RUTHFULLY YOURS

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

The news affecting the United States is grim….war in the Ukraine, threats and taunts from China, North Korea, and Iran. Michael Ordman compiles a a ray of sunshine and hope from our most dependable ally. Israel’s daily innovations in science, technology, medicine, agriculture, and social institutions continue to flourish and enrich the entire world including the human termites whose libels and baseless enmity are designed  to bring down the walls of the Jewish state. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Innovative heart treatment. After 68 years, Yair’s complex congenital heart defect finally caught up with him. Luckily, the years also brought new advances and, for the first time in Israel, instead of open-heart surgery, his irregular pulse could be resolved at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center using cardiac catheterization.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-698121
 
Portable lung tests. Israel’s PulmOne (see here previously) has developed the MiniBox+, a revolutionary lung function device about the size of a desktop computer. It has the potential to help diagnose many of the half a billion people around the world who suffer from lung disease.  The MiniBox+ is FDA approved.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/portable-lung-tests-help-patients-breathe-easier/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvUadvOJb3U   https://www.pulm-one.com/
 
Hyperbaric oxygen relieves PTSD. Israeli scientists are the first to have used hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The pressurized pure oxygen treatment successfully relieved IDF veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD that had lasted for at least four years.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/world-first-israeli-study-shows-oxygen-therapy-can-dramatically-reduce-ptsd-symptoms/  https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-698327
 
Electric pulses to fight cancer. Technion Professor Yoram Palti has been awarded the Israel Prize in the Field of Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation. Prof Palti founded Israel’s Novocure (see here previously) that developed a groundbreaking cancer treatment (especially brain cancer) using electric pulses.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/yoram-palti-awarded-israel-prize-for-groundbreaking-cancer-treatment/
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-novocure-uses-electrodes-to-treat-brain-tumors-1001120662
 
Using nanotech to create the impossible. (TY WIN) Great feature by VeryGoodNewsIsrael subscriber Diana Bletter about Technion Professor Hossam Haick (see here previously). His expertise in nanotechnology has led to 42 patents and the inventions of the cancer SniffPhone, NaNose, molecular sutures, skin sensors and more.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-scientist-using-nanotech-to-create-the-impossible/
 
Robots to help rehabilitation. Ben Gurion University’s 46th Webinar Wednesday featured BGU Professor Shelly Levy-Tzedek, who discussed how robots can help in the process of rehabilitation. This includes physical assistance (e.g., post-stroke, Parkinson’s, or aging) and social assistance. The video also stars Pepper the robot.  https://americansforbgu.org/video/future-of-rehabilitation/#  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms6wFLmnqNg  https://shelly453.wixsite.com/levy-tzedek-lab
 
Relaxation to boost radiation benefits. (TY UWI) Neuroscientist Amir Amedi from Israel’s Reichman University, has invented multisensory devices to relax patients awaiting cancer radiation therapy at Israeli hospitals. These include 3D VR glasses, smart tables and chairs, breathing sensors, and in-ear recordings.
https://www.israel21c.org/futuristic-tech-brings-healing-relaxation-to-radiotherapy/
 
Siblings of special needs children may be more empathic. Researchers at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University studied 1,657 families of twins born in 2004/5. In 63 cases, one of the twins had a development delay or disability. The other twin was found to have a higher cognitive empathy than those with a normal twin.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-698420
https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13740

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-698294

For 50 years, Israeli leftists and many in the international community portrayed Jews who moved to eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip (until Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip in 2005) as criminals, violating international law, and immorally building communities on land captured in 1967 by the IDF, which Palestinians claim as the basis of a state dedicated to destroying Israel.

Supported by the international community, they assert that Israel is occupying Palestinian territory, which is not limited to the areas which the IDF conquered in the 1967 Six Day War, for many Arabs, it’s everything from the river to the sea. That is what Palestinianism means.

Following the 1967 war, Jewish communities were built on uninhabited state land, often in places where Jewish communities had existed before 1948, such as those in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. No Arabs were evicted or displaced as a result of the 1967 war; in fact, they flourished under Israeli rule.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/can-israel-anchor-defense-alliance-moderate-arab-joseph-puder/

The Biden administration debacle in Afghanistan has convinced America’s enemies of the administration’s weakness and vulnerability. The timing of Vladimir Putin’s march on Ukraine is undoubtedly connected to the perception in Moscow of Washington’s lack of will to engage in a confrontation. Communist China is astutely waiting for the right time to seize Taiwan. Should Moscow achieve its objectives, Xi Jinping, China’s dictator would follow Putin’s example and act, knowing full well that the Biden administration would pay lip service to the violation of Taiwanese sovereignty, and perhaps demand UN sanctions, but ultimately, Washington would live with the new reality.

The radical and theocratic Ayatollahs also sense an opportunity to take advantage of the Biden administration’s willingness to have a deal at all costs, and thus have been successfully pressing their demands, and it appears that the Biden administration might cave in. Tehran also realized that there will not be military consequences from the US with their continued advancement toward a nuclear bomb. Iran continues to develop its ballistic missiles range and payload, to possibly carry a nuclear device. At the same time, the Iranians have continued their adventurism and terror throughout the region. Tehran also considered the fact that North Korea has never suffered the military consequences of becoming nuclear. Economic boycotts by the West are clearly no longer a deterrent against Iran, North Korea, China, or Russia.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Israel is truly growing up in its role as a major benefit to the world. Its relations with Arab states grow each week, with Israel’s Prime Minister arriving in Bahrain, Egypt’s President honoring Israel’s wheelchair-bound Energy Minister and an Israeli healthcare startup winning a major contract in the UAE. Israel’s economy grew at a phenomenal 8.1% rate in 2021; the UK is determined to grow bilateral trade with Israel, and the Jewish State has grown into the country of choice for international conferences. Israeli agriculture and food-tech successes include growing the world’s largest strawberry; a system for home-grown vegetables, and new reduced-sugar foods to help grown-ups from growing horizontally!  New initiatives are encouraging the growth of Israeli health-tech startups in the USA, water-tech startups in the Galilee and Netflix is helping the growth of film makers in Jerusalem. And it was my privilege to meet some of the growing number of Israeli scientists and talk with pro-Israel student ambassadors growing up in Haifa.  Michael Ordman

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Non-invasive eye test for Covid-19. (TY UWI) Israel’s AdOM Advanced Optical Technologies has developed the Tear Film Imager (TFI) which, in 40 seconds, measures the tear film layer of the eye to detect if someone has coronavirus. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center is now recruiting volunteers for a clinical study of the TFI.
https://www.jns.org/israel-to-test-for-covid-19-using-non-invasive-eye-exam/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTuQ1R7nZjU
 
Nasal spray effective against coronavirus. Phase 3 clinical trials confirmed that the Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) from Israel’s SaNOtize represents a safe and effective antiviral treatment that shortens the course of COVID-19 and could prevent the transmission of COVID-19. It also received regulatory approval in India.
https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2022-02-09/phase-3-clinical-trial-confirms-sanotize-s-breakthrough-treatment-is-99-effective-against-covid-19-receives-regulatory
 
Cutting the cost of cancer laser treatment. Israel’s HIL Applied Medical (see here previously) is poised to deliver proton-beam radiotherapy to millions of cancer patients who cannot afford it today. HIL plans to produce 200-250 much lower cost proton therapy rooms every year.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/israeli-startup-uses-hebrew-u-breakthrough-to-cut-the-cost-of-treating-cancer/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MA-9Rh1EE8
 
Routine prenatal ultrasound to detect autism. Researchers from Ben Gurion University have shown that routine prenatal ultrasound in the second trimester can identify early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Anomalies occurred in 30% of fetuses who later developed ASD. It means autism could be treated from birth.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/autism_ultrasound.aspx
https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awac008/6509260
 
Brain Monitor rolls out. Israel’s Montfort (Mon4t – see here previously) is expanding the operation of its brain monitor device in the US. It is already in use at Baltimore’s John Hopkins Medicine and the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. It could benefit the million and more Parkinson’s sufferers in the US.
https://www.jns.org/the-israeli-company-turning-smartphones-into-brain-monitors/
 
Taking smart health tech to the UAE. Israel’s Healthy.io (see here previously) has been authorized to deploy its smartphone image diagnostic technology in the United Arab Emirates. It has finalized a deal with Dubai’s Royal family-founded Seed Group, to sell its self-performed kidney disease urine analysis kits in the UAE.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/medical-selfie-company-healthy-io-to-bring-innovative-health-tech-to-uae/
 
A boot camp for wellness tech. Several Israeli health-tech startups have applied to participate in the Wellness Tech Bootcamp, an international program supporting startups developing technologies to improve physical and mental health. New to this newsletter include Happy Things, CoBe Labs, and Kai (personal wellness coach)
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3929332,00.html
https://www.happythings.app/  https://www.cobelabs.com/  https://kai.ai/
 

Israeli animal-rights and vegan activist Tal Gilboa was treated to a social-media slaughter this week, and it wasn’t a kosher one.

Despite her dedication to typically liberal causes, Gilboa couldn’t possibly be considered one of “them” when she joined former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party prior to the 2019 Knesset elections and later became his adviser on animal rights.

Nor was this her only crime against the Hebrew version of Orwellian doublethink. Expressing opposition last December to a program launched on January 1 in 77 kindergartens across the country to “promote gender equality and inculcate gender thinking from an early age, when perceptions, beliefs and stereotypes begin to take shape” put her smack in the doghouse – pun intended.

Having a complex view of the joint Education/Social Equality Ministries’ plan, she was accused of “contradicting herself.” The real reason for the attack, however, was that she violated a key rule of political correctness: daring to suggest that “we women don’t want men who play with dolls; we want men who play soccer.”

It was thus that her subsequent clarification – that “girls and boys can play with whatever they wish; enough of this madness already” – became fodder for ridicule.

THE ABOVE was a feminist storm in a teacup compared to the LGBTQ tsunami she unleashed this week by coming out against educational activities in schools to enlighten kids about the gay community.

The hysteria ensued after she participated in Channel 14’s The Patriots panel on Tuesday and explained: “The science says that about 10% of animals are homosexual; it’s innate. But today we’re already talking about its being acquired, as well. My 13-year-old daughter came out of the closet. I phoned her teacher to tell her about it, and she told me that people from the entire LGBTQ spectrum, transgender people and others, regularly visit the school and spend whole days talking to the students and teaching them what they can and cannot be. I said to her, “Excuse me? What [gives you the right] to put such things in my daughter’s head?”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18237/palestinians-five-star-jihad

Hamas leaders are not sitting among their people in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. It is easier and safer for them to call on the Palestinians to send their children to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel while they are relaxing in the comfort of their hotel rooms, villas and gyms in the Qatari capital of Doha. The Hamas leaders are not going to send their own sons and daughters to engage in the jihad against Israel.

The Iranian-backed Hamas and PIJ are the two largest groups in the Gaza Strip. Instead of investing their resources and efforts in improving the living conditions of their people, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have brought on them one disaster after the other. They have brought war and destruction on the people of the Gaza Strip by firing thousands of rockets towards Israel, forcing Israel to fire back to defend itself.

Instead of building schools and hospitals, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have chosen to invest tens of millions of dollars in a network of tunnels along Gaza’s border with Israel, to attack and kill Jews.

The leaders of Hamas and PIJ left scorched earth behind them and chose to lead luxurious lives in Doha, Istanbul and Beirut. Strangely, however, instead of hiding their faces in shame, they are calling from their gyms, jets, and jacuzzis for the Palestinians to pursue the fight against Israel.

Some Palestinians, it seems, refuse to be duped by the deception of the Hamas and PIJ leaders. These Palestinians have finally realized that their leaders care only about their personal interest and the well-being of their families and are enjoying the good life in Doha and Istanbul.

Above all, the Palestinians need to boot out the thieves who masquerade as their leaders, the butchers responsible for the deaths of the young men and women in the Hamas-incited jihad against Israel. The Palestinians will never move forward with their lives as long as their leaders are relaxing in hot tubs in Qatar and Turkey while sending them orders to bathe themselves in yet more Jewish blood.

The leaders of the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are continuing to urge Palestinians to take to the streets to engage in the jihad (holy war) against Israel.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/has-israel-finally-secured-peace-its-arab-joseph-puder/

The Jewish state’s dream of warm peace with its Arab neighbors has eluded it for more than 72 years. In September 2020, President Donald Trump helped engineer the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. The very treaty signing on the White House lawn projected human warmth, and signaled a warm peace. Subsequently, Sudan and Morocco joined the normalization of relations with Israel.

It is true that peace, as opposed to war, came much earlier than September 2020. Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994. These peace treaties, however, were essentially between governments, coldly exchanging territory for peace. Israel gave up the entire Sinai Peninsula; it received a cold peace in return. The late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak avoided visiting Israel. In his 30-year reign as Egypt’s dictator, he visited Israel only once, and only for three hours, to attend the funeral of the assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. He did not encourage Israeli-Egyptian trade or tourism. 

Although Mubarak fulfilled the security commitments under the Camp David Accords, he deliberately perpetuated the cold peace. Mubarak was motivated by the desire to reduce Egypt’s massive military burden, and cement Egypt’s relationship with the US. He also sought to return Egypt to the bosom of the Arab world that expelled Egypt from the Arab League and leadership in the Arab world following Anwar Sadat’s Camp David Peace Accords with Israel. Israelis were not welcomed in Cairo, and the majority of the Egyptian population has been hostile to Israel and peace. The Egyptian media in particular has displayed frequent bursts of anti-Semitism. Israel’s consolation was that it didn’t have to allocate burdensome resources in manpower and treasure.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/fighting-libel-settler-violence-arlene-kushner/

There are many outrageous charges leveled at Israel by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters on the political left. Advanced without concern for veracity, the charges enter public awareness by way of constant repetition.

Now a new charge has emerged: “settler violence.”

Rather than being directed at all of Israel’s Jews, this one focuses on those who live in Judea & Samaria. Within this population of “settlers,” it is said, there are young men who act violently towards innocent Arabs.  This phenomenon is identified as a growing problem of serious concern.

Among those who give voice to this accusation are left-wing elements inside of Israel: officials, such as Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue & White) and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), and some portion of the Israeli media. In the international community it comes – unsurprisingly – from the UN and the EU, as well as the US.  The State Department report on terrorism released in late December included the outrageous contention that this was one of the causes of Palestinian Arab violence.

We can, however, identify significant problems with the ways in which “settler violence” is researched:

○ Frequently there is a failure to confirm that alleged attacks really happened as charged, and that those doing the attacking really were Jews living in Judea & Samaria.

○ Very often there is no attempt to consider the broader context of the alleged violence.

○ International entities often rely on information from notoriously biased left-wing NGOs.

Nor is it difficult to discern the agendas at work: 

□ Attempts are made to equate the severity of alleged attacks by “settlers” with attacks on Jews by Palestinian Arabs. Presumably, this redirects attention and mitigates distress about Arab attacks.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/02/countering-the-false-apartheid-narrative/

W hen the Abraham Accords were announced three years ago, left-wing organizations ridiculed them as a fantasy that would be repudiated everywhere. Instead, the accords have been very successful in transforming Israel’s relationships with a number of Arab-dominated countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, dramatically increasing trade and tourism.

Rather than focusing on the accords’ impact on Israel’s growing regional acceptance, 29 left-wing organizations signed a joint statement demanding that the U.S. reject the Abraham Accords and “end support for Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights and apartheid rule.” Notable signatories were the Progressive Democrats of America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a number of Jewish leftist organizations, including Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow. This statement followed an unprecedented Amnesty International report demanding that “Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.”

This extreme rhetoric is quite distant from reality. It ignores the dramatic advances made by Israeli Arabs in the past decade, the numerous initiatives taken by the new government to temper conflicts in the occupied territories, and the substantial abuses perpetrated by Palestinian misleaders in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli Arabs make up 20 percent of the country’s population and have moved into the Israeli mainstream, particularly in high-tech and medical fields. They are a growing number in high-tech, driven by their being 20 percent of the graduates from the Technion — Israel’s MIT. Aided by government funding, Nazareth has become a center of high-tech firms, many having Arab ownership. In the medical area, 17 percent of doctors, 24 percent of nurses, and 47 percent of pharmacists are Arab. More generally, Arab share of undergraduate enrollment has increased from 10 percent in 2008 to 17 percent a decade later.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Thanks to Michael Ordman, every week we get incredible news from Israel. From A: Agriculture to Z: Zoology, Israeli innovations and technology help to vanquish despair, disease, famine, and physical challenges for millions. Communications among formerly hostile nations forged in the Abraham Accords thrive, and Israel’s active music, theater, cinema and dance institutions break the invidious barriers of boycotts, and its national cuisine is now considered among the best in the world. In spite of disputatious politics, and the libels of international media, Israelis of every color and ethnicity and life preferences are free to enjoy democracy, freedom and good times. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Alzheimer’s breakthrough. Tel Aviv University scientists have identified pathological activity in the brain that precedes initial Alzheimer’s symptoms by many years. A systemic failure causes high activity in the hippocampus even during sleep. They also found that an existing MS treatment suppresses this activity.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-695244
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124721017800
 
The future of cancer therapy. Israel’s ImmPACT Bio is developing transformative logic-gate-based CAR-T cell therapies for cancer patients who have exhausted their treatment options. The technology is designed to distinguish cancerous cells from normal cells, thereby eliminating tumors without damaging normal tissues. https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-cancer-therapy-co-immpact-bio-raises-111m-1001399387
https://immpact-bio.com/
 
Vitamin D and Covid-19. Researchers from Israel’s Bar Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center have confirmed and now published their conclusions regarding their June study (see here previously) that showed increased vitamin D levels can help COVID-19 patients reduce the risk of serious illness or death.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-study-offers-strongest-proof-yet-of-vitamin-ds-power-to-fight-covid/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263069
 
A strategy for tackling Covid-19. Israel’s Pangea (see here previously) has launched a comprehensive portfolio of services and products aimed at helping government authorities over the globe tackle the COVID-19 crisis in their country. Pangea set up Test2Fly at Ben Gurion airport and Green Pass entry systems for offices.
https://www.new-techeurope.com/2022/01/18/israels-pangea-launches-strategic-venture-to-provide-covid-19-products-and-services-to-governments-worldwide/  
 
Passive detection of diseases. Israel’s Olive Diagnostics (see here previously) has completed a successful clinical trial of its KG hands-free, non-invasive, AI-based optical device for 100% passive and seamless urinalysis. In continuous testing, the device accurately detected biomarkers associated with kidney stones.
https://www.startuphub.ai/olive-diagnostics-100-passive-urine-analysis-device-accurately-detects-biomarkers-for-kidney-stones-uti-and-heart-failure/  https://www.olive.earth/
 
A high fat diet can repair brain damage. A Tel Aviv University study indicates that a ketogenic diet may reduce the effects of brain damage after traumatic injury. High-fat products such as meat, fish, eggs, avocado, butter etc., are eaten while restricting carbohydrates e.g., bread, sugar, grains, legumes, pastries and even fruits.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-fat-diet-may-restore-cognitive-function-lost-in-brain-injury-israeli-study/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320622   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34876621/
 
Is DNA talking to us? Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University applied linguistics to the study of how DNA protein letter groups repeat. They then generated an algorithm that revealed their functions and now believe this approach can help plan the development of innovative new treatments.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/dna_text.aspx  https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/49/20/11447/6414050
 
Spinal implant could help paralyzed to walk. (TY WIN) A first-of-its-kind 3D-printed spinal cord tissue implant developed in Prof. Tal Dvir’s regenerative biotechnology lab at Tel Aviv University, has enabled paralyzed lab mice to walk again. Startup Matricelf (see here previously) is now working on a human version.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lab-made-spinal-cords-get-paralyzed-mice-walking-human-trial-in-3-years/ https://english.tau.ac.il/news/artificial-spine https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202105694
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZQ0-KoaFDE   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swAIomwbZvw
 
Pursue an MD degree in Israel. Do you know of someone interested in pursuing their M.D. or MBA degree in Israel? This video features Lynne M. Quittell, M.D., director of the North American office of BGU’s Medical School for International Health.  https://americansforbgu.org/video/md-or-mba-degree-in-english/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGkH7dTKy84
 
How an insensitive doctor spurred on an EU award-winner. Dr. Daphne Haim-Langford was just 16 when a doctor told her not to study as she was going blind with Uveitis. It pushed her to get a PhD at Israel’s Technion Institute, found medical startup Tarsier and win the EU 2021 prize for female innovators (see here previously).
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3928585,00.html