Israel Active

Like their namesake, Corporal Esther Feldhammer, Sergeant Esther Yaso and Sergeant Esther Pakado chose to stand up and be counted when presented with the opportunity to join the IDF and defend their country. Women are exempt from combat duty but all three volunteered.

Yityish Titi Aynaw, a 21-year-old from Netanya, was chosen to be Israel’s representative in the Miss World 2013 competition - the first Ethiopian-born contestant to win the title.

Samsung sent 10,000 Purim baskets to any Israeli whose friend signed them up for one on the Samsung Mobile Israel Facebook page. Samsung paid for the candy, and for two Israeli charities, Variety Israel and the Enosh Fund, to assemble the baskets.

A columnist in the Jerusalem Post stated that Israelis were self-centered and ignoring the poverty in Africa. So I wrote a letter to the editor mentioning just some of the recent work that Israelis have been doing in Africa. Please respond to unjustified criticism whenever possible.

IDF medics saved the life of a Palestinian Authority Arab motorcyclist who suffered severe abdominal bleeding in a crash with a mini-bus near Shechem, otherwise known as Nablus. The Arab is now in a stable condition at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, near Tel Aviv.

Watch this video of Palestinian Arabs, Jews and Druze working happily together at SodaStream’s factory in Judea. SodaStream’s CEO explains that he could have put his factory on the coast, but he wanted to build an enterprise that fostered peace between Jews and Arabs.

The rhetoric has changed. Having found it impossible to pretend that Gaza is under siege, the latest upside-down anti-Israel argument is that Israel supplies too much! This week 42,898 tons of goods and gas entered Gaza from Israel in 1,445 truckloads.

Israel has authorized Turkey to build a Turkish-funded hospital in Gaza. Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that Israel gave permission to transport the construction materials to Gaza as a gesture of goodwill toward Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan will inaugurate the hospital.

The 19th Israeli parliament will have a record number of women lawmakers in Israel’s history. Women now comprise 23 per cent of the Knesset – a higher percentage than in the US Congress (18 per cent) and the UK House of Commons (22%).

The Dualis Fund is a venture capital fund with a difference. It provides profit-making opportunities for investors, helps businesses succeed, but also ensures a ‘social return’. Projects include a restaurant employing at-risk youth and a software company for people with disabilities.