Doc's Talk: A Green Country - With All Its Flaws, Absolutely Remarkable Israel

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A Green Country - With All Its Flaws, Absolutely Remarkable Israel

October 19, 2010
By Nurit Greenger

Sixty-three year after the reestablishment of their homeland, Israelis have learned, and are perfecting, living in desert conditions. Though the country has been at a constant war to defend itself from its Arabs foes, this has not stopped the Israelis to make their country a success story. Israelis are delivering God's "premonition": A Land of Milk and Honey-ארץ זבת חלב ודבש.
The war-torn Israel has become and is a symbol of pioneering of all sorts.
The country grows the most tasty food crop in mostly sand, it powers homes from the sun and it invents non-stops, whether it is technologies, medical cure or whatever comes to mind, always looking to enhance life in all aspects.
BY YEAR 2011, the world’s first finest city-wide electric car system, invented and launched by Shai Agassi, a 39-year-old Israeli-American entrepreneur of Better Place Israel - the global provider of electric vehicle networks and services - will be up and running. (http://www.betterplace.com/). Israel electric car project aims to wipe out large percentage of oil usage. The electric car, built by Renault-Nissan, will be up and running in one of the most unlikely settings. The car requires a network of re-charging points and battery changing stations now being set up in Denmark, Hawaii, California, Canada and Australia.
The first place to host a national electric car network will be Israel. Within Israel, Jerusalem will be the first city. The car that looks like a regular Renault Megane (http://www.google.com/images?q=Renault+Megane&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=0re8TJmJJIq6sAOh7MHsDQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQsAQwAA) has no exhaust pipe or a socket for petrol cap. It drives noticeably quieter than a regular car and is powered by a 450 lb lithium-ion battery that can power the car for about 140 miles run without re-charging, compared with 300 miles for the average family car on a full tank of petrol (gasoline).
Recharging the car battery will take several hours. Drivers will be able to plug in their cars to recharge at home, work or at designated free car parks throughout the country. Or, they will be able to swap an empty battery for fully-charged ones at a network of up to 200 “swap stations” throughout Israel. The electricity for the cars will come from solar technology being developed in the desert in southern Israel.
Regardless of its security predicament, the tiny state of Israel, the size of New Jersey or Wales, with a population of just under 7.5 million, also leads the world in developing and exporting other green technologies that could save the planet.
Ironically, it is precisely because of its precarious position that Eco-inventions have flourished in Israel. Surrounded by hostile neighbors, with near to none natural resources of its own and two-thirds of its area inhospitable desert, Israelis has had to use their wits to survive. And so they did and are doing.
When Warren Buffett, among the world’s wealthiest people, decided to make his first investment outside the United States, he chose ... Israel. When he invested $4 billion in Iscar, the Israeli precision tool maker Buffett explained: “Some Americans have come to the Middle East looking for oil so they didn’t stop in Israel. We came to the Middle East looking for brains and we stopped in Israel ... we found that the real trick in business is not to be a genius yourself but to go around associating with geniuses who are already doing a good job and stay out of their way."
The Israeli ingenuity in technology is mindboggling. Israel is a fountain of knowledge,” says Avishay Braverman, an Israeli economist and politician, a former president of the Ben Gurion University in the Negev and currently a member of the Knesset for the labor Party and the country's Minister of Minorities.
Israeli innovations range from Intel microprocessors to messaging systems that ensure the safety of nearly all the world’s financial transactions. Microsoft Intel, IBM and NDS, a firm that designs TV set-top boxes to unscramble cable and satellite signals, all have research and development centers in Israel drawing on the Israeli "genius" brainpower.
Israel attracts more foreign investment in high-tech businesses than all of Europe and it has more companies listed on NASDAQ stock exchange in New York than any other country outside the United States. In innovation it outshines many countries in the world, not to mention its neighbors. Between 1980 and 2000, Egypt registered 77 patents in the US, Saudi Arabia registered 171 and Israelis registered 7,652 patents.
There are numerous clean-technology start-up companies in Israel. “We are flexible and we are smart because we know that we have to be to survive,” says Shraga Brosh, chairman of the Israeli Manufacturers’ Association.
The primary motor of technical innovations is the Israeli military. It creams off whiz-kid teenagers, rams them through accelerated university training and gives them sophisticated military assignments that end up in outstanding discoveries. Shai Agassi of the electric car Better Place and the founders of computer security pioneers Check-Point, served in Unit 8200, a top-secret division of Israel's military intelligence, in which most of its soldiers are computer whiz-kid.
TALPIOT, is another Israeli military program veiled in secrecy. It whips its high-achieving teenagers through electronics, engineering or physics degrees before setting them up in state-of-the-art laboratories to build the next-generation defense solutions.
Among Israel’s many challenges are its geographic and political isolation. To add to this is its water supply whereby its water sources are partially controlled by its enemies, Syria and Lebanon. With sandy and infertile land, “Israel has become a world power in terms of green technology because of our long experience in dealing with scarcity,” says Jon Medved, head of the pioneering video ringtone company Vringo and an investor in Israeli clean technology companies. “We have created these technologies to solve problems that are acute here.” (http://www.vringo.com/corporate/company.html)
While Israeli innovations aim at alleviating Israel's problems, these innovations do not remain for Israel's use only. Example, Israel and experts, such as Dov Pasternak, lead the world in countering the creeping desertification that has made large swathes of Africa and Asia uninhabitable. Satellite photographs show that only two countries have increased the area of land covered by forest and agriculture – the United States and Israel. More than 40 years ago, with drip-irrigation system, Israeli farmers revolutionized the watering of agricultural crops, which has since been widely adopted worldwide. The water is carried directly to the roots of the plant through tiny holes in small gauge plastic pipes that can be easily redeployed according to need. Because the water is delivered direct to the roots of the crop there is less moisture on the leaves and the surrounding soil, thus suppressing mould and weeds and reducing the need for chemicals and pesticides. The system is set on a timer, reducing evaporation and eliminating water run-off, all ends up in a tremendous water savings.
Netafim, the company that markets the drip-irrigation technology, claims it is now used in more than 110 countries and has helped creating self-sustaining agricultural communities in drought-stricken areas, particularly in Africa.
Israel recycles 70 percent of its waste water which puts the country way ahead of any other country in the world in water recycling and its usage. The recycled water is used for agriculture, waste management and for fish farming in the desert.
Israel is a leader in water desalination as well. The Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant – the largest in the world – achieved two notable successes in 2006. By 2005 it produced 400 million m³ of desalinated water and according to the plan, production is intended to rise to 750 million m³ by 2020.
Israel is also a pioneer in geothermal and solar energy. Visitors arriving to Israel immediately notice the solar heating panels and water tanks on almost every building rooftop. Just about every home and business in Israel has solar-heated water.
The Israeli company Ormat is the world’s leading company in geothermal power – meaning harnessing Earth’s heat to generate electricity.
Now Israel is leading the way in a new technology that harnesses solar power to produce clean electricity. Last year, Solel, which produces such technology, was bought by the German industrial giant Siemens, for more than $400 million. (http://www.greenprophet.com/2009/10/siemens-solel-purchase/). Solel will also build the largest solar park in the world in California that will supply more than two million homes in California with electricity produced from the sun, not fossil fuels.
Solar technologies create a cleaner environment and break our dependence on oil. Solar technologies from Israel could indeed change our planet. (http://www.israel21c.org/environment/seven-solar-technologies-from-israel-that-could-change-our-planet)
Israeli ingenuity in electricity is not limited to the sun. Innowattech-Energy Harvesting System (http://www.innowattech.co.il/about.aspx) is developing a system to generate electricity from the pressure of traffic driving on the roads. Piezoelectric generators are installed inches beneath the upper layer of the highway asphalt and, through sensors, convert the mechanical energy of traffic passing over them into electrical energy.
INNOWATTECH estimates that its generators placed along a half a mile of four-lane motorway stretch will produce about 1MWh of electricity – enough to power 2,500 households. It is also testing prototypes for railways, pedestrian walkways and airport runways – all of which could generate completely clean electricity.
Before too long it will be possible to drive an electric car, powered by a battery that generates its electricity from the sun, or from generators producing energy from cars driving over sub-surface, and its engine is cooled by recycled water.
Israeli technologies are constantly changing the world while the Jewish Nation is being the light unto the nations.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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