Israel Active

Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather donated $1 million to Israeli emergency NGO United Hatzalah (UH) at their Miami Gala. Floyd also gifted a UH logo-shaped diamond necklace to philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson, in recognition of her unwavering support for Israel. The event raised a total of $14 million.

Some 100 U.S. leaders met in the U.S. Capitol to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the Abraham Accords, signed in the fall of 2020, which initiated the normalization of Israeli relations with several Arab countries. There are 28 daily flights to the UAE from Tel Aviv. (See write-up of our recent trip.)

A group of former yeshivah students have completed a three-month training course (the sixth in 2024) to become certified members of the Israel Police. About 150 to 200 haredi men currently serve with another 50 slated to join a new police training course that begins in January.

Israel’s Innovation Authority is providing $2.7 million over 5 years for  Jinnovate, Jerusalem’s first Arab sector health-tech accelerator, currently supporting a portfolio of 14 early-stage startups. Jinnovate was launched by Mahmoud Khweis, founder of Arab IT training company Techlinic.

Now it’s official (see previously). Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that Israel's population numbers approximately 10.027 million. 21% (2.1 million) are Arabs.

The Jerusalem Municipality distributed 350 Christmas trees to Christian residents before the holidays. It also installed festive decorations and colorful lighting in locations including the Old City’s Christian Quarter. Israel is the the only Middle East country where the Christian population is increasing.

In Dec, Doctors from Israel’s Save a Child's Heart operated on 25 children with congenital heart defects in Lusaka, Zambia. They also brought in experts from Tanzania to help. Back in Israel, SACH has opened a new state-of-the-art Pediatric Care Center & ER.

London-based Iran International reports that an Iranian opposition activist renamed a Tehran street after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described (in Persian) as “the purifier of evil”. (See video in link.)  A number of recent “incidents” seem to indicate grassroots Iranian support for Israel.

Israel and Argentina on Monday marked 75 years of diplomatic relations at a gala event at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. Mutual ties have reached unprecedented heights under Argentinian President Javier Milei. The Argentina-born father of Israel’s Foreign Minister was in the audience.

The three Tel Aviv University professors that won the $1 million Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics (see previously) received their awards at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Their work on the False Discovery Rate (FDR) is of major benefit to medical science.