RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/311044

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that Iran must face up to the consequences of the attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman in which two people were killed.

“Iran should face up to the consequences of what they’ve done. This was clearly an unacceptable and outrageous attack on commercial shipping,” the British Prime Minister told reporters, according to the Reuters news agency.

“A UK national died. It is absolutely vital that Iran and every other country, respects the freedoms of navigation around the world and the UK will continue to insist on that,” he added.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/sober-review-some-viable-options-state-israel-dr-shmuel-katz/

The state of Israel is facing major challenges these days from multiple sources.

We have a building pressure from the outside and from the inside.

Unfortunately, too many people in the international community are being steadily brainwashed against preserving the interest and the integrity of the state of Israel and that of the Jewish people, by well-funded anti-Israeli operatives like the BDS movement, the Radical pro-Palestinian organizations and by state sponsors of terrorism like Iran. At the same time, there are also some oblivious good-willed people and states, who think that there are easy solutions to the complicated problems in the Middle East.

Within the state of Israel, where the decisions and the directives of the ministry of education are so important, we see inadequate attention to the education of students from all walks of life about the historic and current just cause of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

If we look at what the Arab sector students are learning from their teachers and from their self-serving clergy, we will realize that the problem is even more challenging. In recent times it would have been unimaginable to have Arab youth riot in pogroms against their own Jewish neighbors within the state of Israel. Surprisingly, this happened very recently, for example, in Jerusalem, in Haifa, in Lod and in Akko.

In addition, when we look at the out of control building constructions and agricultural expansions in the territories of Judea and Samaria, the Negev and elsewhere, some of it sponsored by the EU, some by Muslim countries and by others, one can see a strategic plan to weaken the state of Israel and eventually to remove it from the Middle East all together.

On top of that, we have just seen an Arab member of the Knesset, who joined the newly created Israeli government, who served as the substitute chairperson of the Knesset, challenging a speaking member of the Knesset and ordering him to be removed by security, due to the fact that he did not address him specifically, in a way of his choice.

This Arab member of the Knesset and the newly formed Israeli government, stated recently that the Jews should not have the right to visit the Temple Mount, despite the fact that he is well aware of the fact that it is the holiest site for the Jewish people, even from before the times of the establishment of Islam as a religion.

One of the biggest challenges that. most probably, the state of Israel will have to face, is the pressure to relinquish a part of its ancestral homeland to the Palestinian Authority, despite the fact that the PA is not recognizing the right of the Jewish people to any part of the state of Israel, and is actively engaged in the attempt to liquidate the state of Israel in stages.

There is so much smart hi-tech innovation in this week’s positive Israel newsletter. Medical news includes novel ways to block the coronavirus and cancer growth; Artificial Intelligence to diagnose Covid severity, detect cancer, and train surgeons; and technology for amputees to use technology. There are major smart Israeli technological advances in Israeli microchips, cybersecurity, 3D-printing, agriculture, greenhouses, e-commerce and marketing. Israeli medals at the Tokyo Olympics maybe in short supply, but Israeli high school students have won many medals at the International Math Olympiad. Finally, Israeli transplant patients and new immigrants have made smart life-changing decisions that will greatly benefit their health and future happiness.

And, to add to the above captioned comments from Michael Ordman, Israel’s contributions provide hope to the injured and ill, and brighter and more efficient technology for a better future to billions of citizens in every corner of the globe.  rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
No entry for coronavirus. Israel’s Redhill has completed its Phase 2 / 3 clinical trials of its opaganib treatment on 475 coronavirus patients in Israel, Europe and Brazil. In a few weeks it will declare the results. Opaganib works on the patient rather than the virus, preventing the body from allowing the virus to enter the host cells.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-research-a-simple-pill-to-treat-covid-19/
 
European approval for Covid severity test. Israel’s MeMed (see here previously) has received Europe’s CE mark for its Covid-19 Severity disease management solution. The 15-min test measures proteins from serum samples and applies machine learning to identify patients likely to suffer a severe form of coronavirus infection.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3913362,00.html
 
Diagnosing cancer in 17 European countries. Unilabs, one of Europe’s largest diagnostics companies, is to implement the AI-based cancer diagnostic software from Israel’s Ibex Medical Analytics (see here previously). The initial rollout will begin in Sweden and then continue to 16 more European countries.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/swiss-diagnostic-firm-unilabs-to-use-ibex-cancer-detecting-tech-in-labs/  
 
Helping amputees regain hands-on control. Israel’s 6degrees has developed MyMove – a personalized motion-based & touch-free wearable, enabling the disabled to gain intuitive control over any smart device. It also helps rehabilitate injured patients, studying movements similar to how a voice-activated device “learns”.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3913292,00.html   https://www.6degrees.tech/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZIVpv9Kp4  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig60PQdYroY
 
Mayo Clinic to bring Israeli AI to US surgical rooms. Mayo Clinic is partnering Israeli-founded Theator (see here previously) to bring its artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies to surgical rooms in the US. Theator will support Mayo’s urologists and gynecologists with pre-op preparation and post-op debriefing.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-founded-theator-to-work-with-mayo-clinic-to-bring-ai-to-surgical-rooms/  
 
Medical cooperation with UAE. (TY WIN & I24 News) Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has signed two agreements with health authorities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. They cover medical research and medical tourism. Sheba is currently treating 300 UAE diabetics high blood pressure patients both in Israel and with telemedicine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYLN3zE2RIA
 
Six-way kidney transplant includes UAE couple. For the first time an Israeli kidney exchange has included patients in the UAE. Shani at Sheba gave her kidney to a woman in Abu Dhabi whose daughter gave her kidney to a woman in Haifa whose husband donated his kidney to Shani’s mother.  Wishing a speedy recovery to all.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/3-women-receive-kidneys-in-israel-uae-organ-exchange-1st-with-arab-state/
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/abraham-accords-uae-patient-to-get-a-kidney-from-israeli-woman
 
The gift of speech. Shambhavi “Sam” Jha’s cleft palate and lip her made it hard to breathe, hear and talk, despite operations in her native India. After her father moved to Israel as manager of an Indian Bank, Sam was given life-changing treatment at Israel’s Meir hospital and is now studying psychology at Tel Aviv University.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/meir-medical-center-gives-indian-patient-the-gift-of-being-able-to-talk-675147
 
Israel’s global fight against Covid-19. In the past year, United with Israel (UWI) published over 2,000 articles and 60 videos in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese about Israel’s activities to combat Covid-19. UWI is a Genesis Foundation “Speak Out for Israel” campaign non-profit organization promoting the truth about Israel.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/report-israels-global-fight-against-covid-19/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LPbpk2jgrs&t=1s

https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/israel-zionism/2021/08/the-jabotinsky-paradox/?utm_source=

In 1919, a fierce debate broke out among the Jews of the Land of Israel, much like the one raging in the U.S. at the same time, over the question of whether women should be allowed to vote in the emerging institutions of Jewish self-government. The debate pitted secular Jews against the Orthodox, and especially members of the staunchly traditionalist Old Yishuv, so called because it had been established before the Zionist pioneers began to arrive in the 1880s. Despite his reputation as a moderate, Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem—and soon thereafter of Palestine—came out against women’s suffrage. Vladimir Jabotinsky, a prominent anti-socialist Zionist who in 1925 would found the right-wing Revisionist movement (the precursor of today’s Likud), was incensed. To him, Rabbi Kook and his supporters were ignoramuses “who came out of a hole in the wall . . . and never heard the name of John Stuart Mill.”

Such harsh rhetoric was typical of Jabotinsky at the time. A secular Jew himself, he saw modern Jewish nationalism as part of a Western secular revolution, and he aspired to create a Jewish state on a classical-liberal model, with religion having no official role in government. In his mind the attachment of many Jews to their religious practices was a symptom of their backwardness.

But fifteen years later, in 1934, he wrote the following about Kook, with whom he had by this time become personally acquainted:

You, too, who never saw Rabbi Kook, . . . cannot but sense that behind all this stands a rare and precious human figure, a soul soaring in a singular world of sublime and noble ideals, constructing its daily life according to a timeless imperative, seeing in every tiny phenomenon a reflection of a wondrous mystery, the shadow of the shadow of the sh’khinah [divine presence].

It wasn’t only Rabbi Kook who had transformed in Jabotinsky’s mind from ignoramus to soaring soul. Jabotinsky’s perspective on Judaism itself underwent a similar transformation. While he never lost his commitment to classical liberalism or to its its conception of the separation of religion from the state, in the latter part of his life Vladimir Jabotinsky abandoned his secularism, and came to see religion as a spiritual necessity for both the individual and society.

This transformation in Jabotinsky’s thinking has gone largely unnoticed by scholars (with one prominent exception), who still tend to see him as a staunch secularist—as do both his admirers and his detractors. Why did Jabotinsky undergo this change of heart? How did he reinterpret the meaning of religion and faith, and why has this aspect of his thinking been overlooked? I hope to dispense with some of the myths about Jabotinsky, especially the old-fashioned notion, which originated with his political enemies, that he was a militarist, an authoritarian, and even a fascist. He possessed, instead, one of the subtlest and most insightful minds in the history of Zionism.

https://www.jns.org/iranian-dissident-delegation-visits-israel-in-historic-first-meets-with-foreign-ministry/

The mission was organized by the Institute for Voices of Liberty, a U.S.-based nonprofit that seeks to “counter the false narratives propagated by the Islamic Republic and its apologists,” and to act as a voice for the “freedom-seeking people of Iran.”

It was billed as the first Iranian delegation to Israel since the fall of the Shah 42 years earlier. Six Iranian Muslim dissidents, forced to leave their homeland decades ago and who made their way to the United States, came on a three-day solidarity mission last week to show support for the Jewish state following the May clash between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip—namely, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—that have long been backed by Iran.

Accompanying the group were four former Trump administration officials, including Ellie Cohanim, former U.S. deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism at the U.S. State Department, who described the visit as “historic.” Cohanim was born in Tehran and escaped with her family shortly after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

“They know that Hamas, which rained down these rockets on Israel, is an Iranian proxy, and they know that Hezbollah on the Lebanese border is an Iranian proxy,” Cohanim told JNS. “And they wanted to show the Israeli people, but also the world, that they support Israel in its right to a country and its right to self-defense, and they really just stand against the Iranian regime.”

The mission was organized by the Institute for Voices of Liberty (IVOL), a U.S.-based nonprofit that seeks to “counter the false narratives propagated by the Islamic Republic and its apologists,” and to act as a voice for the “freedom-seeking people of Iran.”

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Israel’s oral Covid vaccine. (TY Mickey) Israel’s Oramed will shortly commence clinical trials of its Oravax vaccine – the world’s first oral Covid-19 vaccine (see here previously). Phase 1/2 trials will take place at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center with Phase 3 in countries desperate for a vaccine.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-to-become-first-in-world-to-test-oral-covid-19-vaccine-674563
 
Israeli Covid vaccine can defeat variants. (TY I24 News & UWI) Israel’s IIBR-developed BriLife vaccine (see here previously – now in Phase 2 testing) has advantages over vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna. It recognizes the whole of the spike protein and can be easily adjusted to protect against mutations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJCGLJoqh5o
 
Existing treatments combat Covid. (TY WIN) Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have lab-tested 3 existing therapies successfully against SARS-CoV-2.  Darapladib, Flumatinib and an HIV medicine target the virus’ other proteins, which mutate far less than the spike protein. The study is now to be peer-reviewed.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/3-existing-drugs-fight-coronavirus-with-almost-100-success-in-jerusalem-lab/
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/14/7/604
 
Anti-viral nasal spray launched. Israel’s SaNOtize (see here previously) has now begun sales of its Enovid Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) at pharmacies in Israel and Bahrain. It is effective against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and variants Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Final tests for the Delta variant look good.
https://nocamels.com/2021/07/sanotize-covid-nasal-spray-israeli-pharmacies/
 
Israeli doctor advises Canadians about Covid. Israeli-born bioethicist and public health advisor Vardit Ravitsky is Chair of the COVID-19 Impact Committee of the Montreal-based Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. A key influencer was her uncle and Israel Prize laureate philosopher Aviezer Ravitzky.
https://robertsarner.com/israeli-canadian-bioethicist-return-to-pre-covid-normal-would-be-wasted-chance/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-canadian-bioethicist-return-to-pre-covid-normal-would-be-wasted-chance/
 
Home Covid tests. The latest tool to be adopted by Israel against the coronavirus pandemic, rapid home virus-testing kits, is being made available to purchase in Israeli pharmacies as part of a pilot program.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-rolls-out-pilot-for-pharmacies-to-sell-rapid-home-virus-tests/
 
Remote monitoring patients in Alabama. Alabama Regional Medical Services (ARMS) has selected the Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) system from Israel’s DarioHealth (see here previously) to improve the management of ARMS’s hypertension patients, including large numbers of underserved and uninsured patients.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/dariohealth-chosen-to-provide-remote-patient-monitoring-for-alabama-regional-medical-services-301337191.html
 
Effective burns treatment for children. Israel’s MediWound (see here previously) successfully completed Phase 3 clinical trials of its NexoBrid treatment on children with severe thermal burns. The study evaluated 145 pediatric patients, from newborn to eighteen years of age, across 36 burn centers worldwide.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-mediwound-says-key-trial-shows-pineapple-gel-effective-for-kids-burns/
 
EU funds for Israeli alternative insulin therapy. Israel’s Betalin Therapeutics (see here previously) is to receive capital from the European Innovation Council (EIC) fund. The funding will advance human trials of its biological pancreas that can produce insulin in the body independently, thus making injections unnecessary.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912996,00.html
 
Reprogramming the immune system. This article describes the latest progress of Israel’s Immunai (see here previously) which is mapping the immune system to help develop new life-saving treatments. It acquired US-based Dropprint Genomics and has launched into development of cancer and autoimmune disease therapies.
https://www.israel21c.org/creating-a-google-maps-for-the-immune-system/
 
Support for the immune system. Solabia-Algatech Nutrition based at Kibbutz Ketura has launched BioGlena from whole Euglena gracilis algae grown on the Kibbutz. BioGlena contains over 55% β-glucan polysaccharides, touted as nature’s immune-modulator, helping to prime and support natural immunity.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/solabia-algatech-nutrition-launches-whole-algae-sourced–glucan-301338424.html   https://www.algatech.com/algatech-facility-arava-desert/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkFa-Im2maA

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com  

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Restoring touch sense to damaged nerves. (TY UWI) Tel Aviv University researchers have developed the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) sensor that can be implanted in the body, e.g., under the tip of a severed finger. It connects to another nerve that functions properly and restores tactile sensation to the injured nerve.
https://en-engineering.tau.ac.il/Engineering-Faculty-Dr-Ben-Maoz-Restoring-Tactile-Sensation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncoE-w6I7AE   https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsnano.0c10141
 
Blind man can see with sound. (TY UWI & JNS) Israeli neuroscientists have trained a 50-year-old man, blind from birth, to recognize objects using Israel’s EyeMusic (see here previously). The system uses sensory substitution that EyeMusic’s Professor Amir Amedi researched at the Hebrew University (see here previously).
https://www.israel21c.org/blind-mans-brain-learns-to-see-through-his-ears/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921003062?via%3Dihub
 
Keep your feet. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Votis Subdermal Imaging Technologies develops devices to diagnose Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) affecting 200+ million people globally. The condition affects mainly diabetics and can lead to Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) with the subsequent need to amputate the feet.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/votis-subdermal-imaging-technologies-raises-us2-5-million-301302733.html  https://www.votis.net/
 
Portable ultrasound heads to space. Israel’s UltraSight (see here previously) is starting clinical trials of its portable ultrasound device in the US and Israel. It will also be tested by Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe as part of the Israel Space Agency’s upcoming Rakia mission on the International Space Station.
https://www.israel21c.org/putting-ultrasound-in-the-hands-of-all-doctors/
 
Repairing the heart. Israel’s Cardiac Success is developing a transcatheter ventricular repair device for heart failure patients. The “V-sling” system aims to transform invasive open-heart surgery on patients with Reduced Ejection Fraction (HFrEF) into a safe and effective minimally invasive transcatheter procedure.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3911698,00.html  https://www.cardiacsuccess.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze_cQPAkIMo
 
Know your Health Plan member. Israel’s Medorion uses behavioral intelligence software to provide health insurers with an in-depth understanding of their plan members. It helps the companies retain customers by addressing members’ needs, improving medical conditions and helping members balance health against cost.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3911926,00.html  https://medorion.com/
 
Covid vaccine boosters. Israel’s Health Ministry has authorized Israel’s healthcare providers to give a third anti-Covid-19 vaccination to adults with impaired immune systems. Israel is the first country to provide boosters to patients who do not develop sufficient antibody response after two doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-world-first-covid-boosters-rolled-out-for-some-at-risk-israelis/
 
Israel’s Covid vaccine. The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) (see here previously) has signed an agreement with Israeli-founded NRx Pharmaceuticals. NRx will complete Phase 2 / 3 trials and commercialize IIBR’s “BriLife” COVID vaccine. Clinical trials will be completed in the Ukraine, Georgia and Israel.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309717
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-nrx-to-commercialize-israels-covid-19-vaccine-1001377983
 
Solving healthcare challenges. The PlayBeyondBio initiative has selected nine Israeli startups for its program for companies developing solutions for future challenges to healthcare systems. C2i Genomics, Nucleai, Itamar medical, Medial Earlysign, iBex, Octopus.health, Imagene, iCardio.ai and Cordio Medical.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912456,00.html
 
Saving children during epidemic. (TY WIN) Israeli NGO ‘Save a Child’s Heart’ (SACH) has been saving hundreds of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRAxjlgZ8ZA
 
 

https://jewishlink.news/features/44956-is-israel-an-apartheid-state

From August 31 to September 8, 2001, more than1,500 nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) met at the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa. There they embraced a strategy for the total isolation of Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions: “cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel.” They also asked for the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, and efforts to promote Israel as “an apartheid regime,” based on the South African model, according to NGO Monitor founder and president and Bar-Ilan University Professor Emeritus Gerald M. Steinberg.

Israel was accused of committing “crimes against humanity,” “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid,” and “genocide” against the Palestinian Arabs. “Durban became the most potent symbol of organized hate against Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” Steinberg said. In the participants’ view, “Israel … is a modern extension of Western colonialism of the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s not just the issue of ‘occupied territories.’ The NGO community targets Israel per se as a Western implant in the Middle East. The Palestinians are not guilty of human rights violations because they’re victims by definition. That’s built into the NGO creed.”

These NGOs continue to disseminate specious charges against Israel through their reports, press releases and political lobbying campaigns, which have formidable influence in the U.N., the media and the academy, Steinberg opines. Attempting to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court (ICC) is another example of this strategy as are Israel apartheid weeks on university campuses and the provoking of confrontations on Jewish students and institutions.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/biden-delivers/

Seeing the region through the lens of the “Palestinian-Israeli peace process,” President Joe Biden and the U.S. State Department are backing the Palestinian Authority under oppressive octogenarian Mahmoud Abbas—in the 17th year of his four year term as president—as America’s partner.

Abbas canceled the announced Palestinian election scheduled in May, understanding that years of his corruption and heavy hand might actually cause him to lose. Since then, P.A. critic Nizar Banat died in custody after his arrest by P.A. “police,” dozens of activists have been arrested and social-media accounts by those who posted the “wrong thing” keep disappearing. But the administration appears to believe that the P.A. needs only some enticement from the United States and concession from Israel to show its true—if hidden—liberal, Western, political credentials.

So off the administration delivers.

In early April, the administration rolled out a pledge to deliver $75 million to Palestinian areas; plus $40 million for security assistance; $150 million to UNRWA; and $15 million for COVID assistance (one might assume that money will not be delivered, as the P.A. rejected 700,000 vaccine doses from Israel); and $10 million for Palestinian-Israeli people-to-people programs.

OK, you say, but they’re not Hamas. True enough, but a month before the launching of more than 4,000 Hamas rockets, official P.A. media was openly inciting violence. Abbas’s religious affairs adviser told PA-TV viewers, “Islam does not want you to be submissive to others,” and “If you die fighting, you go to paradise; if you kill the enemies, they go to hell.” Did that spark the shooting of three Israeli students, including the murder of 19-year-old Yehuda Guetta?

Images of Palestinians beating Orthodox Jews were posted to the social media site TikTok seeking “likes” and “approvals,” and engendering the name “TikTok Intifada” for the activity; Abbas called to “defend the mosque”—a historic call for violence against Jews in Jerusalem; and the ever-popular song on PA-TV, “I fired my shots, I threw my bomb, I detonated, detonated, detonated my [explosive] belts. … My brother, throw my blood on the enemy like bullets.”

But never mind.

References to Palestinian incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis over the past seven months have been deleted from the State Department’s mandated report to Congress on Palestinian violence.