Israel Active

NATO’s flagship for its Sea Guardian Operation has conducted a medical response exercise with Israeli Navy corvette INS Eilat. The exercise, “MEDEX Crystal Sea” is designed to develop medical support around the Mediterranean Sea for Operation Sea Guardian.

As every year, the Jerusalem municipality distributed free Christmas trees to Jerusalem’s Christian residents. Israel’s KKL-JNF distributed trees to residents in Northern Israel. Israel also authorized hundreds of Gaza’s Christians to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth.

All flights at London’s Gatwick airport were suspended for 3 days at its busiest time due to unauthorized drones. The UK army eventually deployed the Drone Dome defense system that they bought from Israel’s Rafael Systems in August. (Not good news for the BBC though)

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that Oman’s leader Qaboos bin Said al Said has given El Al permission to fly over Oman’s airspace. He said Israel can also now overfly Egypt, Sudan and Chad and cut flight times to South America by at least 2 hours.

IsraAID co-CEO Yotam Polizer describes some of the amazing work of the Israeli NGO. In one example he personally helped rescue the last survivor of the Nepal earthquake. She had been buried for six days and was found only after pulling out 21 bodies. She is now back with her children.

An unmissable video. Over the last 10 years, the Israeli NGO Innovation: Africa has used Israeli technology to pump water and provide electricity to schools and medical centers in African villages. The NGO has saved thousands of lives and benefited over a million Africans in 10 countries.

Brigitte Gabriel was born Hanan Qahwaji, to Lebanese Maronite Christian parents. She relates her first encounter with an Israeli - who drove her and her wounded mother to Israel for treatment. I try to avoid politics, so don’t watch beyond 4 minutes if you do too.

Hundreds of journalists and social media personalities attended the recent 3-day Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem. On day 2, 40 of them chose one of four options – a trek to Judea to hear about the project where Jews and Palestinian Arabs pick up trash together to “clean the hate”.

NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo inaugurated Jerusalem’s 9,290 sqm Sylvan Adams sports complex (the largest in the Middle East). It will be the venue for the 30 teams of Jewish, Muslim and Christian 11-to 13-year-olds playing in the Junior NBA Jerusalem International YMCA League.

When Russian-born Alex contracted leukemia, he contacted Ezer Mizion who found a 10-out-of-10 match on their bone-marrow database. Shlomo (like many Haredi students at Jerusalem’s Meir Yeshiva) had registered his DNA. 9 years later, they met - brothers in arms.