For Baby, A Bulletproof Car Seat

Palestinian suicide attacks, shooting ambushes and car bombings have underscored the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention - at least in Israel 20 months into a Palestinian uprising against occupation.

Bullet-proof baby car seats, cameras that detect potential explosives planted in public places and robots that X-ray bombs were among the latest in gadgetry on display at Israel's annual Security and Defense Exhibition in Tel Aviv.

But missing this year were the thousands of foreign security experts who normally flock to the conference to learn about the latest in high-tech security wizardry.

"They are concerned about Palestinian terror attacks," said conference organizer Lior Caspi.

A wave of Palestinian suicide bombings on buses, city streets and cafes deterred some of the hardiest anti-terror experts from visiting Israel for the conference. Only about 500 showed up compared to 3,000 attendees in previous years.

The Israeli armory company Kata recently added the car seat to its product range. It consists of bullet-proof panels built around a regular baby's car seat and weighs about 66 pounds.