RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/08/23/hamas-alone-is-to-blame-for-the-deaths-of-those-hostages/

A bizarre debate has blown up. All over social media, people want to know: who’s responsible for the deaths of the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were discovered by the IDF in a tunnel in Khan Younis this week? Initial reports suggest the men might have died from suffocation after the IDF bombed a nearby Hamas position, causing carbon dioxide to flood the dank lair in which they were chained up. So it’s on Israel? They did this? CNN reports that the IDF was asked if it ‘killed the hostages’ at a recent press conference. Others are more brutal: those six poor souls were ‘butchered by the Israeli military onslaught’, says Owen Jones of the Guardian.

Let’s save these people some time. Let’s nip in the bud their moral deflection dolled up as critical analysis. The sole responsibility for the deaths of these six men lies with the gang of fascists who dragged them from their homes on 7 October. It lies with the Jew-haters who spirited these Jews from the safety of Southern Israel into the inevitable warzone of Gaza. It lies with the army of anti-Semites who treated the men like animals, violently robbing them of their liberty and hauling them into the dark heart of a deadly war. These men would be alive today were it not for the fascist actions of Hamas, and that’s all there is to it.

No sooner were the men’s bodies discovered than the cry went up: they died ‘as a result of [an] IDF bombing’. It seems so red is Israel’s bloodlust it even kills its own. If it was true they died as a result of a leak unleashed by the IDF’s pounding of Hamas, that would make their grim fate doubly tragic, we’re told. Here we had six Israeli civilians, four of them in their seventies or eighties, whose lives were first turned upside down by violent Islamists on 7 October, and then brought to an end as a consequence of the actions of their own army. Their deaths are proof, said Muhammad Shehada of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, that Israel’s ‘war of extermination on Gaza’ is ‘the biggest threat to the hostages’ lives’.

Soon, however, an inconvenient discovery intruded on these feverish efforts to blame Israel for the death of its own people. IDF autopsies discovered ‘marks suggestive of gunshots’. ‘Bullets were found in the bodies’, said the Hostages Family Forum, which represents the relatives of the Israelis still held captive in Gaza. No, these ‘marks’ do not prove the men were executed by their captors. As the New York Times reports, it is ‘too soon to determine whether gunshot wounds were the cause of death’. But these scars of the inhuman treatment meted out to the men by Hamas certainly complicate the early IDF-blaming narrative of Hamas’s Lord Haw Haws in the Western media.

So the debate goes on: did Hamas kill the men or did the IDF? Were they ‘butchered’ by reckless Israel or by their captors? As one report asks: did the IDF ‘again accidentally kill Israeli hostages’ or was this a ‘Hamas execution’? Who’s to blame? I’ll give you a clue: it’s the terrorist army who forced the men against their will to become actors in an apocalyptic war. It’s the racist gunmen who dragged the men into an underground hell that they knew perfectly well would be fired on and bombed. It’s Hamas. The commentariat’s reluctance to hold Hamas responsible for anything, even its own wicked deeds, is getting scary now.

 www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Another week of Israel with one hand fighting a war against those who love death, and with the other hand working to create a better future for those who love life. Michael Ordman

POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Oct 7 hero rehabilitates IDF soldiers. On Oct 7, Lt Yehonatan Skariszewski fought Hamas terrorists and guided over 100 Nova festival survivors to safety. He now works for NGO “For the Home, For Tomorrow,” training ex-combat soldiers in manual skills as therapy to counter anxieties following their active service.
https://www.jns.org/oct-7-hero-saved-dozens-at-nova-festival-now-rehabilitates-combat-soldiers/ 
 
Inspiration from Israelis returning home. (TY Ruth Kaplan) On Oct 7, residents of Kibbutz Magen fought off dozens of invading Hamas terrorists (video link below). They were then evacuated to the Dead Sea, from where 90% have since returned to their Kibbutz. Their stories of resilience give strength to Jews everywhere.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/kibbutz-magen-first-border-community-to-return-home-inspires-boston/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_nBmWIVPDU 
 
Resilience in the North. While Israeli citizens in the South are returning to their homes, many in the North have never left. The residents of this region – Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze alike – have become the guardians of their homeland, refusing to abandon the land they love, even in the face of unimaginable adversity.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/07/23/the-unbreakable-bonds-stories-of-resilience-from-israels-embattled-north/ 
 
Far-seeing enhancement. (TY UWI) While regular IDF soldiers have modern weapons, reservists lacked precision scopes for their Negev guns. So, several Israeli civilians voluntarily developed the Tomer Adapter, named after Tomer Nagar – a “Negevist” who fell while bravely defending the Kissufim military post on Oct 7.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/idf/its-saving-our-lives-israeli-hack-gives-precision-to-first-generation-machine-gun/2024/07/30/ 
 
Donations for Northern hospitals. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is donating $1 million to the Tzafon Medical Center (Poriya) to bolster its Trauma Unit. It is also funding $620,000 worth of new equipment and medical supplies at the Italian Hospital in Nazareth.
https://israfan.com/p/ifcj-boosts-northern-israels-medical-infrastructure-162m-donation 
 
Thousands of American volunteers. (TY Stefan) Another article publicizing the work of volunteers from America. They include some 3,500 who came on missions organized by JNF-USA since Oct 7, helping repair, rehabilitate, and rebuild Gaza border communities and giving vital motivational support.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-810564 
 
Helping rebuild Israeli communities. Russell Robinson, CEO of JNF USA, describes how his organization is building a community center 2km from Gaza. Self-funded volunteers on JNF-USA trips are cleaning up schools so that children can resume their studies. In the north, JNF-USA is building culinary and medical centers.
https://video.i24news.tv/video/brightcove/6360820023112/6360820023112_hls 
 
Reduced university tuition fees for reservists. Some 500 Tel Aviv University 1st-year students beginning their studies in the coming academic year who have served at least 30 days in the reserves since the beginning of 2024 will be entitled to a tuition discount of NIS 2,500, covering about 25% of total tuition fees.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-811913 
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Rejuvenating cancer-killing cells. Researchers at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have discovered why natural killer (NK) cells in the immune system lose their ability to fight cancer. They introduced nanoparticles that silenced the enzyme DGK alpha and the transcription factor Egr2, returning the NK cells to normal function.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/394893  https://www.biu.ac.il/en/article/581709 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDjFPY3zcmk 
 
Cancer pain treatment now used in US. (TY Nevet) The US is now recommending the innovative pain relief treatment for pancreatic cancer patients developed at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center (see here previously). 125 international patients received radiation treatment to the celiac plexus nerve. 53% reported significant benefit.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-811486 
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(24)00223-7/abstract 
 
Wearable can predict epileptic attacks. Israel’s Blink Energy has developed a tiny device, fitted to one eyelid, that monitors and analyzes blink patterns to detect or diagnose health conditions. E.g., to warn of an imminent epileptic seizure; or if about to fall asleep at the wheel; or to diagnose Parkinson’s disease or sleep disorders.
https://www.israel21c.org/eyelid-wearable-can-predict-and-alert-to-epileptic-seizure/ 
https://www.blinkenrg.com/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTfrhaxO7ig 
 
Fighting superbugs. Latest article about Israel’s NanoSynex (see here previously) and its antibiotic diagnosis test. The $11 million funding from investors, the IAA and Europe has helped it develop the product to test up to 20 patients at once and determine the correct antibiotic to use against bacteriological infections.
https://nocamels.com/2024/07/startup-fights-superbugs-antibiotic-resistance-with-rapid-testing/ 
 
The secrets of nutrient absorption. Scientists from Israel’s Weizmann Institute and Sheba Medical Center have compiled the first detailed map of the various activity areas in the human small intestine, revealing what makes it so effective at absorbing nutrients and protecting the body from infection.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/394262  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07793-3 
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/navigating-digestive-tract 
 
Can you shed light on this? (TY Ron M) I don’t know why an 8-year-old child swallowed a flashlight part – but he didn’t die. Doctors at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital removed the object, which had created an electrical circuit in the child’s esophagus. In another hour, it could have caused irreversible damage.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/s1z5jfb000 
 
Antibiotics from pepper. Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have created a derivative of the long pepper plant that disrupts the chemical communication between bacteria. The PL-18 derivative of Piperlongumine reducies bacterial virulence by disrupting the biofilm that surrounds bacteria.
https://nocamels.com/2024/07/bgu-study-finds-antibiotic-properties-in-pepper-plant/ 
 
Detecting COPD with a smartwatch. Israel’s RespirAI uses artificial intelligence and smartwatch sensors to monitor chronic patients e.g., with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). RespirAI compares oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) and EKG data with the wearer’s physical movement to predict imminent deterioration.
https://www.israel21c.org/copd-flareups-could-be-predicted-via-smartwatch/  https://www.respirai.com/ 
 
Diagnosing high-risk fat. All fat is not created equal. Scientists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have devised a non-surgical miRNA biomarker biopsy test for visceral adipose tissue (VAT) inflammation, which is derived from a specific type of body fat that poses a high cardio-metabolic risk in obese individuals.
https://www.israel21c.org/if-your-fat-is-vat-fat-you-could-be-at-higher-risk/
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/109/3/858/7274810