RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/19/ron-dermer-we-must-stop-pursuing-two-state-illusion-commit-realistic-two-state-solution/

Ron Dermer is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

Determined to advance a realistic solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s prime minister laid out his vision of peace in a speech to the Knesset. The Palestinians, he said, would have “less than a state,” Israel would retain security control over the Jordan Valley “in the broadest meaning of that term,” Jerusalem would remain united under Israel’s sovereignty, and settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria would become part of lsrael.

Those words were not spoken recently by Benjamin Netanyahu but by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, when he defended the Oslo peace process he had initiated two years earlier with President Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat and for which he would be assassinated one month later.

Twenty-five years later, a gulf has emerged between the positions Rabin staked out and what is increasingly believed to be the gold standard for a potential Israeli-Palestinian peace. The result has been the emergence of a two-state illusion that will never happen rather than a two-state solution that might advance peace.

The extension of Israeli sovereignty to certain territories in Judea and Samaria will not, as many critics suggest, destroy the two-state solution. But it will shatter the two-state illusion. And in doing so, it will open the door to a realistic two-state solution and get the peace process out of the cul-de-sac it has been stuck in for two decades.

Let me explain why.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16135/palestinians-family-law

“I understand the head of the clan, who does not want sovereignty other than the rule of the male, but what do the lawyers refuse?” Harhash asked. “This means that the woman here would not have a law that protects here or a lawyer who represents her if she is killed, beaten or assaulted.” — Nadia Essam Harhash , Palestinian journalist, raialyoum.com.

“Is preserving the Palestinian family by beating and killing the woman and denying her right to inheritance? How can a lawyer stand against a law that might do justice to an oppressed woman or person? How can a lawyer stand against a law that might do justice to an oppressed woman or person?” — Nadia Essam Harhash , Palestinian journalist, raialyoum.com.

For now, it appears that the PA government is hesitant to pass the law out of fear of alienating Islamists and conservative clan leaders. The widespread opposition to the proposed legislation is further proof of the growing popularity… of Hamas and other extremist Islamist groups among Palestinians. According to them, criminalizing the beating or murder of women is a clear-cut violation of Islamic teachings and values.

Palestinian women and human rights organizations are under attack by Hamas and other Islamic groups and figures for supporting a new family protection bill that is currently being drafted by the Palestinian Authority (PA) government.

The PA’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs says the proposed law would amend the penal code to establish a minimum age for marriage, review current legal protections for victims of domestic violence, impose harsher penalties on perpetrators, and train the police force in assisting victims.

For many Palestinians, particularly Islamists, the proposed law is like a red rag to a bull.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Covid-19 antibody treatment is now available. Israel’s Kamada (reported here previously) has completed manufacturing the first batch of its plasma-derived Immunoglobulin G (IgG) product for Covid-19 patients. Initial vials of the antibody have been made available for compassionate use in Israel.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3834010,00.html
 
Human trials for possible Covid-19 cure. (TY Dick) In a world first, a trial of Ivermectin – an antiparasitic treatment – has been launched at Sheba Medical Center on Covid-19 patients. Ivermectin has been available since 1981 and in the laboratory was recently found to kill the coronavirus within 48 hours.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-researcher-anti-parasitic-drug-could-cure-coronavirus-631526
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin#History
 
Remote detection of Covid-19 complications. Israel’s Clew Medical (reported here previously) has just received US FDA emergency use authorization to remotely identify patients who are likely to experience common coronavirus complications, including respiratory failure and hemodynamic instability.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3833655,00.html
 
Adapting virus test for Covid-19. (TY Hazel) Israel’s MeMed (reported here previously) identifies whether an infection is viral or bacterial. MeMed is now working with hospitals in Israel, the Netherlands and elsewhere to identify Covid-19 patients and the potential severity of the infection.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-firm-advances-diagnostic-solutions-for-covid-19/
 
Israeli progress combating Covid-19. Good video summarizing some of Israel’s latest projects to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68uvUsUAxGI
 
More telemedical devices. Israel’s Beecardia connects patients, doctors and remote specialists. The startup of ex-Ukrainian immigrants has developed a portable cardiograph, a wireless ECG recorder, a digital stethoscope, a portable spirometer (measuring lung capacity), a pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor and glucometer.
https://beecardia.com/products  https://beecardia.com/about
 
Donating blood saves lives. New video featuring Magen David Adom’s blood donation service and how vital it is for use in surgical operations and medical research. Also, blood plasma helps patients with compromised immune systems. Finally, construction of the world’s first underground blood bank is proceeding well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXuctXsdfzM
 
Self-healing electronic artificial skin. Muhammad Khatib, PhD student at Israel’s Technion. has developed a polymer that is strong, water resistant, conducts electricity and is super elastic. Furthermore, when it is cut and put into water it will repair itself! Future applications include robotic skin, prosthetics and wearable devices.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-researcher-invents-self-healing-electronic-skin/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI0xP66cS58
 
Focusing protons to kill cancer. (TY I24 & WIN) A new video from Israel’s P-Cure (reported here previously) that is using its focused proton radiation therapy device to destroy cancer tumors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3qtQAXPX8
 

https://bit.ly/37PDd2r

Do commitments made by a US president bind his successors? History proves that these commitments do not even bind the president who signed them.

Even when the US commitments are driven by the purest of intentions, one should recognize certain features – a derivative of the US Constitution and the power struggle between the Legislature and the Executive – which have characterized all US international agreements, pacts, memoranda of understandings and guarantees since 1776 (thoroughly researched by Hebrew University Prof. Michla Pomerance).  These inherent features are designed to subordinate the implementation (or non-implementation) of all US international commitments to the overriding US interests, as defined by the implementing president, not necessarily the president who signed the commitments.

Take for example, the feature of vagueness and non-specificity, as demonstrated by “the Deal of the Century.”  The Deal stipulates Israeli security control in the entire area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. But, who defines “control?”  Will it be President Trump and his team, or the more pro-Palestinian team of President Biden? Obviously, each team will have a different interpretation, reflecting their different worldviews and ideology, minimizing or maximizing the scope of “control,” which could render Israeli “control” highly-constrained and quite ineffective.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16125/palestinians-iraq

“The animals that live in European countries have a better life than us… [The] UNHCR lied a lot to us…. Even the [Israeli] enemy has not acted in this way.” — Palestinians in Iraq, Al-Youm newspaper, May 28, 2020.

Before the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, there were about 34,000 Palestinians living in Iraq. Only a few thousand Palestinians are now living there, and many face harassment, threats of deportation, media scapegoating, arbitrary detention, torture and murder.

The Arab states unremittingly subject Palestinians to apartheid and discriminatory measures. Yet the heads of the UN and its member states seem too busy with their obsession with Israel to attend to their pleas of these Palestinians, who are being deprived of basic rights in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.

Facing discrimination, poverty, and misery, Palestinians residing in Iraq have finally broken their silence in an attempt to draw the world’s attention to their predicament. The Palestinians are accusing the Iraqis and the United Nations of taking a series of measures that have further aggravated the conditions of hundreds of Palestinian families in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

In a letter to the Iraqi newspaper Al-Youm, Palestinians complained that “the animals that live in European countries have a better life than us.”

These animals, the refugees said, “have someone to defend them, protect them and provide them with housing worthy of human beings. As for us, the Palestinians, there is no local or international official or organization that inspects our conditions.”

The Palestinians’ complaint was mainly directed against the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), after its decision to halt financial aid to Palestinian families in Iraq.

“UNHCR lied a lot to us,” the Palestinians wrote. “We have become victims like sheep surrounded by wolves. Even the [Israeli] enemy has not acted in this way.”

The Palestinians pointed out UNCHR had informed a large number of Palestinian families in Iraq of its decision to cease disbursement of rental allowances starting March 2020.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/if-black-lives-matter-then-dont-palestinian-lives-matter-opinion-631983

Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters across the West are on a rampage against cultural and historical symbols that they deem racist. No book, film, play or monument is safe from their scrutiny and disdain.

Minnesota removed Mark Twain and Harper Lee novels from its schools’ curricula. HBO pulled Gone with the Wind from its movie line-up.

The Paramount Network canceled the new season of the popular reality show Cops before its June 15 premiere. Other studios and companies are rushing to follow suit with everything from sit-coms to old classics.

Statues of American founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been defaced. Even the legacy of Britain’s lionized late prime minister Winston Churchill is under assault.

Indeed, nothing is sacred and all is fair game when it comes to the “woke” generation taking personal or political offense.

Given the unapologetic ignorance displayed by students everywhere these days, it is heartening to discover that the young people demonstrating from California to Melbourne are remotely familiar with the iconic figures they’ve been trashing since the horrific killing of George Floyd on May 25 by a Minneapolis police officer. While most are able to rattle off the names of every Kardashian, sports star and Instagram influencer, few appear to be versed in much of anything other than fashionable slogans and platitudes about the world in which they live.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/p-david-hornik/2020/06/18/to-annex-west-bank-land-or-not-to-annex-the-hour-draws-near-n545168

July 1, which is fast approaching, is the day on which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying Israel will start the process of applying sovereignty to the strategically vital Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities throughout the West Bank.

The issue remains fraught with controversy. The Trump administration, which seemed to green-light the move with its “Peace to Prosperity” plan, is still giving mixed signals and has a lot else on its plate. Rumors are flying about whether and what Netanyahu plans to “annex” (a convenient misnomer since the lands in question were not part of a recognized sovereign state before Israel regained them in the 1967 war).

The Trump plan is not, of course, just a plan for an Israeli application of sovereignty. It envisions Israel taking permanent control of about 30 percent of the West Bank (historically known as Judea and Samaria) while the other 70 percent would go to a demilitarized Palestinian state.

Not only are the Israeli right and left divided (predictably) on the merits of the plan, but there’s sharp disagreement even within the Israeli right.

For its more ideological wing, any talk of a Palestinian state is heresy. For its more pragmatic wing, a prospective demilitarized Palestinian entity (a “state minus” as Netanyahu calls it) would make sense because Israel cannot and should not annex over two million Palestinians to itself.

More significant, though, is the heated right-left dispute on the issue.

 https://bit.ly/3dglLFC

In 2020, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other pro-US Arab countries base their national security policy on issues which substantially transcend the Palestinian issue. These issues include lethal threats posed by Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Turkey’s Erdogan, the spillover of the civil wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the potential implosion of all Arab countries, etc.  

In 2020, these countries view Israel’s posture of deterrence as a most valuable asset in the face of the aforementioned lethal threats. They value Israel as a most productive resource to diversify their economy and enhance their standard of living. 

At the same time, they consider the proposed Palestinian state a potential rogue regime, which would add fuel to the Middle East fire.  Therefore, they are expanding their defense and commercial ties with Israel in an unprecedented manner, in defiance of Palestinian protests and irrespective of the paralysis of the Palestinian issue.

In 1979 and 1994, Egypt and Jordan concluded peace accords with Israel, in order to advance their national security – not as a gesture toward Israel – regardless of Palestinian threats and protests. Notwithstanding occasional anti-Israel Jordanian talk, the Hashemite Kingdom’s walk (militarily and commercially) reflects a realization that Israel makes an irreplaceable and critical contribution to the survival of the Kingdom in the face of domestic and external clear and present threats. Against the backdrop of these threats, the establishment of the proposed Palestinian state would be the straw that breaks the Hashemite camel’s back.