As we approach the Jewish New Year it is appropriate to highlight Israelis and Israeli innovations that are likely to make a huge impact on our lives in the next few years. Here are some examples from the latest news stories to help people see the Jewish State in its true light.
It is hard to see the future when suffering from poor or non-existent eyesight. So imagine the foresight that Bar-Ilan Professor Zeev Zalevsky must have had to invent a bionic contact lens for the blind that receives the electrical signals from an image and transmits them to the wearer’s cornea. From there, the image is translated, by sensory areas of the brain, into a tactile sensation that the wearer can interpret visually via the fingertips and the tongue. Now checkout the other futuristic innovations that Professor Zalevsky is working on.
Israel’s EyeYon Medical has two solutions for corneal edema, which afflicts two million new patients every year. First, a patented contact lens uses osmosis to release the dangerous fluid build-up. Then a polymer film implant prevents the fluid forming in the future.
Half of the victims of one of the deadliest categories of stroke previously never got to see the future. Now, thanks to the revolutionary Ventritek105 device from Tel Aviv’s Biosan Medical, more than 90 per cent of Intra Ventricular Hemorrhage sufferers who are treated using the device will survive. Eli Beer certainly saw the future when he decided to set up United Hatzalah and its lifesaving ambu-cycles. Eli was unwilling to see people die just because ambulances were unable to get through traffic. United Hatzalah’s two-wheeler paramedics get to emergencies in 3 minutes. “It’s about saving people,” says Eli.
I keep urging people to see at how tiny the State of Israel is on the map of the Middle East. So it is appropriate that some Israeli hi-tech research, innovations and discoveries involve technologies that you cannot even see with the naked eye. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has just founded the Quantum Information Science Center to advance computing and communications. Just imagine the size of the components inside the powerful 5.3 inch by 3.9 inch Utilite computer from Israel’s CompuLab. And another Israeli computer “giant” TowerJazz has just announced a major breakthrough in magnetic technology.
Israeli cleantech is already helping urban communities around the world to reduce levels of smog and see their environment more clearly. The latest development Israel’s SDE Energy is a 100MW sea wave power plant along the coastline of Conakry – the capital of Guinea. It is good to see that we Israelis will also benefit soon from new electric trains and buses and power stations running on natural gas.
Several of the subscribers to my weekly newsletter have asked me whether I can see any future emerging from the current peace talks between Israel and the PA. I make no comment other than to hope for more of the kind of co-existence stories that I publicize. For example, a partnership between Israeli and Palestinian Arab companies to produce eco-friendly salt seasoning from the Dead Sea. Or the new industrial park near Bethlehem, being built with support from France, the PA and Israel.
We also desperately need to see more people such as the pro-Israel Arab Christians of Nazareth who are trying to convince more young Arabs to join the army. Their reasoning is “We live in a Jewish state, which is democratic and free. As Israeli Christians we see ourselves as part of this state and not as part of those who oppose it”. And just look at Ahmed Inaim – a Bedouin Muslim from Nazareth – who enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, despite losing one brother who fell in military service and having seen another brother severely wounded by terrorists in the same raid that captured Gilad Shalit. Here, he explains why he chose to extend his service in the IDF.
Finally, we should all be inspired by young Aviva Krainess from Bet Shemesh, who founded Aviva Productions despite suffering from Lupus and losing nearly all her eyesight. Aviva wanted others who are visually impaired to be able to enjoy entertaining plays and has just finished producing “The Emperor’s Secret” – a unique production for “The Theatre of the Mind”.
My New Year wish is that with Israeli ingenuity and positive attitudes we will all see a brighter future.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.
