RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Gaucher’s treatment also works for Covid-19. In animal tests, Israel’s Institute for Biological Research has found two treatments for the genetic disorder Gaucher’s disease are also effective against Covid-19 and other viruses (e.g. West Nile). Cerdelga is already approved for Gaucher’s and Venglustat may be fast-tracked.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/gauchers-disease-drugs-also-fight-covid-19-israeli-defense-lab-finds/

Testing Nitric Oxide treatment on Covid-19 patients. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Beyond Air develops LungFit  – a revolutionary Nitric Oxide (NO) generator and delivery system. The US FDA and Health Canada have approved the use of LungFit in COVID-19 treatment trials in both countries.

https://www.beyondair.net/news-media/press-releases/detail/101/beyond-air-to-initiate-clinical-study-evaluating-high  https://www.beyondair.net/news-media/press-releases/detail/105/beyond-air-receives-approval-from-health-canada-to-study

Israeli-Italian partners for Covid-19 treatment. Israeli biotech Kamada (see here) has partnered Italy’s Kedrion to develop a human plasma-derived Anti-SARs-COV-2 product. Kamada will use its proprietary IgG platform technology and Kedrion will provide plasma from donors who have recovered from the virus.

https://www.kedrion.com/kedrion-and-kamada-announce-collaboration-anti-covid-19-igg-0

Patch for monitoring Covid-19 patients. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s G Medical has received Emergency Use Authorization from the US FDA for its Vital  Signs Monitoring System (VSMS) ECG Patch. It can be used to monitor Covid-19 patients whose treatment includes medication that may cause life-threatening arrhythmias.

https://gmedinnovations.com/products/#prod  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRaL2OzzGoY

Treating diabetic children in Texas. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes (reported here previously) is integrating its Advisor Pro software at Texas Children’s Hospital. It allows diabetic children to be monitored remotely and avoids the risk of them (and their parents / guardians) being infected in hospital with Covid-19.

https://finder.startupnationcentral.org/company_page/dreamed-diabetes

https://dreamed-diabetes.com/advisor/

The ICU of the (near) future. HealthSpace 2030, Israel’s high-tech Intensive Care Unit of the future was unveiled in the ARC center of Sheba hospital. 11 technologies integrate augmented reality, communication, monitoring, AI, sensing, and robotic technologies to maximize care and comfort while minimizing risk to staff.

https://www.israel21c.org/hospital-icu-of-the-future-prepares-israel-for-second-corona-wave/

Cancer treatment gets $0.9 million boost. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s VBL Therapeutics (reported here previously) has been awarded a grant of up to $0.9 million by the Israel Innovation Authority.  It will support the Phase 3 study of VBL’s lead candidate VB-111 for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

http://ir.vblrx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vbl-therapeutics-awarded-32-million-nis-non-dilutive-grant  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnNsZYrpT_w

Funding for 16 research projects on personalized medicine. The Israel Precision Medicine Partnership (IPMP – reported here previously), has granted another NIS 60 million to 16 projects researching into specific targeted personalized medicine that can treat ailments such as autism, cancers and trauma.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/16-israeli-research-projects-on-personalized-medicine-get-millions-in-funding/ 

Personalized pregnancy care. Israel’s NUVO has partnered with Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital to develop an AI platform for accurate decision-making about pregnancy complications. NUVO has also just received US FDA approval for its INVU device (reported here previously) to be used in monitoring maternal fetal heart rate.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nuvo-group-announces-partnership-with-hadassah-hebrew-university-medical-center-to-develop-innovative-pregnancy-population-management-platform-301058487.html

A better medical trial experience. Israel’s Habitu (see here) develops a platform specifically targeting clinical trials and patient support programs in community-based healthcare. It provides flexible, continuous, emotional, professional and procedural support to patients, leading to more efficient trials and lower drop-out rates.

https://www.habitu.health/

Heart stent gets Breakthrough status. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Endospan (reported here previously) has been granted Breakthrough Device Designation from the U.S. FDA for its NEXUS Aortic Arch Stent Graft System.  It already has the CE Mark of European approval.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200419005001/en/FDA-Grants-NEXUS%E2%84%A2-Aortic-Arch-Stent-Graft

Decoding the immune system. Israel’s Immunai is developing a technological platform that aims to map the entire immune system for better detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. It uses single cell genomics that could in the future unlock the secrets of infections, cancer and autoimmune diseases.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3822891,00.html  https://www.immunai.com/

Milk and honey” refers to the nectar of the fruit, and a land “flowing with milk and honey” is an expression used for a particularly fertile land that could produce abundant produce and fruit. The saying is used several times in the Bible, each time conveying the richness of the Promised Land – The Land of Israel.

A land flowing with milk and honey is now a blessed reality in the reborn modern State of Israel, miraculously restored and reconstituted by its own indigenous Jewish folk after 2,000 years of exile. It is now once again a sovereign Jewish nation in its ancestral and Biblical homeland. The precious land, neglected and wasted for so long, and which had endured successive alien occupations down the centuries, has been lovingly redeemed by the pioneering Jewish Israelis whose Zionist endeavor and undertaking banished the malarial swamps, turned the desert green and restored the hills and valleys to their verdant beauty.

Tragically the fraudulent Arabs, who call themselves Palestinians, show no love for the land or for nature’s bounty that the Jewish villagers and farmers have recreated throughout Israel and, in particular, within the Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria. This is the very land a hostile world still insists on erroneously calling by its Jordanian Arab name, (the West Bank) after Jordan’s illegal occupation from 1948 to 1967.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/morality-israels-annexation-jason-d-hill/

With some degree of the annexation of Judea and Samaria imminent in the next few months in Israel, recent statements by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (who oversees a massive kleptocratic terrorist regime that endorses a massive Pay-for-Slay program that provides Palestinian suicide bombers, terrorist murderers, and their families with lifelong financial security), sound more like conceptual inanities than they do reasoned disagreements by a serious politician.
 
Abbas said last week that he was terminating all agreements with Israel and the United States as a result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to extend Israeli law to parts of Judea and Samaria under the stewardship of the Trump peace plan. Well, no one really cares if he terminates any agreement with the United States. The PA is irrelevant to the United States except as a disgraceful moral stain on our foreign policy record for having financed a terrorist rogue political institution for decades. What would be truly humorous, were it not backed with the routine rampant anti-Semitism and support of the European Union, is his statement on the order of: Israel has “annulled” the Oslo Accord with its intention to apply Israeli law in occupied Palestine.
 
No Abbas, the Palestinian National Authority and other militant groups acting under its aegis long ago nullified the Oslo Accord with the Second Intifada when it sought to repay Israel’s generous peace-and-land offerings by repeated bloody attacks against the state of Israel and her people from September 2000 until February 2005. By all accounts, the Intifada lasted for 4 years, 4 months, 1 week, and four days. Four years of bloody murder and unleashed terror against Israelis for their generosity.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/israels-annexation-plan-jordan-valley-joseph-puder/

The new Israeli government is considering extending Israeli law and sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, which is within area C of the Oslo Accords. The Accords, which gave Israel both military and administrative control in the area, also contains a large bloc of Jewish-Israeli communities. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a short visit to Israel (April 22, 2020) told reporters: “As for annexation of the (Jordan Valley) West Bank, the Israelis will ultimately make those decisions.” He added, “That’s an Israeli decision. We will work closely with them to share with them our views in a private setting.”

Reacting to Israeli intentions, a senior official at the European Union (EU) has warned that Individual member-states within the EU are already looking to apply sanction against Israel should Israel annex the Jordan Valley. The EU requires full consensus among its 27 members in adopting foreign policy measures. Austria and Hungary have blocked a call by Luxembourg and Ireland to consider an Israel annexation of the Jordan Valley a ‘violation of international law’ as defined by the United Nations (UN). The anti-Israel bloc at the EU believes that Israel’s intended action is comparable to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. But, while Crimea was part of the sovereign nation state of Ukraine, Palestine is not a recognized state by the UN. Still, there might be bilateral sanctions imposed by anti-Israel states within the EU such as Ireland, Luxembourg, and Sweden. 

While the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas understands that there is no comparison between Russia’s action in 2014 in annexing Crimea, and Israel’s intended annexation of the Jordan Valley Jewish settlements, he nevertheless agrees that it will be a violation of international law. 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/right-from-wrong-why-we-want-netanyahus-trial-televised-629523

For some reason, the Jerusalem District Court – where the arraignment took place and the rest of the trial will be held – nixed the idea to televise it.
With few exceptions, the Israeli press is none too fond of Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. The feeling, as a result, is mutual, with very good reason.

Acting as judge, jury and executioner, the country’s media outlets have not even tried to conceal their long-standing desire to see his dust. Imagine their delight, then, when the judicial system provided them with the perfect cover for their unbridled lack of neutrality and blatant partisanship.

Not that readers or viewers really believe that journalists are unbiased. More to the point, most people these days – including publishers, editors and reporters – seem have a hard time telling the difference between news, analysis and opinion.

Nor would this be the least bit of a problem if each outlet acknowledged its slant. There is no shame in having and promoting a worldview, after all. No, the disgrace lies in the pretense. And left-wing reporters are full of it, so to speak, which is why Netanyahu is a perfect target for them.

It is not his party, voters or even the entire Right – they claim – that is at the root of their open aggression, but rather the man himself. Indeed, they tell themselves and everybody else, the very fact that he is under indictment on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust makes him fair game.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16065/palestinians-home-demolitions

While international human rights groups and the European Union have also been condemning Israel, they are ignoring home demolitions carried out by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In February, Hamas notified 50 families… that their homes would be destroyed on the pretext that they were built without a license. The families were instructed to evacuate their homes within two weeks…. Last year, Hamas demolished another house in Khan Yunis belonging to Bassam Duhan, also on the pretext that it was built without a license. Duhan, a father of eight, set up a tent in front of the demolished house. He complained that relatives of senior Hamas officials had also built homes in the same area, but no one destroyed their homes.

Last year, a youth group in the Gaza Strip called on the Arab League and other Arab and Islamic parties to launch an investigation into Hamas’s crimes against Palestinians. Needless to say, the group has never received a reply from the Arab League or any other organization in the Arab and Islamic countries. The appeal came after Hamas militiamen used excessive force to prevent Palestinians from protesting economic hardship and Hamas corruption.

In the absence of an international response, Hamas continues to demolish homes in the Gaza Strip — and other crimes against its own people — with impunity, leaving hundreds of families without shelter.

Hamas, the Iranian-backed terrorist movement controlling the Gaza Strip, is often one of the first Palestinian groups to condemn Israel for demolishing homes of terrorists or Palestinian-owned houses built illegally in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

While international human rights groups and the European Union have also been condemning Israel, they are ignoring home demolitions carried out by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In the past 10 years, Hamas has demolished not only houses, but also a mosque — a move that has received almost no attention from the international media and human rights organizations or the EU.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/demonstrating-against-the-forces-of-condescension/

Protestations to the contrary, the chattering classes in the press, academia and the courts have been on an endless campaign to delegitimize the right.

(May 26, 2020 / JNS) Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday afternoon to express their support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his arraignment. It was the first hearing of a trial that his champions had hoped would never materialize, and that his enemies had spent the past four years pressing for and salivating over.

The latter also turned out at the courthouse, mainly to gloat. But a greater number preferred to hold their anti-Netanyahu festival—replete with champagne and blessings of l’chaim—in front of his official residence on Balfour Street, a mere mile-and-a-half away.

Finally, after four years of investigations into the activities of their nemesis, they were getting their wish: that the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, whom they’ve been unable to beat at the ballot box, will end his career in disgrace, if not in jail.

But their schadenfreude may be short-lived—whatever fate befalls Netanyahu at the hands of the panel of three judges, hand-picked for the purpose of kicking him when he’s up.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/05/jordanian-king-abdullahs-empty-threats-caroline-glick/

Should Jordan’s King Abdullah have veto power over Israel’s plan to apply its sovereign laws to its cities, towns and villages in Judea and Samaria and to the Jordan Valley, in accordance with the Trump peace plan? Just recently, senior leaders of Israel’s Blue and White Party began making noises to that effect.

In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel last week, King Abdullah threatened, “If Israel really annexes the West Bank in July, it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.”

Subsequent news updates reported that “senior officials” from Blue and White were working to condition Israel’s implementation of the sovereignty plan on securing prior approval from Jordan.

During the ceremony at the Foreign Ministry marking the arrival of incoming Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Ashkenazi said that Israel will implement the Trump peace plan “in dialogue with our neighbors, [and while] preserving of the peace treaties and the State of Israel’s strategic interests.”

Taken together with these news updates, Ashkenazi’s remarks raised the prospect that he and his partner, Defense Minister and vice prime minister Benny Gantz see Abdullah’s threat as a justification for abandoning their support for the sovereignty plan. It bears recalling that during the negotiations leading up to the formation of the unity government between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud and Gantz and Blue and White, Netanyahu made Blue and White’s support for the sovereignty plan his only substantive condition for signing the deal.

Abdullah, of course, will never approve the sovereignty plan, so giving him a veto means shelving the plan. This raises the question of whether there is any reason to give the head of the Hashemite clan that sort of power. Can he cause Israel harm so grave that it should abandon the sovereignty plan to appease him?

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/prime-minister-netanyahu-in-the-dock/91145/

What a spectacle is underway in Israel, where Prime Minister Netanyahu is being prosecuted by his own government for bribery and other crimes that he was formally alleged to have committed before he was re-elected to a third term. It’s a lesson in constitutional conundrums from a country that doesn’t have a constitution — and not just because Mr. Netanyahu has entered the dock with all saddlebags flapping in the breeze.

“Netanyahu’s Defense Strategy Is to Undermine His Accuser, the State of Israel,” is the way the poser was put in Israel’s leading liberal daily, Haaretz, as the trial was getting underway. A country doesn’t have to have a constitution, it seems, for its headline writers to comprehend the implicit constitutional contradiction. Here in America, we’ve been marking the point as a special counsel pursued, in President Trump, his own boss.

In America, of course, there are ways around this problem. One would have been for President Trump to fire the prosecutor for trying to prosecute him in a way the President didn’t like. Mr. Trump was more forbearing, and merely unleashed tornados of tweets against Robert Mueller, until the prosecutor cleared him of collusion with the Russians. Another method for dealing with the predicament is impeachment. It, too, cleared Mr. Trump.