RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2024/04/05/the-gaza-war-at-six-months-israel-increasingly-isolated-but-resilient/

In the aftermath of the horrific October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, the world united behind Israel. President Joe Biden pledged America’s rock-solid support, sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean, and visited Israel to express America’s support for the Israeli people. There was remarkable political unity in Israel as an Israeli war cabinet was formed on October 11, 2023, and divisive domestic political issues, such as reforming Israel’s Supreme Court, were set aside.

Six months later, Israel’s situation is very different. War fatigue has undermined support for Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas, especially in Western countries. Although most Israelis reportedly support the war, there have been growing protests to end it so the hostages taken by Hamas can be freed. There also have been efforts to undermine the Israeli government and how it has conducted the war in the United States and Israel.

The Israeli army has made significant progress in the war in Gaza, destroying 20 of Hamas’s original 24 battalions. It plans to soon destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. However, there is strong pressure from the West to end the war because Western leaders and audiences have succumbed to constant scenes of destroyed cities in Gaza, women and children digging themselves out of rubble, and reports of famine. Hamas and their supporters in the West have expertly manipulated press coverage of the war to blame this humanitarian catastrophe on Israel. Few mainstream media reports mention that Hamas started and is sustaining this conflict. The media will also not report that the reason Gazans are hungry is because heavily armed Hamas terrorists are stealing the aid sent into the enclave.

Growing demonstrations in Israel to end the war so hostages can be freed were part of Hamas’s original plan. Hamas knew Israelis value the lives of their citizens and that many would press to end the war early to secure the release of Israeli hostages, even if this meant not destroying Hamas or holding it accountable for the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Western nations and the United Nations condemning Israeli actions to defend themselves against Palestinian terrorists are not new. The UN has established itself as a stridently anti-Israel organization and has passed hundreds of resolutions in the UN Security Council and other UN bodies condemning Israel and questioning its right to exist. For decades, the United States used its veto power in the UN Security Council to block resolutions critical of Israel and its actions to defend itself. That changed on March 25, 2023, when the Biden administration abstained on a UN Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war without requiring Hamas to release any hostages.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-795247

Recognizing Jordan as a Palestinian state, while maintaining its status as a monarchy, reflects the national identity of a majority of its population.

The two-state solution calls for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state in all or most of what is called “the West Bank” (Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem) as well as the Gaza Strip. It would be controlled by terrorist organizations, however, so promoting it is a recipe for disaster.

This solution will also not solve the issue of self-determination for Palestinians and it will empower Israel’s enemies. Moreover, it makes no sense since a Palestinian state already exists: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which was created in the eastern area of British Mandate Palestine and of which two-thirds of the population consider themselves Palestinians.

A new two-state solution – Jordan/Palestine and Israel – is more viable, reasonable, practical and realistic. It would save lives and offer Palestinians the opportunity of becoming productive and constructive, instead of living under the control of despotic terrorist organizations. That is the real “two-state solution.”

This plan would not require transferring all Arab Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan, but would offer them a choice. Those who want to live under Israeli sovereignty and abide by its laws and ethos as a Jewish state should be allowed to remain, either as citizens or residents. Those who do not and present a security threat would have to move to Jordan/Palestine, or another country. The Palestinian Authority/PLO, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations would also no longer be tolerated or accepted.

All UNRWA facilities would be closed, and international organizations would be required to accept Israeli sovereignty.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20544/israel-palestine-two-state-solution

Curiously, like President Joe Biden and his top national security officials, the ambassador [Martin Indyk] ignores a crucial element: radical Islam does not tolerate the existence of a sovereign non-Islamic entity (such as Israel) on land that once was conquered by Muslims (dar al-Islam, “abode of Islam”). As most Palestinians have been creditably straightforward about, there is no place for an Israeli state.

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.” — Zuheir Mohsen, PLO official, Trouw, March 31, 1977.

Tangible land for intangible peace and billions of dollars will not change them — just buy them bigger weapons. Only re-education can hope to do that, if it would work…

“What is a ‘technocratic government’? It’s a front for the terrorists and composed of nonprofit executives, academics, economists and others… and extracting foreign aid from them. Hamas will not officially be part of the puppet regime, but will control the puppets…. [B]ut while Qatar is helping assemble a new ‘technocratic’ front for the terrorists, the Moscow summit made it clear that the real agenda of the new government would be terror against Israel and the U.S.” — Daniel Greenfield, Gatestone Institute, March 13, 2024.

“The ‘technocratic government’ will provide the Biden administration and other governments with the plausible deniability needed to go on funding terrorists. The Moscow summit revealed that a technocratic government will not end terrorism; it will disguise it, and it will not end the conflict, it will escalate it.” — Daniel Greenfield, Gatestone Institute, March 13, 2024.

How can Israeli Jews believe that the recognition of a Palestinian state by the United States and other countries… will bring peace? These countries have no means of enforcing any commitments undertaken by “Palestine” in a potential peace treaty, and even less will to do so.

Recognition of “Palestine” as a state, even if it were supposedly “demilitarized,” would enable it to enter into military alliances and “defense agreements” with whomever they chose — China, Russia, Iran, all of them? Why would such a state not be used as a base, as in the PLO’s 1974 “Ten Point Plan” of phases, from which to try to take “the rest”?

Equally alarmingly, the US has reportedly asked Qatar, Hamas’s main patron since 2007, to operate a supposedly temporary pier in Gaza, currently being planned, to deliver supposedly “humanitarian aid”… one has to ask: What else will come in with the humanitarian aid? With Qatar in charge, “demilitarization” will likely last less than a week.

Those who want to recognize or impose a Palestinian state, knowingly or unconsciously, aim at Israel’s destruction.

Peace will come when the Jews, the Americans and the Europeans support those fighting to preserve civilization, not to preserve terrorism.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/biden_s_feigned_rage_against_israel.html

In a world fraught with conflict and misunderstanding, the recent tragic incident involving the accidental killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers by an Israeli strike in Gaza has become a focal point of international attention. While President Joe Biden’s expression of outrage over these deaths is understandable, it’s crucial to contextualize the incident within the broader canvas of the Israel-Hamas conflict, a struggle marked by Hamas’s relentless aggression and Israel’s efforts to defend its citizens.

The Biden administration’s reaction, while fiery and seemingly indignant, overlooks a fundamental reality: the exceedingly rare nature of such tragic incidents in the context of Israeli operations. For every one innocent life lost in these regrettable circumstances, there are countless more saved by Israel’s diligent efforts to target only the threats posed by Hamas. This organization, designated as a terrorist group by multiple countries, including the United States, has a long history of using civilians as human shields and launching unprovoked attacks against Israel. This tactic not only endangers the lives of Palestinians but also complicates Israel’s self-defense measures.

Israel’s commitment to minimizing civilian casualties is unparalleled, especially when compared to the indiscriminate violence and terror perpetrated by Hamas. The Israeli military goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, including the use of warning shots and leaflets to evacuate areas before strikes against militant targets. Contrast this with Hamas’s strategy, which intentionally places military assets in densely populated civilian areas, thereby increasing the risk to innocent lives.

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/p/biden-in-full-hypocrisy-mode-slams?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1319513&post_

On Monday night, in a tragic and painful incident, seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity organization were killed in an errant Israeli drone strike on their three-car convoy in Gaza.

The words “tragic and painful” are not de rigueur. WCK’s work, which involved providing food both to Israelis and to Palestinians displaced by the war, was much appreciated by Israelis—not least because WCK was filling the shoes of UNRWA, the UN’s “pro-Palestinian” organization whose work in Gaza has been suspended because of their systemic collusion with Hamas.

When Israelis say that painful things happen in the fog of war, we know what we’re talking about and we mean it. On December 15, three Israeli hostages, young men who had escaped Hamas captivity in Gaza, were errantly shot dead by Israeli forces who feared they were Hamas terrorists pretending to be escaped Israeli hostages. Considering that Hamas regularly uses such tactics, and, in general, manipulates human beings to protect itself at a level unprecedented in history, the fear was understandable even if it had a terrible result.

Meanwhile Israeli leaders have sincerely apologized for the aid-workers incident and the IDF is investigating it thoroughly. We know so far that it happened at night, and that whoever gave the order for the drone strike was convinced there were armed terrorists in the convoy. Of course, that doesn’t rule out poor judgment or malfeasance.

But nothing, in any case, will put a dent in the uproar of harsh criticism of Israel over the mishap—and not least from that place of special geopolitical significance for Israel, Washington.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-death-cult-of-the-palestinians/

The self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell for the sake of Gaza brought to mind a friend who joined the International Solidarity Movement shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Steve had been returning home from San Jose State with the most astonishing supposedly college-educated facts about Israel that set my understanding of history and the world on its ear. But he invoked names like Noam Chomsky, whom my family had taught me to revere, so I just listened.

Eventually, my friend’s passion about “Palestine” led him to join the International Solidarity Movement. Steve used his connections in the international judo community as a pretext to enter Israel, after which the ISM smuggled him into Nablus, a city about 30 miles north of Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, the area today referred to as the West Bank.

Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian National Authority, the deadly rival to Hamas in Palestine, administers Nablus. But rivalries notwithstanding, both Hamas and Yasser Arafat’s groups try to persuade credulous college age kids to martyr themselves for Palestine.

While Steve served his month-long tour of duty in Nablus, I read about the ISM online, and I did not like what I found.

Lee Kaplan’s “StoptheISM” website was instrumental in helping me understand that the ISM was not a peace organization.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/04/the-second-battle-for-shifa-hospital-shows-israel-will-accept-only-victory/

This is what a ‘sustainable campaign’ to eliminate Hamas looks like.

Those who camouflage their hostility toward Israel’s objectives in its defensive war against Hamas as little more than antipathy toward Benjamin Netanyahu must be frustrated today. The dubious claim that Israel is conducting a cruel war devoid of respect for human life is being rebutted today by one of the Israeli prime minister’s foremost domestic opponents.

In a Monday morning statement, former Israeli prime minister and current center-right opposition figure Naftali Bennett called the two-week operation to once again clear terrorist elements from Gaza’s Shifa Hospital an “amazing battlefield achievement.” Indeed, with roughly 200 Hamas fighters killed, another 500 captured, and 6,000 civilians evacuated without a single noncombatant fatality, the outcome was “unprecedented in urban warfare,” as Bennett put it. “These results undermine the false claim that the IDF is targeting civilians,” he said. “If we didn’t care about innocent lives, we’d have simply bombed the whole complex, without risking [the] lives of our own fighters.”

The war Hamas inaugurated on October 7, 2023, has now seen two battles to liberate Gaza’s largest hospital network from terrorist control. The first began late last year and concluded with an impressive IDF operation that cleared out the hospital while preserving the ongoing medical services Shifa provided Gaza’s civilians. The second wrapped up on Monday morning following a two-week operation in which only two IDF soldiers were killed, culminating in the seizure of a trove of weaponry and intelligence as well as the neutralization of the hospital as a terrorist command-and-control node.

Western media outlets don’t paint quite the rosy portrait of this operation that Bennett did. Israel’s pacification of the Shifa complex left “a wasteland of destroyed buildings and Palestinian bodies scattered in the dirt,” Reuters’ report began. That could be said of any military operation, the purpose of which is to defeat an armed opposition and deprive it of defensive infrastructure.

https://pdavidhornik.substack.com/p/israels-major-airstrike-in-damascuswhy?utm_source=substack&publication_id=1319513&post_

According to foreign (non-Israeli) media reports, at about 5 p.m. on Monday, missiles fired from Israeli F-35 fighter jets struck a building beside the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Killed on the spot was a very big fish—Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the top commander in Syria of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—along with six other Iranian officials.

Zahedi is considered the highest-ranking IRGC official to be killed since the US assassinated Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020. The airstrike appears to have been both an intelligence and a military feat.

An intelligence feat, because the meeting being held at the time of the strike was reportedly supposed to be top-secret—which would make sense considering Zahedi and others’ seniority plus the fact that Israel had already assassinated a series of Iranian officials in Syria in recent months.

And a military feat, because the building beside the Iranian embassy—supposedly a consulate, but apparently a command center—was part of a complex of diplomatic structures including, right nearby, the Canadian embassy in Syria. A slightly misfired missile hitting the Canadian embassy would, of course, have been a painful and dire incident for Israel.

https://www.jns.org/bashing-bibi-helps-hamas/

Relatives of hostages held in Hamas captivity gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday outside Defense Ministry headquarters. The purpose of their makeshift press conference/protest was to demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu resign or be ousted.

The Bibi-bashing event kicked off with a statement by the daughter-in-law of 80-year-old captive Yoram Metzger.

“We’ve all seen how Netanyahu sabotages hostage-release deals,” announced Ayala Metzger. “We’ve seen how his political self-interest repeatedly drives his decision-making, and how concern for the stability of his coalition takes priority over his duty to bring home our loved ones.”

She went on: “We were told to sit quietly; we were told to travel around the world [to garner international sympathy and enlist support for pressure on Hamas]. But after six months, the hostages are still in Gaza. This is a complete failure. This is a deliberate failure!”

Echoing her sentiment, Einav Zangauker, mother of 24-year-old hostage Matan, referred to Netanyahu as the “obstacle that consciously and deliberately prevents a deal.”

As a result, she stressed, the families now have no choice but to “do everything in our power to remove that obstacle…and start a new phase in our struggle. From now on, we will work for [Netanyahu’s] immediate replacement.”

Yael Or, aunt of Dror, 49, then called on Knesset members “whose consciences are shouting at them” to “help Israel make the most urgent and correct decision right now. Replace those who thwart the deal for personal reasons.”

Addressing ministers without Portfolio Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot—as well as MKs from the prime minister’s Likud Party—she announced, “Rescuing the hostages is your moral obligation. Do what is necessary to replace Netanyahu immediately.”

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Terrorists and their accomplices chant:” From the River to the sea!”

I will paraphrase it in peaceful terms:

From the Jordan River to the Sea of Okhotsk- between Russia and Japan, and to the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, and to the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caspian, Baltic, Java, and Black Seas, to name a handful, Israel’s research and development of technology, science, medicine and agricultural innovations make lives better and longer and safer for citizens in every continent. Michael Ordman’s prodigious weekly catalog proves the foregoing even during wartime. Rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
Reserve IDF commander has life-changing surgery. (TY OurCrowd) 57-year-old Motti Ben-Lulu served 4 months reserve duty as a platoon commander in Gaza. But he was unable to hold a weapon due to tremor. Now, after MRI-guided focused ultrasound treatment from Israel’s Insightec (see here previously) he is a new person.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/hk65ad406
 
“Superhero” cocoa seedlings. Ellen Graber, a soil chemistry expert at Israel’s Volcani Center expected her experimental cocoa seedlings growing near Gaza had perished after 3 months of neglect. But 20 plants survived and flourished. A recent NIS 20 million government investment could make Israel a cocoa plant global supplier.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-surviving-oct-7-israeli-cocoa-plants-could-help-stave-off-world-shortage/
 
Brothers for Life. (TY Sam Kramer) The BFL Medical Project was created to address the needs of IDF soldiers suffering from complex injuries and chronic pain. It invited two highly skilled and specialized doctors from the USA to come to Israel to perform complex reconstructive surgery on many injured soldiers. See video.
https://www.brothersforlife.com/bfl-emergency-progress-report-240216/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZjtzF54I0s
 
Remarkable Resilience – BGU Webinar. Register for this free May 8th webinar from Israel’s Ben Gurion University. BGU was heavily impacted by the Oct 7 events but now stands as a beacon of hope for the future of Israel and a vital part of Israel’s rebuilding and recovery efforts. See how BGU is leading the Way Forward.
https://americansforbgu.org/events/rr4/   https://americansforbgu.org/events/rr4/#speakers
 
 
ISRAEL’S  MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Repairing the spine via the nose. Some 500,000 spinal cord injuries are sustained annually. Israel’s NurExone takes exosomes (nanoscopic particles released by cells to pass messages to one another) from bone marrow, adds siRNA to help regenerate cells, and delivers them via the nose and blood brain barrier to heal the spine.
https://nocamels.com/2024/03/nasal-therapy-that-could-help-people-with-spinal-injuries-walk-again/  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLEi98oE4RU   https://nurexone.com/
 
Artificial veins for successful transplants. Israel’s Bonus Biogroup (see here previously) has developed microscopic biodegradable tubes that run through an engineered transplant organ, supplying a steady flow of blood. This vastly increases the viability of artificial organs and the success rate of transplant operations.
https://www.israel21c.org/organ-transplant-advance-artificial-veins/
 
War of yeast infections. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered a benign species of yeast named “Kazachstania weizmannii” in homage to Chaim Weizmann. It prevents the spread of Candida albicans, a strain of yeast which causes candidiasis, a fungal infection responsible for around 200,000 deaths per year.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-fungus-discovery-could-stop-deadly-yeast-infections/
 
AI-driven cell therapy. Israeli-founded Somite.ai can revolutionize stem cell therapy. Its first target is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. When muscle stem cells are injected into an existing muscle, the muscles can rebuild and regain function. Somite will then move on to creating brown fat cells for the treatment of diabetes.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-stem-cells-meet-ai-1001472419  https://somite.ai/index.html
 
Developing treatments since 1949. (TY Atid-EDI) Rafa Laboratories is one of Israel’s oldest pharmaceutical companies. For example, it has been supplying autoinjectors for over 30 years, for global medical conditions including seizures and now (partnering USA’s BARDA) to counter nerve agent and pesticide poisoning.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/enhancing-national-preparedness-rafa-laboratories-partners-with-barda-to-advance-the-development-of-a-new-design-for-rafas-pediatric-atropine-autoinjectors-302094562.html
https://www.rafa.co.il/en     https://www.rafa.co.il/en/therapeutic-areas
 
Better than before. (TY Nevet) Scientists at Israel’s Technion have developed a robotic hand that allows the wearer to play the piano and type on a keyboard. The device is intended to be used as a prosthetic for those who have lost limbs, e.g., in the War, and can give the wearer skills that they never had before.
https://ats.org/our-impact/giving-prosthetics-a-hand/
 
Wearable devices to fix mobility problems. (TY Nevet) Zuckerman Faculty Scholar Dr. Arielle Fischer runs the Fischer Biomechanics and Wearable Technology Lab at Israel’s Technion Institute. Her lab develops biomechanical tools and wearable devices to detect, prevent, and correct musculoskeletal movement disorders.
https://www.zuckerman-scholars.org/lab/fischer-biomotion-lab/
 
Hebrew University Trauma Institute. A new Trauma Institute has been established at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It will design new clinical approaches to and train therapists to deal with the nationwide traumas following the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. The new Institute has raised 25% of its budget and is seeking support.
https://www.afhu.org/2024/03/16/new-hebrew-university-trauma-institute-established-to-design-new-clinical-approaches-and-train-therapists-following-october-7th-attacks/  https://www.afhu.org/weareone/  (US donors)
 
Innovative trauma treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Madrigal Mental Care is based in Kibbutz Reim – one of the communities devasted by Hamas on Oct 7.  So, it is remarkable that it has just announced the successful completion of its pivotal nanotechnology research on using Ketamine as a treatment for PTSD & depression.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/madrigal-announces-groundbreaking-ketamine-research-for-ptsd-treatment-and-upcoming-in-human-clinical-trials-302088144.html
 
New treatment for depression.  (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s PsyRx has developed a radically new treatment for depression. It combines an approved medicine from the SSRI family with a low dosage of ibogaine. PsyRx has just completed a successful lab toxicological safety study for the treatment to help it progress to human trials.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/psyrx-advances-clinical-trial-exploration-with-successful-completion-of-toxicological-safety-study-in-rats-302098275.html   https://www.psyrx.co/
 
Addressing women’s health. Israeli-founded Impact.51 is the first startup studio in the world to focus solely on women’s health. 51% of the world receives insufficient funding, research, & support. Impact.51 aims to create inventive solutions addressing critical gaps in women’s health. After Oct 7, the priority is trauma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVktA8EihyU   https://www.impact-51.com/