'Novartis, Israeli Startup Ink Pharma Deal'

By Dave Bender
Biopharmaceutical firm NasVax has signed a deal with Swiss pharma giant Norvartis to develop new vaccines together, including influenza-fighting strains. "What's significant is that Novartis is one of the five largest vaccine companies in the world," Dr. Ronald Ellis, NasVax senior vice president and chief technical officer, tells ISRAEL21c, "and they found it attractive to work with us." Read the rest.

'Israel Eases Gaza Aid Blockade, Naval Siege Continues'

By Dave Bender, Geng Xuepeng

JERUSALEM, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Monday began allowing more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, while promising continued enforcement of its naval blockade on the enclave, a spokesman with Israeli Prime Minister's office said. Read more.

Tel Aviv: Extreme Sports Are Hoppin'

'Jumping for Joy' on the Tel Aviv beach (Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Athletic jumpers, using stilt-like springs (so, does this qualify as an 'extreme sport?') wow the crowd, on a late afternoon alongside the Tel Aviv beach.

BREAKING: Helen Thomas Quits WH, Retires

From the Huffington Post:

"Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately," a Hearst Newspapers statement said. "Her decision came after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet."

Oddly enough, "doyen" (as in, 'The doyen' of the Washington press corps.") is pure Biblical Hebrew for "judge." Wonder what Helen would think of that ("Oh - cackle - the irony! It burns!").

So burn, baby, burn (in the Florida sun, in retirement, with all those Jewish bubbies and zaydies all around).

Bridge of Size: Jerusalem's Light Rail

'Bridge of Size' (Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

This dramatic Calatrava-designed cantilever bridge post buoys a curving cable matrix over Jerusalem's long-delayed light rail project.

This means, as long as you just look up, and it's at this sort of abstract B&W image, it's ok - otherwise it's a frikin' uglificious, soul-killing mess for residents, businesses, and private and public transportation along the route):


(Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)


(Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

...and from the driver's POV:

(Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Israeli Apartheid: Proof!!!

Give it up for 34-year-old Nikia Brown, an American singer on the Israeli version of American Idol:


She and her husband converted, and up and moved to Israel, and say they are very happy here.

(Geez' peeps, we have just GOT to work harder on that haterz' stuff, huh? And yeah, and that was a bait and switch headline... so sue me)

Gaza flotilla: both sides vow new confrontations

By Dave Bender, Gur Salomon, Yuan Zhenyu

JERUSALEM, June 1 (Xinhua) -- A day after the Israeli commando' s deadly raid on the Gaza aid convoy, there is no sign of an end to the hype. Both Israeli officials and international activists are standing their ground and say they're preparing for the next round.

Israeli government on Tuesday began dealing with repercussions of the incident. While most of the pro-Gaza activists are still under detention, Israeli military, after strict security check, delivered several trucks of aid unloaded from the flotilla to the coastal enclave.

Read more.

One-on-One with Israeli Dep. FM on Gaza Flotilla Debacle

Read my one-on-one int'v with Israeli Dep. FM, Danny Ayalon on the Gaza flotilla debacle at http://www.davebrianbender.com. Video on the way...

Single Chinese Woman 'Be-moms' Orphaned Toddler for Israeli Heart Surgery

By Dave Bender, Hao Fangjia
Quan Shiyi, a volunteer of Beijing, China, is caring for a one-year-and-half-old orphan suffering from a life-threatening congenital heart defect.

Gretel, her English name, is 26 years old and unmarried, and had never looked after a baby, even not changed a diaper. But all that changed in 2009 when she met Qian Baoxin at an orphanage in Beijing, where Gretel volunteered as a translator.

There, she learned the meaning of motherhood. Read the rest.

Israel Finds 2000-year-old Bridge, Aqueduct in Jerusalem

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist, Yehiel Zelinger, stands alongside a Mameluke-era bridge and aqueduct outside Jerusalem's Old City walls. Construction workers uncovered the site two-weeks ago, while laying pipe for new water lines. The structure was built on the ruins of similar water courses that brought water from springs in Bethlehem to Jerusalem's residents since antiquity. (May 11, 2010) (Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved)

By Dave Bender
JERUSALEM, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on Tuesday announced the discovery of segments of an arched bridge and aqueduct at an excavation site outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Yehiel Zelinger, the IAA archaeologist responsible for the dig, termed the find "spectacular."

He said the bridge was originally part of an ancient aqueduct that brought water to the Temple Mount during the Second Temple period (between 536 BC and 70 AD), when an estimated number of 50,000 Jews returned from the Babylonian exile to build the Second Temple on the site of the destroyed First Temple.

Read the rest.


Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist, Yehiel Zelinger, examines an 1898 topographic map by German archaeologist Konrad Schick of the area outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. Water company construction workers there uncovered a Mameluke-era bridge and aqueduct two-weeks ago. The structure was built on the ruins of similar water courses that brought water from springs in Bethlehem to Jerusalem's residents since antiquity. (May 11, 2010) (Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved)