Good News About Israel

Offshore Gas Find: I was in Israel when the exciting news announcement came: “The discovery of a major natural gas field.” It was said that this is one of the biggest finds ever, and could even turn Israel into a natural gas exporting country. The Chairman of the Israeli company that owns 15% of the well, asked, “Who should we thank? The Creator of the World!”

Major Computer Companies draw from Israel’s Hi-Tech Talent: the tiny country of Israel has become a hi-tech hot spot in the world of computers. The reason? “Israelis are imaginative, and they are familiar with technology…the Israeli brain is dynamic and creative, and that’s what we need on our development teams,” said Cisco Israel director. The CEOs from both Google Israel and Microsoft Israel recognize Israelis’ ability to “think out of the box.”

UN: Israel #1 in Water Recycling: Israel  was named the world’s most efficient recycled water user in a United Nations report. The UN report also ranked Israel as one of the world’s leaders in desalinated water use. Water technology exports have doubled since 2005, with 200 Israeli companies exporting $1.4 billion worth of water management, recycling and purification, irrigation, desalination, and safety technologies to over 100 countries in 2008. Israel purifies and reuses most of its wastewater each year for agriculture.

Israel’s economy is exploding from the bottom up. The reason? ­Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a  population drawn from 100 countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm.

The beginning of the tunnel being constructed in Haifa under Mount Carmel speeding up traffic from Tel Aviv to the Galilee area. At the time we caught this picture, the Chinese workers were ending their day.

Israeli Treatment of Prisoners: Here are a few of the privileges granted to terrorist inmates in Israel. Terrorists are granted three hours a day to wander the premises, where they socialize together and even play games. The prison provides ping-pong tables, basketball courts, soccer fields and backgammon sets. Terrorist prisoners are allowed to purchase items each month in the prison canteen. The prisoners each have a television set in the cell that receives 12 channels including stations hostile to Israel. Inmates are allowed to keep personal items in their cell, including food, cigarettes, large quantities of books and more. They are allowed to pursue academic studies, and many complete degree programs while in jail. Their families bring blankets and other items from home. Female terrorists are allowed to keep very young children with them in prison. When a prisoner like that is released and returns to Gaza, his quality of life drops.

It Could Be A First: Israel draws tourists from nearly every nation in the world. The Jewish people have returned from over 160 nations, but recently there was a visit from a group of 450 [non-Jews] from the US, Finland, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Canada and several African nations. The common denominators were (1): to study how Israel was able to maintain itself and its traditions through so many countries and cultures to return to its original roots. (2): they were Evangelical Christians with a special love for Israel and a high regard for Judaism.

Ken & Pauline Clark and Chris with Nigerian tourists.

Israel was given the prime place in the Paris Book Fair for the Israel book booth. The French National Book Center extended invitations to 39 Israeli authors, an incredible number from such a small nation. The overall attendance exceeded 200,000 visitors.

Guilty of being Inhumane – Who? In early December 2008, when the Hamas rockets [launched from the very lands that Israel retreated from in Gaza] fell quiet for a single day, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak authorized a shipment of 70 tons of supplies and 100 million NIS as a humanitarian gesture to those who rained rockets regularly on Sderot and other Israeli towns. The next day Kassam rockets and mortar shells struck Israel again . . . Ten hours after Israel launched its attack on Gaza, it sent humanitarian and medical supplies to the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza. Again rockets fell…every day… 25 one day, 60 the next… and yet again Israel sent emergency aid to help the very Arabs who cheered as rockets continued to fall on Israel.

Pray for Rain – Sarah Klein-Halevy made a fervent request to our tour group to pray for rain…The floodgates of heaven opened up for Israel that weekend, bringing at least nine inches of rain in northern Israel and six to seven inches in southern and central regions. The rush of water coming from higher elevations was so intense it washed out a new bridge on the Dead Sea road – after we reached Tamar via that road!

Israeli researchers are the first to document that Stem Cell Injections Can Cause Tumors – Stem cells, especially those from few-day-old embryos, are considered by many to be a potential cure for a wide variety of chronic disorders because they have the ability to produce new cells of all types for the repair of diseased organs. However, based on the case of a now 16-year-old boy who developed tumors in parts of the brain and spinal cord, after he underwent highly experimental stem cell therapy injections in Russia, the future of (fetal) stem cell use may be in question and must be preceded by extensive research. Israeli researchers found after extensive pathological and genetic research that the tumors in the now 16-year-old boy were not germane to the patient, but were sourced from at least two (aborted) fetuses whose foreign tissue had been injected into him.

Tourists Lois Fields and her sister Nancy Matchett having lunch at a restaurant near Jaffa Gate with Zev Kedem – with that knowledgeable Israeli, the discussion is more than about food.

Another Jerusalem Post article revealed an Israeli world first: Surgeons weld wounds shut with surgical laser. “The technique of sewing the human body with needle and thread is an old one,” said Prof. Abraham Katzir.  Katzir and his team use another technique called “laser welding” in which biological glue – a special albumin protein produced by the Israeli biotechnology company Omrix – is smeared on the two sides of the incision. Then a laser warms it at the correct temperature to make the glue thicken and create a hard “shell” that protects the wound and allows it to heal speedily without allowing pathogens to enter.

Sources: JTA, ZOA, IUC, WJC, Arutz-7, Inside Israel Newsletter, The Jerusalem Post, New York Times.