Israel Active

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and his wife, Tammy, helped package food for needy families at a charity in Jerusalem. 40 employees of the US embassy in Jerusalem volunteered to lend a hand at Colel Chabad’s Pantry Packers that supports 8,500 Israeli families of all religions.

Lt. “Yod” has become the first Israeli citizen of Ethiopian heritage to complete the military’s prestigious 3-year pilot’s course. Lt. “Yod” (for security reasons, all pilots are referred to by an initial letter) will serve initially as a jet navigator.

Volunteers from Israeli NGO IsraAID have flown to Indonesia (a Muslim-majority country having no diplomatic relations with Israel) to provide safe water and psychological support in wake of the tsunami disaster. Some IsraAID workers were still there since the last earthquake!

Five Israeli women were named among Forbes’ lists of “Top 50 Women In Tech” including three to the inaugural global list and two to the European round-up. They are Adv. Limor Shmerling Magazanik, Dr. Michal Tsur, Dr. Tal Rabin, Galia Benartzi and Danit Peleg.

The US Embassy in Israel and Israel’s Ministry for Social Equality held in Nazareth, the first high-tech conference that introduced Arab entrepreneurs to US and Israeli investors. In his speech US Ambassador David Friedman praised Israel as a “place where we are all enriched by our diversity”

New data from Israel’s Innovation Authority show that Israeli-Arabs fill about 3% of high-tech R&D positions - up from under 1% in 2015. There are now 50% more Arab-Israelis studying hi-tech subjects at Israeli universities and colleges than five years ago.

Israel is the only Middle East country where its Christian population is growing - by 2.2% in 2017. Today they number around 175,000. In Gaza less than 1,300 remain of the 30,000 before Hamas took over.  Israel issued 700 of them (over 50%) with Christmas permits to visit Israeli holy sites.  Meanwhile, Israel welcomed an estimated 150,000 Christians from overseas for the festive season.

Yehiel Magnus is head of Israeli-based Magnus International Search and Rescue. Magnus and his 15-person team have conducted thousands of humanitarian rescue operations over the last 25 years. They also retrieved kidnapping victims.

According to a 2017 report from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), Israel ranks number three on the shortlist for the most educated countries worldwide. About 50.9% of 25-64-year-old Israelis hold a 2 to 4-year higher degree. Video from 3:30

The 5th Israel-Greece-Cyprus Summit began on 20th Dec in Beersheba. The leaders of each country are to sign agreements on cyber defense, civilian space-related issues and meteorological cooperation.