RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/politics-of-guilt-why-does-the-left-oppose-occupation-opinion-670831

Why do leftists oppose “the occupation,” extending Israeli sovereignty to areas of Judea and Samaria under Israeli control, and support a Palestinian state, the “two-state-solution?” They argue that the presence of Jews in what they mistakenly call the “Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)” – all areas conquered by the IDF in 1967 Six Day War – is “illegal according to international law” and a “violation of Palestinian humanitarian rights.”

Presenting ethical and moral concerns – that Israel should not control “another people,” Arab Palestinians – they argue that “the occupation” prevents Palestinians from “controlling their own fate” in their own state. The occupation, they argue, also contradicts Israel’s definition as a “Jewish and democratic state.” As long as Israel restricts their movements (in order to prevent terrorism), determines their ability to export and import (weapons), and prevents them from exercising sovereignty, the occupation is immoral and should end. They argue that preventing or restricting Jews from building in settlements will “keep options open” to the possibility of making peace – however unrealistic – and will encourage Palestinian moderates.

It seems to make sense.

There is no indication, however, that this has worked, or is realistic. It ignores the fact that the PLO (Palestinian Authority) and Hamas already control the areas under their brutal, authoritarian rule, and actively promote incitement and terrorism. It ignores the fact that Palestinians do not want to be Israeli citizens; they identify as Palestinians. Most Israeli Arabs (including those who are citizens) reject Israel and support Palestinianism. These suggestions, therefore, have no practical, or reasonable application. They endanger Israel and support efforts to demonize and vilify Israel and promote antisemitism.

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

It does appear that the long political tenure of Benjamin Netanyahu is over. Under his leadership, Israel cemented relationships with many nations in every continent through combined projects in agriculture, health and medicine, science and technology. Furthermore, Israel’s remarkable research and technology thrived and investment in start-ups grew at a phenomenal rate. He shepherded the nation through the Covid pandemic with dazzling results. Gratitude is in order. Hail and farewell! rsk

Michael Ordman’s list speaks for itself:

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

No new Covid infections. Last Shabbat (5th June) Israel registered zero new local COVID-19 infections for the first time in more than a year. There are now only some 200 coronavirus infected patients in the whole country and inoculation of children aged 12-15 has begun. On 15 Jun, Israelis can stop wearing facemasks indoors.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/06/06/israel-records-zero-new-local-covid-19-cases-for-first-time-in-more-than-a-year/  https://www.timesofisrael.com/kids-line-up-for-covid-shots-saying-they-want-to-protect-family-go-on-vacation/

Healthcare appreciation ceremony. (TY Sharon & ILTV) Israel has honored its health system personnel and partner agencies for their work in defeating Covid-19 in Israel.  Speakers at the Jerusalem Theater event included Israel’s Prime Minister, Health Minister, Austria’s Prime Minister and the CEO of Pfizer.
https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=37&ARTICLE_ID=144873
https://www.jns.org/israel-honors-health-care-workers-in-battle-against-covid-19/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unIOgfwH830

Cancer patients benefit from Covid vaccine. Doctors at Israel’s Beilinson Hospital monitored 102 cancer patients after inoculation with two shots of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Only 10 failed to generate an antibody response. It should calm the fears of patients who have been self-isolating even after vaccination.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/covid-vaccine-effective-for-90-of-cancer-patients-israeli-study-finds/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2780584

Using good viruses to kill bad bacteria. For 6 years Tel Aviv University scientists have studied how certain viruses (bacteriophages) take control of dangerous antibiotic resistant bacteria (see here). They found that a virus protein uses a DNA-repair protein in the bacteria to “cunningly” cut the bacteria’s DNA during repairs.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/tau-scientists-discover-process-to-get-good-viruses-to-destroy-bad-bacteria/2021/06/06/  https://www.pnas.org/content/118/23/e2026354118

Eye scan to replace blood tests. Doctors at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center have developed a blood test without removing any blood. A handheld device scans the blood vessels in the eye – ideal for those who dislike needles, and no laboratory involvement is necessary. It will be tested in zero-gravity by Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/invented-in-israel-no-needle-blood-test-will-blast-off-for-testing-in-space/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/new-israeli-prickless-blood-test-heading-to-space/

Saving the sight of AMD patients at home. The ForeseeHome ophthalmic home diagnostic service from Israel’s Notal Vision (see here previously) detects when dry AMD turns to wet AMD and can be treated. It is Medicare accredited and Notal Vision has just raised $60 million to monitor other retinal diseases.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/06/07/israels-notal-vision-raises-60-million-for-its-ophthalmic-home-monitoring-services/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP7DnYDNbco  https://www.foreseehome.com/

Cancer diagnostic tech is a breakthrough. Having just received European CE mark certification for its Galen AI cancer diagnostic software (see here), Israel’s Ibex Medical has now been awarded “Breakthrough” designation by the US FDA. This will help fast-track clinical review and regulatory approval of its technology.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tech-to-help-pathologists-detect-cancer-gets-fda-breakthrough-nod/

PillCam and the UK NHS. A couple of weeks ago I publicized Technion UK’s online event featuring the Israeli-invented PillCam colon imaging capsule. 11,000 UK National Health Service patients are to be studied using the capsules.  Here is a recording of that event for those interested but who missed the live presentation.
https://technionuk.org/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqN24JJeltk

We can fix you. (TY Nevet) Social worker Tali used to support staff at Hadassah’s Jerusalem Medical Center. Now her colleagues administer Hadassah’s CAR-T therapy (in Phase 1 trials see here) to hopefully cure Tali’s multiple myeloma. Hadassah hopes to develop cellular therapy for any type of cancer – affordable to everyone.
https://www.hadassah.org/story/hadassah-develops-its-own-car-t-therapy-to-treat-multiple-myeloma

More swords become plowshares. During the coronavirus pandemic, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) used their missile factory to produce ventilators (see here). Now IAI subsidiary Elta and Soroka hospital are setting up an innovation center where doctors and defense engineers can jointly develop medical tech solutions.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-swords-to-scalpels-iai-soroka-hospital-to-use-army-tech-for-medical-edge/

Bystanders can save lives. (TY UWI) The award-winning SALI video medical system from Israel’s Inovytec (see here previously) enables the public to perform non-invasive airway management, automated oxygen therapy, vitals monitoring, and defibrillation. SALI has been implemented in Germany, Romania and Israel.
https://www.israel21c.org/automated-first-aid-system-wins-smart-cities-connect-award/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbKqQzjJRWY   https://www.inovytec.com/sali/

Now everyone can express themselves. Back in Dec 2020, Israel’s Voiceitt (see here) announced that its real time automatic speech recognition app will allow people with speech impairments to access and interact with Amazon’s Alexa. Now anyone can download the Voiceitt app for free from Apple’s App Store.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3909558,00.html

35-second response time. When United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Ron Cohen was called to a choking baby, he rushed from his apartment, jumped onto his ambucycle, drove down his street and ran up 4 floors. 35-seconds after receiving the call he expelled the blockage in the infant’s throat, and she was able to breathe again.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/emt-arrives-in-35-seconds-to-save-a-neighbours-choking-baby/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-demonization-of-benjamin-netanyahu-11623430571?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, have worked for more than a quarter-century to tarnish his image in the U.S. and around the world.

In 1996, when Israelis first elected him to put a brake on a dangerous Oslo process, Mr. Netanyahu was depicted as an enemy of peace. For three years, his opponents insisted that if only Israel were rid of Mr. Netanyahu, it could make peace with Yasser Arafat. They were wrong. Ehud Barak defeated Mr. Netanyahu in 1999 and offered Arafat sweeping concessions at Camp David a year later. Instead of peace, Israel got scores of suicide bombings and the worst wave of Palestinian terrorism in its history—the so-called second intifada in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered.

That was followed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2005 decision to withdraw from Gaza. Just as Mr. Netanyahu predicted, Israel’s unilateral concession led only to further aggression. Hamas, a genocidal terror organization committed to Israel’s destruction, took over Gaza and turned it into a base from which thousands of missiles have been fired at Israeli cities.

Mr. Netanyahu returned to the premiership in 2009. The preceding bloody decade should have made it obvious to all that Palestinian leaders didn’t want peace. But Mr. Netanyahu was scapegoated again. Now Mahmoud Abbas was cast as a peacemaker instead of Arafat, who died in 2004. While few Israelis believed such nonsense any longer, many foreign policy makers did, including key officials in the Obama White House.

This time, another element was added to the demonization of Mr. Netanyahu: American partisan politics. Not only was he cast as an enemy of peace; he was accused of being a Republican. His critics portrayed his legitimate opposition to a Democratic president’s dangerous Middle East policies as an illegitimate effort to intervene in American politics.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/why-we-might-be-closer-to-war-than-we-think/

The success of Mansour Abbas represents a catastrophe for powerful interests everywhere. It is to be expected that interested parties with the power to act will work to sabotage him at all costs.

Over the last week, there have been increasing signs that Hamas may be preparing to re-initiate hostilities, starting along the border at a trickle, and then more as they go along. These signs should be taken seriously since the underlying tectonic forces that in part led to the last war are still in place.

And yet, in this particular situation, there is a new dimension that can further fuel the choice towards escalation by Hamas, as well as for the panoply of other actors that previously played a contributing role in detonating the region last month. It is likely that Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, the Joint Arab List in Israel, and Iran and Turkey outside Israel all have a strong common interest in sabotaging the new Israeli government taking shape.

This is most easily done via escalation, particularly because of the above-mentioned forces being threatened by Mansour Abbas and his United Arab List party (Ra’am). It is possible that even Jordan might harbor hostility, not because incoming Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is seen as a symbol of the settler movement, but because it cannot comfortably accept the success of Mansour Abbas.

Why? What does Mansour Abbas represent?

To answer, one must examine what he is not. He is not a dreamy peace processor. Nor is he given to grand theories of regional cooperation or of some contractual permanent change that would demand an alteration of his basic system of Islamic beliefs. No such leader would or could survive in any Arab society.

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

Mainstream media, the academies and the collective cretins who routinely libel Israel ignore the news that exemplifies Israel. Behind the headlines and despite its chaotic parliamentary politics, and the vicissitudes of enemies poised to destroy the nation, the nation’s state of the art research, medical, technology and scientific institutions produce daily results which benefit citizens of every single nation in the globe. Thanks to Michael Ordman for compiling this weekly list of the foregoing as well as examples of Israel’s humanitarian concerns put into action by impressive social justice institutions. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Severe Covid patients cured in a day. (TY UWI) Israel’s Bonus BioGroup (see here previously) tested its MesenCure MSC treatment on 10 severely ill, high risk Covid-19 patients at Haifa’s Rambam hospital. All ten improved sufficiently to be discharged just one day after treatment. MesenCure now advances to Phase 2 trials.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/10-serious-covid-patients-given-israeli-drug-leave-hospital-in-one-day-669564  https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-biotech-company-aces-phase-i-covid-cure-trial/

Cancer treatment trial extended. The Phase 1 / 2 trial of DSP107 from Israel’s KAHR Medical (see here previously) has commenced and will now be expanded to include blood cancer patients in addition to solid tumors. KAHR has received an additional investment of $5 million to fund the enlarged trial.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/immuno-oncology-startup-kahr-gets-5-million-for-trial-of-drug-on-blood-cancers/

Baking soda helps kill cancer cells. (TY Nevet) Israeli-Arab Technion PhD graduate Hanan Abumanhal has discovered sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) increases the potency of chemotherapy. For her doctorate, she developed nano particles to reduce the acidity of tumors, allowing reduced quantities of chemo to penetrate.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-researcher-discovers-baking-soda-helps-chemotherapy-kill-cancer-cells/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30615983/

Balancing gene expression to prevent cancer. Researchers at Ben Gurion University have discovered a new biological event that can control an excessive production of genes involved in cancer cell formation. Discovery of “the methylation of BRD4” advances scientific understanding of human cancer progression and its treatment.

https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/breast_cancer.aspx

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/bgu-researchers-find-promising-target-for-cancer-treatment-669488

The immune cells that accelerate liver disease. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that the dendritic immune cell cDC1 increases the severity of fatty liver disease and NASH, suffered by 90% of obese individuals. The discovery may lead to treatments that could benefit millions of patients.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-scientists-find-cell-involved-in-fatty-liver-disease-progression-668743   https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01344-3

Software to help correct genetic defects. The development of CRISPR technology to prevent genetic diseases is hampered by off-target (unintended) changes to the genes. New software called CRISPECTOR from Israel’s IDC and Bar-Ilan University can prevent the consequences from transplanting erroneously modified cells.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-israeli-tech-gives-accuracy-boost-to-microscopic-scissors-for-dna-editing/

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306746 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22417-4

In touch with the senses. Israel’s CorrActions is developing technology to detect deterioration in human cognitive state from drowsiness, fatigue, exhaustion, intoxication, age, and health issues. A sensor monitors slight, unique, changes in human touch or motion. It could prevent accidents or work errors by professionals.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3908719,00.html  https://www.corractions.com/

Migraine wearable wins Medtech award. The Nerivio therapeutic wearable for treating migraine pain from Israel’s Theranica (see here previously) won “Best New Technology Solution for Pain Management” award in the 2021 MedTech Breakthrough Awards program. It beat more than 3,850 nominations from 17 countries.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-invent-first-wearable-migraine-device-for-acute-pain/

Tool for diagnosing autism. Israeli startup Cell-El Therapeutics.is developing a diagnostic tool for “triple A” (autoimmune antibody associated) autism. It has identified 30 immunological biomarkers and is developing a blood test using the best five. This could help identify severely autistic children and implement early therapies.

https://www.israel21c.org/a-diagnostic-tool-that-treats-autism-like-cancer/   https://www.cell-el.com/

VeryGoodNewsIsrael can be good for your health. It’s official. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have published the findings of their longevity study of 1200 Israelis that began in 1990. Participants aged 85-90 with a high optimism score had a 20% higher rate of survival over those who were less optimistic.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/307287

https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/gerona/glab051/6145793

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/what_do_advocates_of_a_twostate_solution_actually_advocate_.html

There are approximately 13.5 million people in the current geographical nation of Israel – about 9 million Israeli nationals and 4.5 million others known as “Palestinians” (primarily ethnic Egyptians and other Arabs who moved into the area early in the 20th century).

Due to some very peculiar agreements that would be unimaginable anywhere else on earth, this tiny country is currently divided into parts in which this external third of the population has been granted almost complete self-rule as “The West Bank” (actually, the provinces of Judea and Samaria) and “The Gaza Strip.” While these two areas are governed completely separately and somewhat differently, the rest of the world, out of ease or ignorance, refers to them together as the Palestinian Authority (PA).

It doesn’t work.

For a number of reasons that have been analyzed to death already, this artificial construct, the Palestinian Authority, is already a failed state, long before it has even achieved statehood. 

In election after election, the residents elect the terrorist leaders of Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), as their representatives (and even when they aren’t elected, these terrorists just seize power anyway, as Hamas has done in Gaza, without serious objection from their subjects).

The area they control is governed exactly as one would expect places ruled by terrorists to be governed: with minimal emphasis on economic opportunity, living conditions and the rule of law, and instead, with primary emphasis on political power and a permanent state of war.

As the current conflict – a particularly hot moment within the constant conflict that has lasted the past century, to be honest – attracts more of the world’s attention than usual, the dream remedy known as “the two-state solution” returns to the fore.

Now, what all students of the Middle East should know already, though they often need to be reminded, is that the current map is already the result of a two-state solution.  The British Mandate for Palestine of a century ago was first promised to be all Israel, then was debated, derailed, and divided as the years went on, as statecraft was practiced in country clubs and far-off retreats.  The Mandate wound up split into an Arab state and a Jewish one, the Arab one substantially larger, with seaports in the Gulf of Aqaba, the Jewish one far smaller, but blessed at least with seaports on the Mediterranean.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/zionism-and-judaism-are-they-interdependent-67018

Judaism needs Zionism because it enabled Jews to return and to establish a state; this allows Jews to have a national identity and engage in fulfilling commandments that can only be done in Israel.

Although some people – such as those in the Reform and Reconstruction movements, “Progressives,” and some left-wing Israelis – claim to support Judaism and Zionism, in fact, they do not. For example, on May 15, 2021, a large group of students, mostly from Reform and Reconstructionist colleges, published a letter condemning Israel for “apartheid” and for “violating human rights” in its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. This explains why some Jews in America have turned their backs on Zionism, Israel and Judaism.

Zionism is connected to Judaism because it provides a text, the Jewish Bible, or Tanach (The Five Books of Moses, Prophets, and other writings), as well as libraries of theological and philosophical writing that define and mandate the Land of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

Judaism needs Zionism because it enabled Jews to return and to establish a state; this allows Jews to have a national identity and engage in fulfilling mitzvot (commandments) that can only be done in Eretz Yisrael. This is the basis for creating the Third Jewish Commonwealth/Civilization.

Although they need each other to become fulfilled, Zionism and Judaism can and do exist separately and independently in the Diaspora. One can practice Judaism without being a Zionist, just as one can be secular or a non-Jewish Zionist.