This Week’s Sanity Report from Israel Jan. 28, 2024
Israel finally welcomed its first sustained friendly winter rains, marking Tu b’Shevat – the Jewish New Year for Trees. Recent positive news was full of examples of support for Israel from its friends both local and international.
IDF soldiers in restaurants get their meals paid for by friendly owners or other customers. They are given flowers before going home from Gaza to present to their spouses. And two soldiers serving together in Gaza became even better friends when they met in the hospital maternity ward where their wives were about to give birth. Israel’s dairy farms on the Gaza border are being maintained by foreign students studying at Israeli universities who showed their friendship by remaining in Israel after Oct 7. And Israel’s overseas friends have donated everything from money, to essentials, ambulances, and even the boots on soldiers’ feet.
Home news included child-friendly bomb shelters; volunteer Israeli telephone translators to give friendly advice to non-Hebrew speakers; and Israel once again proves to be the most Christian-friendly and female-friendly country in the Middle East. Many of Israel’s international friends showed support for the Jewish State, including the Czech President, Oracle’s CEO, Finland, and tens of thousands of cyclists.
In technology, an elder-friendly Israeli robot had an AI upgrade, Animal-friendly cultivated meat was approved for sale. Surgeons will enjoy using innovative Israeli user-friendly medical technology that displays the progress of cancer therapy, prevents damage to internal organs and saves the lives of wounded soldiers. And the tech-friendly IDF gave reservist entrepreneurs army leave to promote their technology innovations in the USA.
Finally secular Jews are making friends with religious Israeli soldiers by observing the Sabbath on behalf of those who cannot.
In celebration of the New Year for Trees, the photo, taken in July, is of our local flame tree (Delonix regia). Even though it currently is not in bloom, it still provides shelter during the rainy season to the children that play with their friends beneath its protective leaf-covered branches.
The highlights include:
- Many heartwarming stories about IDF soldiers.
- Israeli technology has reduced mortality in the IDF by 50%.
- Israel is the best Middle East country for Christians and Muslims.
- Israel leads the world in non-animal meat technology.
- Much evidence of Israel’s strong economy.
- A huge donation of Yemenite Jewish literary history.
- Archeologists unearth 2,500-year-old Jewish links to the Land of Israel.
POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
Druze woman saved Jewish town. On Oct 7, Druze IDF Sgt Maj Iyyad Yousef captured two Hamas terrorists who invaded the Jewish town of Yated where he lived. His wife Nasreen then interrogated them in Arabic and extracted vital information that helped IDF forces to eliminate the threat to their town.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Foreign students maintain Gaza border dairies. (TY Hazel) Dairy farms near Israel’s Gaza border have been supplying milk uninterruptedly since the outbreak of the Oct 7 war thanks to a few staff that remained behind while most residents were evacuated. Among those who stayed are university students from Africa and Asia.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Good news from Bet Shemesh. (TY Yanky) Journalist Hanoch Daum offered to pay a Tel Aviv restaurant owner for the meals of the IDF soldiers sitting at a table. The owner replied, “you’ll have to get in line, six other people have offered to do the same thing before you!” (more articles below)
https://www.shemesh.co.il/en/
Read all about it. Don’t miss these: A wallet lost in Gaza 10 years ago returned to its owner. A record 39,000 ADI organ donor cards were issued in 2023. 31,000 Jewish Israeli babies were born since Oct 7. Volunteers present soldiers with gift packages for them to give to their wives on returning from Gaza. And more…
https://www.shemesh.co.il/en/
In Gaza together, re-united in maternity ward. IDF reservists Eliya Rosen and Daniel Novogrotzky fought together for six weeks in Gaza. They were drafted on Oct 7, to join the same IDF unit. They were astonished to meet up again when they discovered that their wives were sharing a maternity room at the same hospital.
https://www.
IFCJ donates $19 million in 100 days. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) provided $19 million in aid and assistance to thousands of Israelis in the first 100 days of the war with Hamas. IFCJ will continue to support evacuees and displaced war victims with basic needs and other essentials throughout 2024.
https://www.jns.org/wire/ifcj-
https://www.jpost.com/israel-
14 ambulances donated. North Carolina based Samaritan’s Purse has donated 14 new MDA ambulances to replace those destroyed by Hamas on Oct 7. In addition, the organization is donating seven armored ambulances to MDA, which are still in production and will be dedicated this spring.
https://www.jns.org/
Something is afoot. There are a great many happy feet in the IDF due to the thousands of pairs of US-certified military-grade boots being delivered each week. 10,000 pairs of boots have been distributed to Israeli soldiers, thanks to some $850,000 of donations, raised mainly from individuals in the US at private funding events.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Asylum seekers cook for IDF soldiers. Dozens of Eritrean migrant workers hosted hundreds of IDF soldiers serving on the border with Gaza to a festive barbecue dinner. The Christian Orthodox Eritreans self-funded the cost of all the steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, kebabs, and salads.
https://www.jns.org/eritrean-
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Finland gives $1 million to MDA. (TY Hazel) The Finnish government is to donate $1 million to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service. Finland’s ambassador to Israel Dr. Nina Nordström signed the agreement after she toured the MDA 101 Emergency Call Center in Kiryat Ono.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
US approval for ultrasound software. Israel’s Techsomed Medical Technologies (see here previously) has received US FDA approval for its BioTraceIO groundbreaking ultrasound-based liver ablation software. It helps surgeons to see the real-time status of liver tumors while they use thermal ablation therapy to destroy them.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
A sensor to guide the endoscope. Israel’s SwiftDuct has developed a smart endoscope for navigating the complex and dangerous route needed to check the condition of the bile duct. 20% of the 2 million annual ERCP procedures cause damage to the nearby pancreatic duct. SwiftDuct’s sensor and guidewire solve this problem.
https://nocamels.com/2024/01/
https://swiftduct.com/
Boosting survival rates for wounded IDF soldiers. The current 6.7% mortality rate for wounded IDF personnel is half of that during the 2006 2nd Lebanon war. This can be attributed to faster evacuations, better protective equipment, and medical tech from Israeli founded companies such as Mazor Robots and Aidoc.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
DNA sequencing to combat pathogens. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Sequentify (see here previously) was awarded a grant by the Israel Innovation Authority to help develop a targeted DNA sequencing panel for infectious disease research, focusing on pathogen diagnosis and antibiotic resistance surveillance.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Child-friendly bomb shelters. The central Israel city of Holon is often called the children’s city as it hosts a huge children’s museum complex, a children’s library, and kid-friendly story parks. The municipality has now employed artist Rinat Luk Elhaik to paint each of the city’s 23 public shelters in the style of a children’s book.
https://www.israel21c.org/
More emergency interpreting services. (TY Yanky) A previous article (see here) mentioned the services provided by volunteers at Bar-Ilan University for non-Hebrew speakers. It links to the Bar-Ilan professional hotline for mental support 03 531 8811. BIU’s emergency interpretation service is *9392 extension 4.
https://www.biu.ac.il/en/
Israel’s educated Christians. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has just reported that 55.1% of Israel’s Arab Christians studied for a bachelor’s degree within eight years of graduating high school, compared to 34.6% of Arabs and 48.1% of all Israelis.
https://www.algemeiner.com/
My Life in Israel as an Arab Muslim. Sophia Khalifa tells her story. Please watch and forward this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Winning Arab hearts and minds. Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee is head of the Arab Media Branch in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, tasked with refuting the lies of Al Jazeera and other Hamas supporters. His deputy is Major Ella Waweya (see here previously) – a Muslim woman, known as “Captain Ella”, even after promotion.
https://www.jns.org/how-the-
Indian journalists, including Muslims from Kashmir, tour Israel. (TY WIN) Israeli NGO Sharaka (Partnership) brought a delegation of Indian journalists and social-media influencers, to tour Israel in the wake of Oct. 7 and the current war. It included three Muslim writers and an Afghan journalist living in Germany.
https://www.jns.org/indian-
We know who our friends are. (TY Hazel) Czech President Petr Pavel assured his Israel’s President Herzog that his country stands shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish state in its battle to defeat Hamas. “You can always rely on the Czech Republic,” Pavel told Herzog when they met at the President’s residence in Jerusalem.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-
A good time to be in Israel. Superb support messages from Oracle’a CEO Safra Catz. “America in particular loves a winner. And Israel is a winner”. Oracle put ‘We stand with Israel’ on global websites in the local language to publicize how important Israel is and what the difference is between good and evil.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Ride for Freedom. Tens of thousands of cyclists around the world responded to Israel-Premier Tech cycling team owner Sylvan Adams’s call to join the ride in over 40 cities across the globe to mark 100 days in captivity for the hostages of Hamas. https://www.jns.org/ride-for-
UAE opens Israeli AI/IR R&D center. (TY Yanky) Despite the war, the United Arab Emirates is to open a Haifa center for research into Artificial Intelligence and Information Retrieval. It will be the Israeli arm of the UAE’s the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) that invented the Falcon Open Source Large Language Model.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Securing friendly Gulf states. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Perception Point (see here previously) has partnered Dubai-based Securenet FZC to protect Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from online attacks.
https://www.ec-mea.com/
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Returning to space. Israel Space Week (see here previously) is making its return from Jan 28 to Feb 2, with special events held for Israeli evacuees and for IDF reservists. Conferences will feature leading Israel’s space professionals, such as Israel’s 2nd astronaut Eytan Stibbe, plus space agencies of Italy, France, and Azerbaijan.
https://www.jpost.com/science/
Cleantech 100 companies. International research and consulting company Cleantech Group has issued its 15th annual Global Cleantech 100 list. It included Israel’s BeeHero (see here previously) in the Agriculture & Food category. Israel’s Copprint (see here previously) was cited in the Materials & Chemicals category.
https://www.israel21c.org/
From the Battleground to the Showground. The IDF gave permission to the founders of several Israeli tech startups to fly on a specially chartered El Al plane to CES 2024 in Nevada to demonstrate their innovative products to the world. Visionary.ai CEO Oren Debbi will return to IDF helicopter rescues in Gaza next week.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Eldercare robot gets AI upgrade. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Intuition Robotics (see here previously) has just launched ElliQ 3 – the generative AI version of its ElliQ companion robot desk lamp. The company notes, “Now users can discuss a virtually infinite number of topics in a more natural and detailed manner with ElliQ.”
https://techcrunch.com/2024/
Israel’s cultured meat is a “Game” changer”. (TY UWI) In a landmark event, Israel has approved Israel’s Aleph Foods to sell its cultured (kosher / parve) beef to the public. (The USA and Singapore previously only approved cultivated chicken.) Aleph Farms hopes to roll out its Black Angus Petit Steak later this year.
https://www.jns.org/israel-
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.jpost.com/
Boosting cultivated meat production. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s ProFuse Technology has launched ProFuse -S1 – a supplement that accelerates muscle cell development in the cultivated meat industry. In the future it could also benefit the rehabilitation of human muscle cells.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
NIS 1.2 billion to support hi-tech. Israel’s latest aid for startups includes a huge fund to invest in deep tech breakthrough scientific developments. It ranges from 50% of a pre-seed round to NIS 50 million for series A rounds. Startups with women, Haredi, or Arab entrepreneurs, or from the periphery will receive 10% more.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Not a bad year. The IVC-LeumiTech Israeli Tech Review 2023 has just been published. In summary, considering that Israel is at war, the Israeli tech ecosystem kept going well. High-tech capital raising was stable; foreign investors were not scared by the war and increased their share of funding over local investment.
https://www.ivc-online.com/
Vote of confidence in Israel’s economy in the face of war. Very positive assessment by Ambassador Yoram Ettinger. A low debt to GDP ratio; high foreign exchange reserves; He even quotes a positive article in the New York Times. And that according to Intel’s CEO: “The Israeli people are the most resilient people on earth”.
https://theettingerreport.com/
$250 million for early growth. Israel’s Red Dot Capital Partners (see here previously) has completed the funding of its third Israeli fund. It has over $200 million to invest in early-growth startups working across the Israeli tech industry sectors, including enterprise software, fintech and cybersecurity.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
$120 million fund for deep tech. Israeli-European venture capital firm Cardumen Capital has raised $120 million for its second deep tech fund to invest in early-stage Israeli startups. The Israeli-European VC will select companies in fields such as AI, cybersecurity, big data, and information technologies.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
J.P Morgan expands its Israeli tech center. Global financial services firm J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is reaffirming its commitment to Israel with the expansion of its Israel Tech Center in Herzliya, home to its risk and trade management platform Athena.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Indian workers seek jobs in Israel. (TY Ted) Thousands queued in India’s northern state of Harayana during a recruitment drive to send workers to Israel, where there is a shortage of labor. Masons, painters, electricians, plumbers and some farmers can earn five times more than in India where 17% of under 29s are unemployed.
https://www.reuters.com/world/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
An island desalination plant. (TY Dr Salem) Israel is helping India establish a desalination plant in Lakshadweep – a group of islands off the Southwest tip of India.
https://www.business-standard.
Be the President of your field. (TY OurCrowd). Very clever new marketing video from Israel’s CropX (see here previously). https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Exits, takeovers, and mergers – to 28/1/24: Israel’s Snyk is acquiring Israel’s Helios.dev for several tens of millions of dollars.
Startup investment – to 28/1/24. Silverfort raised $116 million; Bluewhite Robotics raised $39 million; Vicarius raised $30 million; Xyte raised $20 million; SeeTree raised $17.5 million; Cyabra raised $5.7 million; Sequence raised $5.5 million; Prompt Security raised $5 million;
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
45,000 Yemenite manuscripts. The family of the late Yemenite Jew Yehuda Levi Nahum (1915-1998) has donated his entire collection to Israel’s National Library. Over 60 years, Nahum assembled some 45,000 Yemenite-Jewish manuscripts plus 15,000 Hebrew fragments including renditions of works by Maimonides.
https://www.jns.org/jerusalem-
Israeli wins Indian Open. (TY Hazel) Israeli tennis player Orel Kimhi won the PET ITF Mandya Open in India. The third-seeded Israeli beat Jelle Sels of The Netherlands 6-2, 6-4 to win his third ITF title in front of a packed crowd at the PET Stadium.
https://timesofindia.
First Israeli medal at European Track Championships. (TY Hazel) Michael Yakovlev is the first Israeli cyclist to win a medal at the European Championships. He won bronze in the sprint race and dedicated the medal (see here) “to the abductees who have been in captivity for 100 days. I am proud to raise the Israeli flag.”
https://twitter.com/
THE JEWISH STATE
Kingdom of Judah coin unearthed. (TY WIN) An extremely rare silver coin was recently discovered during an excavation in Israel’s Judean Hills. It is around 2,500 years old (6th–5th centuries BCE) and was found whilst excavating a First Temple period building. Archeologists also discovered a shekel measuring weight.
https://www.jns.org/unearthed-
Help reveal the Jerusalem Stone. What is the secret that lies beneath the Jerusalem Stone underneath the Dome of the Rock? Help make this ground-shattering movie that explains what is currently happening in the world. Please watch the trailer and then consider becoming part of history as one of the movie’s sponsors.
https://www.indiegogo.com/
Internship opportunities. ISRAEL21c is cultivating the next generation of digital communication experts who want the world to know the truth about life in Israel. College students aged 18-25 can create innovative social media content that shares the positive stories of Israel. Non-political impactful storytelling to the world.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Keeping Shabbat for Israeli soldiers. The organization Shabbat 4 Soldiers asks US families that normally don’t observe Shabbat, to keep it on behalf of an IDF soldier on active duty who normally keeps it but currently cannot. In its first month, 85 families have kept Shabbat for the first time, and more are joining each week.
https://www.jns.org/those-who-
https://www.shabbat4soldiers.
A synagogue in Khan Yunis. https://www.youtube.com/
How to help Israel. Here are some sites where newsletter readers can donate to Israeli organizations that provide vital help to Israelis at this difficult time. Many thanks to those who have already contributed and to those who are helping by donating their own valuable time and resources.
Friends of the IDF (US donors): https://www.fidf.org/
or IDF Soldiers Fund in Israel: https://www.ufis.org.il/en/
American Friends of Magen David Adom (US donors): https://afmda.org/
or Magen David Adom (Israel): https://www.mdais.org/en/
Zaka (US donors): https://donate.zakatelaviv.
or (Canadian donors): https://www.canadahelps.org/
United Hatzalah: https://israelrescue.org/
Leket Food Israel: https://www.leket.org/en/
JNF USA – https://my.jnf.org/gaza-
Orthodox Union – https://www.charidy.com/
Schneider Children’s Hospital: https://www.fos.org.il/en/
https://system.smartgiving.
https://chaischneider.org/
Hadassah Hospital Israel: https://www.hadassah.org/
Laniado Hospital (Netanya) https://my.israelgives.org/en/
And many more charities here:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Buy Israel Bonds to support the Jewish State. (TY Larry B)
https://www.
USA – https://www.israelbonds.com/
Europe – https://israelbondsintl.com/
Canada – https://www.israelbonds.ca/
