Haifa to build biotech park

Article on GLOBES [online] March 30, 2009
By Gali Weinreb

Haifa Economic Corp expects to invest $1.5 billion in the new park over five years.

Haifa municipality-owned Haifa Economic Corporation plans to build a biotechnology park adjacent to Matam High-Tech Park at the southern entrance to the city. The company expects to invest $1.5 billion in the new park over five years.

The biotechnology park will be built on a 30-dunam (7.5-acre) site jointly owned by Haifa Economic Corporation and Property and Building Ltd. (TASE: PTBL). Haifa Economic Corporation intends to buy out Property and Building.

Research At Hi Tech Lab

Haifa is considered a focal point of Israel's biomedical industry, especially the medical device sector. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) has a unit there that handles, among other things, healthcare. Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator Co. Ltd. (TEIC), which also supports biomedical start-ups, operates out of Matam.

Haifa Economic Corporation CEO Avi Feferkorn is in charge of the biotechnology park project.

"Globes": Is it possible to find tenants at reasonable prices for the biotech park during the current slump?

Feferkorn: "We conducted a large market survey, from which we concluded that there is sufficient demand for the biotech park. Half of biomedical start-ups are located north of Hadera.

"There is a real crisis now, so it is very cost-effective to build now, and market the biotech park in a few years, after the recovery. We have all the money we need to move forward on construction, so there is no need to raise capital or obtain loans."

New GPS device makes schlepping around Eretz Yisroel easy

Article on www.jpost.com March 26, 2009
By Mel Bezalel

Oy gevalt! You can sure feel like a schlemiel getting around Eretz Yisroel sometimes. Especially if you're a kvetch who doesn't have the chutzpa to ask for directions because you only speak Yiddish.

But there's no need to feel like a shmendrik anymore, because beginning this week, the iGO8 Judaism GPS is available in Yiddish - it's their latest shtick.

The machers at iGO, a subsidiary of Nav N Go, have designed the new device for the Orthodox market in Israel. Now Yiddish-speakers in areas such as Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Modi'in Illit and Ashdod can use the product to locate more than 10,000 unique Jewish interest points - including the addresses and telephone numbers of thousands of synagogues, mikves (ritual baths) and kosher restaurants.

What also distinguishes it from other GPS gadgets is that more secular points of interest - such as nightclubs, non-kosher restaurants and Internet cafes - are not in the database.

Even the interface is designed with the religious consumer in mind - when the device is switched on, the user is automatically shown the Travelers' Prayer. Instead of pressing "OK" to skip to the next screen, the option is instead "Amen."

It may give you naches to discover that the new Yiddish version was not based on any market research or overwhelming demand. David Wiernik, Nav N Go president, says the idea was born at an iGO press conference last month, when a technology journalist asked him if a Yiddish version was in the pipeline.

Upon answering "no," Wiernik realized he liked the suggestion.

"I looked at the journalist and thought, 'You got me. I'd never thought about it,' so I told him I would accept the challenge. My immediate response was 'yes,' without even looking at the consumer market."

A mensch, no?

Many in the know are positive about this new meshuggener gadget. Yossi Gur, manager of the Avis branch in the capital's Romema neighborhood, says: "We have a lot of Orthodox customers in this location, many of whom speak Yiddish, and two-thirds of them ask for a GPS. This new device is a great idea, and it would work really well in our station."

The Yiddish edition reaches stores one month and $20,000 (what it cost to develop) after the iGO8 Judaism Hebrew version, and is exclusively available with QUE navigation devices. It is priced at between NIS 1,200 and NIS 1,499.

4,000-year-old 'Abraham's Gate' reopens

Article on Jerusalem Post March 18, 2009
By Etgar Lefkovits

The nearly 4,000 year-old "Abraham's Gate" at Tel Dan in northern Israel has been reopened to the public after a decade-long restoration project, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said Wednesday.

'Abraham's Gate' under renovation at Tel Dan

Located in a nature reserve at the foot of Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights, the ancient structure, which is believed to have been constructed around 1750 BCE, during the Canaanite Period, is made of mud-bricks.

The gate, which could be named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO later this year, has been named after the Biblical patriarch since some people speculate it may have been used by Abraham during the rescue of his nephew Lot.

The gate, which is composed of three arches and constructed of sun-dried mud brick on a foundation of large basalt stones, has been restored to its original height of seven meters, the state-run authority said.

The arches of the gate are believed to be the oldest ever found in Israel.

"The exposure of the gate to the public at large is a holiday for anyone who holds dear the preservation of heritage in the State of Israel," said Eli Amitai, Director General of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

The preservation work at the site was carried out in conjunction with the state-run Israel Antiquities Authority.

The site has recently become an attraction for Christian pilgrims.

The nature reserve encompasses the ruins and partially restored remains of an ancient Israelite city.

Tel Aviv Centennial

Founded on the sand dunes north of the old sea port of Jaffa 100 years ago, Tel Aviv has become the bustling cultural and economic heart of Israel.

Envisioned as the main gateway into Israel, the city has developed into an exciting and dynamic city that's always on the go. Three million pass through the city every day.

In 2003, UNESCO declared it a world heritage site because of the restoration work to the city's many Bauhaus buildings, and the New York Timesrecently labeled it "the capital of Mediterranean cool".

In honor of the city's centennial, dozens of celebrations are planned for the year ahead, from city marathons, to white nights, art exhibitions, and cultural events.

Organizers hope the centennial festivities will do for Tel Aviv what the Beijing Olympics did for China's capital.

Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion named top Middle East airport

Article on www.globes.co.il March 10, 2009
By Orli Peleg-Mizrahi

Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion named top Middle East airport
This is the second successive year that Ben Gurion Airport has achieved this ranking.
Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport came top in the Middle East region in the Airports Council International (ACI) airport survey. The rankings were announced today. Ben Gurion came second in the world for airports with annual passenger traffic of 5-15 million. This is the second successive year in which Ben Gurion Airport has achieved these rankings.

The ACI survey captures passengers’ perception of the quality of more than 30 aspects of service that they have experienced at an airport. Interviewing covers every day of the week and every month of the year to ensure coverage of all seasons and all peaks and troughs.

For the fourth successive year, the top three performing airports in the world were in the Asia-Pacific Region, with Incheon International Airport in South Korea winning the Best Airport Award. Passenger satisfaction with the new Terminal 3 promoted Singapore Changi Airport into 2nd place this year, with Hong Kong International Airport coming in at a close 3rd place.

ACI director general Angela Gittens said, "Survey results show that overall passenger satisfaction continues to improve year-on-year. This reflects the importance airports are placing on customer satisfaction and the innovation in services that we are seeing worldwide. The program continues to grow which demonstrates that airports care very much about their customers, no matter how tough the economic situation.”

The survey found that comfortable waiting areas, good signage, and clean, readily accessible washrooms are the most important elements to a passenger.

KFC Israel going kosher

Article on http://www.ynetnews.com/ March 09, 2009
By Meirav Crystal

International fast food chain taking steps to turn its branches in Israel kosher, including replacing milk-powder chicken coating with kosher soy-powder coating, said to be identical in taste.



Going kosher pays, as international fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken has learned, and is now taking steps towards receiving full kashrut in its Israeli branches.

Thanks to a special approval granted by the global chain, KFC Israel announced on Sunday that it would start marketing its chicken meals with a kosher soy-powder coating rather than the standard milk-power coating.

The approval was granted after two years of negotiations and deliberations, since the milk-powder element has been an inseparable part of KFC's world-famous coating for over half a century, and is what gives it its one-of-a-kind taste and coloring.

The kosher powder that will replace the milk ingredient is a milk-flavored soy powder that was approved by Kentucky Fried Chicken's labs in Dallas, Texas.

Thanks to this development, the chain will be able to open kosher branches in other places around the world where large Jewish populations are concentrated.

According to KFC Israel, the new taste is identical to the original, and the move to develop the new ingredient stemmed from many customers' requests to avoid mixing meat and dairy.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has 10 branches in Israel, two of them being strictly kosher, while the rest operate on Shabbat.

According to the company's plans, three more branches are expected to be opened throughout 2009.

Gas Drilling Begins Off Hadera Coast

Article on Arutz Sheva March 08, 2009
By Hana Levi Julian

The company which discovered abundant gas reserves off the coast of Haifa in January has begun drilling in a new site, west of Hadera.

Noble Energy Inc., the Houston-based partner of Isramco Ltd., Delek Group Ltd., and Avner Oil and Gas LP, said the new offshore well, named Dalit-1, is located approximately 60 kilometers west of Hadera.

The company moved its rig on the ship "Atwood Hunter" to the new drill site on Friday after having completed drilling at the Tamar-1 well 90 kilometers west of Haifa. The Tamar-1 find was eventually discovered to be more than 60 percent larger than originally estimated, according to Noble Energy officials -- reportedly more than enough to fuel the State of Israel for at least 15 years.

Gas Reservoir At Gelilot North Of Tel Aviv

The drilling is expected to last approximately two months and cost $130 million, company officials said. Once drilling is completed at Dalit-1, the "Atwood Hunter" will proceed to the next well, dubbed Tamar-2.

There is a 40 percent chance the company will find commercial quantities of up to 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas at the site, referred to as the Michal prospect, according to the Globes business news agency.

Israel’s Hula Lake Park one of the most outstanding sites in the world

Article on jnf.org:

February 25, 2009 -- New York, NY -- BBC Wildlife Magazine, the world's best-selling natural history and environmental magazine, has named Israel’s Hula Lake Park one of the most outstanding sites in the world for nature observation and photography.

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) park, home to millions of migrating cranes each winter, was ranked 9th on a list of 20 exceptional nature sites chosen by 300 international experts including scientists, photographers and television producers.

In the article announcing the winning sites, acclaimed Scottish nature photographer Neil Benway described his visit to Hula Lake, where he sat amidst a flock of 15,000 cranes, as “an experience of a lifetime.”

Located in the Galilee, Hula Lake is one of the most important bird-watching sites in the world. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are drawn to the Hula Valley Crane Lookout to observe white cranes on their way to Southern Africa, stopping one last time before they begin the Sahara Desert portion of their flight.

JNF has played a significant role in the development of Hula Lake Park into an international tourist attraction. In 1991, JNF, together with the Israel Land Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture, and local farmers, undertook the Hula Restoration Project to create a rich habitat that would attract cranes needing rest and nourishment during the course of their winter migration.

The major goal of this re-flooding project was to protect the water quality of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) by stopping erosion and preventing pollutants from flowing into Israel’s primary source of freshwater. This upgraded the agriculture and rejuvenated the ecosystem of the area, bringing back riverbank vegetation like reeds and papyrus and attracting a variety of animals that make their home among the plants.

In addition to bird watching at the Crane Lookout, visitors can bike through the park on JNF’s cycling routes or view the birds on a camouflaged tractor that pulls right up to the feeding sites. An educational center offers videos and information about the history of the Hula Valley and the many kinds of wildlife that inhabit it.

JNF also conducts ongoing research on bird migration at Hula Lake.