Orek 16 Launch – July 6, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wkEiC8UoYg&feature=emb_logo
Israel’s Defense Ministry and the country’s Aerospace Industries on Monday morning launched the Ofek 16 reconnaissance satellite. The launch was carried out at 4:00 AM by the Israeli made Shavit rocket launcher from a pad in the center of the country and was a success. According to the Defense Ministry’s announcement, the satellite has already entered its orbit and began transmitting data.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16196/palestinians-censorship-terror
“We see corruption everywhere. Is the Palestinian Authority headed towards self-destruction? Or is it just destroying the [Palestinian] people so that its own sons and relatives can rise to power?” — Nadia Harhash, journalist, who awoke on June 1, 2020 to find her car being torched, raialyoum.com.
Instead of heeding the call of the Palestinian Coalition for Accountability and Integrity and many Palestinians to end nepotism and ensure accountability and transparency, the PA has chosen to remain silent.
Thanks to the criminal negligence of the international community and the so-called human rights organizations, however, the Palestinian Authority leadership can simply continue to pursue its policy of deadly intimidation against Palestinian journalists. These groups are much too busy drafting condemnations of Israel to have time left over to expose the true Palestinian menace: the Palestinian Authority.
The leadership of the Western-funded Palestinian Authority (PA) has again proved that it does not — and will not — tolerate any form of criticism, particularly when it comes from its own people. In the past few days, at least three Palestinian journalists have fallen victim to the PA’s long-time policy of terrorizing and silencing dissenting voices.
PA leaders have always resorted to various methods to silence and intimidate their critics. These methods include, among other things, arrests, recurring summons’ for interrogation, dismissal from work, and physical and psychological abuse.
The PA leadership has drawn deeper from its well of malevolent creativity to muzzle Palestinians from expressing critique: they are now also torching private cars.
This is an old technique of Palestinian activists to silence voices that dare to speak out against corruption, embezzlement of public funds and abuse of power.
The victims of car-torching are considered “lucky”: fire is directed at their property and not their bodies — it is better to have your car set on fire for your views than to get shot or stabbed for them. Torching cars has a twofold goal: to inflict financial damage and to send a deterrent message to both the victim and the surrounding environment.
Hamas has publicly threatened the Jewish state in the run up to Israel’s extension of sovereignty over communities in Judea and Samaria.
By Associated Press
The Israeli military on Sunday said three rockets were fired by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel.
The barrage set off air-raid sirens in southern Israel.
Israel’s Channel 12 TV said two rockets landed in open areas, causing no damage or injuries.A third projectile was intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
There was no immediate Israeli reaction, although the military usually responds to rocket fire with airstrikes on Hamas terror targets in Gaza.
So, it appears that the Russians–whose country is the largest in the world, even after the breakup of much of the former Soviet Union–have joined the international chorus of hypocrites assailing Israel. To create their enormous nation, numerous non-Russian peoples were conquered and had their lands annexed in the name of Russian national security.
Covering an area of almost seven million square miles, Russia includes nine different time zones and shares land borders with 14 adjacent countries. Its moves to absorb Ukraine’s Crimea are just the latest (renewed) examples of how Russia views the importance of its own interests–and to hell with everyone else.
Israel National News included a Reuters news organization report on July 4th (Happy Independence Day USA!) that Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, welcomed a pledge of unity between Fatah and Hamas against Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282972.
And sovereignty is indeed the correct term.
Judeans don’t “annex” Judea–this isn’t Brits in the Falkland Islands; Arabs in Amazigh/”Berber” North Africa, black African Sudan, Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan; the native Copts’ Egypt; and so forth https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/13420
I have a question for my Christian friends: Was Jesus born in Bethlehem of Judea–or in Bethlehem of Palestine or the “West Bank”? Check the Gospel of Matthew if you forgot …certainly not Zionist propaganda.
https://bit.ly/2Z4nFW1
The suggestion that the application of the Israeli law to the Jordan valley and parts of Judea and Samaria would severely undermine Israeli interests, jeopardize Israel’s peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt and Israel’s overall ties with Arab countries, is divorced from the Israeli track record and Middle East reality.
Israel’s track record
The resurgence of the Jewish State from the ashes of WW2 to global prominence, technologically, scientifically, medically, agriculturally, economically, diplomatically and militarily – despite systematic adverse global pressure and Arab wars and terrorism – has demonstrated that there are no free lunches for independent nations, especially in the Middle East.
For example, in 1948, Prime Minister Ben Gurion, Israel’s Founding Father, did no wait for a green light from the White House, in order to declare independence. He was aware that a declaration of independence would trigger a costly Arab military invasion. The CIA estimated that it could subject the Jewish people to “a second holocaust.” However, Ben Gurion concluded that achieving a supreme goal was preconditioned upon the willingness to pay a supreme cost. Indeed, the war against the Arab invasion consumed 1% (6,000) of the Jewish population (600,000). Fending off the Arab invasion, Israel expanded its borders by 30%, and did not retreat to the suicidal 1947 lines, despite brutal global (including US) pressure. The pressure on Israel dissipated, but Israel’s buttressed borders were preserved.
In 1967, Prime Minister Eshkol preempted a planned Egypt-Syria-Jordan joint offensive, in defiance of a strong red light from the White House (“Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go alone”), and despite prominent Israelis who preferred the venue of negotiation and mediation, and predicted a resounding Israeli defeat on the battlefield. Eshkol was aware that Israel’s existence, in the violently intolerant and unpredictable Middle East, required a firm posture of deterrence, which could entail heavy cost. In the aftermath of the war, Eshkol reunited Jerusalem and renewed Jewish presence beyond the 1949/67 indefensible Green Line, in spite of a very heavy US and global pressure. Consequently, while the pressure on Israel has subsided, the Jewish presence in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem has surged to 700,000 people.
http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Treatment for Alzheimer’s and Covid-19. Israeli-founded AZTherapies is in Phase 3 trials for its ALZT-OP1 for Alzheimer’s disease. The treatment also suppresses the immune system’s “cytokine storm” that is often lethal to Covid-19 infected patients. AZTherapies is building commercial partnerships with Israeli institutions.
https://worldisraelnews.com/one-new-drug-may-treat-both-covid-19-and-alzheimers/
https://aztherapies.com/about-us/david-elmaleh-phd
Developing a mutation-proof Covid-19 vaccine. Dr Frenkel-Morgenstern of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University has filed a US patent application for her research (see previously) on epitopes (proteins) that can build immunity against COVID-19. An advantage of such a vaccine is it will still work even if the virus mutates.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mutation-proof-israeli-scientist-nears-vaccine-thatll-cope-with-covid-changes/
Israel’s best shots at a vaccine. (TY Hazel) A round-up of the leading Israeli prospects for a COVID-19 vaccine. One of them – the Israel Institute for Biological Research and the Weizmann Institute of Science – featured in the World Health Organization’s periodic report on international vaccine efforts.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/their-best-shots-israeli-efforts-to-invent-a-coronavirus-vaccine-explained/
From cancer to shrimps to a Covid-19 vaccine. Professor Avi Schroeder of Israel’s Technion (reported here previously) was working on a cancer cure using Elephant protein and a cure for a disease decimating the shrimp population. Then he discovered that the shrimp medication could also be adapted to make a Covid-19 vaccine.
https://technionuk.org/video/webinar-could-a-vaccine-for-shrimp-help-in-the-fight-against-covid-19-professor-avi-schroeder/ https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-scientist-could-adapt-shrimp-antiviral-for-humans/
Crowdsourcing for a Covid-19 algorithm. Scientists at Israel’s Technion are confident that they can monitor Covid-19 patients at home. For their algorithm that monitors oxygen levels, they issued an international call for statistics through an open source medical platform. They hope to receive tens of thousands of case files.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/globally-crowdsourcing-covid-stats-israeli-team-aims-to-boost-home-care-safety/
Cancer screening for UK NHS. Another instance of Israeli technology saving British lives. Israel’s Ibex Medical (reported here previously) is helping the UK’s National Health System (NHS) diagnose cancer from biopsies. Ibex, has teamed up with UK’s LDPath to reduce pathology pressures on 24 different NHS trusts.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3836954,00.html
Israel is first to approve new AML cancer treatment. (TY Hazel) As soon as Phase 3 results were published, Israel added the new combo-therapy of venetoclax and azacytidine from global biotech AbbVie to the basket of treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Israel had the most patients enrolled in the Phase 3 study.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-becomes-first-country-to-incorporate-breakthrough-leukemia-therapy-633285
Slowing down the aging process. (TY WIN) Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have discovered, for the first time in mammals, that by slightly lowering body temperatures in mice, the animals lived 20 percent longer, Also, by reducing their oxygen level and increasing their CO2 level, their wounds healed faster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MycF-7T1zqY https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/mice_lifespan.aspx
https://www.israel21c.org/researchers-can-extend-the-lifespan-of-mice-are-we-next/
Off-road rescue. United Hatzalah EMT Eilon crossed the Judean desert in 3 minutes to save the life of Elad – whose arm was almost severed in a car accident. Following Elad’s recovery, the Western Marble Arch synagogue in London (the Rabbi is Elad’s grandfather) donated an off-road ambucycle to United Hatzalah.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/london-community-donates-off-road-ambucycle-to-volunteer-who-saved-one-of-their-own/
Med-tech startups pitch up. (TY Charmaine) Five graduates of the Hadassah IBM Alpha Zone Accelerator presented their solutions to investors. Their products included wearable pain relief, distance eye diagnosis, preventing medication errors in hospitals, help for stroke patients and a brain-wave sleep headband.
https://www.ukisraelhub.com/event/il-hadassah-acclerator-class-2-demo-day/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/8775
It was a moment in time never to be forgotten – July 4, 1976.
I was watching those spectacular tall sailing ships from numerous countries passing under the Verrazano-Narrows
Israel must concentrate on the first part of Hillel’s famous quote.
Bridge in Brooklyn in salute to America’s two hundredth birthday. Tears of pride were in many of our eyes that day.
I was there with my best friend Arie, who is from Israel. At almost the very same moment that those tall ships were sailing by, something else was happening which would link Israel and America together in many a mind forever after.
During the night before and the early morning hours of July 4, 1976, Israel launched Operation Thunderball AKA Operation Entebbe AKA Operation Yonatan.
On June 27, Air France Flight 139 was hijacked by Arabs and some European soul mates. The plane was taken to Idi Amin’s Uganda, where the hijackers were met with open arms.
The passengers were soon asked to form two lines – one for Jews, the other for Gentiles. Most of the latter were freed, but the Jews became Idi Amin’s “guests”. Amin’s buddies next announced that the Jews would be killed if demands were not met.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/is-israel-stealing-private-palestinian-land-opinion-6334
When Jewish communities (“settlements”) were established, it was done “in good faith,” and with government approval on vacant land. Arabs did not go to court to claim “their land.”
One of the most serious accusations against Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria to “end the occupation” and in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns is that Israel systematically steals or “seizes” “private Palestinian land.” Not only would that be illegal, it is immoral. This seems to be the basis for the High Court’s decision to strike down the Regulation Law.
It is important to remember the reason for the Regulation Law. When Jewish communities (“settlements”) were established, it was done “in good faith,” and with government approval on vacant land. Arabs did not go to court to claim “their land.” Only much later, led by left-wing NGOs, were Arabs encouraged to make their claims
The humanitarian purpose of the Regulation Law was to protect Jews who had built their homes “in good faith.” Most other countries have similar laws which protect homeowners in cases where the value of what was built far exceeds the value of the land. Destroying the homes of many thousands of Jews to resolve questionable or false Arab land claims would be unfair and unjust. Therefore, compensation was offered to Arab claimants, regardless of proof of ownership.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/its-time-to-give-netanyahu-trump-a-break-and-benefit-of-the-doubt-633661
Those in favor of the move expressed disappointment that it didn’t appear to be happening on schedule. Those opposed took the opportunity to ridicule Netanyahu.
Israelis across the spectrum were grumbling this week about the approach of the July 1 deadline that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had set for himself to begin extending sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and approximately 30% of Judea and Samaria.
Those in favor of the move expressed disappointment that it didn’t appear to be happening on schedule. Those opposed took the opportunity to ridicule Netanyahu for trying to wriggle out of his promise by orchestrating a fight with his coalition partner, Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, for internal political reasons. But all are accusing Netanyahu of capitulation or machinations, depending on their point of view.
Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, told Army Radio on Wednesday that the issue will not be brought to a vote until US President Donald Trump – author of the “Peace to Prosperity” plan that includes the sovereignty move – makes an announcement on the matter. Akunis was alluding to Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway’s comment last week to White House reporters that she would “leave it to [Trump] to give you a big announcement” on the matter.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16177/eu-funding-palestinian-terror
It is easy to understand why Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now furious with the European Union. Recently, the EU and its member countries have had the audacity to demand that EU taxpayer money not end up in the hands of terrorists or terrorist organizations.
As far as the Palestinians are concerned, Western donors are not entitled to demand that their taxpayer money not go to EU-designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
There are signs, however, that the EU is about to surrender to Palestinian pressure and threats.
This opaque language means that even if a Palestinian NGO applying for EU grants is an affiliate of terrorist groups, or employs individuals from those groups, the EU will, after all, provide it with taxpayer funding –whether designated for emergency responses to COVID-19 or for regular programs, according to NGO Monitor….
For many years, Palestinians have received unconditional funding from Western donors.
Here is how it worked: Palestinian organizations would submit an application for funding, and the donors would automatically sign the check or approve the wire transfer of millions of dollars or euros to the Palestinians’ bank accounts.
In a nutshell, the Palestinian attitude regarding Western funding has always been along the following lines: “You Westerners owe us this money because you contributed to the establishment of Israel after World War II. Thus, you have no right to set any conditions for the funding. Just give us the money and shut up. Any refusal to comply with our demands will result in our rage, and possibly terrorism and other forms of violence, not only against Israel, but also against you [non-Muslim] ‘infidels’ in the West.”
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