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Ruth King

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Are unilateral withdrawals in Israel’s interests? – opinion Strategically, unilateral withdrawals, with few exceptions and even with the best of intentions, have been disastrous. By Moshe Dann

By on August 17th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/are-unilateral-withdrawals-in-israels-interests-opinion-638593

The explosion in Beirut was only a warning. It was meant to take place in Israel, and yet few people have focused on this (understandably because of the tragedy). Hezbollah still has 150,000 precision-guided missiles intended to be used against Israel. That will be as devastating as the ammonia-nitrate explosion at the port. And Hezbollah remains the most powerful political and military force in Lebanon. Although Israel is not the cause of Hezbollah’s rise to power in Lebanon, it bears some responsibility.

One of the consequences of then-prime minister Ehud Barak’s irresponsible decision to leave Lebanon unilaterally in May 2000 was to give Hezbollah the opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the absence of the IDF and the collapse of the South Lebanese Army. Although controversial within the government and the IDF, the withdrawal was not hasty. It was planned and executed by the IDF. The withdrawal was seen by Arabs as a retreat under fire.

Barak’s attempts in July of that year to appease PLO chairman Arafat at a conference convened by US president Bill Clinton at Camp David failed, but the PLO saw this in the context of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Like Hezbollah, it too could be victorious. That led to a massive reign of terror led by the PLO, the Second Intifada, which claimed 1,100 Israeli lives and many thousands wounded.

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The Beirut Explosion Highlights Hezbollah’s Malevolence By Lawrence J. Haas

By on August 17th, 2020

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/beirut-explosion-highlights-hezbollah%E2%80%99s-malevolence-167014

We may never know exactly why a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate sat dangerously at Beirut’s port for years, but the explosion that killed nearly 200, injured thousands, and left 300,000 homeless highlights the malignant influence of Hezbollah within a dysfunctional government and across Lebanese society.

The tragedy reminds us that Lebanon will never have a well-functioning government with the terrorist group in it, that the nation can never count on peace as long as Hezbollah preps for its next war with Israel across Lebanon’s southern border, and that global financial institutions and other would-be donors will continue to shun Lebanon due to Hezbollah’s illicit activities. It also reminds us that, for the region and world, much rides on the fate of Hezbollah’s sponsor, the radical regime in Iran, which arms and funds Hezbollah and other terrorist groups to expand its footprint beyond its borders.

That Hezbollah wields so much power in Beirut is partly a function of Lebanon’s governing structure and partly of its own designs. In Beirut – where a president, prime minister, and parliament preside – the constitution disburses proportional power among Christians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and other religious groups. By tradition, the president is a Christian, the prime minister a Sunni, and the parliamentary speaker a Shiite.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

How the Trump campaign will shift the narrative and win Thomas Lifson See Note

By on August 17th, 2020

“PLEASE NOTE: Since Thomas Lifson posted this piece, YouTube has blocked ALL of the videos to which Lifson provides links below. For the full impact of just how egregious this unconstitutional CENSORSHIP IS, click on the link below and scroll down to see this Democrat sabotage of one of our most prestigious conservative web journals – AMERICAN THINKER!! – Fox News Channel.com probably has a video of Maria’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ on its web site, so if you didn’t catch the show yesterday, you may be able to view it there. – CB”

With the media and the Democrats completely dedicated to fictional narratives, from Trump calling neo-Nazis “fine people” to the wacky conspiracy theory that Trump is sabotaging the U.S. Postal Service in order to disenfranchise voters, the challenge facing the Trump campaign is letting truth annihilate propaganda. 

I have long stressed that President Trump understands video narratives better than any other president in American history.  He was the most successful reality television producer in the history of the medium, crafting compelling narratives abut job competition that drew record audiences.  He understands that in order to reach people effectively, a narrative has to follow a structure similar to that of a play, with three acts.  The political narrative of the Trump administration is now entering Act Three, in which the conflicts that developed in the first two acts come to a satisfying conclusion, with surprises sprung and conflicts resolved.  

We got an excellent preview of the developing messages yesterday, thanks to Maria Bartiromo.  If you want to understand the deep currents of American politics, Maria Bartiromo’s weekly show on Fox News Channel, Sunday Morning Futures, is essential viewing.  Set your DVR to never miss it if you care about politics.  Her guests on yesterday’s edition, embedded in full below, laid out the arguments that the Trump campaign can use to win the race, despite the full force of the media behind the artificial narratives pushed by the Democrats.

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CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, ELECTIONS Comments turned off

BIDEN-UNFIT FOR OFFICE BY JACK STRONG

By on August 17th, 2020

https://newswithviews.com/biden-unfit-for-the-presidency/

Joe Biden is perhaps the most unfit individual ever to run for the presidency in United States history. Not only are his principles taken from the socialist playbook, but his mental incompetency and physical unfitness are so glaring as to make him thoroughly unqualified for any office, let alone the highest office in the land. In this article, we will highlight Biden’s sad decline into senility and list the reasons why he must not become president.

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was born in November of 1942. Two weeks after the upcoming election, he will turn 78 years old, which would make him the oldest individual to ever sit in the Oval Office. This is not a trivial detail. Biden’s age and rapidly declining mental and physical state should be one of the primary points of discussion during this campaign. As you will soon see, Biden’s deteriorating condition, due to his advanced age and medical challenges, disqualifies him for the presidency.

To be clear, many individuals go well beyond 78 years of age and remain active, vibrant, and healthy. They have their wits about them, are coherent in conversation, and, apart from wrinkles and white hair, live their lives as if they were decades younger. Biden has not been similarly blessed. Everything about him smacks of senility and drastic decline in mental and physical faculties. He would be a severe liability to America if permitted to hold high office in his condition.
Dr. David Scheiner, Barack Hussein Obama’s former physician, rebutted the Biden campaign’s declaration that their man is healthy, vigorous, and fit for office – a declaration that conveniently omitted any discussion of Biden’s cognitive abilities. Dr. Scheiner said: “He’s not a healthy guy . . . He has a lot of issues that are just sort of sitting there.” He also remarked: “I had no idea Biden had such a [medical] history. My goodness gracious, he’s got a lot of history.” The doctor said he would particularly like to see a CT scan or MRI conducted on Biden to better assess his failing health.
In 2008, Biden released a 49-page medical history. That history has only grown in the last twelve years. Among other maladies and mishaps, we know that Biden suffered two brain aneurysms back in 1988. He’s undergone various surgeries, including for his aneurysms. Of his brain surgery, Biden said:
“I had two cranial aneurysms, and they literally had to take the top of my head off. I mean, they take a saw and they cut your head off, and go in to find the artery that is–one was leaking, the other that hadn’t, before it burst.”
In Biden’s own words, the doctors told him that “the side of the brain that the first aneurysm is on controls your ability to speak.” They said he would have a low chance of ever being normal again. Skip to 2020 – prophecy fulfilled.
Additionally, Biden has suffered from sleep apnea, which is of course what you want in the guy who is in charge of the U.S. military during a conflict or at the helm during times of tense diplomacy. He has also undergone surgeries on his prostate that were only recently disclosed. Biden’s eyes are in a bad way, too, and during a 2020 town hall meeting on CNN, his left eye suddenly filled with blood for everyone to see. The radical propaganda network Snopes was forced to admit this embarrassing episode happened, though they tried to simultaneously discount the obvious fact that Biden’s physical health is in rapid decline.

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

3 Jewish Students Forced Out of USC Student Government for Pro-Israel Views Students for Justice in Palestine purges Jews from USC student government.

By on August 17th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/3-jewish-students-forced-out-usc-student-daniel-greenfield/

Truman Fritz and Rose Ritch won the most votes in the race for president and vice president of the USC Undergraduate Student Government. Isabel Washington scored the most votes in the Senate race. Six months later, all three USC students were harassed into resigning.

The story of how that happened exposes the ugliness of campus bullying and anti-semitism.

Of the three USC student government leaders and one student who was next in the line of succession who were forced out, three were Jewish, one of them gay, and one was African-American. The cancel culture campaigns against them were led by Islamic students.

Three of the four students were targeted for supporting Israel.

Isabel Washington, a Jewish African-American student senator, was the first to be forced out after false accusations of “anti-black racism”, of holding “white supremacist ideologies”, and, of “Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian statements”.

Shaden Awad, an RA at USC, and apparently a supporter of American Muslism for Palestine, attacked Washington for her role at Hillel, a Jewish campus organization where Washington serves as the Jews of Color Co-Chair, writing “Even if all the orgs on campus that r Jewish r also Zionist That’s not an excuse For you to join That’s still blood on ur hands.”

“I didn’t join them bc they’re zionist. I joined them because I’m Jewish,” Washington replied.

A petition calling for her expulsion, with over 1,200 signatures, declares that “a woman with years of internalized racism, classism, and Zionism behind her should not be given the luxury of being a USC student”.

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The lockdown has been a catastrophe A new report estimates that for every three Covid deaths, there were two lockdown deaths. Fraser Myers

By on August 17th, 2020

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/08/11/the-lockdown-has-been-a-catastrophe/

For the past seven weeks, the number of excess deaths in Britain has been below the five-year average. The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has fallen by 96 per cent since the peak of the pandemic, and deaths in hospitals have fallen by 99 per cent.

Despite the summer heatwave, nearly three times as many people are currently dying in Britain from pneumonia and flu than from Covid-19. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that at any given time between 27 July and 2 August, just 0.05 per cent of the population not in hospitals or care homes were likely to test positive for Covid.

Barring the possibility of a second wave, the actual Covid epidemic seems to be behind us. But the broader disaster, sadly, is not. A newly released government report from the ONS and other government departments suggests that in the past two months, for every three excess Covid deaths, two more were caused by lockdown. The report is an update of a previous SAGE paper which, back in April, estimated that 200,000 could die from the cost of lockdown.

That the lockdown is contributing to deaths is an important thing to establish. Many have tried to argue that the disparity between the official Covid death toll of around 45,000 and the number of excess deaths of around 65,000 is due to undercounting Covid deaths. Excess deaths should be used to consider ‘the true cost of the pandemic’, especially given the different reporting standards of Covid by different health bodies. Reports like this are important in disaggregating non-Covid deaths from the total, so we can see where our response went wrong.

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel-UAE Deal is a Win-Win for Peace by Alan M. Dershowitz

By on August 17th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16358/israel-uae-deal-peace

The United Arab Emirates will derive many benefits from closer relationships with the Middle East’s most stable and advanced county. These include economic and technological partnerships, military and intelligence sharing, mutual tourism and better relationships with the US and much of the rest of the world.

The deal also demonstrates how quickly changes occur in this volatile part of the globe. It was only a few decades ago when Israel’s strongest allies were Iran and Turkey, and its most intractable enemies were Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states. Now the reverse is true. The only constant constructive element in the region is a democratic Israel, with its close ties to the United States.

The other constant — but a destructive one— has been the Palestinian leadership. They constantly say no to everything that involves normalization with Israel. This stance goes back to the 1930s when they rejected the Peel Commission recommendation that would have given them a state in the vast majority of the British Mandate. But because it would also have given the Jews a tiny, non-contiguous state, the Palestinians said no. They wanted there not to be a Jewish state more than they wanted there to be a Palestinian state. This naysaying… continues today with their refusal even to negotiate over the Trump peace plan.

The agreement by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to normalize relations with Israel bodes well for the future of Israel and the dangerous region in which it lives. It was not the first such agreement — there were peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) — but it will probably not be the last. It is likely, though not certain, that other Gulf nations may follow. Even the president of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, has “hinted at the possibility of peace talks with Israel.” In any event, he has not precluded eventually joining other Arab countries in normalizing relations with Israel.

Although the Palestinian leadership opposed the deal — it always opposes everything — it too may benefit from it. The UAE will press for a two-state solution and its voice will be more influential both in the United States and in Israel. A two-state solution that assures Israel’s security would require a demilitarized Palestine with an Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley and territorial swaps that keep the current settlement blocks as part of Israel. This would allow for a contiguous, viable Palestinian state that could thrive if it maintained peace with Israel. The Palestinians could secure such a state if they agree to negotiate with Israel over the current Trump plan that is now on the table.

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HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Wall Street Wants More Frauds from China by Gordon G. Chang

By on August 17th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16352/wall-street-china-fraud

Why do Chinese companies pillage American investors? Because American rules — more precisely, exceptions to them — essentially invite them to do so.

Unfortunately, China is rapidly moving in the wrong direction. In March, it took a big step backward by amending its securities law to further impede the sharing of audit information with overseas regulators.

Roger Robinson, former chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told Gatestone that he is also concerned about whether the new rules will be enforced. “Although historic progress is being made vis-à-vis China’s abuse of the U.S. capital markets, there is still a fervent effort underway by Treasury and Wall Street to minimize any disruption to the status quo.”

The issue, as Stevenson-Yang notes, is whether American regulators have the “guts” to maintain regulated markets. Chinese companies, many of them with fake books, are betting they do not.

China’s issuers, however, are still coming in droves to America. To steal.

Investors dumped the shares of Nasdaq-listed iQiyi late last week after the Chinese company announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had initiated an investigation into it for fraud.

In April, short-seller Wolfpack Research accused iQiyi of inflating revenue and user numbers by double-digit margins. The “fraud,” as Wolfpack termed it, dated back before iQiyi’s initial public offering in March 2018.

iQiyi, known as the “Netflix of China,” is no fly-by-night operation. It is owned by blue-chip Baidu, “China’s Google.”

The iQiyi scandal follows a series of Chinese frauds, most notably Luckin Coffee, which admitted fabricating sales and was delisted from Nasdaq at the end of June.

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Trumpism—A Look Backward and Forward to November Between the abyss and what goes on in Portland and the Magnificent Mile, there is for the moment nothing else but Trump standing in the breach. Victor Davis Hanson

By on August 17th, 2020

https://amgreatness.com/2020/08/16/trumpism-a-look-backward-and-forward-to-november/

Perhaps 70 percent of Trumpism remains a hodgepodge of Reaganism: strong defense, realist foreign policy, deregulation, smaller government, big deficits, tax cuts, energy growth, and stars-and-stripes traditionalism.

But it is the other unorthodox 30 percent that excited his base, terrified conservative apostates, and won Trump the 2016 election by energizing between 4 million and 6 million voters in swing states who had either given up on Republicans, or on elections altogether. NeverTrumpers talk of Trump’s demise and their own resurrection as Phoenixes to rebirth the GOP. They have no idea that those who despise them had ensured their Beltway-preferred candidates could rarely win; nothing has changed since.

Trumpist conservatism is usually defined as not free, but fair trade, strict enforcement of immigration laws, an end to optional interventions that will not likely, in a cost-to-benefit analysis, result in U.S. interests or strategic calm for a purported troubled region, and a belief that industry and manufacturing are not brick-and-mortar anachronisms, but the creators of what we cook on, sit on, live in, drive, and work in; our non-virtual world that everyone relies on and yet takes for granted as so passé. 

If Trump left his agenda at that, NeverTrumpers likely would be disgruntled but mostly quiet. The Left, as is its wont with Republican presidents, would have remained serially hysterical as in the Reagan and Bush years, but not completely unhinged as it has been since 2017. 

What distinguished Trump then was not just his substance, but also his style. Translated it could be envisioned as chemotherapy, toxic enough to kill the status-quo cancer, but not quite lethal enough to kill the host. Or maybe Trump derangement arose from class disdain over the orange skin, the combed over dyed hair, the mile-long ties, the Queens accent, the oddly agile bulkiness, the raucous Manhattan career—the antithesis to all that appears on the Sunday morning talk shows.

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AN EXTRAORDINARY WEEK IN ISRAEL

By on August 16th, 2020

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Nothing can top the announcement of the forthcoming establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. And it is possible that there could be similar news from other Arab countries in the near future.

In comparison, some “merely” exceptional Israeli news items include the installation of an Israeli aircraft safety system at Qatar’s Hamad International Airport;  an Israeli hospital performing Phase 3 testing of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine; 3 new Israeli irrigation projects in India; Israeli electric vehicle charging systems for Europe and another major boost for Israel’s prospects in the Tour de France. Michael Ordman

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Covid-19 passive vaccine cures 3 Israelis. Three of the first critical Covid-19 patients treated with the new IgG plasma-derived “passive vaccine” product developed by Israel’s Kamada and Hadassah Medical Center (reported here previously), have made a rapid recovery and have now been discharged from Hadassah hospital.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/first-3-israelis-treated-with-new-passive-vaccine-recover-leave-hospital-638431
 
Pluristem’s Covid-19 Phase 2 Germany trial. Israel’s Pluristem Therapeutics (reported here previously) has been approved by German’s health regulatory authority to conduct a Phase 2 clinical trial of its PLX PAD stem cells on 40 serious Covid-19 patients. Pluristem is already conducting a 140-patient Phase 2 trial in the US.
https://www.pluristem.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/PEI-Clearance-to-Commence-Phase-II-Study-in-Germany-FINAL-FOR-RELEASE.pdf
 
Previous TB vaccinations help young Covid-19 patients. Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion and Hebrew Universities have found that vaccinations given against Tuberculosis (BCGs) in the last 15 years reduced death rates and infection rates in COVID-19 patients under 24 years of age. Data from 55 countries was analyzed.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-corona-discovery-tuberculosis-shots-could-help-fight-covid-19/
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/8/3/378
 
Hadassah tests Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine. Professor Zeev Rotstein, CEO of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, has revealed that its clinic in Skolkovo, Moscow is involved in clinical safety trials of the new Russian Covid-19 vaccine. Phase 3 trials are still ongoing, even while Russia’s President Putin inoculated his family.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-hadassah-says-its-involved-in-development-of-russian-covid-19-vaccine/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfDMrlsQJl8
 
The Israeli at Moderna’s vaccine project. This 30-minute video features Israel’s Dr. Tal Zaks – chief medical officer of Moderna, a front-runner in the race for a COVID-19 vaccine. He summarizes the progress of the latest trial, and how his education at BGU’s Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School shaped his career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhn_MX7XhUE
 
Approval to test treatment for advanced cancer. Israel’s KAHR Medical has received US FDA approval to begin Phase 1 & 2 clinical (human) trials of its DSP107 treatment of advanced solid tumors (reported here previously). The trials will assess DSP107 both by itself and in combination with Roche’s atezolizumab.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/fda-gives-jerusalem-based-company-go-ahead-to-start-cancer-drug-trials-638355   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2NLNV3CB2U  https://kahr-medical.com/technology/pipeline/
 
Stress relief pre surgery reduces metastatic risk. Tel Aviv University researchers reduced secondary cancer following colorectal tumor removal. Deralin and Etopan were given before and after surgery. 3 years later the cancer had spread significantly less than in a control group. Now pancreatic cancer patients will be tested.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-08/afot-tau080720.php (latest trial)
https://english.m.tau.ac.il/news/cancer-stress (2017 trial on breast cancer patients)
 
Moses 2.0 launched. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel-headquartered Lumenis (reported here previously) has launched a superior version 2.0 of its Moses platform for minimal and non-invasive laser removal of urinary (bladder) stones and other stones.  https://lumenis.com/medical/holmium-products/lumenis-moses-pulse-120h/
https://lumenis.com/medical/specialties/urology/resource-hub/lumenis-launches-next-generation-moses-2-0-holmium-laser-technology/   
 
Home ultrasound for pregnant Israelis. Israeli healthcare provider Clalit, with 4.6 million Israeli members, has authorized the use of the PulseNmore home ultrasound device (see here) for expectant mothers. It will reduce numbers of unnecessary hospital visits (average two per pregnancy) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/clalit-to-offer-pregnant-members-startup-pulsenmores-at-home-ultrasound-kit/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLskCQS79P4
 
From drip irrigation to diagnosing diseases. Kibbutz Hatzerim is famous for founding drip-irrigation innovator Netafim. It has now co-founded Picodya – developer of the B-Matrix in vitro diagnostics (IVD) platform. B-Matrix gives 15-30min test results for cancer, cardiac dysfunction and viruses (including Covid).
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3844490,00.html   https://picodya.com/
https://picodya.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/PicodyaBMatrixTechnology.mp4
 
Signs of the times. The vital signs monitoring tool from Israel’s Binah.ai (reported here previously) is to be used by 4 Japanese companies. NTT Data – Health Data Bank; Alm’s MySOS – emergencies & new Covid-19 cases; Macnica Networks – monitoring Covid-19 re-infections; SOMPO – insurance policyholder checkups.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3844709,00.html
 
Canon partners Zebra. Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision (reported here previously) has partnered with American radiology system distributor, Canon Medical Systems USA (part of the Canon empire). Zebra’s disease analysis platform will be made available to many more locations across the United States.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3844686,00.html
https://us.medical.canon/news/press-releases/2020/08/11/3390/
 
 

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