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Ruth King

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

A new innovative Israeli medical system unblocks arteries from the heart to the brain. And Europe is funding an Israeli professor’s innovative treatments for atrial fibrillation of the heart.  Another new Israeli medical tool helps detect a mutant gene linked to autism and cancer in children. And three new Israeli medical schools have already enrolled nearly 200 future young Israeli doctors. Israel is also building a future of hi-tech engineers at Tel Aviv’s Afeka College. Meanwhile, Israel’s Tech It Forward is giving young college graduate immigrants tours to help them choose future careers in Israeli hi-tech.  Michael Ordman

The foregoing is a fraction of the positive news from a small, embattled nation. Israel is a gem in an archipelago of tyrants and barbarians. Israel’s medical research alleviates humanity, ironically, including the barbarians and tyrants poised to destroy the nation. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Unblocking the carotid arteries. Israel’s Pylon Medical has developed a first-of-its-kind system for treating carotid artery disease, one of the leading risk factors for stroke. Pylon’s new “specialty kit” includes a balloon catheter, an artery closure device, and an aspiration system that removes plaque in clogged neck blood vessels.
https://www.israel21c.org/treating-clogged-arteries-will-soon-be-safer-and-faster/
https://www.pylonmedical.com/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4__4da9UWE
 
Brain on a chip is a game-changer. Israel’s Itay & Beyond is developing a medicine discovery and AI-based testing platform for psychiatric and neurological disorders. They generated stem cells from autistic individuals, grow brain cells on a chip, connect to a computer, teach it to play games and analyze changes from medicines.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scientists-fuse-brain-tissue-and-electronic-chips-to-test-autism-treatment/
https://itayandbeyond.com/  https://itayandbeyond.com/Itay&Beyond-Video-Pitch-New-compressed.mp4
 
Rapid protection against viruses. Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute have discovered a unique genetic mechanism that provides cells with rapid protection against viruses. Normally, molecules NORAD and STAT3 control the immune system. On virus attack, the cells eat NORAD, and STAT3 unleashes an immune response.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/blog/article/viruses-and-the-human-cell-the-evolutionary-arms-race/
 
Breakthrough tool for gene mutation research. Tel Aviv University scientists have developed an innovative biosensor imaging tool for measuring the gene PTEN, whose mutations are linked to cancer and autism. It should help develop personalized treatments and aid early disease detection and more effective therapies.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/health-and-medicine/tau-researchers-on-brink-of-unlocking-gene-linked-to-cancer-and-autism/2025/02/25/  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02610-9
 
AI is your doctor’s best friend. Israel’s Lavaa Health’s platform can identify disease and hard-to-diagnose illnesses at the earliest stage, allowing doctors to quickly draw up efficient treatment plans. It uses AI to connect a person’s medical data with its own massive database and identify hard-to-diagnose or rare illnesses.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-ai-tech-that-can-spot-serious-illness-before-the-doctor/
https://lavaa.health/
 
Revolutionizing group therapy with VR & AI. (TY Sharon) One of the Israeli startups presenting at the Conference of Presidents’ “Resilience Panel” was neao – a pioneering Virtual Reality platform for remote group therapy. It features anonymity (with avatars), wider access and accessibility, and tailored environments.
https://neao.io/  https://www.meta.com/experiences/neao-group-therapy/8222701291141191/
 
No-mask solution for sleep apnea. (TY Sharon) Another Israeli startup presenting at the Conference of Presidents’ “Resilience Panel” was appscent medical. Its SCENTIFIC® device is the world’s first non-intrusive, contactless, drug-free home use solution for the potentially dangerous sleep apnea condition.
https://www.appscent.com/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV61Vnt3fx4
 
3 new medical schools. (TY WIN) Israel needs 2,000 new doctors every year but only gets 1,200. So it is opening three new medical schools, The private Reichman University in Herzliya (88 graduates) opened on 2nd Feb. Two others, at Haifa University (66) and Weizmann Institute of Science (40), are to open in Oct.
https://tps.co.il/articles/israel-launches-three-new-medical-schools-to-address-shortage-of-doctors/
 

‘A Variety of Tactics Designed to Induce Conversion’: The Persecution of Christians, January 2025 by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21440/persecution-of-christians-january

“Typically, kidnapped girls in Pakistan, some as young as 10, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and raped under cover of Islamic ‘marriages’ and are then pressured to record false statements in favor of the kidnappers, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary evidence related to the children’s ages, handing them back to kidnappers as their ‘legal wives.’ — Morning Star News, February 7, 2025, Pakistan.

In just the three weeks between Christmas 2024 and these attacks of Jan. 15, at least 128 Christians have been slaughtered in the North Kivu region alone. — Congo.

“Paki establishment has created a nation where the rights of minorities are trampled upon with alarming regularity. By empowering hardline groups and allowing them free rein, the Army has nurtured a culture of extremism that targets Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and other minorities with brutal precision…. Police rarely act to protect victims, while legal loopholes and vague religious laws, such as the infamous blasphemy law, are weaponized against them. These tools of oppression serve not only to silence dissent but also to provide cover for the perpetrators of violence. In the case of minority girls, the judicial system often works to retain victims against their will, legitimizing forced conversions and marriages under the pretext of religious freedom. This legal framework is no accident—it is the product of an establishment that has long relied on radical Islamists as a tool of power. These alliances have turned Pakistan into a hotbed of extremism, destabilizing not just its internal fabric but the entire region. The unchecked violence against minorities is not an aberration but the inevitable outcome of decades of Army-sponsored radicalization.” — News Intervention, January 7, 2025, Pakistan.

“There is also a new emphasis on targeting Coptic women who suffer physical or mental health problems, which make them doubly vulnerable. This enables the abductors to create confusion regarding the circumstances of a disappeared Coptic girl, creating a narrative of a love story utilizing existing relationships and communications, despite orchestrating the entire situation…” — Coptic Solidarity, January 29, 2025, Egypt.

Court documents make clear that these sentencings revolve around religion. — Iran.

According to multiple sources, non-Muslim students, many of whom are Christian, are being “subjected to a variety of tactics designed to induce conversion.” — Malaysia.

“Somalia’s constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims. The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to mainstream schools of Islamic jurisprudence. An Islamic extremist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, is allied with Al Qaeda and adheres to the teaching.” — Morning Star News, February 7, 2025.

“Christians in Indonesia say they are routinely pressured to make extra payments known as ‘grease’ to local officials or residents in order to obtain construction permits in the 83.3-percent Muslim country. When Muslim residents opposed to the St. Anthony church construction demonstrated in the street, one Catholic commented on social media, ‘Those who demonstrate do it because there was no grease available.'” — Morning Star News, February 8, 2025.

According to an Indonesian attorney speaking on condition of anonymity, this “grease” is “a kind of bribery paid to protestors to keep them from blocking church construction, though not legally acknowledged even when it is paid in full view of police.”

Dressing for the Role: Zelensky, Polonius, and the Theater of Politics Zelensky’s refusal to wear a suit in the Oval Office wasn’t just a fashion choice—it was theater, signaling defiance, playing to his audience, and raising questions about respect and diplomacy. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/02/dressing-for-the-role-zelensky-polonius-and-the-theater-of-politics/

I believe that most students, when first reading Hamlet, are inclined to regard Polonius as a sententious fool, present mostly for comic relief.

Sententious he may be. But it strikes me that most of his advice is wise and to the point.

Consider, to take one example, his famous speech to his son Laertes as the young man prepares to sail for France.

Is there a single item among Polonius’s “few precepts” that rings false?

I think that the speech, though pitched a bit high rhetorically, is full of good advice, from the bits at the beginning about holding one’s tongue to the concluding “to thine own self be true” admonition at the end.

Thinking about Volodymyr Zelensky’s performance in the Oval Office on Friday, it occurred to me that the Ukrainian president might profit by emulating certain of Polonius’s strictures. I am not thinking of Dane’s advice that one should “Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act.” Nor am I thinking of Polonius’s sage advice, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Both, to be sure, are sound prescriptions that the President of Ukraine might practice to his advantage.

But no: what impressed me as I digested the theater of the Zelensky Oval Office outing was something apparently more trivial. It revolved around what Polonius said about clothes, especially his observation that “the apparel oft proclaims the man.” Before the fireworks really started, at about minute 40 of the 50-minute Oval Office press conference when Zelensky and J.D. Vance got into it, someone asked why the President of Ukraine was not wearing a suit.

What the Red-Hand Pin Means to Jews, and Why It Matters Michael Kaplan

https://www.thewrap.com/what-the-red-hand-pin-means-for-jews/

At last year’s Oscars ceremony, a number of celebrities, including Billie Eilish, Ramy Youssef and Mark Ruffalo, wore the red-hand pin provided by an organization called Artists4Ceasefire. 

Artists4Ceasefire is again calling upon Hollywood luminaries to wear their pin at this Sunday’s Oscars.

Artists4Ceasefire describes itself as calling for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire, full hostage release, and delivery of lifesaving aid in Gaza” and claims that their pin, which depicts a red hand with a black heart in its center, “symbolizes support for universal human rights and lasting peace.”

Let’s ignore the fact that there currently is a ceasefire, that hostages are being released, and that aid is being delivered in Gaza (as it has been throughout the war). What could possibly be problematic in a call for “human rights and lasting peace?”

The problem is in the symbolism of the red hand itself. For many Jews, this symbol is an explicit reference to a 2000 incident in which a group of Palestinians in Ramallah brutally murdered two captured Israeli military reservists. The murderers then held up their bloody, red hands to the delight of a cheering crowd.

Thus, for many Jews, the red hand pin is a symbol of the murder of Jews, and those wearing it are, whether they know it or not, calling for and supporting such murder.

So what do Artists4Ceasefire and those who will wear the pins on Sunday think that the pins mean?

SOME HEADLINES ARE HARD TO PASS UP

German Soccer Player’s Child Bites Referee’s Crotch Forcing the Game to Be Canceled

A recent soccer match in Germany was postponed after an unfortunate injury to a referee.

According to the Latin Times, Rheinische Post, and National World, the incident occurred just before the match between FC Taxi Duisburg II and FC Rot-Weiss Mülheim began on Sunday, Feb. 23.

Referee Stefan Kahler was reportedly conducting his routine pre-game checks of the players’ passports when a “small child” who was on the field “doing gymnastics” gave him a “sharp” bite on his left testicle.

The young child was later identified as the son of a player on the Taxi Duisburg football team.

Related: Golfer Billy Horschel Fends Off Wayward Alligator with Club at Tournament

Kahler’s injury was so painful that he “buckled over” in pain, per the reports, and he was unable to perform his scheduled duties as referee.

A Fiasco in the Oval Office The dressing down of a besieged ally might be ‘great television.’ But it’s terrible for the United States. Eli Lake

https://www.thefp.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

On Friday the world witnessed one of the most astonishing spectacles in White House history.

American presidents have surely dressed down besieged allies behind closed doors; never before has it happened on live television. This break with any prior presidential diplomacy must be seen to be believed.

What unfolded between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance turned into a political Rorschach test.

For Trump’s base, the 50-minute exchange was proof positive of America First foreign policy—an ungrateful freeloader gets upbraided by the populist tribune.

For Americans who still cling to the now unfashionable notion that the international system should be ruled by rules and not might, Friday’s incident was a horror.

From the perspective of Europe, it’s the beginning of the end of the Trans-Atlantic alliance.

To recap, after agreeing under pressure from the White House to sign a rare earth mineral deal, Zelensky came to Washington with the intention of repairing his strained relationship with Trump, inking the deal, and convincing the U.S. to keep the weapons flowing to his war effort.

The meeting was intended to be a photo-op before the real discussions behind closed doors—and it began on a cordial note. Trump praised Ukraine’s soldiers. Zelensky politely showed Trump photographs of Russian atrocities.

But then Vance laid a trap. Or at least deviated from the diplomatic niceties. He explained that Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, thumped his chest and talked tough but never engaged in diplomacy with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. “The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy,” he said.

Vance, in this case, was not a reliable narrator of recent history. Biden hosted a virtual summit with the Russian leader at the end of 2021. Biden also waived sanctions on the construction of a second gas pipeline between Russia and Europe in the months leading up to the war. Before Putin invaded, Biden tried for nearly a year to dissuade him from doing it.

Nevertheless, the smart thing to do at this point would have been for Zelensky—who desperately needs America’s military support—to nod politely and let it go.

Trump 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by John Podhoretz

https://www.commentary.org/articles/john-podhoretz/trump-2-good-bad-ugly/

The 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is a man with a plan. His predecessor, the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, was not. Trump 45 portrayed himself throughout his first campaign as the embodiment of the electorate’s rage. That was effective in getting him elected and may have had the virtue of being true—but the role of rage-embodier provided little guidance when it came to the day-to-day task of being president. How were you to embody rage while at the same time repealing Obamacare, for example?

Trump 45 had no road map and no agenda. He had a vibe, and his first administration was an improvisation. Now, anyone who’s done (or watched) improv knows that moments of inspired brilliance can arise from a few disparate observations mashed together in an entirely new and unexpected way. But those unfortunate performers and audiences also know those indelible moments are usually outnumbered by the ones that go on too long, or are embarrassingly off-key, or just don’t work. The greatest improv of Trump 45 was the Abraham Accords, and a remarkable accomplishment they were. But then there was the bad improv, most notably the inconstant policy pronouncements and nightly briefings on the pandemic in 2020, which were so uncertain and discomfiting that they brought Trump 45 to its end.

Trump 47 ran for president for two years after the 2022 midterms, and the improviser was no more. His was a tight campaign and it had an overarching through line. The first, and most obvious, was that his successor had done a bad job and was so cognitively impaired, he wasn’t even really the president. That was the classic “binary choice” approach that every candidate running against a sitting president has to deploy: Do you want more of him or do you want to try me instead?

But it was more than that, and what we’ve seen in the first month of the Trump campaign is evidence. What Trump did, in every speech and every rally, was vow to take on and destroy two forces imperiling America’s present and condemning it to a dark future. The first was wokeness. The second was the weaponization of the law and the culture as a means of imposing wokeness on America. From the minute Trump took the oath of office on January 20, his determination to fulfill this vow—which unites even those parts of the right that remain skeptical or worse of Trump himself—has released a kind of primal political energy that has hit Washington with the force of one of those 2,000-pound bombs Joe Biden refused to send to Israel.

As I write, Trump has been president for three weeks. He has promulgated executive orders banning biological males from girls’ sports and recognizing two and only two genders. Other executive orders ended the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in government and extended the ban to institutions that receive federal funding. He has set loose the world’s richest man and most brilliant executive to root out waste in government, with no regard for prior political niceties—or niceties at all. He has targeted foreign aid, which collectively constitute the least popular doings of the federal government. He has sent illegal migrants who have committed criminal acts to Guantanamo. He has suspended government grants. He has moved American troops to the Southern border. He has threatened tariffs, then temporarily suspended them.

These are just the things he’s done that have popped into my head as I have been writing these sentences.

An Unprecedented Disaster By Abe Greenwald

https://www.commentary.org/issues/march-2025/

I was three-quarters done with today’s newsletter when an unprecedented disaster at the White House made my day’s work superfluous. So we recorded an emergency podcast (link below), and I’ll just say a few things about the president’s and vice president’s treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy a few hours ago.

This public ambush of America’s ally was truly unprecedented and truly disastrous. Trump invited Zelenskyy to the White House for…well, for what? 

If it was to bring Ukraine closer to some sort of cease-fire deal with Russia, why blow it up (or let your vice president blow it up) by provoking a fight about Zelenskyy’s invented ingratitude toward the U.S.? If it was to just get Zelenskyy to sign the mineral-rights deal, the same applies. Why let him leave without a guarantee of signing, to say nothing of kicking him out of the White House?

The only thing that’s clear about Trump’s supposed peace plan is that he doesn’t care at all about Ukraine’s position after the missiles and rockets cease. He wants to end the war and end it quickly. The quickest route to doing that is ending it on Vladimir Putin’s terms, without any pushback on Ukraine’s behalf. If that’s clear to me, it’s a lot clearer to Zelenskyy. 

So while Zelenskyy didn’t help his cause by being goaded into a yelling match, what difference would it have made if he responded differently to Vance’s instigation? Had he just sucked it up and endured the abuse with a polite smile or some form of assuagement, would Trump be less inclined to come to a deal on Putin’s terms? Doubt it. Trump’s made up his mind about what he wants. Zelenskyy would have looked, before the whole world—including Ukraine and Russia, obsequious in accepting his country’s defeat. No one can say how best to handle an unprecedented disaster.

The unprecedented nature of the meeting is self-evident. The disaster part is manifold. Before long, Ukraine will have to keep fighting without any U.S. assistance. U.S.-Europe relations might be strained to the breaking point as Ukraine’s neighbors deal with an advancing Putin’s increasing good fortune. To the U.S.’s friends, we look unreliable, immoral, and weak. To its enemies, we look like dupes. They won’t miss the opportunity to take further advantage. Zelenskyy was right in saying that if Putin is left unchecked, even Americans would feel the consequences. That feeling of shame is the first one.  

Iran’s Regime: Why Diplomacy and Deals Always Fail by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21435/iran-regime-diplomacy-deals

The Islamic of Republic of Iran is a revolutionary state, deeply committed to an ideological mission that transcends conventional diplomacy. Its very core identity is rooted in anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and the goal of exporting its revolutionary ideals worldwide.

This ideological foundation is not just some negotiable policy but an unshakable pillar of the regime’s existence. If the Islamic Republic were to abandon these principles, it would not merely be modifying its foreign policy — it would be dismantling its own identity. The regime cannot and will not abandon its hostility toward the United States and Israel; doing so would strip it of the very ideology that justifies its rule.

The Western dream has been that economic benefits, integration into the global system, and negotiations could push Iran to abandon its radical policies and support for terrorist groups. Iran, however, has mostly used negotiations as a tool to buy time, secure economic relief, then continue its military buildup. Iran’s regime has never wavered from its core mission, which is to spread its revolutionary Islamist ideology and challenge the global order that it views as corrupt and dominated by the West.

Iran’s constitution explicitly enshrines its mission to export its revolution abroad. Article 11 states that the government “considers the continuation of the Islamic Revolution at home and abroad as its duty.” Article 154 states that the Islamic Republic “supports the just struggles of the oppressed against the arrogant everywhere in the world.” This language is not mere rhetoric; it is the foundation upon which the entire state apparatus operates.

The regime’s founding mullah, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, made clear that the Islamic Republic’s ultimate goal is to unite the Muslim world under its own Islamist governance: “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.” This ideology is the regime’s very essence. To abandon it would mean abandoning the Islamic Republic itself. That is why Iran’s rulers will never truly compromise, regardless of how many sanctions are lifted or how many agreements are signed.

The world ignored similar signs from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, perhaps in the wish that appeasement would prevent a greater catastrophe. We know how that ended. Iran’s current regime, sadly, will never be a friend to the United States, to Israel, or to the free world — no matter what it is given.

For more than four decades, some policymakers in the United States and the West have clung to the belief that Iran’s regime can be persuaded into cooperation through diplomatic engagement, economic incentives or strategic deals. This persistent delusion has driven various US administrations to pursue negotiations, lift sanctions, shower Iran with cash, and offer it reintegration into the global financial system — all in the hope that such gestures would encourage moderation.

The regime’s record, however, has repeatedly proven the opposite. Regardless of the strategies employed to engage it, Iran’s regime remains intractably hostile to the United States, Israel and the broader Western world.

Well, Zelenskyy’s Interview With Bret Baier Was… Interesting… Matt Margolis

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/02/28/well-zelenskyys-interview-with-bret-baier-was-interesting-n4937441

Just hours after being unceremoniously booted from the White House by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to salvage what was left of his diplomatic credibility in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier. And boy, was it a doozy.

Zelenskyy kicked things off with the expected platitudes, thanking President Trump and the American people for their support throughout Ukraine’s three-year war with Russia. “I was always very thankful from all our people. You helped us a lot from the very beginning… you helped us to survive. We are strategic partners, even in such tough dialogue,” Zelenskyy said—sounding like someone ready to capitulate to Trump to get this deal done.

But the winds changed when Baier pressed him on whether he owed Trump an apology for the Oval Office debacle. Instead of showing an ounce of contrition, Zelenskyy doubled down: “I respect president and I respect American people, and… I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad.”

Not sure you did something bad? Is getting thrown out of the White House after a shouting match with the leader of the free world not a big enough clue? Ironically, Zelenskyy also expressed that some of the issues ought to have been discussed privately—which is exactly what JD Vance said.