Displaying the most recent of 90425 posts written by

Ruth King

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Netanyahu’s Judicial Reform Doesn’t Go Far Enough Israel should establish rules of standing and recognize the distinction between policy and law. By Michael B. Mukasey

By on February 27th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/netanyahus-judicial-reform-doesnt-go-far-enough-reasonableness-attorney-general-standing-knesset-policy-supreme-court-2d3d1664?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Judges and attorneys general throughout the world—I’ve served in both capacities in the U.S.—wield substantial authority. In any sound legal system, such authority is subject to clear, objective limits. That seemingly unexceptional principle might help clarify the debate roiling Israel over the country’s Supreme Court justices and attorney general, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposals to change that authority and the method of selecting justices.

Unlike the U.S., Israel doesn’t have a constitution to constrain court rulings. It doesn’t require that a party bringing a case have standing—a direct and personal stake in the outcome of the dispute. In Israel, anyone may file a case on any issue, which raises the ante in the current debate. Nor do Israeli courts recognize the distinction between legal issues—resolved in the U.S. by courts—and policy issues, including military tactics and cabinet appointments, which in the U.S. are left to the political branches.

Moreover, Israel’s Supreme Court has taken on the authority to base its decisions on whatever it determines is “reasonable.” The court has applied even that tenuous standard inconsistently. In 1999, when Prime Minister Netanyahu tried to close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s headquarters in Jerusalem, the court held that the step was unreasonable because parliamentary elections were only months away. But five days before the 2022 parliamentary elections, the court sustained the power of Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s government to enter into an agreement yielding portions of what were claimed to be Israel’s territorial waters to Lebanon.

The Supreme Court’s authority often is exercised in tandem with that of Israel’s attorney general, who serves a six-year term and isn’t part of the elected government. Since 2000, the attorney general’s role as legal adviser to the government has expanded into legal authority over the government. Israel’s courts treat any directive by the attorney general as legally binding on the government. Initially by attorney general directive in 2002, and later by order of the government in 2009, the attorney general has the authority to control the legal advisers within each ministry and government office. In addition, the attorney general may appear in court to argue against the government’s position and can ban the government from seeking private counsel to defend its policies. In such cases, the government’s own lawyer in effect denies it representation.

Continue reading →
MEDICINE AND HEALTH Comments turned off

Three Years Late, the Lancet Recognizes Natural Immunity The public-health clerisy rediscovers a principle of immunology it derided throughout the pandemic.

By on February 27th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/three-years-late-the-lancet-recognizes-natural-immunity-great-barrington-declaration-tech-censor-antibodies-mandates-b3ba912c?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The Lancet medical journal this month published a review of 65 studies that concluded prior infection with Covid—i.e., natural immunity—is at least as protective as two doses of mRNA vaccines. The most surprising news was that the study made the mainstream press.

“Immunity acquired from a Covid infection is as protective as vaccination against severe illness and death, study finds,” NBC reported on Feb. 16. The study found that prior infection offered 78.6% protection against reinfection from the original Wuhan, Alpha or Delta variants at 40 weeks, which slipped to 36.1% against Omicron. Protection against severe illness remained around 90% across all variants after 40 weeks. These results exceed what other studies have found for two and even three mRNA doses.

This comes after nearly three years of public-health officials’ dismissing the same hypothesis. But now that experts at the University of Washington have confirmed it in a leading—and left-leaning—journal, it’s fit to print.

The Lancet study’s vindication of natural immunity fits a pandemic pattern: The public-health clerisy rejects an argument that ostensibly threatens its authority; eventually it’s forced to soften its position in the face of incontrovertible evidence; and yet not once does it acknowledge its opponents were right.

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

S.O.S for the U.S. Electric Grid PJM Interconnection sounds the latest alarm that fossil-fuel plants are shutting down without adequate replacement power. The political class yawns.

By on February 27th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/s-o-s-for-the-u-s-electric-grid-pjm-interconnection-blackout-supply-renewables-subsidy-report-fossil-fuel-4cbdd56e?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The warnings keep coming that the force-fed energy transition to renewable fuels is destabilizing the U.S. electric grid, but is anyone in government paying attention? Another S.O.S. came Friday in an ominous report from PJM Interconnection, one of the nation’s largest grid operators.

The PJM report forecasts power supply and demand through 2030 across the 13 eastern states in its territory covering 65 million people. Its top-line conclusion: Fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are getting developed, which could lead to energy “imbalances.” That’s a delicate way of saying that you can expect shortages and blackouts.

PJM typically generates a surplus of power owing to its large fossil-fuel fleet, which it exports to neighboring grids in the Midwest and Northeast. When wind power plunged in the Midwest and central states late last week, PJM helped fill the gap between supply and demand and kept the lights on.

That’s why it’s especially worrisome that PJM is predicting a large decline in its power reserves as coal and natural-gas plants retire. The report forecasts that 40,000 megawatts (MW) of power generation—enough to light up 30 million households—are at risk of retiring by 2030, representing about 21% of PJM’s current generation capacity.

Most projected power-plant retirements are “policy-driven,” the report says. For example, the steep costs of complying with Environmental Protection Agency regulations, including a proposed “good neighbor rule” that is expected to be finalized next month, will force about 10,500 MW of fossil-fuel generation to shut down.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on February 26th, 2023

The international media is obsessed with anti-Israel bias. Headlines explode with air-brushed and inaccurate accounts of protests against the government occurring daily. What they often fail to mention is that the government was elected in a scrupulous untainted election; that the protesters are not dispersed or harassed; or that in the background, as Michael Ordman catalogs, Israel’s state of the art scientific, medical, institutions work 24/7 bringing hope to the entire world as well as entertainment, and social institutions and cuisine, and music, and freedom to all its diverse citizens.

BDS for sure: Israel is Beautiful, Democratic, Sensational ….  rsk

 

 

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Sniffing out cancer. Israel’s SpotitEarly (see here previously) has just reported a 93% success rate in its study using a combination of dogs, sensors, and AI software to detect and identify breast, lung, colon, and prostate cancer. And another Israeli startup Early Labs reported similar results using trained rats to detect lung cancer.
https://nocamels.com/2023/02/dogs-93-percent-success-rate-at-sniffing-out-cancer/  
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lab-teaches-rats-to-detect-lung-cancer-with-93-accuracy-by-sniffing-urine/  https://earlylabs.io/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlOnSdKPAxU
 
Preventing kidney failure. Israel is the first country in the world to ban treatments with glyoxylic acid, a common ingredient in hair-straightening products. Scientists at Israel’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center showed that the chemical is absorbed by the skin, often causing pain, vomiting and acute kidney injury.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/some-hair-straightening-products-can-cause-kidney-failure-israeli-study-finds/  
 
Better than antibiotics. Israel’s Mileutis (see here previously) is “bullish” about its Imilac peptide alternative to antibiotics in dairy cows. Imilac boosts the immune system to fight infections and doesn’t increase antibiotic resistance. The cows also produce more milk. Mileutis says the same technology could even protect humans.
https://nocamels.com/2023/02/antibiotic-alternative-today-cows-tomorrow-humans/   https://mileutis.com/
 
Microclimate suit manufacturer revealed. (TY UWI) Israel’s Rambam Medical Center has been testing a microclimate suit that evaporates fluids to help heart failure patients (see here previously). The manufacturer – Israel’s AquaPass Medical – states that patients no longer need daily diuretics or periodic six-hour infusions.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-microclimate-suit-rids-heart-patients-of-fluid-buildup/ 
https://aquapass-medical.com/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuiB0BdgNOM
 
Field hospital treats hundreds. (TY Hazel) Israeli medics treated around 470 injured victims of the Turkish earthquakes at their field hospital outside the Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş. They included 150 children and several Syrian refugees. The teams also performed ten surgical and orthopedic operations.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-treating-hundreds-idf-medical-delegation-to-quake-hit-turkey-back-in-israel/
 
Thousands of AR surgical procedures. Israel’s Beyeonics (see here previously) is now rolling out its 3D Byeonics One Augmented Reality (AR) surgical headset across Europe. It has already been used for 2,000 surgeries in the US including recent endothelial keratoplasty, to remove abnormal matter from the cornea.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-cockpit-to-cataract-ops-israeli-flight-headsets-adapted-approved-for-surgery/  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36508107/
 
AI to increase cancer awareness. The Israel Cancer Association has used Artificial Intelligence in a new campaign to highlight the importance of early cancer diagnosis. Videos show people asking AI to show them as a grandparent, or at their child’s wedding, but the future will only become reality if the person avoids cancer.
https://nocamels.com/2023/02/ai-art-increases-awareness-of-early-cancer-diagnosis/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDl052gSEp4
 
The most memorable moment at OurCrowd Summit. My highlight at the OurCrowd Global Investor Summit in Jerusalem last week was 10-year-old Itai, saved thanks to Surgical Theater’s Augmented Reality system. Itai ran on stage to greet Surgical Theater’s CEO, Alon Zuckerman – Itai’s father.  Please watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JuC8_LMmyc

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

China Crosses “Red Line” Advancing Russia’s War Effort by Judith Bergman

By on February 26th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19435/china-advancing-russia-war

It has been known for quite a while that China has been undercutting Western sanctions against Russia…. and in their own national currencies. When, however, it recently became known that China has been secretly providing military aid to Russa, the move seemed to take the Biden administration by surprise.

China has already supplied significant military aid in the form of dual-use products that can have both civil and military use, including semiconductors used in a wide variety of weapons including fighter jets, helicopters, drones, and guided missiles.

US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield was even more explicit: If China provided lethal military aid to Russia, she said, it would cross a “red line.”

It is highly questionable at this stage whether the Chinese will pay any heed to Blinken’s or Thomas-Greenfield’s warnings: In March of 2022, the Biden administration delivered similarly worded threats to China — that helping Russia evade sanctions would lead to “consequences.” Russia did exactly that; a year later, “consequences” have yet to be seen.

These revelations are not only an embarrassment for the Biden administration — which should have known and acted upon them long ago — but also serve as yet another black hole in the ability of the United States to deter adversaries.

It shows, sadly, that the words and threats of the US carry zero weight internationally, and that America’s most aggressive adversaries are able successfully to collaborate behind its back.

It has been known for quite a while that China has been undercutting Western sanctions against Russia through trade and Chinese purchases of long-term energy supplies.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

‘Incitement in eastern Jerusalem schools produces child terrorists’ Arab children in the eastern part of the city are “marinated in incitement,” says NGO chairman. BY DAVID ISAAC

By on February 26th, 2023

https://www.jns.org/incitement-in-eastern-jerusalem-schools-produces-child-terrorists/

February saw three terror attacks by Palestinian youths, two of whom were 13 years old and one of whom was 14. All were from eastern Jerusalem. The attacks have refocused attention on anti-Israel incitement in Arab schools, including in the capital.

“Arab children in east Jerusalem are marinated in incitement,” said Maor Tzemach, chairman of Lech Yerushalayim, an NGO that focuses on Jerusalem-related issues.

Of roughly 110,000 Arab students in eastern Jerusalem, 85 percent use the Palestinian Authority curriculum, according to Tzemach.

“The Palestinian Authority, which is frankly the enemy of Israel, pushes the Palestinian narrative,” he said. “Israel tries to fight this through a type of censorship, but it’s not succeeding within the schools.”

A new report by Tzemach’s group calls the P.A. study materials the “foundational layer” of incitement. While noting the difficulty in uncovering the incitement taking place behind school doors, the report nevertheless presents specific examples.

One involves a graduation ceremony in June 2021 at a high school in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa, at which students and parents chanted enthusiastically: “With spirit, with blood, we will redeem Al-Aqsa”—a religious rallying cry often associated with terrorism. Students also participated in a dance featuring PLO flags. Noteworthy is the fact that this particular high school was within the Israeli school system.

Terrorist supporters like Muhammad Alian are invited to visit the schools as honored guests. Alian, the father of a terrorist who carried out a 2015 attack that killed three and wounded over a dozen others, himself reportedly has close ties to Hamas. Another honored guest was Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, former grand mufti of Jerusalem, whom the report describes as “the main inciter in Jerusalem in recent decades.”

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Why Bother? If the struggle to better ourselves, with artificial intelligence or anything else will only lead to our self-destruction, why bother? By Vincent McCaffrey

By on February 26th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/25/why-bother/

To what purpose? That is the question of each individual life; one that is asked at least 8 billion times a day. Said in a less cosmetic manner: why bother?

The answer is visible in the way that each of us lives. The religious among us may strive to meet the commandments of our faiths, where our failures may be more visible than our successes, but at least there is a theme to our lives. 

Some of us follow our own codes of conduct. This can be interesting to observe, and perhaps more exciting in outcome, but it’s sometimes dangerous. Some have secular philosophies as broadly encompassing as most religions. These can be very persuasive to the bewildered and to those who have lost faith when an older belief has failed. 

There are many who simply follow others, letting someone else determine their course in life. This, of course, is the way of children. And there are always some who follow impulse, or the corporal demands of hunger, shelter, pain and pleasure. These are often the first victims of circumstance.

To this mix of philosophies, now there is an added ingredient, the nature of which has only just been plumbed, and that only at the shallow end. Those who say that there is nothing new under the sun ought to take notice. Artificial intelligence—AI—is not only something mankind has not encountered before, but something that offers new perspectives on the human predicament. 

For instance, what would be the moral philosophy of such machine intelligence? Is preservation a matter of importance when a specific device can be exactly replicated? What part does identity play for a contrivance that can add to its very being as easily as plugging in an extra hard drive? Meanwhile, human beings cannot change the genetic code that drives us. 

Into this brave new world we now go. Efficiency has already been set as the standard measure. We have been chasing that chimera for centuries now. Speed is also a mark of distinction. Cost is certainly a criterion. And it appears already that the mere human being is not up to snuff. 

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Biden’s Ukraine Serenade This President’s Day, our president was overseas promising money to the Ukrainian president, while Donald Trump offered aid and comfort to American victims in East Palestine.  By Roger Kimball

By on February 26th, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/25/bidens-ukraine-serenade/

Once again, Elon Musk nailed the zeitgeist, or a least a hefty portion of it, in a meme he tweeted. The image shows a soda dispenser. Two spigots are visible, blue on the left, red on the right. The index and middle fingers of someone’s right hand are pushing buttons to dispense blue and red fluid, respectively, into a single cup. A label on the left dispenser reads, “Laughing at WWIII memes.” On the right, the label reads, “Kinda being worried about WWIII.” Is there any sane person who, contemplating what is happening in Ukraine, does not share that ambivalence? 

Until recently, worries about nuclear Armageddon seemed so 1950s and ’60s. Ancient history. The era of “duck and cover.” That “public service” film started life in earnest but in time became a joke. A comment on an internet posting of the clip summed up the attitude: “When I watched this film in grade school in the ’50s, I believed I’d soon be dead, crispy-fried. I just watched again here and laughed so hard I couldn’t finish.”

Why the laughter? Partly because everyone realizes that crouching under a desk with your hands over your head will not afford much protection against a nuclear blast. (Hence the frequent, somewhat rude addendum to the precautionary instructions: “Crouch down under your desk; put your head between your legs; kiss your ass goodbye.”)

Decades went by. There was no nuclear attack. Therefore there would never be a nuclear attack. That was the unspoken if faulty logic. 

There are several different currents of thought and sentiment that make up the dominant consensus. One flowed from the doctrine of deterrence and “mutually assured destruction.” That seems to have worked for decades, bolstering both faith in the doctrine and the widespread forgetfulness about the stakes behind the policy. 

At the same time, critics have pointed out that “MAD” was an appropriate acronym for a doctrine that seriously contemplated incinerating tens or hundreds of millions of people. Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove” (with its biting subtitle “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”) gave a darkly humorous voice to that recognition. Most people, I suspect, are divided in their minds, recognizing the potential enormity of the doctrine while appreciating the wisdom of Benjamin Jowett’s comment that “Precautions are always blamed. When successful, they are said to be unnecessary.”

Continue reading →
NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON IN 2010 Tomorrow’s Wars Enormous, massively destructive engagements may again be on the horizon.

By on February 26th, 2023

https://www.city-journal.org/html/tomorrow%E2%80%99s-wars-13258.html

Can big battles, then, haunt us once more? If the European Union were to dissolve and return to a twentieth-century landscape of proud rivals, or if the former Soviet republics were to form a collective resistance to an aggrandizing Russia (as they did for much of the nineteenth century), or if the North Koreans, Pakistanis, or Chinese were to gamble on an agenda of sudden aggression (as they have on previous occasions when they were confident of achieving political objectives), then we might well see a return of decisive battles. The U.S. military still prepares for all sorts of conventional challenges. We keep thousands of tanks and artillery pieces in constant readiness, along with close-ground support missiles and planes, in fear that the People’s Army of Korea might try to swarm across the Demilitarized Zone into Seoul, or that the Chinese Red Army might storm the beaches of Taiwan.

Waterloos or Verduns may revisit us, especially in the half-century ahead, in which constant military innovation may reduce the cost of war, or relegate battle to the domain of massed waves of robots and drones, or see a sudden technological shift back to the defensive that would nullify the tyranny of today’s incredibly destructive munitions. New technology may make all sorts of deadly arms as cheap as iPods, and more lethal than M-16s, while creating shirts and coats impervious to small-arms fire—and therefore making battle cheap again, uncertain, and once more to be tried. Should a few reckless states feel that nuclear war in an age of antiballistic missiles might be winnable, or that the consequences of mass death might be offset by perpetuity spent in a glorious collective paradise, then even the seemingly unimaginable—nuclear showdown—becomes imaginable.

In short, if the conducive political, economic, and cultural requisites for set battles realign, as they have periodically over the centuries, we will see our own modern version of a Cannae or Shiloh. And these collisions will be frightening as never before.

Continue reading →
WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Republic of Fear: 20 Years After by Amir Taheri

By on February 26th, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19437/iraq-republic-of-fear

Well, [Iraq] may not be a better place, but is certainly less bad than it was 20 years ago.

Neighboring Iran is facing a bigger outflow of refugees, especially highly educated people, than Iraq.

In 2021, Iraq was no longer among the countries regarded as “vulnerable” in terms of food shortages and famine.

In terms of political and social freedoms, Iraq is also doing better than such neighbors as the Islamic Republic of Iran and the parts of Syria controlled by the Assad regime.

Facing such deadly challenges as the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS/Da’esh) and the attempted Kurdish secession, post-Saddam Iraq has manifested a higher degree of resilience than many might have expected.

It has also succeeded in frustrating attempts by the Islamic Republic of Iran to stall the emergence of an Iraqi national army and the imposition of a militia state.

The war didn’t turn Iraq into a model of democracy. But, as an Iraqi friend put it the other day, it ended what Kanan Makiya had called “The Republic of Fear.”

In his picaresque novel Twenty Years After, a sequel to The Three Musketeers, French novelist Alexandre Dumas muses on the theme of “the benevolent despot” as a rampart against unbridled change that could lead to savage turbulences.

Continue reading →