RUTHFULLY YOURS

The New York Times does its lucrative part at taxpayer expense.http://spectator.org/delegitimizing-israel-in-our-classrooms/

The New York Times Upfront magazine, distributed by paid subscription to approximately 1 million American 8th to 12th graders, recently included an article, “How the Middle East Got that Way.” Author Joseph Berger, former Times reporter, blames the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 for the current mess in the Middle East.

In his view, “a century ago, two diplomats carved out lines on the Middle East map, creating new nations and sowing the seeds for much of the strife in the region today.”

Referring to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Berger tells students, “Most Arabs opposed the Zionist movement, which called for a Jewish state in Palestine. But world pressure to create a Jewish homeland increased after World War II… because 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.”

The article emphasizes that Western imperialism created the Arab-Israeli conflict because Sykes (British) and Picot (French) disregarded the wishes and rights of the indigenous Arab population and, Berger writes, “Arab leaders were angry” and “felt betrayed.”

The article continues, “In 1947, Britain, with approval from the United Nations, came up with a partition plan (to) create the nations of Israel and Palestine…. The Palestinians and surrounding Arab countries rejected it… (and) fought an unsuccessful war…. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel expanded territory…by capturing lands where many Palestinians were living…. The occupied Palestinians continue to demand a state of their own.”

Reading this description of historical events, young students, with little pre-existing knowledge about the topic, have no idea why the Jews would want a nation-state in the Middle East, which Berger characterizes as “Arab.” The author portrays the Arabs as victims of Western domination, legitimizing their 1948 rejection of a Jewish state and their subsequent war against newly declared Israel.

Mention history and it can trigger a roll of the eyes.

Add the Middle East to the equation and folks might start running for the hills, unwilling to get caught up in the seemingly bottomless pit of details and disputes.

But without an understanding of what happened in the past, it’s impossible to grasp where we are today — and where we are has profound relevance for the region and the world.

Forty-nine years ago this month, the Six-Day War broke out.

While some wars fade into obscurity, this one remains as relevant today as in 1967. Many of its core issues remain unresolved.

Politicians, diplomats, and journalists continue to grapple with the consequences of that war, but rarely consider, or perhaps are even unaware of, context. Yet without context, some critically important things may not make sense.

First, in June 1967, there was no state of Palestine. It didn’t exist and never had. Its creation, proposed by the UN in 1947, was rejected by the Arab world because it also meant the establishment of a Jewish state alongside.

Second, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem were in Jordanian hands. Violating solemn agreements, Jordan denied Jews access to their holiest places in eastern Jerusalem. To make matters still worse, they desecrated and destroyed many of those sites.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control, with harsh military rule imposed on local residents.

And the Golan Heights, which were regularly used to shell Israeli communities far below, belonged to Syria.

Third, the Arab world could have created a Palestinian state in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip any day of the week. They didn’t. There wasn’t even discussion about it. And Arab leaders, who today profess such attachment to eastern Jerusalem, rarely, if ever, visited. It was viewed as an Arab backwater.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Israel’s first re-transplanted kidney. Israeli surgeons at Beilinson Hospital took out the kidney of a woman who had died of a stroke and transplanted it into her brother. The kidney had been transplanted into the woman in an operation nine years previously. It was the world’s fifth such operation and the first between relatives.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/212939#.V0scRb4bN30

The end to monthly cramps. Israel’s Livia has developed a wearable device that provides instant relief from cramps, and lasts up to 15 hours on a single charge. The device uses electrical pulses to block pain receptors. Female journalists given a free Livia device have described it as “a life-changing technology”.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-israeli-invention-that-reverses-the-curse-of-eve/

Israeli herb extract controls blood sugar levels. Israel’s Frutarom has developed Portusana®, an extract of the herb purslane. Israeli scientists have confirmed its positive effects on blood sugar levels in adults with Type 2 Diabetes. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26854844 http://www.portusana.com/health-benefits/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KENZRUpeAds

Autoimmune treatment gets new lease of life. Professor Nathan Karin of the Rappaport faculty of Medicine at Israel’s Technion Institute invented an antibody that activates cells in the immune system, thereby reducing inflammation. After years of development, Pfizer has now signed an agreement to commercialize the product.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-pfizer-buys-rights-to-biorap-autoimmune-drug-1001128916

US boost for proton beam cancer treatment. Israel’s HIL Applied Medical develops safer focused proton beam lasers to treat tumors (see Sep 2014 newsletter) Now HIL has acquired US company Nanolabz which develops and builds smart nano-engineered targets and alignment systems for the short-pulse laser R&D sector.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-hil-applied-medical-acquires-nanolabz-1001128814

Research into 3D organ printing. Israel’s Chief Scientist has awarded NIS 5.6 million to Israel’s Collplant. It will help finance projects, including the development of plant-based collagen and formulations intended for use as BioInk for 3D printing of tissues and organs.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-collplant-awarded-bio-ink-grant-for-3d-organ-tissue-printing-1001128604

State of the Heart conference. (TY TPS) International researchers and healthcare professionals attended a conference dubbed “State of the Heart.” at Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. It addressed global challenges in cardiovascular treatment and highlighted innovative changes in the field as a result of cutting-edge technology.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/state-of-the-heart-israeli-medical-conference-highlights-cardiovascular-advancements/2016/06/03/

Medical tourism showcased in China. (TY Dan) The Israel Chamber of Commerce hosted a special seminar titled Israeli Medical Tourism and Women Empowerment at the Israeli Business and Cultural Center in Beijing. China is impressed with Israel’s physicians, its high-quality healthcare, and advanced medical facilities.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/985786.shtml

Israel’s BioMed Conference. (TY Dan) Israel’s NeuroRx won the startup completion at the IATI Biomed conference in Tel Aviv for its Cuclurad treatment for depression and suicide symptoms. The popular event included some 500 Business to Business meetings between Israeli and Chinese delegates.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160527005297/en/NeuroRx-Wins-Startup-Competition-IATI-Biomed-2016-Israel%E2%80%99s http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/422278/500-china-israeli-b2b-meetings-held-during-israeli-biomed-conference.html

35 YEARS ON: ISRAELI CENSOR ALLOWS ISRAELI PILOTS TO DISCUSS BOMBING OF SADDAM’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM

I have written before that (in my view, at least) one of the most significant – yet internationally underappreciated – acts in recent decades was the decision by Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to bomb Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program before Saddam gained nuclear weapons.

Begin did so despite threats and warnings against striking Saddam by almost everybody — including then Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres and then American President Ronald Reagan.

Given the fact Saddam freely used chemical weapons against his own people (including on thousands of Kurdish civilians) a few years later, and committed near genocide against the marsh Arabs, one can only imagine what he might have done with nuclear weapons had he acquired them, whether using them against Western nations, against the Iranians during the Iran-Iraq war, or against Israeli population centers.

The entire world condemned Prime Minister Begin for his bold act and the Reagan administration imposed sanctions on Israel.

On Friday evening, on Israel’s Channel 10, for the first time some of the Israeli pilots and others who took part in the operation were authorized to reveal some (though not all) previously unknown details of the heroic and dangerous mission that took place 35 years ago this Tuesday, on June 7, 1981.

DEFYING THE U.S.

Retired Maj. Gen. David Ivry, who commanded the Israeli Air Force at the time of the raid, told Channel 10 that Israeli intelligence had discovered the Iraqis were building a nuclear reactor in 1976.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency did everything they could in the years that followed to thwart Saddam’s program. For example, the reactor’s first core, which was manufactured with French help, exploded in mysterious circumstances in the southern French port of La Seyne-sur-Mer.

But by 1981, Israel had taken all the delaying tactics it could and with Iraq’s nuclear reactor about to go online, Begin realized he couldn’t delay any longer and had no choice but to resort to air strikes.

The U.S. refused to allow Israel to use its tanker planes for mid-flight refueling so Israel had to improvise. Retired Col. Ze’ev Raz, who led the raid, told Channel 10 that Israeli air force technicians “recognized that flying 2,000 miles to Iraq and back was beyond the range of our jets, so we used all sorts of tricks to extend it.”

Therefore various ingenius methods for making the fuel last longer were undertaken — methods which the Israeli military has declined to make public until the present time. Eight Israeli pilots took part in the raid and all returned safely, even though prior intelligence estimates were that at least one or two pilots would be shot down during the mission.