65 exceptionally great news from Israel

This year, Israel celebrates its 65th birthday, here are my 65 great news from Israel. It’s not an exhaustive list of course, otherwise I would have had more than 65 great news to tell you about, but I tried to cover as many fields as possible.

1. Natural gas has started to flow from the Tamar Gas Field in the Mediterranean Sea, this marks the start of Israel’s energy independence.

2. The Dead Sea Scrolls are now online thanks to a cooperation between Google and the Museum of Israel.

3. President Barak Obama was in Israel for a State Visit.

4. It snowed in Jerusalem

5. Miss Israel 2013 is of Ethiopian descent!

6. Rita gave a Concert for Peace in the General Assembly Hall of the the UN, in Hebrew, English and Farsi

7. Two Israeli documentary films were nominated for the Oscars.

8. Waze, a social GPS and my best friend on the road, won the Best Overall App and the 2013 Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona.

9. Different Pulses, the latest album of Asaf Avidan, is a major hit in Europe.

10. Hadas Yaron won the Best Female Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Rama Burshtein’s movie Fill the Void, which is about the ultra-orthodox community in Tel Aviv.

11. Israeli multiculturalism: Lina Mahul, who was my favorite, won this year’s The Voice Israel contest.

12. Google’s new offices in Tel Aviv are worth a visit

13. Lake Kinneret is rising again, thanks to a very rainy January.

14. My daughter Sarah Peguine is organizing regular Guided Visits of Art Galleries in Israel

15. The Hebrew tattoo of a French swimmer at the London Olympics had an enormous success

16. The American TV serie Homeland which is based on the Israeli serie Hatufim (Kidnapped) of Gideon Raff, has won its second Best Television Serie Award at the Golden Globes 2012. Claire Danes won the Best Female Actor Award.

17. Lee Korzits won her 4th Windsurfing World Championship title.

18. The number of Israeli Jews is now higher than the emotionally charged 6,000,000.

19. Facebook users want to help the Aushwitz survivor A7734 find his twin brother.

20. The Montefiori Windmill in Jerusalem has been restored.

21. National Geographic has added the Israel National Trail to its list of the Twenty Word’s Best Walking Trails.

22. Tel Aviv is considered second for start-ups, just behind Silicon Valley.

23. Kaveret, the mythical Israeli rock band of the 70s has announced an exceptional concert in June 2013.

24. My son Dan joined BillGuard, one the most promising Israeli startups to watch in 2013.

25. The stuffed vegetables at the Suzanna restaurant in Neve Tsedek are still delicous.

26. The Guggenheim and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art acquired videos from Yael Bartana.

27. Yishai Oliel, 12, from Ramle has won the Junior World Tennis Championship

28. Israel participated in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

29. After 32 years of interruption, the International Bible Contest for Adults is being held again.

30. The author Etgar Keret has inaugurated the narrowest house of the world, in Poland.

31. Israel won 9 medals at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

32. A revolutionary Israeli toilet does not need any water.

33. Alona Komarov, aged 16 from Ma’alot won the Junior World Fencing Championship in Dijon, France.

34. Sniffing out cancer.

35. For the third time in a row, an Israeli won the L’Oreal-UNESCO Price for “Women for Sciences”. Osnat Zomer-Penn’s research is about the genetic origin of autism.

36. Izhar Gafni, an Israeli engineer, designed a cardboard bicycle.

37. Israel is in good health and ranks sixth on Bloomberg’s list of most healthy countries.

38 Bar Refaeli promotes Israel.

39. The Lonely Planet guide ranks the Negev Desert in its Top Ten Regions to be visited in the world.

40. The 19th Knesset has 48 new members.

41. Israelis are still huge fans of Instagram: check out the 25 artists and photographers recommended to follow on Instagram.

42 The Israeli documentary “Life in Stills” is enjoying an ongoing success.

43. Gilad Shalit is free, he’s doing well, has a girlfriend and is still an enthousiastic soccer fan.

44. Black Eyed Peas were at the Kotel, the Western Wall.

45. The new Rothschild Hotel opened on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv.

46. The Short Fish Dictionnary is online (Hebrew – English – French)

47. Two Tel Aviv restaurants, Abraxas Tsafon and HaBasta, are on Newsweek’s 101 Best Restaurants of the World list.

48. Terkel, a white rhino calf was born in the Ramat Gan Safari

49. After Tamar and Leviathan, a third gaz field was discovered off the coast of Nahariya.

50.  Yossi Leshem has won the Shubert Award for Ornithology, for his research and for his contribution to the conservation of birdlife in Israel.

51. Fresh Paint 5, the fair for Israeli contemporary art, was a success. Save the date for Fresh Paint 6 and Fresh Design 1.

52. The Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal was in Israel

53. Israeli men enjoy at 79.6 years the 3rd highest life expectancy in the world.

54. A study by Professor Rivka Inzelberg of the Tel Aviv Medical Faculty, shows that praying regularly reduces the risk of Alzheimer Disease by 50 percent.

55. Israeli launched a cyber counter-attack.

56. In a poll of the Wall Street Journal, Tel Aviv was voted the Second most innovative city, New York came in third.

57. Four new pairs of Israeli twins the same day, one Christian, one Druze, one Jew an one Muslim!

58. All of Tel Aviv’s public spaces will soon have free wifi.

59. Classical music was heard at the Jerusalem Hadassah Hospital.

60. The Golan Heights Winery was elected the 2012 New World winery of the Year

61. Nearly 18,000 people made their Aliyah in 2012, including my friend Allegra who immigrated from Belgium.

 62. The Israelis are happy! They rank 6th on the Wall Street Journal’s Most Happy People list.

63. Ruth Calderon gave an inspiring maiden speech at the Knesset.

64. During their concert in Tel Aviv, Guns N Roses played Hatikva.

65. The sportwoman Moran Samuel never loses hope.

Voilà, Yom Haatsmaout sameah, share these 65 great news from Israel. You are welcome to add your own great news in the comments. Thank you!

This post is a translation/adaptation for the French post 65 bonnes nouvelles d’Israël. A special thank you to Charles for the translation.

Hag sameah!