Israeli Diplomats Going Green

Aside from improving relations in the US, Israeli's diplomatic arm is also improving relations with nature by having senior diplomats adopt "greener" technologies.

(Isrealli.org) Israel has announced that starting this fall, it will significantly reduce the petroleum consumption of its senior diplomats in the United States by switching to hybrid-electric vehicles. The symbolic initiative, led by Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, will include Israel's embassy in Washington, its nine consulates throughout the U.S. and its mission to the United Nations, making Israel's foreign service among the first in the U.S. to significantly reduce oil demand throughout its entire official fleet.

"Reducing oil dependence and protecting the environment are key factors in improving international security," Meridor said. "We are proud to be among the first countries to take this small but symbolic step. Our hope is that many small steps taken together will lead to major policy action around the world that will address one of the most critical strategic and environmental issues facing our common future."

This is a great initiative that (hopefully) other diplomats will follow. Hopefully the government can expand this measure to all embassies around the globe, setting a new trend for the international community worldwide.

Two Shekel Coin Coming Out This Fall

(Image: Sketch of the two shekel coin. Credit: Ha'aretz)

Israel is finally scheduled to release the long awaited two shekel coin (previously reported here last year).

The coin will appear in Israeli wallets everywhere later on this fall, and may quickly become a favorite, especially among cab drivers.

(Ha'aretz) Meet the two-shekel coin, coming soon to a wallet near yours. Today the first, small, shipment of the coin arrived at the Bank of Israel for technical inspections. [...]

Before deciding to mint the new coin, the Bank of Israel conducted surveys among the public and sectors that commonly use cash, such as taxi companies and banks. It found widespread support for the two-shekel coin.

To my surprise, Israel has no mints of its own (according to the Ha'aretz) so the coins will be flown in from the outside.

With the two shekel coin making headways, I wonder what will happen with the original shekel coin?

Globes Interviews JewTube Founder

Globes has a very interesting interview with Jeremy Kossen, founder and owner of JewTube, a Jewish version of YouTube.

(Globes Online) The mega sale of online video sharing site YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion was a source of motivation for Jeremy Kossen, a young American Jewish entrepreneur from California, who yesterday launched JewTube, the Jewish version of YouTube. Kossen, who is in Israel to attend the ROI Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators, spoke to "Globes" about the concept behind JewTube and why it's possible to be successful without re-inventing the wheel. [...]

"I've been working on this for close to two years," he says. He got the idea to use the YouTube concept to create a forum for posting video clips with a Jewish connection with the name JewTube from "GodTube," [link: GodTube.com] the evangelical Christian response to YouTube. "For me it was obvious that we needed to provide a Jewish response to this. I was motivated to create something that will serve Jewish communities as well."

Be sure to check out the full interview as Kossen has some very big plans for JewTube, although he has yet to figure out how to put advertising on this beast.

The site doesn't look like it has many video's thus far, but here is one video detailing King Herod's tomb.



Find this video and thousands of others at vSocial!

Video: Israeli Ingenuity Inside Apple's iPhone?

(Hat Tip: Isrealli.org)

It looks as if Apple's iPhone may have had some of its parts developed by Ceva, a company in Israel. Unfortunately, even Ceva will not find this out until it purchases and iPhone and looks inside for itself.

(Ha'aretz) Ceva is an Israeli company that specializes in developing technology for DSP processors, for the semiconductors industry.

If analysts are right in their projections and Germany's Infineon becomes the main source of chips for iPhone, then it's highly likely Israel will be represented in the device's technology. Infineon, Europe's second-biggest chipmaker, uses a lot of Ceva's telephony products, and tension is high at the company - as is optimism.

No word on whether or not Ceva will find their goodies inside one of the hottest phones on the planet, but for those of you wondering what the iPhone can do check out this video below for a taste of the future. (hat tip: Hot Air)

Can Kenaf Paper Save Our Trees?

(Image Credit: Wikipedia)

No matter how you slice it and dice it (no pun intended), we cut up billions of trees every year just so we can communicate ideas in the physical (on paper), not to mention build houses.

With the need for trees probably expected to increase in the near future (due to human population growth), one Israeli researcher has come up with an idea to ease our dependency upon trees for paper by replacing it with a little known plant called Kenaf.

(Israel 21^st Century) Israeli Professor Roni Aloni of Tel Aviv University has been working with kenaf for 30 years, and may have finally discovered the breakthrough that will spring kenaf from obscurity. He, along with Professor Adi Avni and graduate student Jonathon Dayan, has succeeded at silencing a gene in the kenaf plant, which causes the kenaf to produce 50% more fibers per crop - and those fibers are longer and of higher quality than before. "The idea was to increase quality and fiber and stem length," Aloni told ISRAEL21c.

The technology is still in the testing stage, but the hope is that kenaf will replace trees as the source of pulp for paper manufacture. Kenaf grows much faster than trees, and would therefore be a more efficient source of pulp even without genetic modifications. "The same acreage of land planted with kenaf can yield the equivalent quantity of pulp fibers from wood that takes 20 years to grow," explained Aloni.

The technology still has yet to be perfected, but the promise of what it may bring could ease our dependency upon our forests for paper. Although trees will still be chopped down due to lumber demands (as there is no cheap substitute for wood), we may see newspapers made out of Kenaf instead of trees (as we need the latter for oxygen).

Aliyah News: More Jews From North America

(Image: Immigrants arriving from the US, Credit: Niv Calderon via Ynet)

It looks as if more Jews from Canada and the United States are uprooting themselves and migrating over to the kosher state. The state of Israel has not seen these levels since the 1980's, and it seems as if more Jews are returning to their homeland.

(Ynet News) The Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency for Israel is anticipating that immigration to Israel from North America will increase between 5 and 10 percent this year, marking the highest aliyah from North America in 25 years. In 2006, 3,200 residents of the US and Canada formally became Israeli citizens, the highest figure since 1983.

Some 300 New York area residents who will move to Israel this summer will participate Monday (July 2) in a farewell reception hosted by the Jewish Agency in Manhattan, in conjunction with the Israel Consulate, with Ambassador Dan Gillerman, Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, addressing the group. Similar farewell receptions have been held this month in Toronto, Boston, Miami, and Rockville, Maryland.

The new Israeli's range in age from toddlers to individuals in their nineties (with one being a holocaust survivor!). North America has been a hard market for the Aliyah agency (mainly because it is very comfortable here).

Hopefully more Jews will follow their brethren over the ocean and through the clouds as Israel could definitely use these newcomers advice (especially in politics!).

Bush To Iraq: Israel Is The Standard

It looks as if the President of the United States has finally declared a future goal for the Iraqi people. Although it is doubtful that the violence in the region would end (as that would be like asking for taxes to disappear) Bush seems to have settled upon what a future Iraq should look like.

And Israel is its name-o.

(IndyStar.com) President Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq on Thursday, saying the U.S. goal there is not to eliminate attacks but to enable a democracy that can function despite violence.

With his Iraq policies under increasing fire from the American public and lawmakers from both parties, Bush went to the U.S. Naval War College here to declare progress. As the president pleaded for patience, his top national security aide went to Capitol Hill to meet with Republican critics.

Despite the fact that Israel has its own problems regarding terrorism, this has not stopped the nation from thriving in a hostile region. Israel has given much to the world, especially in the realms of health and technology, not to mention attracting internet giants like Google, Microsoft and AOL.

The tiny state of Israel leads the entire middle east region as far as innovation is concerned, and hopefully Iraq (and other aspiring democracies) would be able to attain a similar status as the Kosher state.

Google Israel Beating Walla! At Its Own Game

It looks like the search engine giant can safely hold onto its crown as the largest internet company in the holy land. After reporting unprecedented earnings for the first quarter, it looks as if Israel has officially become Google territory, at least as far as advertising goes.

(Globes Online) The sources add that in the first half of 2007, Google Israel's revenue reached $25 million, an amount identical to its revenue for all of 2006. It is estimated that Google Israel's revenue will reach $45-50 million by year's end. [...]

These figures have made Google Israel into the largest internet company in Israel, beating out Walla for the title. Walla's first quarter revenue was NIS 27.1 million.

After previously being dethroned by Google, Walla! had decided to fight back by launching its own pay-per-click advertising system in order to recapture lost ground to the Google wonder.

Despite being a little late in the game, Walla! is probably determined to overtake the internet Goliath, although if that ever happened Google would probably buy them out.

Video: Shamoon College Wins "Green Competition"

It looks as if a university in southern Israel has won the Green Campus Award, which is a prestigious honor given that the school was competing against 60 other universities around the nation.

Regardless of politics, everyone can agree that preserving our environment is an important priority for the human race, and it looks as if the Sami Shamoon Collage of Engineering is helping to instill that belief within its local community.

(One Jerusalem) According to Wolfson, Shamoon is the only Israeli college to offer courses in Green Engineering, which cover sustainability, green energy, green buildings and green architecture. Wolfson commented, "Our hope is that, along with the knowledge the students gain, will come a feeling of obligation to deal with environmental issues, both as students and in their future professional lives."

With campuses in Beer Sheva and Ashdod, Shamoon College has extensive outreach initiatives to train parents, primary school students and teachers, and army officers about the importance of protecting the environment. The local towns benefit as well - non-Shamoon students can take a Shamoon course called "Chemistry and the Environment", and college students lead environmental activities for the community and for grade schools in Beer Sheva and local Bedouin villages.

Note: Here is a short video highlighting what Shamoon College has to offer to potential students thinking about attending (especially those considering making Aliyah).

Oral Insulin Anyone?

(Image Credit: Israel 21^st Century)


When it comes to diabetes, patients afflicted usually have two options in order to maintain their insulin at healthy levels. They can either choose to stick to a specific diet, or (painfully) opt for needles.

But now it seems as if a Jewish scientist may make it possible for those suffering from diabetes to simply treat the disease as one would treat a minor headache.

(Israel 21^st Century) The Oramed Insulin Capsule is an orally ingestible soft gel insulin capsule that the company believes will help Type 2 diabetics reduce the dependency on insulin shots and even prevent them from needing them at a later stage of the disease.

The capsule has been specially engineered to protect the insulin from the destructive effects of gastric juices. The insulin it delivers goes straight to the liver, which stores insulin and controls the dose being delivered to the body, and from there is sent out into the bloodstream.

According to Dr. Miriam Kidron, this capsule has the potential of helping the body by allowing the person's liver to control the level of insulin administered in the blood stream, instead of injecting random amounts via needle.

This allows the body to avoid becoming insulin dependent, which seems to be a drawback of using a needle to maintain healthy insulin levels.

Note: The company producing this is called Oramed, and you can find more information about this revolutionary drug over here.

BIRD Foundation To Improve US-Israel Cooperation

There seems to be a unique foundation whose sole purpose is to help improve the economic ties between the land of opportunity and the holy land. Both the Israeli government as well as their American friends may be thinking about doubling the financial support for this group, which can only benefit both economies.

(Globes Online) "Doubling the BIRD Foundation's capital will enable the foundation to double its activity, in other words, to increase the number of ventures that we will be able to support, increase investment in each venture, or decide how to combine the two options," [Dr. Eitan Yudilevich] said.

The BIRD Foundation supports joint ventures by US and Israeli high-tech companies by finding strategic partners in the two countries and financing the development of joint products. Over the past 30 years, the foundation has funded 740 projects, which have generated $8 billion in direct and indirect sales.

What makes this foundation unique from an "investors club" is the fact that businesses receiving funds are not required to pay back the money in the event of failure.

This encourages businesses with innovative ideas to flourish, resulting in cooperation between the two nations. Of course, if these companies are successful, the royalties they earn go back to the BIRD Foundation who then can take the funds for further investment, or to help out other industries.

Note: Readers can visit the foundation over here.

Sudanese Refugee Enjoying Life In Israel

While the world debates how to intervene in the situation in Darfur, it looks as if Muslim refugees have found an unusual sanctuary in an unlikely nation--Israel.

(Baltimore Sun) Five years after he fled his Darfur village, and after jail spells in three countries, Ibrahim has found refuge in an unlikely place: a kibbutz in Israel.

The young Muslim is one of about 440 Sudanese refugees working in Israeli hotels and on farms while the government seeks to place them in a third country. [...]

Ibrahim said he feels isolated, because he speaks only Arabic and can't communicate with his kibbutz employers. But he does feel safe.

"Israel is nice," he said. "No one will hit you in the street or yell at you. I had to come all this way before I could find someone to treat me this way."

Despite the fact that Ibrahim official comes from what Israel regards as an "enemy nation," the Israeli government has extended hospitality towards refugees like Ibrahim, as they hash out details on where his future home will be.

Israel is currently attempting to find ways to relocate these people abroad (in Europe of all places) although the Sudanese refugees may be better off remaining in the Jewish state--at least until things calm down in Africa.