RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273063/unhrc-spews-another-modern-day-blood-libel-ari-lieberman

The United Nations Human Rights Council, the body that sanctioned and peddled the now infamous and thoroughly discredited Goldstone Report (later repudiated by its principle author, Richard Goldstone) is at it again. Late last week, the UNHRC, whose membership includes democracy stalwarts like Cuba, Venezuela, Pakistan and China, released a commission of inquiry (COI)report accusing Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by deliberately targeting “journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such.”

The 22-page report purportedly examined the deaths of 189 Gazans allegedly at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces since March 30, 2018. That date coincides with the beginning of the Hamas–orchestrated and choreographed Palestinian riots along the Gaza border, dubbed by the terror group, “the Great March of Return.”

Israel did not cooperate with the UNHRC’s investigators and for good reason. The UNHRC is an irredeemably flawed organization whose well-documented bias has made it the poster child for antisemitism on the world stage. The body is obsessed with vilifying Israel to the exclusion of all other nations and maintains the infamous Agenda Item 7, which mandates debate on Israeli actions against Palestinians at every council session. No other nation on the planet, including those with abysmal human rights records, is subjected to such outrageous treatment.

Clearly, there can be but one reason for such “special” treatment. Seventy-four years after the Holocaust and the martyrdom of six-million Jews, the United Nations chooses to obsessively focus its negative energies on the world’s only Jewish nation. The same fascist, anti-Semitic ideology that infected Germany then, infects today’s UNHRC and similar UN committees like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO is driven by a near-mad obsession with severing the Jewish nexus to the Land of Israel.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-From-Wrong-Sexual-harassment-hypocrisy-582783
The exception to this rule, it turns out, is a woman whose accusations could cause problems for the only candidate who poses a threat to Netanyahu’s continued premiership.

When Israeli ex-pat Navarone (Nava) Jacobs came forward on February 27 with a Facebook post about having been sexually victimized by Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz some 40 years ago, the only person who seemed to respond without stammering was the alleged perpetrator himself.

Indeed, while the Israeli #MeToo movement barely blinked over the allegations – and said that there is “no corroborating evidence” to back up Jacobs’s account – Gantz immediately filed a NIS 500,000 ($142,000) libel suit against her at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court. The suit claims that Jacobs’s accusations are “false from start to finish,” and that she “acted at the behest of, or with the help of political parties that seek to humiliate and discredit Gantz,” ahead of the April 9 Knesset elections.

In her social-media post, the New York-based Jacobs, who has been living in the United States since 1980, wrote that when she was a 14-year-old freshman at Hakfar Hayarok boarding school in Ramat Hasharon, Gantz — who was 17 or 18 at the time and a senior at the same institution — cornered her in the cowshed and exposed himself.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273065/israel-cross-hairs-international-criminal-court-joseph-klein

The Palestinians have weaponized the International Criminal Court (ICC). Leveraging the decision of the United Nations General Assembly to bestow Palestine with the title “Non-Member Observer State,” the Palestinian leaders decided to join the ICC, which accepted its application with open arms. Then, on May 15, 2018, the Palestinians exercised their “right as a State Party to the Rome Statute to refer the Situation of Palestine for immediate investigation” of alleged Israeli crimes to the ICC prosecutor, who had previously opened an informal “preliminary examination” on her own initiative.

The Palestinians’ referral checked many of the boxes defining the crimes subject to ICC jurisdiction, particularly the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. On May 24, 2018, the ICC’s Presidency assigned the “Situation in Palestine” to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber, which took steps to begin informing alleged “victims” as to the ICC’s role and activities, so they can “properly exercise their rights.”

The ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s office issued its “Report on Preliminary Examination Activities” for 2018 dated December 5, 2018, which included a section on the Palestinian situation. It appears that a decision is near on whether to open a formal investigation into Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza mentioned in the report, including demolition of Palestinian property, eviction of Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, plans to evacuate residents of the Bedouin village Khan al-Ahmar, settlements construction, the 2014 Gaza war, and more recent violence in and around the Gaza Strip border with Israel stemming from Palestinian mass protests. Experts believe that the prosecutor will open such an investigation with the Pre-Trial Chamber’s blessing in the near future, especially in light of her recent expressions of concern over continuing casualties in the proximity of the Gaza border with Israel.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-palestinians-continue-to-prove-the-peace-fantasists-wrong/

As Mahmoud Abbas himself told leaders in Baghdad, the Trump administration “is encouraging Israel to be a state above the law,” as well as “biased and not suitable to be a sponsor of peace talks.”

The Palestinians have been busy for the past week demonstrating in word and deed that U.S. President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” will be dead on arrival.

In an op-ed on Sunday in the official, Palestinian Authority-controlled daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, who served as national-affairs adviser to former P.A. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, launched an assault on the White House. While he was at it, he offended all people with special needs.As Palestinian Media Watch reported, Al-Ghoul wrote, “Anyone who looks at [Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt] discovers that he has external and inner characteristics similar to those suffering from Down syndrome: He is short, his eyes are similar to Mongoloid eyes, he prattles unrestrainedly, and is politically retarded.”

http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/making-news-ignoring-real-problems/

srael is shaken and wounded. On Thursday, the country’s top prosecutor, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, with 57 pages of allegations, announced his intention to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, thereby not only undermining a great leader – a key political figure both at home and abroad – but also clearly trying to heavily influence the outcome of the upcoming general election to be held on April 9.

Now that the judicial machine has been launched, it is quite realistic to think that Likud’s predominance will be put at risk in the coming days. According to the polls, it is already expected to lose four Knesset seats, thereby leading to a standoff with the opposing force, the Blue and White party, which was formed between Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience Party and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. It’s not surprising that the timing of Mendelblit’s decision has people talking about a political putsch.

The chill of the situation – the embarrassment of a country – is also accompanied by overt expressions of satisfaction, even of crazy joy by a broad array of detractors, particularly the world’s media, almost all hostile towards Netanyahu. For years now, they have made Bibi their designated target, and on Thursday, the TV screens were home to scandalous parties of collective satisfaction. In the hours following Mendelblit’s announcement, the delight in which the media networks took in covering has certainly been an event in itself.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Early pregnancy blood test for genetic disorders. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new blood test to detect genetic disorders in fetuses as early as 11 weeks into pregnancy. DNA in the mother and father’s blood is sequenced. Then fetal DNA fragments in the mother’s blood is checked for any mutations.
https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/TAU-develops-blood-test-to-detect-genetic-disorders-in-early-pregnancy-581252

Identifying the early signs of heart failure. Israel’s Technion has partnered with Israeli startup Cordio Medical to develop a smartphone app to identify the first signs of heart failure. The app detects changes in a person’s voice due to lung fluid – an early warning of congestive heart failure. Clinical trials are in progress.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/technion-working-with-startup-on-app-to-identify-early-signs-of-heart-failure/

AI system for diabetes treatment. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes monitors. DreaMed has just partnered with French company BioCorp to create an Artificially Intelligent system that integrates BioCorp’s Mallya smart cap for pen injectors with DreaMed’s Advisor Pro insulin analysis system.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190220005514/en/BIOCORP-DreaMed-Diabetes-Join-Offer-Outstanding-AI https://dreamed-diabetes.com/advisor/

Artificial Intelligence to benefit humanity. A brief introduction to Israel’s Weizmann Institute’s new Artificial Intelligence Center for Scientific Exploration. It highlights Professor Yaron Lipman’s recent AI breakthrough in developing the On-Sight algorithm to automate heart function measurement from ultrasound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITAtrt7iv6s
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/math-computer-science/algorithm-rivals-experts-could-save-lives

Why black women suffer hair loss. A 7-year international study led by Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Professor Eli Sprecher, has revealed that a defect in the protein gene PAD13 is responsible for hair loss due to Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia [CCCA]. The condition affects 5% of African-American women.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Bald-black-woman-Israeli-scientists-make-the-leap-towards-a-cure-580698
https://read.qxmd.com/read/30763140/variant-padi3-in-central-centrifugal-cicatricial-alopecia

Predicting sports injuries. Israeli-founded startup Zone7 (InPlay Ltd) has developed software that analyzes data from wearables and video, tracks medical condition and performance and forecasts injuries. It is used by soccer clubs in the UK, Israel, and Spain. Zone7 has just raised $2.5 million including from top sportsmen.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756158,00.html http://zone7.ai/

Hotline saves Israeli lives. ERAN is Israel’s only crisis intervention hotline, with 1,200 vetted and highly-trained volunteers, plus 25 full and part-time staff. They handled nearly 200,000 calls in 2018 and prevented some 800 likely suicides. ERAN has also trained 25 ex-pat Israelis in Canada to help cover overnight shifts.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-expats-in-canada-staff-hebrew-suicide-hotline-to-serve-their-homeland/

Stem cell transplant restored vision. Surgeons at Haifa’s Rambam hospital have restored vision to a woman suffering from chemical burns on her eyes. They took amniotic membrane from a mother who had undergone a Caesarian section and sewed it underneath the patient’s eyelids. After a short recovery, she could see!
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israqeli-doctors-restore-vision-with-revolutionary-membrane-transplant/

A center for stem cell donations. Israel has just opened the Ezer Mizion Stem Cell Harvesting Center – the first Israeli medical center specially designed to collect stem cells for bone marrow transplants. It will enable the public to donate stem cells in a dedicated environment, without having to spend up to 7 hours in hospital.
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/israels-first-stem-cell-harvesting-center-established-outside-of-a-hospital-opened-by-ezer-mizion/

Eat healthy in Israel. (TY Jacob Richman) The Israel Ministry of Health has been running a TV and social media campaign against processed food. It recommends alternatives such as fresh chicken, legumes, and fresh vegetables. Jacob has created a page of the videos with English translations.
https://jr.co.il/videos/eat-healthy-hebrew-videos.htm
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3757091,00.html

https://worldisraelnews.com/new-poll-following-indictments-announcement-netanyahu-cannot-form-a-right-wing-coalition-68-percent-want-resignation/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1551562412&pushcrew_powered=1

A new poll taken after Israel’s attorney general announced that he will indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges shows that Netanyahu would not be able to form a right-wing government if elections were held today, and that 68 percent of the Israeli public wants him to resign now or after he is formally indicted.

The announcement of intent to indict was made on Thursday and charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in corruption cases dealing with gifts from supporters and alleged media collusion to give the prime minister favorable coverage in return for political and regulatory favors.

Netanyahu responded to the announcement with a combative speech in which he declared the investigation a left-wing witch hunt intended to aid the election of his primary rivals — the Blue and White party led by ex-IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid.

According to the poll published by Israeli broadcaster Kan, the announcement has weakened Netanyahu’s Likud and boosted Blue and White. If the elections were held today, Blue and White would receive 37 seats and Likud 29.