RUTHFULLY YOURS

Two events recently transpired that forced mainstream media to address a question they habitually dodge: Is Islam intrinsically violent? First, on New Year’s Day, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — a world leader, and a Muslim — did the unthinkable when he publicly asserted that Islamic texts and thinking have made the Muslim world a scourge to humanity. The MSM ignored it until, as if to prove his point, Muslim gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” killed a dozen people in offices of a satirical newspaper in Paris.

Two separate editorials — by the New York Times and CNN — responded by purportedly tackling the question of whether Islam is inherently violent in the context of the Paris attack and Sisi’s speech. Both quoted me as responding in the affirmative — and both instantly dismissed my partially presented views in “straw-man” fashion.

“Impeccably researched and clearly written, Messrs. Motadel and Ihrig’s books will transform our understanding of the Nazi policies that were, Mr. Motadel writes, some “of the most vigorous attempts to politicize and instrumentalize Islam in modern history.”
The Führer admired Atatürk’s subordination of religion to the state—and his ruthless treatment of minorities.

‘It’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion,” Hitler complained to his pet architect Albert Speer. “Why did it have to be Christianity, with its meekness and flabbiness?” Islam was a Männerreligion—a “religion of men”—and hygienic too. The “soldiers of Islam” received a warrior’s heaven, “a real earthly paradise” with “houris” and “wine flowing.” This, Hitler argued, was much more suited to the “Germanic temperament” than the “Jewish filth and priestly twaddle” of Christianity.

Islam has Nothing to do with Islam – Pat Condell January 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N46mIHEGHN0

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Trial of new cancer antibody approved. Israel’s cCAM has received US FDA approval to commence trials of its CM-24 monoclonal antibody (mAb) for the treatment of various types of cancers. CM-24 targets CEACAM1, a novel immune checkpoint protein expressed on a variety of cancer cells.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ccam-biotherapeutics-receives-fda-approval-121500561.html

Israel & USA team up to fight cancer. Israeli biotech Compugen has enlisted John Hopkins University to help assess Compugen’s cancer immunotherapy candidates. These new treatments aim to counter the ability of tumors to highjack “immune checkpoints”, thereby blocking the immune system’s ability to destroy the tumor.
http://www.israel21c.org/news/compugen-teams-with-johns-hopkins-university-on-immune-checkpoints/

Effective for detecting lingering cancer cells. (Thanks to Michelle) New York City’s NYU Langone Medical Center has praised MarginProbe from Israel’s Dune Medical, used by surgeons to identify and help them remove cancer cells on the margins of removed tumors. MarginProbe avoids the need for follow-up surgery.
http://communications.med.nyu.edu/media-relations/news/nyu-langone-medical-center-utilizing-new-technology-detect-lingering-cancer-cel

90% response to cancer vaccine. (Thanks to NoCamels.com) Julian Levy, CFO of Israel’s Vaxil Biotherapeutics speaks to NoCamels about Vaxil’s cancer vaccine, ImMucin, that boosts the immune system and prevents cancer returning. ImMucin triggers a response in about 90 percent of all types of cancer.
http://nocamels.com/2015/01/new-vaccine-for-cancer/

US approve 360-degree colonoscope. (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s GI View has just received US FDA approval for its Aer-O-Scope colonoscope, for advanced detection of polyps that frequently develop into colon cancer. GI View is expected to start selling the product in the U.S. in early 2016.
http://www.giview.com/gi-view/news.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EPA5UIK0xw

Spine surgery system wins two awards. (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s NLT-Spine has won a 2014 Spine Technology Award from US Magazine Orthopedics This Week, for its ARC Pedicle Screw System. The company also was included (for the second year running) in the list of Red Herring Global 100 winners.
http://ryortho.com/2014/11/the-eleven-best-new-spine-technologies-for-2014/
http://www.nlt-spine.com/int/news-2/

Med school at 16. If Israelis are exceptional people, then Maya Fishman is amazing. Only 16-years old, she has already started med school at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is on course to become the youngest doctor in the history of the State of Israel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4606194,00.html

What lurks in your lungs? (Thanks to Israel21c) Professor Elizabeth Fireman of Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center has developed a highly accurate bio-monitoring technique to detect dangerous particles inhaled by firefighters, factory workers, dental technicians and kids with asthma.
http://www.israel21c.org/headlines/revolutionary-diagnostic-technique-identifies-what-lurks-in-your-lungs/
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Next generation of flash storage – simply faster. (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Kaminario has set new performance records for flash storage. It also boasts reliability, scalability and cost/performance figures that its competitors can only dream of. Kaminario easily raised $53million in funds to fuel global expansion.
http://kaminario.com/blog/press-releases/kaminario-secures-53-million-funding/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiAB0QZcpFo

Scottish Water likes Israeli recycling technology. Israel’s Applied CleanTech has successfully completed its first UK pilot project of its new recycling technology for wastewater at Scottish Water. The system produces a useful material called Recyllose from sewage while reducing maintenance and power costs.
http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/latest-news/05012015-recyllose-act

A shirt that monitors your heart. Israeli startup HealthWatch Technologies has developed a washable T-shirt that can read a patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac irregularities, and other vital signs that could be the key to preventing heart attacks. All data can be transmitted instantly to your cardiologist, as speed is essential.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-ecg-t-shirt-monitors-hearts-saves-lives/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvzTWNOlzk http://www.personal-healthwatch.com

Smart low-energy hotels. Israeli startup Phoebus Energy is to install smart systems in the Fattal chain’s nine Israeli hotels. The systems will cut the chain’s heating and air-conditioning costs by 50-75%, amounting to NIS 40 million over the coming decade. The lower energy consumption will also benefit the environment.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-phoebus-to-cut-fattal-hotels-energy-bill-1000994487
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHg_Hln7XFc

Bell Labs (Israel) has big plans. The opening of Bell Labs in Israel provides an avenue for Israeli PhD graduates to pursue research careers in Israel. Director of the new branch, Danny Raz, was until recently a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Israel’s Technion.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bell-labs-head-hopes-to-turn-brain-drain-into-gain/

Would a solar panel work for you? It can cost up to $4,000 for a survey to check whether a solar panel on your roof could generate sufficient solar energy to justify installation. Israel’s SolView uses Google Earth and its automated rooftop scanning technology to do that instantly.
http://www.greenprophet.com/2014/12/solviews-targeting-solar-energy-rooftop-potential-on-a-massive-scale/

Safer night driving. (Thanks to Israel21c) Israeli startup BrightWay Vision has developed “BrightEye” – a unique night-vision system that gives drivers a clear, panoramic view of the road. The system uses active-gated imaging to project images up to 250 meters ahead (5 times further than headlights) onto the driver’s screen.
http://www.israel21c.org/headlines/new-innovation-for-safer-night-driving/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dQ42UKfTs

Another “doggy” app. Following on the heels of “Dogiz”, “Oggii”, “Pawly”, “Swifto”, “KelevLand” and “DogTV”, we now have “Wooof” – a made-in-Israel app, providing a platform for dog owners to get together online, “trading” photos, recording dog walking routes and even alerting when a dog inspector is in the area.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/social-networking-goes-to-the-dogs-with-israeli-app/

The Saudis and Iranians are building outposts in Kabul. Meanwhile, a U.S. university there needs bolstering.

Two new initiatives focused in Kabul but originating in the Middle East threaten to draw Afghanistan into the vortex of Middle Eastern strife and to undermine prospects for a secular government. America will need to present an alternative to forces that seek to roll back much of what has been accomplished in Afghanistan.

In November, Saudi Arabia launched a huge new mosque and Islamic Center on a hill in Kabul’s center. The Saudi ambassador declared unconvincingly that the mosque’s purpose is to fight terrorism and “present a moderate and true face of Islam.” Iran is also constructing a mosque in central Kabul and, if asked, would probably make the same claim. Both complexes include a mosque and school, but the similarity ends there. One will promote the Saudi’s hard-line Sunni Wahabbism, while the other will propagate the Ayatollahs’ hard-line Shiite Islam.

Just as these two states and religions are engaged in an undeclared but bloody war in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East, they are at loggerheads in Afghanistan and view the struggle there as a zero-sum game. If either prevails, Afghanistan will be the loser.

So far the country has largely escaped the strife arising from the millennium-old conflict between Sunni and Shiite Islam and the more ancient struggle between Persians and Arabs. Afghans do not consider theirs to be a Middle Eastern country. Even the branch of Islamic law that prevails in Afghanistan, the relatively mild Hanafi school, sets it apart from the Saudis and Iranians.

Mr. Caldwell is a senior editor at the Weekly Standard and the author of “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.”

France and the rest of Western Europe have never honestly confronted the issues raised by Muslim immigration

The terrorist assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7 may have been organized by al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. But the attack, along with another at a Paris kosher market days later, was carried out by French Muslims descended from recent waves of North African and West African immigration. Well before the attacks, which left 17 dead, the French were discussing the possibility that tensions with the country’s own Muslim community were leading France toward some kind of armed confrontation.

Consider Éric Zemmour, a slashing television debater and a gifted polemicist. His history of the collapse of France’s postwar political order, “Le suicide français,” was No. 1 on the best-seller lists for several weeks this fall. “Today, our elites think it’s France that needs to change to suit Islam, and not the other way around,” Mr. Zemmour said on a late-night talk show in October, “and I think that with this system, we’re headed toward civil war.”

To call for an end to Israel, or to its sovereignty, is now, more glaringly than ever, to call for an end to the Jews.

The four people gunned down in Paris on January 9 had not even been buried yet — four men murdered by a Muslim terrorist just for being Jews — when Amsterdam’s pro-Palestinian student group demanded an academic boycott against Israel.

Not that they are anti-Semitic — not a bit, insists Studenten for Rechtvaardig Palestina [SRP], which models itself on the American Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization that accuses Israel of genocide. A leader of the group, Sarah (who would not give her last name to reporters, she said, for fear of reprisals), declared, rather, “I find anti-Semitism terrible. We are against it, and we said so from our first informational meeting. I find Israel as bad as IS,” she continued, “and I am Muslim myself.”

Have you noticed a lull on the part of the BDS, J(erk) Street, Students for (in)Justice in Palestine and other Israel bashing groupies? Hhhhmmm….they can’t blame the outbreak of Islamic violence and jihad on the “settlers” or “occupation” or perceived oppression of fish,fauna, and everything in between by those Israeli meanies. Trust me, the calumnists like Tom Friedman and their amen crowd will ultimately find a way to pin this on Israel….but, they make find a diminished audience now that some realism is spreading.

In the meantime I hope those bastards boycott and divest themselves from oxygen…..rsk

When the jihadists slaughtered the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, I worried that they had killed satire.

But Charlie Hebdo produced this week’s issue on schedule.

Alas, however, satire is now officially dead. Earlier today, the US Secretary of State flew James Taylor into Paris to sing “You’ve Got A Friend” to the French nation. Seriously. Under Bush, extrajudicial rendition meant the CIA shipping you overseas to be tortured by the Saudis and Pakistanis. Under Obama, an extrajudicial rendition means shipping fey old folkies to Europe to torture the natives:

I’m in Europe myself at the moment and I was shocked when someone said to me, “Did you hear about the huge bomb in Paris?” It took me a couple of minutes to realize she was talking about Kerry’s press conference.

But, as I said, satire is dead.

It was the French who dubbed America l’hyperpuissance – the hyperpower. But now the hyperpower is the hippiepower – and who doesn’t love that? Following his rendition of “You’ve Got A Friend”, James Taylor saluted the visiting mullahs from Qom with the Ayatollah Khomeini’s favorite song, “How Sweet It Is (to be loved by ewes)”.

Barack Obama then joined John Kerry on stage for a moving duet of “I’m So Vain (I prob’ly think this song is about me)”, after which Secretary Kerry updated us on the latest talks with Teheran with a highly nuanced version of Joni Mitchell’s “(I’ve looked at Iranian mushroom clouds from) Both Sides Now”.

His lovely wife Teresa then delighted the French audience with a riveting selection of slides of the Kerrys’ home in Boston as she and John sang Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Our House (is a very very very fine house).” Mahmoud Abbas got into the spirit and serenaded the Secretary of State with the Beatles’ “Hey, Jew!”, but Mr Kerry explained that was just one great-grandfather and it was a long time ago back in the Hapsburg Empire.

Short of impeachment, there is really nothing Congress can do.

You’re not going to like this.

Our commander-in-chief is recklessly releasing jihadists from Guantanamo Bay. The president’s Bush-deranged base is buoyed by the all-out effort to fulfill his vow to shut down the detention camp. But the vast majority of Americans remain opposed, and increasingly alarmed. The pace of releases has surged since November’s midterm elections, with over two-dozen detainees sprung — aiding the enemy even as the terror threat intensifies.

But if you want it stopped, the president has to be impeached.

Yes, yes, I know you don’t want to hear that. I have the scars to prove it. A few months back, Beltway Republicans got even more annoyed than Obama Democrats when my book, Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment, was published. Contrary to what you’d infer from all the shrieking, I actually argued that it would be a big mistake to impeach President Obama absent strong public support for his removal. And as I conceded, that level of public support does not exist and never will exist unless a compelling political case for impeachment is made.