Just another ghost in the Wall
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Technology, coexistence
A poster for ther G.ho.st launch on the security barrier near Beit Jallah. (AP)
For this startup, the product may be less important than the people who created it.
According to the Associated Press, Israeli entrepreneur Zvi Schreiber partnered with Palestinian engineers to launch G.ho.st Virtual Computer, a Web-based operating system based in Jerusalem and Ramallah that recreates the attributes of a personal computer’s desktop from any computer with an Internet connection.
“Our idea is simply to use the Internet to give people a computing environment that is not just stored on a physical device, but is available on a Web page or any mobile device and gives you everything you need: your desktop, your files, your programs,” G.ho.st CEO Schreiber said at the launch, in the West Bank town of Beit Jalla, close to Jerusalem’s southern edge.
The company started more than three years ago after Schreiber sold his second high tech startup. He had never worked with Palestinians and knew very little about the fledgling software industry in the West Bank.
“I wanted to combine my technological interests with my social interests. I always wanted to do something to help resolve the complete mess that we’ve all made of this part of the world,” he said.
According to Schreiber, the company’s name refers not only to the virtual computer’s ability to float through the boundaries of a physical computer, but also to the G.ho.st team’s cross-border collaboration.
There’s a Palestinian staff of nearly 30 workers who confer with their Israeli counterparts mostly by video conference. Many of the engineers living in the West Bank aren’t able to get the permits needed to get into Israel, while Israelis are barred from most Palestinian areas in the West Bank due to security concerns. Schreiber has never been to the company’s Ramallah office.
Tuesday’s launch in Beit Jallah was against the backdrop of the security barrier – an intentional decision.
“Ghosts go through walls and the very first wall that G.ho.st goes through is the … wall and fence that Israel is building in the West Bank between itself and the Palestinians and which physically divides the G.ho.st team into two,” the firm’s Web site says.
AP reported that International Mideast peace envoy Tony Blair attended the launch, commended G.ho.st’s initiative and called for more such partnerships across the Israeli-Palestinian divide.
“One thing we know is of course we need a political solution, but we also know it’s not just about politics. It’s about business,” Blair said.
It would be nice if G.ho.st succeeded, not only with its Internet platform, but in forging real ties between people on both sides of the wall.
Live Webcam of Humanitarian Aid at Gaza-Israel Crossing
Last week I interviewed Peter Lerner an IDF spokesperson working at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. This is the largest checkpoint/border crossing between Israel and Gaza, and it is where humanitarian aid is being transferred.
According to Lerner, no donation has been turned away, referring to the units of blood, ambulances, medical gases, food, and staples that have been donated from around the world to Gazans.
If you’re involved in debating about the Gaza-Israel conflict, and are curious to see what is happening for yourself (this one’s for you Annie Lennox), now you can watch humanitarian aid travel through the Kerem Shalom Crossing on your desktop.
The Israel Defense Ministry started operating a live feed of the cargo crossing point. The feed will operate during the 3 hour ceasefire every day, and includes three cameras showing the points of access and exit of the terminal.
It can be viewed at: http://www.mod.gov.il/pages/general/Maavar_Kerem_Shalom.asp
I personally find the Kotel Cam (live feed at The Western Wall) to be much more inspiring in these troubled times. You can read more of my commentary on the conflict (like it or not) on the post “The Israeli Palestinian Conflict Is An Ancient Story.”
::cross-posted on The Huffington Post
Reserved revelry of the times
Filed under: Crime, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Travel, War, coexistence
With a population of around 67,100 and proximity to both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Modiin is one of the larger suburbs of Israel. The city is located very close to the Green Line, though, making for some awkward situations for Israeli-Arab relations in the neighborhood – especially along the 443 highway, a major commuter thoroughfare. This isn’t a band of fringe settlers butting heads with nationalist Arab elements. Like the Kfar Saba-Qalqilya juxtaposition, it’s mainstream Israel in close quarters with villages.
Terror-resembling hate crimes have taken place in the area many times over the years (including these four incidents from 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, during the Second Intifada). This past March, long before the wave of violence that kicked off last month, the high court defended arrangements which basically ban Palestinians from using the 443 in order to minimize its exposure to terror. And since the war in the south has escalated, there have been stoning incidents, Molotov cocktails and even a stabbing.
Anyone reading this blog knows that in times like these, life goes on. In general, incidents like the aforementioned don’t keep Israelis from going about their business, much like the way that regular shootings and muggings in American inner cities don’t keep Americans from going about theirs. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t take precautions. We do.
A friend of mine who lives close to me in Modiin attended a party last night in Jerusalem, and while he didn’t drink, so as to maximize safety on the journey home, his sister did. Quite inebriated, her head was spinning from the drive, which, as we all know, has the potential to cause vomiting. Cruising along the 443, my friend found himself in a bind. He did not want his car to get all vomited out, and he wanted to comply with his sister’s wishes for a break in the motion, but on the other hand, it was the middle of the night and he was within rock-throwing range of more than one Arab village.
So yes, in times like these, we keep working, living and even sometimes partying as if there were no conflict. But that doesn’t mean the conflict doesn’t color our judgment and impact our actions. And in case you were wondering, the way he tells it, my friend’s solution was to pull over for his sister to vomit out the car door for two minutes at a time, and only when she really really needed him to. She used a plastic bag the rest of the time.
Photo of the 443 highway courtesy Michaeli via Wiki Commons.
Israel picks up the bill
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Medical Breakthroughs, Politics, War, coexistence
While the news is full of Israel’s “crimes” against the civilian population in Gaza, here’s one “crime” you probably haven’t heard about. Israel routinely admits residents of Palestinian Authority controlled territory into its hospitals – and the Israeli taxpayer foots the bill. Not only that; Israel even helps pay for treatment of patients in PA hospitals, where the patient never even comes near an Israeli hospital!
While many of us probably have heard of exceptional cases of Israeli doctors treating PA Arabs, I, and probably you, were under the impression that it was limited to high profile or complicated cases, such as the Save a Child’s Heart Foundation – with ill PA residents coming to Israel as a last resort. That kind of thing has been going on for a long time – even during the current war, as evidenced by the photo (courtesy of the IDF spokesperson), captioned “Injured Palestinian receiving medical treatment by Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel at the Erez crossing.” 
But Israel’s contribution to the health of Palestinian Authority residents goes far beyond emergency assistance; according to some folks I interviewed for a story on a new database system being developed by an Israeli software company for hospitals in Bethlehem and Ramallah (an amazing story in and of itself!), Israel’s Health Ministry often pays for care of PA residents both in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority itself!
The company building the database, called i-Rox, is located in Bnei Brak, and consists almost entirely of ultra-Orthodox women programmers (this story just gets better all the time!). According to the company’s CEO, the programmers are building in a component that allows PA hospitals to share their information with Israel’s Health Ministry, because in some cases, Israel’s health funds help provide – and pay for – treatment of patients in PA hospitals.
Yes, I had a hard time believing it too – until I Googled this World Health Organization PDF document. According to this eye-opening reporting (for 2006-7), “Approximately 60,000 Palestinians from the West Bank area have been treated in Israel hospitals over the past year. Around 20,000 were hospitalized, and about 40,000 received ambulatory services of all sorts. Approximately 5,000 patients from the Gaza area have been treated in Israeli hospitals over the past year – about 2,000 hospitalized and about 3,000 receiving ambulatory services of all sorts. Among the patients receiving medical care in Israel, approximately 2,500 were children, the majority of whom received long-term treatment for cancer and complicated operations.”
As far as Israel providing services to PA hospitals, “Public health laboratories at the Israel Ministry of Health continue to regularly provide assistance to the Palestinian Health Authority in the way of laboratory tests for poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, influenza and other viral diseases,” the report says. Israel – via the health funds and the Health Ministry – continued those tests throughout the year, “in spite of the fact that the Palestinian Authority delays or halts payments.” Of course, the anti-Israel forces out there have never let themselves get confused by the facts – but at least we know the truth, and in this day and age, that’s no small feat.
A ‘tail’ of two cities
Filed under: Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, coexistence
It's the dog days for Jewish and Arab neighbors near Jerusalem.
There are many residents of Azariya however, like laborers, construction workers, remodeling experts, who work in Ma’aleh Adumim with the proper Israeli identity card – either a work permit or a Jerusalem residency card.
However, it’s not too difficult to cross the road and climb the hill separating the two communities. And that’s what one 13-year-old Azariya youth did a couple weeks ago. My eight-year-old son’s friend Ephraim was out walking his dog near his home, when the teen grabbed his leash and ran off with the mutt.
Ephraim ran home to tell his father, who called the police. They arrived pretty quickly, heard the story, and said they would look around for the pooch. Ephraim, of course, had no idea that the thief was from Azariya, but the police warned his dad that there wasn’t much they could do if he was not from Ma’aleh Adumim.
The family put up signs and scoured the neighborhood over the next few days, to no avail. Then by chance, when Ephraim was walking home from school, he spotted the 13-year-old crook. He ran home again, his mother called the police and they picked up the youth for questioning. Aside from discovering he was indeed from Azariya, they weren’t able to get any useful information from him about the dog, and they released him.
Ephraim’s father had a lead though. The next day, he went to a construction site and asked around if any of the workers were from Azariya, and a couple of them said yes. He explained the situation to them, and they said they would try to find the kid and his family and help locate the dog.
That night, Ephraim’s dad got a call from one of the builders who told them, “We found the family and the kid, but there’s no dog here. They said he ran away.”
But, they added, don’t despair, we’re going to search around and look for the dog. Ephraim’s dad got another call a while later from the builder turned detective saying, “We found someone who said they saw the dog, so we’re getting a search party together in that area.”
The next morning, the builder called Ephraim’s dad and said, “We found him, and we’re sending him back in a taxi – he should be there in a half hour.”
Sure enough, Ephraim’s dog showed up chauffered at his home and eight days after he was abducted, had a joyful reunion with his family. Later that morning, Ephraim’s dad went to the construction site and gave the worker a cash reward for taking matters into his own hands, and helping to forge a ‘good neighbor’ policy between Ma’aleh Adumim and Azariya. It should be a lesson for all of us.
New (Natural) World Order
Okay folks, it’s time once again to defend the republic, or whatever it is you call it over here. Israel is once again being judged in the court of world opinion, and it’s up to we loyal Israelis to make sure we get ours. But we’re not alone this time – if you have any friends in Jordan or the Palestinian Authority, you might be able to get them to help, because they’ve got a stake in this, too. 
First there were the Seven Wonders of the World – so named because they really were wonders. Till today, for example, nobody has been able to figure out how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. Now that’s a wonder! And you knew they were wonders because they had the imprimatur of the ancient Greeks. Later, though, it became clear that there were newer wonders that weren’t included in the original list, like the Great Wall of China, so various universities and the like compiled additional Seven Wonders lists. The Old City of Jerusalem, for example, is one of the New Seven Wonders, according to USA Today.
The latest Seven Wonders gimmick, however, has The People voting on what constitutes a Wonder of the World. The voting is coordinated by the New7Wonders Foundation, which was founded by aviator/explorer/museum curator Bernard Weber. One hundred million people voted to name the Foundation’s “New Seven Wonders,” which were announced on July 7, 2007, and include impressive monuments like the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, and Petra.
Now the Foundation is conducting voting for the Seven Wonders of the Natural World, with the i to be named in early 2009. The candidates include sites you would expect to be on such a list, like Mount Everest, Mount Fuji, the Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls (the latter two being the only sites in North America to make the list). But there are lots of places many people are probably not familiar with. Interestingly, all of the top ten currently rated sites are in the Far East – with four of them in the Philippines, and three in Vietnam!
Israel is respectably represented as well: The coral reefs of the Red Sea are listed (actually, they’re listed as representing not only Israel, but the PA, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other countries too), as is the Dead Sea (also Jordan and PA), both currently in 13th and 14th places respectively. Also on the list, at 64, is Ein Gedi, the oasis on the shores of the Dead Sea (exclusively Israeli).
Now, I’m sure the Philippines has many beautiful natural wonders – but four of the current top seven? And while there are many occasions where tapping into The Wisdom of Crowds is a good idea, I’m not sure determining a question like this is one of them. Based on the current standings, it looks more like a popularity contest – with people urging their friends to vote for their county’s site. But if that’ the way it works, I say “game on.” Just surf on over to the New7Wonders site and cast your vote. When you register, you get to choose your seven picks – so why not get all three Israeli sites as close to the top seven as possible? Our national – or should I say “natural” – pride is at stake!
Oktober knows no borders
Filed under: Business, Food, History and Culture, coexistence
Modeled after Bavaria, Germany’s famous brew festival of the same name, which draws millions of participants each fall, the Taybeh Brewery held its own two-day version of Oktoberfest earlier this week. This is the fourth incarnation of the Palestinian village’s festival, sponsored by the industry named after it (the brewery’s founding Khoury family currently, er, occupies city hall over there).
The Taybeh Brewery, which offers Golden, Light, Amber and Dark beers, has a decidedly coexistence-themed flavor: It was founded thanks to peace momentum following the 1993 Oslo accords, it is marketed and bottled internationally, and a portion of the Oktoberfest profits is donated every year to peace-loving Palestinians and Israelis.
Although Taybeh is mostly a Christian village, the brewery premiered a non-alcoholic version at the festival, which should boost sales amongst the Palestinian nationalist crowd, traditionally forbidden to drink fermented liquids by the tenets of Islam. The festival also featured folk arts, musical and dance performances, as well as a tag rugby match between the Ramallah Blue Snakes and Beit Jala Lions.
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