This a story that you probably won’t read in the news:

Two young Iraqi girls arrive secretly in Israel to undergo heart surgery. The girls reach Israel via Jordan with the help of the organization Or Legoyim and the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With the help of Save a Child’s Heart, every 29 hours a child’s life is saved.

So how do these almost-miracles come about?

The girls’ cases were discovered by a US doctor in Iraq who had once been a volunteer in Gaza. The doctor recommended to the parents that the girls undergo cardiac surgery in Israel with Save a Child’s Heart, a non-profit organization that works to save children with heart problems in the developing world.

Santa Maria Jamal Zaki, a 6-year old Kurdish Christian, suffered from a heart defect before coming to Israel with her mother. Late last year she successfully underwent open heart surgery, performed by Dr. Lior Sasson, Head of the hospital’s Heart and Chest Department and Chief Surgeon with Save a Child’s Heart.

In the course of the examinations a serious problem was detected in the girl’s kidneys, and she was operated on once again a few days ago. Both medical treatments were declared successful.

Two-year-old Hawara Said came to Israel from Basra. A defect in her heart – a hole between two chambers – caused a serious disturbance in the flow of blood to the lungs. Last week she was operated on successfully by Dr. Sasson.

All children treated by Save a Child’s Heart are accepted regardless of race, creed, color, sex, or religion. They are treated free of charge with the finest medical care at the cutting edge of technology, provided by Save A Child’s Heart in co-operation with the Wolfson Medical Center.

Check out the Save A Child’s Heart website: www.saveachildsheart.com. What a story!

Hardly a neighborhood in New York is without its yoga center. City slickers everywhere have become hip to the benefits of this time-honored system of health and fitness that originated in India.

What started off as a philosophy of life has become, dare I say, a trend, among both men and women, hoping to release the stress of a hard day’s work, and let their minds empty of concerns.

As usual, Hollywood has helped to boost the trend. Madonna, Naomi Watts, Sting and Jerry Seinfeld (just to mention a few) are all fanatics of yoga, never missing an opportunity to tout its benefits.

But it seems that youngsters are now also getting in on the game. After reading this article in Haaretz, I realized that kids from a very young age are tapping into the benefits of yoga.

The article mentions that though less common than adult yoga, children’s yoga classes are becoming more and more popular. And children’s yoga is unique and distinct from adult forms of yoga.

As a matter of fact, it makes sense. Children’s lives are not devoid of stress. Sometimes I think they work harder than we do, with their busy schedules: Long days at school, extra-curricular activities, demanding homework tasks and preparation for entry to a top-notch university.

If you have ever had a glimpse into the underground dance music scene, you would know that Israel has a major role to play in it.

No matter where you are in the world, if you seek out electronica, particularly trance music, you will find Israelis. Often they are the ones organizing the dance parties, from intimate gatherings to huge events.

But more than just party planners, Israelis have also been leading the way in creating the world’s best trance music, for quite a long time now.

Demonstrating this fact is London-based DJ Magazine’s 2006 Top 100 DJs poll, which was answered by 217,102 dance music fans.

If you click on the link, you won’t find any Israeli DJs in the top 10, but take a look what happens from number 12 until the end of the list. There are many talented Israelis listed.

Infected Mushroom comes in at 12, DJ Yahel is 28 and Offer Nissim 29. Then there is DJ Skazi, Astrix and others.

And what’s more, an argument can be made (and was made quite strongly to me, by an Israeli friend) that the number one DJ Paul Van Dyke and the number three, Tiesto, both had their careers launched by their Israeli popularity.

“Especially Tiesto,” My Israeli friend said. “He was basically discovered by the Israelis and only afterwards found international success.”

“Tiesto said at one of his interviews that if there wasn’t for the Israelis his career would be completely different. And it’s all from a small country surrounded by enemies in the Middle East.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The video above is Infected Mushroom live at the Love Parade in 2005.

If you’re a literature buff – or if you went through high school – you’ve probably read Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. If you didn’t read it, or if you’ve forgotten the Cliff Notes version of it, it’s basically about Mark Twain’s road trip through the Middle East, among other places.

The point is he’s kinda harsh on Israel. And we understand that things weren’t quite like he expected. But it’s been a few years, and I daresay that we’ve changed Israel quite a bit. Not too many camels can be found in Tel Aviv these days.

Check out the above video to compare for yourself what he said about Israel and what it actually looks like now.

Benji Lovitt brings us more of his observations as a new immigrant:

Monday, January 29, 2007
“Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on…..ehhhhh……”
I recently talked to my friend Noga who’s been following my adventures. I was interested but not surprised by her impressions of my writing. She was a tad irked (ech omrim “irk”?), not as much by what was on this site as much as what was NOT. “If I didn’t know you, I would wonder if you were enjoying yourself in Israel. You make fun of things a lot but you don’t always talk about what’s great.” The thought had in fact crossed my mind before; street cons, the toilet paper lady, and cold showers. Maybe she has a point. Those who know me are well-aware that I’m not cynical about life here (apparently unlike every Israeli, according to their opinions of themselves). It’s just more fun to make fun of the ridiculous stuff in life.

“But why did you make fun of the toilet paper lady?” asked Noga. “It’s not just in Israel-they do that in Europe!”

“Yeah, but I’m not IN Europe.”

Nevertheless, the following is dedicated to Noga to let her know that I do think there’s plenty of great stuff in this country. With apologies to Julie Andrews and the typical Yom Ha’atzmaut-ish “Top ___ Things about Israel”, these are a few of my favorite things…

The rest of the post is after the jump.