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February 2019

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Iran: Mounting Persecution of Christians by Majid Rafizadeh

By on February 24th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13757/iran-persecution-christians

“We created a people’s army to defend the country and also help in emergencies, but it turned into a monster.” — Mohsen Sazegara, on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which he helped establish.

Under international law, the Iranian government has an obligation to respect freedom of religion. Yet, while the rights of Christians are being violated in Iran at an unprecedented level, how long will the international community remain silent?

What will it take for these endlessly preening moralists to act against those human rights violations?

The persecution of Christians in Iran in 2018 increased to a new level, according to an in-depth report jointly released by Open Doors, Middle East Concern, Article 18, and Christian Solidarity Worldwide.”The end of 2018 saw an unprecedented wave of raids on private house gatherings, leading to a large number of arrests. Many Christians received prison sentences, or had sentences upheld by the Court of Appeal,” noted the report.Despite this roaring abuse, and violations and attacks against Christians being significantly ratcheted up, the international community continues to label the Iranian government, run by President Hassan Rouhani, as “moderate.

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Putin to Join the Mullahs’ Deception Club by Amir Taheri

By on February 24th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13789/putin-iran-deception

“Talk to Iran” was tried by successive US administrations, starting with Jimmy Carter’s. In 1980, the mullahs signed an accord with Carter not to seize any more American hostages in exchange for unfreezing Iranian assets blocked by Washington after the 1979 capture of the US Embassy in Tehran. Yet, to this day, Iran has always held American hostages, and today is holding 14.

The Saudis helped Iran organize the Islamic Summit in Tehran, hoping to persuade the mullahs to become part of the normal world. They coordinated oil policies and, as a further sign of goodwill, granted Iran an unprecedented Hajj quota. The reward was the Khomeinist attack on Khobar and, later, the ransacking of the Saudi Embassy and consulates in Iran.

Now here is a scoop: Russia is about to discover the duplicity that has marked the mullahs’ diplomacy for four decades. The Caspian Sea Legal Status Convention was just a piece of paper, signed to please Putin, who now can join the club of those deceived by the mullahs. There he would find Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, an enthusiastic novice.

“Talk to Iran!” This is the advice some Western politicians have bandied around since 1979, when the mullahs seized power in Tehran. The 40th anniversary of the Khomeinist regime has provided fresh opportunity for that slogan to be promoted again in the European Union and the United States.The argument is that the alternative to “talk to Iran” is war, something which few would desire. It is also claimed that “talk to Iran” helps a never-defined “moderate reformist faction” to defeat “hardliners” in the power struggle that has raged in the Islamic Republic from the start.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on February 24th, 2019

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Pluristem’s cells prevented amputation. A patient, with Buerger’s disease was at pre-amputation stage due to non-healing foot ulcers. Regulatory approval was given for compassionate treatment using Pluristem’s PLX-PAD cells. A year after treatment, the wound is fully closed, and the patient has resumed normal activities.
http://www.pluristem.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pluristem_Buergers_final_isa.pdf

Slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease. I reported briefly previously (9th Dec) that Israel’s KidneyCure was developing cell therapy for treating chronic kidney disease (CKD). Here are some more details of this innovative technology that turns damaged cells into healthy cells. https://www.kidneycure.com/
https://www.israel21c.org/delaying-dialysis-for-patients-with-chronic-kidney-disease/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-kidney-cells-startup-gets-backing-from-billionaire-kahns-venture-arm/

Laser treatment of vascular disease. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Eximo and its lasers for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD). The Center for Cardiovascular Excellence in Orlando, Florida is the first to use Eximo’s B-Laser Atherectomy System commercially to successfully treat a patient.
https://www.vasculardiseasemanagement.com/content/eximo-medical-ltd-announces-first-commercial-case-its-b-lasertm-atherectomy-system-us-and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6eMGlGknxU

Israelis to get better scan diagnoses. Tel Aviv’s Ichilov (Sourasky) Hospital and Israel’s largest health companies Clalit and Maccabi will use the algorithms of Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision to analyze scanned images from X-rays, CT scans and MRIs.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756385,00.html

Safer epidurals in China. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Aug 2013) on Israel’s Omeq Medical and its smart sensor-based epidural injection system. Omeq has partnered with Shanghai-based Pharos Medical, which will establish a production line and commercialize Omeq’s system in China.
https://www.trendlines.com/omeq-medical-raises-3-million-and-signs-commercialization-agreement/

Your personal antibiotic cocktail. (TY Israel21c) Researchers from Israel’s Technion Institute have devised a system for measuring the effectiveness of a combination of antibiotics in fighting infection.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2019/01/integrated-attack/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-018-0252-1

Jefferson-Israel Center. Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University has partnered with the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to form the Jefferson-Israel Center. The US university will provide a $1 million fund for Israeli companies to advance healthcare technology solutions. They can also access Jefferson’s medical facilities.
https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/Jefferson-Innovation-Authority-offer-1m-to-healthcare-innovators-580758

Monitoring newborns in Kenya. The Save the Children Fund (like Oxfam and UNICEF) is no friend to Israel. However, it didn’t stop the NGO from buying monitoring systems from Israel’s EarlySense to continuously track key vital signs of newborns in hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya. Another BDS fail.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3755791,00.html
https://www.israel21c.org/save-the-children-tests-israeli-lifesaving-tech-in-africa/

Microsoft’s Israeli virtual healthcare system. Microsoft’s Israeli R&D team, supported by several US medical partners, have launched the Microsoft Healthcare Bot. This innovative AI-powered virtual health assistant service aims to empower healthcare organizations to build and deploy virtual health assistants.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-developers-behind-Microsofts-AI-powered-healthcare-bot-580249
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756073,00.html

Eliminating transmission of genetic diseases. The Pre-Implantation Genetic Unit of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center uses the latest technology to ensure IVF patients have healthy babies. All procedures are in accordance with Jewish law and religious authorities are consulted when necessary.
https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Advanced-procedures-bring-hope-to-couples-with-genetic-diseases-579959

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US Peace Initiative – A Reality Test Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

By on February 24th, 2019

https://bit.ly/2GMh4HR

A successful pursuit of peace is preconditioned upon the predominance of reality over well-intentioned eagerness to produce peace. The latter is frequently tainted by oversimplification, short-term considerations and wishful-thinking.The enhancement of US national security interests behooves the architects of US peace initiatives to recognize the inherent constraints set by the 14 century old Middle East reality since the 7thcentury emergence of Islam.  Middle East reality has been shaped by systematic inter-Muslim and inter-Arab relations, conflicts, back-stabbing, subversion, terrorism and wars.  These endemic features have been totally unrelated to the Arab-Israel and the Palestinian-Israel conflicts.

Architects of peace initiatives should be cognizant of the predominance of inter-Arab and inter-Muslim threats and challenges, which have superseded the Palestinian issue. The latter has been showered with much Arab talk, but hardly any Arab walk, militarily and economically.  For example, on January 30-31, 2019, the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain convened in Jordan, in order to discuss the clear and present dangers of Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and additional top Middle East priorities. The absence of a Palestinian representative and the lack of any discussion of the Palestinian issue – while counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation between these six Arab countries and Israel is surging – underlined the fact that the Palestinian issue has never been a top regional priority, nor the crown-jewel of Arab policy makers, nor the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

The architects of peace initiatives should pay attention to a Texas colloquialism: “When smothered by sandstorms, while driving in West Texas, don’t get preoccupied with the tumbleweeds on the road.”

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Chilling Timeline of the ISIS Bride Who Wants to Return to America By Claudia Rosett

By on February 24th, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/timeline-of-the-isis-bride/

What are we to make of the ISIS bride who now wants to return to America? Hoda Muthana left her home in Alabama in 2014 to join the terrorist “caliphate” of ISIS in Syria. Now, reportedly thrice-married to ISIS terrorists, twice-widowed, and recently arrived with her 18-month-old son at a Kurdish-run refugee camp in northern Syria, she says she “deeply regrets” joining ISIS, and wants to come back to the United States.

How this plays out under U.S. law is likely to be decided by the legal wranglers in court, based on technicalities of dates and documents. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called her a terrorist, described her as having inflicted “enormous risk” on Americans, and released a statement that she is not a U.S. citizen and does not have any legal basis to travel to the United States. President Trump has tweeted that he has instructed Pompeo “not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!” Hoda’s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is now suing Trump, Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr to have Hoda and her son “declared to be U.S. citizens and returned to the United States,” which, according to the complaint, is what she wants, even if that could mean facing criminal prosecution.

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