Israel Update 27.4.23

THIS WEEK ISRAEL TRANSITIONED FROM THE PAIN & GRIEF OF MEMORIAL DAY TO THE JOY OF INDEPENDENCE DAY

 

 

YOM HAZIKARON

 

 

On Monday night and Tuesday, Israelis observed Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism.  When sirens sounded at 8 pm and 11 a.m. traffic in the streets came to a halt and people stood and bowed their heads. Thousands of Israelis visited cemeteries to remember family members, recite prayers and join in the nation’s collective mourning and respect.  Since the State of Israel was established in 1948, 24,213 men and women have been killed in military service and 4,255 men, women and children have been murdered in terror attacks. State ceremonies were held at Mt Herzl. Read more here

 

 

 

YOM HA’ATZMAUT

 

 

As the sun set on 25^th April, the country began to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of Israel’s independence on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

 

Flyovers & Fireworks: Independence Day in pictures:Read & View here

 

 

Two physicians were among the 12 Israelis chosen to light torches at the national ceremony on Mt. Herzl. One of them, Dr Khetam Hussein, an infectious disease control expert served as head of Rambam’s dedicated departments for the treatment of COVID patients during the height of the pandemic and was one of the first Druze women to study medicine in Israel.

Other torchlighters included Prof. Avi Rivkind, a pioneer in shock trauma medicine in Israel, basketball coach David Blatt and former top general and cabinet minister Avigdor Kahalani.  Read more hereRead more here

 

 

 

Over 100 aircraft took part in the Israeli Airforce’s annual flyover, including F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets; Lavi training aircraft; C-130 cargo planes; a Boeing refuelling plane; Black Hawk, Sea Stallion, Panther and Apache helicopters; and Israel Aerospace Industries Heron drones. This year, several foreign pilots joined in the flyover, which included an F-16 fighter jet from the U.S. and Eurofighter Typhoons from the U.K., Germany, and Italy, “as a sign of partnership between the countries and the unique relationship of the State of Israel with them”. Read more here

 

This amateur youtube video (26 min) shows the  I.A.F.fly-past and at 16 min 12 sec the start of the aerobatic show: View here

 

 

 

TERROR ATTACKS CONTINUED

 

 

 

Eight people were wounded in a car-ramming terror attack near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market on Monday.

Two victims  required surgery, one of whom, a man in his 80s who is in a serious condition and remains unconscious on a respirator, after undergoing surgery for multi-systemic injuries. Another patient, a woman in her 30s is in moderate condition.

On Tuesday, a 28 year old Israeli man, part of a group of joggers staging a Memorial Day run commemorating fallen soldiers, was moderately wounded in a drive-by shooting attack in the northern West Bank .

Read more hereRead more here

 

 

TURKMENISTAN

 

Last week, Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen inaugurated a new embassy in Turkmenistan, only 10 miles (17 kilometres) from the border with Israel’s arch-enemy Iran.  His Turkmen counterpart  Raşit Meredow said: “We have a very good relationship with the State of Israel… We will do everything toward expanding and strengthening our relationship in different fields.”Read more here

 

 

 

IRAN

 

 

Following the recent historic visit of Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to Israel, social media has circulated some examples of  Iranian-Israeli solidarity. On Friday, a video went viral of Iranians in Bandar Genaveh (southwest Iran) at the Ramadan Cup for Futsal, chanting “Down with Palestine, long live Israel.” Amongst Iranians, there is some degree of social resentment over their government funding of Palestinian terror organisations  and other foreign terrorist proxies rather than funding projects within the country that would benefit the people of Iran who have suffered for years under sanctions due to the regime’s nuclear programme. Read more here

 

 

THE U.S.

 

 

 

The Biden administration has expressed its satisfaction to Israel over the latter’s handling of security tensions during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan,  Israeli and  US officials stated.Read more here

 

 

 

MATHS

 

 

In an historic first, an all-female team of young Israeli mathematics students took home gold, silver and bronze medals after competing against 214 contestants from 54 countries worldwide at the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad in Slovenia. Participant Noga Friedman not only won the gold medal for her achievements but ranked 1st competition wide with a “perfect score.” Read more here

 

 

WHISKY

 

 

At the World Whiskies Awards held last month in London, M&H of Tel Aviv won the World’s Best Single Malt award for their Elements Sherry Cask product.Read more hereVideo here

 

 

 

WEAPONS SMUGGLING FROM JORDAN

 

 

According to  Jordan’s Foreign Ministry a Jordanian member of parliament Imad al-Adwan has been arrested by Israeli authorities for weapons and gold smuggling while attempting to cross the Allenby Bridge border by car on Saturday. While Israeli media have been restricted on what they are allowed to report on this matter, video footage of the seized weapons posted by Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian shows around 200 handguns and a dozen assault rifles.Read more here

 

 

 

Israeli security forces arrested a Bedouin Israeli for smuggling weapons into Israel from Jordan, confiscating 63 handguns, the IDF and Israel Police said Thursday.In 2022, Israeli forces seized 500 firearms on the Jordanian border. Read more here

 

 

MEDICAL INNOVATION

 

The implant activation device, Active+ from Israel’s Nova Plasma gives dental implants a 30-sec deep-cleaning cold plasma bath immediately before they go into the patient’s mouth. Clinical results show a 50% improvement in integration and healing time.(TY Michael O) Read more here

 

 

A new study used IceCure Medical’s cryoablation system, which utilizes extremely cold liquid to destroy abnormal tissue,  to treat 42 women with endometriosis, a chronic, painful and incurable disease… The vast majority of those treated (93.75 percent) had no pain after six months, and 82.72 percent remained pain-free up to three years later. Read more here

 

Tel Aviv University scientists claim to have discovered a new treatment for ovarian cancer using RNA-based nanodrugs.Read more here?

 

 

SAVE A CHILD’S HEART UPDATE (SACH)

 

 

Israeli Arab Yoseph Haddad describes how Israeli NGO Save a Child’s Heart performs free surgery to repair the hearts of children worldwide. 50% are Palestinian Arabs. SACH has just received children for the first time from Guinea Bissau and Gabon – its 67th and 68th countries. (TY Michael O) Video 2 mins 42 sec.View here

 

 

TACKLING THE PROBLEM OF NON-BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS

 

 

Biotic (Bio-circular Ltd), is an Israeli start-up that is commercialising a fully bio-based and fully bio-degradable polymer produced from naturally grown algae. The algae is ocean grown, so no arable land is used and sea-water, rather than treated water is also used in the process, minimising resources used.  The resulting polymer is fully biodegradable and does not need to be recycled. Read more here

 

 

Israeli  company Balena has created BioCirTM, a fully compostable and biodegradable thermoplastic material which the company says  is the firstdurable, flexible and comfortable alternative to plastics in the fashion industry.Last summer Balena launched and sold outits first shoes, the BioCirTM Slides, the first fashion product to be made entirely of BioCir material, which is also vegan and “cruelty free.” Read more here

 

 

VIDEO

 

 

 

A group of non-Jewish influencers from the UK recently visited Israel. “You get out here and it’s just completely different – it’s nothing like what I’ve been told”

Video 3min 25. View here

 

 

 

 

FOOD TECH

 

 

Israeli food tech startup Meat. The End (MTE) has announced the debut of what it calls the world’s first texturized plant-based burger made solely of chickpea protein, which it says mimics the taste, smell and bite of the real thing. Read more here

 

 

SPORT

 

 

The FIFA FOUNDATION Community Programme is awarding Israeli nonprofit organization THE EQUALIZER $30,000 in recognition and support of its project using football (soccer) to promote positive values and strengthen society.Read more here

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

 

YOM HA’ATZMAUT

 

 

Melanie Phillips: This evening (Tuesday), Israel will pass seamlessly from a day of extreme sadness to the start of Independence Day, when it celebrates the rebirth of the Jewish national home in Israel. For Israelis, rejoicing over that astonishing achievement is necessarily anchored in the awareness that is never far from the surface — that the price they have paid to be citizens of their own country has been agonisingly steep. Read more here

 

 

 

ISRAEL AT 75

 

 

Laurence Wolff:    Since 1966, 13 Israelis have been awarded Nobel prizes. In 2022, Israeli tech attracted $17 billion in startup investments.
Israel has the third highest listing of companies on the Nasdaq, after the U.S. and China, and 300 multinational corporations have opened offices in Israel to benefit from its R&D capabilities.
Innovations that help tell the story of Israel’s tech success include the Iron Dome missile defence system, Waze real-time traffic reports, Mobileye safe-driving technology, drip irrigation, the Pillcam to view the digestive system, ICQ instant messaging, the USB flash dive, the Sniffphone breathalyzer to detect gastric and lung cancer, Rewalk bionic walking assisance, and the 3-D printed heart. Read more here

 

 

 

Alex Brummer: The Israel of 1948 was about Jaffa oranges, Dead Sea chemical plants and low value textiles. Today’s Israel is a leader in advanced technology, cybersecurity, avionics, telecoms, life sciences and materials research. Prosperity is supported by self-sufficiency in natural gas in an age of fuel insecurity.
Joining the Paris-based club of sophisticated economies known as the OECD in 2010, Israel’s per capita income stood at U.S. $54,847 at the end of 2022, higher than in Britain, Spain and Portugal.  Read more here

 

 

 

ISRAELI SUPPORT FOR AFRICA

 

 

Eliav Belotsercovsky: The Israel Technical Cooperation Agency – Mashav – was established in 1958 to share Israeli knowledge and expertise with developing countries. Some 36,000 people from various sub-Saharan African countries have been trained in Israel, while 31,000 professionals have benefited from courses conducted in Africa.

In the medical field, Israel provides equipment as well as training and follow-up support. For example, two neonatal units were constructed and equipped in Kumasi, Ghana, and local doctors and nurses went to Israel for training. Intensive care and trauma units were set-up and equipped in Gonakry, Guinea, where Israeli doctors arrived to train local professionals. Israel renovated and equipped maternity units in Abobo Gane in the Ivory Coast. Similar medical projects occurred in Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Eritrea and Mauritania.

Ethiopia benefited from Israeli experience in avocado cultivation, with the crop becoming one of the main Ethiopian agricultural exports. Agricultural equipment and Israeli irrigation systems were installed at the Gambia School of Agriculture. In Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, an agricultural demonstration farm was established. Similar projects took place in Malawi, Rwanda, Togo, Uganda, Cameroon, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. Israeli agricultural experts based in Nairobi and Lilongwe support and supervise these activities in Africa.

The Israeli NGO “Innovation Africa” has for the last 15 years connected water and electricity to more than four million people in Africa using Israeli technology. More than half a million people in Limpopo and Mpumalanga have access to running water thanks to this NGO. Read more here