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ISRAEL

More UN lies about Israel A new UN report on Israel’s ‘gender-based violence’ against Palestinians is full of hogwash. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/16/more-un-lies-about-israel/

The United Nations is hardly known for fair or cool commentary on Israel. But its latest report really takes the biscuit. It comes from its Human Rights Council. It is titled ‘More Than a Human Can Bear’. It is a breathless account of all the ‘gender-based violence’ Israel has apparently visited on Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas War. ‘Gender persecution’ and ‘sexual violence’ have been rife courtesy of those monsters in the Israel Defence Forces, the report says. Guess what? It’s hogwash. This is without question one of the most dishonest official documents I have ever read.

The report made waves in the global media this week. And in the Israelophobic cesspit of social media, where there’s a voracious appetite for tales of Israeli evil. ‘UN experts accuse Israel of sexual violence and “genocidal acts” in Gaza’, said a BBC headline. The Washington Post wrung its hands over Israel’s use of ‘sexual humiliation’ as a weapon of war. These people should have read the report. They’d have discovered that many of the things these ‘experts’ refer to as ‘sexual humiliation’ and ‘gender-based violence’ are in fact normal wartime events, common to virtually every conflict in history.

Consider the report’s analysis of the IDF’s treatment of ‘men and boys’ in Gaza. There’s a whole chapter on ‘sexual violence against men and boys’. Apparently, men and boys were frequently ‘subjected to acts of a sexual nature’. It sounds awful, until you realise that the ‘experts’ include within this definition such run-of-the-mill activities as searching fighting-age males for weapons. The IDF, conscious that suicide bombings are a favoured military tactic of Hamas, sometimes requires arrested men to undress to their underwear. And the report refers to this as ‘forced public stripping’, violence with ‘sexual characteristics’. There’s no other way to put it: this is insane.

The idea that the IDF gets a kick from compelling fighting-age males to undress is at best misinformation, and at worst yet another defamation against the Jewish State, which is always seen as having uniquely nefarious motives. The report laments the ‘forced public nudity’ experienced by ‘men and boys’ in Gaza, as if the IDF were a gang of porn-sick voyeurs. Making fighting-age men remove their outer clothing is not ‘sexual violence’, you loons – it’s a means for the IDF to search for suicide belts. Hundreds of Israelis have been butchered by Hamas ‘men and boys’ wearing bombs under their shirts. To demonise Israel’s hunt for such weaponry as a perversion, as the sick thrill of ‘forced nudity’, is bad faith on steroids.

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Ex-hostages give Purim gifts to cancer children. Heroic former hostages Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy joined Rabbi Asher Levi to bring joy to cancer patients at Schneider Children’s Medical Center, delivering Purim gifts and sharing a powerful message: “Giving to others gives us strength.”
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-released-female-hostages-give-out-purim-gifts-to-children-battling-cancer/
 
130-year-old violin given to ex-hostage. Tzachi Beck refurbished and gifted a 130-year-old Czechian violin d to freed hostage Agam Berger.  Agam played Amir Benayoun’s “You overcame everything with me.” breathing new life into its strings, decades after its original owner, an orchestral violinist, perished in the Holocaust. 
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-845407
 
Hostage’s grape juice lasted 5 months. Released hostage Omer Shem-Tov told of a miracle he experienced in captivity. “For five months, I had half a bottle of grape juice that I used for Kiddush. The bottle never ran out, and the juice never spoiled. It showed me how good God is and how He was with me.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/405094
 
Turning a Kibbutz green. Residents of Kibbutz Be’eri live on dry, arid land in Kibbutz Hatzerim while Be’eri is being rebuilt. 2,700 Birthright Israel volunteers in 100 groups will create 300 gardens – one for each Be’eri family and the surrounding areas. They will feature 1,500 trees, 41,000 herb plants, and thousands of flowers.
https://www.jns.org/wire/birthright-israel-launches-major-greening-initiative-for-hard-hit-kibbutz-beeri/
 
Sunshine volunteers. A group of volunteers ages 55 and older recently participated in Jewish National Fund-USA’s inaugural Sunshine Volunteer Mission to Israel. They spent five days restoring Israeli communities destroyed on Oct 7 2023, fixed schools and playgrounds, helped farmers, prepared food for the IDF and more.
https://www.jns.org/wire/jewish-volunteers-ages-55-plus-leave-lasting-impact-on-mission-to-israel/
 
Let’s get to work. Ex-hostage Gadi Mozes has called on his fellow Kibbutz Nir Oz members to rebuild their destroyed kibbutz and help return it to its former glory. Mozes (80) has decided “to buckle down, to roll up my sleeves and to join all those who want our home, Nir Oz, to return to being a warm and vibrant home.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/lets-get-to-work-ex-hostage-gadi-mozes-calls-on-nir-oz-members-to-rebuild/
 
Strawberry fields forever. Uri Patkin owns the strawberry farm Uri Tutim in Moshav Yesha near the Gaza border. Yesha’s emergency squad bravely fought off terrorists on Oct 7 2023, at a heavy price. Now Uri is once again farming his high-quality, long shelf-life, hanging strawberries.
https://www.israel21c.org/strawberries-bloom-once-again-near-the-gaza-border/  https://uritutim.co.il/
 
An IDF rescue from Gaza. Israeli hostage Andrey Koslov revealed details of the daring IDF rescue of him and three other hostages from captivity in Gaza on Jun 8 2024.
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-freed-hostage-andrey-koslov-reveals-details-of-incredible-hostage-rescue/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Gene deletion shrinks cancer cells. Researchers from Tel Aviv University (Dan Peer’s lab) utilized CRISPR to cut the SOX2 gene from cancer cells of head and neck tumors – and in lab tests successfully eliminated 50% of the tumors. The breakthrough defied general belief that knocking out a single gene wouldn’t have any effect.
https://english.tau.ac.il/research/crispr-cancer-removal
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-845688
 
Blood test to detect cancer. Israel’s OncoRedox is developing a new platform for the early diagnosis and monitoring of cancer and chronic diseases. Its disposable sensor plus AI-powered technology is designed to detect and profile cell-free metabolites within minutes, providing a unique metabolic fingerprinting.
https://www.peregrinevc.com/portfolio/oncoredox/  https://www.peregrinevc.com/portfolio/
 
Developing immunity against cancer. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Purple Biotech (see here previously) has partnered with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, to develop CAPTN-3, a platform of activated antibodies. The aim is to enhance tumor-specific immunity against various cancer types.
https://purple-biotech.com/press-viewer/?i=142208
 
No more injections. Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute have discovered that a protein in breast milk facilitates the passage of nanoparticles through the intestinal wall, delivering essential nutrients to the baby. Mimicking this mechanism, can protect medications from the digestive system and allow non-needle delivery.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/breast-milk-proteins-superpowers-lead-to-breakthrough-for-new-class-of-oral-drugs/  https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/b1dzwouqyg
 
Brain study can transform speech to text technology. (TY TPS) An Israeli-led research team has analyzed how the brain processes speech and transforms sounds into conversation. It could lead to new advancements in speech recognition technology, tools for people with speech disorders, and personalized assistive devices.
https://worldisraelnews.com/speech-to-text-tech-could-be-transformed-by-new-israeli-brain-mapping-study/
 
Anti-virus nasal spray for the US. Israel’s Enovid (see here previously) has now launched its SaNOtize Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray as NOWONDER in the US. NOWONDER delivers advanced nasal cleansing, viral protection (e.g. against COVID-19), and sinus health support.
https://www.openpr.com/news/3895202/sanotize-launches-nowonder-nasal-spray-in-the-u-s
 
260 doctors attend MedEx in New Jersey. Over 500 Jewish doctors and healthcare professionals, including 260 doctors, gathered at the 10th annual MedEx event in Teaneck, New Jersey. The International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP) started MedEx to bring 2,000 Jewish doctors to Israel. In 2024 alone it brought 519.

U.S. Hostage ‘Negotiator’ Says Hamas Wants Peace, Offers ’15-Year Truce’, U.S. Rebuilding of Gaza by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21467/us-hostage-negotiator-boehler

President Donald Trump is saying all the right things, on the other hand, his team is going in and saying all the wrong things.

After Trump’s common sense approach, Steve Witkoff, the “envoy” responsible for foisting the disastrous Biden ceasefire on us, would water them down and dismiss the president’s proposals. Now White House Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler… said… “Hamas suggested that they would release all hostages, lay down their weapons, and no longer be part of the politics of Gaza and that the US and its allies would ensure there was no military infrastructure remaining in Gaza. In exchange, there would be a five to ten-year truce, and the US and other countries would help rebuild Gaza.”

Hamas is not going to “disarm.” A 10-15 year truce is a period of time during which Hamas rearms and prepares for another October 7 attack, as they have told us over and over again they will do. And Hamas, not Israel or the U.S., will decide when the truce actually lapses. Much like Hamas announced the previous two-year ceasefire was over by attacking on Oct 7.

This proposed deal leaves Hamas in Gaza, and has the U.S. rebuild Gaza for 10-15 years.

In short, it’s the worst deal imaginable for America and for Israel.

The Trump administration’s Gaza policy is completely divided.

On the one hand, President Donald Trump is saying all the right things. On the other hand, his team is going in and saying all the wrong things.

After Trump’s common sense approach, Steve Witkoff, the “envoy” responsible for foisting the disastrous Biden ceasefire on us, would water them down and dismiss the president’s proposals. Now White House Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler, who appeared to be a credible figure, decided to directly meet up with Hamas and came out with exactly the sort of thing John Kerry or Jimmy Carter would have come away with.

The Palestinian liberation scam: A global failure By Greg Denham

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-palestinian-liberation-scam-a-global-failure.html
Greg Denham is the Senior Pastor of Rise Church in San Marcos, Ca. He is the founder of “The Context Movement” and spearheads yearly “Friends of Israel Weekends” to fight anti-Semitism and champion friendships between Christians and Jews. He is the author of the new book, Rediscovering the Original Jesus Movement (How 1st Century Context Clarifies God’s Will & Course-Corrects the Church Today!).

What will it take for the world to confront the evil realities being carried out in the name of “Palestinian liberation?”

I still have a vivid picture of the stunningly beautiful Bibas children with their red hair — full of life and laughter.  Violently kidnapped from their home in Israel, they have now returned from Gaza in coffins, as forensic evidence revealed having been brutally murdered.

What is clear is that the Arab states went to war with the State of Israel because they denied the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, instead, insisting that the territory be a single, unified Arab and Islamic state.

Nothing has changed. It is the same reason the Palestinian Arabs have rejected the offer of statehood five times.

The sad truth is that Palestinian Arabs have managed to manipulate the world by gaslighting rather than take any responsibility for their self-defeating failures.  They feed the false narrative that Israel is “the oppressor” in “occupied Arab land,” perpetuating the evil of murder and rape against Jews as justified response. 

German theologian and pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who confronted the insanity of Hitler and risked his life rescuing Jews, said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

But it does not stop there because it also extends to the nations that chose to turn a blind eye to fact-based truth, moral clarity and the courage to stand up to the Islamic Nazis of our time by doing the right thing.

Silence in the face of evil is also evil.

When will the world have the courage to face the true nature of the Palestinian issue?

Knesset Caucus explores Trump relocation plan as only realistic alternative By David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/knesset-caucus-explores-trump-relocation-plan-as-only-realistic-alternative/

The Knesset Land of Israel Caucus, the largest lobby in Israel’s parliament, representing some 80 Knesset members, threw its weight behind U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza relocation plan during a special conference it hosted in the Knesset on Sunday.

The conference, titled, “The New Middle East: The Plan for Voluntary Migration from Gaza,” featured numerous speakers, both Knesset members and activists.

“It’s amazing how issues that would have sounded completely absurd a few years ago … have today become the consensus,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism Party. “We were thought of as crazy, delusional. It turns out that the crazy people are the knowledgeable realists,” he added.

“I was in the United States last week and they asked me on several occasions what I thought about President Trump’s plan. I told them… ‘It’s the only plan that is realistic for peace, for security. The only one—there is no other way,” Smotrich said.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana of the Likud Party said that the world had sadly become “accustomed” to the two-state paradigm as the only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He noted the idea had been tested with the 2005 disengagement, in which Israel evacuated some 8,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria. Israel was rewarded with terrorism and thousands of rockets fired at its cities, culminating in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre.

Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, one of the co-chairmen of the Land of Israel Caucus, and chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, agreed that “those who thought that the Oslo Accords would bring us a new Middle East were doomed to failure from the outset.”

Gazans Leaving Gaza? By No Means Off the Table P.David Hornik

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=

President Trump’s talk about a removal of Gazans from Gaza—while transforming the coastal enclave into prime beachfront real estate, a Riviera on the eastern Mediterranean no less—struck many as outlandish. But many in Israel have taken the idea—at least the kernel of it, not necessarily with Trump’s trappings—seriously, and efforts are underway to get it off the ground.

Late last month, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer—close confidant of Prime Minister Netanyahu—reportedly “held a ‘tense’ meeting with a senior Egyptian official…in Jerusalem.” The topic—or at least one of them—was moving Gazans into the vast, sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian official

relayed that Cairo is alarmed by calls from Israeli politicians to push Palestinians into Gaza and stressed that Egypt views any such effort as an existential threat….

According to the sources, Dermer responded by maintaining that the Egyptian people are not as opposed to taking in Gazans as the Egyptian government is.

Alarmed by the answer—in addition to disagreeing with it—Egyptian officials have since sought to arrange a meeting for Dermer with some of the country’s more senior leaders in Cairo in order to further make the case against the relocation of Palestinians into the Sinai.

Unlike Jordan—a small country that already has a large, restive Palestinian population and is under a concerted effort by Iran to undermine its foundations—Egypt has a population of 107 million, while Gaza’s population comes to two million, and no one is suggesting a total population transfer. Egypt’s adamant opposition to taking in Gazans can be seen as a severe case of NIMBYism—even as, of course, Egypt officially intones the proper phrases about the “Palestinian cause.”

For now, Egypt’s President Sissi is turning a cold shoulder to Trump’s overtures for a White House meeting—where Sissi’s NIMBYism just might get exposed to a wide public.

Do Not Be Fooled By Hamas’s ‘Long-Term Ceasefire’ Ploy by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21461/hamas-ceasefire-ploy

As part of the deception, according to the IDF report, Hamas was working to convince Israel that it was interested in calm and was working for economic prosperity. The IDF investigation concluded that Hamas had planned the October 7 attack for more than 10 years.

Today, everyone knows that the talk about a long-term truce was nothing but a smokescreen to conceal Hamas’s real intention of launching its October 7 attack against Israel.

Hamas anyway is not known for honoring ceasefire agreements…. On July 26, 2014, Hamas announced a 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire at 14.00. Hamas violated its own ceasefire a short time later.

For Hamas, a hudna is a temporary break from war — it does not indicate a desire to end it and achieve peace. While Hamas was talking, for ten years before October 7, 2023, about its desire to reach a long-term truce, it was busy preparing for the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

It is plainly uninformed to believe that Hamas would ever lay down its weapons and agree to end its jihad (holy war) against Israel.

The Trump administration is advised to listen to what Hamas leaders say in Arabic to their own people, and not what they tell US officials during secret meetings in Qatar. Earlier this month, for instance, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, speaking in Arabic, reassured his people that his group rejects demands by Israel and the US to disarm…

A ceasefire deal will allow Hamas to remain in power and prepare more massacres against Israel. The only solution for the current crisis is for Hamas to disarm, cede control over the Gaza Strip and leave the Palestinian arena.

Adam Boehler, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, stated on March 9 that he did not rule out the possibility of reaching a long-term truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He also did not rule out the possibility that Hamas would agree to lay down its weapons, saying:

“I think there’s an answer here, and I think the answer is that Hamas lays down their arms. We exchange prisoners, and they [Hamas] go into a long-term truce, where they don’t fight, they’re not part of any political party, and that gives us lots of cooling-off time.”

The Statesman Among Us by Nils A. Haug

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21457/the-statesman-among-us

The concept of Zionism has received adverse publicity in the press of late, especially thanks to slogans by supposedly pro-Palestinian activists in the West vilifying Jews. These supposedly pro-Palestinian activists are actually just antisemites; they have never proposed a thing that would make Palestinian lives better. Anyhow these activists call Jews “Zionists” to avoid having themselves labelled as Jew-haters.

Due to a fundamental clash of irreconcilable ethical religious principles – that of Torah versus Islamic Sharia – it appears that only Israel’s overwhelming military strength, command of technology and will to protect its country from tyranny can deter the nation’s Islamist enemies.

While combating a hostile local media that support what Netanyahu terms the “deep state”, health issues, personal slights, legal charges — many seemingly politically fabricated in the midst of an existential war by antagonistic state jurists determined to assert their control over elected politicians — Netanyahu presses on, not only on a mission to save Israel from fundamentalist terrorism, but ultimately, by extension, the West itself.

There does not appear to be anyone else in Israel who could have done a better job against the almost inestimable odds than those Netanyahu has been forced to overcome since October 7, 2023.

The words describing the crucial role of Queen Esther of ancient Persia apply equally to Israel’s statesman, Netanyahu: “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Great statesmen are generally recognized as such only after dire events faced by the nation have settled, and his strategy is seen to have succeeded. Once the threat to the nation has passed and fresh democratic elections eventually arrive, the statesman is often replaced as leader and a new prime minister or president is appointed to lead the nation into a better future – a future created through the efforts, wisdom and courage of his predecessor. This is what transpired with that great British leader, Winston Churchill.

In an effort to avoid the increasing likelihood of war in Europe in 1938, the UK’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, travelled to Munich to negotiate with Adolf Hitler. When Chamberlain returned, victoriously displaying a document signed by both Hitler and himself purporting to resolve the geopolitical issues at stake, hopes were high that the UK could avoid involvement in yet another horrific war so soon after the “Great War” twenty years earlier. Chamberlain proudly, waving the document, declared that the signed paper would guarantee “peace for our time.”

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

Psalm 41

This week’s compilation by Michael Ordman reminds one of Psalm 41:

“The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.”

Israel’s contribution to world health is nothing short of astonishing. Here are a few examples: 

1.“Potential goldmine” for new antibiotics.

2.Sheba is eighth best hospital. (TY Nevet) Israel’s Sheba Medical Center increased its position from ninth to eighth on Newsweek’s ranking of the best hospitals in the world

3.Saving lives after surgery. Nora Nseir is the founder and co-CEO of Nurami Medical (see here previously) explains Nurami’s latest groundbreaking product, which is able to to regenerate meningeal tissue after complex brain and spinal cord surgery.

 4.Reducing side-effects of cancer therapy.

As part of 2025 National Defibrillator Day, Magen David Adom volunteers set up over 500 training stations across Israel. They showed 35,000 members of the public how to recognize the signs of cardiac arrest, locate and operate a nearby Automated External Defibrillator, and call 101 for assistance.

And that’s just one week in a nation beset by enemies and terrorism. Read it all. rsk

8 remarkable women scientists In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, ISRAEL21c compiled a list of eight legendary Israeli women in the sciences. Yulia Karra

https://www.israel21c.org/8-remarkable-israeli-female-scientists/

International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on March 8, emphasizes women’s rights, with a focus on gender equality, reproductive rights, and ending violence against women. 

Its origins, however, go back to the labor movement of Europe in the early 20th century, and women breaking glass ceilings in the workplace and academia is an integral part of this holiday.

To mark the 2025 International Women’s Day, ISRAEL21c compiled a list of eight veteran female Israeli scientists whose research and discoveries have changed the world for the better.