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Ruth King

A recent survey suggests growing American public divides over Israel, yet also strategies for Israel to win American public opinion.Andrew Harrod

A recent Brookings Institution survey presented at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. indicated a growing American partisanship toward Israel and the Middle East. But an analysis of an online survey taken in November suggests strategies for Israel’s friends to counter growing Democratic Party estrangement with Israel amidst an enduringly pro-Israel and Philo-Semitic American population.

Survey director Shibley Telhami said that Israel is dramatically becoming what fellow panelist and Brookings expert Tamara Cofman Wittes called a wedge issue. As Telhamiwrote in “Politico,” the Republicans’ pro-Israel base is an indicator that “GOP candidates are principally catering to an evangelical base that has become Israel’s biggest support base in American politics.” A survey press release noted that while Evangelical Republicans make up only 10 percent of the American population, 23 percent of all Republicans and 77 percent of Evangelical Republicans want the United States to favor Israel. In all, 40 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of self-identified evangelicals “say a candidate’s position on Israel matters a lot,” compared to 22 percent for Independents and 14 percent for Democrats.”

Telhami pointed out that, by contrast, the biggest story of all was the 49 percent of Democrats who said that Israel has too much influence on American politics; 14 percent said too little, and 36 percent said about the right amount. The striking partisan divide of this key finding impressed him, as the corresponding survey results among Republicans for too much, too little, and appropriate Israeli influence were respectively 25 percent, 22 percent and 52 percent. The overall American breakdown is 37, 18 and 44 percent, while 39 percent of evangelicals said that Israel has too little influence (23 percent too much and 38 percent the right amount), and views of too little Israeli influence increase with age.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Breakthrough leukemia cure is “Israeli”. I was suspicious of the BBC’s report on the “innovative” US immunotherapy that cured 27 of 29 “no-hope” leukemia patients. Sure enough, the genetic modification of T-cells was developed by Weizmann Institute Professor Zelig Eshhar, and the US researchers accredited him.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/breakthrough-cancer-cure-has-deep-israeli-roots/#.VsSHARjfTx8.email

Positive trials for treatment of Graft vs Host disease. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Kamada has reported positive interim results from a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its proprietary alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) to treat steroid-refractory Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD). Subjects responded well to treatment in the small study.
http://www.kamada.com/news_item.php?ID=217

Patent for kidney cancer test. (TY Atid-EDI) Israeli biotech Rosetta Genomics has been granted a US patent for its gene signature method of distinguishing four different types of kidney cancer. The molecular diagnostic test recognizes the profile of 29 microRNAs that are expressed in patients with renal cancer.
http://www.rosettagx.com/files/press_releases/2016/012516_ROSG_Kidney_Tumor_Classification_Patent_FINAL.pdf

Watching memory at work. Tel Aviv University Professor Itzhak Fried has completed his study of how memory neurons behave in real time when they are “remembering.” He will present his findings at an upcoming Jerusalem symposium. These have important implications for understanding dementia such as Alzheimer’s.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/doh-how-homer-simpson-helps-researchers-understand-memory/

ReWalk is medically necessary. (TY Dan) A US surgeon, confined to a wheelchair following a spinal cord injury, has successfully won his case to be reimbursed by his health plan for a ReWalk exoskeleton. The ruling will help make ReWalk available to all eligible patients. http://rewalk.com/rewalk-robotics-exoskeleton-deemed-medically-necessary-by-independent-medical-review-organization/

Hospital search engine wows Russia. Russia’s most dominant email service Mail.Ru is integrating the database of Archimedicx. Health Mail.Ru is one of the most popular health portals in Russia. Israeli Moni Milchman (see here) developed ArchimedicX, the world’s first search engine for information about hospitals.
http://www.geektime.com/2016/02/16/belgian-israeli-archimedicx-to-feature-its-listings-on-russian-mail-ru/

Israel-California biotech agreement. Israeli Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis signed a biotechnology agreement with the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Its focus is stem cell research and breakthroughs in treating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and HIV-AIDS.
http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2016/2/10/israel-and-california-sign-biotech-deal-with-emphasis-on-stem-cell-research

Great Power Realignment – To Russia? by Shoshana Bryen

As the Russians insist that the Assad government is the only legitimate government, all anti-Assad fighters — ISIS, al Qaeda-related, or U.S.-backed or Turkish-backed “moderates” — are, by definition, terrorists.

Russian — and in particular Syrian — tactics are appalling. Washington would rather not be associated with them, but has a horror of the vacuum that might emerge if Assad is swept aside. Mainly, the U.S. has hung its hat on the International Syria Support Group. The U.S. is muddled, as usual, without a clear goal, clear allies or fixed positions beyond support for a “political process.”

The U.S. is looking less and less relevant, as historic Great Powers do what they have historically done best — fight for their national interests as they define them. President Obama appears to be conceding the lead to Russia and Russian aims.

The shelling of Syrian soldiers by the Turkish military is one more step back into Great Power politics — historic Turkish-Russian enmity played out over Kurds and Syrians. The U.S. appears to believe 21st century wars cannot be won by military force and that battling parties can be induced to set aside their national and religious aims for a negotiated “peace.” Meanwhile, the parties to the conflict are using their armies to pursue victory.

Last week, Turkey attacked Kurdish fighters who were struggling to connect Kurdish territory in northern Iraq with a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria along the Turkish border. The Kurds, backed by Russian air power, want to oust Turkish-backed Syrian rebels from the Azaz region, in order to create contiguous territory from northern Iraq to Syrian Kurdistan, and prevent the Syrian rebels from being resupplied by Turkey. The net effect is to boost Kurdish-Russian cooperation; to provide relief for Assad’s army in the north; to increase Turkey’s hostility toward Russia; and possibly to put Turkey on a collision course with the U.S. — if Ankara believes its position in NATO will protect it from Russian fallout. (It should be noted that although Turkish troops attacked Syrians, they stayed clear of threatening Russia directly.)

The U.S. has urged both Turkey and the Kurds to decrease hostilities, but Turkey dismissed U.S. calls for a ceasefire. Attacks on the Kurds continued as Turkey began to fire on Syrian forces, and Turkey’s President Tayyip Recep Erdogan did not rule out a ground attack inside Syria.

MY SAY: HONORABLE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VISIT HEBRON

These three representatives recently visited Israel, but they did not just go to the politically “safe” areas- they went to the West Bank to Hebron the ancient capital of the Jewish people and the cradle of the Jewish faith. rsk

Congressman Jeff Miller R- Florida District 1 https://jeffmiller.house.gov/

•Rated -5 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record.

Congressman Greg Harper of Mississippi R- Missisipi District 3 http://harper.house.gov/

•Rated -3 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record.

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler R- Missouri District 4 https://hartzler.house.gov/

•Rated -6 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)

MELANIE PHILLIPS: TWO CHEERS FOR BRITAIN’S BDS BAN

New government guidance will prevent any public body from imposing a boycott on a member of the World Trade Organization to which Israel
belongs.

The British government has done something in support of Israel, and
the progressive intelligentsia is in shock. Prime Minister David
Cameron is taking action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
movement.

New government guidance will prevent any public body from imposing a
boycott on a member of the World Trade Organization to which Israel
belongs.

Local boycotts breach the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, which
demands that all suppliers are treated equally.

The guidance aims at preventing publicly funded bodies such as
municipal councils or National Health Service trusts from boycotting
goods produced by what they believe to be “unethical companies,” such
as firms involved in arms trading, fossil fuels or tobacco products as
well as companies based in Israel.

Why a Rock-Ribbed Conservative Like Me Supports Donald Trump 100% by Joan Swirsky

I’m watching the fierce South Carolina primary contest among the six remaining candidates for POTUS and a few things strike me as astounding.

The first is that all the seasoned politicians on stage––Governors Bush and Kasich, Senators Cruz and Rubio––have been relegated to straggler status by the non-politician in the race, billionaire businessman Donald Trump. (Dr. Ben Carson, the other non-politician, is hanging in there but not lighting any fires).

Second is that only Mr. Trump is raising the biggest issues facing our country, among them:

Closing our borders, which are being flooded with un-vetted illegal aliens who number, by now, into the millions
Bringing both corporations and jobs back to America
Fixing our Mt. Kilimanjaro of debt and Mt. Everest of unemployment
Strengthening our military
Third is that he is challenging our longtime and ridiculous policy of military intervention for the purpose of nation-building in exchange for…nothing! Why haven’t we taken our enemy’s oil or exacted other prices for the blood we’ve spilled and the honor we’ve spent?

Fourth is that he is saying out loud what most Americans have been thinking and feeling for almost eight years, specifically that as a result of our thunderously ineffective “leadership,” we have utterly failed to destroy ISIS and the other Islamic terrorists who spend every waking hour figuring out how to obliterate America, which they call “the great Satan,” and our staunchest ally, Israel, “the little Satan.”

ISIS has about 50,000 adherents, maybe even 75,000. In one week, the American military could obliterate this murderous sect from the face of the earth. But Barack Obama seems to have a peculiar aversion to fighting the enemies of America, hence the rise of this homicidal cult and the escalating threat it poses to our country.

And fifth is the degree to which Mr. Trump is already negotiating with both domestic and foreign leaders. He is letting American politicians know that deals can and will be made but that all of them must benefit America! And he is telling the entire world that the vacation that overseas leaders have had from true American leadership will be over the very second he enters the Oval Office.

All the while, Mr. Trump’s competitors and critics carp and whine about his “bluster,” “naiveté,” and “crudeness.” Wasn’t President Teddy Roosevelt accused of bluster? Wasn’t President Ronald Reagan accused of being naive? Wasn’t the liberals’ hero LBJ accused of crudeness? These are trifling criticisms, as are the accusations that Mr. Trump is “not a true conservative” and that in the past he was, gasp, a liberal. Well, we’ve given the self-described conservatives the entire House and Senate and they’ve failed us, so it’s time to give a born-again conservative a chance!

The Litigious — and Bullying — Mr. Trump By Ian Tuttle

Tim O’Brien did not set out to write a conclusive assessment of Donald Trump’s wealth. But it was those three pages in a 275-page book that occasioned what is, even in the annals of frivolous Trump lawsuits, a special display of petty, thin-skinned litigiousness.

In October 2005, O’Brien, then a business reporter for the New York Times, published a book about Donald Trump, TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald. The book was not a hatchet job. Not only did O’Brien interview friends and employees and business associates and political rivals and much of the rest of the Who’s Who of the World of Donald, he also chatted with the man himself — repeatedly. They met for formal interviews in Trump’s various homes and offices. Trump drove O’Brien around in his Ferrari and in his Mercedes. They watched Pulp Fiction together on Trump’s gold-laden private jet. It all went into the book, from which emerges a portrait of a complex, fickle, charming, self-obsessed, cinematic American original.

Of course, no book about Trump can avoid the quasi-impenetrable question of his wealth. In 2004, O’Brien had co-authored a piece for the Times detailing Trump’s financial woes — he had recently filed for the third of what would be four Chapter 11 bankruptcies — and quoted anonymous sources who reported that Trump’s wealth was not nearly what he claimed; in fact, it was in the hundreds of millions, they said. (Contemporaneous reports in the Washington Post and Time magazine suggested the same.) Trump, meanwhile, notoriously unreliable in his own estimates, offered figures ranging from $1.7 billion to $9.5 billion. In TrumpNation, O’Brien cited those numbers, alongside “three people with direct knowledge of Donald’s finances” who estimated his wealth was “somewhere between $150 million and $250 million.” Trump denied it, in his usual colorful fashion: “You can go ahead and speak to guys who have four-hundred-pound wives at home who are jealous of me, but the guys who really know me know I’m a great builder.”

Brown Students Whine: My Homework Is Interfering With My Social-Justice Activism We have to do schoolwork at school? That’s not fair! By Katherine Timpf

Brown University students are whining that classes and homework are interfering with their social-justice activism — and it’s, like, totally unfair for sensitive, forward-thinking minds like theirs to be expected to do so much schoolwork at school.

Yes, you read that right . . . expectations to do schoolwork at school are oppressive, and it is a very, very serious problem:

“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” one anonymous student, referred to as “David,” told the Brown Daily Herald.

“My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now. [Counseling and Psychological Services] counselors called me. I had deans calling me to make sure I was okay,” he said.

Now, David did add that he was able to get the deans to give him notes for extensions for his deadlines . . . but said that those were just “bandages” and definitely not enough to make up for those mean old racist professors wanting him to do his homework.

Another activist student, Justice Gaines — “who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr,” according to the Herald — explained that the notes should be “more accessible” and “more serious, so that professors will be more inclined to follow them,” because as it stands, it’s ultimately up to the professors to make the final decision on whether to do so.

Hm. Well, David was able to get a note, so clearly, they’re not all that unaccessible. And in terms of making professors honor the notes? Assistant Dean of Student Support Services Ashley Ferranti told the Herald that she estimates they’re accepted more than 90 percent of the time.

John Kerry’s Ridiculous Trip to Hollywood By Matthew Continetti

Oh, to have been at John Kerry’s meeting Tuesday with a dozen Hollywood executives at Universal Studios. To have sat in one of the cushy leather chairs beneath a vintage poster for The Phantom of the Opera, sipping bottled water, relaxing in the Mediterranean climate of southern California, and been solicited by the U.S. secretary of state for advice on how to defeat radical Islam. What a confirmation of one’s status in the film industry, of one’s place in the global economy, of one’s importance to the Democratic party. “Great convo w studio execs in LA,” Kerry tweeted after the discussion, “Good to hear their perspectives & ideas of how to counter #Daesh narrative.”

If there is one thing we know about Hollywood executives, it is that they are full of perspectives, have plenty of ideas. You need to tell our story, Mr. Secretary. Fix the plot point in Act Two. The tweets we are sending to convince young Muslim men not to join the Caliphate — do they have character arcs? Are they bankable? We can work with the Chinese on this; they keep telling Jeffrey about their problem with the Uighurs. Perhaps we could enlist actors to speak out against ISIS. A public service announcement, with Hillary Swank gazing sadly into the camera — that might make Ahad al Islam think twice about taking a Yazidi sex slave. Or have Steven Spielberg direct a short film on American efforts to combat Islamophobia. We can get Kushner to write it: “Allah in America”! It won’t be anything big, just 10 or 20 minutes long. A cost effective plan, if we can leverage viral propagation. I know George Clooney will be interested. When we stopped by the villa after Cannes last year Amal said something about how terrible it is, the killing. And it is terrible, awful. And the refugees: We can partner with Go Pro. Give them cameras to tell their stories. We’ll edit them here, in one of our studio bays, and release them via Youtube. They’ll become memes. And the memes can link back to the State Department homepage about all you and the president are doing to show that ISIS has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. No we missed Davos this year because we were getting ready for Sundance. But anyway we have to be sure not to offend anyone. That would be the worst. That would just play into ISIS’s hands. Can you believe what Donald Trump said? Terrible. Sets us back. By the way Mr. Secretary my nephew is a junior at Tufts and is just soooo interested in foreign policy. He wants to write his thesis on the Israel Lobby and would just die if he could intern in your office this summer. Yes, Sam, that is his name — you met him windsurfing in Nantucket last summer — you remember him! Well, he’s just so proud of you. We are all just so proud of you. Of course that’s a brilliant idea: a movie about a government official standing up for diplomacy in the face of bitter opposition from the warmongers at home and abroad. About a man who’s been trying to do the right thing ever since he went to war and saw America lose her sense of morality, and who’s been trying to get it back for her. That’s, well, that’s beautiful. We could get James Cromwell to star. Who wrote it? You? Sure, I’d love to take a look.

Milbank Changes Course on $1M Harvard Law School Gift after Pro-Palestine Event Nell Gluckman, *****

A student group at Harvard Law School claimed this week that its stance on free speech and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drove Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy to withdraw generous annual funding for student-run activities at the school.

Harvard said that Milbank had not rescinded its $1 million-dollar gift—$200,000 a year spread over five years—but the funds would now be administered differently.

The student group, HLS Justice for Palestine, said Milbank decided to pull its funding after $500 in firm-donated money was used to buy pizza for an event advocating free speech for pro-Palestine advocates. Milbank was recognized as a sponsor of the event, sparking a “flood of angry phone calls and emails” from “Milbank executives” and others, according to the group.

The students made their claims in an unsigned letter published by the Harvard Law Record. The letter was later publicized by pro-Palestinian media organizations and on Twitter by journalist Glenn Greenwald and others.

The group had purchased pizza for the event with money from the Milbank Tweed Student Conference Fund, according to the letter. The fund is endowed by Milbank and administered by the law school, which instructed student groups that receive money to recognize the firm as a sponsor in materials that promote Milbank-funded events, the letter said.

The day after the event, Justice for Palestine was contacted by the Dean of Students office and asked to remove Milbank’s name from a Facebook page promoting the lunchtime discussion, according to the letter. The group says it then asked the school to guarantee that it would not be barred from receiving money from the Milbank fund in the future.

The letter claims that Milbank asked that its funding for Justice for Palestine “be rescinded completely.” When the law school did not honor that demand, the firm pulled its funding from all student events, the letter asserted.