Israel Update 1.6.23
TERRORIST ATTACKS – CURRENT AND 22 YEARS AGO
Meir Tamari, an Israeli civilian who was shot dead in a West Bank terror attack on Tuesday, was laid to rest on Wednesday with hundreds in attendance to eulogize the father of two on what would have been his 32nd birthday. It was the latest in a string of Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have killed 20 people since the start of this year and left several more seriously hurt.Read more here
Chana Nachenberg was 31 when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 15 civilians, including seven children, and wounded over 100 others at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem on August 9, 2001. She was critically wounded and had remained in a vegetative state for 22 years until she died of her injuries on Wednesday. Read more here
THE UK & ISRAEL
More than 60 wounded British military veterans and their families arrived in Israel this week to participate in the Veteran Games (VG). During their stay they competed in swimming, shooting and cross-fit against their Israeli counterparts in Tel Aviv. Accompanying the delegation, UK Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer said “We traditionally look at Israel and certainly the data you have and areas where you have the best practice… it’s amazing to be out here…There’s nothing quite like an Israeli welcome, seeing the Veteran Games and using the power of sports as a vehicle for recovery. It’s extraordinary.” Read more here
Personal stories here:Read more here
The largest ever official delegation from the UK’s House of Lords is visiting Israel on a four-day fact finding mission, in a reflection of increasingly close relations between Jerusalem and London. The cross-party group of 20 peers arrived in Israel on Sunday. Lord Eric Pickles said “We have moved on from just seeing Israel as a good ally in the battle against terrorism to a partner in innovation,”,adding that one in six medicines used by Britain’s NHS were based on Israeli patents. “We have moved on from a position of being polite and interested to one in which our economies are increasingly integrated.” Read more here
MEDICAL RESEARCH
An experimental treatment developed at Israel’s Hadassah hospital has a 90% success rate at bringing patients with multiple myeloma into remission. Read more here
THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf on Wednesday confirmed that the PA continues to make so-called ‘pay-to-slay’ stipend payments to terrorists and the families of terrorists who have killed Americans and Israelis. The programme is estimated to cost $300 million annually, or nearly 10% of the entire PA budget. The payments are higher than the average Palestinian wage, further incentivizing terrorist attacks. Read more here
The murderers of Israeli-British Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia and Rina have been lauded as “shahids” – martyrs – by senior PA and Fatah officials including the President’s spokesman. Read more here
DEFENCE
The Israeli Navy has successfully completed a series of interception tests using the naval version of the Iron Dome system on the Saar 6 Magen vessel. The “C-Dome” successfully intercepted advanced targets which represented threats to Israel’s infrastructure and strategic assets such as the offshore natural gas rigs. The test included a wide array of threats including rockets, cruise missiles, and UAVs. Read more here
The IDF utilizes an extensive network of sensors that detect every aerial movement, followed by innovative covert methods to bring down enemy aircraft without resorting to missiles or sky-bound explosions. For the past two years, the “Sky Monitor,” the biggest tracking balloon of its kind in the world, has been hovering in the sky in the eastern Galilee, where it can peer hundreds of kilometres into Syria. During critical moments, the balloon can be repositioned to identify missile launches from Iraq or Iran.
Every non-IDF aircraft is a target for surveillance. Any deviation from the normal flight paths raises alarms. “Sometimes, an aircraft that is ten to twenty km. away from Israel’s border on its designated path can suddenly veer towards us…We have only a few minutes to respond, activate all interception systems, and neutralize the threat.” Read more here
The German Army is investing in infantry anti-drone capabilities, and is procuring Smash fire control systems by Israeli company Smartshooter for its G27P assault rifles. Read more here
Yasuhide Nakayama said “As the former State Minister of Defence, I always explained that although Japan buys F-35s from the U.S., in practice the fuel tank, helmet and wings come from Israel….Silicon Valley is the great river, but the source, the great waterfall of knowledge, is Israel. Therefore, in my opinion, Japan as a country can and should go directly to the source, to Israel.” Read more here
On May 23, the Greek Air Force participated in joint training exercises with the Israel Air Force. The joint training is conducted twice a year as part of the Defence Cooperation Programme between Greece and Israel. Photos here
COUNTER TERRORISM
A Palestinian terrorist wielding a knife -was shot and killed last Friday (Shavuot) after he infiltrated the Israeli community of Teneh Omarim and attempted to stab people near a local synagogue. Read more here
AZERBAIJAN
Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Azerbaijani President Aliyev in Baku on Tuesday…Aliyev said Azerbaijan, a Shiite Muslim-majority country, has had access to modern Israeli defence equipment for many years, “which helps us to modernize our defence capability, and to be able to protect our statehood, our values, our national interest, and our territorial integrity.” Azerbaijan is located on Iran’s northern border, and Israel buys over 30% of its oil from Baku. Read more here
MEDICAL RESEARCH
An experimental treatment developed at Israel’s Hadassah hospital has a 90% success rate at bringing patients with multiple myeloma into remission. Read more here
DIAGNOSING SLEEP DISORDERS AT HOME
For an accurate diagnosis, patients currently need to spend the night in an unfamiliar bed at a special sleep clinic, wearing a cluster of sensors and hooked up to monitoring equipment. Many can’t face that prospect and remain untreated as a result. However, Abed Nassir, a biomedical engineer has developed a patient-friendly solution, a wireless mask, worn in the patient’s own bed, in the comfort of their own home which collects exactly same data as the equipment at a sleep clinic and delivers an immediate diagnosis. Read more here
MOROCCO
Three new transportation deals signed between Israel and Morocco will strengthen ties between the two countries. The agreements allow Israelis and Moroccans to use their drivers’ licenses in each others’ countries, promote direct shipping between the two countries, and create joint work teams to address transportation innovation and road safety. Read more here
KENYA
In an historic move to commemorate Israel’s 75th anniversary and 60 years of Israel-Kenya diplomatic relations, Kenya is to inaugurate its first “Zion Forest” in Machakos County. The forest is set to consist of at least 5,000 trees, emphasizing the significant religious and cultural ties of Kenyans to Zion. Read more here
PIZZA
The annual competition of the Italian pizza magazine “Top 50 Pizza” took place in Tokyo, Japan this week, ranking pizzerias from Italy and around the world. In the prestigious list of Asian pizzerias, a kosher Israeli pizzeria in Jerusalem called “La Piedra” (The Stone) won 38th place out of 50. Read more here
ENTERTAINMENT
British pop star Robbie Williams arrived in Tel Aviv Monday for his Thursday night performance in Yarkon Park, his first Israeli show since 2015. Williams, whose wife Ayda Field is halachically Jewish, has said he and his family mark Jewish holidays. He is a fan of Israeli indie artist Noga Erez.Read more here
Robbie Williams surprised a street musician in Israel who was playing his song “Angels”. Short video here
SPORT
Israel beat Japan 2-1 in the knockout round of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Argentina on Saturday night and secured a place in the last 16. Read more here
Israel’s national Under-20 soccer team continued its improbable World Cup run late Tuesday with an outlandish 97th-minute goal to upend Uzbekistan 1-0 in dramatic fashion and send Israel to the U-20 World Cup quarterfinals, where they will play Brazil on 3 June.Read more here
Chabad in Argentina “adopted” the Israeli team providing kosher meat as well as physical and spiritual support. Read more here
COMMENT & OPINION
Rachel Sylvester of The Times (London) recently visited Israel’s Biomed conference and wrote (EXTRACTS): “A robot shows patients around the emergency department at the Sourasky Medical Centre in Tel Aviv. People register digitally, identifying themselves through facial recognition, then measure their own blood pressure, temperature and heart rate in “self-triage” booths. Patients are given a barcode and number sent to their phone, which they can track on a screen. The most serious cases are seen within minutes and virtually no one waits more than an hour.
This is the largest emergency department in the Middle East, with its own air raid shelter and a special ventilation system that can withstand biological and chemical attack, but the atmosphere is calm and patients flow efficiently through the system…The hospital is reinventing healthcare for the modern age…
In Britain, the NHS reels from crisis to crisis while the political debate about healthcare goes round in circles about funding and pay. In Israel they are revolutionising the system, using technology to empower patients, liberate doctors, improve efficiency and drive down costs. By harnessing the power of data, they have been able to simultaneously personalise treatment and reduce burnout among staff. Doctors can instantly access a patient’s medical history through an electronic health record and individuals can book appointments, see the results of scans or order prescriptions using an app.
Innovation is celebrated and clinicians are encouraged to think like entrepreneurs. Last week more than 600 health tech companies gathered at the annual Biomed conference in Tel Aviv.Read more here(Paywall)
