Christmas lights for environmental awareness

In an ironic twist, a Christmas tree fashioned of recycled bottles in the northern city of Haifa went up the day the nearby forests burned down.

On the day that industrial designer Hadas Itzcovitch's 38-foot-high Christmas tree crafted of 5,480 recycled plastic bottles was erected in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, one of the worst fires in the country's history ignited on the nearby Carmel Mountain. The fire caused the deaths of 44 people and destroyed an estimated five million trees.

Ironically the recycled Christmas tree, lit up by energy-efficient LED lights at night, sends a message about the importance of forests and environmental education. While the Carmel fire, set accidentally by a youngster, shows a growing need for environmental awareness in Israel.

When the fire broke out and began raging out of control, Itzcovitch asked the Haifa Municipality, which had commissioned the tree, if perhaps it wasn't the right time to put it up.

The tree was intended as a tribute to the three major religions that co-exist in Haifa and was to mark the upcoming Festival of Festivals. The event was being organized to celebrate Eid, Christmas and Hanukkah, representing Islam, Christianity and Judaism. As the fire raged, a decision was made to postpone the festival for a week.

"It took one month to build the tree," 30-year-old Itzcovitch tells ISRAEL21c. "While we were building it in the ground we saw the fire on the mountain." And they could smell it, too. "It was everywhere. I asked the city if perhaps we shouldn't put it up. They said if not now, it will be lost."

A tree twice as high

It was probably a good idea to go ahead. The police had already been sent to cordon off the street as the tree formed of recycled bottles collected from residents of the port city was hoisted at a busy intersection.

International media from all corners of the earth are writing about the recycled bottle Christmas tree, and it's important to Itzcovitch that they get the story right, and not report that it was developed in response to the fire, but rather commissioned before and coincidentally erected on the day the fire started.

Born and raised in a suburb of Haifa called Kiriyat Bialik, today Itzcovitch lives in Tel Aviv with her boyfriend and works as a freelance industrial designer. In between projects which include elements of green design, she lectures at nearby universities and colleges, teaching students from high-school age and up about innovations in recycled materials and energy efficiency.

The "green" Christmas tree idea was all hers. She told the city that with the same budget they'd set aside for their 20-foot Christmas tree, she could build one twice as high, using recycled materials. The committee was ecstatic, she reports.

"I told them I could take this budget and double the tree in height and make it with recycled bottles. And it would be good for the environment, too. They said 'build it as high as you can.'

A tree with a message

Enlisting the help of her handyman father, a retired businessman and artist from Kiriyat Haim near Haifa, Itzcovitch developed the vision, and her dad Ernest Itzcovitch helped to construct the tree, including its metal frame.

Itzcovitch junior studied industrial design at Israel's Holon Industrial Design School, subsequently earning a second degree in industrial design from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, a university in Haifa which focuses on science and new materials development.

Growing up in Haifa, the Carmel Forest was Itzcovitch's refuge, as it was for many other kids and their families in the city, who would explore the UNESCO protected bio-reserve when walking and picnicking in it on weekends and holidays.

She hopes her tree will be an important environmental message for all the people of Haifa: The goal of building this Christmas tree was to make the people of Haifa happy - to show that people can live in harmony - with nature, and with each other.

"My hope is to keep the tree growing every year because they plan on using it next year, too. It's a cone so it expands easily. I could add a half meter [1.6 feet] every year."

http://www.israel21c.org/201012198644/culture/christmas-lights-for-environmental-awareness

Motorola Israel departs Tel Aviv

The company will complete the move to its new specially designed premises in Airport City by the end of the month

Motorola Israel Ltd. has completed its move from Tel Aviv to Airport City. After investing more than NIS 100 million in redesigning and rebuilding its new premises, the company is vacating its nine-storey premises in the Kremitzky lot on Yigal Allon Street in Tel Aviv.

Motorola Israel operated out of its Tel Aviv offices since the company was established in 1964. In 2006, the company signed a lease with Airport City Ltd. (TASE:ARPT) for a 40,000-square meter five-storey building, and 1,600 parking spaces. The building was built to the company's specifications, including 30 laboratories and a library. It complies with US LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard for green building.

Motorola Israel will complete the move of 1,000 employees to the new premises by the end of the month.

Motorola Israel leased the building for 25 years and has an option to extend for ten years, at NIS 28.4 million in rent a year. Airport City valued the building at NIS 171.4 million at the end of 2009.

Motorola Israel CEO Shimon Dick said, "The new building is not only one of the largest buildings in the Israeli high-tech industry, but also one of the most technologically advanced, specious, and comfortable for employees. It is environmentally friendly. All these innovations constitute a high-quality infrastructure for a competitive technological environment, and open a new era for the company in Israel, after half a century of fruitful activity in Tel Aviv."

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000610004

US Senator Bob Menendez Speech In Support Of Israel

US Senator Bob Menendez Speech In Support Of Israel

Israel to assume the Eureka chairmanship for 2011

Israel expects an exciting year of innovative discovery as it assumes the Eureka chairmanship and prepares to host Eureka events in 2011

Israel sets criteria for London Games

OCI general secretary: “We are going to the Games to win and in order to win you have to set tough criteria.”

The start of the 2012 London Olympics is still 592 days away, but Israel’s hopefuls can now begin preparing in earnest after the Olympic Committee of Israel announced on Sunday the criteria the country’s best will have to meet to participate in the Games of the XXX Olympiad.

“We are going to the Games to win and in order to win you have to set tough criteria,” OCI General Secretary Efraim Zinger said.

“We have three targets: One, to remain among the medal winning nations; two, to have a female medal winner for the first time since 1992; and three, to win a medal in a sporting event we have yet to win at.”

Most Israeli athletes will need to finish in high positions in European or World championships to book a place in London and will have 18 months to do so, beginning on January 1.

In athletics, for example, the sportsmen will need to reach the semifinals of the Worlds or record an A-level result in a specified event.

Israel’s swimmers will also need to meet a similar criterion, while judoka Arik Ze’evi, for instance, will need to be ranked among the world’s top-20 to reach the Olympics.

The OCI also announced its athlete of the year winner on Sunday, with windsurfer Nimrod Mashiah taking the award and the NIS 40,000 which comes with it.

National taekwondo coach Yehiel Sharabi was named as coach of the year, with swimmer Yakov Toumarkin being chosen as the youth sportsman of 2010 and windsurfer Ofir Halevi winning the youth sportswoman award.

http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Article.aspx?id=199181

El Al Unveils Brand New Breakfast Menu

If you’re planning to take a flight to or from Israel anytime soon with El Al, you’re in for a culinary treat. Israel’s airline presented on Sunday its brand new selection of breakfasts.



In order to develop its new breakfast selection, El Al teamed up with renowned Israeli chef Segev Moshe, one of Israel’s top chefs who was recently appointed the airline’s head chef.

As El Al CEO Eliezer Shkedi said: “El Al is determined to give passengers the best product while maintaining excellent quality without compromise. We decided to upgrade the morning meals offered on flights and we chose for this purpose Chef Segev to lead the move, along with El Al’s people both in the air and on the ground. For the first time in the history of Israel's air industry meals will be served to passengers in all classes, into which much thought has gone while creating a unique culinary experience from the kitchen of Israel’s leading chef.”

The new meals are being launched following a six-month long process, during which Chef Segev Moshe studied the world of aviation and worked jointly with El Al’s catering company to come up with new menus. Special emphasis is placed in the new meals on health and freshness.

The new meals will also be accompanied by a new look for both the utensils as well as the menus. Decorating the trays will be an image of the seven species as well as pictures of Israeli agricultural products. All items have been designed by Rachel Klein Studio.

Yehudit Grisaro, head of El Al's in-flight services department, said that the new meals will be offered to passengers in all departments, from first class to coach, on flights to and from Israel from all parts of the world.

The new menu will include the following:

“An Israeli morning” in coach: Cream cheese with black olives, homemade omelet, Israeli salad with a light honey-mustard vinaigrette dressing, yogurt with fruit, crunchy cinnamon biscuit, jam, butter, assorted fresh rolls, coffee tea.

“Five-color morning” in coach: A rich Israeli salad with five colors including a mixture of grains and a light honey-mustard vinaigrette dressing, cream cheese with black olives, natural yogurt, granola, honey, butter, assorted fresh rolls, coffee/tea.

The new business class breakfast: Cream cheese with red oil, tahini and eggplant cream, Balkan salad, a choice of an omelet or a rich five-color Israeli salad with a mixture of grains and a light honey-mustard vinaigrette dressing, crumble cheesecake with lemon, assorted yogurts, granola, butter, honey, jam , a selection of fresh breads and pastries, and coffee/espresso/cappuccino/flavored tea.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/141226

Hamas rejects children's trip to Holocaust Museum

Hamas has condemned the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees for its intention to take excelling Gazan students on a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.

The terror group called the plan "suspicious", and demanded that the initiative be dropped.

It also called on the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to "take a national stand for halting the moral corruption of superior Palestinian youth".

"The tours on human rights which UNRWA is organizing abroad, especially in New York, include visits to the Holocaust Museum and the site on which the twin towers stood," says a statement issued by Hamas.

"UNRWA clerks have offered explanations of the Holocaust, and expressed in them empathy for theJewish people for what it underwent. UNRWA must focus on materials regarding the rights of the Palestinian refugees without dealing with persecution in other areas of the world," the statement added.

"The memory of the children of Gaza cannot withstand the suffering of all of the persecuted people around the world. The suffering caused by the Jewish occupiers is enough. Besides, the United States has no claim to human rights, as it violates them every day around the world and in its own territory."

http://www.israelnews.net/story/721345/ht/Hamas-rejects-childrens-trip-to-Holocaust-Museum

IDF dogs team up with vacuum cleaners to detect explosives

The idea is the brainchild of Oketz, the IDF’s elite canine unit, which trains Belgian Shepherd dogs to detect explosives at military checkpoints.

What do you get when you put a Belgian Shepherd, an IDF soldier, a military checkpoint and a vacuum cleaner together?

No, this is not the beginning of a joke; it’s a new and innovative method for speedy IDF inspections of Palestinian cars for explosives at checkpoints throughout the West Bank.

The idea is the brainchild of Oketz, the IDF’s elite canine unit, which trains Belgian Shepherd dogs to detect explosives at military checkpoints and during IDF operations.

As a unit, Oketz is organized like a battalion with a number of companies, each corresponding to the dog’s designation – attack, explosives- detection, tracking and search-and-rescue.

Teams are deployed throughout the country and participate in daily counter-terror operations in the West Bank and along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Since 2008, the IDF has removed 27 manned checkpoints throughout the West Bank, leaving 14 that are mostly along the periphery, between Israel and the Palestinian territory.

In line with Israel’s efforts to ease restrictions and enable faster passage between the checkpoints, the officers at Oketz began thinking of new ways to inspect cars without having to open the door and have a dog pop inside.

The new idea works simply. It involves taking a standard vacuum machine that works on batteries, connecting it to a glass jar and sucking in air from a Palestinian car. The Oketz dog then sniffs a row of about 10 jars, with air samples from 10 cars, and if explosives are detected, it signals to its handler, who then begins a more extensive search of the vehicles.

“This is being done in an effort to ease restrictions on Palestinians who travel through the checkpoints,” a senior officer from Oketz said on Monday. “There is no question that the best way is to stick a dog’s head in the car, but we want to make things easier, faster and more effective.”

Another possibility under consideration is for soldiers at checkpoints to use a cloth to swab parts of the car and collect scent particles.

The dog will then smell the cloth and determine if there are traces of explosives in the car.

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=199298

Scientists to view 1,200 newly discovered sea creatures

First world "census" of marine life to take place in Jerusalem, with 3,000 scientists from 80 countries participating.

Some 1,200 new species and varieties have been discovered during the just-concluded first world “census” of marine life.

The director of the census, Jesse Ausubel, will participate in a conference on Monday at the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Humanities in Jerusalem. The occasion will also be marked by the screening there of Oceans, completed last year, which is considered one of the greatest nature films ever made.

The 10-year-census cost $370 million, and 3,000 scientists from 80 countries – including three Israelis – participated in it.

The Israeli conference was initiated and will be chaired by Prof. Alex Keinan, an adviser to academy president Prof. Ruth Arnon.

Keinan notes that while the creatures that live on land have been studied since the Renaissance, the sea and its bottom had never been studied systematically until now. The Jerusalem meeting will be held to show biologists who specialize in animal life, and scientists in general, the findings and huge unpublished database that resulted from the decade-long work.

Among the crabs, fish, worms and other “new” creatures that have been discovered is the first multi-cell organism to be identified that can live without oxygen. It was found on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea south of Crete by an Italian scientist. Sea plants, fish and bacteria unknown until now were also discovered.

Ausubel, who is director of the program for the human environment at Rockefeller University in Manhattan and program director for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, has played major roles in the formulation of both the US and world climate research programs.

http://www.jpost.com/Sci-Tech/Article.aspx?id=200048