http://theettingerreport.com/israels-brain-power-hightech-features-a-grand-decade/
Now we’re really pumping. Israel is commencing production from Leviathan’s 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas field, formally turning the Jewish state into an energy powerhouse. The milestone for the country will pave its way to “energy independence” and, via exports, to stronger ties with its neighbors.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/start-of-leviathan-natural-gas-production-seen-as-major-milestone-for-israel/
Another multi-million fund for Israeli startups. Israel’s Aleph Venture Capital has raised a $200 million fund, for investing in Israeli startups. It previously raised a $180 million fund in 2016 and $150 million in 2013. It aims to support ambitious Israeli entrepreneurs who want to build global brands from Israel.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3775993,00.htmlhttps://aleph.vc/aleph-iii-71819670289e
Third intake for TAU and Shin Bet accelerator. Tel Aviv University and Israel’s Shin Bet Security Agency have announced the 3rd cohort (intake) of its accelerator program Xcelerator. Its six new startups work in fields including speech recognition, real-time video analysis, and cybersecurity.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3776316,00.html
New IAI accelerator. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has opened an innovation center in Tel Aviv, in partnership with US-based accelerator Starburst Ventures. The Israeli teams chosen for the first class of the accelerator develop radar, robotics, and autonomous driving technologies.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3776416,00.html
Via to open second Israeli R&D center. Israeli-founded ride-sharing company Via (reported here previously) already has one Research & Development center in Tel Aviv, with 250 employees. It has just announced it will be opening a second R&D center in Jerusalem, employing another 50 staff.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3776251,00.html
https://www.timesofisrael.com/celebrating-a-decade-of-life-changing-israeli-invention
As we enter 2020, The Times of Israel has taken a look at some of the coolest Israeli technologies and inventions of the past 10 years — those that are already hugely impacting the way we live and those that have the potential of changing our lives and health.
The list is of course purely subjective, and there are so many other Israeli technologies and startups out there that are making a difference to our world.
Driving with your personal navigator: Waze
This GPS navigation software works on smartphones or car screens, providing turn-by-turn information to drivers about how best to get to their destination, including estimated length of travel and time of arrival.
The software has revolutionized how people drive: like old-school GPS systems, it does away with printed maps and recalculates if you make a mistake, but this unflappable piece of software also smoothly updates its instructions based on real-time conditions and bases its advice partly on user input relating to traffic jams and other road pitfalls.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15364/palestinian-moderates-celebrate-terror
It is worth noting that the published statements made in the past few days by the Fatah group in the Gaza Strip are almost entirely consistent with the Hamas ideology [of replacing Israel with an Islamic state through violent jihad (holy war)].
“We will continue the struggle until the liberation of the entire Palestine lands from the filth of the Zionist occupation.” – Fatah, Kataeb Shuhada Al-Aqsa – Liwa’ Al-Shaheed Nidal Al-Amoudi, November 13, 2019.
Those who continue to refer to Fatah as a “moderate” Palestinian faction need to take into account that it speaks in different voices in Arabic and English and sends conflicting messages as to its true intentions.
Either… Fatah members in the Gaza Strip are convinced that the talk about a two-state solution is purely a ploy to gain international funding and sympathy, or because they want to ensure that Abbas continues to provide them with financial aid….
One thing remains clear… Abbas and the Fatah leaders who are talking about a two-state solution are at the same time endorsing the strategy of their military wing to destroy Israel.
The Palestinian ruling Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is celebrating the 55th anniversary of its first terrorist attack against Israel by reminding everyone that it remains committed to the “armed struggle as the only way to liberate Palestine.”
Thousands of Fatah supporters took to the streets in the Gaza Strip on December 29, 2019 to celebrate the anniversary. The celebration was organized by the armed wing of Fatah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – Nidal Al-Amoudi Battalion, a rogue Fatah splinter group. Hundreds of masked Fatah gunmen dressed in military uniforms marched through the streets of Gaza City. Some carried rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Immunity-and-the-Bibi-boom-612915
Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu’s announcement on Wednesday night that he was submitting a request to the Knesset to grant him immunity from prosecution came as no surprise. During the week leading up to the deadline for his final decision on the matter both the rumor mill and reliable sources reported that he was on the verge of doing so.
Nevertheless, the 10-minute televised speech he delivered from a podium at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem was riveting. Not only was it better in tone and craftsmanship than many other of his recent statements, but it served as a reminder to anyone distracted by his indictments that his long-standing tenure is due to a lot more than his gift of the gab or clever manipulation of the political system.
He began by highlighting the latest, and in some ways most impressive, cause for a countrywide celebration: the launch of operations at the Leviathan natural-gas reservoir, discovered in 2010 in Israel’s territorial waters.
Addressing the “citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu said, “Today marks… the best decade in Israeli history.”
https://www.dittoville.com/2019/12/29/the-myth-of-palestine/
The idealized “Progressive” narrative for the Israel/”Palestine” impasse is that these are two legitimate, equally worthy peoples, each yearning for a homeland of their own. What compassionate observer of this conflict could object to a two-state solution? Two nice neighbors, side by side, like Ozzie & Harriet next door to Ricky & Lucy.
The problem is that one of these parties has actually created a nation, a free society boasting wondrous achievement, civilized living for its ethnically diverse citizenry (including Muslims), not to mention providing a wildly disproportionate contribution to the good life on this planet. No nation, save the United States, has earned its beneficial, rightful place of honor in this world more dramatically than Israel.
The other proposed neighbor is a loose confederation of angry Arabs constantly goaded, exploited and tyrannized by their own Mafia overlords on the permanent take. This deliberately rootless Arabic entity, planted within the confines of the Israeli nation and capital, exists only to annihilate and conquer its host and continues to state as such. Not the stuff of peaceful coexistence.
Somewhere along the way, some canny Mafiosi came up with the notion of organizing these nationless squatters into a perpetually angry mob of the dispossessed, coining a name with Biblical authority, “Palestinians,” thereby kicking off the Middle East’s version of a Democratic Party Inner City money funnel. Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/Maxine Waters/Black Congressional Caucus, meet your Muslim counterparts Yasser Arafat’s PLO and their PA/Hamas/Hezbollah successors. Bigtime shakedown artists all, separated at birth, different only in place of business.
With all those billions & billions & billions in humanitarian aid and naïve expressions of sympathy pouring in to these perpetually perceived victims of “occupation,” what’s to be gained by giving up the profits of the Victim Scam and getting what they claim to want? Becoming law-abiding Israeli citizens? Setting up and running a nation that supports itself? Are you kidding?
Those sensible individuals among the local Arab population wishing to become Israeli citizens can no longer do so, having been thwarted by the “Palestine” hucksters with everything to lose by allowing their angry rabble to leave the “Palestinian” fold. The offer for citizenship has all but been rescinded by Israel in the face of continued acts of war from the PA leadership.
If the world’s Leftists insist “there is no answer” to this “historical dispute,” it is because they do not like the relatively clear-cut solution of letting the Israelis go their way and the Arabs going theirs. One look at the map above demonstrates that this is not about having a place to live. It’s about a group of criminals being called out for a major money-making, power-accruing operation. Being forever shilled as victims of those bullies America & Israel is simply too profitable for the terrorists running the “Palestine” boondoggle to give up.
https://newsblaze.com/world/israel/in-a-world-of-uncertainty-standing-up-for-oneself-and-others_161133/
In a world of uncertainties, it is necessary to stand up for oneself and others.
And that is what I learned when I participated in a few hours-long course at Caliber-3: to defend myself when the occasion arises and in the process have the ability to protect others.
On my recent visit to Israel, during November-December 2019, I accepted an invitation to visit Caliber-3, extended to me by Sharon Gat, Caliber-3 CEO/Founder when we met during Caliber-3 USA inauguration ceremony. I dedicated the day to learn, firsthand, what is Caliber 3’s work scope.
I traveled on the roads of the historical Shomron region’s hills, sensing the Bible era, and drove the lone road leading to the Caliber-3 facility, which made me feel as if I was entering a James Bond type movie setting.
I rang the walled facility’s bell to identify myself and be allowed in. Inside, the activities were going on strong and everywhere. I entered the world of its own institute.
Sharon Gat was not present, apparently away on a military reserve service mission while rockets were fired, once again, at Israel’s south from the terrorists’ enclave in Gaza. My host was the lovely Yael Gat, Sharon’s wife.
What is Caliber-3?
Established in 2007 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Col. Sharon Gat (Res.), Caliber-3 has since become the largest and leading counter-terror & security training academy in Israel.
https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/when-all-of-the-evidence-is-collected-tog
I have just published a forensic 200-page report on Amnesty international, the world’s largest humanitarian NGO.
The overarching conclusion is that Amnesty International has an institutional hostility towards Israel that borders on obsession, with the NGO visibly attacking Israel more frequently and with far more energy, than it does any other nation.
When all of the evidence presented is collected together, it is as if Amnesty has declared war on Israel.
The research was some of the most detailed I have carried out and it was commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch. I followed over 50 Amnesty social media accounts and monitored the output of over 40 staff and volunteers who work or have worked for the NGO.
I poured through 100,000s of social media posts. The process took several months and involved rigorous checks to try to identify what Amnesty were doing and how much of their time was spent focusing on Israel.
I was shocked by the findings. I knew when I started that accusations of bias against Amnesty were not new.
NGO Monitor, an Israel-based NGO that analyses anti-Israel bias has frequently been critical of Amnesty. Even having read their detailed analysis, I was still unprepared for what I found.
The report provides examples from the absurd to the foul. One Amnesty human rights researcher publicly asked non-Jewish citizens of Israel not to vote in an election. How cruel a twist is this, in a world where voting rights are so frequently denied.
An Amnesty media manager for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region was found advising Palestinian terror groups like Hamas not to publicly identify their martyrs if they were lost in an action, but rather to have the west believe the fallen were innocent civilians.
An Amnesty consultant tweeted an image of two Islamic Jihad terrorists, with a love heart — and she wrote the word ‘heroes’ above the images. In the same week she tweeted that others in Gaza should be careful about what they say publicly — so as not to harm ‘the resistance’.
http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/
Congratulations Israel on unparalleled and outsize contributions to the health, welfare, longevity and quality of life of billions of people in the globe! And thanks to my friend Michael Ordman who brings us these news clips almost every week of the year. rsk
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Breakthrough in the fight to cure Lupus. Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and the US NIH have identified a trigger for the autoimmune disease Lupus. They have also developed what the media is calling a “miracle” molecule, that blocks the trigger in Lupus and other diseases, e.g. Alzheimer’s and IBD.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Ben-Gurion-University-develops-miracle-molecule-for-fighting-Lupus-612163 https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/Fight-lupus.aspx
Reversing the aging of the brain. Researchers from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University and the University of California have discovered that a small molecule called IPW is able to heal a damaged Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). It can also alleviate the inflammation that leads to Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases.
https://www.jns.org/new-drug-diagnostic-techniques-slow-and-even-reverse-cognitive-decline-from-aging/
https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/521/eaaw8283
Stopping cancer in its tracks. Israel’s Metabomed is developing treatments using small molecules that target and inhibit metabolic enzymes vital for cancer cells’ survival. It currently has four pipeline programs. Metabomed has just raised a further $12.5 million of funds to help it prepare for clinical trials.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3776158,00.html
https://www.metabomed.com/our-pipeline/
Developing AI for spinal surgery. Israeli intelligent scan analysis startup Zebra Medical (see here) is partnering with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Synthes to jointly develop artificial intelligence technologies for spine and other orthopedic surgeries.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3776155,00.html
Israel’s first live multi-organ donor. Rabbi Elad Gadot recently donated one of his kidneys to a total stranger for whom he was a rare match. Years ago, Rabbi Gadot donated a liver lobe to his son Eliyahu (now in the IDF) who needed a liver transplant. Coincidentally, the kidney recipient’s name was also Eliyahu.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israels-first-multi-organ-donor-is-a-rabbi-father-of-11-and-idf-veteran/
Prescription checking software can save the US a fortune. As reported previously (see here), Israel’s MedAware prevents prescription errors and saves lives. Now a 5-year Harvard study shows it would have cut $800 million a year from US Health costs. 70% of the errors detected would not have been found otherwise.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Harvard-Israels-MedAware-can-save-US-health-system-800m-a-year-611478
Yoram Ettinger is one of the most perspicacious, most dependable, most honest diplomats cum Zionists I have ever known. His knowledge of the Jewish religion and the history of Israel from the founding in Hebron to the hillsides of Judea and Samaria, to the cafes of Tel Aviv is boundless.
The foregoing is everything that Dennis Ross, David Makovsky and Itamar Rabinovich are not.
As Ettinger states..” Ross and Makovsky never bothered to discuss the issue with me, employing misrepresentation by members of Israel’s demographic establishment, which have been wrong, wronger and wrongest. ”
Dennis Ross and David Makovsky (Be Strong and of Good Courage, September 2019, pp. 276-280); “For the last decade, one person has stood out among all others in challenging the analysis of those who say that demographic trends require Israel to separate from the Palestininians. Yoram Ettinger, a former member of the Israel Foreign Ministry, has been the leading voice in seeking to debunk the demographic argument…. It is Ettinger who is the intellectual and political spearhead of the efforts to counter the demographic threat narrative.
[Ettinger] has supported analytical work…to prove that the Jewish majority is not threatened by demographic trends. In his words, ‘The Jewish state is not facing a potential Arab demograhic time bomb. In fact, Israel benefits from a robust jewish demographic tailwind.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-defeats-rival-in-primary-battle-11577399968
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won an overwhelming victory in a primary contest for control of his Likud party, despite corruption charges against him and months of political deadlock, to lead the party into Israel’s third national vote in a year.
His challenger, Gideon Saar, a 53-year-old former interior and education minister long regarded as his only serious rival for leadership of the Likud in Thursday’s party ballot, conceded defeat.
“A huge win! With God’s and your help, I will lead the Likud to a big victory in the coming elections and we’ll continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements,” Mr. Netanyahu tweeted Friday morning.
Mr. Netanyahu won 72.5% of the vote, according to final results released by Likud. Nearly half of the 116,000 eligible voters cast their ballots in Thursday’s vote, the spokesman said.
Mr. Netanyahu’s victory, which followed a series of rallies up and down the length of the country, shows his enduring popularity within his party, preparing the way for his campaign for new elections set for March 2.
