(March 9, 2021 / JNS) Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials. One ostensible purpose of the visit—slated to coincide with the completion of the delivery to 10 million doses of BioNTech—was to examine the possibility of Pfizer building a vaccine-production plant and R&D center in Israel.
On Thursday, however, Pfizer announced that it was postponing the trip. According to the pharmaceutical giant, Bourla and the members of his team who were part of his entourage are not yet fully vaccinated.
Certain Hebrew news sites pounced on this detail for click-bait effect. Take Ynet, for instance. Rather than opt for the “cobbler’s kids wear no shoes” angle, the online version of the widely popular daily, Yediot Achronot, highlighted misleading key words to suggest that the folks at Pfizer weren’t taking any chances with their health by subjecting themselves to their own concoction—the one that they’ve been pushing on the rest of the world.
The ploy initially worked. The item in question, shared on social media by people who clearly hadn’t read past the headline, began to circulate. Anti-coronavirus-vaxxers couldn’t have been happier or felt more vindicated.
One Facebook user recounted overhearing two women on line at an ATM in Jerusalem talking about the “two Bs, Bourla and Bibi” exploiting the naivete of the Israeli public to “conduct experiments on us.” To add weight to their belief that the vaccine is unsafe at best and a global conspiracy at worst, the interlocutors pointed to Bourla’s “refusal” to be inoculated.
In keeping with the wise saying that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” these ladies, like fellow skeptics, didn’t bother to widen their horizons beyond rumor. Had they even done a perfunctory Google search, they would have realized that in December, soon after the first shipment of vaccines landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport, Bourla explained that he and other Pfizer executives were not going to “cut in line” to receive the shots.
At the age of 59 and in good physical condition, he said, he planned to wait his turn based on the criteria determined by the state of his residence.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/saudi-campaign-hints-that-temple-mount-is-jewish-muslims-should-pray-toward-mecca/
Saudi Twitter users are playing down the importance of Jerusalem for Muslims, insinuating that the Jews should control the Temple Mount.
Saudi Twitter users have recently been pushing a new line of thought that plays up the importance of Muslims praying towards the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, while downplaying the importance of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Israel National News(INN) reported Sunday.
The controversial campaign appears to be designed to push the message emphasizing the importance of the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina as the holy places of Islam, and to eliminate the importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount for Muslims, thereby decreasing any Islamic authority the Palestinians have over the site.
One of the messages reportedly comes from well-known Saudi cartoonist Fahd al-Jabiri, who tweeted that “the direction of the prayers of the Jews is not important to us, what is important to us is only our homeland.”
Another English-language tweet is by a Moroccan user named Ibtissam Zegiga whose profile says he studies Hebrew and wants peace, and calls on “dear brothers and sisters” to join in the movement.
“This recent Saudi twitter movement believes that there is no importance of the temple mount to Muslims, and the waiting for the [Jewish] third temple. A new era, one of peace.”
According to the report, the Saudi campaign is in response to the Palestinian insults online and chants against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia heard at at demonstrations at the Temple Mount after prayers on Fridays. The Saudis have quietly supported the recent Abraham Accords the established peace between four Arab countries and Israel, and that has infuriated the Palestinians.
The reaction of the Saudis is to emphasize that the Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem is simply a mosque like all mosques, but the direction of prayer for all Muslims no matter where they are on the planet is only towards to the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/03/04/j-streets-selective-memory-on-palestinian-antisemitism/
Dylan Williams of J Street, in a recent op-ed, called on the Biden administration to “rebuild the U.S. relationship with moderate Palestinian leaders.”
Since presumably J Street would not claim that the leaders of the genocidal Hamas terrorist group are “moderate,” then the “moderate Palestinian leaders” Williams and J Street have in mind must be Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and those around him.
Less than three years ago — on April 30, 2018 — Abbas stood before the opening session of the Palestine National Council (PNC) and delivered a blatantly antisemitic speech.
Abbas stated that Jews have “no historical ties” to the Land of Israel because they are actually descendants of the Turkish Khazar tribe (a bizarre and long-discredited conspiracy theory).
Also, Abbas said that there has never been an antisemitic incident against Jews in Arab countries — “Not even once,” he declared. “Do you think I’m exaggerating? I challenge you [to find] even one incident against Jews in over 1,400 years.”
Then Abbas insinuated that the Holocaust was caused by the Jews’ own “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters.”
Abbas’ previous claims about the Holocaust — described in detail in his 1982 doctoral dissertation and subsequent book — include that only a few hundred thousand, not six million, Jews were killed by the Nazis; and that David Ben-Gurion collaborated with the Nazis to kill Jews, in order to garner world sympathy for creating a Jewish state.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/03/06/israel-updating-plans-to-attack-iran-nuclear-sites-n1430485
It wasn’t until February 17 — almost a month after he was inaugurated — that Joe Biden got around to calling America’s main ally in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If his goal was to alienate the prime minister, he was fantastically successful.
Israel has dealt with presidents who offered lukewarm support for Israel in the past, so Biden’s disapproval of settlements, the treatment of Palestinians, the moribund peace process, and Netanyahu personally doesn’t really matter. Israel will pursue its own security goals and if the U.S. doesn’t like it, that’s their problem.
You might think it was a sea change in relations with the United States when Biden took office. Donald Trump was an enthusiastic supporter of the Jewish state and had its back at every turn.
But Israel has never put all their stock in the U.S., realizing the fickleness of public opinion and the rising anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They will act and plan according to their own interests.
That includes updating their plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites.
Fox News:
The Israeli military is updating plans to strike Iranian nuclear sites and is prepared to act independently, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News.
Israel has identified numerous targets inside Iran that would hurt its ability to develop a nuclear bomb.
“If the world stops them before, it’s very much good. But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves,” Gantz said in his first sit-down interview with an American outlet.
www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
90% of over-50s vaccinated or recovered. Israel’s Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has announced that 90% of Israelis over the age of 50 have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19. 75% of them are eligible for a “Green Pass,” as they had their second vaccine over a week ago or have antibodies after virus recovery.
https://www.jns.org/israels-health-minister-says-90-percent-of-those-over-50-vaccinated-or-recovered/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/88-of-israelis-aged-50-have-been-vaccinated-or-recovered-from-covid-19/
Israeli vaccine study answers global question. Researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center have published the results of their study on medical staff, showing the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to be 75% effective two to four weeks after a single shot. Many countries were pleased to know that they were right to prioritize the first shot.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/75-protection-from-1st-covid-shot-alone-so-okay-to-delay-2nd-israeli-study/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00448-7/fulltext
Racing to a Covid-19 cure. Excellent summary of Israel’s involvement in five highly promising treatments for coronavirus. Also, separate news of Phase 2 trials of the two Covid-19 treatments from Israel’s Redhill.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/corona-cure-five-israeli-teams-racing-toward-prize/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3895977,00.html
Vaccines for animals from microalgae. Israel’s TransAlgae has developed microalgae to deliver oral vaccine powder for animals. Current tests include against diseases affecting fish. Eventually the technology could produce oral vaccines for humans. TransAlgae has signed an agreement with giant French-based Virbac.
https://www.israel21c.org/microalgae-deliver-animal-vaccines-orally-covid-next/
Using the microbiome to fight infections. Israel’s MyBiotics has partnered Swiss multinational Ferring to use MyBiotics’ microbiome-based treatments for women’s health. The aim of the alliance is to reduce the need for antibiotic use and provide a long-term treatment solution. https://mybiotics-pharma.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ferring-israels-mybiotics-look-to-microbiome-to-treat-vaginal-infection/
Pandemic research center opens. (TY UWI) Tel Aviv University has now launched its new Center for Combating Pandemics (plans reported here previously). Thought to be the first of its kind, the center connects hospitals, government and academic institutions in Israel and around the world to prepare for future epidemics.
https://www.israel21c.org/tel-aviv-u-opens-unique-center-for-combating-pandemics/
Femtech monitoring in hospital. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center says it is the first hospital in the world to introduce patient-operated devices for hospitalized Covid-infected pregnant mothers to self-monitor their unborn babies. Israel’s HeraBEAT and PulseNmore devices are supported remotely by hospital medics.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hospital-launches-system-to-remotely-monitor-fetal-health-in-covid-ward/
https://israelactive.com/?s=femtech+sheba
Heart attack patient saved with minimal invasive surgery. Doctors at Beilinson Medical Center performed the first cardiac accessory implant surgery in Israel. A patient had suffered heart failure during heart valve replacement. Doctors avoided open heart surgery by using a subcutaneous (beneath the skin) procedure.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/first-ever-heart-accessory-implant-surgery-performed-at-beilinson-hospital-660580
Millions can benefit from synthetic cornea. (TY David F) Israel’s CorNeat KPro synthetic cornea, which was successfully implanted into Jamal Furani in February (see here), is now to be trialed in Israel, Canada, France, the US and the Netherlands. 30 million people are blind in at least one eye, due to corneal injury or disease.
https://nocamels.com/2021/02/israeli-startup-corneat-vision-corneal-blindness/
Training nurses and pharmacists. Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT) has launched an MA course to train nurses in internal medicine to assess and care for those with complicated illnesses. JCT has also launched 4-year Pharmacy degree in association with the Hebrew University to resolve an acute shortage of pharmacists.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297272
https://bit.ly/3bRukYB
The Israeli challenge
Since 1948, the US Legislature has systematically supported the US-Israel relationship, and pro-actively promoted enhanced US-Israel cooperation: militarily, industrially, technologically, scientifically, agriculturally, irrigation, space, etc. This Congressional position has been consistent with the worldview of most voters; and, sometimes inconsistent with the Executive Branch.
Congressional affinity toward Israel was demonstrated in February 2020, when the Senate voted 97:3 to fund and maintain the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel.
Moreover, in July 2019, the House of Representatives voted 398:17 to condemn the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement.
However, the 17 House Representatives, who supported the anti-Israel BDS, included Congresswomen Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Betty McCollum (D-MN). The former is the new chairperson of the most critical Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which overseas foreign aid and international commercial cooperation. The latter is the chairperson of the equally critical Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which oversees the defense budget, including global defense cooperation. These two prominent Congresswomen have been among Israel’s roughest critics on Capitol Hill.
In 2021, they represent an expanding minority among American voters, in general, and on Capitol Hill, in particular, constituting a major challenge for American and Israeli allies of the highly productive US-Israel collaboration.
They represent a growing segment of the US population, as well as legislators and staffers, who are estranged from the 400-year-old historical, cultural, moral and civic foundations of the US-Israel kinship; unfamiliar with Israel’s role as a unique force-multiplier for the US, and its contribution to the US defense industries, high tech sector, armed forces, counterterrorism and intelligence. They overlook the US-Israel mutual threats and challenges, which transcend the Palestinian issue; inattentive of the adverse effect on US interests of the proposed Palestinian state, and are oblivious to the Arab view of the Palestinians as a role model for intra-Arab terrorism, subversion and treachery. They are indifferent to Palestinian hate-education, which mirrors the Palestinian vision and breeds terrorists. They are uninformed about the enhancement of US interests by Israel’s control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Golan Heights. And, they are unaware of the deep incompatibility between Western values and norms, on the one hand, and the unpredictable, violent, treacherous Middle East reality, on the other hand.
American and Israeli supporters of US-Israel cooperation, should present their case on Capitol Hill and throughout the US, by focusing on “What’s in it for the USA in its ties with Israel?!” rather than on “What’s in it for Israel?”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israeli-ex-generals-battle-over-the-iran-deal-opinion-661017
Two groups of retired IDF generals, Shin Bet operatives, Mossad agents and Israel Police officers are currently engaged in combat. But the battle is not against the enemies of the Jewish state that the organizations’ members devoted much of their adult lives to protecting.
No, the war in question is being fought between Commanders for Israel’s Security and Habithonistim-Protectors of Israel. The casus belli in this case is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers from which former US president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
Following clear indications that the new administration in Washington was eager to return to the JCPOA – both as part of its obsession with diplomacy, and to undo as many of Trump’s policies as possible – CIS announced support for US President Joe Biden’s stance.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 22, CIS said that it “welcomes the American initiative to get Iran to again transparently follow the guidelines in the JCPOA, as long as it includes an Iranian commitment to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.”
To refresh our collective memory, Resolution 2231, which constitutes an affirmation of the JCPOA, mentions an “implementation structure” for the UNSC to “review and decide on proposals by [member] states for nuclear, ballistic missile or arms-related transfers to or activities with Iran.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/icc-to-probe-alleged-war-crimes-in-palestinian-territories-11614799663
The International Criminal Court prosecutor said she is opening an investigation into possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories since 2014, a move welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and condemned by Israel.
Fatou Bensouda’s announcement Wednesday comes after the court last month ruled that it has jurisdiction to probe alleged war crimes, a verdict that was rejected by Israel and questioned by the U.S.
Ms. Bensouda, who will be replaced as prosecutor in June, didn’t specify exactly which events her office would investigate. Previous statements from the prosecutor’s office indicate that it would include alleged war crimes committed by Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, during a bloody conflict between the two sides over the summer of 2014. The investigation is also expected to examine whether the building of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem constitute war crimes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the prosecutor’s move, calling it “undiluted anti-Semitism.”
“Without any jurisdiction, it decided that our brave soldiers, who take every precaution to avoid civilian casualties against the worst terrorists in the world who deliberately target civilians, it’s our soldiers who are war criminals,” he said.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/israel-reacts-icc-decision-joseph-puder/
The seemingly biased decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague (Netherlands), to investigate Israeli actions during the 2014 Gaza War, prompted a sharp reaction from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prime Minister Netanyahu observed in his statement that Israel (as well as the US) is not a member of the ICC. He stated that, “Today the Court (ICC) proved once again that it is a political body and not a judicial institution.” He added, “The Court ignores real war crimes and instead persecutes the State of Israel, a state with a firm democratic government which sanctifies the rule of law, and it is not a member of the Court.”
The US State Department also reacted to the political nature of the ICC determination. A pretrial chamber of the ICC determined on Friday, February 5, 2021 that it has jurisdiction to probe Israel and Hamas on the 2014 Gaza war, as well as Israel’s settlement policy, and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) actions on the Gaza border.
Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson tweeted that, “The US objects to today’s ICC decision regarding the Palestinian situation. Israel is not a State party to the Rome Statute. (The ICC was established in 2002 in Rome).” Price added, “We will continue to uphold President Joe Biden’s strong commitment to Israel and its security, including opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly.”
The decision of the ICC is a precedent-setting one, and it comes more than a year after ICC prosecutor Patou Bensouda requested the Court to confirm its jurisdiction in this case. This case is essentially the Court’s way of appeasing the Palestinians, and the dominant Arab-Muslim bloc at the UN. Naturally, the Palestinians have hailed the decision as a victory. Israel, on the other hand, excoriated the decision as a contentious political move without a valid legal basis.
https://www.jns.org/opinion/robbing-israels-far-left-labor-leader-of-plausible-deniability/
Contrary to common wisdom, the overruling of the ban on Ibtisam Mara’ana-Menuhin’s run in the Knesset election is good news for the right.
(March 2, 2021 / JNS) Much of the Israeli right is furious about the Supreme Court ruling on Sunday that Labor Party candidate Ibtisam Mara’ana-Menuhin is kosher to run for a Knesset seat in the March 23 election.
The ruling overturned the Feb. 17 Central Elections Committee (CEC) decision to ban Mara’ana-Menuhin—a documentary filmmaker and creator of the Arabic-language TV series “Bila Muakada” (“No Offense,” broadcast on Israel’s Kan network—from participating in the process. When the Arab-Israeli leftist who calls herself a “Palestinian” won the seventh slot in the Labor primaries at the end of January, opponents dug up her past social-media posts to prove that she is unfit to sit in the parliament of the Jewish state.
These naysayers happened to include fellow Labor Party members who, along with the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party, filed a petition with the CEC to disqualify her. To back up their objections, they went digging into her social-media history.
What they uncovered was political gold. Among the statements that she had made on Facebook were attacks on Zionism in general and the Israel Defense Forces in particular. She also boasted in 2012 about refusing to stand for the two-minute siren on Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers.
