RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://bit.ly/3E58u3h

Synopsis:

*Israel’s control of the topographically-dominant mountain ridges of the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria has enhanced Israel’s posture of deterrence, constraining regional violence, transforming Israel into a unique force-multiplier for the US. 

*Top Jordanian military officers warned that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River, transforming Jordan into a non-controllable terrorist heaven, generating an anti-US domino scenario in the Arabian Peninsula.

*Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria has eliminated much of the threat (to Jordan) of Judea and Samaria-based Palestinian terrorism.

*Israel’s posture of deterrence emboldens Jordan in the face of domestic and regional threats, sparing the US the need to deploy its own troops, in order to avoid an economic and national security setback.

*The proposed Palestinian state would become the Palestinian straw that would break the pro-US Hashemite back.

*The Palestinian track record of the last 100 years suggests that the proposed Palestinian state would be a rogue entity, adding fuel to the Middle East fire, undermining US interests.

 www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

This week on November 8, 2022 Americans will vote. The franchise is the hallmark of democracy, so sadly unavailable to billions throughout the word. Last week, Israelis held elections and Michel Ordman highlights two wonderful stories about the results and the participation.

Congratulations Israel!   You make outsize contributions to the world in every aspect of human endeavor, especially in the growth, production, storage, and quality of food. And, you remain a bastion of the freedoms that are essential human rights. And thank you Michael Ordman! rsk

 He voted in every election. Yossi Barash, 94, has never missed a chance to cast his ballot since Israel’s 1948 inception. Barash was born in Tel Aviv in 1927 and now lives in Kfar Yehoshua. He voted in rain, storms and intense heat and never prioritized vacation plans over voting. He says voting is the most important civic duty. https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/sjo31hseo
 
The most democratic country. The latest Israeli elections revealed some interesting facts. Israel is now first in the world in terms of frequency of elections since 1996. Voter turnout was 71% – the most since 1999.  Voters had the choice of 39 separate parties. https://unitedwithisrael.org/11-surprising-figures-about-todays-israeli-election/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Israel’s first lymph node transplant. For the first time in Israel, surgeons at Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Poriya in Tiberias have performed lymph node transplant surgery. They used lymph nodes from the abdomen of a 34-year-old woman suffering from the lack of a lymphatic system in her leg that caused it to swell hugely.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-720370
 
HBOT and autism. A new Tel Aviv University study showed that Pressure chamber therapy (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy – HBOT) significantly improved social skills in animal models of autism. It also reduced neuroinflammation, which is known to be associated with autism.
https://neurosciencenews.com/pressure-chamber-asd-21737/  https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/19/11077
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36232395/
 
Israeli cancer detection expands across France. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Ibex Medical has expanded its partnership with France’s Medipath (see here previously) to cover cancer analysis of multiple tissue types at more of Medipath’s 30 labs. Medipath provides pathology services to 250+ hospitals and clinics across France.
https://ibex-ai.com/medipath-ai-expansion/  
 
10,000+ implants.  Israel’s Ossio (see here previously) has reported that orthopedic surgeons have implanted more than 10,000 Ossiofiber implants since their introduction in 2019. Ossio’s biofriendly Ossiofiber, and intelligent bone regeneration technology are designed to solve the shortcomings of conventional metal implants.
https://www.massdevice.com/ossio-closes-38-5m-series-c/  https://www.ourcrowd.com/companies/ossio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvZsgpgfW7s
 
Twin sisters develop metabolism device. (TY UWI) Israeli twin sisters Merav and Michal Mor, both PhD graduates, were training for an Ironman triathlon and needed to measure their metabolic rate. No device existed, so they invented their own and founded Israeli startup Lumen (see here previously).
https://www.israel21c.org/how-to-hack-your-metabolism-and-improve-your-health/
https://www.lumen.me/home-research
 
Israeli global medi-tech (TY Louise) A recent Shanghai expo has revealed two Israeli medical technology start-ups that haven’t previously been reported in this newsletter. They are Vitalerter (biosensor care protection), and RuiLuo Technology, part of Israel’s Neurotech Solutions (ADHD diagnosis and treatment).
https://ischam.glueup.cn/event/chinese-investments-in-israeli-medical-tech-33640/
https://www.vitalerter.com/   https://www.neurotech-solutions.com/
 
Newborn saved in Herzliya mall. Volunteer EMTs from United Hatzalah revived a 3-week-old baby girl who suffered cardiac arrest in a Herzliya shopping mall. The team performed CPR with just two fingers and after 30 minutes the baby’s pulse returned. Later in hospital a heart defect was discovered and treated.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/361365
 
Preemie delivered and resuscitated. United Hatzalah volunteers have been busy. In Kiryat Gat they delivered a premature baby in the breech position and then used two-fingered CPR and ventilation to restore her pulse. They also treated the mother who had lost a large amount of blood during the emergency.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/miracle-delivery-israeli-emts-revive-pulse-less-preemie-during-home-birth/

https://www.jns.org/opinion/bibis-victory-biden-administration-blues/

 Let’s set aside speculation as to why President Joe Biden has yet to congratulate Israel’s former and soon-to-be prime minister, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, on his victory in the Nov. 1 Knesset elections. One could argue that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides’s call on Thursday—to wish Netanyahu well and say that he’s “looking forward to working together to maintain the unbreakable bond”—was a sufficient temporary stand-in for the real thing.

It’s worth remembering that Biden’s got his own political hurdles to cross at the moment. Polls ahead of the upcoming midterms are boding ill for his party, to put it mildly.

Still, given the widely cited gossip-disguised-as-news by Israeli commentator and Axios columnist Barak Ravid, it’s hard to ascertain the significance of Biden’s silence. Ravid reported on Wednesday that “two U.S. officials” said Washington “is unlikely to engage with Jewish supremacist politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is expected to be a senior minister in [Netanyahu’s new government].”

Ravid added that “if the Biden administration does boycott Ben-Gvir [No. 2 on the Religious Zionist Party list], it will mark an unprecedented development that would likely have negative consequences for the U.S.-Israeli relationship.”

Even though the above claim is more of an “anyone but Bibi” assessment than an accurate representation of the facts, one thing is clear: The Democrats occupying Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill are not fond of the prospect of another Netanyahu-led government in Jerusalem.

This works both ways. The Israeli public that just chose to replace its ruling caretaker coalition with a right-wing one is hoping for a “red wave” in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. In such an event, Biden’s belated felicitations to Bibi will contain a subtext that makes the White House wince.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/04/the-return-of-bibi-netanyahu/

It turns out that, sometimes, the fifth time is a charm. With the final ballots now counted in Israel’s fifth national election in four years, the results are officially in: Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, already the longest-serving prime minister in the 74-year history of the modern Jewish state, is set to return as premier. After four elections of decisively mixed results, where both the Right—which has been addled by its disgruntled “Never Netanyahu” camp—and the Left have consistently failed to secure a durable governing coalition, the Israeli people have finally spoken up loud and clear: Bring Bibi back.

What’s more, the final results are actually far clearer than many had expected. Some pre-election polls had Netanyahu’s Likud and its allied parties polling highly enough to secure a bare 61-seat coalition majority—Israel’s Knesset, or national legislature, has 120 seats—but others did not. In the final count, the Likud-centric rightist coalition will attain 64 seats. That may sound like a narrow winning margin, but compared to the previous four indecisive elections going back to 2019, that is a monumental victory.

Netanyahu’s 64-seat coalition, once formalized by President Isaac Herzog, will include 32 seats from Likud and 14 seats from Religious Zionism, a unity ticket headed by right-wingers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir (the controversial newest star of the Israeli political scene). Netanyahu had deliberately snubbed campaign appearances with Ben-Gvir, who is typically derided by his detractors and a supine press as a “Kahanist.” Still, Religious Zionism ended up securing the third-most votes of any Israeli political party—behind only Likud and outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s center-left Yesh Atid. It is difficult to smear the third-highest-polling party in Israel’s frenzied multiparty parliamentary system as being replete with “bigots” or “Kahanists.” Indeed, all signs point toward Religious Zionism being a meaningful new player on the Israeli political scene; it is here to stay.

Remarkably, as Likud secured a durable majority and as Religious Zionism cruised to a third-place result, the Israeli Left’s now-decadeslong collapse was only further exacerbated. Labor, which dominated the first three decades of Israeli history, will have a minuscule four seats in the next Knesset. Far-left Meretz, moreover, did not even qualify for Knesset representation. The upshot is that this next governing coalition, and by extension the next Knesset, will likely be the most religious and the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-721418

The emerging landslide victory for the camp headed by Israeli opposition leader Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu is causing more than the average stir. Though there’s nothing unusual about a losing side feeling disappointed by an unwanted result at the ballot box, the outcome of Tuesday’s Knesset elections – the fifth round in three-and-a-half years – is generating a level of disgruntlement not seen in the country since 1977.

That was the year when Menachem Begin, founder of the Likud Party now chaired by Netanyahu, became premier. The upheaval ended three decades of Labor Party dominance.

Panic on the Left was palpable and shrill, with detractors calling him a terrorist, likening him to Mussolini and bemoaning Israel’s inevitable downfall at his hands. Not only was the frenzy unwarranted but in retrospect, it was laughable.

Today’s equally undue apoplexy surrounds two phenomena: Netanyahu’s smashing comeback, which his foes had been doing everything to quash, and the meteoric rise to mega-popularity of Otzma Yehudit MK Itamar Ben-Gvir.

At Netanyahu’s behest prior to the election, Ben-Gvir and Religious Zionist MK Bezalel Smotrich merged their factions so as to prevent the possibility of split and wasted ballots. The move turned out to be a brilliant one, as together they garnered a large number of seats.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-decisive-win-for-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-election-prime-minister-11667427456?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

“The vote means Mr. Netanyahu will have a mandate he lacked in the final years of his previous turn as Prime Minister. That should make Israel more confident in meeting regional threats, as it remains America’s most valuable ally in the region.”

Benjamin Netanyahu has been around long enough to have done something to rankle almost every Israeli. But as his victory in Tuesday’s election shows, Israelis still trust him for the job of Prime Minister he has held twice before. In a rough neighborhood, with enemies that seek Israel’s destruction, that’s no small vote of confidence.

With nearly 90% of ballots counted, Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party is set to win 32 seats, up from 30 in 2021, with a path to a coalition government as large as 65. Barring a late swing, this would be a larger majority for the right in the Knesset than anyone saw coming, ending the political paralysis that has plagued the country since 2019.

This reflects important realities in Israeli politics. Mr. Netanyahu is still considered the Israeli leader best able to deal with great powers. With Russian troops in Syria, the poisoned chalice of Chinese economic engagement and an America that is hot and cold, Israel needs a strategic vision. Mr. Netanyahu has one, as he laid out recently in these pages, whereby economic and military strength lead to diplomatic success, not the other way around. The Abraham Accords with the Gulf Arabs are a vindication of that vision.

Mr. Netanyahu also benefits from keeping his eye on the threat from Iran amid the distractions, and from his record of free-market reform. As finance minister from 2003-05, Mr. Netanyahu led Israel’s transformation from a socialist economy to the “start-up nation” it is today.

Meanwhile, the Israeli left has collapsed. Its two parties, including the Labor Party that dominated for decades, received less than 7% of the vote—combined. Far-left Meretz is now likely to win no seats. The left lost credibility after the Palestinians refused to accept a state when it was offered and pocketed Gaza only to use the territory for attacks on Israeli civilians.

It also called for a nuclear-free Middle East while ignoring the immediate threat of the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

With an overwhelming 152-5 majority, a UN committee devoted to world security called on Israel Friday to renounce its nuclear arsenal and put all its nuclear-related sites under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC, or First Committee) resolution, submitted annually by Egypt for years, demands that Israel join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), even though Jerusalem never acknowledged possession of nuclear weapons.

It is “important” that Israel sign onto the NPT “without delay,” agree “not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons,” and accede to IAEA oversight in order to “realiz[e] the goal of universal adherence to the Treaty in the Middle East,” and “as a step toward enhancing peace and security,” the resolution stated.

Iran, a member of the NPT, has openly said it is enriching uranium to near-weapon’s purity, and according to the IAEA, the Islamic Republic began producing uranium metal last year although it has no civilian purpose. This was not mentioned in the resolution.

Arab countries at peace with Israel besides Egypt sponsored the resolution, including Jordan, Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco, as did the Palestinian ambassador, Riyad Mansour. The “State of Palestine” was granted non-member observer State status in the UN in 2012.

The five countries that voted against it were Israel, the United States, Canada, Micronesia and Palau. There were 24 abstentions, including all member states of the European Union.

Iran was also one of 170 nations that approved a sister-resolution calling for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.

https://www.jns.org/arab-anti-state-parties-present-ongoing-challenge-for-israel/

Those who think increased budgets for the sector will change things “don’t understand the reality,” Professor Dan Schueftan told JNS.

Arabs citizens today comprise 21 percent of Israel’s population, a significant minority. While their financial situation has dramatically improved over the last 50-plus years, the parties they send to the Knesset are largely “anti-state” in that they reject Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

The problem comes to the fore every election cycle. The Central Elections Committee has attempted to disqualify one or another Arab party in every campaign since 2003. In late September, it disqualified the Balad Party over its anti-Israel platform. The Supreme Court overturned the ban on Oct. 9.

Dan Schueftan, head of the International Graduate Program in National Security Studies at the University of Haifa and the author of a Hebrew-language book about Arab Israelis, a culmination of 11 years’ research, told JNS that when it comes to Arab party platforms, “Some are more blunt, but in the final analysis the distinction is not major.”

Nearly all the Arab leaders, with the notable exception of Mansour Abbas, identify with terrorists, Schueftan said, referring to the Ra’am Party leader who last year for the first time in Israel’s history brought an independent Arab party into a governing coalition. But at summer camps of Hadash, a communist party, children are taught to idolize “a 13-year-old Arab Palestinian who took a knife, and together with his cousin went into a Jewish neighborhood to kill Jews and stabbed and chased Jewish children. This guy is their hero.”

Hadash represents the most educated and modern segment of Arab Israeli society, Schueftan said. That it embraces terrorists demonstrates “the crux of the problem, a dissonance between what the individual Arab knows and wants to do, and what the collective of the Arabs must do, because there is something profoundly wrong with Arab political culture.”