RUTHFULLY YOURS

Israel has proven itself a hotbed for technology. From being a force to be reckoned with in the cybersecurity sector, and a leader in the with nanotechnology it should’t be surprising that the country is also an innovator in the medical devices field.

In late 2015 Steven Schoenfeld, founder and chief investment officer of BlueStar Global Investors LLC, a New York-based firm that specializes in the Israeli capital markets told the Globe and Mail that “Israel, for 30, maybe 40, years has been a leader in basic medical research. They have some of the best practical operating hospitals and research hospitals in the world. They have pioneered all sorts of techniques. The speed of innovation from laboratory to practice is strong.”

In a 2015 study from Israel’s ministry of industry, trade and labour, the country had 725 medical device companies in operation that were leading the country’s growth in the medical devices field. Driving the country’s position in the medical devices field is “a lot of willingness to experiment which doesn’t tend to exist in other societies,” Guy David, a professor of healthcare management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School said.

Medical device companies in Israel benefit from several options including government support. As MDDI Online highlights, the country’s Office of the Scientist, now the Innovation Authority, provides financial support for research and development programs in all technology fields. The government provides support through incubator programs, which is geared at attracting global expertise to support local start ups.

Likewise, in being a hub for technological innovations, medical technology companies operating in Israel also benefit greatly from medtech giants looking at the country’s enterprise sector for “innovative engineering and medical talent” MDDI Online reports. That said, many established medical technology companies like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX)

and GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE) are active in Israel’s medical space, with several even setting up local research and development centers within the country.
Finding funding in Israel for medical devices

For early-stage medical device companies, finding funding in Israel can sometimes be a challenge, as with any market. That said, companies looking for funding do have several options available to them.

Angel investing is quite prevalent in Israel. MDDI Online writes that angels are likely to be successful serial entrepreneurs who bring added value to companies. Likewise, companies always have the venture capital and public market routes to take. And of course, acquisition.

On October 25th the Polish people decisively elected a new government delivering the largest popular mandate in modern Polish history (the post-1989 period) to the right of center Law & Justice party (PiS- Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc).

This election was a stunning rebuke of the last ruling party, Civic Platform (PO- Platforma Obywatelska), which was founded by the current head of the European Council Donald Tusk, and their junior coalition partner PSL (the Marxist farmers party).

This ejection from power was galvanized by the widespread acceptance of their brazen years of corruption as well as their loudly telegraphed desire for deeper European Union (EU) integration, which was wholly unappealing to the mass of Poles on the ground. The debate reached fever pitch ahead of the parliamentary elections over the migrant crisis and the Brussels mandated migrant quotas being foisted on sovereign nations. Poles overwhelmingly rejected this at the ballot box.

This election also marked the first time that the Polish electorate rejected the mainstream political parties that had direct legacy ties to communism (with the tangential exception of the aforementioned Marxist farmers who always manage to steal just enough votes to breach the 5 per cent threshold that gets them funded out of the treasury).

It also came on the heels of the May Presidential election where a former European Parliamentarian –Andrzej Duda from Krakow – affiliated with Law & Justice, beat incumbent Civic Platform President Bronislaw Komorowski to capture the Executive Branch and pave the way for October’s electoral rout.

After the election a protest movement rose up called KOD- the Committee for Defense of Democracy (Komitet Obrony Demokracji). It claimed to be non-partisan and apolitical and was headed by a far left social activist in the Obama-community-agitator-mold named Mateusz Kijowski. In a fitting example of symbolism, this political activist and social organizer was (and still is) in well documented arrears on his child support.

KOD was started in November and Polish mainstream media outlets (many of which are led by personal friends of the main figures from the last government as well as being recipients of public treasury largesse from their friends in this government- often unconstitutionally so), lined up behind it from the beginning as they drastically inflated the numbers of its early protest turnouts while simultaneously downplaying turnout at the counter rallies in support of the freshly elected government.

Moreover, none of those in this pliant media cabal that have brazenly sided with this anti-government movement have reported at any point on Kijowski’s checkered legal past financial criminality.

Despite making the claim from the beginning of being apolitical, KOD protests are filled with the flags, figures, and supporters of every one of the leftist opposition parties. Rather than a movement to defend Poland’s democracy, KOD appears to be an offensive move by the vanquished looter elite that is engaging in one last ditch effort to fight to retain spoils system privilege.

This post-communist cabal is leveraging its Western media connections for maximum effect while also aligning along a leftist political philosophy and a highly Eurocentric “development” agenda (the biggest bribes come out of Brussels).

Political factions present at KOD protests include Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) whose current party head, Grzegorz Schetyna, frequently attends and speaks at rallies. Former education minister, now affiliated with PO, Roman Giertych also has been seen at KOD events jumping around.

In the Dutch province of Friesland, 250 of 720 existing churches have been transformed or closed. The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint Ignatius Church. A synagogue in The Hague was turned into the Al Aqsa Mosque. In Flanders, in place of a famous church, a luxury hotel now stands. Catholic arches, columns and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.

“The French will not wake up until Notre Dame becomes a mosque.” — Emile Cioran, author.

Germany is literally selling its churches. Between 1990 and 2010, the German Evangelical Church closed 340 churches. Recently in Hamburg, a Lutheran church was purchased by the Muslim community.

“History teaches us that these transformations are rarely innocent.” — Bertrand Dutheil de La Rochère, assistant to Marine Le Pen.

Last year, at the famous Biennale artistic festival in Venice, Swiss artist Christian Büchel took the ancient Catholic Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia and converted it into a mosque. The church had not been used for Christian worship for more than forty years. Büchel decorated the baroque walls with Arabic writing, covered the floor with a prayer rug, and hid the crucifix behind a prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca, the holy city of Islam. It was a provocation.

But everywhere else in Europe, the practice of Islam really is outstripping Christianity, while Jews are leaving — not only France but the old continent — en masse.

In January, Zvi Ammar, the president of the Marseille Israelite Consistory, recommended that Jews that stop wearing a kippah (skullcap) when out in the street. Too many anti-Semitic incidents have cast fear into the hearts of Marseille’s 70,000 Jews, who make up a tenth of the city’s population. 500 Jews already left the city in 2015. A few days ago, Mr. Ammar announced another attempt at appeasement: the conversion of a historic synagogue into a mosque.

After the attack, some villagers gathered and started threatening other Christians, demanding they either convert to Islam or move out of the area. Then an Islamic religious decree was issued, to hand over Masih to the local Islamic clerics so that he could be burned alive for blasphemy.

Why was only Masih (a Christian) accused of blasphemy, when Bilal (a Muslim) had obviously watched the video in question?

The Christians who are left are searching to find an alternate place to live, and are now facing hatred in the guise of a boycott. No one is selling them food or any daily essentials.

In Punjab, harassing Christians has become a norm; a way of getting rid of them. Every time Christians are threatened and forced to leave the area, the charge is always blasphemy.

It started as a normal day in the remote Pakistani village of Chak-44 for Imran Masih, a Christian man, and Bilal, his Muslim friend, in mid-April. Masih had revealed to Bilal that the woman he had fallen in love with was a Muslim.

According to media reports, Masih was called away urgently and left his phone with Bilal, who apparently came across a video that appeared in Masih’s Facebook feed, which allegedly contained content against the Muslim Prophet Mohammad. Bilal’s accusation that Masih had viewed that video became the reason to charge Masih with blasphemy.