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| Week ending Shabbat, January 20, 2007 |
1 Shevat, 5767 |
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Night to Honor Israel at Furman University
Steve Strang of Strang Communications has announced the next "A Night to Honor Israel" event, which will be the first one in South Carolina. The widely-recognized evangelical pastor, John Hagee, will be speaking. Special hotel rates have been arranged at the downtown Hyatt, and the Hampton Inn Travelers Rest, which is next to the University. You may request the "A Night to Honor Israel/Furman University" rate when making reservations. If you cannot attend, please pray for this important event. For more information please visit: NightToHonorIsrael.org
Temple Aqueduct and Ritual Bath Found
The site was found in a never-before-excavated area situated behind the Western Wall police station, right beside the plaza where millions of worshipers and tourists come each year to visit the Western Wall and Temple Mount. This new archaeological find uncovers an important missing link in the ancient water system. It is called the "Lower Aqueduct." Through it water was channeled from Solomon's Pools near Bethlehem [several miles south of Jerusalem] directly to the national focal point of Jewish worship - the Temple Mount. The ancient pools of Solomon [just north of the modern Jewish town of Efrat] cover an area of about seven acres and can hold three million gallons of water. A lengthy aqueduct conveyed the water from the lowest pool through Bethlehem, across the Gihon valley, along the western slope of the Tyropoeon valley, and into the cisterns underneath the Temple Mount. The current government plans for the partition wall will leave Solomon's Pools outside the area of Jewish sovereignty.
The plastered hewn-stone mikva (ritual bath) that was also unearthed at the excavation site is from the Second Temple period. It was originally situated at the foundation level of a private home during that time. The ritual bath was damaged at a later date when the bedrock cliff opposite it was hewn into a vertical wall that rose up to a maximum height of about thirty feet.
The most extensive remains of the period are those of a Roman-Byzantine colonnaded street - the Eastern Cardo. Included in that area is a covered stoa, a row of shops and several artifacts. The street appears on a sixth century map and is known as the Eastern Cardo or the Valley Cardo. The lavish colonnaded street began at the Damascus Gate in the north and led south, running the length of the channel in the Tyropoeon Valley. Sections of this street were revealed in the past in the northern part of the Old City, at a depth of about four meters (12 feet) below the pavement. The full eleven-meter (33 foot) width of the original road was exposed in the present excavation for the first time.
Extracting Oil from Shale and Asphalt
Haifa-based A.F.S.K Hom Tov recently demonstrated its patented method of extracting high quality oil and natural gas from a mixture of bitumen and oil shale rock. Bitumen - or asphalt - is the residue obtained by distillation of crude oil. Experts predict the process will return oil at just twenty-five dollars a barrel and the additional natural gas produced would further boost the financial feasibility. With crude oil prices currently floating at over fifty dollars a barrel, this proposed method is generating interest around the world. "The world is looking for a replacement for oil supplies," says attorney Moshe Shahal, a former Israeli energy minister and today the legal representative for Hom Tov.
The Hom-Tov process uses oil shale as a catalyst to extract combustible organic material from the residual bitumen byproduct of crude oil refineries. The end product from the process can easily be refined into high-grade petroleum and other fuels. At present, oil refineries produce countless tons of bitumen residue every year that have little practical use or economic benefit and are an environmental hazard. As a further bonus, the process converts the oil shale rock into a dry fuel in which the inorganic rock structure traps dangerous gases, such as sulfurous materials, preventing pollutant emissions to the atmosphere. The dry fuel byproduct could be burnt to power the Hom-Tov process itself as well provide additional electricity for the national grid. "The Hom-Tov process is energy self-sustained," says Professor Zeev Aizenshtat, an energy resource expert and professor of chemistry and applied chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Aizenshtat has followed the development of the Hom-Tov process for more than a decade and now acts as an expert consultant for the company.
Lieberman says Peretz is Endangering Israel
On Monday Knesset Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman blasted Defense Minister Amir Peretz, saying that "as long as this man is in his post, the State of Israel and its security are severely harmed." During an Israel Our Home faction meeting, Lieberman addressed the appointment of the first Arab minister, Knesset Member Raleb Majadele of the Labor Party. "I stress that we have no problem with Raleb, but a big problem with the defense minister. The way this has been done is simply despised. The way the prime minister was informed, the way the Labor Party voted on it - there is no wonder that he had to call a new meeting of the party's Central Committee in order to vote again." Lieberman continued, "There was a cynical use here both of the issue and of the fact that the man is ready to use official tools in order to improve his situation inside the party or for internal party needs. This is severe in itself," Lieberman continued, pointing a finger at Peretz. "The man is engaged in political manipulations, and this is not the defense minister Israel needs," Lieberman claimed, clarifying that "I have no problem not with Christians and not with Muslims. I have no problem with any person who accepts the principle according to which the State of Israel is Jewish and Zionist."
Israeli Government in Turmoil
The Israeli political system is suffering utter turmoil following the resignation of IDF Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz. By early morning Wednesday, many Knesset members had already called on Prime Minister Olmert and Defense Minister Peretz to follow Halutz's example and go home as well. Here are some comments made by a few party representatives:
- Minister of Knesset (MK) Yisrael Katz (Likud) commented on the resignation, saying that "the chief of staff's resignation officially confirms the failure of the Lebanon war and compels the prime minister and the defense minister to stop holding on to their positions and resign from their posts." "A temporary emergency government should be formed that would include a representative from each Zionist party for six months until the elections," Kats added.
- MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) said, "Halutz's resignation was a necessary, unavoidable step. One can hope that his resignation in the first step towards rehabilitation of the crisis of confidence the military and defense establishment have gotten into and the beginning of the reestablishment of the IDF's deterrence."
- MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) stated, "The prime minister and defense minister have no moral right to appoint the next chief of staff," and that "the responsibility for the failure of the Lebanon war cannot stop at the military echelon but must include the political echelon as well for making irresponsible decisions before the war."
- MK Arieh Eldad (National Union-National Religious Party) said, "It is a shame that Halutz wasted four precious months for the State of Israel that were needed for the rehabilitation of the IDF. Now Peretz and Olmert must go as well, since the whole country, and not just IDF is in need of rehabilitation and cleansing."
- MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) said that the next IDF chief of staff should not be appointed by the prime minister and defense minister, but by a committee of experts that should be formed by the government. "Olmert and Peretz's understanding in State security is near nothing and their considerations in selecting the next chief of staff could now be influenced by foreign political considerations," said Erdan.
The question is, who would replace them that would do anything better?
Israeli Scientists Developing New Procedures
Technion scientists Doctor Shulamit Levenberg and Professor Lior Gepstein have successfully used embryonic stem cells to create blood vessels within the tissue, which should enable its incorporation into the heart's vascular system. The researchers created the heart tissue through differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into heart muscle and endothelial cells. They then grew the two together with fibroblasts, embryonic supporting cells. The advance, according to the Circulation Research Journal that wrote up the study, could eventually enable the repair of heart tissue caused by heart disease and heart attacks. Tissue irreversibly dies during a heart attack when blood is cut off to a section of the heart. "Without this system, acceptance could be prolonged and the cells could die during this time period," said Levenberg. "In our work, we demonstrated the importance of the endothelial cells (cells that build blood vessels), which encourage differentiation of the heart cells and their organization, in addition to their multiplication. That is - it is important to create heart cell tissue, with all its component cells, in this case the endothelial cells, heart cells and cells that support the blood vessels."
The growth of the cells took place on a special porous and biodegradable scaffold designed by the Technion researchers. The next step is examining whether such tissue, implanted in the heart, would gain acceptance and be incorporated by the heart into the larger vascular system. Doctor Levenberg is optimistic. She believes that the development will one day lead to a cure to degenerative diseases. Scientific American Journal named her one of the world's fifty leading scientists in 2006 for her work.
,br>Another development, discovered by scientists at the Weizmann Institute, may facilitate the revival of dead brain cells caused by head trauma, stroke or disease. The new method gets rid of excess glutamate, which floods damaged areas of the brain, leading to the death of larger areas after a trauma. Glutamate carries impulses from one nerve cell to another. When brain cells are damaged, it spills out and overexcites the cells it touches, killing them as well. Weizmann Institute Professor Vivian Teichberg, Professor Yoram Shapira of the Soroka Medical Center and Doctor Alexander Zlotnik of Ben Gurion University of the Negev have developed a possible solution that may bypass many of the delivery problems with the drugs available for the purpose. They discovered that a certain enzyme injected into the blood of rats acted to contain and absorb the glutamate as it spilled into the brain, preventing most of the damage. The method will next be tested in clinical trials to examine whether it could have a similar effect on a human brain.
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