Israel Active

A group of Judea and Samaria leaders made history by visiting Abu Dhabi on the first-ever organized trip by the Yesha Council to a Muslim country. They attended a traditional Iftar meal to break the Ramadan fast with Emirati committee chairman of defense, interior and foreign affairs.

Israeli medical experts are to travel to Macedonia to assist after a fire killed more than 50 people and injured dozens. The North Macedonian foreign affairs minister thanked his Israeli counterpart saying, "In these difficult moments, the solidarity of our partners and friends is truly invaluable to us."

Optimistic article by the director of corporate development at ICL (Israel Chemicals Ltd) Group which has recently launched its new Research and Development (R&D) lab.  She cites Israeli AI-driven crop monitoring systems, precision agriculture, and vertical farming to increase yields.

March 14th is Pi-day as the date can be written as 3.14. This year it also coincided with Purim so may be a Purim “spiel” (i.e. a joke). Israeli theoretical physicist Yehuda Ashkelon has memorized the value of Pi to 25,333 decimal places in Spanish - a new Israeli record (9th globally) and a world record for Spanish.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has offered Argentina assistance following deadly floods south of the nation’s capital of Buenos Aires. A storm hit Bahía Blanca, where 12 inches of rain fell in the city over several days; the historical monthly average is about 5 inches.

Another article (see previously) about the recent Athens conference to discuss expanding the use of barn owls for pest control.  Then 60 Palestinian Arab, Jordanian and Israeli experts met to discuss solutions to the Middle East’s water, energy, food-security and overall environmental problems.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu gave Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) a silver-plated beeper as a souvenir of “Operation Beeper”. “When that story broke, I was like, ‘Oh, I love it,’” Senator Fetterman said. “Thank you for this.” The PM said, the real beeper was much lighter, but changed history.

Major (res.) Yossi Levy will soon become the first haredi battalion commander in the IDF. He said, “I hope that one day young haredim will see me as a role model.” He is currently serving his fifth round of reserve duty and hopes to be the first of many Haredi commanders.

The Jerusalem Post hosts its fourth annual Women Leaders’ Summit on 25 Mar. It brings together some of Israel's most influential women driving change. The summit highlights the strength, creativity, and leadership, of women in business, government, and technology.

The new Lone Soldiers Program Resilience Center (see ) is an initiative of Nefesh B’Nefesh and Friends of the IDF, with Sheba Medical Center. It offers specialized therapeutic and emotional support to the 3,500 people who leave their family to make Aliyah and enlist in the IDF.