U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership:
In the Air, on the Ground, in the Sea, and Even in Space
by Israel HighWay Staff

The terrorist fired his rocket-propelled grenade at the American-made armored personnel carrier (APC). Normally, such a close shot would mean that the soldiers inside "would be toast." But as the RPG hit, a revolutionary armor plate exploded outwardly, and no harm came to the vehicle. Outside, though, a civilian was hit by the shrapnel and was bleeding profusely. An army medic rushed to her side and urgently applied a newly-invented emergency bandage that stopped the bleeding. Overhead, a remotely-piloted mini-airplane was catching the events on camera, sending the images of the terrorist running away to soldiers on the ground.

The armor plating on the APC – Made in Israel. The bandage in the medic's bag – Made in Israel. And the remotely-piloted vehicle – that, too, Made in Israel.

On the battlefield, over the battlefield, and in the battlefield hospitals Israeli-made products are respected and sought after by armies around the world.

But there is one country in the world with which Israel has a unique military and strategic relationship – the United States.

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Movie Mogul Helping Israel Open University

Israel will open its first university in the Galilee, Vice Premier Shimon Peres announced Monday, after Israeli-American movie mogul Arnon Milchan (pictured) contributed $100 million for the project. Peres said the university would be centered in Carmiel, a small city in Israel's northern Galilee region, near the Lebanon border. According to a statement from Peres' office, the university would coordinate among six regional campuses now operating in the area. (SFGate)

Israel Says Palestinians Have Anti-Aircraft Missiles

Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip that might be moved to the West Bank and used against commercial aircraft flying over central Israel, Israeli security sources said on Tuesday. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet earlier in the week that Israel had asked the Palestinian Authority to locate several Soviet-designed Strela missiles now in the Gaza Strip, the sources said. "If they don't, then we will have to do it," one of the sources quoted Mofaz as saying. He also told the cabinet that members of the Palestinian Military Intelligence security branch had helped militants smuggle the shoulder-fired Strelas into Gaza through tunnels under the occupied territory's border with Egypt. (Reuters)

ISRAEL21c Launches New Blog - Israelity by Harry Rubenstein

Want to know the real story behind living in Israel? Not the politics, the conflict, the security fence or disengagement from Gaza, but what it's like for people going about their day to day lives in a country as full of cultural and social revolutions as Israel? Then welcome to ISRAEL21c's new blog - Israelity.

Israelity is a group blog dedicated to providing a glimpse into everyday life in Israel. ISRAEL21c has recruited bloggers from a variety of backgrounds and from different locations throughout Israel. Contributors include some who have been blogging for years as well as some relatively new to the 'blogosphere.'

From a graduate student in Beersheba in the south to a marketing consultant living in a small village in the Galilee in the north and everywhere in between, Israelity contributors muse about their favorite restaurants, historical sites, holidays, Israeli cinema, authors and offer anecdotes about their daily lives. (Israel21c)

Israeli Ethiopian Works with Children with Special Needs
by Howard Blas

When Shlomit Daniel set out for school each morning in Ethiopia, she could have never imagined a day when she would be teacher in the United States. "Many children, especially girls, didn't go to school—they studied at home with the kessim (Ethiopian Jewish priests). My parents understood the importance of education for my four siblings and me," reports Shlomit. "But it wasn't easy—it was a long walk, and I was usually the only Jew in a class of 40 or 50 children."

But Shlomit continued her studies and began a long journey that included making aliyah to Israel, serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, going to college, and finally, moving to the U.S.

Today, she lives in New Haven and works with students at Ezra Academy in Woodbridge, the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy (formerly the New Haven Hebrew Day School) and at New Haven's Talmud Torah Meyuchad (TTM).

At the day schools, students are referred to Daniel by classroom teachers, and she works with them on academic and social issues. At TTM, Daniel helps instruct nearly 40 children with a range of developmental, learning and social difficulties. And she still finds time to teach Hebrew language at the Slifka Center at Yale University. (Jewish Ledger)

Beachwood (Ohio) Teen Brings Israel's Hungry to Table
by Arlene Fine

While her friends are focusing on prom plans and college choices, Yael Misrahi, 17, is preoccupied with other thoughts. Soup kitchens and Israel's growing number of poor are what keeps the Beachwood honor roll student awake at night.

"Every time my mother sets out a Shabbat meal, I picture the faces of hungry Israeli children who will not be sitting down to challah, wine, soup, brisket, vegetables, pita, hummus and fresh fruit each Shabbat," says the high school senior. "We can't stop terrorism or the disengagement from Gaza, but we can fight hunger."

Yael is giving more than lip service to her concerns. As one of this year's five Joseph Lieberman Scholars, she has made a commitment to raise awareness and help the plight of Israel's 720,000 needy children who comprise 22% of the 1,200,000 Israelis now living below the poverty line. (Cleveland Jewish News)

Tucson Students Buy Pizzas for Soldiers in Kiryat Malachi
by Keren Asayag

Students from "Or Chadash" Synagogue in Tucson initiated a project to do something special to express their support for the IDF soldiers in their partnered region of Kiryat Malachi-Ashkelon Coast.

The students collected money to buy pizzas for the soldiers. Last week, members of the Kiryat Malachi "Youth Council" went to the Kastina crossroads near Kiryat Malachi and distributed the much appreciated pizzas to soldiers who were on their way from the army base to their homes. (Jewish Agency)

America Eats for Israel Fundraiser a Success by Ted Stratton

Every table at Ruchama's Café was occupied, Empire Kosher Restaurant was packed, and Tiki's2Go had a line out of the door. By all accounts, the high-school student led America Eats for Israel fundraiser on March 14 went gangbusters. Matan Flank, the Fuchs Mizrachi School junior who organized the Cleveland event, hasn't gotten the final numbers yet, but he expects to raise at least $2,400 for Alamagor, the Israel Terror Victims Association. The participating restaurants in the fundraiser - all eight kosher eateries in Cleveland - reported higher-than-usual business on what would have been a normal weekday.

Avi Goldberg of Baltimore, the national organizer of America Eats, says projections are high. Of the restaurant owners in Baltimore he spoke to, two of them had grossed $6,000, one $5,400 and two more $5,000. "It was absolutely unbelievable," says Goldberg. "Most restaurants you couldn't get into."

"I think a lot of (restaurants) didn't take it seriously in the beginning because we were high-school kids," says Flank. "But people really came out and showed their support for Israel." (Cleveland Jewish News)

A New Hero in Israel

Residents of the Arab-Israeli town of Sakhnin were celebrating in the streets Saturday night after local hero Abbas Suwan (pictured) scored a dramatic last-minute goal to lift Israel to a 1:1 draw against Ireland. The Irish team led throughout the game after an early goal, but a powerful drive by Suwan in the 90th minute found the left corner, keeping Israel in a good position in its World Cup qualifiers pool. In comments immediately after the game, Suwan first wished a happy Purim to all "my Jewish brothers."

As we go to press: Walid Badier, an Israeli Arab, scored the tying goal in Israel's 1:1 draw with the highly-ranked French soccer team on Wednesday. (Ynet News)

Don't Play Politics with Medicine by Barbara Sofer

The current conflict brought hundreds of international journalists into Hadassah's two Jerusalem hospitals. They came to write about terror victims, but they found another compelling story. Many witnessed for the first time what we Israelis take for granted in our hospitals: In the ER, in waiting rooms and hospital wards, they saw Jews and Arabs mixing freely and receiving equal care. Even more remarkable to them was the staff of Jews and Arabs, and yes – Palestinians who crossed checkpoints – working shoulder to shoulder.

Top-tier investigative journalists spent weeks in the hospital with unlimited access. They did broadcasts from recovery rooms shared by terror victims and terrorists guarded by soldiers. Their cameras rolled as two women doctors, one a Palestinian and the other a settler, worked late into the night to save the life of a terror victim. Frequently, they interviewed Hadassah's chief trauma surgeon, Avi Rivkind, on why he'd personally operated on arch-terrorist Hassan Salameh.

They overheard physicians and nurses talking on cell phones to colleagues in Hebron, Jenin and Ramallah. They listened in awe as an obstetrician whose son had been brutally murdered by terrorists told how she saw his face in every baby she delivered, Jewish and Arab; and how with each birth she prayed that these mothers wouldn't know her agony. (Jerusalem Post)

See Also: Natalie Portman, Born in Hadassah, Dedicates $50M Unit to Treat Terror Victims

Actress Natalie Portman jokes with Dr. Avi Rivkind, head of Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital's trauma and surgery department, after presenting him with an award during the inauguration ceremony of a new $50 million emergency care unit in Jerusalem last week. Portman was born at Hadassah, which is sponsored by the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization. The Jerusalem hospital was inundated over the past four years with Israeli victims of Palestinian bombings. (AP/Israel Insider)

Next Year In Jerusalem for More Non-Orthodox Teens
by Gabrielle Birkner

In the Modern Orthodox community, bridging the gap between high school and college with a year of Israel study has long been a rite of passage. Now it's gaining ground with the less traditionally observant, as enrollment in yearlong pluralistic, Reform and Conservative movement programs is on the rise.

"For many of our students, this is their only opportunity to take a large chunk of time to explore a deeper part of themselves," said Rabbi Ramie Arian, the national director of Young Judaea, a pluralistic organization affiliated with Hadassah that runs a 10-month post-high school program called Year Course.

Increasingly, he said, non-Orthodox teens and their parents "see value in stepping off the academic rat race and exploring one's identity as a Jew and as a Zionist." That might explain why during the past five years, Young Judaea has seen the number of non-Orthodox students participating in its post-high school program grow more than 40 percent to 240 students, according to Rabbi Arian. Program enrollment is under way for the 2005-06 season, and the organization expects the number of non-Orthodox students to top 315.

The 24-year-old Nativ program has also seen a steady rise in its student body, which now stands at 62. This year the Reform movement launched Carmel, a year-long Israel program. Students take classes at the University of Haifa and at the Lokey International Academy of Jewish Studies, a Reform institution. "I was excited to see the Reform movement starting a program like this and felt like it was about time it did," said 18-year-old Rachel Marder, one of the eight students who enrolled in the program during its inaugural year. (New York Jewish Week)

AJ6 Youth Movement Mission to Shlomi

A delegation from the United Kingdom's AJ6 Zionist youth movement recently spent a week in the Israeli town of Shlomi. In the course of their busy schedule, the 14 delegates spent time with local youth, enjoyed family hospitality, toured, and met with Shlomi Regional Council Head Gabi Ne'eman. They were joined for the week by 14 youths from Shlomi and by 8 former AJ6-ers now in Israel on a year-long volunteer stint. The connection between Shlomi and AJ6 is maintained by the Jewish Agency's "Partnership 2000" project. AJ6 is part of a larger connection between the Jewish community of the UK and confrontation line communities in Israel along the Lebanon border – Shlomi, Marom Galil, and Maale Yosef. (Jewish Agency)

1,000 French Jews Arrive for Solidarity Visit by Sam Ser

Around 1,000 Jews from France have arrived in Israel on a mission that will mix solidarity, politics and soccer. The Consistoire (Council of Jewish Communities in France) and the Jewish Agency have organized a reunion of Jews from Constantine in Algeria, with a delegation that includes non-Jewish French government officials. Jews from Constantine who now live in France or Israel – including Jewish pop stars – will join the reunion. The French Jews will not only meet with leading figures in politics and Israeli society, but are also to attend Wednesday's World Cup-qualifying soccer match between Israel and France at Ramat Gan. (Israel and France played to a 1-1 tie.) (Jerusalem Post)

Zionism on Wheels

On Monday March 21, 17 members of the Jewish communities in Denver and Boulder Colorado alongside 15 members of their partner community of Ramat HaNegev embarked on a bike tour to get better acquainted with each other and the Ramat HaNegev area. The tour included historical, Zionist, and Jewish explanations of the places visited. On Monday, the group traveled to Ayalim and Sde Boker where they visited the grave of David Ben Gurion and enjoyed a lecture on the legacy of Ben Gurion. On Tuesday, the tour visited the religious settlement of Merchav Am as well as the Large Crater. The following day, they returned to Sde Boker via Nahal Zin, where Israeli families hosted the members of the Colorado community for the night. (Jewish Agency)

Let the Piano Competition Begin by Haggai Hitron

Six hundred pianists from around the world expressed interest in this year's 11th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, with 152 having submitted forms, filling out a questionnaire, and sending their curriculum vitae and recommendations. Of this group, 36 were chosen, including pianists from New Zealand, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, England, Brazil, the United States and even Nigeria. Prizes will be awarded to the six finalists on April 13, with the winner getting $25,000. (Ha'aretz)

See Also: Teen Competitor from China

The Scorpions Are Coming by Merav Yudilovitch

The German rock group, The Scorpions, is expected to perform in Israel this summer, after being impressed by a young Israeli singer during a Berlin fundraiser for the benefit of tsunami victims. The band's management is presently in discussions with Israeli producer Shuki Weiss and if all goes well, the band will perform at Tel Aviv's Bloomfield stadium on July 7. The Scorpions are considered one of the most successful rock groups of all times, with a long list of hits including "Still loving you" and "Winds of change". Group members met young Israeli singer Liel Kolet two months ago at a Berlin fundraiser for the benefit for tsunami victims. Kolet performed John Lennon's "Imagine" with Scorpions lead singer Klaus Meine (pictured with Liel), a song the two plan to sing together at the concert in Israel. (Ynet News)

Israel is Committed to Take These Painful Steps to Peace
by Yael Ravia-Zadok

In the coming months, Israel will embark on a path marking a new chapter in the Middle East. With the implementation of the Disengagement Plan, initiated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and approved by both the Israeli government and Knesset, Israel will no longer be present in the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank by the end of 2005. This plan is intended to reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians, to improve Israel's security situation and to provide the Palestinians an opportunity to manage their own lives and design their own future.

Anyone who thinks this painful yet necessary evacuation will be easy is surely mistaken. The Disengagement Plan is one of the hardest, most painful, yet boldest decisions that Israel has ever had to carry out. More than 8,000 Israelis will have to leave the homes where they have lived for three decades; families that have never lived in any other place will need to be uprooted from the only place that was home. They leave the communities they have built, and the businesses and farms they have long nurtured. (Houston Chronicle)

We Need a New Kind of Zionism by Tony Bayfield

Despite glimmers of hope and what looks to be the emergence of Ariel Sharon the statesman, Zionism still appears to be a dirty word. It gets classed with communism as a discredited ideology, or equated with appalling things such as racism and apartheid. To some, it might seem unthinkable that a progressive person should own up to being a Zionist. But I am. In fact, the overwhelming majority of Jews, wherever they stand on the political spectrum, are Zionists. When attacked, we tend to respond by equating anti-Zionists with anti-Semites. It may be unfair, but wells up out of anger and frustration at not being allowed to be ourselves. (The Guardian - UK)

Israel, Too, Has a Right to Self-Determination by Amnon Rubinstein

International law recognizes a nation's right to self-determination. This right is the basis of nation states, of which Israel is one. This recognition subsumes that a nation has the right to preserve its majority in its own country. However, not all means to that end are justified: Discrimination between Israeli citizens – in pension payments, rights to land, government allocations – is absolutely taboo.

What is permissible? The state may make use of immigration, both by encouraging immigration through the Law of Return and by restricting other immigration that could pose a danger to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. (Jerusalem Post)

For Once, Peace Seems Possible by Ryan Walsh

For years a solution to the conflict seemed inconceivable. Then, in the dawning hours of November 11, 2004, Arafat breathed his last. His rule, stained by innocent blood, had finally perished, while dreams of peace had been simultaneously reborn.

The scene today is encouraging. On February 20, the Israeli Cabinet finally ratified Prime Minster Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. At the same time, the Cabinet also authorized the completion of a security fence between official Israel and the West Bank. Israel has already erected fences in parts of the West Bank and in all of Gaza. As a result, terrorism in these areas has been brought to a complete halt.

Sharon appears to be preparing for a final two-state solution to the decades-old crisis. Even more unbelievable, new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is seemingly doing likewise. Having purged his ranks of extremists and terrorist ringleaders, Abbas has thoroughly distinguished himself from the image of his predecessor.

Ryan Walsh is 17 and a Junior at Webster High School in Wisconsin. (OpinionEditorials.com)

For decades after Israel's founding in 1948, American foreign policy experts warned that too close a relationship with Israel would alienate the Arabs and hurt American interests in the Middle East. Many nations refused to sell Israel weapons, and only in the 1960s did the United States reluctantly begin to sell aircraft to Israel. By the 1970s, Israel relied almost entirely on American-made weaponry and on its own weapons factories. Within a few years Israel's hi-tech weapons were finding their way even into the American arsenal.

American policy-makers view Israel as its most important ally in the Middle East. Not only is Israel the only democracy in the Middle East but it assists the United States in maintaining regional stability. In 1970, for instance, Syrian tanks threatened the pro-American government of Jordan. The United States Government urgently asked Israel to help to save King Hussein. Israeli tanks rumbled toward the Israeli-Syrian-Jordanian border, and the Syrian tanks stopped in their tracks and retreated.

There is great admiration within the American security establishment for Israel's military achievements. In October 1991, for instance, then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney reflected on the (first) Gulf War that had just ended. He publicly thanked Israel's General David Ivri who had served as commander of Israel's air force ten years earlier: "Let me … thank my good friend David Ivri for the action Israel took in 1981 with respect to the [bombing of Iraq's Osirak] reactor." He added: "There were many times during the course of the build-up in the Gulf and the subsequent conflict [with Iraq] that I gave thanks for the bold and dramatic action that had been taken [by Israel] some 10 years before."

Israeli intelligence services have a long history of providing the United States with important intelligence information about the (now defunct) Soviet Union, anti-American regimes in the Middle East such as Iran, and terrorists' plans. Israel's intelligence-gathering abilities have increased considerably in recent years after the development and launching of Israel's own "spy" satellites. Very few countries in the world have the technological ability to produce and launch into orbit such satellites.

The United States and Israel conduct joint military exercises in the air, on the ground and in the sea. American troops use Israeli training bases to practice in real Middle East battlefield conditions. Israeli and American pilots fly joint exercises and share their know-how and experience. American troops in Iraq have studied the urban warfare tactics developed by Israel, used during the intifada to capture and defeat terrorists and suicide-bombing commanders. U.S., Israeli and Turkish naval ships recently practiced naval rescues in the Mediterranean Sea.

During the first Gulf War, dozens of Iraqi Scud missiles rained down on Israel. No weapon system existed in the world to intercept those missiles or the more advanced ones now under development in Iran. With American funding, Israeli defense industries have developed and deployed the Arrow missile (pictured), the most advanced anti-missile system in the world. Click here to see how the Arrow works. American and Israeli anti-missile crews recently practiced drills to intercept missiles from an unnamed Middle Eastern country, assumed to be Iran.

Click here to see Israel's advanced weapons, many of which are now in the U.S. arsenal. (Source: AIPAC website )

That emergency bandage mentioned above is now reportedly used by the U.S. Army's Special Operations Forces, 3rd Infantry Division, 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, 10th Mountain Division and 75th Rangers Division. The Navy Seals also use it, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency.

Another important area of American-Israeli cooperation is space exploration and research. NASA and the Israel Space Agency signed an agreement in 1986 to exchange scientific and technical information. Research was tragically interrupted in February 2003 with the crash of the Columbia Space Shuttle and the death of its crew, including Israeli pilot Ilan Ramon.

Today the United States leads the world in the global war on terrorism, a war that may continue for years, according to President Bush. Israel is one country that knows this deadly enemy only too well. Having been plagued by terrorism for decades, Israel has also successfully engaged the terrorist enemy while maintaining a free and liberal society. Israel can and will provide much needed assistance to America and its allies as they seek to defeat the terrorists and those that harbor them. (Israel HighWay Staff)

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