By Herb Brandon
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ---- August 8, 2008 ....... With only 24 hours remaining to the opening ceremonies of the Beijing China 2008 Summer Olympics Games, Web 2.0 is coming alive with Facebook rooms and several blogs being created to support the Israel team.

"We searched the Internet and found very few sites which were dedicated to interacting and supporting Israel's participation in the Beijing China Olympic Games," said Israel News Agency, and United States News Agency publisher Joel Leyden.

"The INA opened an "I Support Israel in the China Olympics" room on Facebook which immediately gathered dozens of members and created blogs at Blogger to provide comprehensive real time news and video of Olympic sporting events in China."

The Israel Olympic team secured its 43rd member yesterday after the Israel Olympic Committee tribunal announced that they would include swimmer Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or.

As the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China are now only hours away, Israel athletes have begun leaving for China on a 11-hour trek between the duty free stores of Ben-Gurion Airport and the red welcoming flags of Beijing. Twenty members of the Israel delegation will head out tomorrow night, including medalist judoka Arik Zeevi and sailor Nofar Edelman.

But as Israel members depart Tel Aviv, suspense about the Olympic games is already taking place, and it's not about support for Tibet. The Israel tennis team of Andy Ram and Yoni Ehrlich has been stranded in Hong Kong since early yesterday morning as a typhoon kept all airlines grounded.

When their plane landed in Hong Kong for a short layover, passengers were informed that a typhoon was in the area, and that all flights would be temporarily kept from taking off.

The pair is due to begin play on Sunday.

"There was a typhoon here," he told the sports Web site ONE. "All of the outgoing flights were canceled, including ours. We haven't slept in two days. Please respect our wishes - we're tired and are asking the media to be discreet," he said.

Ehrlich also urged fans to remain calm.

"Everything is okay," he said. "There is time until the start of play."

Ephraim Singer, head of the Israel Olympic Committee, also tried to sound a comforting note. "Nobody is panicking," said Singer. "Everything's alright, and we are up to date with everything that's going on."

And it appears it will not only be typhoon that may cause a disturbance.

Transcending the heavy pollution in Beijing, China, are expected high temperatures and soaring humidity levels.

Many of the athletes competing outdoors are expected to suffer dehydration.

But with the weather conditions not too distant to that of a hot Israel summer, the overwhelming heat may prove to be an advantage for the Israel team.

One special "delegate" arrived from Israel into Beijing well before the China typhoon had become even a single, innocent cloud.

Israel President Shimon Peres arrived yesterday and greeted the opening of the Beijing Olympic China Games with a poem reinforcing the China theme of "the same dream, of glory, of harmony, of peace."

The poem read: "Birds of all feathers come and sing together, A hymn of hope in an Olympic nest. Forget your borders, ignore your cages and fly free. Reject your different nightmares and have one dream. The same dream, of glory, of harmony, of peace. An equal dream for poor and rich, black and white. An equal right to compete and champion. Run and throw, shoot and swim and pin, row and hit. You can be the best on our globe. Win, don't kill; lose, don't hate; Hope, don't regret. Go home with an olive branch in your lips: together in harmony. Breathing fresh air and singing for the newly born in the cradles and the nests."

Shimon Peres is scheduled to provide a Web 2.0 Internet interview as he meets with the China president.

Peres will visit the home of Israel Ambassador to China Amos Nadai, and will talk to Chinese business leaders about trade before returning to his hotel, which is close to the National Stadium so he can walk to the opening ceremony on Friday night without desecrating Shabbat.

Peres will meet Dr. Charles Zhang on Friday morning, the founder and CEO of Sohu.com, one of China's largest Internet companies and an official sponsor of the Beijing Games. Zhang will interview Peres, asking questions in English while a simultaneous Chinese translation takes place.

The interview will then be broadcast on Sohu.com, which is the Internet host of the official Beijing Olympic Web site, Beijing2008.com.

"Normally heads of state only do television and newspaper interviews, but on my list, the Sohu.com appearance was the most important item," said Guy Kivetz, press officer for the Israel Embassy in Beijing, China.

The Israel News Agency is planning to coordinate global Web coverage of the Peres interview with Sohu.com. The opening ceremony will be held Friday in Beijing's "Bird Nest" national stadium. The Olympic games in China are scheduled to start at 8:08 p.m. local time (1208 UTC). The opening event will be broadcast to an estimated one billion television viewers around the world.

"Hopefully Peres will find a few minutes to join the Facebook room "I Support the Israel Team At The China Beijing Olympics" for an online chat with those watching from Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem and with Jews from around the world who are displaying their online, digital support for the Israel team," said Leyden.

 

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in Israel for the Internet by the Leyden Communications Group.

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