Displaying posts categorized under

ISRAEL

Thank heaven for fools Nothing will do for them except 100 percent of everything, Jack Engelhard ****

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/25162

Thank heaven for fools

The worry is that these people, such as Abbas and Olmert, will wake up and realize that the deal of the century is a boon for the Palestinian Arabs.

Meantime, the big deal is a big flop, for reasons some people, like this observer, don’t understand.

I mean, I hate it too, but for opposite reasons. I registered my qualms here, here and here, but would rather not mention it again, lest it gives them ideas.

Ideas about how sweet it is for the Arab side, and how bitter it is for the Israelis, for whom a two-state solution has always been anathema. 

The Palestinian Arabs, under Kushner’s plan, get their own country, for crying out land. What more do they want? Plenty, I know.

But having your own country means you get to pretend you’re part of the civilized world. The Palestinian Arabs get it after producing, some would say, nothing, except terrorism.

Shouldn’t they be thankful? Doesn’t work that way, apparently, and not for the rest of the world, either, neither the UN or the EU.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL COMPILED BY MICHAEL ORDMAN

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Inhibiting an enzyme may cure Alzheimer’s. Israel’s ProteKt Therapeutics is developing a treatment for early stage Alzheimer’s disease. It inhibits the PKR enzyme that is over-expressed in Alzheimer’s patients and may slow or even reverse the progress of the disease. It also has potential for ALS, Huntington and Parkinson’s.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-hopes-to-battle-alzheimers-with-enzyme-busting-drug/

Orphan status for pancreatic cancer treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) The European Commission has just granted Orphan drug status to the BL-8040 (Motixafortide) pancreatic cancer treatment from Israel’s BioLineRX (see here). BioLineRX can now receive benefits including EU funding, less regulation, and market exclusivity.

https://ir.biolinerx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/biolinerx-receives-orphan-drug-designation-motixafortide-bl-8040

HealthTECH World Cancer Day. Tel Aviv University represented Israel on World Cancer day as one of five European cities simultaneously broadcasting news of the latest technological developments in cancer diagnosis and treatment. The event was sponsored by the NOBEL Project, which is revolutionizing healthcare in Europe.

https://en-med.tau.ac.il/event/healthtech/world/cancer/day/2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sTRkSG6Zwc  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsgEkVqQF0I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVdtmZz3WA

Sheba’s partners Berlin AI for cancer R&D. (TY Atid-EDI) Berlin’s caresyntax, has launched an R&D partnership with the ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) complex at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. They will use Artificial Intelligence to develop algorithms for predicting outcomes for cancer treatment procedures.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200107005204/en/caresyntax-ARC-Sheba-Medical-Center-Launch-Collaboration   https://caresyntax.com/news/caresyntax-sheba-medical-launch-collaboration/

US approves complete AI stroke detection package. (TY Atid-EDI) The US FDA previously approved the brain scan software from Israel’s Aidoc (Oct 2018),. It has now approved all four of Aidoc’s AI products, so its comprehensive package can quickly identify and triage both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in CT scans.

https://www.aidoc.com/blog/news/ai-saving-brain-fda-clears-aidocs-complete-ai-stroke-package/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OQOZedPlmY

Accelerating regenerative medicine. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s CollPlant is partnering with US-based 3D Systems to spur breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. It brings together top 3D-printing technology with Collprint’s bioink technology for 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs.

https://ir.collplant.com/press-releases/detail/83/3d-systems-and-collplant-biotechnologies-join-forces-to

https://www.3dsystems.com/press-releases/3d-systems-and-collplant-biotechnologies-join-forces-accelerate-breakthroughs

Space medical research with Italy. (TY WIN) Israel and Italy are to launch a satellite in March, on which medical research will be conducted in zero gravity. The mission involves Israel’s SpacePharma (see here), Israel’s Technion, Sheba hospital, the Hebrew University and the Israeli and Italian space agencies.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/02/06/israel-italy-eye-joint-scientific-space-venture/

https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Israeli-scientific-experiments-to-be-performed-in-outer-space-597127

https://www.space4p.com/missions

Body on a chip. (TY David F) A team of over 50 researchers at Harvard University and Tel Aviv University (TAU) have successfully built human “organs-on-chips” that aim to speed up trials of new treatments. They have linked 10 chips together to form a “functional human Body-on-Chips platform”.

http://nocamels.com/2020/02/tau-harvard-researchers-human-body-chip-drug-response/

Microsoft Israel gives patients hope. As reported previously (Feb 2019) Microsoft’s Israeli R&D team developed the Microsoft Healthcare AI virtual medical assistant. Team leader Hadas Bitran describes the project. They are now working on the New Hope project to match patients with clinical trials around the globe.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/this-microsoft-health-assistant-bot-was-made-in-israel/

The first Hasid to graduate from Israeli med school. Dr. Yehuda Sabiner is the first Israeli-born Haredi to graduate from medical school. A member of the Gerrer Hasidic sect, Yehuda enrolled at Israel’s Technion, graduated and will intern at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. 35 Haredim are now following in his footsteps.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/first-israeli-born-hasidic-doctor-blazes-new-trail-in-medicine/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vtf2pPywyY

IDF Soldiers Wounded in Jerusalem Car-Ramming Attack Attend Their Western Wall Swearing-In Hours Later avatar by Benjamin Kerstein

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/06/idf-soldiers-wounded-in-jerusalem-car-ramming-attack-attend-their-western-wall-swearing-in-hours-later/

In spite of their injuries, a group of IDF soldiers managed to make it their swearing-in ceremony on Thursday night at the Western Wall in Jerusalem despite being wounded in a car-ramming attack near the city’s old train station in the early morning.

Twelve Golani Brigade soldiers were hit by a car driven by a Palestinian terrorist while on their way to the induction event following the completion of their military training. There were no fatalities, and the perpetrator was arrested Thursday evening at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank.

The attack came amidst a wave of terror attacks, including a shooting near the Temple Mount and another in the West Bank.

Several of the injured soldiers, some using crutches, arrived at the Western Wall to be sworn in. Others watched a live broadcast of the ceremony from the hospital.

Palestinians: Arab Leaders Talking to Israel Are ‘Traitors, Jews’ by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15547/palestinians-arab-leaders-israel

Why is it permissible for Egypt’s Abdel Fattah Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah to have diplomatic relations with Israel, and not permissible for the leader of Sudan to sit with the Israeli prime minister?

Several key Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, seem to be fed up with the ongoing Palestinian rejection of every proposed Palestinian-Israeli peace plan. The Palestinians have never even proposed a counter-offer.

The Palestinians’ threats and condemnations… seem primarily aimed at deterring Arabs from even considering the possibility of making peace with Israel. The former stand-off was working brilliantly for the Palestinians; why stop?

The Palestinian leadership would like to continue holding the entire Arab world hostage to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What the Palestinian leaders clearly do not want is for Arab leaders to act in the interests of their own people.

Arab heads of state now have the opportunity to decide whether they will permit Palestinian leaders to continue their time-tested strategy of terrorizing everyone into submission, or — unlike the Palestinian leaders — to seek the best for their own people.

After rejecting and strongly condemning US President Donald Trump’s plan for Mideast peace, the Palestinian leadership has now found the time to threaten Arabs not to make peace with Israel. In addition, Palestinian leaders have also stepped up their attacks against the US and are inciting Arabs against the Americans and Arab leaders who maintain close ties with the Trump administration.

The vicious Palestinian attacks on the US increased after Trump announced last week his “Peace to Prosperity” plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Shortly after the announcement, Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah and other West Bank and Gaza Strip cities to burn photos of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as US and Israeli flags. The protests erupted shortly after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a speech in Ramallah in which he rejected the Trump plan, dubbing it a “conspiracy” and “slap of the century.”

Trump’s Heroic Truth And Israel’s historic opportunity. Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/trumps-heroic-truth-caroline-glick/

In Israel’s early years, every time the U.S. ambassador traveled to Jerusalem to meet with government leaders, he would have his chauffeur stop his car at the entrance to the city, and replace its diplomatic license plates with regular civilian plates. The State Department refused to recognize that Jerusalem was part of Israel. The license plates were for Israel. And so, in a show of contempt and rejection of Israel’s right to its capital city, he removed his diplomatic plates before entering Jerusalem, and put them back on when he left.

President Harry Truman was the first world leader to recognize the State of Israel, just moments after David Ben-Gurion declared its independence on May 14, 1948. But his recognition was skin deep. Truman, like all of his successors until Donald Trump, recognized Israel’s existence but didn’t recognize the Jewishness of Israel. He saw Israel as a refuge for Holocaust survivors and other Jews fleeing persecution, but he didn’t accept that the nation of Israel in 1948 was the nation of Israel from the Bible. He didn’t accept that the Jewish refugees in European DP camps were the descendants of the prophets or that the forefathers of the kibbutzniks in the Jezreel Valley were the priests at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Israel, as far as he was concerned, was a new state, a poor state of Jewish refugees. And he treated it accordingly.

Truman’s anti-historical view of the Jewish state produced a two-faced American policy towards Israel. On the one hand, the American officials spoke warmly of the Jewish homeland. On the other hand, they treated Israel like a beggar that should be thankful for scraps and loose change.

Right from Wrong: Iran’s panicky push for Palestinian jihad Iran “considers it its duty to support Palestinian groups and will help them in any way it can.” By RUTHIE BLUM

https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Right-from-Wrong-Irans-panicky-push-for-Palestinian-jihad-616765

Whenever Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launches into a rant against the United States and Israel you know his regime is in a panic. His angry oration on Wednesday was no exception.

Nor was the timing of his diatribe coincidental. Not only did it take place as the mullahs and their puppets marked the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that ousted the Shah of Iran and ushered in the reign of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but it came a day after US President Donald Trump delivered his third State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.The contrast between the two speeches could not have been greater. While Trump’s was uplifting and cheerful – conveying an optimistic message to the American people about successfully striving for and achieving success – Khamenei’s was vitriolic and aimed at encouraging Palestinians to escalate their efforts to eradicate Israel.

“You saw that the US bullies and hooligans unveiled the so-called ‘Deal of the Century,’” he bellowed, referring to Trump’s announcement the previous week of his much-touted, long-awaited “Peace to Prosperity” plan. “They have wishfully chosen a big name for it so that it may be realized, but [it] is stupid, a sign of viciousness and has been detrimental to them since day one.”

Khamenei went on: “The American plot of the ‘Deal of the Century’ will die before Trump dies… [It] is foolish, because it will definitely not have any result. It is foolish to come and sit, spend money, invite, create uproar and unveil a plan that is doomed to failure.

Trump aide: Rising anti-Semitism will lead to settlement growth

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/02/06/trump-aide-rising-anti-semitism-will-lead-to-settlement-growth/
“The Israeli birth rate is strong and is growing because sadly anti-Semitism in Europe and other places around the world is encouraging more Jews to return to Israel. The settlements are going to continue to expand,” says Robert O’Brien, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser warned Palestinians on Wednesday that Israeli settlements will continue to expand because rising anti-Semitism around the world means more Jews will immigrate to Israel.

Addressing many hot-button global issues in a speech and discussion with foreign diplomats to the United States, Robert O’Brien defended Trump’s Mideast peace plan, which was embraced by Israel but rejected by the Palestinians.

O’Brien said the plan is not “perfect,” but urged the Palestinians to negotiate terms of the proposed deal. The deal offers economic benefits that would allow “Palestine” to become the “Singapore of the Middle East,” he said.

The Palestinians have roundly denounced the proposal, which offers them limited self-rule in chunks of territory with a capital in parts of east Jerusalem while allowing Israel to annex portions of Judea and Samaria.

President Trump Joins the ‘Peace Processors’ Can “the Deal of the Century” work if Palestinian Arabs hate Israel more than they love peace? Bruce Thornton

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/president-trump-joins-peace-processors-bruce-thornton/

For decades the “peace process,” the attempt to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict, has tempted American presidents into trying to achieve international diplomacy’s biggest prize. Apart from the cold “peace” Jimmy Carter brokered between Israel and Egypt ––a success predicated on the U.S. giving Egypt $1.5 billion a year in foreign aid––all the other attempts have foundered on Arab Palestinian intransigence, corruption, and fanatical devotion to the destruction of Israel.

Some commentators, however, now believe that given changing geopolitical circumstance and Trump’s rejection of the old anti-Israel paradigm, this string of failure has a good chance of ending with Trump’s “deal of the century.” But odds are it will add just one more exercise in futility, since the Palestinian Arabs simply do not want to make a deal, and are more committed to the dysfunctional (and, for its leaders, lucrative) status quo than they are to creating a viable economy and a normal nation living “side-by-side in peace” with Israel.

Trump’s deal endorses a Palestinian state on 70% of Judea and Samaria, an area twice the size of the land the Palestinian Authority currently controls, with a transportation corridor between the so-called “occupied West Bank” and Gaza; designates East Jerusalem as its capital; and promises $50 billion in multinational development aid. But it puts the burden of concessions on the PA rather than Israel: Disarming terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, ending “pay to slay” money to the families of terrorists who die during an attack, and recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinian Arabs will also have to abandon its demand of a “right to return” for an ever-metastasizing number of  “refugees” from the 1948 war, accept Israeli control over an undivided Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and stop its school curricula and state propaganda that incite hatred of Israel and legitimizes terrorist violence against it.

Palestinian Liberation or Islamic Conquest? Palestinians demand justice for themselves — and injustice for the rest of the world. Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/palestinian-liberation-or-islamic-conquest-raymond-ibrahim/

What drives Muslim animus for Israel: brotherly love for “oppressed” Palestinians or religious hatred for “infidel” Jews?

A recent incident in Jerusalem goes a long way in answering this question.  Hizb al-Tahrir—the “Liberation Party”—held a large, outdoor event near al-Aqsa mosque to commemorate the anniversary of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople (May 29, 1453).  There, as he had done before, Palestinian cleric Nidhal Siam made clear that, from an Islamic perspective, liberation and conquest are one and the same.

After all the takbirs (chants of “Allahu Akbar”) had subsided, Siam spoke:

Oh Muslims, the anniversary of the conquest [fath/فتح, literally, “opening”] of Constantinople brings tidings of things to come. It brings tidings that Rome will be conquered in the near future, Allah willing….  We are approaching the fulfillment of three prophecies, and we pray that Allah will fulfill these prophecies by our hands. The first prophecy is the establishment of the rightly-guided Caliphate in accordance with the way of the prophet. The second prophecy is the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of the state of the Caliphate. The third prophecy is that Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and that its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth. This is Allah’s promise, and Allah does not renege on his promises.

He and the assembled throng then repeatedly chanted, “By means of the Caliphate and the consolidation of power, Mehmed the Conqueror vanquished Constantinople!” and “Your conquest, oh Rome, is a matter of certainty!”

Israel Harshly Criticizes European Union Over Rejection of Trump Middle East Peace Plan

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/04/israel-harshly-criticizes-eu-over-rejection-of-trump-middle-east-peace-plan/

The European Union rejected parts of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Middle East on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Israel which has strongly backed the American proposal.

The plan, announced by Trump last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, was rejected outright by the Palestinians.

The EU, which often takes time to respond to international developments because of a need for unanimity among its 27 members, had said last week that it needed to study the Trump plan before it would give its verdict.

It made its conclusions public on Tuesday in a statement from EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said Trump’s plan departs from “internationally agreed parameters.”