nir

A tiny fraction of the US budget which is almost entirely earmarked to be spent buying from US suppliers but sure, the Jews are the reason you have a malfunctioning health system.

I don't know about exports but for certain there's quite a lot of water Israel transfers to Jordan as part of the 90s peace accords. That's a huge deal in the Mid East.

For decades, the weather report in Israel would include the water level of the Sea of Galilee, the only real lake in the country and the source of most of the nation's drinkable water. It would be a major concern during droughts. Now there's so much desalinated water that some are actually being pumped into the lake, for environmental reasons.

Just my $0.02 (I'm a few years older): It's always earlier than you think. Don't let your perception of where you wanted to be at a certain age dictate what you can or can't do.

I built one, way back (I'm not an Android dev, kind of hacked it together but on the positive side it's extremely simple: https://github.com/niryariv/KalSMS )

At the time there were a lot of developing countries projects using SMS as their main interface (a lot of work with community health workers etc). Orgs like the UN would set up an SMS gateway by hooking a desktop with some hardware, and of course it would be very vulnerable to stuff like power outages, someone tripping over the wires etc and you had to get the technician to set it up again. With smartphones you had the all the required setup in one cheap, small and very durable package, no training required to operate.

I wouldn't say I know history of this area better than all Europeans, but definitely better than the vast majority. I wouldn't confuse Nesher the town with Nesher the factory, for instance, since having lived not far from the latter I know it's not anywhere near Ramle.

I realize discussing politics here is pointless, but this is just so comically ignorant I have to reply.

1. Israel won its independence after barely managing to fend off the joint armies of seven Arab nations who invaded the Jewish area following UN partition decision, openly declaring they intend to wipe all Jewish presence. Almost all nations, US included, predicted Arabs will succeed and decided to sit it out. Comparing this to the history of Europeans and Native Americans is simply ridiculous.

2. The name Nesher comes from a cement factory on whose grounds the cave was found. The name Ramle comes from the city founded by the Umayyad dynasty shortly after Islam conquered the land from the Roman Byzantine empire, which conquered it from the Hashmonites, who conquered it from the Hellenic Seleucids, who took it from the Persians, who beat the Babylonians, who took it from the Judeans, who conquered it from the Cannanites etc. After the Umayyad, Ramle was controlled by the Crusaders, then the Mamluks, then the Ottomans, then the British and now Israel. So declaring a specific 18-19th century village in the area as the original "Native" of the place rather than all others who lived there is - simply ridiculous as well.

As an Israeli, I have no animosity towards Arabs. But I really can't stand Western idiots who don't have a slight clue about the Mideast, or anything really outside their incredibly sheltered existance, and see the whole thing as some stupid Hollywood good vs bad conflict.

??? I'm pretty sure there are several YC startups with Israeli founders.

As an Israeli I always wonder why people who live in the US or Europe think they have some special insight into Israel/Palestine by merit of being Jewish or Muslim.

Israel is vaccinating Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. It actually runs special promotion campaigns (including the PM visiting Nazareth) because some in Arab population are reluctant to take it.

It does not vaccinate Palestinians in the Palestinian controlled areas as it has no authority to do so. Furthermore, Abbas and the PA leadership make a point of not allowing their citizens access to Israeli healthcare (though they did make sure to get vaccinated themselves).

Some time ago my wife was involved in an effort to provide life saving medical care to a Palestinian child in an Israeli hospital. The hospital waved all costs and the treating surgeon was in daily touch with her. The PA refused to allow the child entrance into Israel to receive that care. This wasn't an isolated case, it's PA policy.

Actually it's the HMO system here, much more than the military. Every Israeli, by law, has healthcare insurance. It works much like income tax - deducted automatically from your pay, varies according to income level, and is transferred directly to the HMO you pick among several options which compete (quite vigorously) with each other.

I think these articles and the responses are missing the real point which is how an Ivy League education became so important in America.

I grew up in Israel near the Technion, our MIT equivalent which produced a few Nobel Prize winners. It's not a big deal to get in, if you have poor high school scores you take a year long prep course, classes are hard but most people push through. Having a Technion degree might give you a slight edge getting your first job but that's that - you'll be judged by your performance moving on, not on your alma mater.

When I lived in the US for a few years, I couldn't understand how people allocate such importance to a person's high school performance (which is basically what determines their alma mater in the best case scenario, before family donations etc). To me it signals a risk-averse mentality that fears taking a chance on a potential hire.

My experience (as non-American, non-Asian) has been the interaction was actually somewhat easier in Japan or China, because you don't expect a smooth communication to begin with and both sides are not speaking in their native tongue.

When you're in the US you have the false sense that you actually understand what's being said, while in truth learning the actual meaning can take a while.

Same here, even after five years in the US I still had to remind myself how some phrases actually communicate the exact opposite of their literal meaning.

Wasn't surprised at all to see this phrase book was authored by another Israeli :)

Usually people who see things as "simple" when most consider them complex are either extremely smart or extremely shallow. Providing Ilan Pappe as a serious source tells where you are in that range.

It took me a while to understand what's going on in these comments before I was reminded of the 30 Rock episode where a Canadian character has trouble understanding sarcasm because there aren't many Jews there.

But still, did you all miss the winking emoji right there following the text?

It doesn't make much difference any way. It's a private venture, his statement was just meant as cheer leading / consolation. I do hope they'll have another go, but it has very little to do with who's in government.

This spacecraft was the main thing my three year old and five year old were talking about all week, so at least partial success here :) Next time!

According to a post by one of the project's initiators, the lander will attempt to broadcast video from the moon's surface.

Success depends on the ultimate landing angle which will determine how much power its solar panels will be able to provide.

Never lived in SF but it definitely happens in NYC all the time. Not some deep conversation perhaps but people exchange small talk with strangers on the subway, in parks, cafes etc.

Marketing aside, MongoDB is just really easy to pick up and use. In a small project, its weaknesses don't really show up (at least in my limited experience), if it gets big you often end up rebuilding anyway.

Way back when I started reading HN, one thing that really struck me was seeing PHP discussed in a practical fashion rather than merely bashing it whenever it's mentioned as was the case in Proggit those days (often, the bashers obviously having very little experience building software).

By that time I was doing most of my coding in Ruby and Python, but this businesslike approach to PHP made me realize this is a place where people really get their hands dirty and build things, rather than care about fads.

Things have really changed, the tone & level of discussion here are now very different. Seems like PHP is kind of a canary in the coal mine in that regard.

I suppose Rafic Hariri isn't "random" as he was after all Lebanon's democratically elect Prime Minister when Hezbollah assassinated him, but how about the 21 people who also died in that bombing?

I personally know a man who lost his wife (mother of their 3 kids) when Hezbollah bombed the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires. 85 civilians were killed, but then again mostly Jewish so not exactly "random" either.

It always amazes me how many Western activists approach the world like a Hollywood movie. If Saudis are bad, and Trump is bad, then obviously their Shia rivals must be good!

Do people in Google still think the magic is there? It seems like a great place if you want stability and a nice salary, but obviously (unless you're in the comparatively tiny X dept) you're going to be a very small cog in a huge machine?

People reading HN could, but the general public doesn't really have that option.

As it stands you either give Apple complete control of you software/hardware or you give Google full access to every detail of your life.

There should be a sticker "Don't blame me, I supported Firefox OS"

And how's that working out for you over there, with double digit unemployment rates in Spain, Italy, France?

As someone who's not American nor European (but lived for a while in both) this self-satisfied approach always amazes me. Are you guys realizing where you're heading?

What's the advantage of S3+CDN over plain GitHub Pages?

You'd meet more in Haifa area. Arab engineers I worked with in Tel Aviv all came from Haifa, Nazareth or further north.

I'm neither American nor European, but have lived in both for a while, so at the risk of appearing like I'm trolling - the likely explanation IMHO is just that people in the US are nice and don't want to feel like they're being a nuisance to someone, even if legally they're in the right :)

Shameless plug: http://shoov.io/

Can you provide a source for such a story? I live in Israel and am politically opposed to settlements in West Bank yet can't think of a single example of what you're describing.

Settlements are built on undeveloped land. Some urban settlements (East Jerusalem, Hebron) are in houses purchased from their Palestinian owners. These usually entail a lengthy legal process, but settlers are forbidden from entering before it has resolved (just this week some settlers in Hebron were removed from houses they claim to have bought legally, the case is in court).