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ISRAEL, ALREADY A TRAILBLAZER IN INNOVATION, ALSO BECOMING A LEADER IN SPACE TECHNOLOGY

CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH PRESENTS THE 28TH ANNUAL GALA 2016: Israel in Space: Beyond the Blue (and White) Horizon — “Technology, Economy, Security.” In commemoration of Ilan Ramon z”l. Keynote speaker: Tal Inbar, head of the Space Research Center, the Fischer Institute for Air & Space Strategic Studies. Mr. Inbar will discuss the topic “The Israeli Space Endeavor: Accomplishments and Future Challenges.” Join CIJR for this special event that will include a special video presentation by Rona Ramon (Ilan Ramon’s widow), greetings from the Canadian Space Agency, and more. This event will take place in Montreal, Thursday, April 14, and in Toronto, Tuesday, April 12, 2016. For more information and tickets, call 1-855-303-5544, email yunna@isranet.wpsitie.com, or register online at our website: www.isranet.org   

 

Israeli Rocket Technology Will Help Explorer Ease Onto Mars: David Shamah, Times of Israel, Mar. 15, 2016— Man’s latest attempt to search for life on the Red Planet has a critical blue-and-white component – a propulsion system that will gently guide the newly-launched ExoMars spacecraft to the surface of Mars when it gets ready to touch down sometime in 2018.

About the Nature of Cyber Warfare: Isaac Ben-Israel, Israel Defense,, Jan. 21, 2016— Not a day passes without some report about a cyber warfare event taking place somewhere around the globe…

Airport Exhibit Showcases Israeli Breakthroughs: Ynet, Mar. 11, 2016— Going abroad? You have a chance to learn about Israel’s groundbreaking scientists.

Salomon Benzimra: A Terrible Loss for the Jewish People: Diane Bederman, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 17, 2016— I had the honor of joining Salomon Benzimra and Goldi Steiner, co-founders of Canadians for Israel’s Legal Rights, to speak to members of Knesset and ask them to proudly proclaim Israel’s legal rights under international law – rights that clearly state Israel’s borders run from the river to the sea.

 

 

On Topic Links

 

Moon Shot | Episode 7 | Israel: Space IL (Video): Google Lunar XPrize, Mar. 17, 2016

From Jerusalem to Mars – An Israeli Space Odyssey! (Video): United With Israel, Feb. 24, 2016

Q&A with Isaac Ben-Israel, Chairman of the Israel Space Agency: Peter B. de Selding, Space News, Oct. 5, 2015

San Remo: The Forgotten Milestone: Salomon Benzimra, Arutz Sheva, Apr. 26, 2015

 

 

            ISRAELI ROCKET TECHNOLOGY WILL

  HELP EXPLORER EASE ONTO MARS

David Shamah              

         Times of Israel, Mar. 15, 2016

 

Man’s latest attempt to search for life on the Red Planet has a critical blue-and-white component – a propulsion system that will gently guide the newly-launched ExoMars spacecraft to the surface of Mars when it gets ready to touch down sometime in 2018. The craft’s propulsion system was developed by Rafael, the same company that developed, among other things, the Iron Dome missile defense system. While known for its defense systems, Rafael is also active in the space business, specifically as the manufacturer of controllable propulsion and reaction control systems (RCS), which help “brake” the landing of satellites and missiles. This ensures that their fuel tanks do not crash into the ground as they land and ignite an explosion.

 

When ExoMars, launched Monday, gets to its destination, it will release a descent module called Schiaparelli which will land on Mars. During the descent phase, a heat shield will protect the payload from the severe heat flux. Parachutes, thrusters, and damping systems will reduce the speed, allowing a controlled landing on the surface of Mars. The module’s fuel tanks are equipped with Rafael-supplied mini-rockets that will spring into action when the craft gets ready to land on the surface of Mars, according to Zvi Zuckerman, a Rafael engineer who helped develop the system. In comments to Yedioth Ahronoth, Zuckerman said that the landing “will be a dramatic moment, because if anything goes wrong, the spacecraft could explode” due to the impact of landing.

 

According to Zuckerman, the European Space Agency, which is sponsoring the mission along with Russian space agency Roscosmos, chose Rafael’s propulsion system for the job “because our propulsion tanks are lighter, and use cleaner fuel,” which ensures a smoother landing. The inclusion of Israeli technology in the mission, Zuckerman added, was especially noteworthy as the ESA prefers to use only Europe-developed and manufactured systems for its missions. The Rafael tanks are manufactured at the Rafael facility in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Yam.

 

ExoMars is far from Rafael’s first foray into space. The company’s propulsion modules have been used in dozens of satellites (30 of them currently active), among them the OFEQ, EROS and TecSAR satellites. The positive-expulsion propellant tank technology present on ExoMars has been used on Proteus, Galileo-GIOVE-B, Spirale, Prisma, Myriad/Astrosat-100 and other satellites, many of which were launched by the ESA. The ESA is not the only space-exploring body to use Israeli technology. Last October, Israel signed a cooperation agreement with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (COPUOS). Under the agreement, Israel will develop protocols and systems to use satellite technology in a number of projects, including using satellites to take photos of areas where natural and other disasters take place, and the distribution of photos to rescue agents for use in locating and identifying survivors.

 

According to Minister of Science, Technology and Space Danny Danon, last year’s agreement was “a small step into the UN agency, and a big step for Israel. This agreement proves that Israel is a leader in space technology, and that it has a great deal to contribute to humanity in this area, especially in satellite development and research.”

                                                                        Contents

ABOUT THE NATURE OF CYBER WARFARE

Isaac Ben-Israel

Israel Defense, Jan. 21, 2016 

           

Not a day passes without some report about a cyber warfare event taking place somewhere around the globe: credit card theft, a demonstration of a car being taken over remotely, espionage and monitoring of international leaders, hacking into computers and so forth. The cyber security issue grows hotter from one day to the next and practically everyone is talking about it: from academia, through government and industry circles to social small talk. What is the right definition for this realm? What is a cyber warfare event?

 

As this is a relatively new medium, it comes as no surprise that the definition is flexible and changes rapidly as it evolves. After all, computers came into the world only about seventy years ago; The first computer on earth (ENIAC) was built by a Hungarian-Jewish mathematician, John von Neumann, for the US Army in 1946, based on the concepts of British mathematician Alan Turing. The major breakthrough into our life occurred only in the early 1960s, after the industry began building computers that were based on transistors instead of the older electronic vacuum tubes. From that moment on, a technological race began which is still in progress to this day – to miniaturize transistors and to place as many as possible onto a single computer chip ("Moore's Law"). A typical current computer chip contains more than one billion transistors.

 

The powerful computation capabilities of current computer chips, along with their small physical size, led to a situation where computer chips have been incorporated in almost every modern system, from the car we drive through our electrical home appliances to bank account management and critical infrastructure systems, like controlling electrical power generating turbines, managing water supply systems and so forth. This situation has also provided an opportunity for computer abuse: there are those who take advantage of this dependence for terrorism, crime, information theft and similar activities.

 

The computer revolution has been taking place concurrently with the communication revolution: everything is becoming interlinked. The combination of computation capabilities paired with fast communication, which originated with the conversion of telephone switchboards into computer servers and continued with the Internet and electronic mail revolution of the early 1990s, changed our life dramatically. But there is a fly in the ointment: more opportunities have been opened for those malevolent parties wishing to take advantage of our dependence on computers.

 

Interlinked computers facilitated the information revolution and have evolved into a primary tool for storing information and transferring it from one place to another. Owing to those malevolent parties, it has become necessary to protect this information. A new profession has emerged in the 1990’s – information security.

 

The world found out fairly quickly that the very possibility of hacking into computers enables the hacking party not only to manipulate the information those computers contain but also to inflict physical damage on the systems they control. The entire world realized that when a malicious software was inserted into the computers that controlled the rotating speed of the centrifuges at the uranium enriching facility in Natanz, Iran. The damage inflicted was physical: the centrifuges collapsed, and the transition from information security to cyber security was born.

 

Meanwhile, computers have continued to evolve and the current vision, known as the "Internet of Things" (IoT) reigns supreme: all of our appliances and devices, including those in our homes, in our cars, in our offices and so forth – will be computer controlled and will "communicate" with one another with no intervention on our part. Those silent objects, along with the entire home, will attain some degree of intelligence and become "smart" owing to the artificial brain (namely – the computer) incorporated in them. All of this will not be possible without effective cyber security measures. We are currently undergoing yet another transformation: the transition from cyber security to cyber technology, which will enable the vision of the smart home, smart city and smart nation.

 

So what is cyber defense? All of the above leads to my suggestion to define it as protection against the dark side of computers. Just like the moon, the computer, too, has a bright side that has attracted mankind since the dawn of creation, as well as a dark side which is not visible, and unless we address it, it might devour the bright side.

 

Admittedly, most cyber issues have technological solutions, but the issues themselves are not at all technological: they are interdisciplinary in nature. The problems of the cyber technology world cannot be understood without taking into consideration such factors as public behavior (social sciences), personal and social psychology, economic considerations, legal and judicial limitations, inter-state relations (political science), changes in the digital world (humanities) and so forth. It is not even possible to point to the trends of the technological solution without taking into consideration the non-technological factors listed above.

 

For this reason, the cyber research center established less than two years ago at the Tel-Aviv University, in cooperation with the National Cyber Bureau, was defined from the outset as an interdisciplinary center, as its full name indicates: the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC). The Center employs about 250 researchers and is one of the largest not only in Israel but in the entire world. About 70% of the researchers belong in the exact/technological disciplines (e.g. computer science, mathematics and engineering), and the remaining 30% hail from such disciplines as law, social sciences, economics, psychology, humanities, business administration and so forth.

 

In order to illustrate the breadth of the interdisciplinary canvas of the research activity taking place at the Center, we have chosen to present, in a nutshell, a few of the studies currently being conducted at the Center: one involves the smart city concept, another involves the cars of the future, a third one involves unorthodox ways to crack passwords (known in the cryptography world as side-channel tactics) and a fourth one involves the use of economic models in order to prepare for sophisticated cyber warfare attacks.

 

Cities around the world and in Israel are becoming smarter. The "Smart City" concept is still in its infancy, and the number of definitions equals the number of parties involved in this activity. The common denominator of the various definitions is the transition from analog infrastructure management to real-time, data-based digital management. The various municipal systems and utilities are changing. Management systems of various municipal activities, from property tax collection and parking to education and welfare are unified with such regional infrastructures as transportation, communication and electricity, and state databases, as well as private systems, are added to them. All of those elements are interlinked, interfaced and serve as the basis for the smart city. The result – the balance of power between the inhabitants and the municipal authority changes in ways that are not yet clear and need further studying. The legal rules that regulate the municipal setup, its relations with the inhabitants on the one hand and with the state – the central government – on the other hand, are not clear. This applies in particular to issues of privacy and participatory democracy at the local level. The interface between various types of public systems and private systems raises additional questions regarding the political-social setup. So, cities find themselves in charge of critical information infrastructures. These infrastructures are gradually emerging as a prime objective for cyber warfare attacks. Such attacks possess the potential of paralyzing the infrastructures and inflicting an unprecedented blow on the privacy of the city's inhabitants.

 

This particular study, conducted by Professor Michael Birnhack of the Law Faculty and Dr. Eran Toch of the Engineering Faculty, examines several primary dimensions of municipal cyber systems: their influence on the political-municipal fabric and the urban space in general, the flow of information through the municipal technological systems and the privacy aspects of information management. This study is interdisciplinary in nature, and aspires to illuminate the complexity of cybernetic systems in new contexts.

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]

 

Contents

            AIRPORT EXHIBIT SHOWCASES ISRAELI BREAKTHROUGHS

Andrew Scott Cooper    

                                                         Ynet, Mar. 11, 2016

 

Going abroad? You have a chance to learn about Israel’s groundbreaking scientists. Ben Gurion International Airport unveiled this week the first exhibition of its kind, initiated by by the Science Ministry, showcasing 60 Israeli developments and discoveries that influenced the world. The exhibit is set to run for one year on a wall stretching from passport control to the duty-free area, which 8 million people pass through annually.

 

The purpose of the exhibition is both public diplomacy and making science accessible to Israelis. A recent Ministry of Science survey painted a worrying picture regarding the Israeli public's familiarity with scientific topics and central figures. The survey showed that 43 percent of Israelis do not know that former president Chaim Weizmann was originally a chemist, and about half of Israelis can’t name a single Israeli scientist who won a Nobel Prize. In order to make science more accessible, the ministry initiated, in cooperation with the Israeli Young Academy, the exhibit presents science in Israel and the prominent people. The exhibit features about 60 discoveries and developments in Israel selected for their innovation and their direct or indirect influence of the lives of millions of people worldwide. The committee that chose the discoveries was composed of representatives from the Israeli Youth Academy and the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Science.

 

Alongside well-known developments such as cherry tomatoes, USB flash drives, PillCam, Copaxone (used to treat multiple sclerosis), a robot for back surgeries, the Mobileye system for preventing accidents, and Intel’s chips,  all developed in Israel, there are also important, lesser-known contributions: A method to activate immune cells in cancer treatment, technology for early diagnosis of diseases via one’s breath, drugs to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, the discovery of fungal species in the Dead Sea, the development of strains of seedless cotton, the development of algae for healing heart tissue, detecting the shape of bacteria's self-organization, development of muon detectors that were used in the particle accelerator at CERN, the Venus satellite for environmental monitoring, and more.

 

A large part of the exhibition is devoted to eight winners of the Nobel Prize from Israel, the three Israeli winners of the Turing Award in computer sciences, and the winner of the Fields Medal, the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in mathematics. The exhibit begins with photographs of Israeli-linked historical figures who contributed to science, such as Chaim Weizman, agronomist Aharon Aharonson, Maimonides, Albert Einstein, and others. It also displays developments from various branches of science: medicine, agriculture, environmental science, archeology, chemistry, social sciences, exact sciences, and more.

 

Science Minister Ofir Akunis said: "The exhibition is an incredible public diplomacy asset for Israel. We present the tremendous contribution of science and technology in Israel to the world and humanity as a whole. We have much to be proud of. Israel is a trailblazer and leader in innovation. The whole world watches in amazement and appreciation our mighty achievements, and so they should be displayed at Israel’s entry and exit gates. "                       

 

Contents

                       

       SALOMON BENZIMRA: A TERRIBLE LOSS FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE                                               

                                                    Diane Bederman

Jerusalem Post, Mar. 17, 2016

 

I had the honor of joining Salomon Benzimra and Goldi Steiner, co-founders of Canadians for Israel’s Legal Rights, to speak to members of Knesset and ask them to proudly proclaim Israel’s legal rights under international law – rights that clearly state Israel’s borders run from the river to the sea.

 

Salomon was not a lawyer by vocation but he was one by avocation. He is the author of the book, The Jewish People’s Rights to the Land of Israel, published in 2011, which was endorsed by Moshe Ya’alon, now the minister of defense.

 

He had spent the last seven years immersing himself in the legal intricacies of Israel’s borders and rights, following in the footsteps of the late Howard Grief, and Edmund Levy, former Supreme Court justice, who prepared his report on Israel’s legal rights under International law at the behest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2013; a report which was never released. These men had hoped to stop the accusations of “occupier” and “apartheid” that are based on a spurious, fictitious narrative of a people that does not exist, and of a state that was never legally declared.

 

Salomon was particularly concerned because of recent events: The pope embracing the terrorist Abbas and the idea of a Palestinian state, and the French calling for the same thing. And then the arrival of US Vice President Joe Biden in Israel to tell the Jewish people where we can and cannot live, as if the Jewish people would ever go back to a ghetto.

 

Benzimra eloquently and brilliantly explained to Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely the legal justification for declaring Israel’s true borders in order to stop the wanton murder of Jews around the world and the attacks on Jewish students on Diaspora campuses because of the false Palestinian narrative that has taken hold over the past 25 years. He came to Israel with the hope that he would find a champion with the courage to speak truth to the Jewish people and stand up to those who were prepared to sacrifice the Jews for “peace” in the Middle East. He had hoped that Mme Hotovely would be that champion…

 

He then spoke to Education Minister Naftali Bennett about the need to proclaim Israel’s legal rights under international law, speaking at the same time as the civics books Bennett had commissioned, which included eight new chapters on Israel and its legal rights, were released. We left these meetings without any assurances.

 

Salomon, a resident of Toronto who was born in 1943 in what is now Morocco, died on the El Al plane on the way home to Canada on Tuesday. I think it was from a broken heart. Am Yisrael has lost a true Lion of Judah with the death of this brilliant but humble man who spent the last years of his life fighting for the Jewish people. It is truly sad that the people of Israel did not know the name of this man or the work he had done.

 

In honor of his love for our people, his determination to defend us from lies about our people, I suggest that Am Yisrael rise up in his name and demand of the government that it finally declare and proclaim Israel’s legal rights under international law, and in the words of Salomon Benzimra, “Tell the world there will be no negotiating until the territorial sovereignty of Israel and Judea Samaria is no longer questioned.” Benzimra was buried at the Steeles Memorial Chapel in Toronto on Thursday.      

 

CIJR Wishes All Our Friends & Supporters: Shabbat Shalom!

 

On Topic

 

Moon Shot | Episode 7 | Israel: Space IL (Video): Google Lunar XPrize, Mar. 17, 2016—One of the last teams to enter the GLXP, SpaceIL was co-founded by Yariv Bash, whose grandfather's life was tragically altered by the Holocaust.

From Jerusalem to Mars – An Israeli Space Odyssey! (Video): United With Israel, Feb. 24, 2016 —The International Astronautical Congress, hosted this year in Jerusalem, may be the first step in Israeli exploration of Mars!

The prestigious conference, attended by top space official from 58 countries, took place in the nation’s capital.

Q&A with Isaac Ben-Israel, Chairman of the Israel Space Agency: Peter B. de Selding, Space News, Oct. 5, 2015—On a per-capita basis, Israel may have the world’s most developed space program. With a population no greater than New York City’s, Israel is home to at least two publicly traded pure-play space companies — telecommunications satellite fleet operator Spacecom and satellite broadband ground hardware provider Gilat Satellite Networks.                                                                                         

San Remo: The Forgotten Milestone: Salomon Benzimra, Arutz Sheva, Apr. 26, 2015—Ninety five years ago, prime ministers, ambassadors and other dignitaries from Europe and America gathered in the Italian Riviera. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        

 

 

 

                  

 

 

 

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