Today: September 9, 2010

 

Israel a 'Safe Haven'

Posted: Sat 9th January 2010 9.27 AM  | Author: GoodNews Israel

Quote for the Week
"The company's most urgent task is to learn to welcome, beg for, demand - innovation from everyone." - Tom Peters - Business Consultant. Israelis seem to have taken this one to heart...

• When the International Monetary Fund presents you with a sticker that says Israel is a safe haven this is what happens: foreign investors purchase shares worth $560 million on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in November, compared with $170 million in October - a rise of 230%. They also buy $430 million worth of TASE-listed government bonds in Tel Aviv compared with $400 million the month before. Foreign investment pours into Israel. Why? Because our IMF sticker says that we are one safe place to leave your money! 

 

• ·There was a near miss – very near actually, when a passenger from Nigeria decided that he would blow up an airplane over the US. Fortunately the explosives wouldn’t detonate so all’s well that ends well. There’s one thing that the experts seem to have agreed on and that is with El Al check in procedures he wouldn’t have got anywhere near the aircraft. And they’re, El Al that is, always looking to upgrade security so Israel Airports Authority today [Tuesday] launched a pilot of a new biometric system at Ben Gurion developed by their computer and security division. It uses biometric identification and technological know how to produce a smart card for passengers, who can then use the card for subsequent flights, shortening waiting times at check-in. Saving life and limb without killing the passengers with tedium. Foreign agencies, especially in the US, have already shown an interest in buying the system.

 

• · Creative volunteerism is alive and well and living in Israel and here are two items to prove it: A group of young women performing national service in Israel have recently created a 'pay it forward' program in which "wishes" are granted to groups of people and in exchange they must give back to the community in which they live.  

This is how it works, Mazal Sahala, a resident of Netanya, said she and her friends from the community's leadership program wanted to take a sightseeing flight over Israel. "We knew we didn't have the means to make this come true by ourselves," she said. Enter Bat Ami who organized the flight in exchange for renovating an old synagogue in the girls’ neighborhood. For hours they cleaned, painted, and repaired things. Sahala said they never would have had the motivation for the project had it not been for Bat Ami.

The work is far from over with a lot more still to do in the coming months, including redoing the floors and finding proper benches for prayer and then the longed for flight is theirs. Further south, in Ofakim, Bat Ami granted the wish of a group of special needs children and held a bat mitzvah for one of them. All involved – including the photographer, hall managers, and hair stylist – volunteered their time. In exchange, the children agreed to prepare gift baskets for children at Soroka Hospital's Oncology ward. So everyone ends up a winner! And what better way to end this week’s GN.

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