Picture this: you’re running late for work and you haven’t had your morning coffee. You make a request on your phone and within minutes a driverless car stops in front of your apartment.
In 2014, Israel and China established the Joint Committee for Innovation Cooperation (JCIC), a mechanism for government-to-government interaction to promote innovation cooperation in a variety of fields. Vice President Wang was in Israel this week to co-host the fourth meeting of the JCIC – which convenes annually, alternating between Beijing and Jerusalem – together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was also the guest of honor at the prime minister’s Innovation Summit and at the grand opening of an innovation section of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong with a vengeance on the night of September 17, when four Israeli Air Force F-16s launched a successfully destructive raid on a warehouse in Latakia where sensitive military items destined for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon were apparently stored.
On September 2, Rodrigo Duterte will become the first Philippine president to visit Israel since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1957. The two nations have enjoyed reciprocal support and respect over the last 61 years, but even prior to the formal relationship, it is notable that in 1947, the Philippines was the only Asian nation to vote in favor of UN Resolution 181 that created the State of Israel.
For now, the US, Israel, the EU and some Arab states appear more willing to help the Palestinians in Gaza than their own leaders. This, of course, is not new. It is the tragic ongoing curse of Palestinian history.