RUTHFULLY YOURS

March saw a return of economic warfare against Israel, masked in discontent with Israel’s “occupation” of “Palestine.” On March 24, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 32-0-15 to create a database of companies that have profited from Israeli settlements, which the Israeli government has called a “blacklist.” A petition by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK, and others, which has surpassed 144,000 signatures, calls for Airbnb to “[s]top listing vacation rentals in Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and deemed illegal under international law.” On March 7, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on its members and all other countries to “ban products produced in or by illegal Israeli settlements from their markets.”

The “occupation” theme also made a recent appearance in the 2016 presidential race. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in his first major policy statement on the Middle East, stated that “peace will mean an end to what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory.”

What these economic and political warriors don’t seem to realize is that Israel is not occupying anything. There was never an Arab state known as Palestine. In fact, the Arabs have rejected multiple offers to establish such a state.

Before Jewish sovereignty was reestablished with the modern state of Israel in 1948, the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire ruled the Holy Land for approximately 400 years up until 1917. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in World War I, the British and French administered it in a period of joint military administration (1917-1920). The San Remo Conference (1920) formally established the British Mandate of Palestine’s borders to encompass modern day Israel, Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and what is today often referred to as the West Bank.

Britain Created “Palestine” for the Jews…

The legal document that created the Mandate recognized the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home” and called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People.” The document also obligated the British to “facilitate Jewish immigration” and “encourage…settlement by Jews on the land…” The British, with the approval of the League of Nations (the predecessor to the United Nations) took on the obligation to help Jewish immigration and settlement of the Mandate, which included the West Bank. Indeed, Jews lived in this area in historic (Hebron, today’s “East” Jerusalem, Nablus/Shechem) and new (Gush Etzion) communities during the Mandate period.

…And Then Gave 75% of it to the Arabs.

In 1922, Britain partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into two separate mandates, Palestine (west of the Jordan River) and the Transjordan (east of the Jordan River). Transjordan eventually became sovereign Arab territory. Despite the partition, the land that is now known as the West Bank still remained within Palestine and was still slated to be included in a new home for the Jewish people.

The Arabs Rejected the West Bank Twice.

Arab leaders did not accept any further partitions. The Arabs rejected two offers (in 1937 from Britain and in 1947 from the United Nations) that would have established Arab independence from Jewish sovereignty west of the Jordan River, including the West Bank. The Jewish community in Palestine, on the other hand, accepted both of these offers. So, before Israel’s War of Independence (1947-1949), there was no Arab ownership of the West Bank, and no sovereign from which to occupy it.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Successful trial of blocked artery treatment. Israel’s Eximo (see 30th Aug newsletter) has successfully completed a multicenter clinical trial of its laser system and unique catheters for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD). Doctors cured 20 patients, some of whom otherwise required bypass surgery or leg amputation.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-eximo-succeeds-in-trial-of-blocked-artery-treatment-1001115579

Prostate cancer treatment goes live. (TY JBN) I reported on Weizmann Institute’s groundbreaking prostate cancer treatment previously (in my 10th Jan newsletter). After 100% successful Mexican and European trials it has now been approved by Israel’s Ministry of Health and administered to a patient at Beilinson Hospital.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4787207,00.html

Nanotech antioxidant protection. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Israel’s Technion have activated the body’s natural defense against free radical damage. Enhanced micro-emulsion liquids produce a powerful antioxidant protein called Nrf2 and nanotechnology delivers it to the skin and organs.
http://www.israel21c.org/nanotech-formula-could-be-skins-fount-of-youth/
http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9284/3/1/1/htm

Detecting diseases at cell level. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a disease diagnostic method called methylation which identifies the source of fragmented DNA caused by cell death. In tests on 320 patients it has identified pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis, diabetes, traumatic brain injury and MS.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/209423#.VwO5Fkfn95R
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/13/E1826.abstract http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/29796

Bionic heart patch unveiled. (TY Nevet) Tel Aviv Professor Tal Dvir has unveiled his remote-controlled, bionic heart patch, which researchers say could become a revolutionary alternative to heart transplants for patients whose hearts have been damaged by heart attacks or cardiac disease. (See also Oct 2014 newsletter)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-u-unveils-revolutionary-cyborg-heart-patch/
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4590.html

Sleep apnea solution goes global. At the 13th International Dead Sea Symposium on Innovations in Technology, Treatment & Prevention of Cardiac Arrhythmias, Israel’s Itamar Medical announced that 60 international hospitals have now adopted Itamar’s Total Sleep Solution. (see 17th May newsletter)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/how-sleep-apnea-causes-heart-attacks-and-how-israeli-tech-helps/

An implant to treat spinal degenerative disc disease. (TY Dan) Israel’s Rainbow Medical is working with with Medos International Sarl (part of Johnson & Johnson) to develop a minimally invasive implant to treat spinal degenerative disc disease – which has no current cure and leads to acute chronic back pain.
http://www.orthospinenews.com/rainbow-medical-to-collaborate-with-johnson-johnson-innovation/

The lengths Israel goes to save Syrian girl. (TY Ron) Doctors at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center healed a 5-year-old Syrian girl from her civil war wounds but then discovered she had cancer. Israeli security services mounted a secret operation to smuggle a relative with matching bone marrow from “an enemy state” into Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-doctors-spies-rally-to-save-5-year-old-syrian-girl/

Fighting the Zika virus. One of the Grand Challenge Israel winners is Israeli startup BioFeed. It will use the 500,000-shekel prize money to advance its solution in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, carrier of the Zika virus. Biofeed uses odor to attract insects to poison that eliminates the pest without spraying crops.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-start-up-takes-on-grand-challenge-of-beating-zika/

Fish virus identified. Israeli scientists have helped isolate a deadly virus that is killing both wild and farmed tilapia fish – an important global food source. Tilapia eat algae and are essential for freshwater quality. The tilapia lake virus is related to the influenza virus and the research will help the development of a vaccine.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/210367#.VwSJRUfn95Q

The recent nuclear deal with Iran. The ongoing threat of terrorism in the Middle East. The still-unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Issues involving Israel appear in the news almost daily. And the country’s political actions continue to spark strong opinions inside and outside its borders.

But often lost in public perceptions of Israel is what this tiny country of a mere 8 million people — founded only 67 years ago, possessing few natural resources, and facing constant security threats from its neighbors — has achieved from an economic and business standpoint. Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, recently spoke at Wharton on this subject and promised to reveal “the secret of Israel’s success.”

The second-youngest ever Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Dermer was born and raised in Miami Beach, Fla. He earned degrees from both Wharton and Oxford. He graduated from Wharton in 1993 where, he noted, he arrived “a supporter of capitalism,” and left “a champion of it.” In 2004, Dermer co-authored, with Israeli human rights activist Natan Sharansky, the bestseller The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, which has been translated into 10 languages.