Israel

Established in the 1950s, Israel's alliance of periphery is a loose partnership between Israel and states in the region surrounding those countries that have negative relations with the Jewish state. Over the years, different countries have been part of this alliance. The following article examines Azerbaijan's role as a peripheral ally of Israel since the early 1990s in the regional, energy, and trade realms. The Republic of Azerbaijan could be considered the most trusted Muslim and peripheral partner of Israel.Israel's alliance of periphery was formed in the 1950s in order to end the newly established state's regional and global isolation, which was a result of its conflict with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. The alliance of periphery doctrine, created by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, is a loose partnership between Israel and states surrounding (located at the periphery of) those countries neighboring the Jewish state with which Isr...

Health providers such as physicians, nurses and pharmacists should be knowledgeable about the biology of head lice and the ways to control them effectively, in order to reduce the proportion of children infested with head lice. To evaluate the knowledge of physicians in Israel on the biology and epidemiology of lice, as well as their experience with infested individuals and their preferences for diagnosis, prophylaxis and control. An anonymous questionnaire with 37 questions was used. The first 20 questions addressed the general knowledge of physicians on lice biology and control, while the remaining 17 questions were related to their personal experience with lice and louse treatment. Out of 273 physicians interviewed 66.8% had good knowledge of lice, while the remaining 33.2% had some knowledge on lice. The difference between the groups of physicians with medium and good knowledge on lice was borderline significant (P=0.0722), with the dermatologists borderline significantly less k...

The emergence of huge natural gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean represents a significant factor in changing the map of cooperation and conflict in the region. The article's main hypothesis is that the gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean have a significant geopolitical impact on the relations between Egypt and Israel. The article reviewed the hypothesis by examining the gas deal between Egypt and Israel and its consequences on the relations between both sides. The article focuses on the geopolitical dimensions and economic feasibility of the Israeli gas deal on Egypt and the potential threats of the proposed Israeli East Med pipeline on Egypt.The article concludes that the massive quantities of natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean could act as important drivers for more partnerships and cooperation between Egypt and Israel and might lead to competition and conflicts between the two countries.

This article develops an analytical model of force-composition that combines the advantages of conscription with those of an all-volunteer force. Using Israel as a hypothesis-generating case study, it argues that mandatory military service has undergone changes centered on five key organizing principles: selective conscription, early discharges, elongated lengths of service, forms of voluntary service and differing pay-scales and other material and non-material incentives for conscripts. These principles are “grafted” onto conscription creating a hybrid, “volunteer-ized”, model. The utility of the theoretical model lies in explaining how these principles facilitate mobilizing a needed number or recruits, providing an adequate level of military expertise, as well as maintaining the legitimacy of the armed forces by meeting domestic social, economic and political expectations about its composition and the use of personnel at its disposal. The system is adaptive and flexible, as shown ...

Many scholars have written about the changes in international law in recent years. Many have seen this change in the environment of international humanitarian law as a result of greater application of human rights in this area of law (IHL). This Article approaches the changes in international humanitarian law from a different perspective, that of law and economics.The main claim in this Article is that recent changes in international humanitarian law can be seen as a change from a rule based normative system, to a standard based one. The difference between a rule system and a standard system rests not in the complexity of the norms, but by whom and when changes are made. In a rule—decisions are made before the fact, and in a standard—decisions are made after the fact. This Article then evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of this move from rules to standards, and offers observations and future avenues of research.

While moderate and severe chronic kidney disease is an established independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the association of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) differences within the normal to mildly reduced range (from 60 to >90 ml/min/1.73 m(2)) and CVD is less clear. Our aim was to examine the association of eGFR with incident CVD in a cohort of predominantly healthy subjects with normal to mildly reduced renal function. Retrospective cohort study. We collected demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters of subjects free of diabetes mellitus or CVD who attended annual medical screening examinations between 2001 and 2009. Main outcome measures were a new diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) or cerebrovascular events (CVE). During a median follow up of 4.3 years, among 10,909 subjects (mean eGFR 78.5 ± 12.2 ml/min/1.73 m(2)), 10.3% were diagnosed with CAD (n = 1025) or CVE (n = 94). Compared with subjects in the highest eGFR quintile (≥88.8...

Initially, threatened by Iranian influence in Syria, Saudi Arabia tried to support the opposition. However, faced with American reluctance and lack of a coherent strategy, while Russia was taking a more prominent role in the conflict, Saudi Arabia gradually started adapting to these developments. It shifted its tactics in Syria from supporting armed opposition to trying to reach out to Bashar al-Assad. The chapter tackles the shifting Saudi policy from the prism of ‘wedge strategy’. It uses the theoretical framework for developing an understanding of Saudi policies, as well as predicting whether Riyadh will succeed or not. To this purpose, the chapter proceeds as follows. It focuses explaining the wedge strategy, and the preconditions, that may facilitate its adoption, as well as its various forms. It then discusses Syria’s importance in the context of the current regional conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This is followed by explaining the Saudi adoption of the wedge strategy and its possible causes. Finally, the chapter explains the role of different International and regional powers in the Syrian conflict, and how that may assist or hinder the newly adopted Saudi policies toward Syria.

Implementation of evidence-based assessment and intervention approaches for youth with behavioral and/or emotional problems is rising to recognition worldwide. Feasibility research is critical to examine what characteristics of systems allow for success or barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practices into real-world settings, especially when working cross-culturally. This paper briefly reviews the experience of 4 international sites to understand how the overall structure and specific site variables directed the implementation of the World Health Organization and the World Psychiatry Association project. Discussion includes a thematic summary of the successes and challenges experienced by the sites, and future directions of feasibility studies.

On March 1, 1920, a brief battle broke out in a settlement in northern Palestine, Tel Hai, which might have sunk into oblivion, like many other shooting incidents that have occurred since then. However, the Tel Hai event was soon to become a transformative affair in the culture and memory of the Yishuv and the Zionist movement alike. The death of eight settler-defenders, young men and women, in that battle and during the days leading up to it – among them Joseph Trumpeldor, who was well known for his military past and a prominent public figure in the Yishuv and the Zionist movement – came as a shock to the Yishuv in Eretz Israel. The Tel Hai event became a symbol, a myth, and a paradigmatic text in the new Hebrew culture, most notably during the Yishuv period and in the early years of the state. The setting of an annual memorial day for Tel Hai on Adar 11 (the Hebrew date of the historical battle), the creation of an impressive memorial site near Tel Hai, with the Roaring Lion monum...

In Chosen? Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, author Dr. Walter Brueggemann has written a book aimed at Christians (of which this reviewer is not) who may have issues dealing with the modern state of Israel, and reconciling it with certain biblical passages.

Engineering tools and mathematical optimization are applied in this study to plan the work of the agents of the cow artificial insemination service (inseminator) in Israel. Time is crucial in insemination as the chances of conception decline with increasing delay between the start of estrus and insemination. About 1,090 artificial inseminations of cows are performed daily in Israel. They involve 412 farms in 283 villages, and are performed by 29 inseminators; the work plan should balance the work load among the inseminators. To this end, the working time of an inseminator in each village is required. Thus, a model to predict the working time in a village was developed. Subsequently, a mathematical optimization model was designed and solved, which aims to allocate customers to trips and to determine the itinerary of each trip to minimize total distance/time. The main benefits included a 21.4% reduction in total traveling time and a 55% reduction in the difference between the lengths ...

This study critiques and analyses the meaning and design of the term “public interest” as it has been constructed in commercial television policy in Israel. Its main thesis is that the term serves Israeli policymakers to achieve economic goals. This endpoint marks the transition the public interest consideration has undergone from its initial identification with national and state goals to its subordination to economic interests, in a particular competition. The combination of the neoliberal ideology that has taken over Israeli policymaking since the 1980s, with the prominence of large corporations in the policymaking process, has contributed largely to this outcome.