RUTHFULLY YOURS

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

The horrors of war, kidnapping, and confinement by barbarians is told by hostages returning to the warm embrace of Israel.  It evokes Psalm 71: “Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of evil and cruel men.”rsk

In contrast there have been many recent heartening and enheartening events and activities in Israel which are strengthening the nation and benefiting the world. Michael Ordman

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
On a clear day you can see Damascus. Israel’s internal risks may have deteriorated by the release of hundreds of terrorists, but at least its external geographic security situation has improved substantially.
https://www.jns.org/on-a-clear-day-you-see-damascus-a-rare-visit-to-mount-hermon/
 
Up close with the Arrow defense system. (TY Yanky) Serving 24-hour shifts in vault-like rooms across the country, 136th Battalion soldiers face the ballistic missile threat against Israel at all times. Ultimately, one person decides when to press the button to intercept a ballistic missile launched thousands of kilometers away.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sy3beemvjx
 
Full scholarships to former hostages. (TY Yanky & ToI) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is offering full scholarships for a three-year academic degree (both Bachelor’s and Master’s programs) to all released hostages. It will also establish a fund to pay the fees, when they reach adulthood, of children held hostage by Hamas.
https://www.afhu.org/2025/01/27/hebrew-university-announces-scholarship-fund-for-released-hostages/
 
An ice bath works wonders. Biokineticist Nikia Blumenthal offers IDF combat soldiers a cold plunge to promote physical and emotional healing. She packs her car with a portable bath and 100kg (220 pounds) of ice and drives to IDF bases or army refreshment stations. (Disclosure – I attend Nikia’s Netanya stretch classes)
https://www.israel21c.org/an-icy-bath-can-work-wonders-for-soldiers-bodies-and-minds/
https://www.stretchchill.com/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Natural antibiotic is safe. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Omnix Medical (see here previously) has completed Phase 1 trials of its lead antimicrobial, nature-derived, peptide OMN6 on 80 patients to show its safety. It is now starting Phase 2 FDA-approved clinical trials to establish its efficacy, especially on superbugs.
https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/omnix-medical-approval-anti-infective-trial/
 
Life-support for US hospitals. (TY Atid-EDI) ART 100 cardiopulmonary bypass systems from Israel’s Inspira Technologies (see here previously) are to be deployed in hospitals on the US East Coast. The system takes over the functionality of the heart and/or lungs in critical care patients.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/inspira-technologies-prepares-its-first-life-support-systems-for-deployment-at-a-leading-us-hospital-302357407.html
 
Clowns relieve the ultimate pain. (TY Irene) This article features medical clowns alleviating both physical and mental suffering – for children and adults. (Aside, I went to see a friend in hospital recently who was visited by clowns while he was on a video call to his work office. “You’re at the circus!” his colleagues exclaimed.)
https://momentmag.com/israeli-medical-clowns/
 
Restoring the lives of wounded IDF soldiers. This article describes the life-saving work of the charity Belev Echad (see here previously).  It facilitates the recovery of wounded men and women of the IDF through physical, medical, legal, emotional and financial support. And sometimes it requires a miracle.
https://www.jns.org/wire/wounded-idf-soldiers-witness-miracles-thanks-to-us-israel-medical-partnership/
https://belevechad.nyc/   https://belev-echad.org/en/home/
 
Predicting the next accident. The AI accident prediction system (see here previously) built by the IDF for Israel’s United Hatzalah, really works. It sent a team to the Azrieli Mall in Ramat Gan just as someone began suffering a heart attack. With 14% of UH’s volunteers on IDF reserve duty, the system is literally a life-saver.
https://www.jns.org/how-life-saving-ai-tech-used-by-united-hatzalah-was-born-out-of-oct-7/
 
Does your DNA define you? Israel’s OMGene is developing an AI decision-support system based on personal genetic information. It links the genome to a database of health, psychological, and social characteristics, from thousands of individuals and generates recommendations e.g., on sleeping, relationships, hobbies, health etc.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-omgeneai-using-dna-and-ai-to-identify-our-strengths-1001499609
 
Are your proteins good? Researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute have developed IPHOMED – a method for mapping all the proteins in a person’s microbiome. Some act as natural antibiotics, killing good bacteria and possibly causing inflammatory bowel disease. Problem proteins in food can also be mapped.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/we-know-what-you-ate-detailed-protein-maps-assess-intestinal-health   https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01429-6
 
Targeting genetic diseases. Israel’s Averna Therapeutics (formerly Exsilio Therapeutics) is using gene editing to develop medicines to cure rare genetic diseases. Averna’s leadership includes Tal Zaks who was Chief Medical Officer at Covid-19 vaccine developer Moderna. Averna has already raised $82 million in funds.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-tal-zaks-israeli-startup-targets-rare-genetic-diseases-1001500636
 
Get a good night’s sleep. Prof. Giora Pillar, head of Sleep Clinics at Clalit Health Services in Haifa and the Western Galilee, gives plenty of advice to those who are losing sleep during these difficult times.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/bjttx00ilkl
 
Hospital director saves heart patient on El Al flight. Prof. Yoram Weiss, director general of the Hadassah Medical Organization, saved a man having a heart attack during an El Al flight to Miami. Weiss administered oxygen, provided medication, and had the flight diverted to Athens. The passengers applauded in appreciation.
https://www.ynetnews.com/travel/article/rkh3yhydkg
 
Surgeon returns to reconstruct faces. Dr Alan Billig performs facial reconstructive surgery at Hadassah in Jerusalem. He won the 2024 Best paper award for the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal. The ex-IDF medic graduated in New York, qualified in Israel, and practiced in Toronto. Now he’s back.
https://www.jpost.com/aliyah/article-834140 
 
9 startups to improve UK healthcare. The Dangoor Health-Tech Academy has selected nine Israeli health-tech startups for its program to advance the UK healthcare ecosystem. They are Impilio, Kai.AI, Shela Health, Predose, Thrive Together, Sensomedical Labs, Treat Me, Anydish, and Seegnal.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/ry2dgxniye  https://sensomedical.com/home/
https://www.israel21c.org/9-israeli-startups-to-help-uk-improve-its-healthcare/
https://impilo.health/  https://www.shela.health/  https://www.predose-tech.com/
https://www.thrivetogether.health/  https://www.treatme.ltd/entreatme 

https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/youre-lucky-to-survive-being-freed-by-hamas/?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-

The full range of emotions one experiences on hostage-release days can blindside a person. One expects to be flooded with relief, then perhaps joy, at the sight of a young Jewish woman reunited with her family and friends after over a year in the dark dungeons of one of the most evil forces on earth.

But when Israeli hostages are released by Hamas, Gazans first film themselves hungrily getting in their last war crimes before the coming drought. It is dangerous business, this getting freed by Hamas.

So the emotions begin not at relief but at horror: The price of freedom is one last, live torture session. “Holding hostages is illegal under international law, and it amounts to a form of torture,” said the UN’s own torture expert upon the announcement of the cease-fire deal. Now it can be told.

No one really wants to watch the videos of well-dressed, well-fed, well-made-up Gazan “civilians” boasting of holding Israeli hostages in their homes—talk about now it can be told—but we do, because after the horror comes the relief.

Not before a bit of anger, though. Young Israeli women and old Israeli men are paraded not in front of baying mobs but through them. This part introduces another emotion: disgust. One expects that now that Hamas fighters are wearing their uniforms for the first time in over a year it would be easier to tell them apart from those around them. But somehow everyone in these scenes blends in with one another. When it comes to crowds of people gleefully mobbing an abused woman, what they are wearing isn’t terribly relevant or noticeable.

Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80, looked like they were reenacting the Egyptian pursuit of the Israelites into the wilderness, the captors possessed by regret that these Jews might yet live. Agam Berger, 20, was forced to perform a choreographed stage scene for the leering Hamas men and wild-eyed crowds beyond them.

Once through this last trial, they were handed over to the Red Cross, who also transported five freed Thai nationals: Bannawat Seathao, Pongsak Thenna, Sathian Suwannakham, Surasak Lamnao, and Watchara Sriaoun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R60deV8N-Pw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75anxnRPSKY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKaYuw9QsCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-A21Y3oJ-M

Israeli citizen Amit Soussana, 40, an attorney, after hiding in a closet in her bedroom, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza, located very close to the Israeli border with Gaza.

Amit, released from Hamas captivity in November 2023,  after 55 days in Hamas’s captivity, in a one-time testimony: “I gave everything I had, I thought I was going to die; I was sexually assaulted in Hamas captivity.”

Amit, who fought for almost an hour against the terrorists who kidnapped her from her home and also survived the terrorist who hurt her, tells of one harrowing moment, from which she thought she would not make it out alive, and of a young soldier – Liri Elbag – who stood up to the terrorist and saved her life.

In a difficult-to hear/read testimony, Amit tells that she was sexually assaulted by one of her captors – in a children’s room where she was chained, less than 3 weeks after she was kidnapped from Kfar Azza. In an interview with the “New York Times” she also spoke about the courageous struggle that was documented against the kidnappers on October 7: “I didn’t want them to take me like an object.” She was injured, held in 6 different places, including a tunnel, 40 meters deep, and was also tortured: “They thought I was hiding information.”

She made the decision to speak out of fear for the safety of the kidnapped people who were left behind in Gaza.

What Bibi Should Say to Trump:  “Get rid of Steve Witcoff, Michael DiMino and Massad Boulos as a start.  Then, we’ll be able to have a sensible chat about our neighborhood in the Middle East.”  

“Also, get American troops out of Israel.  We’ve proven that we can handle the situation quite well.  Former CIA officials should not be at checkpoints into Israel and we don’t want to see American lives sacrificed for the Jewish State.  Not only would it be a terrible tragedy for the U.S. but the negative press could kill our defensive war and make Israelis sitting ducks for another genocide. 

“Have you looked at the massacres in the Sudan, the organ harvesting in Communist China, the beheadings in Nigeria and the new law in South Africa to expropriate farms owned by Whites after decades of mass killings? Why are people in your administration singling out Israel for special treatment?”

“When U.S. officials talk about so-called “aid” to Israel, Americans need to understand that it is an investment with an unmatched ROI.  Israelis build, test, modify and improve American weapons systems and supply some of the best intel in the world.  We are NOT a drain on the U.S. budget as our value-added is nonpareil.  There is NO comparison between the situation vis a vis Israel and the corruption and drain on American resources in Ukraine.  THAT situation is NOT a win-win.  

Remember:  Former Secretary of State and U.S. Army General Alexander Haig  observed 35 years ago and it still resonates today: “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.”

Janet Levy,
NYC

P.S. Note:  The Haig quote that I mentioned at the end is no longer available on Google or Brave. When I entered, “Who said Israel is an aircraft carrier for the U.S.,” nothing registered.  I had forgotten the origin of the quote – Haig.  I finally tried Firefox and voilå.  Therefore, it may be useful to keep this quote handy or memorize it for future use.  

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21366/gaza-boots-on-the-ground

Reprinted by kind permission of  Front Page Magazine.

The Biden administration rolled Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s envoy, into signing off on their deal to save Hamas…

Witkoff admitted to Fox News that he had done nothing but agree to the Biden administration’s May 27 protocol… and all he had done was to “speed up the process” by pressuring Israel into making every possible concession to Hamas. By getting Trump to accept the Biden deal, Witkoff and his allies in the Trump transition team, some of whom are associated with the pro-Iran Koch network, had also bound President Trump to a comprehensive nation-building project…

Trump is right to be skeptical. And he was right when he said: “You certainly can’t have the people that were there. Most of them are dead. But they didn’t exactly run it well. They run viciously and badly. You can’t have that.”

But the deal foisted on him by Biden, Qatar, Witkoff and his Koch network allies does just that. It saves Hamas and puts the terrorists back in power.

The Trump administration can exit the Biden deal and the sooner we do it, the easier it will be.

Any rebuilding will be to the benefit of Hamas. And will put billions into the pockets of Islamic terrorists, just the way that our reconstruction projects in Afghanistan financed the Taliban.

And having US veterans risking their lives to inspect terrorists moving around Gaza is senseless.

American soldiers are headed to Gaza.

They’re not there to fight Islamic terrorists, but to secure the disastrous Biden deal that saved Hamas by monitoring and inspecting the Gazans traveling across the “Netzarim corridor.”

One of the companies is UG Solutions, founded by a former Special Forces veteran, which hires US military vets to provide security. Hiring veterans as contractors became a common practice during the War on Terror because it allowed politicians to avoid accountability for US casualties.

Hundreds of Americans were killed working as contractors in Iraq, including, in one of the most infamous incidents in the war, when four ex-Special Forces contractors working for Blackwater had their bodies dragged through the streets, were beaten, hacked and hanged from a bridge while the Arab Muslim mobs of men, women and children cheered. The scene played out again in Benghazi, when two former Navy SEALS working as CIA contractors were murdered.

How soon until it plays out in Gaza?

Bringing in veterans as contractors has been a longtime way to disguise “boots on the ground.” But the men in those boots are still veterans who believe they’re serving their country. And when they die, it’s Americans dying to carry out the policies of their Commander in Chief.

NO URL…..ERIC LEVINE IS AN ATTORNEY IN NEW YORK

President Trump’s statement that resettling Palestinians living in Gaza “could be temporary or long term” has raised many eyebrows.

[Gaza is] literally a demolition site right now … So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change…You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing…You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts.  And I don’t know, something has to happen.

Although Trump’s statement is controversial and an abhorrent nonstarter to some, his suggestion is actually quite rational.  The history of the Middle East and other regions around the world is full of examples of resettling refugees to give them a chance at a better life for themselves and future generations.

At a minimum, Gazans who want to leave should be given the opportunity to do so. As unlikely as that opportunity is, even more unlikely are the odds that Hamas will allow them to leave. They will be labeled as “traitors” and shot. Hamas has no intention of allowing any Gazan to resettle. Every Gazan is effectively a prisoner of Hamas.

For 75 years the Arab and Muslim worlds, with the open assistance of the United Nations, have waged war against Israel. Some Arab states have made peace with Israel. For other Muslim countries – such as Iran and its terror proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – the effort to destroy Israel continues. As a critical component of that war, Hamas repeatedly uses Palestinian civilians as props and human shields in their propaganda war to show the world Israel’s “inhumanity” as it exercises its legitimate right of self-defense.

As Trump’s statement on resettlement makes clear, there is another path forward.

Throughout history, refugees have been offered asylum in host countries where they can start new lives.