Israel Active

I reported previously on the train link from Israel to Jordan.  One of its aims is to connect to a future Free Trade Zone in a 175-acre shared industrial and business enclave on the Jordanian side of the River Jordan. Mines have been cleared and work has begun on the bridge.

A 29-year-old Syrian woman recently gave birth to a healthy girl in Ziv Medical Center in Safed, and in gratitude to the State of Israel, named the baby Sarah. The woman came from a village, around which every hospital and clinic had been destroyed in the long civil war.

The Colel Chabad charity and Israel’s Ministry of Social Services and Welfare are providing 40 disabled adults aged 18 - 50 with specially adapted communal apartments. Located in Migdal HaEmek in northern Israel, they provide completely independent and private living spaces.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) has again stepped in this winter to provide some 14,000 poor elderly Israelis with home-heating assistance amid the cold winter weather. Vouchers were given to elderly in need in 100 municipalities.

I reported previously that ex-pats voted Israel the 4th best country to raise their kids, according to InterNations’ Family Life Index. This year, Israel rose to 3rd on the list, behind Finland and the Czech Republic.  Good childcare and education options were major factors.

United Hatzalah held a special dinner to honor its Jerusalem-based Arab Emergency Medical Service (EMS) volunteers. Its newest doctor, Dr. Murad Issam Odeh had to immediately treat a fellow responder who unknowingly ate some fish and suffered a severe allergic reaction.

Israel’s annual Wolf Foundation prize encourages achievers from outside of Israel in the sciences and arts.  This year “Israeli Nobel Prizes” were awarded to eight individuals from the US, UK and Switzerland. They include for anti-tumor immunotherapy and for the discovery of an exoplanet.

Israel’s Shmuel Bar writes how his IntuView system is used by the Saudi Arabian government, to identify security threats on social media and the dark web.

Noor Dahri has been appointed as an editor of Pakistan’s US-based Rabwah Times - the first Salafi and Muslim Zionist to be an editor of the newspaper. He says he will use his position to continue his peaceful mission to promote better understanding between Israel and Pakistan.

In their recent London meeting, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the steps to prepare the ground for a post-Brexit trade agreement. They also committed to deepen co-operation on intelligence-sharing and cyber-security to keep their people safe. Mrs May also invited Mr Netanyahu to London in November to celebrate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration.