Weekend comment

by Mike Adams

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Medical Corps is the Rolls Royce of emergency medical care. Israel is also a World leader in a bid to save our Planets environment.

On Sunday 17th January, the reporter, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, remarked that the field hospital of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Medical Corps was “the Rolls Royce of emergency medical care”.

It was efficiently set up in just eight hours and equipped for complicated surgical procedures. None of other international medical facilities can treat the seriously wounded as do the Israelis. Surgical teams from Great Britain and doctors from Columbia have joined forces with IDF-personnel to handle hundreds of cases a day.

When considering how long it took for other field hospitals on the western half of Hispaniola to be up and running, I would say that the IDF could be compared to another supercar, the SSC Ultimate Aero, tested as the fastest production car in the world. Top speed 257 mph, 0-60 in 2.7 seconds.

On the subject of cars, a national daily in my home country of Norway featured an article that informed the readers of 68 brand-new models to be introduced in 2010. The eye-opener is that half a dozen hybrids and electric cars are on the list. Norway’s own mini-sized electrical cars, Think and Buddy, will face some stiff competition. The foreign manufacturers have obviously seen the success that the hybrid car Toyota Prius has had, and are now willing to take a calculated risk in the land of the midnight sun and high import tariffs.

My thoughts went to Israel;

I wondered what they were doing in the way of promoting environmentally friendly cars?

My research showed that lower tax rates on electrical cars and higher taxes on polluting cars were measures that had been implemented, but the infrastructure to service thousands of electrically driven vehicles is also soon in place.

A California-based company with the implicative name “Better Place” is currently in the process of building 500,000 charging points and 200 battery-exchange stations – and that’s just in Israel. The project has even been endorsed by President Shimon Peres. “Better Place” is based on a collaboration with the French car-maker Renault, and Japanese Nissan that provides the battery technology.

Other countries in the “Better Place”-network include Denmark, Australia, United States, Canada and Japan. These same countries also seeing the benefits in alternative and renewable energy sources – solar, wind and tidal.

Not so with Norway. Even with long-established hydro electrical plants, they’re environmental latecomers focused only on the black gold of the North Sea. Besides this, the sitting government is rampant with anti-Semitism, and will do absolutely nothing to promote “Better Place” or other inventions pertaining to Israeli technology that are politically incorrect.

We have a prime example in our new Minister of Transport and Communications, Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa, a mealy-mouthed representative from the agrarian Centre Party, who dithers when anything slightly controversial turns up.

The new decade will continue to see the official Norway, with Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere in the front line, blessing Hamas with petroleum dollars, and cursing Israeli innovation with a deafening silence. Norway sees no end of oil or facilitating the Arab production in Middle East.

Norwegian politicians are more than satisfied with continuing the status quo in fossil-fuelling the transport sector. Air-quality is only a domestic issue during prolonged freezing conditions when the wind stops blowing, as was the case in our major cities just recently. The civil administrators are in a quandary; the solution is electrifying simple. A car population that is emission-free. Look to Israel!

The founder and CEO of “Better Place” is an Israeli, Shai Agassi, and merely one of the many innovators among God’s chosen people around the world who are saving the planet by creative reconstruction and stewardship. Thanks to the Jews, there’s always something new under the sun.