RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/A-day-in-the-life-of-the-surreal-Jewish-state-594643?fbclid=IwAR1rs2pg_7G-rG7YwREu4zZOBHD6ydaT82DI8MGuueXwxx3J2q3nxF-oexI

Hundreds of people arrived at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center on Tuesday evening to attend the US Embassy’s annual Independence Day celebration. 
 
That the giant 4th of July gala was held two days early was not unusual. Nor was the long list of VIPs from Israel and the United States – among them members of Congress and the Knesset – seen networking at the bar and buffet, or lining up at the McDonald’s and Ben & Jerry’s stands.
 
What made this year’s flag-studded event most notable was its location. As both US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed in their speeches to the cheering audience, it was the first time in history that the American Embassy bash was held in Jerusalem. 
 
The reason for the change of venue was significant. Until last year, when Friedman decided to move it to an air-conditioned locale in Tel Aviv, the party to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence had taken place in the garden of the US ambassador’s residence in Herzliya.
 
It was not the coastal town’s oppressive summer heat and humidity that led to the break with tradition, however. Rather, it was US President Donald Trump’s 2017 official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state, and subsequent move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which enabled the welcome shift. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pilgrimage-road-and-palestinian-memory-11562264411

It was a striking sight: David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, wielding a sledgehammer at an archaeological site in Jerusalem. But his presence there was about more than a unique photo-op. It began 15 years ago, when construction workers repairing a burst sewage pipe discovered an ancient staircase directly south of the Temple Mount. The steps closely matched stairs abutting the original ancient entryways of the temple complex. Archaeologists realized that the sets of stairs were linked. They had chanced upon a road leading to the temple. After years of excavations, members of the public soon will be able to walk the Pilgrimage Road.

Two thousand years ago Jews traversed this path as they came from around the world to visit the temple. Such pilgrims were obeying a biblical commandment. Deuteronomy obligated Israelites to stand in the presence of God three times a year: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Rabbinic texts abound with descriptions of the processions that occurred, and the road parallels these details in an exquisite way.

One large stone on the side of the thoroughfare, which seems to have no structural purpose, may be explained by an ancient Talmudic reference to a “stone of claims.” This was an ancient form of a “lost and found,” upon which one who had dropped an object amid the throngs of pilgrims would stand and shout to Jerusalem’s visitors. The stone reminds visitors that the entire site was once hidden and now uncovered, just as the city of Jerusalem was once lost to the Jewish people and is now returned.

The Temple Mount pilgrimage was meant to be a journey to a spiritual summit. Yet today if visitors come from the western part of the city they often descend when approaching the site. Now pilgrims will be able to ascend stairs as their predecessors once did. To walk in their footsteps is to understand what Jerusalem meant to them and why it remains a beacon to the Jewish world today.

But, this being the Middle East, everything is subject to controversy. The Pilgrimage Road is located on land in East Jerusalem that Palestinians claim for themselves. Mr. Friedman, who on Sunday participated in an event inaugurating the site, told the Jerusalem Post that Israel relinquishing this portion of Jerusalem “would be akin to America returning the Statue of Liberty.” Palestinian official Saeb Erekat criticized Mr. Friedman for his attendance and contended that the road is a “lie that has nothing to do with history.” Yet Mr. Erekat and many other Palestinian leaders have long denied what archaeologists and historians consider basic and uncontroversial facts, such as the existence of the Temple.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14488/palestinian-war-on-businessmen

By boycotting the conference in Bahrain, in fact, Palestinian leaders had already sent a message to the world that they would rather see their people continue to suffer economic hardship than receive billions of dollars in aid…. Rather than spitting in the faces of businessmen, Palestinian leaders should be working closely with Israel and the US and any other party that wants to help the Palestinian people.

Abbas and his old guard officials are evidently hoping that the US and international community will continue pouring millions of dollars on them without holding them to account…. They want the conflict to continue for as long as possible so that they can continue receiving funds from Americans, Europeans and others.

Palestinian leaders want to continue blackmailing the international community into giving them unconditional and unlimited financial aid, while at the same time depriving Palestinians of any opportunity to improve their living conditions. They want their people to continue living in misery so that Abbas and his officials can blame Israel and the rest of the world for the “suffering” of the Palestinians.

These leaders’ biggest fear is that economic prosperity might divert Palestinians’ attention from the fight against Israel. Like his rivals in Hamas, Abbas seems afraid that once Palestinians start enjoying the fruits of a strong economy, they will stop thinking of killing Israelis or abandon the Palestinian dream of destroying Israel.

The Palestinian Authority’s crackdown on Palestinian businessmen who participated in the recent US-led “Peace to Prosperity” economic conference in Bahrain signals strongly how Palestinian leaders act directly against the interests of their own people.

Even more worrying is the message that this crackdown sends to the Palestinian public: anyone who dares to work with US President Donald Trump’s administration will be denounced as a traitor and collaborator with the “enemies” of the Palestinians: the US and Israel.

https://bit.ly/2RYFccY

1. Pratt & Whitney – one of the three largest helicopter and airplane jet engine manufacturers in the world, accounting for a substantial portion of United Technologies’ activity – concluded a long term contract with Israel’s Bet Shemesh Engines.  The contract will extend Bet Shemesh’s manufacturing jet engine parts for Pratt & Whitney until, at least, 2039, yielding an $800MN revenue for Bet Shemesh, which brings its total revenues during the 35 year association with Pratt & Whitney to $2.6BN (Globes Business Daily, June24, 2019).

2. Intel’s Senior Vice President and President of Intel Capital, Wendell Brooks: “Innovation drives economies, and the two best places of this are Israel and the US.” He added that Israel was one of three tech hubs that Intel Capital (Intel’s investment arm) is intently focused on (alongside China’s Beijing/Shanghai and the Silicon Valley).  Moreover, often Israeli entrepreneurs have “better ideas than in the Silicon Valley.” Intel Capital capped 2018 with $120MN invested in 14 Israeli startups and companies – a record year of investments in Israeli startups. Intel is building a new plant in Israel (Kiryat Gat) involving an $11BN investment. (Israel Today, April 25).

3. Israel’s Kornit Digital, which manufactures digital systems for printing on textiles, is raising $146MN on NASDAQ, which is five times more than its initial expectation. The underwriters are Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Berkleys, William Blair, Stifel, Needham and Craig-Hallum Capital Group (Globes, June 12). Israel’s SentinelOne Cybersecurity raised $120MN in a round of private placement led by the $23BN NYC-based Insight Partners, with the participation of the South Korean giant Samsung Venture Investment, NYC-based Third Point Ventures, Menlo Park-based Redpoint Ventures and NextEquity, Palo Alto-based Data Collective, etc. (Globes, June 6). Israel’s BrightWay raised $25MN in a round of private placement led by Japan’s Koito Manufacturing and the Japanese-Israeli venture capital fund, Magenta Venture Partners (Globes, June 26).