Israel Update 18.11.21

 

CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL

 

(Figures from last week’s Update where available in brackets for comparison)

 

 

While the number of serious COVD-19 cases continued to wane, Israel’s coronavirus reproduction rate (R-number) rose on Wednesday to 0.95. The R number, which indicates how many people each infected person passes the virus on to, has remained below 1 for over a month but has seen a slight increase over recent days. As of Wednesday evening, there were 5,137 active COVID cases in Israel, with 178 of them hospitalized, 138 (146) in serious condition and 91 (102) on ventilators.A month ago, there were more than 375 Israelis with COVID in serious condition.Read more here

 

INDIA

 

 

The Embassy of Israel, in partnership with a medical delegation from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre, organized women’s health clinics in urban slums of South Delhi and North Delhi on Nov. 15-19, 2021.
The clinics provided free tests, check-ups, and disbursement of medicines.Read more here

 

TURKEY

 

 

Several Turkish media outlets and journalists on Wednesday slammed Turkish authorities for the arrest of a holidaying Israeli couple held on suspicion of espionage for photographing the Istanbul mansion of President Erdogan. One wrote about the detention of Israeli bus drivers  Mordy and Natali Oknin “It’s not even a joke. It is a disgrace….To arrest tourists who visited the television tower in Istanbul and took photos as is done all over the world. For God’s sake don’t make people ridicule us.”

 

The couple who had been held in custody for 8 days were released and flew home to Israel on Thursday following the intervention of the Israeli President, Prime Minister and others.

Read more here

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CO-OPERATION

 

 

After working closely together in the rubble of the residential building (Surfside) that collapsed in Florida in June, a delegation of American firefighters recently joined IDF rescuers for five days of training and learning in Israel.Read more here

 

 

INNOVATION

 

 

Four Israeli tech companies have been named in this year’s annual list of TIME magazine’s 100 Best Inventions for 2021:

 

OrCam Read, a smart reading support device developed by OrCam Technologies, the maker of artificial intelligence-based wearable devices to help the blind and visually impaired read texts via audio feedback.

 

Percepto AIM, software programme by Israeli drone security company Percepto.

 

Israeli agtech (agriculture tech) company SupPlant, the developer of sensing technology for farming.

 

Israeli wireless “smart road” tech startup ElectReon, the developer of a system that charges electric vehicles (EVs) while in full motion.  Read more here

 

 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE)

Seven Israeli firms recently attended the Dubai Air Show.

 

 

Israel’s aerospace and aviation manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) signed an agreement with Dubai’s Emirates airline to convert four passenger aircraft into cargo planes. Read more here

 

 

 

Israeli and UAE firms IAI and EDGE are jointly to design unmanned surface vessels to carry out security operations, minesweeping and surveillance among other capabilities. Read more here

 

 

Israel’s Elbit Systems has launched a new venture in the UAE, Elbit Systems Emirates which “will seek to foster a long-term cooperation with the UAE Armed Forces”.Read more here

 

 

Bilateral trade between Israel and the UAE is outstripping all expectations and is expected to exceed $1 billion this year. Read more here

 

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

The navies of Israel, the USA, the UAE and Bahrain launched a joint exercise in the Red Sea last week, in response to their shared adversary Iran’s presence and aggression in the waters of the Middle East. Read more here

 

 

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has unveiled a revolutionary electronic system called Scorpius.The ground version, the Scorpius G, “creates an electronic umbrella of defence over a whole region.”According to a spokesman “One of the advantages about electronic or soft defence systems is that the price per activation is virtually zero. You don’t run out of ammunition.” Read more here

 

 

 

Israeli defence electronics company Elbit Systems announced that it has signed a 5-year, $74 million contract to supply a range of precision airborne munitions to the South Korean air force. Read more here

 

 

ISRAELI-ARAB SECTOR

 

 

Israel will build a high-tech park in Nazareth, a first of its kind in the Arab sector. The 10-acre park will be built in Nazareth’s industrial zone, and will house industrial plants, with an emphasis on the high-tech industry. The declaration follows the approval last month of a five-year plan to increase the number of Israeli Arabs in the tech industry. Read more here

 

 

 ECONOMY

 

 

Israel’s economy is expected to grow 7.1% in 2021 and 4.7% in 2022, according to the Finance Ministry in updated forecasts following a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Read more here

 

 

 

MEDICAL INNOVATION

 

 

 

Israeli company Salignostics is launching the world’s first pregnancy test that delivers results from saliva samples, using technology it developed for COVID-19 tests. Read more here

 

 

 

 

There has been a 35% reduction in the need to change antibiotics among UTI patients of an Israeli HMO who were prescribed with the help of a new artificial intelligence tool deployed earlier this year, developed at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Read more here

 

 

 

Israeli company DayTwo’s system analyzes a person’s gut microbiome and uses artificial intelligence to predict their blood sugar response to foods for a sustainable approach to managing type-2 diabetes and prediabetes.  Read more here

 

 

 

FOOD-TECH

 

 

Israeli startup Redefine Meat has expanded operations into Europe where it hopes to reach thousands of restaurants by the end of next year which will serve for the first time its plant-based whole cuts of alternative meat…The company, which previously worked with about 150 restaurants in Israel, said the whole cuts will broaden the appeal of alternative meat products that have mostly been limited to ground-beef dishes. Read more here

 

 

 

It tastes like cow’s milk, looks like cow’s milk … but is made in a lab without any animals involved. Imagindairy, an Israeli tech company, has developed a process for producing milk proteins, whey and casein, from fungi or other plant micro-organisms. Read more here

 

 

 

ARCHAEOLOGY

 

 

Weapons, burnt wooden beams, dozens of coins and a Hellenistic fortified structure have been unearthed at an archaeological dig in a central Israel forest in what the Israel Antiquities Authority says was evidence of a battle between the Hasmoneans and Greek Seleucids some 2,100 years ago, providing “tangible evidence of the Hanukkah stories”.  Read more here

 

 

WORLD TOILET DAY NOVEMBER 19^th

 

 

This article (link below)  has lots of information about Israeli toilets, ancient and modern including techological innovations such as those invented by  Israeli company Outsense which has developed IoT toilet sensor clips that serve as a screening device for colorectal cancer. Also, currently in the prototype stage, Israeli startup Olive Diagnostics’ passive IoT devices are mounted in the toilet, where they use advanced optics to pick up biometres from urine. Immediate plans for these small devices include screening urine for urinary tract infections, kidney stones and bladder infections as well as hydration. Read more here

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

JPost Editorial: Israel Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen Amikam Norkin (was photographed) at the Dubai Air Show in conversation with Commander of the United Arab Emirate’s Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Nasser Mohammed al-Alawi and senior Jordanian Air Force officer Gen. Mohammad Fathi Hiyasat.

The importance of these meetings being documented by the camera is twofold.

First, it sends a deterrent message to common foes, such as Iran. And second, it signals to the Arab public that this type of co-operation is good and nothing to be ashamed of or hidden. It removes the stigma of co-operation with Israel – makes it normal and habituates the public to the idea.

One of the problems with Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan has been that despite close cooperation at the top, Cairo and Amman wanted to keep it in the dark. As a result, the peace did not filter down to the public and remained in the rarefied air of discreet military-to-military consultations. Making these meetings public, shining a light on them, is one way that peace begins to seep down from the top. Read more here

 

 

 

JPost Editorial: There has been a drop in countries funding the UN Palestinian refugee organization UNRWA recently, in large part following reports which show where the money is going. The textbooks and education system in UNRWA-run schools support terrorism and the cult of martyrdom. Hamas has created terror tunnels and weapons stores under UNRWA schools in Gaza, using the children as human shields.
The Palestinians have been granted perpetual refugee status. According to UNRWA, someone born this week can be considered a refugee of a war that occurred more than seven decades ago. UNRWA has created a bigger refugee problem and, at the same time, perpetuated the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.  Read more here