Israel Update 12.1.23

Probably no Israel Update next week as I am travelling. HRG

CO-OPERATION

20 senior officials from various Israeli ministries flew to Abu Dhabi at the beginning of the week for the third follow-up to last year’s Negev Forum that brought the foreign ministers of Israel, the US, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, and the UAE to Sde Boker. 150 officials from these countries took part, making it “the largest meeting between Israel and its regional partners since the Madrid Summit in 1991.” The meeting broke up into six workshops that discussed food security and water technology, clean energy, tourism, health, education, coexistence and regional security.Read more here/ Read more here

UK MINISTERIAL VISIT

Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, the UK Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and the United Nations at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) visited Israel this week. Read more here

At the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Lord Ahmed was reportedly impressed with the proportion of Arab students on campus. 30% of this years’ student intake are from the Arab Community and benefit from the Technion Empowerment Programme which gives them individual attention, supervision and monitoring, particularly in their learning of Hebrew.

Taking to Twitter following his visit, he wrote: “Fantastic to visit Technion…and learn more about the vibrant Israeli innovation scene. I met Professor Uri Sivan and with Professor Hossam Hayek, a BIRAX* recipient who created the groundbreaking ‘Alzheimer’s breath test’.”

This invention. which is also used to detect cancer in a matter of seconds was also shown to King Charles when he last visited Israel.

(* the Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange Partnership)

THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

Israel’s Security Cabinet last Thursday approved a number of steps to be taken in response to the PA’s decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel through its UN-approved appeal to the International Court of Justice. (See Comment article below)Read more here

COUNTER TERRORISM

The Israel Security Agency recently foiled an attempt by two Palestinians from the West Bank and an Arab Israeli minor to carry out a bombing attack. Police found “diagrams and chemical materials for making explosive devices” at a home in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al-Fahm. Read more here

Israel will construct a wall along a main highway and another route near the border with Gaza to protect Israelis from anti-tank missiles fired by terror groups. The work is to be completed in the summer.Read more here

ISRAELI DOCTORS’ NIGERIA MISSION

Five ophthalmologists from Sheba Medical Centre are on a five-day mission in Nigeria to provide advanced treatment and training for local specialist medical teams and establish a new intra-arterial chemotherapy centre. With an estimated one in 15,000 Nigerian children inflicted with paediatric ocular cancer, the mission will focus on treating those with retinoblastoma. Read more here

RACHEL’S TOMB

Rachel’s Tomb, which has been identified as a holy Jewish site for more than 1,700 years is being visited by groups of Sufi Muslims from India several times annually and they pray alongside Jewish worshippers. Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places Shmuel Rabinovitch noted that “Judaism does not prevent anybody genuinely seeking to visit Jewish holy sites from doing so. We have never closed off the Western Wall to any other religion.”
“If a Muslim, from anywhere in the world, feels an authentic connection to the figure of the matriarch Rachel and comes to visit Rachel’s Tomb, without disturbing or coming to incite, take over the site or harm the Jews there…then Judaism as a religion has no problem at all with this.”
“This is completely in contrast to how the Muslims treat Jews on the Temple Mount.”Read more here

ISRAELI DOUGHNUTS IN LONDON

Israeli bakery café chain Roladin has entered the UK market, opening Donutelier by Roladin on the site of a former Patisserie Valerie outlet on London’s Charing Cross Road. Read more here

7-Eleven OPENS IN TLV

7-Eleven, the world’s largest convenience store chain opened its first Israeli store in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. Read more here

INNOVATION

Zooz Power, an Israel-based developer of an ultra-fast power booster for electric vehicles (EVs), has rolled out its first charging system units at 2 locations in Israel. The booster unit is said to fully recharge batteries within 15 minutes. Zooz has already its Zooster-100 units installed at five commercial and leisure locations in parts of Germany and Austria, as well as at a pilot project in New York. Read more here

Israeli start-up Luminescent has developed an isothermal heat engine which can generate zero-emission electricity from any source of heat – including waste heat. Read more here

23 Israeli companies were at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. Among them was startup iRomaScents whose device adds the sense of smell to the cinema, TV and video game experience. Read more here

MEDICAL INNOVATION

The innovation arms of Bar Ilan and Hadassah Medical Centre have announced Wednesday that they have signed a deal with Los Angeles-based Immix BioPharma for the further development and commercialization of their immunotherapy therapy treatment which has successfully “reprogrammed the immune systems” of cancer patients. A trial showed that at the highest dose level, 57% of multiple myeloma patients went into remission while 90% of patients saw an improvement in their condition. Read more here

CardiacSense’s smart watch that provides advanced monitoring of vital signs for heart patients has just received FDA clearance. The company has received European approval for four advanced measurements, including irregular heart beats, and detecting blood volume changes as a means of measuring heart rate. Read more here

FOOD-TECH

Israeli company VgardenLtd has produced vegan canned “tuna” that it claims has the same appearance, texture and flavour of the tuna fish even though it’s made from peas. The production uses only minimal energy consumption and water.Read more here

COVID-19 BOOSTER RESEARCH

Israeli researchers have found that the Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine booster sharply reduced hospitalizations among older patients. 81% reduction in hospitalizations among people aged 65 and older who had received the booster against those who had previously received at least two COVID vaccinations, but not the Omicron-adapted shot. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.Read more here

COMMENT & OPINION

J.Post Editorial: On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced a series of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority in response to its push to get Israel reviewed before the International Court of Justice. The Israeli Cabinet decided to withhold tax fees it collects on behalf of the PA, freeze Palestinian building plans in Area C, penalize Palestinian officials, and take steps against non-government groups it believes are involved in diplomatic warfare against the Jewish state. Israel will transfer NIS139 million ($39 million) from tax fees it collects on behalf of the PA to compensate the families of Palestinian terror victims.
The PA’s legal battle against Israel with its push to the ICJ, as well as its application to The Hague a number of years ago, violates the Oslo Accords. The Palestinians have consistently resisted attempts at dialogue and negotiations with Israel and instead believe that legal warfare against the Jewish state can win. It is important to teach the PA a lesson. But it (the government) also needs to keep in mind that Israel has an interest in the PA’s existence. Read more here

Jonathan S. Tobin:The problem is not just that the PA engages in a pay-for-slay scheme that rewards those who murder Israelis with salaries and pensions. It’s that such an incentive is so popular that neither PA leader Mahmoud Abbas nor any of his potential successors would dare end it. The valorization of terror is an integral element of Palestinians’ culture. The coveted two-state solution wasn’t slain by so-called Israeli hard-liners. It was murdered by Palestinian cheer and cash for terrorists.
Palestinian protests are not motivated by grievances about Israeli policies or aspirations for statehood. Rather, they are about rejecting the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its boundaries might be drawn. Read more here