RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/will-the-boycott-israel-clique-coopt-the-scientific-community/

The hard sciences once seemed immune to the politics that dominate the humanities in academia, but no longer.

Last year, after chemistry professor Mindy Levine was invited to guest-edit a special issue of the journal Molecules, a group dedicated to the academic boycott of Israel briefly persuaded the journal to rescind the offer unless she consented to removing “Israel” from her published address: “Ariel University, Ariel, Israel.” When she refused, the special issue was canceled, and Levine was scrubbed from the journal’s website.

The protesting group, called the Ariel University Non-Recognition Campaign, wanted Levine’s address listed as “Ariel University, illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel, Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The journal eventually reinstated Levine as guest editor and issued a “Statement of Political Neutrality with Regards to Affiliation of Scientists at Ariel University,” but her case illustrated briefly, and perhaps is a harbinger of, something many thought couldn’t happen — science bending to the will of political ideology.

The hard sciences once seemed immune to the politics that dominate the humanities and social sciences, but no longer. A growing assemblage of scientists has singled out Israel as the one nation on earth that must be excluded from all normal contact with other nations, and the movement is not merely a phenomenon of the fringe blogs: Molecules is a peer-reviewed journal published in partnership with the Swiss Chemical Society in Basel, Switzerland.

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

And the Oscar goes to Israel: Today one of Michel Ordman’s felicitous listings states that Tel Aviv University Professor Meir Feder and Israeli startup Amimon have won a Scientific and Engineering award by the American Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Their wireless video technology plus Amimon’s chipset have made a substantial impact on the global film industry. Congratulations Israel for this and all the amazing technology and research that find their way to every corner of the world. Even Dubai, once among nations hostile to Israel now announced that trade with Dubai tops $270 million. Amazing! rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Vaccines for everyone over 16. (TY WIN) Israel is the first country to offer vaccines to any citizen over the age of 16. It aims to vaccinate 90% of the over-50s within two weeks. Nearly two million Israelis (20% of the population) have now received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine with just 0.066% re-infections.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-expands-vaccination-drive-to-anyone-over-the-age-of-16-starting-thursday/

Good Phase 2 results of Covid-19 treatment. (TY Nevet) Allocetra from Israel’s Enlivex Therapeutics (reported here previously) has cured the majority of the 37 seriously and critically ill Covid-19 patients in its Phase 1b and 2 trials. 33 patients were discharged from hospital an average of under 6 days after treatment.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/02/03/2168999/0/en/Enlivex-Reports-Positive-Top-Line-Results-from-Phase-II-Clinical-Trial-Evaluating-Allocetra-in-Severe-and-Critical-COVID-19-Patients-and-Provides-a-Program-Update.html

Preventing Covid-19 outbreaks in schools. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Thermoguard has developed special data-gathering thermometers that flag small-but-significant peaks in body temperature. It has been testing them in kindergartens to alert staff to take early action to prevent mass classroom outbreaks from unvaccinated children.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-kids-unvaccinated-israeli-tech-aims-to-detect-and-prevent-school-outbreaks/  

Remote tech for cardio care. (TY Stuart Pl) Israel’s Sheba Medical Center’s partnership with Israel’s Datos Health (reported here previously) is transforming the delivery of cardiac rehabilitation programs. Datos has also partnered Israel’s Vaica Medical to add patient management facilities into its remote cardiac telemedicine app.

https://cardiacrhythmnews.com/remote-technology-in-cardiac-care-is-here-to-stay/   https://www.vaica.com/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/datos-health-partners-vaica-medical-130000525.html

A Google map of brain RNA. Scientists from Bar Ilan University, Harvard and MIT have produced a detailed map of the genes inside the main memory center of a mouse brain. The researchers say the same technology will work in humans and could help treat diseases of the brain like Alzheimer’s, and others including cancer.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-led-team-creates-a-google-map-of-brain-rna-may-help-alzheimers-fight/

https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aax2656

How stress moves through the body. Amazing new research in which scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have studied how the body responds to stress on a cell-by-cell basis. They have mapped the “stress axis” and the production of the hormone cortisol. The research opens up avenues to new treatments for chronic stress.

https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/stress-every-cell-mapping-stress-axis-detail

Migraine treatment device gets US approval. Israel’s Theranica (reported here previously) has received US FDA clearance to market its Nerivio therapeutic device for the acute treatment of episodic or chronic migraine in people 12 years and older. Theranica’s migraine patch was approved by the FDA in 2019.

https://nocamels.com/2021/01/israeli-device-gets-fda-approval-for-migraine-treatment-in-adolescents/

Acne treatment gets FDA approval. Israel’s Sol-Gel (reported here previously) has had its Twyneo acne treatment US FDA-approved following successful Phase 3 testing. https://ir.sol-gel.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sol-gel-technologies-announces-fda-acceptance-filing-new-drug-0

Stronger and safer than morphine. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Therapix Biosciences (reported here previously) is working with the University of Calgary to evaluate the pain relief effect of its THX-160 analgesic. In pre-clinical studies, THX-160 was in some instances even more effective than high-dose morphine.

http://therapix.investorroom.com/2020-12-02-Therapix-Biosciences-to-Collaborate-with-The-University-of-Calgary-to-Further-Examine-its-Proprietary-Drug-Candidate-THX-160-for-Pain   https://therapixbio.com/

The seasons of our hormones. Anonymous big data in the systems of Israel’s four medical companies (HMOs) is providing researchers with the information they need to solve medical problems. In the latest example, scientists from Israel’s Weizmann Institute used data from Clalit to document the seasonal pattern of hormones.

https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/seasons-our-hormones

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/7/e2003926118

Cancer treatment from camels and sharks. Israel’s Ben Gurion University Professor Niv Papo discovered that tiny antibodies called nanobodies, found only in camels and sharks, can penetrate hard cancerous tissue to release chemotherapy treatments. BGU has bought a camel and have now begun trials on prostate cancer.

https://worldisraelnews.com/camels-and-sharks-may-help-kill-cancer-cells-israeli-scientist-says-in-startling-discovery/   https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00418

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2021/02/israel-us-iran-joe-biden-benjamin-netanyahu-anthony-blinken.html

The fact that US President Joe Biden is taking his time in calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the fact that he did not refer to Israel or to the Iranian threat in his first foreign policy speech, deeply worries Jerusalem.

As of this morning, Feb. 5, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to bite his nails as he waits by the phone for a long-anticipated call from the White House. Just as Netanyahu took his time congratulating US President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory over President Donald Trump in November, so now-President Biden is taking his time getting back to him. This would never have happened with Trump. Phoning Netanyahu was at the top of his to-do list when he took office in 2017. Four years later, Netanyahu has been relegated to the sidelines. The cushioned, pampered Trump protege finds himself being punished, sent to stand in the corner.

“This may not be deliberate,” an Israeli diplomatic source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “The Americans are not really focused right now on Netanyahu and his business; they have other things to deal with. Maybe Biden just doesn’t feel like handing Netanyahu an electoral advantage on the eve of Israel’s elections. After all, Biden is fully aware of who he is dealing with and knows how Netanyahu’s office will spin the first phone call between them.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/lovatt-eu-and-israel-joseph-puder/

Hugh Lovatt, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), wrote a study titled “The End of Oslo: A New European Strategy on Israel-Palestine.” A British Arabist, Lovett has deliberately ignored in his study Palestinian-Arab terror; not a word of it is mentioned in his lengthy December, 2020 report. Nor, for that matter, does he mention Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip that left Palestinians some valuable economic assets. Israel was repaid by its gesture of “de-occupation” with Palestinian (Hamas) terror, and rocket fire aimed at Israel’s population centers.

Lovatt praised the European Union (EU) for blocking Donald Trump’s peace plan, and for allegedly frustrating Israel’s de Jure “annexation of Palestinian territory.” The late Eugene Rostow, who served as the Dean of Yale Law School, and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Lyndon Johnson, established that Israel has as much right to the West Bank as Palestinians do. Moreover, Israeli settlements, or more correctly, Israeli communities, are perfectly legal under international law.

Lovatt’s principal recommendations are “de-occupation and legal rights.” He pointed out that if Israel continues to block a two-state outcome, “A one state reality of open-ended occupation and unequal rights continue to take hold – bearing the hallmark of modern-day apartheid.” Lovatt must know that almost 95% of the Palestinians live in area A and B, which is controlled and ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA, not Israel, is controlling the lives of these Palestinians. The question of equal rights should then be addressed to the PA. When it comes to life, limb, and property of Palestinians in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) or in East Jerusalem (non-Israeli citizens), Israel is protective of their civil and human rights, and the Israeli Supreme Court has adjudicated more often than not in favor of Palestinians. Dealing with Palestinian terrorists, is however another matter. Israel is committed to the protection of its people’s lives.

https://www.jns.org/?ct=t%28Daily+Syndicate+1-31-21+%28old%29_COPY_01%29

Yaakov Berg, who owns the Psagot Winery with his wife, expresses his hope that “peace with the Emirates will change our relationship with Palestinians.”

The Psagot Winery sits on the peaks of the Binyamin region mountains in Judea and Samaria, north of Jerusalem and just east of Ramallah. Though Psagot and many Israeli-owned businesses operating over the 1967 armistice lines have historically experienced boycotts in Europe and throughout the Arab world, many say that in the context of the Abraham Accords, this may be changing.

When Yaakov Berg and his wife, Naama, established the Psagot Winery in 2002, they made fewer than 3,000 bottles. Today, that number has grown to 750,000 bottles per year—70 percent of which are exported to 30 countries, including North America, as well as throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. Their new goal is to produce 1 million bottles with a vast majority of them for export, including to Arab countries, which was not before possible.

According to Yaakov Berg, he and wine suppliers in the United Arab Emirates are finalizing “several deals in the making” to export the Israeli wine to the Gulf, crediting the progress made in trade relations between Israel and the UAE to the Trump administration and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited the Psagot Winery during his most recent visit to Israel, becoming the first top American diplomat to tour an Israeli-owned company located beyond the pre-’67 borders.

In December, Hamad Baumim, the UAE head of Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in an interview with Globes that he has “no problem” with Israeli products made in the West Bank, and that when they are imported to the UAE, they will be treated as all other Israeli products and with no special labeling.

https://www.discoursemagazine.com/culture-and-society/2021/02/03/why-israel-lea

No country has been more successful in getting COVID vaccine to its citizens than Israel. Why? Three reasons stand out, and the third one is likely to help people around the world.

Israel can vaccinate the population quickly because it has a very competent, comprehensive national health system, based on several health maintenance organizations, all supervised by the Ministry of Health. The system includes digitized medical records for everyone in the country.
Israel bought enough vaccine. Earlier in the pandemic, it contracted for millions of doses from Moderna. More recently, it agreed to buy millions more from Pfizer so everyone over 16 can be vaccinated by the end of March. To clinch the Pfizer purchase, Jerusalem gave the company two incentives: It paid well above the market price, and it offered to share medical data with the company—data that few other countries could gather.
Israeli biostatisticians can pair the medical reactions of millions of vaccine recipients with each one’s medical history and demographic data. This will allow public health professionals worldwide to gain a nuanced understanding of how the vaccine works, both in the entire population and in various subgroups, such as women over 80 or people with Type II diabetes.

The country could afford the mass purchases thanks to decades of economic growth, grounded in high-technology, medical research, water conservation, sophisticated weapons development, cybersecurity and more. The growth was spurred by market-oriented public policies, adopted after years of sluggish European-style socialism under Labor governments.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-sends-2-000-doses-of-a-covid-19-vaccine-to-palestinians-11612201397?mod=world_major_1_pos8

TEL AVIV—Israel transferred the first batch of a Covid-19 vaccine to the Palestinians amid growing concerns over the disease’s spread in the neighboring West Bank and Gaza becoming a threat to the country.

The Defense Ministry on Monday supplied 2,000 doses of Moderna Inc.’s vaccine to the Palestinian Authority, which governs part of the West Bank, Israeli officials said. Israel has agreed to give a total of 5,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the Palestinians to inoculate front-line medical workers, they added.

The shipment was approved out of health concerns resulting from the mixing of Israeli and Palestinian populations, the officials said. A local committee of professional health advisers last week told the Israeli government that vaccinating the Palestinians is a “clear necessity” for Israel’s battle with the pandemic.

Israel two weeks ago had sent the Palestinian Authority 100 doses of a coronavirus vaccine for Palestinian health staff as a one-time humanitarian gesture, according to an Israeli security official.

Palestinian Authority officials couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Israel leads the world in vaccinating against Covid-19 in terms of percentage of the total population inoculated. It aims to vaccinate much of its population by March, but even if it succeeds, the coronavirus could still be a risk as long as it continues to spread in the West Bank and Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians enter Israel and the Jewish settlements in the West Bank for work, mainly in the construction sector, every day.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17024/palestinians-normalization-israel

The anti-normalization campaign, which is also waged by Palestinians, means that any Palestinian leader or negotiator who is seen sitting with an Israeli will be condemned by Palestinians and possibly other Arabs as a traitor…. and accused of committing treason.

The last thing any Palestinian officials wants is to be labeled a traitor because, in the world of Fatah and Hamas, that crime is punishable by death.

If… Abbas wants to avoid such a fate, he must do an about-face and put an end to the anti-Israel incitement that is coming, first and foremost, from his very own loyalists.

If and when the Biden administration manages to revive the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, it will have to take into consideration that the Arab campaign against normalization with Israel remains as aggressive as ever.

The anti-normalization campaign, which is also waged by Palestinians, means that any Palestinian leader or negotiator who is seen sitting with an Israeli will be condemned by Palestinians and possibly other Arabs as a traitor.

Two recent examples of the ongoing campaign:

On January 6, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), a body dominated by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction and representing hundreds of Palestinian journalists, issued a warning to its members against engaging in normalization activities with Israelis.

The warning came in response to reports that the Israel Defense Forces had invited Palestinian journalists to participate in a Zoom briefing on Israel’s measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Some of the Palestinian journalists who reportedly received the invitation alerted the PJS, which swiftly issued the warning to all its members.