Israel’s universities are ranking among the best in the world, but its record on gender equality is not nearly that good, according to statistics gathered in recent reports.

Five of Israel’s leading higher education institutions were ranked among the top 500 inaugural 2015 Best Global Universities published by US News and World Report on Tuesday.

Factors used to rank the universities included global research reputation, publications, international collaboration, total citations, number of highly cited papers and number of PhDs awarded.

The highest Israeli ranking was won by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, at #102. Tel Aviv University followed with a ranking of 148, then Hebrew University of Jerusalem at 152 and Technion Israel Institute of Technology at 236. Ben Gurion University of the Negev rounded out the list with a ranking of 431.

The gap between the genders in Israel, however, has increased according to the World Economic Forum 2014 Gender Gap Report, released Tuesday October 28.

Israel is still the top-ranking nation in the Middle East, at 113.

But it dropped by 12 slots since last year, and now has an overall rating of 65.

Scored at 0.700 on a scale where 0 reflects inequality and 1 is complete equality, Israel is barely above the two-thirds mark – hardly an accomplishment for a modern-day Western industrialized nation.

Global and regional comparisons between nations are ranked in four categories: economic participation and opportunity for the two genders, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

For Israel to rank at 65 in the Middle East, among nations where women are still required to remain completely covered in public and forbidden to leave home without a male escort age 9 and above, let alone drive a car, means the “Start Up Nation” still has to get the key in the ignition before the nation’s leaders feel confident they have made it on to the road.

During the 50 days of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas and other Gazan terrorists fired 4,594 rockets and mortars at Israel.

Of those, 3,641 landed in Israel, and 188 landed in Gaza.

735 rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome.

Every war has its price, economically, emotionally, politically and spiritually.

Few nations consider the latter – but the Israel Defense Force has never ended a war without taking that into account.

Tonight, members of the media each received the account sheet from the IDF, showing the “up to date figures of Operation Protective Edge.”

They speak for themselves in the starkest of terms, across all spectrums. Behold.

Up to Date Figures – Operation Protective Edge

3,356 rockets fired at Israel

2,303 hit Israel 356 intended at IDF forces operating in Gaza 116 of which hit populated areas (3.45%) 578 were intercepted by Iron Dome 475 landed within the Gaza Strip Prior to the operation, the IDF estimated the Gaza rockets arsenal at approximately 10,000 rockets. 1/3 of which were fired at Israel, and an additional 1/3 was demolished by the IDF.

Geographic Breakdown

69.4% fired from the northern Gaza Strip 12.9% fired from the central Gaza Strip 17.3% fired from the southern Gaza Strip

597 rockets were launched from civilian facilities abused by terrorists (18%)

Approx. 260 launched from educational facilities (schools) Approx. 127 launched from cemeteries Approx. 160 launched from religious sites Approx. 50 launched from hospitals

4,762 terror sites struck across the Gaza Strip

: 1,678 rockets launching capabilities 977 command and control centers 237 militant wing government faculties 191 weapon storage and manufacturing facilities 144 training and militant compounds 1,535 additional terror sites

Eliminating Mission – Gaza tunnel network

32 Terror tunnels neutralized 14 crossed into Israel 2 tunnels had shafts located 300-500 Meters from Israel

750- 1,000 militants targeted

At least 253 Hamas operatives At least 147 Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives At least 65 operatives of various organizations At least 603 operatives whose affiliation is unknown In addition, 159 suspected terrorists have been questioned by Israeli security forces, 25 of which are currently imprisoned.

Israeli Casualties

3 civilians killed 64 IDF soldiers killed in combat 83 Israeli civilians wounded 463 IDF soldiers wounded

1,856 trucks of Humanitarian aid supplied to Gaza, carrying 40,550 tons

1,491 trucks with 37,178 tons of foods 220 trucks with 1,694 humanitarian supplies 106 trucks with 1,029 tons of medical supplies

82,201 IDF Reserve Duty Personnel

It’s going to be another long, hot summer for security personnel if the latest statistics are accurate.

Israel Police report they received more than nine million ‘100′ calls (Israel’s ‘911′) from Tel Aviv in 2013 — a nine percent rise over the previous year.

Annual police data showed the heaviest rate of calls came in the summer months, in June, July and August.

Of the 9,208,890 calls received by the national Israel Police dispatcher, 40,868 took place at one o’clock in the morning, an hour when many bars close. Only 3,731 crimes were reported between 5 am and 6 am – in that grey hour before dawn.

In 2012, 359,503 complaints went on to be processed by police and nearly one third of those — 89,580 — were for disturbing the peace.

Figures show that 40 percent of the calls originated from the southern and central regional districts. But 18 percent came solely from the city of Tel Aviv; not far behind, 14 percent originated in Jerusalem.

Car theft accounted for 55 percent of nearly 20,000 calls to police.

In addition, police reported that some 2,553 kilograms of hashish were seized during the year as well as 1,171 kilos of marijuana and 47,316 tablets of methamphetamine.

In 2012, there were 19, 352 arrests for drug use, 4,448 arrests for drug trafficking and 2,972 arrests for possession of drugs “not for personal use.”

On the eve of Rosh Hashana 5774, the population of the State of Israel stands at 8.081 million people according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

75.1% of the population is Jewish, at 6.066 million people. 20.7% are Arabs at 1.67 million people, and 4.2% or 345,000 people fall into the category of ‘Other’ (Non-Arab Christians, and other minority religions).

It is estimated that there are 1.66 million Arabs living in Judea and Samaria.

The Israeli population rose since last year by 142,000 people, or 1.8% similar to previous years.

163,000 babies were born in 5773, and 40,000 people died.

19,000 people immigrated to Israel.

Shana Tova!

Millions of adults in Israel are unusually happy today as 2,129,562 children return to school for the start of the school year.

1,700,535 children will be going to grade school, and another 429,177 will be going to nurseries and kindergartens.

A whopping 148,774 children will be starting first grade.

The breakdown of students in each of the major, recognized school system streams is as follows:

Public School:   678,161

Religous Public School:  217,137

Private School:  248,364

Talmud Torah:  50,470

Non-Jewish Schools:  437,503

There are 4,561 schools with  62,962 classrooms, and approximately 15,000 kindergartens/nursery schools in Israel.

For many Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox), the school year started 3 weeks ago, on Rosh Chodesh Elul. It’s estimated that Haredi students make up approximately 30% of the students in Israel.

More statistics can be found on the Ministry of Education’s website.

As one parent told this reporter this morning, “We’re meeting in the park at 10 to throw a party”.

I’ll be there.

Are you overwhelmed by seeing too many numbers? If so, help is at hand. Professor Michael Starbird comes back to Goldstein on Gelt to speak about statistics. Many times, statistics seem overwhelming and incomprehensible. How do we apply them to our decisions, whether financial or not? Find out by tuning into this week’s episode of the Goldstein on Gelt show.

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