November 2 is Balfour Day, the 109th anniversary of the letter sent by Arthur James Balfour, who was then the British foreign secretary, to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, one of the leaders of British Jewry, with the intention that he should forward it to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.
In the letter, Balfour stated: “His majesty’s government views with favor, the establishment in Palestine, of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.”
The Israel Britain and the Commonwealth Association (IBCA) has traditionally hosted an annual Balfour Day dinner, which was not always held on the exact date and has, on rare occasions, been scrapped due to security concerns.
This year, Balfour Day is being celebrated on the correct date – November 2 – but will be somewhat different than in past years, particularly with regard to the venue.
It will be marked in the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), where one of the speakers will be INSS executive director and former chief of the IDF Intelligence Directorate, Maj.-Gen. (res) Tamir Hayman, and the other will be Mark Regev, who qualifies for IBCA and the occasion from a number of perspectives.
He is originally from Australia, which is part of the Commonwealth. Regev was the international spokesman for the prime minister of Israel and later the prime minister’s senior adviser for foreign affairs and international communications.
Between those two roles, he served as Israel’s ambassador to the UK. Perhaps even more important in relation to Balfour Day is that the letter might never have been written but for the victorious Battle of Beersheba on October 31, 1917, in which Australian and New Zealand soldiers of the Light Horse Brigades attached to the British Army defeated the Ottoman forces.
The event will take place six days after the Knesset elections, by which time it will probably be known which party is likely to lead the next government, while Israel will presumably still be at war. This will be the key focus of discussions.
Israel makes strikes in Alzheimer's care, research
As progress is made in identifying causes and early symptoms of various medical conditions that were once either fatal or incurable, there is hope that coming generations and their families will suffer less from various types of cancer, crippling spinal injuries, vision and hearing impairments, Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, and more.
But everything takes time. By the end of this decade, a lot more will be known about delaying, treating, and possibly preventing Alzheimer’s than is known today.
What is believed to be Israel’s first dedicated Alzheimer’s Medical Center had its ground-breaking ceremony in Beersheba last week.
The NIS 250 million facility, scheduled to open in 2030, will have approximately 280 inpatient beds. Population increases, coupled with longevity, point to a sharp rise in the number of Alzheimer’s and dementia cases in the future, and Israel must prepare for such a situation.
Among those attending the ceremony were Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, the director-general of the Health Ministry, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, and Nitai Eliash, the CEO of the Alzheimer’s Medical Center.
Eliash was previously associated with a smaller, similar facility in Ramat Gan. The new center in Beersheba will offer even more comprehensive services and facilities.
Bedouin towns celebrate completion of telecommunications infrastructure project
The Bedouins of the Negev have distinguished themselves as trackers in the IDF. Some have reached high academic standards and positions; many have changed from a nomadic lifestyle to something more permanent; they were among the October 7 rescuers and the victims of Hamas, and were also among the hostages taken to Gaza.
Yet for all that and more, many of them have been denied the community services that many of their Jewish neighbors take for granted. But all that is gradually changing as evidenced by the celebration held last week to mark the completion of a vast telecommunications infrastructure project, which encompasses all Bedouin towns and villages in the Negev, and is under the umbrella of the Al-Kasom Regional Council.
The project is managed by Barak 555, a subsidiary of the Drive Group. The celebration held at the council offices was attended by Eyal Almog, the CEO of Barak 555, regional council head Jaber Abu Kaf, and Chief Information Officer Nadav Shahar, who led the project on behalf of the council, as well as many others from the council and Barak 555.
All agreed that the partnership between the council and the Drive Group subsidiary had been of great benefit to the Bedouin community.
The project, considered to be an impressive achievement, connects schools and public buildings to an advanced wireless network that helps narrow the digital gap between Bedouin communities and their neighbors.
The role of AI in diplomacy
AI is penetrating anything and everything these days. While AI enthusiasts eagerly share information about what it can do to improve efficiency and quality, those opposed to AI point out how many workers will be replaced by it, how many professions will become obsolete, how income will dwindle, and with it, the quality of life. Worse still, they draw attention to the inaccuracies that AI itself warns can frequently occur.
Nevertheless, AI cannot be ignored, and last week, members of the Ambassadors’ Club of Israel gathered at the Vital hotel in Tel Aviv to hear Dror Globerman, a lecturer, technology news reporter for Channel 12, and founder of JumpStart AI, speak about the role of AI in diplomacy.
The diplomats seemed fascinated by the realization that they were standing on the cusp of a new era in diplomacy. Panama’s ambassador Ezra Cohen said afterward: “This was the most important learning experience since my arrival in Israel.”
This was an extremely important reaction, given that Cohen is one of the most active ambassadors. He has the advantage of being multilingual, fluent in both Hebrew and English.
The Israeli Public Council for Press and Ethics, an independent NGO that chiefly aims to protect the freedom of the press and to shield the public from irresponsible and unethical media, is having a tough time in an era of social media where freedom of the press has taken on a meaning quite different from that defended by the council, which is currently headed by retired Supreme Court justice, Prof. Hanan Melcer.
This week, the council published an advertisement in traditional Hebrew media, congratulating the prize-winning journalists who have distinguished themselves in their coverage of the war since October 7.
Among them was Tali Lipkin-Shahak, 70, who, as Tali Zelinger, became the first female print media military reporter for the now-defunct Davar newspaper, which currently appears only in digital form.
She had previously been a fashion reporter, but Davar’s editor-in-chief, the iconic Hannah Zemer, a Holocaust survivor who was the first female editor of a major Israeli daily newspaper, recognized her potential.
Lipkin-Shahak later went on to radio and television and continues to broadcast regularly on Army Radio.
Carmela Menashe, the first female broadcast media military reporter, is also listed among the award recipients. So is Mohammad Magadli of the Arabic Al-Nas Radio.
Lipkin-Shahak was married to the late Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, a former IDF chief of staff and later a government minister. Her father, Azaria Rapoport, was Israel’s first-ever military reporter.
When Tali Lipkin-Shahak was appointed Davar’s military reporter, both this publication and The Jerusalem Post were owned by the Histadrut labor federation. In reporting on the first woman to become a print media military reporter, the Post ran the headline: “From tank tops to tanks.”
In the coming weeks, many organizations and institutions will be hosting political events featuring political party leaders and prominent party personalities as speakers.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, the speeches will be in Hebrew. Notably, a large number of Israeli politicians are fluent in English, and some speak other languages such as Russian, French, Spanish, and Arabic.
Hebrew is, after all, the main national language. Among those who can address an audience in English is Yair Golan, the chairman of the Democrats Party, who will be speaking at the Tel Aviv International Salon at Hangar 11 on the Port of Tel Aviv on Sunday, September 4. Admission is free of charge.
Aharoni’s Fried Chicken on Wheels
Celebrity chef Yisrael Aharoni never tires of starting new ventures. After celebrating his 76th birthday this year, he launched his pink food truck, which is branded Aharoni’s Fried Chicken on Wheels.
The truck is parked in the Bilu Center in Kiryat Ekron, near the Bilu junction. Fellow chefs, executives from the Ofer shopping malls, and other guests came to wish him well – and of course, to taste the fried chicken. A DJ presiding over popular music contributed to the festive atmosphere.
Israelis and Palestinians cooperate in many fields, not always made public. Media reports tend to focus more on controversies than cooperation.
A project initiated by the Dutch Friends of the Hebrew University has brought together Hebrew University and Palestinian scientists and students from the Al-Quds Public Health Society, with a five-year aim of building relationships and fostering reconciliation.
This is the Dutch Friends of the Hebrew University’s fourth consecutive program since 2012. It is supported by the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry and Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Research on this international project has led to the development of wheat varieties better suited to the region’s harsh climatic conditions.