Israel News for 11-8-17
Fighting Terror
A Palestinian official claimed yesterday that Palestinian Authority security forces stopped seven terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank in October. According the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Palestinian security apparatus prevented planned stabbings, shootings and bombings. The Palestinians have been cracking down hard on Hamas members in the West Bank, arresting 46 last month along with dozens of members of other terror groups.
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Egypt Talks Peace
In an interview with Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that he believes a solution can reached to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that the Israeli public can be persuaded into signing a peace agreement.
He said, “We, the Arabs, can convince public opinion in Israel of the advantages of peace. The benefits gained following the agreement between Egypt and Israel are evidence of that. Finding a solution to the Palestinian issue will bring about a new situation in the region. Our brothers in the Gulf states understand this issue.”
The Egyptian president also praised the reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
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Toyota Invests
Toyota AI Ventures managing director Jim Adler has told “Reuters” that Israel is the market of the future. The new $100 million California-based venture arm of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp wants to make more investments in Israeli robotics and vehicle technologies after its initial $14 million investment in Ramat Gan based Intuition Robotics in July. The fund invests in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous mobility and data and cloud computing.
Adler said, “We will see more involvement of Toyota in the Israeli market in the future. There’s more in the pipeline.”
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New Business Site
Israel’s leading financial newspaper Calcalist has launched an English-language news site dedicated to Israeli tech. Calcalistech.com, or CTech, will be an online gateway to Israeli tech, providing international readers with real-time, high-impact stories from the country’s vibrant innovation hub.
The new site will report on large Israeli linked tech companies as well as Israel’s startup scene. The site also has an iOS and Android app.
To go to the website click here.
Jewish Manuscripts
On the 100th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution, Israel’s National Library and the Russian State Library announced an agreement to digitize the Gunzburg collection’s 2,000 manuscripts.
Baron David Gunzburg, a Jewish-Russian aristocrat, amassed one of the largest and most important collections of Jewish manuscripts before his death in 1910. The Russian State Library’s Gunzburg collection includes over 2,000 manuscripts and thousands of printed volumes, including biblical texts, Talmuds, rabbinic interpretations, and philosophical treatises by Aristotle, Averroes, Maimonides, Al-Ghazali and others.
The project to digitize the library is being funded by a Russian oligarch who is Muslim. The collection will be available online at the National Library of Israel’s digital manuscript archive.
For further reading click here.
Lucky Tourists
A young couple from Romania hit the jackpot by being the 3 millionth tourists to Israel in 2017. They were greeted at Ben Gurion airport with a red carpet and by Tourism minister Yariv Levin, who whisked them away to a luxury suite at a Dead Sea hotel by limousine. They also got a helicopter tour of the country, a guided sunset tour along Tel Aviv’s boardwalk, and a gourmet private dinner prepared by Israeli chef Nir Zook at his home.
But the most surprising part of their adventure came when they were met by PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem, who proceeded to give them a guided tour of David’s Citadel in the Old City. And it was quite a tour.
To view the video of the PM going the couple his personal tour, click here.
