To celebrate a century of the kibbutz movement, New Yorkers got a very special screening of Sundance-winning Israeli film Sweet Mud

“Beyond the Barrel: The Race to Fuel the Future” airs tonight at 8 EST.

The future looks bright for Israeli solar energy. Today, German engineering powerhouse Siemens AG announced that it will buy a 40% stake in Israeli solar company Arava Power for $15 million.

Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research.Photo: David Shankbone, on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License. Covering over half of Israel, the Negev can often seem like a rocky, hot desert. But there’s a lot more to the area than meets the eye, as we were reminded in this post from Shankblog. There are now trees [...]

Still the Dead Sea. Photo: Israel Ministry of Tourism As some of you may have guessed, IsRealli’s recent post on a plan to sell off naming rights to national landmarks was our post for April Fools’ Day. We should note, however, that almost everything in that story is real. Just for starters: Israel does have [...]

The Sea of Love. Photo: Israel Ministry of Tourism In a bold attempt to raise money for Israel’s growing green technology infrastructure, the State of Israel has decided to sell the naming rights of the Dead Sea to the Ahava cosmetics company. While the full details of the Ahava agreement weren’t made public immediately, officials [...]

Photo: Getty Images One of the most important fields of research these days is finding renewable forms of energy. Israel has been a leader in this field for many years, with many innovations especially in generating solar energy. So when the US Government wanted to find partners in alternative energy research, it figured Israel would [...]

Photo: Getty Images Have you ever suffered from stifling humidity, yet been convinced all that water could help you somehow? A new Israeli startup, EWA Technologies Group (for Earth, Water, Air) has developed some pretty amazing products (like an air conditioner and water supply devices) designed to take advantage of all that water and convert [...]

Photo: Wikimedia Commons used under Creative Commons license The New York Times this week covered the solar energy scene in California, where BrightSource Energy, an American-Israeli venture is working hard to meet California’s energy needs. We’ve reported previously on similar joint ventures between California utilities and Israeli companies. Looks like Israel is going to play [...]

While Israel gets a lot of press coverage, we don’t often get to glimpse ordinary life beyond the headlines. Sometimes, however, the media does expose some of the hidden aspects of Israeli culture. We’ve collected some of these articles below for your edification and enjoyment. Travel Best City Nominees: Tel Aviv (Wallpaper – January 2009) [...]