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ISRAEL

A Hatred Of Israel Is The One Thing All Anti-Semites Have In Common The only Jew-hatred still acceptable in public discourse is the kind masquerading as “anti-Zionism.” By David Harsanyi

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/29/its-a-hatred-of-israel-that-unites-all-anti-semites/

“The past few days provide a useful case study,” the New York Times’ Bari Weiss wrote this weekend. “Thursday: an anti-Zionist cartoon is published in the Times. Saturday: a white nationalist guns down Jews in synagogue. Sunday: Javad Zarif appears on Fox. The three strands of modern anti-Semitism: far-left, far-right and Islamist.”

Though Weiss correctly identifies the three strands of contemporary Jew-hatred, none of them are truly modern. To various degrees, Islamic anti-Semitism has been prevalent for a long time. Left-wing anti-Semitism is old as Marx (and, really, even older.) And right-wing nationalist anti-Semitism has been with us since the concept was birthed in Europe.

The only truly modern component found in all three strands is Israel. Anti-Israel sentiment is already the predominant justification for violence, murder, and hatred against Jews in the Middle East and Europe. Now it’s coming here. Sometimes it’s merely a transparent excuse for animosity, other times it’s the spark for that hatred.

The Passover shooting at the Poway Chabad synagogue in suburban San Diego was perpetrated by a 19-year-old gunman who seems to have acted alone. The man hadn’t cooked up his ugly ideas reading “Mein Kampf” in a cabin in the deep wilderness of Red America, but rather in a comfortable home in Southern California using the internet. The shooter wasn’t raised under the shadow of a Robert E. Lee statue or a Confederate flag, but rather in a substantially diverse area in a deeply liberal state.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

The first 3D printed heart. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed heart using human tissue that contains cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers. Although there are still many challenges ahead, fully working 3D printed hearts will one day be available for transplant into patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scientists-unveil-worlds-first-3d-printed-heart-with-human-tissue/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SXvKCNdM8khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGEcXHhLfn8

First bone transplant using 3D printed implant. Surgeons at Israel’s Hillel Yaffe Medical Center performed the first reconstruction of a bone segment with a custom titanium implant, printed on a 3D printer. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/455124

You’re full, so don’t binge eat. Israel’s Epitomee Medical is developing an orally administered “shape-shifting” capsule that works on the stomach through mechanosensory stimulation. It is intended to prolong the gastric emptying process of prediabetics and moderately obese patients, giving them the sensation of being full.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3760136,00.html
http://nocamels.com/2019/04/epitomee-medica-8m-capsules-treat-obesity-related-diseases/

Why Parkinson’s patients are unstable. Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered why Parkinson’s patients have difficulty transitioning from walking through turning around to sitting. It has led to new advice for patients that when turning to sit down, they should first turn, briefly stop, and then sit down.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/turn-stop-then-sit-a-research-based-guide-for-parkinsons-patients/

A partnership to beat cancer. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Weizmann Institute is partnering Institut Curie in Paris to advance knowledge and discovery in life sciences, physics and chemistry, focusing on cancer research. The new partnership also extends to cellular biology, epigenetics, genetics, immunology, single-cell sequencing.
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/WeizmannCompass/sections/features/weizmann-and-curie-a-new-partnership

Blocking cancer-spreading proteins. Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have designed molecules that stop cancer-promoting proteins from accelerating tumor growth. These molecules (called oligonucleotides) bind with the proteins, preventing them from binding with RNA molecules in cancer cells. The tumors then die.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/261922
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09523-0

Certification for cancer radiation treatment. (TY OurCrowd) I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Alpha Tau and its Alpha DaRT radiation therapy for cancer patients. It has just obtained UK certification following an audit by the British Standards Institution – the UK’s independent compliance body.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/breakthrough-cancer-therapy-developer-alpha-tau-awarded-iso-13485-certificate-for-quality-management-of-medical-devices-300830619.html

Early detection of colon cancer. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Medial EarlySign’s and its use of AI to search the data of Israeli health company Maccabi to detect patients with colon cancer. In the last 18 months, Medial’s algorithms have flagged 67 patients with colon cancer and 250 in a pre-colon cancer state.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mining-data-israeli-healthcare-provider-flags-colon-cancer-risk-patients/

The best antidepressant. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Taliaz is partnering with Psychiatry UK to deliver artificial intelligence-driven genetic testing to depression sufferers. Their Predictix service aims to reduce patient suffering by helping psychiatrists better identify the right antidepressant medication earlier.
https://www.israel21c.org/artificial-intel-finds-best-antidepressant-for-a-patient/
https://www.psychiatry-uk.com/predictix-genetic-testing/ https://www.taliazhealth.com/

A factory for gene therapies. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Stem Cell Medicine (SCM) uses gene therapy to develop new treatments for neurological indications and rare diseases. Israel’s Ministry of the Economy is funding SCM’s new gene therapy facility in Jerusalem. SCM’s first product is to treat neuropathic pain.
http://www.stemcell-medicine.com/stem-cell-medicine-scm-receives-israeli-government-funding-for-gene-therapy-facility/

Bacteria can “sense” pregnancy. Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have proved that the bacteria Bifidobacterium in a woman’s intestine can “sense” her pregnancy. It then grows quickly, to assist babies in breaking down the sugar in mother’s milk. The bacteria’s growth is triggered by the hormone progesterone.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/261977

Yasser’s Terrorist Jesus by David Littman November 15, 2004

In the past 2,000 years there have been numerous descriptions of Jesus of Nazareth, but the image of an Arab Jesus – “the first Palestinian fedayin who carried his sword” – as depicted by Yasir Arafat at a sideshow of the United Nations in 1983 was probably the most grotesque. Present at his first press conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on September 2, 1983, I heard the words from the UN simultaneous English interpretation of his spoken Arabic:

“We were under Roman imperialism. We sent a Palestinian fisherman, called St. Peter, to Rome. He not only occupied Rome, but also won the hearts of the people. We know how to resist imperialism and occupation. Jesus Christ was the first Palestinian fedayin who carried his sword along the path on which the Palestinians today carry their Cross.”1

There was a full house, but no one expressed either shock or disbelief, nor was there any later protestation from representatives of the Holy See or the World Council of Churches, even after my letter quoting his words was published in three Swiss newspapers.2 Yet few could ignore the historic fact that it was in 135 – 100 years after the death of Jesus – that the Roman Emperor Hadrian re-conquered Judea, changing its official name from Judea to Palestina. ( “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod…” Matthew 2:1)

Omar, Suleiman: ‘Jesus was a Palestinian’By Anne-Christine Hoff

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/04/omar_suleiman_jesus_was_a_palestinian.html

What do a Minnesota congresswoman, a Dallas imam, and the New York Times all have in common? In the past week all three have promoted the meme that Jesus was a Palestinian.On April 19, an op-ed in the New York Times stated that “Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was most likely a Palestinian man with dark skin.” On April 20 Congresswoman Ilhan Omar retweeted Dallas imam Omar Suleiman’s argument that Jesus was “Palestinian,” not Jewish.Such claims are part of a narrative that more and more seems to be insinuating itself into American political discourse. This narrative tends to paint both Jews and whites as inhuman oppressors and non-whites and Palestinians as their innocent victims.

Overseas investments in Israel expanded Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/2L296wX

1. 368 multinational corporations (mostly from the USA) operate in Israel – mainly research & development centers – leveraging Israel’s brain power. Most of the multinationals initialed operations with the acquisition of Israeli startups. 105 employ more than 100 persons each. 128 are in the area of information technology and enterprise software; 64 – telecommunications; 48 – life sciences; 42 – Internet; 38 – semiconductors, etc.

Intel has the largest presence – 12,800 employees in four research & development centers (Haifa, Jerusalem, Petah Tikvah and Yakum) and two manufacturing facilities (Jerusalem and Kiryat Gat, which is one of Intel’s most advanced facilities in the world), exporting $3.6BN annually. Intel’s 7th and 8th generation Intel-Core processors were developed mainly in Israel. Intel Capital’s investment portfolio includes 28 Israeli startups in the areas of cybersecurity, Internet, enterprise software, cloud computing, autonomous vehicles and 5G (the next phase in global telecommunications). In 2018, Intel Capital invested $120MN in 14 Israeli startups, out of a total of $400MN invested in 95 startups globally.
Additional multinational corporations operating in Israel: Microsoft, IBM, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Marvell, Apple, AT&T, Facebook, Google, Cisco, 3M, AOL, Yahoo, E-bay, Amazon, Pfizer, Oracle, Sony, SanDisk, Philips, Siemens, Deutsche Telecom, Alibaba, Huawei, etc.

2. A record of 211 overseas venture capital funds (mostly USA) operate in Israel – up from 149 in 2013 – primarily investing in software startups (source: Israel VC Research Center).

FDA approves 1st generic nasal spray to treat opioid overdose (From Israel)

U.S. regulators have approved the first generic nasal spray version of Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses. The Food and Drug Administration gave the green light Friday for naloxone spray from Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals.

“In the wake of the opioid crisis, a number of efforts are underway to make this emergency overdose reversal treatment more readily available and more accessible. In addition to this approval of the first generic naloxone nasal spray, moving forward we will prioritize our review of generic drug applications for naloxone,” Douglas Throckmorton, M.D., deputy center director for regulatory programs in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

Naloxone has been sold as a nasal spray in the U.S. since 2016 under the brand name Narcan. Pharmacists can dispense it without a prescription. It is also sold as a generic or brand-name drug in automatic injectors, prefilled syringes and vials.

A pack of two Narcan nasal sprays cost about $130 to $150 without insurance. Teva didn’t immediately provide the product’s price or when it will be available.

More than 47,600 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2017, a toll that has been rising for two decades.

How Palestinian Leaders Encourage Terrorism by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14134/palestinian-leaders-encourage-terrorism

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s remarks at the Arab League gathering in Cairo demonstrate his preference for the well-being of terrorists over the ability of hard-working employees to put bread on the table for their families. These payments to terrorists and their families lie at the heart of Palestinian incitement to terror that drives the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If anyone is collectively punishing the Palestinians, it is Abbas himself. He is depriving tens of thousands of families of full salaries, thus preventing them from purchasing food for their children or paying various fees, including rent and university tuition. A Palestinian civil service employee who sends his son to university does not get a full salary. A Palestinian whose son sets out to murder a Jew is entitled to a full salary and earns more respect from Palestinian leaders.

What message is Abbas sending to his people? That those who wish to eat had better turn to terror. The families of the public employees who are now unable to pay their grocery bill and rent are now looking at the families of the terrorists with envy. They must be saying to themselves: “We are suckers because we didn’t send our children to stab a Jew!” This is the education that the Palestinians leaders have been providing since 1965.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas recently reaffirmed his longstanding commitment to pay families of Palestinians who were imprisoned for or killed during terrorist attacks against Israelis. “We have been paying the families of the prisoners and martyrs since 1965,” Abbas told Arab League Foreign Ministers during an emergency meeting in Cairo on April 21.

Abbas’s insistence on paying millions of dollars to families of Palestinians who murder or attempt to murder Jews, has cost the Palestinians a heavy price. In the past two months, Abbas’s government has been unable to pay full salaries to its 200,000 employees. The reason? Israel has begun deducting, from the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, the same amount the PA government pays each month to the families of the prisoners and “martyrs.”

The European Union: Nurturing Instability and Terrorism in the Middle East by Naomi Linder Kahn

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14011/european-union-palestinians-instability

The apparent objective of the Palestinian Authority (PA) is to annex these areas and bring them under PA control as part of its larger plan for the unilateral creation of a Palestinian state. This plan was publicized in 2009, in an official PA document written by then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; since its publication, it has been carried out virtually unhindered, with the help of massive European funding in violation of the Oslo Accords, and in violation of international law. Additionally, this type of activity is more easily presented to international media outlets and foreign benefactors as “humanitarian aid.”

The key actor in these land-grab projects is the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC). UAWC maintains close organizational and operational ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terror organization that has carried out many deadly attacks against Israel’s citizens – including numerous suicide bombings in the 2000s. UAWC is funded, for the most part, by European governments and humanitarian aid organizations, and by the European Union.

In recent years, and in particular since 2013, the Palestinians have intensified agricultural activity as a means of quickly and efficiently seizing large swaths of land under the guise of humanitarian aid for farmers. This activity is illegal and violates the international treaties to which the PA is a signatory. But this has not troubled foreign governments and organizations, including the European Union, who continue to bankroll this illegal activity – while at the same time vocally criticizing the State of Israel.

Under the guise of “agricultural assistance,” the Palestinian Authority is taking over Area C (the area placed under full Israeli jurisdiction in the Oslo Accords, pending a full peace agreement which would establish sovereignty over the area for one side or the other), with the help of massive European financial support — in violation of the law, and of international agreements signed by the EU.

Over the past decade, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has implemented a long-term program aimed at taking control of strategic locations in Area C of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. The PA’s apparent objective is to annex these areas and bring them under PA control, as part of its larger plan for the unilateral creation of a Palestinian state. This plan was publicized in 2009, in an official PA document written by then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; since its publication, it has been carried out virtually unhindered, with the help of massive European funding.

Ruthie Blum: Measles was eradicated … now it’s back, thanks to anti-vaxxers

https://www.jns.org/opinion/measles-was-eradicated-now-its-back-thanks-to-anti-vaxxers/

More than 110,000 cases of the measles have been reported worldwide since the beginning of the year. Countries once free of the measles are now in danger of reverting to the days before such a blessing existed.

Israel’s national carrier, El Al, has set up a special inoculation station at Ben-Gurion Airport to vaccinate its employees against the measles. So far, some 250 ground and flight crews have been vaccinated, with likely more to come.

The makeshift clinic was created after the Israeli Health Ministry ordered all local airlines to inoculate their staff and called on the Israeli public to get fully vaccinated before taking any trips out of the country.

The directive came after a 43-year-old El Al flight attendant contracted the measles during a flight that set out from John F. Kennedy Airport on March 26 and landed in Tel Aviv the following day. Although the woman was otherwise healthy and had been vaccinated as a child, she nevertheless caught the contagious disease, as she had received only one shot of the vaccine, rather than the recommended two doses these days. After being rushed to the hospital upon landing in Israel, she fell into a coma, and is thought to have suffered brain damage.The same fate befell a 10-year-old boy on a flight to Israel.

The Persecution of Palestinians No One Mentions by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14098/palestinians-persecution-saudi-arabia

In Lebanon, Palestinians have long been facing discriminatory and “Apartheid laws” that deny them basic rights, including access to dozens of skilled professions, health-care and education services. According to some reports, thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing Lebanon in recent years as a result of the dire economic conditions and government regulations that deny them basic rights.

In 2015, a Saudi court sentenced Palestinian artist and poet Ashraf Fayadh to death by beheading for “apostasy.” Later, however, the court overturned the death sentence and replaced it with an eight-year prison term and 800 lashes. The “evidence” against Fayadh was based on poems included in his book Instructions Within, as well as social media posts and conversations he had in a coffee shop in Saudi Arabia.

Palestinian leaders do not seem to care about the suffering of their people at the hands of Arabs. Yet, these same leaders are quick to condemn Israel on almost every occasion and available platform. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are so busy fighting each other (and Israel) that they seem to have forgotten about the Palestinians in Arab countries, being killed, wounded and arrested every day.

Saudi Arabia appears to have joined the list of Arab countries that mistreat Palestinians.

In Syria, thousands of Palestinians have been wounded, murdered and arrested since the beginning of the civil war in 2011. The latest statistics show that nearly 4,000 Palestinians — 3,920 to be exact — have been killed in Syria in the past nine years, while 1,750 others are being held in various Syrian government prisons. Another 323 Palestinians have gone missing during the same period.

In Lebanon, Palestinians have long been facing discriminatory and “Apartheid laws” that deny them basic rights, including access to dozens of skilled professions, health-care and education services. According to some reports, thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing Lebanon in recent years as a result of the dire economic conditions and government regulations that deny them basic rights.