Special Notice: Your humble servant is now on his way from his U.S. home in California to his Israel home in Ashdod. Israelstreet will be updated as possible during the next 48 hours, to resume in full on Thursday.
UPDATES and TODAY’S BLOG:
5 pm Israel time, Tuesday, June 9 2015
- A beautiful hotel room overlooking one of your humble servant’s favorite spots: the Mitzpe Ramon makhtesh.
1. It was announced today that at least five new hotels will be built in the next year overlooking the gigantic makhtesh just outside of Mitzpe Ramon. These hotels will provide more than 1300 new rooms for tourists and cover about 1,100 hectares. The Mitzpe Ramon makhtesh is the largest such geological formation in the world.
2. The largest wind turbine project in Israel is about to be built in the Yatir Forest on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron, on the edge of the Negev Desert. 18 large turbines (of the windmill variety) will produce 45 megawatts of electricity sufficient to provide electricity to 15,000 households.
3. Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, was in Jerusalem this afternoon meeting with PM Netanyahu. Schmidt said that he was in Israel because of Google’s increasing presence in the country largely as a result of Israel’s leading work in cyber technology.
Schmidt also pointed out that after California’s silicon valley, Israel is the hottest place in the world for hi-tech startups–with more than 6000 in the last decade.
4. Guess what? According to the new “Better Life Index” reported by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), Israel is the 5th happiest country in the world.
The top four countries were Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and Finland. The U.S. did not make the top 10.
5. The entire Israel sporting world is watching the NBA (National Basketball Association) finals with great anticipation–and are pulling for Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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In case you don’t know why, Cleveland’s coach is Israeli-American David Blatt who immigrated to Israel in 1981, served in the IDF, married his wife Kinneret, and had four children. Along the way he was a basketball player in Israel’s Super League, and became a coach when his playing career was over.
6. Israeli company Hishtil has recently produced the world’s first sweet pepper tree–the “Funtastick”. Ideal for private gardens and balconies in Israeli apartment buildings, the Funtastick comes in the Medusa form which produces sweet-tasting peppers, and the Kunik which produces smoky, spicy tasting peppers.
7. From June 7-11, Sderot is hosting its 14th “South Film Festival”. This year the festival, which is free of charge, is showcasing 23 short films as well as several that are full-length. Moshe Mizrahi, the famed Israeli director of one of your humble servant’s favorite Israeli films, Madame Rosa, is being honored with a tribute.
8. Bon Jovi is coming to Israel on October 3 at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park.
When asked about the pressure by BDS on the band not to perform, promoter Marcel Avram had this to say today: “Jon Bon Jovi couldn’t care less. It is not the first or the last band to come to Israel.We are a proud country where a lot of people enjoy music, everyone wants to perform in Israel.”
By the way, Art Garfunkel is performing at Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa tomorrow night.
9. Moshe Kahlon, Israel’s new Finance Minister, signed an agreement today for the construction for a huge new project in Haifa. More than 7,700 new housing will be built alongside restaurants and cafes. The new housing will be built in conjunction with a new railway project and will be specifically marketed to young Israelis. It will be located near the passenger port terminal in the western part of the city.
10. It was announced today that Ashdod’s newest desalination plant is set to come online in the near future. With its completion, Israel’s desalination plants will produce 600 million cu meters of water–70% of Israel’s domestic water.
By 2020, domestic water production from desalination will reach 750 million cu meters.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.