RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/e1-building-plan-officials-say-this-time-its-for-real/

Israel’s government has approved the construction of more than 3,000 housing units in E1 (“East 1”), an area in Judea and Samaria whose geostrategic significance far outstrips its small size. Israel signaled its intention to build there 30 years ago. Previous attempts to realize that intention have failed. The question is: Will this time be any different?

Local government officials JNS spoke with say nearly all the obstacles are removed. Most important, they say the government’s involvement is nearly at an end, at which point the issue becomes a purely municipal matter. Once that happens, there’s no going back.

“The initial process is called ‘TABA’ [a Hebrew acronym for ‘Urban Building Plan’]. It’s the city plan. And it’s a very long governmental process,” said Israel Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing all the municipal councils in Judea and Samaria.

“It’s supposed to end this Wednesday,” he told JNS on Aug. 18, two days before the plan received final approval by a Defense Ministry planning committee. “When it’s finished, it goes to the municipality, Ma’ale Adumim. From that moment, the city can get a building permit.”

Guy Yifrach, mayor of Maale Adumim, is also optimistic. He told JNS on Aug. 27, that after the committee’s approval, there is one more stage in which the government is involved—“marketing approval.” The government signs off on letting the city plan go out to contractors who bid on the right to build and market the homes. He estimates that approval is only a month away.

“This is the last stage the government touches. As soon as it issues this approval and we put out a call for bids, it’s impossible to go back. Then it’s out of the hands of the government, including from a legal point of view, and it becomes a municipal commercial matter,” Yifrach said. “I believe that within six months, we will already see tractors working in the field.”

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/03/the-un-has-failed-the-7-october-rape-victims/

Nearly two years on from the 7 October pogrom, the United Nations has finally acknowledged Hamas as perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence.

The UN’s belated acknowledgement of reality came in an annual report, published last month. It is both overdue and undersold. The UN has effectively failed Israeli women for the past 22 months. Its slow, mealy mouthed response captures the prevailing attitude among the world’s leaders towards these victims of terror, which ranges from indifference to disdain.

The sexual sadism of 7 October 2023 was one of the most horrific aspects of that terrible day. These were not acts born of the chaos of the battlefield. They were premeditated, designed to maximise the suffering of Israelis – and to revel in it.

Historically, sexual violence has been used during a conflict to humiliate and psychologically scar not only the victims, but also entire communities. It is a double weapon – wounding in the present and in perpetuity. In this case, the perpetrators compounded their cruelty by murdering most of their victims, thereby extinguishing any chance of justice. Worse still, they banked on the anti-Israel biases and moral evasions so evident in the West today to ensure that the crimes would never be taken seriously. The pain inflicted on Israel by Hamas’s savagery was compounded by the unforgivable global shrug that followed it.

There have been three main types of response to Hamas’s sexual violence. First, there has been the outright denial of those rejecting all the available evidence out of unshakeable bigotry. Worse still, some of these denialists accept the assaults took place, but deny that they were evil, insisting they were acts of ‘resistance’.

The second type of response has been equivocation. This has been the position taken by the morally superior fence-sitters, the ‘feminists’ who cannot condemn Hamas’s sexual violence without a prefacing ‘well…’. They cloak their evasions with talk of nuance, but a bigotry lurks not far beneath the surface.

The third type of response is active silence. This predominates among those paralysed by fear of offending political sensitivities. They opt not to condemn the sexual violence of 7 October so as not to provoke the wrath of anti-Israel ‘progressives’.

It seems that some victims of sexual violence are not deemed as worthy of support as others. Too many Western feminists allowed their loathing of Israel to trump their feminism. It was almost as if Jews were seen, at best, as slightly sub-human, and, at worst, as not human at all.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-west-plagues-israel-with-magical-thinking/

As Israel plans to finally end the decades of terrorist slaughter by Hamas, some Western nations––many functionally antisemitic––are plaguing Israel yet again with a plan to bring to the UN a resolution for creating a Palestinian state, thus rewarding Hamas and other jihadist terrorists for murdering Jews.

In addition to the blood-libels of Israelis –– like “starving” and wantonly “slaughtering” innocent Gazans that lard this “plan” –– there’s the stale reprise of diplomatic magical thinking to conjure a nation for a people who never had one in the ancient homeland of the Jews they want to murder and plunder

Of course, the Europeans and other oil-cringe geopolitical milquetoasts are relying on the UN, which has long supported the fancifully named “Palestinians” ––a propaganda tactic used to gull Westerners into believing that Israel sits on a sacred Palestinian “stolen” homeland. All freedom-loving nations, especially the U.S., should make every effort to stop the UN and feckless Nato Nations from recharging the Jew-haters for another attempt to repeat Hitler’s Holocaust.

Moreover, the UN for decades has lost any credibility when it comes to Israel by successfully convincing Western useful idiots to ignore history and morality, and to bully Israel into not just letting a sadistic enemy off the hook, but bestowing on them a Potemkin “state” that in fact would be a bigger platform for continuing the murder of Jews.

And don’t forget the malign role the UN has played in the vicious abuse of the only democratic state in the region. For example, General Assembly Resolution 2708 (1970) stated that the UN “reaffirms its recognition of the legitimacy of the struggle of the colonial peoples and peoples under alien domination to exercise self-determination and independence by all the necessary means at their disposal.” Notice how that phrase repeated the communist moral idiocy of “any means necessary,” and exempts not just the brutal violence of “national liberation” movements, but also legitimized terrorism from the codified restraints limiting armed conflict.

One of the most infamous crimes of the “diplomatic engagement” promoted by the UN were the Oslo Accords, two agreements between Israel and the terrorist PLO negotiated in 1993 and 1995. The pacts were marketed as the foundations for a peace treaty and a Palestinian state, with the creation of the Palestinian Authority awarded some self-government authority, including armed police powers, over the so-called “West Bank,” the Orwellian euphemism for the ancient Jewish territorial heartland of Judea and Samaria.

The folly of making deals with terrorists sworn to destroying Israel quickly became obvious. Terror attacks between 1994-1999 totaled 215, just about the same number as before the pact. Carnage continued to escalate in subsequent years. Proving his chronic bad faith, terrorist Yasser Arafat, the first leader of the PA, unleashed the “Second Intifada,” a series of vicious attacks which in five years murdered over a thousand Israelis, mostly civilians.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/robert-spencer-video-debunking-the-fake-history-of-palestine/

In this new video, Robert Spencer, the Freedom Center’s Shillman Fellow, joins Rabbi Daniel Schonbuch, LMFT, and Lori Fein, Esq. on The Viktor Frankl Podcast for an in-depth discussion about the fake history of Palestine, the rise of extremism, the threats facing Western democracies, and the urgent need for moral clarity in our time.

Don’t miss it!

 michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com

In a column “Jewish Origins of Everyday Phrases” Rabbi Dovid Campbell who lives in Israel, notes the biblical locus of the expression: “By the Sweat of Your Brow” (Genesis 3:19).

https://aish.com/the-jewish-origins-of-everyday-phrases/

“After Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, God declares: “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread.”

How apposite for Israel, where“ by the sweat of the brow” of tireless researchers and developers who are surrounded by enemies and victimized by war and terror on every front, contribute to every single beneficent endeavor to billions of citizens throughout the world.

Read Michael Ordman’s dazzling catalogue. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Daniella has bullet removed. (TY Yanky) Ex-hostage Daniella Gilboa has finally had a Hamas bullet removed from her ankle at Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus. She had put off undergoing the surgery because the bullet was a daily reminder of how grateful she is to the Almighty for protecting her.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-860704 
 
A sanctuary for combat soldiers. (TY Yanky) NGO Nechama and Hatzala for Israel has dedicated Dekel House in Moshav Patish to the memory of brave Captain Dekel Swissa, who fell on Oct 7 2023. Dekel House gives combat soldiers from Gaza a place to relax, swim, eat, drink and wind down during short periods of leave.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bkutc0w8xl   https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/article-864016
https://hatzala4israel.org/
 
“Miracle” saves IDF soldiers. The recent night attack on an IDF camp by 18 Hamas terrorists near Khan Younis could have been catastrophic. But six of Hamas’ eight grenades failed to explode. They also blew up an empty building. The soldiers responded, quickly eliminating 10 terrorists and air support finished the job.
https://worldisraelnews.com/soldiers-attacked-by-hamas-last-week-call-survival-a-miracle/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-soldiers-tefillin-remain-unscathed-after-hamas-attack/
 
Arab boy reunited with medic who saved him on 7 Oct. 7-year-old Atala Osma Abu Madian was shot in the stomach and his father was murdered by Hamas on 7 Oct 2023. Atala was saved by MDA paramedic Zvi. They had a very emotional reunion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpKayVLjdgg
 
Floyd is back. (TY Yanky & JNS) ) At the BAYZ restaurant on Tel Aviv’s Hilton Beach, World boxing champion Floyd Mayweather met soldiers who have fought in Gaza’s alleyways or battles against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The soldiers showered him with love. “Know that you are winners,” he told them.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/07/25/floyd-mayweather-to-idf-soldiers-you-are-winners-im-proud-of-you/
 
Quietly helping since 2024. You will have read here about IsraAid and its relief work in global catastrophes. But it kept quiet about its work in Gaza since early 2024, coordinating international aid organizations with the Israeli government and military. It is now publicizing its work and directly creating a logistics hub for partners.
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/after-quietly-supporting-gaza-relief-work-since-early-2024-israaid-ceo-opens-up-and-warns-we-are-reaching-an-extreme-humanitarian-situation/?utm_source=cio
 
Famine?  Where? COGAT: “1,300 aid trucks entered Gaza during past week.” Meanwhile, almost 1,900 trucks waiting inside the Strip were collected and their supplies distributed by the U.N. and other international organizations. And more than 1,000 aid packages have been airdropped into the Strip since late last month.
https://www.jns.org/cogat-1300-aid-trucks-entered-gaza-during-past-week/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVPf-6wtDyI  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/413974
https://www.jns.org/huckabee-slams-cbs-for-selectively-editing-interview-on-israel/
 
Hope and renewal. (TY Yanky) Hadas Loewenstern is widow of Rabbi Elisha Loewenstern, who heroically fell in Gaza. Elisha told Hadas that if anything happened to him, she was to “quickly find a new partner.” Hadas is now engaged to Hod Reichert whose wife during childbirth and they will raise their 10 children together.
https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/widow-idf-soldier-engagement
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Valve repair for heart transplant patient. Doctors at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center successfully performed an emergency mitral valve repair on a heart transplant patient. The procedure has been performed only twice in patients after heart transplantation worldwide – and never before attempted on a patient in cardiogenic shock.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-doctors-perform-1st-ever-emergency-mitral-valve-repair-on-heart-transplant-patient/
 
Promising treatment for cancer. Israel’s Silexion reported here in April that its SIL-204 reduced pancreatic tumors. Latest studies show it also works on lung cancer. Its silencing of KRAS protein mutations achieved unprecedented inhibition rates of up to 97% in pancreatic cancer cells and nearly 90% in colorectal cancer cells.
https://www.investing.com/news/company-news/silexion-reports-97-cancer-cell-inhibition-with-kras-therapy-93CH-4163541
 
The first fingerstick infection blood test. Israel’s MeMed (see here previously) has completed a multi-year development of MeMed BV Flex. The test enables accurate differentiation between bacterial and viral infections in just 15 minutes using only a few drops of capillary blood from a finger prick.
https://www.ourcrowd.com/startup-news/memed-completes-development-of-first-ever-fingerstick-host-response-test-for-rapid-differentiation-of-bacterial-and-viral-infections
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.21.25331877v1
 
BGU scientists return to their work. The direct missile hit on Soroka hospital in Be’er Sheva during the war with Iran also froze groundbreaking research on curing diabetes at Ben-Gurion University. Now, after two months, the scientists have returned to alternate laboratories to continue their work on life-saving medications.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFsZencAT5E
 
US FDA helps clear the airways. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Synchrony Medical (see here previously) has received FDA clearance for its LibAirty™ Airway Clearance System for At-Home Respiratory Relief. It can now bring relief to millions of patients in the USA, living with chronic lung diseases.
https://sheba-global.com/synchrony-medicals-libairtytm-cleared-by-fda/
 
1,600+ more Ethiopians can now see. Dr Morris Hartstein (see here previously) led an annual delegation from Israel’s Shamir Medical Center under the auspices of his Operation Ethiopia, where they treated 1,653 patients suffering from cataracts, infections, and preventable diseases.  They also distributed 440+ pairs of eyeglasses.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/413822
 
Massive donation for “Hope Tower”. Israelis Shmuel and Anat Harlap have donated $180 million to Israel’s Rabin Medical Center for the construction of the largest cardiological and neurological center in the Middle East. It is the largest-ever single gift to an Israeli hospital and the new center is to be named “Hope Tower”.
https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/shmuel-and-anat-harlap-donate-180-million-to-rabin-medical-center-the-largest-gift-ever-made-to-an-israeli-hospital/ 

https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/30/gaza-part-three-root-causes-and-real-world-consequences/

Rewarding Hamas with a “two-state solution” ensures more terror, fuels antisemitism, and ignores Israel’s right to defend itself against eradication.

This is the third and final installment of a three-part series on the Gaza situation, political fallout, root causes, and real-world ramifications.

Certainly, the spark of the present crisis is Hamas’ cowardly terrorist attack upon Israeli civilians. Indeed, for many people—and not only in Gaza and the Arab world—the existence and continued survival of Israel is the paramount problem. But absent Israel’s eradication and, quite likely, a genocide of its Jewish citizens, this root cause must be taken as a given. What, then, within Gaza, the Arab world, and many Western nations, are some corollary root causes exacerbating the difficulty in forging an Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist?

As patently evidenced by their customary lack of material support and unwillingness to permit resettlement, most Arab nations use the Palestinians as a pawn to deflect their own populations from focusing on liberty, democracy, and prosperity at home. This would constitute an existential crisis for these authoritarian nations, which would likely be unable to survive their failure to meet the rising expectations of their peoples. The great dilemma for these Arab nations: should a free, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful Gazan state be created, it will not be in their regimes’ best interests. Far better for them to have Palestinians’ and the Arab world’s unrest, invective, and violence directed at Israel than internally at their governments. For example, following this cynical strategy, many Sunni and Shia nations abet the propagation of hatred within the Palestinian people. This includes inculcating the young with hatred of Israel and Jews in general, which will poison the prospects for peace for generations to come.

These Arab regimes are not alone in doing so, for, despite claiming to support peace and the “two-state solution,” they have partners in international institutions and many Western nations who have their own root causes for promoting hatred of the Jewish state and its citizens, including their prejudicial ideological imperatives and domestic political aims.

In the West, particularly, an ancient hatred has melded with postmodernism to produce virulent antisemitism. Traditionally housed on the right, over the past half-century, antisemitism had been in retreat or at least dormant in this political quarter. This is no longer the case, as an influential cadre of neo-isolationists spinning many thinly veiled anti-Israel tropes has spurred a recrudescence of antisemitism on the right. Why has this not been routinely and righteously denounced by the left, which until recently had been a bastion against antisemitism?

Because, unlike yesterday’s liberals, today’s progressive movement is postmodernist. Influenced by the Baby Boomers’ old New Left that, in turn, was imbued with the radical theories of European socialists and Marxists, today’s postmodernists—including the bulk of American progressives—are secular to the core and hostile to all religion. As a result, they have rejected the Biblical notion that we are all created in God’s image and hence are all endowed with human dignity. 

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/08/27/when-hospitals-become-battlefields/

The IDF’s strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza on Monday, reportedly killing 20 Palestinians, including five journalists, has put Israel back at the centre of international attention. The reaction has followed a predictable pattern: a shocking video, immediate accusations of war crimes levelled against Israel, and near-ubiquitous international condemnation. But to understand what happened, and why the situation around the Nasser Hospital is so fraught, a longer and more sceptical view is required.

The first point that needs making is that the Nasser Hospital has not been a neutral space during the war in Gaza. In fact, it has repeatedly been abused by Palestinian militant groups. In February 2024, the IDF arrested more than 100 militants inside the hospital, some of whom were directly involved in the 7 October 2023 massacre. Weeks earlier, freed Israeli hostage Sharon Aloni Cunio told CNN that hostages had been held in the hospital. In April, the hospital’s own director of nursing, Mohammed Saqer, revealed in a since-deleted social-media post that Palestinian Islamic Jihad had threatened him after he reopened wards to the sick and wounded.

It is common knowledge that Hamas uses hospitals and schools as military bases, which is why Israel has had no option but to strike them at times. Mohammed Sinwar – who became the de facto leader of Hamas after the death of his brother, Yahya – was killed by the IDF at Gaza’s European Hospital in May. Nor was Monday the first time Israel has targeted the Nasser Hospital. In May, a strike on the complex killed notorious 7 October live-streamer Hassan Aslih, along with Ahmad al-Qidra, a senior Hamas militant.

The identities of some of those killed on Monday further complicates matters. Indeed, some of the journalists killed in the strike appear to have been members of, or have close ties to, Hamas. Mohammed Salama, a journalist for Al Jazeera, videoed and participated in the 7 October invasion of Israel that started the war. Mariam Abu Daqqa, who freelanced for the Associated Press, allegedly used her press credentials to protect Hamas fighters. Another, Ahmed Abu Aziz, openly celebrated the 7 October massacre. These connections do not necessarily justify their deaths, or even suggest they were knowingly targeted. But this does illustrate, once again, the way Hamas deliberately blurs the line between civilian and combatant, between journalist and operative.