Sorrow and Hope

Dispatch from Jerusalem

The Internet and the Jihadi Agenda

Recruiting the young and disenfranchised, those who have always felt they existed outside the mainstream, is nothing new. Inner city gangs and cult leaders have long followed the same pattern, capturing the hearts of those who were desperate for community and a sense of belonging. Today, the same concepts are being used with terrifying success

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Oil Spill Clean-up with New Technology

The 2014 oil spill in Evrona Nature Preserve in the Arava Desert In one of the worst environmental disasters in Israel’s history, between three and five million liters [.8 to 1.3 million US gal] of raw crude oil gushed from a burst pipeline near the Evrona Nature Reserve in the Arava Desert last year. In

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Exposure to Nanoparticles May Threaten Heart Health

Nanoparticles, extremely tiny particles, are increasingly everywhere, and especially in biomedical products. Now a team of Israeli scientists has, for the first time, found that nanoparticles (NPs) of silicon dioxide (SiO2) can play a major role in the development of cardiovascular diseases when the nanoparticles cross tissue and cellular barriers and also find their way

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Revolutionize Night Driving

Anyone who has driven at night, squinting in the glare of oncoming headlights—or who has struggled to see out the windshield during stormy weather—is familiar with the anxiety-producing and dangerous situation of poor visibility. An Israeli startup has set out to eliminate this problem. BrightWay Vision is taking existing platforms and technologies to the next

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Aliyah, Ingathering of the Exiles

First youth aliyah group walking to Ein Harod (Photo: Kluger Zoltan/wikipedia.org) Packing up all the pieces of your life and moving to a new country is not easy. Yet, this is something Jewish people have been doing on a fairly regular basis since their exile from the Promised Land more than 2,000 years ago. In

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From the North, a Growing, Massive Threat

Israel’s attention has turned to the north, as it must. While to the south Hamas remains a threat, it is a cobra in the sand compared to the resurrected lion of Persia and its pack of predator states pressing in on Israel’s northern fence. And egging them on, pushing them toward Israel, is the reawakened

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Herodium: Unique Entry Emerges

Archaeologists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology have discovered a monumental entryway to the Herodian hilltop palace. The main feature of the entryway is an impressive corridor with a complex system of arches spanning its width on three separate levels. These arches buttressed the corridor’s massive side-walls, allowing the King and his

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Impressive Farm House Comes to Light

A 2,800-year-old farm house was exposed in recent weeks by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in the central Israeli town of Rosh Ha’ayin. According to Amit Shadman, IAA excavation director, the farm is extraordinarily well-preserved and was built at the time of the Assyrian conquest in the eighth century BC. Farm houses during this period

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Fragment of Glass Bracelet Unearthed

A 1,600-year-old bracelet fragment, engraved with a seven-branch menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem was discovered during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in the Mount Carmel National Park. Workers uncovered an industrial area and refuse pits of a large settlement dating from the Roman era and the early Byzantine period, at the end

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8,000-Year-Old Olive Oil Residue Discovered

The earliest evidence for the use of olive oil in the country, and possibly the entire Middle East, was revealed at an antiquities site in the Lower Galilee. In 2011–2013, Dr. Ianir Milevski and Nimrod Getzov of the Israel Antiquities Authority directed an archaeological excavation at Ein Zippori in the Lower Galilee. This led to

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