RUTHFULLY YOURS

A Speech Given at the The Gettysburg 150th Commemoration St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Tuesday 19 November
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=47498a2e1ad97dd3d09ae19c5&id=a38d8567ce&e=ce445aaf82

DR. DURIE IS A THEOLOGIAN, ANGLICAN PASTOR, A FELLOW OF THE MIDDLE EAST FORUM, AND A RESEARCH FELLOW OF THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF ISLAM AND OTHER FAITHS AT THE MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY.
Memories shape us powerfully. For all of us there are certain defining events, the memories of which stay with us and determine how we view the world. Not only individuals, but communities and nations have landmark, watershed memories. The Gettysburg address of Abraham Lincoln is one such.

I remember one of my birthdays, above all others. Ten years ago, as it so happened, on my 45th birthday, I had the pleasure, together with my teenage son David, of attending a Melbourne Writer’s Festival head-to-head debate between Keith Windschuttle and Robert Manne about their respective recent books on the fabrication of Australian history.

The spirited debate was conducted in front of a sell-out crowd sympathetic to Robert Manne. I remember the evening because of a single moment – no more than a few seconds – in question time when Windschuttle announced that of course in colonial 19th century Australia most government officials believed human beings were created equal – and thus that aboriginal people were equal to white people. This was, he said, because they were all either humanists or evangelical Christians.

At this point, a loud guffaw erupted from the crowd.

http://acdemocracy.org/hurtling-downhill/#sthash.FyyNpqj0.dpbs

If recent events are any indication, the pace of U.S. withdrawal from the world and the extent of our fecklessness (and the West’s generally) in the face of threats coming from Islamist terrorism, Russia, China, and Iran promises to pick up in 2014. Something new pops up every day.

Al Qaeda and its various affiliates have made a great leap forward in Syria and Iraq, where the took over Fallujah. The Obama administration did not react apparently because it no longer sees al Qaeda as a threat. If Ramadi falls as well, there’s unlikely to be a response then either.

The fact that Syria has missed its chemical weapons removal deadline is largely ignored or excused by “unfavorable” weather and other “difficulties” to transport the chemicals for shipment. The Syrian civil war is being spread with Iran’s blessing as is growing Saudi intervention into Lebanon without apparent attention from Washington.

Iran’s growing intervention in Syria and Lebanon, the upgrading of Hezbollah’s missiles, which increases the threat to Israel, and assassinations of Lebanese Sunni leaders who dare to criticize Iran, fail to solicit any reaction from the U.S.

On nearly every foreign policy front, except the utterly fatuous and doomed promotion of Israeli-Palestinian peace, the U.S. is either doing nothing or backtracking.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Shattering the silence of Autism. Ola Mundo (“Hello World ” in Spanish) transmits instant messages using symbols for people whose speaking or writing ability is severely impaired. Israel’s Ophir Harel developed the world’s first and only symbolic communication app to help his 10-year-old autistic son.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/31/promising-new-israeli-app-shatters-the-silence-of-autism/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u0x-1xgLxA

Your car to the operating theater. (Thanks to Israel21c) Being wheeled into an operating room is a stressful experience for everyone. The Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel has now decided to try and alleviate that anxiety among its youngest patients by pushing them in pedal cars.
http://israel21c.org/news/israeli-hospital-wheels-kids-to-surgery-in-pedal-cars/

Treating age-related macular degeneration. Israel’s Cell Cure Neurosciences has been awarded a grant of NIS 6.1 million from the Office of the Chief Scientist. The grant will help finance the human clinical trials in 2014 of OpRegen, a cell-based therapeutic product for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000904027&fid=1725

Success in treating rheumatoid arthritis. Israel’s Can-Fite BioPharma has announced positive results in its Phase IIb trial of their CF101 treatment for patients with active rheumatoid arthritis.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000903835&fid=1725

75 years of saving lives. Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center received a $10 million birthday present from US entrepreneur Warren Buffet.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000904459&fid=1725

Israeli hospital delivered 20,000 babies in 2013. 20,000 babies were born at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem during 2013 – the highest number ever in any Israeli hospital and almost unsurpassed in the world. 2014 will see more delivery rooms, a huge neonatal intensive care unit and new obstetrics wards.
http://www.jpost.com/Health-and-Science/Jerusalems-Shaare-Zedek-delivers-its-20000th-baby-this-year-breaking-record-336174

Implant helps rehabilitation of shoulder injury. (Thanks to Israel21c) Israel’s OrthoSpace has developed the InSpace Balloon. It alleviates pain for patients recovering from massive injury to the rotator cuff, a group of muscles and tendons that stabilize and activate the shoulder. 2000 people in Europe and Israel have used the implant invented by Israeli orthopedic surgeon Dr. Assaf Dekel.
http://israel21c.org/health/new-implant-eases-rotator-cuff-pain/

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4117/st-james-church-bethlehem-unwrapped St. James Church supports the lie that the wall exists not to save Israeli lives but to subjugate Palestinian ones. Its replica of the security barrier has not managed to bring people together; it has only legitimized the extremism of the Holy Land Trust and the terror links of Interpal. In reality, it is […]