RUTHFULLY YOURS

Today is Independence Day in the United States, and the 46th anniversary of the Entebbe Rescue which coincided with the American Bicentennial of July 4th, 1976. On June 27, an Air France jet with 248 passengers had been hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine –and two members of the German Revolutionary Cells. At Entebbe, the terrorists freed the hostages who were not Jewish or Israeli. The 12-member Air France crew elected to stay with the remaining 105 Jewish and Israeli hostages. In a dazzling rescue, on July 3 Israel sent four Hercules C-130H cargo planes escorted by Phantom jet fighters on a mission of 2,500 miles from Israel to Uganda and rescued the hostages within an hour after landing. Yonatan Netanyahu, the heroic brother of the Benjamin Netanyahu was the lone Israeli soldier killed that day. The mission was later renamed “Operation Jonathan” in honor of Yonatan Netanyahu.

That day Israel entered the historic archives of epic missions of freedom. Michael Ordman catalogs weekly how Israel is also a major player in the archives of epic research and development which benefits the lives and aspirations of billions of persons throughout the globe. rsk

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A platform to eliminate all viruses. Hebrew University startup ViroBlock has reported preliminary success of its platform for rapidly generating anti-viral therapies. Its channel blockers inhibit proteins expressed by current and emerging viruses, including COVID-19 and variants, influenza, Zika, West Nile, Hepatitis B and more.

https://www.pharmiweb.com/press-release/2022-06-27/viroblock-a-hebrew-university-startup-announces-preliminary-success-of-its-anti-viral-drug-platform-in-new-study

EU funding for cardiac implants. Israel’s Restore Medical (see here previously) been awarded a €2.5 million grant by the European Innovation Council (EIC). Restore Medical is conducting human trials of its ContraBand implant to treat Congestive heart failure. 1,093 global companies applied for EIC funds; only 74 received them.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjejifvqq

New skin for old. Scientists at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus and Israel’s Technion Institute reversed the aging of skin cells by grafting aged human skin in lab tests. The skin rejuvenated – even generating new blood vessels and improving age-related biomarkers. It represents a breakthrough for research into aging.

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-710319  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CyWiiR6cOc

Wake up and smell the coffee. (TY UWI) After last week’s article about dogs sniffing to detect cancer (see here) this article summarizes many of the Israeli innovations related to scents and odors.

https://www.israel21c.org/why-scent-is-the-next-frontier-for-technology/

Breakthrough prostate cancer therapy. Israel’s Alpha Tau Medical (see here previously) has successfully treated a patient with aggressive prostate cancer using alpha-radiation – injecting a radioactive isotope into the tumor. Alpha DaRT (Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy) destroys a tumor by breaking its DNA.

https://nocamels.com/2022/06/israeli-researchers-use-breakthrough-tech-to-treat-prostate-cancer-for-first-time/

Ready for anything. Israeli emergency medical organization Magen David Adom has established a new center at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, designed to simulate real-world emergencies. 23 senior MDA paramedics recently received training there and there are plans to train 100 more over the next few months.

https://www.jns.org/mda-paramedics-gain-hands-on-experience-in-new-emergency-training-course/ 

Force for good. (TY UWI & I24 News) In Israeli hospitals, the Israel Outpost of the 501st Legion villains of “Star Wars” are actually a force for good, bringing joy to sick children.  They also perform at events to raise money for sick children. Watch them pay a visit to Safra Children’s Hospital in Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3qBWmtrE4

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18680/the-two-state-solution-to-destroy-israel

The vast majority of the Palestinians, however, make it abundantly clear that they do not believe in the “two-state solution” and would rather see Hamas, the Iranian-backed terror group whose charter calls for the elimination of Israel, replace the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the results of the poll, opposition to the concept of the “two-state solution” stands at 69%. Another 75% of respondents also expressed opposition to the idea of a one-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians would live together and enjoy equal rights. – Poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, June 28, 2022

Most Palestinians said [in the poll] that Hamas is the most deserving to represent and lead the Palestinian people.

Hamas’s rising popularity among the Palestinians means that the Palestinian state the Biden administration is seeking to establish next to Israel would soon be ruled by an Islamist group whose covenant states that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as Islam obliterated others before it.”

Hamas leaders have never been anything but clear and consistent about their intention to eliminate Israel and kill Jews.

Hamas and its supporters do not believe in Biden’s “two-state solution or any peace process with Israel. The only solution they want is one that would see Israel and the Jews vanish from this world. Sadly, a majority of the Palestinians (as evidenced by the latest poll) share the ideology of Hamas and want to see even more Jews killed.

The Biden administration needs to understand that, under the current circumstances, advancing the idea of a “two-state solution” is tantamount to advocating bloodshed and violence in the Middle East.

The administration also needs to understand that Abbas, the Palestinian leader it is endeavoring to engage and relying on to make peace, utterly lacks the backing of a majority of his people for any peace plan with Israel.

While the Biden administration continues to talk about its commitment to the “two-state solution,” a majority of the Palestinians are saying that they support the Islamist Hamas terror group and want to see more terrorist attacks against Jews.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-710928

Contrary to what many pundits have been suggesting in their eulogies for Israel’s collapsed government, the short-lived premiership of Naftali Bennett was not a successful experiment. Nor does it deserve accolades for surviving as long as it did.

The reason for this was twofold: a shared desire on the part of the coalition as a whole to prevent former prime minister and opposition leader Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu from remaining in or returning to the top job; and individual Knesset members’ fear of political exile in the event of another election.

Both provided the glue that kept the bloc of ideologically disparate factions in business. Until now, that is.

One thing that can be said of Bennett is that he managed, with a very small number of seats, not only to forge the ill-fated alliance but to reign over it. It was an unprecedented accomplishment that cannot be overstated.

Hopefully, however, it will be the last such foray into mish-mash minority rule. A majority of the public, on whatever side of the spectrum, should determine the general direction of the country.

This is easier said than done, of course, particularly with Israel’s electoral system and range of interest groups. It’s a tall order in any case, given all politicians’ penchant for campaign promises of the “read my lips” variety. You know, the kind that are as false as they ring.

Thus, purists of all sorts wind up disappointed in the officials they elect. Examples abound. Netanyahu, for instance, infuriated supporters who believed, or at least hoped, that he would honor his annexation vow.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/bolstering-bibi-by-deriding-his-backers/

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 13 on Monday, former TV news anchor Gadi Sukenik unwittingly gave a boost to the very politician whose supporters he was trying to discredit. Discussing Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, the alternate premier who is about to replace Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the helm until the next government is established, he took a typically elitist stab at the competition.

“Yesh Atid members are at a much higher level than the societal average,” he announced, referring to himself and his cohorts, of course.

“Compare it to other parties that are ostensibly ‘democratic,’” he continued, using air quotes to demonstrate his disdain for the fact that the Likud Party, headed by opposition chair and former Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, holds primaries to select its list for the parliament. This is while Yesh Atid did so in January for the first time in a decade.

“Take a look at the body that elects [their Knesset members]; Likud, for instance. The Likud Central Committee is rife with interests, infected with all the diseases of the world. Those it selects are in kind. And, as a citizen—I try to say this as an objective citizen—they are generally at a much lower level than those of Yesh Atid.”

Asked what he meant by that, Sukenik replied, “A low level of functioning, of intelligence, of culture and discourse.”
Coming from the person who makes his living as the face of the company Credit Clean—and whose most recent claim to fame was his participation in the Israeli version of the reality show, “The Masked Singer”—this remark was both amusing and revealing.

Questioned as to whether he was really saying that Likud MKs are “less intelligent” than Yesh Atid’s, he gave a resounding positive answer.

The news from Israel lately is all political which is part and parcel of a Parliamentary democracy, where, as in England and Australia governments can fall and restructure. Behind the scenes, however, Israel maintains high level scientific research and development of dazzling innovations on land, air and sea throughout the globe. These advances, catalogued weekly by Michael Ordman, are not lost on the younger leaders in the entire world who now travel to and engage in projects with Israel. rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Center for Translational Medicine. Rambam Health Care and Israel’s Technion Institute have established the Wolfe Center for Translational Medicine and Engineering. Doctors, scientists, and engineers will work together from bench to bedside, translating research into tools and train the next generation of doctors and engineers.
https://aforam.org/establishment-of-the-wolfe-center-for-translational-medicine-and-engineering/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTJUJgXGgQA
 
Israel’s first organoid bank. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem has established Israel’s first organoid (mini organs) bank. The 3D multicellular structures are grown from stem cells and can be used in personalized transplant operations.  https://www.jpost.com/science/article-710052
 
Moving further in brain research. Twenty months ago (see here previously) scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute discovered how neurons in the brain stored memories of how to make the body move. Now they have identified what parts of the neuron (dendrites and axons) are responsible, and the sequence in which they work.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/mind-and-spirit/article-709099
 
Healing after sinus surgery. The ArchSinus from Israel’s StStent (see here previously) improves the healing process for patients who undergo functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) to cure chronic sinusitis. The flexible stent (funded via ExitValley – see here) has undergone successful clinical trials in Israel and the US.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-709287
 
European approval for gastric cancer detection. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Ibex Medical (see here previously) has received the CE Mark for its Galen Gastric system, to detect gastrointestinal cancer – one of the most common malignant diseases worldwide, with over a million new cases every year and relatively poor prognosis.
https://ibex-ai.com/galen-gastric-ce/
 
Sniffing out cancer. Israeli biotechnology startup SpotitEarly is developing a technique for early detection of cancer (lung, prostate, breast, and colon). Trained dogs sniff the patient’s breath and within seconds an AI system gives the result. SpoitEarly is conducting extensive trials at Israel’s Sourasky and Hadassah hospitals.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-710191   https://spotitearly.com/
 
Feel young to stay young. Researchers from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have proved the saying “You’re only as young as you feel”. They tracked 194 Israelis aged 73-84 rehabilitating from osteoporotic fractures or stroke. Patients who felt younger (their subjective age) at admission had better functional independence at discharge.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355333  https://www.biu.ac.il/en/article/11377
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35613557/
 
Saving a life at their own gym. Two volunteer paramedic EMTs from Israeli NGO United Hatzalah were very familiar with the location they were sent to save a heart-attack sufferer.  It was the gym where they frequently worked out. They arrived to find a trainer performing CPR. They soon had the patient’s heart “up and running”.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355167  

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-710246

During a heated parliamentary session on Wednesday, when Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of the initial bill to dissolve the Knesset, acting coalition whip MK Boaz Toporovsky (Yesh Atid) made a speech that undoubtedly did his party leader, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, proud. But Lapid, who will serve as head of the interim government until the next one is formed, may be too obtuse to realize how terrible Toporovsky’s sentiments came across.

His colleagues in the plenum probably didn’t notice. They’re used to the mutual mud-slinging that causes much of the public to cringe while providing fodder for the Twittersphere.

In this case, the legislators were too busy shouting over one another’s words to listen to the likes of Toporovsky. But his message unwittingly exposed the cause of both the birth and ultimate demise of the outgoing government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

It’s old news and no secret that hostility to former prime minister and Likud Party leader Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu was the magnet that drew disparate factions to join forces just over a year ago. The same animosity, both to him and the opposition he chairs, has been the glue holding the motley crew together since then.

SO, WHEN Toporovsky referred to the collapse of the coalition as a “sad day for democracy,” the whole country yawned. If we Israelis had a shekel for every abuse of that term, we wouldn’t be setting up tent camps to protest the exorbitant cost of housing.

What wasn’t missed in his tirade, however, was the self-congratulatory piety that has characterized the Bennett-Lapid gang from the get-go. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t coupled with an overarching arrogance towards the general electorate.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-fall-of-the-israeli-government-and-the-upcoming-election/

 The moment that some Israelis have been dreading and others happily anticipating finally arrived on Monday. Though the announcement by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid of a call for the disbanding of the Knesset was virtually a foregone conclusion, it came as a bit of a surprise.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that Bennett had bought his teetering coalition an additional week. This was attributed to the fact that Likud Party and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was postponing a no-confidence motion for several days.

Still, the public response has been similar to that surrounding the death of someone who suffered a long and drawn-out illness; despite the inevitability of the demise, the end is slightly jolting. Nevertheless, nobody skipped a beat—certainly not the politicians or reporters scrambling to address the new reality—at the sound of the government’s last breath.

Judging by the polls, those who had hoped it would survive aren’t numerous, but they have begun to reiterate the rhetoric of the anti-Netanyahu camp. Sadly, some voters who experienced buyers’ remorse at having opted for Bennett in the first place—as he represented for them the uncompromising Zionist who would annex Judea and Samaria—are singing the same tune about Netanyahu.