Two-wheeler Tel Aviv; Israel's commerce and culture center rolls out a citywide bike rental program to encourage fitness while easing traffic and pollution.

With 150 bike stations around Tel Aviv, residents and will find it much easier to get about the city under their own steam.

For Tel Aviv-Jaffa residents and workers sick of skyrocketing gasoline prices and incessant traffic jams, the introduction of a new pilot bike-rental project this month couldn't have come at a better time.

Like some 200 other cities across the globe, Israel's commercial and cultural center was looking for ways to encourage fitness and discourage fossil-fuel consumption. The launch of Tel-Ofan (ofanayim is Hebrew for bicycle) synchs with the municipality's mutimillion-shekel investment in additional bike lanes to serve about 400,000 residents and many thousands more who commute in for work.

Tel Aviv-Jaffa Economic Development Authority CEO Sharon Kenan tells ISRAEL21c that Tel-Ofan began with 40 stations and 450 subscribers, expanding daily to reach an eventual goal of 150 stations with up to 20 German-made bicycles each.

Using an electronic key fob, the subscriber picks up a bike and then parks it at the destination station. There's no charge for the first half hour, and if the bike is docked for at least 10 minutes, the user's "clock" restarts from zero.

"The purpose is that we want people to share the bikes," explains Kenan, who heads the project on behalf of Mayor Ron Huldai. "While you're doing whatever you're doing, someone else will ride the bike you docked."

Signup can be done on Tel-Ofan's website; via a toll-free phone number (*6070); or in person at City Hall. Annual subscriptions cost NIS 280 (about $64) or NIS 240 for Tel Aviv-Jaffa residents. Eventually, daily and weekly subscriptions will be sold as well.

Simple idea took complex planning

Kenan's staff worked on Tel-Ofan for three years before rolling it out. One of the trickiest operational details was how to make sure that when somebody comes to a station there will always be a bike available in good condition, and that the station of destination will always have a free docking place. That problem was tackled with the assistance of mathematicians at Tel Aviv University, who established formulas after researching typical bike-riding patterns in the city. Based on those formulas, trucks will patrol the rental stations on a regular basis, balancing supply and demand.

Another major challenge, according to Kenan, was to ensure a completely stable information technology system managing the project under the hood. And to deal with possible theft, damage and vandalism of the bike fleet, the EDA put both physical and electronic safeguards into action.

Now that all the pieces are in place, the next step is to physically accommodate the expected increase in bicyclists. To answer this need, the municipality is investing many millions of shekels to add to its existing 65 miles of bike lanes.

"In the last five years, we've invested 10 million shekels per year in constructing bike lanes, and for the next five years the municipality has tripled the budget for this project," says Kenan.

"Strategically, the ultimate goal is to increase awareness of bikes as a means of transportation and increase the number of people using them, which will substantially reduce traffic problems and air pollution."

AISH: Top 63+1 Reasons I love Israel by Barbara Sofer The top 63-plus-one new reasons I love Israel, in no particular order.

http://www.aish.com/jw/id/Top_631_Reasons_I_love_Israel.html

Top 63+1 Reasons I love Israel by Barbara Sofer
The top 63-plus-one new reasons I love Israel, in no particular order.

1. After Lag Ba’omer campfires each year, there’s a special news report on air pollution per city.
2. We’re the People of the Book: No wonder an Israeli team led by Lilach Tzipori developed the Kindle.
3. Milk and honey: Israeli archeologists have found proof of a sophisticated bee/honey business with imported bees going on here 3,000 years ago. The US considered importing bees in the 19th century a major achievement.
4. Milk and honey: In 2010, Tnuva invested NIS 3.5 million and sent 400 representatives to supermarkets to promote its milk products for Shavuot. Tara spent NIS 3m.
5. Milk and honey: Israeli dairy experts are teaching the Chinese how to produce environmentally friendly milk.
6. Jerusalem pediatrician Yoram Ben-Yehudah advises the Chinese about child abuse.
7. Israel is helping to establish a green commerce park in China. How big is Israel, exactly?
8. The first Chinese mall will open soon in Holon. Run by observant Jews, it will be closed on Shabbat.
9. The lifeguards at the beautiful, sandy Ashdod Beach warn early-morning swimmers to come closer to shore – in Russian.
10. Israelis invented toothpaste to help kangaroos overcome fatal tooth decay. Go figure.
11. The Israeli search engine answers.com reached 11 million answers this year. Not bad for a country where questions are answered with questions.
12. The last name of the man behind the development of Israel’s new natural gas fields, which may answer our energy needs, is Tshuva – Hebrew for “answer.”
13. McDonald’s in Israel have begun offering McFalafel.
14. The CEO of McDonald’s insists he’s not anti-religious; 30 percent of the Golden Arches branches are kosher.
15. The notions store where I bought a strip of Velcro was running a sale on ropes for hassidic gartels.
16. The taxi driver in Modi’in quizzed me to see if I knew seven names for Jerusalem. His name is Ariel, one of the seven. All I wanted was a ride to the mall.
17. Man seen on treadmill every morning at the Jerusalem Inbal Hotel is reading psalms; woman seen on stationary bike in Inbal Hotel every morning is praying Shaharit, the morning prayers
18. Supermarket mogul Rami Levy personally delivered groceries to the Fogel family sitting shiva after the mass murder in Itamar in March.
19. Late at night before Purim, at a local shop, I bumped into Kadima MK Dalia Itzik, former speaker of the Knesset, buying paper goods for her Purim feast.
20. Nine Israeli teens won a film contest about the future of the world – I’m not kidding – at the United Nations.
21. A woman I’d never met before told me the amazing story of her family’s Holocaust experience in the swimming pool locker room.
22. The chief rabbi served in the 7th Brigade of the Tank Corps.
23. Dry wine: New tour of Israel offers seven full days in Negev wineries.
24. A Jerusalem snack shop renamed itself “Blast of a Kiosk” after surviving a terror attack in 1994. When it was attacked again this year, the owner vowed to keep selling sandwiches.
25. The Jerusalem grill restaurant Zion the Small renamed itself Zion the Big because the owner was “tired of being small.”
26. The four-year-olds in my granddaughter’s nursery school played their triangles, castanets and drums to cheer on the charity-raising runners in the first Jerusalem marathon. The runners paused to give them high fives.
27. Announcement for Jerusalem marathon: “The marathon will be run on Friday. We recommend that you shop in Mahaneh Yehuda [the open-air market] on Wednesday and Thursday.”
28. Overheard at the reception desk at a five-star hotel. Elegantly dressed tourist: Can you please recommend the very best felafel in town?
29. A coin with the name of Syrian-Greek King Ahasuerus found in an Old City dig is revealed on Chanukah.
30. New Bamba snack in the shape of pyramids revealed right before Passover, when we celebrate the Exodus from Egypt.
31. At the ceremony for the new chief of General Staff of the IDF, one of the world’s most advanced armies: “Benny will be taking over from Gabi,” says Ehud. No mention of rank.
32. When Leonard Cohen sings “Who by Fire,” the audience sings along. They also know the original lyrics in Hebrew.
33. Start-Up Nation, the book about Israeli innovation, is a best-seller in Mongolia.
34. Good news or bad news? Local researchers at Hadassah find mutations on Jewish genes showing that women whose families were in Spain prior to 1492 have higher prevalence of breast cancer.
35. An Israeli electronic “dog’s nose” can outsniff those airport dogs that want your tuna sandwich in Newark. They can also find explosives.
36. Genuine Israeli dogs have been trained to leap from helicopters and apprehend terrorists.
37. In ancient Tzipori, a bungalow owner finds the possible tombstone of talmudic-era Rabbi Yehoshua Ben-Levy. Bed, Breakfast and Holy Shrine.
38. Here’s a headline: Circumcision clinics for Zulu men rely on Israeli expertise.
39. Three Israeli engineers are promising competitors in the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize to land a tiny spacecraft on the moon. They’re doing it in their spare time, after work, with the help of volunteers.
40. The new head of the Shin Bet is a religious Jew whose family is from Afghanistan.
41. The former head of the Mossad was born in Siberia. He kept a photo of a Jewish man being shot by a Nazi on his wall. That was his grandfather.
42. Israel is considered a world power in stamp publishing and collecting, even at a time when much mail is electronic. Go figure.
43. Ramat Hagolan Winery, founded in 1983, won the “Wine World Cup” was declared the best wine producer in the world at the Italian “Vinitaly” competition in Verona.
44. Notice from the Religious Affairs Ministry: Please burn your hametz (leavened leftovers) in environmentally friendly bags, not plastic.
45. Volunteers of the My Israel movement collect Israeli hametz and send it, with the Foreign Ministry’s help, to tsunami-hit areas in Japan.
46. Advertisement on Bezeq phone while waiting for an operator in the week before Passover: Want to send flowers, go to a restaurant, repaint the house? 144 will help you. Promotion for phone-Internet-cable line offers coupons for Passover supermarket shopping spree.
47. Eight thousand Israelis marched in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Jerusalem, more than for the first Komen march in Washington. Jews and Arabs, young and old, religious and less religious marched together.
48. Radio interview with a woman on shelled Gaza kibbutz ends with “Hag sameah,” happy holiday to all of Israel.
49. Cousins who were in both 9/11 and a Jerusalem terror attack arrived for Passover and loved the “Hag sameah” sign at Ben-Gurion Airport and printed on Coke bottles.
50. The Oscar for best short documentary goes to Strangers No More, about a Tel Aviv school with pupils from 48 countries.
51. The Oscar for best actress goes to Jerusalem-born Natalie Portman, who helped Alan Dershowitz with his book The Case for Israel and condemned the anti-Semitism of ex-Dior designer John Galliano.
52. The Immigrant Absorption Ministry and a charity called Aviv HaTorah try to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest Seder, inviting 1,200 Ethiopian immigrants.
53. The Israel Opera puts on an extravaganza at Masada about an Ethiopian princess (Aida). Tel Aviv opera divas came to Jerusalem and sang on the Bridge of Strings to encourage pious Jerusalemites to spend more time at the opera.
54. Growing cell phone use is seen as the key to “Arab Spring.” Hey, we invented the cell phone.
55. In Treatment, a sometimes word-for-word translation of the Israeli program B’Tipul, completed four successful sessions, I mean seasons in the US.
56. Happiness. According to a columnist at the Asian Times who plotted birth rates and suicide rates, Israel was the world’s happiest country. According to a recent Gallup poll in which citizens are asked if they are happy, we ranked seventh, ahead of New Zealand, the US and all the Arab countries.
57. From reader Barry Nester: I was working out in the staff gym at Hadassah Hospital. Two doctors paused in their grunting and began a discussion/argument about logic in the early Talmudic period and the origins of Christianity.
58. 100 years of kibbutzim: Despite our argumentative nature, no one does communal living like us.
59. Computer guilt. Israeli scientists are producing programs that limit the amount of regret a computer program might experience.
60. No bubble burst. For more than 2 cents plain Israeli company SodaStream is selling seltzer on the stock exchange!
61. What comes first? Israeli chickens (1.9 billion eggs last year – that’s no chicken feed) are moving to roomy hi-tech coops developed by an Israeli company called Agrotop. Coop of the future includes fowl cushioning, wind turbines and photovoltaic. Guano becomes biofuels, used to supply electricity to the coop’s feeding and egg collection system.
62. Newest Israeli start-up incubator is called “lul,” Hebrew for chicken coop
63. Israel’s "Naked Archaeologist" international TV star is an Orthodox Jew, a father of five who is most famous for discovering what might be crucifixion nails.
And one more to grow on: 64. Eight small teeth found in an Israeli cave raise the possibility that modern humans originated in Israel and not Africa, suggests a paper recently published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Talk about getting a head start!
Let us know the reasons you love Israel in the comment section below.
This article originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

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This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/jw/id/Top_631_Reasons_I_love_Israel.html 

Israeli Flags Flying in Jerusalem

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Bill Clinton in Israel Singing With Israeli singer Liel

Time Lapse Clips of Israel in High Definition

Time Lapse Clips of Israel in High Definition

Only in Israel

Israeli Woman Gives Birth to 1 Plus 1 On 11.1.11

A woman from northern Israel gave birth Tuesday morning to twins at exactly 11:00 and 11:01 a.m., on the eleventh day of January 2011 (11.1.11).

The parents meant to arrive at the hospital earlier, but were delayed by traffic. When hospital staff informed them of the unique hour at which their children were born, the father said, “Who knows? Maybe it will bring them some luck in life.”

The babies, a boy and a girl, were the second and third child to join the family.

The children were born at Rambam hospital in Haifa.

Eilat hosts 7th annual International Belly Dance Festival

This winter, add belly dancing in southern Israel's beach town of Eilat to your list of hot hedonistic options.

As always, there will be hedonistic vacations for singles in the Caribbean, Disney cruises for families and kids, and Cancun madness to break the monotony this winter. But have you heard of Israel's option for a winter getaway – a belly-dancing vacation in Eilat?

The seventh annual International Belly Dance Festival is due to take place this winter from January 5th to 8th in the sunny southern Israeli city of Eilat. For amateur belly shakers, or professional ones looking to brush up on the Oriental dance, the four-day event – complete with a "belly flight" from Tel Aviv to Eilat – promises to be a colorful and energetic alternative to a standard winter holiday.

About 1,000 belly dancers and teachers from as far away as Japan will turn up in gold sequins to strut their stuff in Israel's southernmost city on the Red Sea coast. Among the attendees will be some of the world's most celebrated belly dancers, including one of Israel's own, Orit Mafstir.
While it will certainly be about belly dancing fun in the sun, with Egyptian style belly dancing the dominant theme, headlining belly dancing teachers and acts will include a cast of characters from countries such as Egypt, the Ukraine, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and France.

Pulling the veil off the peace process

A worldwide "belly" celebrity in her own right, the festival is being organized by belly dancer extraordinaire Mafstir, who travels, teaches and performs across the globe. While not explicitly mentioned, the event is also a time for Arab and Jewish Israelis to unite and dance with Arab belly dancers from the region.

While people tend to think of the Jewish homeland as exclusively a place for Jewish Ashkenazi (European) culture, you may be surprised to learn that about half of all Israeli Jews come from Latin or Arab countries. For many of them, belly dancing is their very much their style, too.

"Every year we have a number of Arabs attending the event," says Mafstir. "And every year a number of the teachers are Arab as well, who come from other Middle East countries. We are Muslims, Jews and Christians; it's a completely non-political event, and we invite everyone to be under one roof together."

Taking it outside around the pool, Mafstir also invites spectators to come and see some belly dancing events in the tent constructed for the event being held at Eilat's Club Hotel.

"The majority of people come for the same thing - the love of dance. It's a powerful bonding experience, especially for the majority of us who are women," she continues.

"Of course you can look from the outside and see that Israel is doing something very Egyptian-oriented, but we have to remember that Israel is a Middle Eastern country. Whether you are Jewish or Arab it's all the same; because Arabic music is a part of our culture just like anything else."

Wave those hip scarves

One highlight will be a performance by a popular flamboyant male Arab dancer from Hadera, Israel, named Samir. Another highlight is an Arabic orchestra from Egypt. Fusion dancing (with the belly of course), will point up the influence of world music on the belly sport as well. Ataf Salah, a government official from Egypt, will be this year's MC.

Many of the dancers and visitors buy a plane ticket with the intention of only going to the dance, after which they fly straight back to Korea, China, Japan, or Europe – wherever they came from, says Mafstir whose festival offers a good price point too. It's significantly cheaper than similar festivals held in nearby Egypt – at about $570, including hotel fees.

"But people are coming mainly because this belly dance festival is so professional. We are not replacing the others, but it's a good alternative," she says.

Security concerns for Israelis in Egypt in recent years are what prompted her to make the fun festival in Israel where visa issues aren't an issue for Israeli dancers.

Workshops, parties and a bazaar will be held and Indian dance classes, daily feasts of food, meditation, yoga, and lectures will complement the high-energy festival.

The main event is a belly-dancing contest, where belly shakers will wiggle their midriffs and wave their scarves in gold and lamé for prizes and acclaim.

Amazing Aerial Footage Israel HD

Amazing Aerial Footage Israel HD

SERAPHIC SECRET: Lipdub -somebody to love - GLEE - the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Check out this amazing video! Dozens of Hebrew University students participated in the unofficial production of the Queen song "Somebody to Love" performed by the cast of the hit series "GLEE." This incredible video, filmed in a single shot, is how Hebrew University students kicked off the start of the school year on 10.10.10!

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The proliferation of flash mobs and lip dubs has become something of a western ritual, a ritual that expresses joy in the public sphere.

It's important to understand that these highly choreographed dances are, first and foremost, expressions of freedom.

And of course, these mini Busby Berkeley scenes come to us from Democratic societies where the balance of power rests not with the state but with a free citizenry. Countries where women enjoy equal rights.

The very best videos come from America, Israel, and Canada.

There are no flash mobs or lip dubs from Muslim states.

Instead we get snuff videos: beheadings, stonings, hangings, public beatings, jihadist vows to murder Jews, Christians and all infidels. Let's be clear: if women in an Islamic country were to dance in public, it would be an automatic death sentence. As the Ayatollah Khomeini said: “There is no joy in Islam... the purest joy in Islam is to kill and be killed for Allah.”

These videos are a vital ingredient in the information war that is being waged between supporters of America and Israel and the Islamists and their leftist enablers.

A few thousand intellectuals read the learned articles in The Weekly Standard andCommentary, but millions view flash mob and lip dub videos.

Here's a wonderful lip dub from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Life in the shadow of terror and domestic conflict of interest groups in Israel

פלאשמוב אחד במאי - נחלת בנימין תל אביב 2010 - May Day Flashmob

Haifa Flash Mob