By Landon Mion
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"Is the Biden Administration at War with Israel?"
by Guy Millière
"The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem." — Professor Eugene Kontorovitch, Antonin Scalia School of Law, George Mason University. According to Dore Gold, formerly both Israel's Ambassador to the UN and Foreign Ministry Director-General, "The opening of the consulate on Agron Road in the west of the city will not only undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital, it will also result in a serious withdrawal from the status Israel achieved in West Jerusalem prior to 1967." Pictured: The former US Consulate on Agron Road in Jerusalem, Israel, photographed in 2009. (Image source: Magister/Wikimedia Commons)
On May 2018, when the United States Embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated on the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel's founding, the US consulate in Jerusalem became useless and quickly shut its gates. Now, in 2021, the current US Biden administration wants to reopen the consulate, "for the Palestinians", Arabs ruled by the Palestinian Authority.
Seeing this proposal as a threat to Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declined the request.
"A U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to a foreign body", wrote the noted attorney and former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and "clearly runs afoul of American law" because of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, passed overwhelmingly by both the U.S. House and Senate.
"With the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, there was no basis for a consulate to exist. The Jerusalem embassy provides consular services on a non-discriminatory basis to all Israelis and Palestinians — equal treatment for Jews, Christians and Muslims. The consulate thus became obsolete and a waste of taxpayer dollars. I know of no other country where the United States maintains an embassy and a consulate in the same city."
"The US Embassy in Jerusalem," asserts Eugene Kontorovitch, a professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia School of Law, "already provides consular services to the Palestinians."
"It is unheard of to have an independent consulate in the same city where a country has an embassy. The point of creating a separate consulate is to undermine former US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem... The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic connections with the PA [Palestinian Authority]. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah -- where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA... the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem."
The consulate is not in the eastern part of the city, emphasized Dore Gold, formerly both Israel's Ambassador to the UN and Foreign Ministry Director-General. Reopening it would not only be signal "the desire to divide Jerusalem", he said, but constitute "an attempt to call into question Israel's sovereignty over the entire city".
"The opening of the consulate on Agron Road in the west of the city will not only undermine Israeli sovereignty in the capital, it will also result in a serious withdrawal from the status Israel achieved in West Jerusalem prior to 1967."
The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations states that "a consular post may be established in the territory of the receiving State only with that State's consent". In other words, reopening the consulate may be done only with the consent of the Israeli government.
Nevertheless, it seems that the Biden administration is considering taking lawless unilateral action once again, this time by placing a new sign on the consulate, and getting ready to trigger a diplomatic crisis between Israel and the United States. Aware that such a diktat could lead to a fall of the coalition government currently in power in Israel, the Biden administration is now trying to seduce the Israeli government by making offers to it.
To suggest in exchange the creation of economic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, however, is ridiculous: economic ties already exist between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Talking about the introduction of limited visa exemptions to Israeli tourists is no better: to imagine that an Israeli government could consider calling into question of the sovereignty of Israel over its own capital in exchange for visa exemptions is, in fact, an insult.
It appears, however, that the Biden administration, whatever the consequences, does not intend to give up on its destabilizing project.
All this cannot be dissociated from the general hostile attitude of the Biden administration towards Israel from the moment it came to power.
As early as January 26, less than a week after Joe Biden was sworn in, acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills announced that the Biden administration supported "the Palestinian people's legitimate aspirations for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security".
On April 7, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken published a statement declaring that the United States will "restart U.S. economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people". He added:
"This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)".
The problem is that this US assistance will not go to the "Palestinian people", but to the Palestinian Authority -- which will doubtless use a significant portion of it to finance more terrorism. The PA still continues to finance terrorism, through a program often nicknamed "pay for slay". On May 10, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America published a text explaining that "By Renewing Palestinian Aid, America Is Funding Terrorism".
Part of the US aid money will go to Gaza, hence to Hamas, still officially designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department. Blinken, bizarrely, seems to see no contradiction between helping an entity governed by a terrorist organization and contributing to its purported "peacebuilding programs". UNWRA, despite effectively being an employment agency for Hamas terrorists, will thereby again receive US assistance. Many of its premises serve as arms depots for Hamas, but apparently that inconvenient fact has been set aside.
When, in May, the leaders of Hamas, apparently certain that there would be no American reaction, raised tensions in Jerusalem, incited riots on the Temple Mount, and launched a massive missile attack on Israel, the Biden administration for two days did not say a word. On May 13, answering a journalist, Biden simply said, "Israel has a right to defend itself". The next day, he added, "Palestinians -- including in Gaza -- and Israelis equally deserve to live in dignity, safety and security". He did not condemn Hamas, which, by firing on densely populated civilian areas, was committing a war crime; instead, he disingenuously put Hamas and Israel on an equal footing, with no distinction between the aggressor and the victim of that aggression.
On May 17, Biden asked Israel's Prime Minister not to "destabilize the region", as if it were Israel that had been guilty of initiating the violence and had no right to defend itself. Hamas and Biden both asked for a cease-fire; however, on May 20, as soon as one was in place, Biden, while quickly reaffirming that Israel did have a right to defend itself, immediately promised to "provide rapid humanitarian assistance and to marshal international support for the people of Gaza and the Gaza reconstruction efforts" -- without ever mentioning the damage suffered by Israel.
Since then, the guideline followed by the Biden administration towards Israel appears not to have changed.
On October 22, when the Israeli government accurately designated six Palestinian NGOs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as "accessories to a terrorist organization", US State Department Spokesman Ned Price immediately charged that the State Department had not been informed:
"We are currently engaging our Israeli partners for more information regarding the basis for these designations. It is, to the best of our knowledge, accurate that we did not receive a specific heads-up about any forthcoming designations".
The State Department, it turns out, had been informed. Not only had it received the necessary information, but the Israeli government had expressed its readiness to provide any missing information.
The State Department appeared to be trying to ignore that the six NGOs designated by the Israeli government as affiliated with the terrorist group, PFLP -- Addameer, Al Haq, Bisan Center, the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network, Defense for Children International Palestine, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees -- had been engaging in suspicious activities, described in detail by NGO Monitor. Addameer, for instance, has been supporting Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for terrorism. Al Haq is defined by NGO monitor "a leader in anti-Israel lawfare" and "BDS campaigns". The Bisan Center aims to "enhance Palestinian's resilience" -- a word used by Palestinian organizations as a synonym for "resistance", a euphemism for killing Israelis -- for the Samidoun Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Network, which works to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. Defense for Children International Palestine and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees raise funds internationally and use them to finance PFLP activities. If information was missing, the State Department could easily have requested it; instead, it chose to create a public incident.
On October 27, Israel approved the construction of 1,300 new housing units in settlements in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank (of the Jordan River). Price delivered an extremely harsh condemnation of Israel:
"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution".
The proposed housing units, however, are to be built inside of settlements that already exist.
What does seem "completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm" are the negative comments against Israel made by the Biden administration. Indeed, they have been leading to increasingly more violent remarks from the Palestinian leadership, who doubtless see themselves as newly empowered by the US.
Prospects for a two-state solution always have been -- and still are -- totally absent from the speeches of Palestinian leaders. Israel has offered the Palestinians many chances for two-state solutions and for peace; they have always been always rebuffed outright, without even a counter-offer. Now, prospects for a two-state solution are also totally absent from Israel's new leaders.
On September 24, in his prerecorded address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, now in the 16th year of his four-year term, falsely accused Israel of "apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing". He added:
"Circumstances on the ground will inevitably impose equal and full political rights for all on the land of historical Palestine, within one state".
The Biden administration keeps repeating that it wants a "two-state solution", but there are signs that it may want more.
On November 9, the Biden administration did not reject a UN resolution called "Assistance to Palestine Refugees". Instead, it voted to abstain. The text, among other things, says that "Palestine refugees are entitled to their property and income derived from it." Almost all of the people designated by the UN as "Palestine refugees" have never owned property in Israel and are not real refugees: they were born outside Israel and have never set foot in Israel. On January 14, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote a tweet saying: "it's estimated <200,000 Arabs displaced in 1948 are still alive and most others are not refugees by any rational criteria".
The Biden administration, by abstaining, is therefore confirming a lie. "The resolution comes up every three years," wrote the journalist Yaakov Lappin. "The U.S. abstaining was a marked departure in policy -- all previous American administrations except the Obama administration have voted against this resolution."
Earlier in March, an internal memo from the US State Department was leaked to The National, a daily newspaper in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
"The Biden administration memo recommends voicing US principles on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework 'based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps and agreements on security and refugees'".
The author of the memo is Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs and Press and Public Diplomacy in the Biden administration, and also in charge of US negotiations with Israel and Palestinian organizations. It is hard to imagine that Amr was chosen as an "honest broker".
Amr has a long history of anti-Israeli activities. On January 31, 2002, he published in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper an article in which he said that he was "inspired by the intifada." Four months later, on May 8, 2002, he published in the same newspaper an article describing Israel as "occupied Palestine", accusing the Israeli government of "ethnic cleansing" and defining Israel's supporters in the US of being "pro-ethnic-cleansing activists".
Amr also is the lead author of a report published by the Brookings Institution in December 2018 in which some proposals are made that could be regarded as disturbing. The report says that the United States must "reconnect" with Hamas, a fundamentalist terrorist group; seek "to create a Palestinian unity government integrating Hamas", and "compel Israel to make major concessions", even if it may "endanger Israel". The report never defines Hamas as a terrorist group, and never says that Hamas's goal is to destroy Israel. The report adds "should Israel prove uncooperative with American efforts, the United States could signal it will move ahead anyway." The report proposes allowing the Palestinians to develop a "greater portion of West Bank Area C under full Israeli control" -- meaning a decrease in the territories of Judea and Samaria under Israeli control without the agreed-upon negotiations to determine any outcome. The report also supports the idea that a territorial decrease and a net weakening of Israel are necessary to achieve peace.
Everything the Biden administration does in Israel today seems to be drawn from that report, including the idea of reopening the U.S Consulate in Jerusalem "for the Palestinians".
The behavior of the Biden administration towards Israel is all the more worrying in that it places itself in a weak position with Iran regarding negotiations and seems ready to make a deal with the mullahs' regime at any price in a resolution that has already been called "less for less", or, worse, "less for more".
The Biden administration, by backing two openly genocidal enemies of Israel, Hamas and Iran, appears committed to destroying the only reliable democracy in the Middle East.
On February 19, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price announced that the United States was ready to "discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program". He did not mention the multiple violations by Iran's mullahs of the 2015 nuclear deal. Not one member of the Biden administration criticized Iran's support for Hamas when Hamas attacked Israel in May.
In June, Iran, well before resuming negotiations on November 29, chose to replace President Hassan Rouhani with Ebrahim Raisi, "the butcher of Tehran", reportedly a criminal and fanatic. Iranian diplomats are not meeting directly with American negotiators, and only want to speak to European diplomats who act as intermediaries. The Biden administration agreed to that humiliating position.
Iran's then Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posted a tweet on April 2, 2021, stating the goal of the mullah's regime: "removal of all sanctions". "No Iran-US meeting. Unnecessary", he added dryly: the Biden administration's team are not even in the room.
Two days before the current negotiations began, chief Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said to the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) that Israel's annihilation is his country's "greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue."
An Israeli diplomatic service briefing recently announced that the Biden administration is ready to accept a deal with Iran that includes only two elements: the removal of all international sanctions still imposed on Iran, and Iran's pledge to stop enriching uranium, which would mean that Iran's nuclear program would remain intact and that Iran's regional destabilization actions, including its threats against Israel, could continue.
Iran claims, truthfully or not, that it already has enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear warhead on short notice. On November 8, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh declared that Iran will only agree to sign a deal with the US if all sanctions are unconditionally lifted. "We either agree with everything or disagree with nothing," he said.
On September 27, 2021, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that "Israel is ready to act alone if necessary". The Biden Administration seems, therefore, at a time finally of peace, deliberately acting to destabilize not only Israel's new coalition government but, more importantly, the entire region. The U.S. seems once again to be igniting, on the heels of its failure in Afghanistan, a second, unnecessary disruption, with all the carnage, global damage and pandemonium that will result. Sadly, it looks as if the legacy of the Biden Administration will be those two historic upheavals. If Biden is looking for yet another disaster to notch on his belt, this is it.
"Is the Biden administration at war with Israel?" asks Martin Sherman, founder and CEO of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
"Undermining the stability and safety of the only reliable democracy in the Middle East," wrote a physician, Dr. Shmuel Katz, "will... empower the enemies of good".
Israel, according to the journalist Caroline Glick, is strong enough to defeat its enemies. But, she warns, "Israel's security establishment needs to wake up from its American delusion. America does not have Israel's back. Only Israel has Israel's back".
On September 30, Hamas, assuming that it now has the full support of the United States, organized a conference in Gaza City to "prepare the future administration of a Palestinian state", scheduled to take power after the destruction of Israel. The conference defined what would be the fate of the Jews who would survive the war . The Jewish soldiers still alive, those at the conference decided, would all be killed. Non-combatant Jews would be allowed to leave "Palestine", but educated and economically useful Jews would have to remain, enslaved, and become third-class "tolerated" residents, knows as dhimmis, so that their skills could be used for building the new Palestinian state. Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, repeated that "the full liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river" is "at the heart of Hamas's strategic vision."
Did the Biden Administration even notice?
Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.
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Good News Israel (edited.)
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ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed a method of removing copper ions that cause the toxic buildup of amyloid plaque in Alzheimer’s patients. Professor Galia Maayan and PhD student Anastasia Behar have patented the groundbreaking “chelation” (extraction) process.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/
Genetic database saves lives in 44 countries. Israel’s Genoox (see here previously) has developed Franklin – a repository of genetic biopsy information relating to cancer mutations. Doctors in more than 1700 healthcare organizations in over 44 countries use Franklin to personalize cancer treatments to the patient’s genetic makeup.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/
Covid treatment reduced deaths by 70%. (TY Hazel) In its latest Phase 2 trial at three major Israeli hospitals, MesenCure from Israel’s Bonus BioGroup (see here previously) reduced Covid-19 deaths to 6.7% compared to 23.3% of the control group. It is now aiming for emergency use authorization in US, EU, and Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/health-
Saliva-based test kits. Israel’s Salignostics has developed Salistick, the world’s first and only saliva-based rapid pregnancy test kit. It detects the pregnancy hormone β-hCG and delivers a test result in 10 minutes. Another of Salignostics kits, SaliCov, detects Covid-19 from saliva in just 15 minutes.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The memory can aid healing. Researchers at Israel’s Technion (a team of Jews and Arabs) have discovered that the brain can induce a psychosomatic response not only to cause illness, but also to heal it. Inflammation in mice activated specific neurons which later could be manipulated to re-create or control the inflammation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
UK extends partnership for research into aging. The Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange (BIRAX) partnership has launched a new £1.6 million grant program to fund joint research between Israeli and UK scientists in the field of ageing. (see here for 2018 initiative)
https://english.tau.ac.il/
Stay on your feet. Comprehensive article describing the innovative device from Israel’s Votis (see here previously) that can identify peripheral artery disease (PAD) in its very early stages.
https://www.israel21c.org/
$75 million initiative to tackle diabetes. Bar-Ilan University is creating a program to transform diabetes care. The Social Precision-medicine Health Equity Research Endeavour (SPHERE). is supported by a $20 million grant from the Russell Berrie Foundation and will identify genetic mutations that cause diabetes.
https://www.
Fixing hearts of children from the Congo. (TY I24 News) Israeli charity Save a Child’s Heart (SACH – see here previously) is bringing its first group of Congolese children to the Jewish state for life-saving heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. https://www.youtube.com/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Solutions for the disadvantaged. Israeli-founded Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM – see here previously) has just held its latest virtual TOM Global Innovation Challenge to provide tailored solutions to people with disabilities, the elderly or poor. The winner was a 3D-printed hand support, enabling 5-year-old Shani to draw, play and eat.
https://www.israel21c.org/
EU prize for female innovator. Israel’s Dr. Daphne Haim-Langford is one of the three winners of the 2021 EU Prize for Women Innovators, awarded to founders of successful innovative companies. Dr Haim-Langford (previously of Israel’s Eximore) is CEO of Israel’s Tarsier (targeting autoimmune inflammatory eye diseases)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Flight school’s first female squadron leader. For the first time, a woman was appointed as a squadron leader in the Israel Air Force’s flight school. Major ‘Yud’ will command the IDF school’s combat navigators’ squadron and train the next generation of navigators. (see here for previous female IAF leaders)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
She Space. The International Astronautical Federation has awarded Ben Gurion University an excellence award for its educational project entitled "She Space". The project encourages girls to be involved in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) studies.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/
Israelis set up a US bank with a charitable ethos. Spiral is an Israel-founded socially-responsible “neobank” (on-line bank) for US customers. Up to $250,000 of each customer’s savings are protected by FDIC Insurance. Its app facilitates easy donations to any charity with a 501c3 designation, which Spiral matches up to $150.
https://www.israel21c.org/a-
Arabs and Jews blend in Abu Ghosh. Chen Kupperman is founder of the non-profit Blend.ar (short for Blend Arabic) a unique Arabic language school in Abu Ghosh. Studies consist of formal classes, informal practice in small groups with Arab tutors, and involvement in the daily lives of the residents of the Israeli-Arab town.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Surfside firefighters visit Israel. 15 firefighters from Florida, Ohio and Virginia who had worked with the Israelis at the Surfside Miami disaster, came to Israel for five days. They participated in a rescue training drill with the IDF Home Front Command and conducted a joint review of the Surfside rescue operation.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Sustainable energy in refugee camps. Israel’s HomeBiogas (see here previously) has won a UN contract to supply refugee camps in several African counties with systems to convert organic waste into cooking gas and fertilizer. HomeBiogas will soon distribute around a dozen systems in Africa, increasing over time.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Eilat birding center wins UN recognition. The UN Conference of the Parties (COP15) on biological diversity chose the International Birding & Research Center in Eilat as one of the 19 (out of 258) most outstanding projects presented. Millions of birds migrate across Eilat - the only land-bridge connecting Eurasia and Africa.
https://www.israel21c.org/in-
Israeli UN event with 25 African ambassadors. (TY WIN) Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan together with Innovation: Africa founder Sivan Ya’ari held a program to showcase Israel’s technology and boost ties between the Jewish state and Africa. It was attended by 25 ambassadors from Africa.
https://www.jns.org/erdan-
UK and Israel sign 10-year agreement. The UK and Israel signed a new memorandum of understanding to work more closely over the next decade on cyber, technology, trade, defense, and security. A new UK-Israel Bilateral Roadmap “will elevate the UK-Israel relationship to a strategic partnership” for the next 10 years.
https://www.gov.uk/government/
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Pre-IDF cybersecurity program for women. Israel’s Cyber Defense Directorate and IDF’s C4I have launched a 15-week pre-enlistment program for women that focuses on cybersecurity training that they can use during their IDF service and benefit from later when they enter the job force. Some 80 women are currently enrolled.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Hydrogen from water. scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed another innovative process to efficiently produce hydrogen from water (see here previously). It is the fastest system of its kind reported so far that operates with available metal (copper) catalysts.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.
Clean water for everyone. Israel’s Alumor has developed a water-purification technology based on ultraviolet LED light. Miriam’s Well (named from the Bible) is solar-powered and can purify any type of surface water. It produces water at a low price, uses very little energy and can purify a liter of water every 10 minutes.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/
Water from the air in your car. (TY Hazel) US carmaker Ford is partnering with Israel’s Watergen (see here previously) to deliver a built-in drinking water generator in their adventure and recreational vehicles. Customers of the new Ford Ranger can install the Watergen Mobile Box, to produce up to 25 liters of drinking water a day.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.jns.org/ford-
Capturing CO2 by balloon. (TY UWI & WIN) Israel’s High Hopes Labs is creating a fleet of balloons that can each capture a ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. Ten miles high, carbon dioxide freezes and becomes easier to remove. The wind blows it into a CO2 filter inside a pressurized storage vessel carried by the balloon.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Disinfecting coronavirus in seconds. Scientists at Israel’s Ariel University have shown that millimeter waves can be used as an effective tool to kill over 99% of viruses (including coronavirus) on different surfaces in just two seconds. This is much faster and safer than using UV radiation.
https://www.jpost.com/health-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.
Better than Iron Dome. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has unveiled a new state-of-the-art defense system that uses electromagnetic beams to down targets. The "Scorpius" system is efficient in eliminating both ground and aerial threats by disrupting systems, such as radar, electronic sensors, navigation, and data communications.
https://www.ynetnews.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Drone partnership to zap mosquitos. Israeli malaria-fighting startup ZzappMalaria (see here previously) has partnered Israeli autonomous drone solutions platform Airobotics (see here previously). Their $300,000 pilot project will locate stagnant water across sub-Saharan Africa where mosquitos are likely to congregate.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Another pilotless helicopter. Israel’s Steadicopter has unveiled a new unmanned helicopter (see here for others). The Black Eagle 50 Electric is marketed as the first electrically powered unmanned helicopter with a maximum takeoff weight of 50kg. It makes it ideally suitable for search and rescue and heavy cargos.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-
Meet Gary the robot. Israel’s Unlimited Robotics (see here previously) has unveiled Gary – named from the initials of the 3 children of CEO Guy Altagar - Gali, Rani and Yaeli. Gary is a robot that does household chores such as picking up toys or socks, watering plants and stripping bedsheets. He’ll be on the market next year.
https://www.israel21c.org/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Still A+. Fitch Ratings reaffirmed Israel’s A+ rating with a stable outlook. It said the improvement in Israel’s finances in 2021 has been “driven by the strong economic rebound, the gradual withdrawal of pandemic support measures, and particularly buoyant fiscal revenue from high-tech sectors.” It also praised Israel’s new budget.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Morocco buys Israeli anti-drone defense systems. (TY Hazel) Morocco has purchased Israel’s Skylock Dome anti-drone defense system to “preserve the country’s national and strategic stability”. Morocco acquired five systems, in a deal signed at the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi.
https://www.moroccoworldnews.
https://www.skylock1.com/
Mastercard opens Israeli innovation lab. (TY Hazel) Financial services giant Mastercard and Italy’s Enel X officially opened their “FinSec Innovation Lab” in Beersheba. It will work with Israeli cybersecurity startups, focusing on digital identity and authentication, platform security, fraud prevention and countering ransomware.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Smart trolleys heading for the US. Israel’s A2Z Smart Technologies (see here previously) is launching a pilot program for its Cust2mate smart shopping carts with Evergreen Kosher Market in New York and New Jersey. A2Z also launched a pilot with Morton Williams supermarkets in October.
https://www.morningstar.com/
https://finance.yahoo.com/
Virtual shops are eco-friendly. Israel’s ByondXR (see here previously) is marketing itself as a sustainable alternative to physical stores. It generates no waste, no pollution from customers’ cars, no cleaning. Its pop-up stores now include Armani, L’Oréal, and Proctor & Gamble. It is active in 20 countries, using eight languages.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Significant exits: Since the beginning of the year, some 86 Israeli tech companies have been bought at a total acquisition value of $9.5 million. This is in addition to the $40 billion invested in Israeli startups, 28 Unicorns and 20 more going public on Wall Street. Latest is Intel’s acquisition of Screenovate for $150 million.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Takeovers by Israeli startups: Israel’s Minute Media has acquired Israel’s Wazimo Media for at least $60 million;
Investment in Israeli startups: (November investments under $30 million)
Lumigo raised $29 million; Swimm raised $27.6 million; Bit raised $25 million; Frontegg raised $25 million; Anyword raised $21 million; AI21 Labs raised $20 million; Cymbio raised $20 million; Darrow raised $20 million; N-Drip raised $20 million; Xtend raised $20 million; Velocity raised $17 million; Vensica raised $16 million; Anchor raised $15 million; Vesttoo raised $15 million; Blink Technologies raised $14 million; GigaSpaces raised $13.5 million; Imagindairy raised $13 million; Whatslly raised $11 million; Autotalks raised $10 million;
Russia solves wearing the mask issue.
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