7 “Good News” Stories In Israel: From Moraflora to the Dead Sea Scrolls

NUMBER OF DAYS UNTIL THE ISRAELI ELECTION: 29

ISRAELSTREET endorses NAFTALI BENNETT for Prime Minister

Head of “HaBayit HaYehudi” (The Jewish Home) political party

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*The second round of voting in the Egyptian referendum on whether to adopt the new Islamist constitution is underway–with every indication that the Islamist document will be handily approved.

In the first round last week, in which roughly half of Egypt’s 51 million eligible voters were allowed to vote, preliminary tallies indicate that 57% approved of the new Shariah law based Constitution. Apparently the only place that citizens voted against the new Constitution was in Cairo.

*In what can only be described as a new adventure in the surreal theater of the bizarre, the United Nations General Assembly voted yesterday to demand that Israel turn over the Golan Heights immediately to Bashir Assad. Given the fact that Assad has begun hitting his own population with more missiles this morning, one can only wonder what is going through the minds of so-called “diplomats” at the U.N.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Lost in all of the political news of the past few weeks have been a number of “good news” stories coming out of Israel. This morning your humble servant is focusing on seven of them:

Moraflora: revolutionizing crop production for a hungry world.

1. The Israeli company Morflora has developed a way to deliver any genetic trait to any seed in such a way that the delivered gene does not transform the genome of the plant. In other words, plant growth and development can be enhanced without genetic modification. In particular, Morflora’s innovation will allow seeds to be protected from such negative “issues” as drought, bacteria, fungus, and pest infestation.

2. The Israel Southern Regional Committee has approved the initial plans for the new railway to be built between Beersheva and Eilat. The new lines (one passenger and one cargo) will be approximately 180 km long and will include new stations in Beersheva, Dimona, Kibbutz Metura, Mitzpe Ramon, and Eilat. The next discussions will take place in a few weeks about how to mitigate the environmental impact on the middle 60 km of track.

3. Israel recorded a $800,000,000 “account surplus” in the third quarter of 2012. On the one hand, the country reduced “deficits in primary income” from 2.4 billion to 1.6 million, and on the other hand exports of goods and services ($22.6 billion) exceeded imports ($22.2 billion). At the same time, the Bank of Israel has revised Israel’s predicted 2013 economic growth upwards to 3.5%.

4. IceCure Medical, a company based in Israel, announced that it has developed a revolutionary way to treat breast cancer without surgery. Doctors use a super-cooled needle to freeze the tumors to death in a process that takes about 15 minutes.

5. The level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) has sharply risen following heavy rains and snow in December–the most in December in 20 years. As of three days ago, the level of the lake was at 212.07 meters, an increase of some 18 centimeters since the beginning of the week. Yesterday, the lower level of Mt. Hermon recorded 25 centimeters of snow.

6. Major changes are about to be made in Jerusalem as the master plan of the Jerusalem Municipality has been approved. The plans focus on improvement to the city’s infrastructure–especially drainage, lighting, water, and electricity. In addition, new pedestrian areas will be built and historical buildings restored. Some of the most exciting changes will take place at the Kotel (Western Wall) where more of the underground Wall will become accessible (with an underground visitors’ center) and the plaza in front of the Wall will be expanded by 600 sq meters.

7. Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority have just posted 5000 images of the Dead Sea Scrolls including digitized versions of the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll.

You can now browse some of the Dead Sea Scrolls (picture source: Google).

Click on this link to begin your own exploration.

Everywhere you look in Israel something is happening whether it be in religion, agriculture, economics, history, or even “Mother Nature”. Spread the good news about Israel whenever you get the chance!

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A daily feature of this blog is the recognition of those of you who support Israel by donating to this website. Each month, your humble servant places each name on this wall of support into the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

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