ever vein transplant from living donor. Avi Yavetz suffers from peripheral vascular disease and a leg amputation was imminent. However, his 27 year old son, donated a long vein, which was implanted into his father in a first of its kind operation at Hadassah hospital.

First live op using holographic imaging. Surgeons at Toronto General Hospital performed the first live medical procedure using real-time holographic imaging developed by Israel’s RealView Imaging (see here). The 3D images allowed the surgeons to see inside the heart prior to a mitral valve replacement procedure.

In a joint Israeli/Canadian collaboration, surgeons at Toronto General Hospital performed the first live medical procedure using real-time holographic imaging developed by Israel’s RealView Imaging. The 3D images allowed the surgeons to see inside the heart prior to a mitral valve replacement procedure.

SOLAR POWER

The Megalim solar thermal power plant has begun commercial operation in Israel’s Negev desert. The technology uses 50,600 mirrors spread over a 3-sq.-km. site and the thermo-solar station will provide electricity to 50,000 households at peak capacity.

SRI LANKA

Sri Lankan President Sirisena has sought help from Israeli technology to locate narcotics and other illegal substances that include heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and morphine

CARIBBEAN & MEXICO

ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), has been contracted by the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to provide a full system upgrade to its national Coastal Surveillance System, which also covers the islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Grenada. ELTA was awarded a separate contract to upgrade a similar system in Barbados. The company will also supply surveillance radar to protect Mexican off-shore energy platforms.

SPORT

Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram, 19, won two gold medals, two silver, and a bronze at the World Cup rhythmic gymnastics competition in Sofia.

COMMENT & OPINION

Alan Mendoza: There is no longer a peace process worthy of the name that an Israeli leader can endorse with any credibility.

The story of the negotiations of the past quarter-century has been one of constant and increasing Israeli concessions in an attempt to get the Palestinians over the line of peace, and Palestinian rejectionism in response.

The last time a major deal was presented – in 2008 when Ehud Olmert offered up the keys to Jerusalem – the Palestinians did not even deign to provide a formal reply.

It is not hard to understand why. The pattern of negotiations has shown a ratchet effect, with each new round starting from where the previous failed negotiation ended. For a Palestinian, waiting it out to the next deal therefore becomes a very tempting proposition.

At the same time, the Palestinians have been unable to negotiate national unity themselves, so the idea that they could reach agreement with Israel – even if they wanted to – is remote.

Khaled Abu Toameh:Mohammed Safi, 27, lost his eyesight while being held in a Hamas prison. His crime: participation in demonstrations calling for an end to the economic crisis in Gaza and protesting new taxes imposed by the Hamas rulers. Safi’s family says he lost his eyesight under torture by Hamas security forces. Safi’s case serves as a reminder how Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza suffer from repression, corruption and bad government. The PA and Hamas tolerate no criticism and arrest political opponents almost on a daily basis. Had Safi headed towards the border to hurl bombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers, he would have been hailed as a hero by his Hamas leaders. Safi simply chose to speak truth to power and place the misery of the Palestinians in Gaza squarely at the feet of Hamas. He paid dearly for that choice.

Alex Titus and Alexander Khan: BDS is little more than a ploy established and run by radical anti-Semites who deny Israel’s right to exist and seek to destroy it. Omar Barghouti, who was recently denied entry into the U.S. to promote the BDS movement he co-founded, has said, “Most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian…will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

Elder of Ziyon: at the border between the West Bank and Jordan, the Palestinian Authority (PA) arrests hundreds of people every week — far more than Israel does. The week before last, some 34,000 people travelled to and from Jordan through the Allenby Bridge, and 184 Palestinians were detained by the PA going in either direction…The week before, 33,000 people crossed and 223 were arrested by the PA. The preceding week, 252 were arrested out of 32,000 who crossed. Hundreds arrested every week at Palestinian checkpoints. Are they criminals? Are they political dissidents? No one seems to care. Why? Because only Israeli arrests of Palestinians are worth reporting by the media.

Copyright. KSDS 2019

Website by abricot production