Aviation flew

What country has the largest number of migratory birds passing through it in
the world? The answer is, of course, Israel! Being a narrow land bridge
between northern Europe and Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west
and the desert to the east, Israel has about 300 million birds pass through
every season. They winter in Africa and return to their cooler homes in the
north for the summer. Thus, Israel has become the premiere location in the
world for bird watching, with special tours for avid watchers laid on every
year.
But, the issue becomes problematical since it has been discovered that
migratory birds can carry the deadly avian flu virus. What is Israel to do?
There is not much that can be done, although the contact between Israelis
and birds is small, since the birds usually pass through in only a few days.
But, we hope that the Ministry of Health has enough flu shots for everyone.
In the season, we often see beautiful black and white cranes stopping off
for R&R, really food and water. The Hula Valley in the Upper Galilee that
was drained in the early 1900s in one of the most famous exploits of
Zionism, has recently been reflooded so that there is more swamp/water for
the birds to stop-over in. This is now considered the natural thing to do,
and the Government was easily persuaded by the environmental movement to
reverse the situation of nearly 100 years. This was not such a difficult
thing to do since malaria, which was the principal cause for the original
low population living in the area (including Arabs), has long since been
eradicated.
Another danger of the many birds is that to aviation. There were several
crashes due to birds being sucked into jet engines. But that is a thing of
the past now that they use drones, pilotless small planes, that fly high up
and help to map the movements of the migratory flocks. There are so many
birds in a flock sometimes that they darken the sky.
Incidentally, an IAF pilot was responsible for setting up this system of
drone-mapping to ensure the safety of IAF and civilian flights. But, it had
another positive outcome since the drones were further developed with remote
controlled sensitive TV cameras that have become an important defense export
for Israel. Israel is the top country in the world for selling such drones,
and even the US Defense Dept. has a large contract for them. They have
enabled the IAF to target wanted terrorists, and have even been used to fire
missiles directly from the drone. This is another case of Israel leading in
an area of high technology.