Israel Active

Italian journalist Giulio Meotti writes that Israel today has what most of Western countries don’t have, in terms of economic growth, security, internal dynamism and optimism.  He recommends that we should all move to Israel.

Twenty members of parliament from countries throughout Europe, Africa and Latin America attended the 5th annual Israel Allies Foundation in Jerusalem. During Succot they toured Eastern Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron.

In her Jewish New Year greeting, British Prime Minister Teresa May praised the relationship between the UK and Israel, in particular - bilateral trade, scientific research, security cooperation and shared values. She also said that she was determined to stamp out boycotts of Israeli goods and events.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Luxembourg Prime Minster Xavier Bettel in Jerusalem – the first visit to Israel of a Prime Minister from the tiny European state. They discussed increasing bilateral trade, which nearly doubled between 2014 and 2015.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu held a summit at the United Nations with the leaders of over 15 African countries. Afterwards, Israeli companies presented their technological developments to dozens of African ambassadors, senior UN officials and representatives from the private sector.

Israel’s Defense Forces are the standard for professionalism and valor. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in praising his country’s Special Forces paratroopers after operations against terrorists, said proudly that the Indian troops were as good as the IDF.

In 1957, Israel launched the Foreign Ministry’s MASHAV (the Hebrew acronym for Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation). Since then, 270,000 in 132 countries have received training in agriculture, public health, education, women’s empowerment and more. And an article about MASHAV’s project in Uganda for Youth at Risk.

U.S. female war veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are receiving healing in Israel. Heroes to Heroes, a New Jersey-based nonprofit, organizes trips to Israel that provide emotional and spiritual healing for groups of 10 vets. They meet former IDF women who have been through rehabilitation.

Pakistani 'Muslim Zionist' Noor Dahri launched the Pakistan Israel Alliance (PIA) at the Glasgow Friends of Israel Conference in Scotland. The PIA seeks to build bridges between Pakistanis and Israelis, and between Muslims and Jews. Also a recent interesting article from Noor.

Israel has donated 117 tables that provide shelter during earthquakes to schools in the Taiwanese city of Tainan that was struck by an earthquake earlier this year. The tables were designed by an Israeli student and his teacher at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.