RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/israel-has-good-reason-be-wary-icc-probe-179818

“The investigation,” the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said the other day in announcing her probe of Israeli and Palestinian activity in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, “will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed . . . since 13 June 2014.”

The starting date is telling, for it mocks Bensouda’s assurances that her office will conduct the investigation “independently, impartially and objectively,” with a “principled, non-partisan approach” that reflects “no agenda other than to meet our statutory duties.”

That’s because it was on June 12, 2014—a day earlier—that the terrorist group Hamas, as it later admitted, kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenage Yeshiva boys from the West Bank, leaving their bodies, as the New York Times put it, “buried under a pile of rocks in an open field about 15 miles from where [they] were last seen.”

It was that attack, which one Hamas leader called a “heroic operation,” that prompted Israel to arrest Hamas leaders in the West Bank, which then prompted Palestinian militants to launch thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel, which then prompted an Israeli invasion of Gaza from the air and ground. The 2014 Gaza War, as it’s known, extended into August and left more than two thousand Gazans and scores of Israelis dead.

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

The Jewish holiday of Passover will begin on the evening of March 27 this year, and thanks to the warp speed development of vaccines and incipient herd immunity families can gather to celebrate the history of the Jewish flight from Egypt. This year so many former Pharaohs have turned to accommodation and recognition of Israel and they too will reap the blessings of Israel’s amazing research and development of life enhancing technology and science which Michael Ordman compiles every week. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

5 million vaccinated. Israel’s five millionth recipient of the Covid-19 vaccine was a pregnant 34-year-old from the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva, Restaurants, cafes, attractions, hotels, event venues, places of worship, most school grades 7-10, and more, have opened. Only 3% of serious Covid-19 cases had received a 2nd shot.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1615223985-israel-s-vaccination-drive-passes-5-000-000-mark

https://www.timesofisrael.com/less-than-3-of-serious-covid-cases-are-fully-vaccinated-proving-effectiveness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKdoAsxY8KE

Learning from our mistakes. One of Israel’s Health Medical Organizations (HMOs) accidentally used a half-sized needle to apply the first Pfizer vaccine into 1,000 Israelis. But when 60% of them were tested three weeks later, they were all found to have high levels of antibodies. The US CDC was pleased to hear the outcome.

https://worldisraelnews.com/right-injection-wrong-needle-israel-accidentally-finds-out-if-the-corona-vaccine-will-still-work/

SARS-Cov-2 treatment subsidiary. Israeli biotech Pepticom (reported here previously) has raised $2.6 million to establish a company that can treat SARS-Cov-2 and its mutations. It will implement AI technology to design, discover and develop novel peptide molecules.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3897696,00.html  https://pepticom.com/

Helping Covid patients to breathe. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center is partnering Israel’s Inspira Technologies in trials of its new respiratory treatment for Covid-19 patients suffering from acute breathing difficulties. The Augmented Respiration Treatment (ART) directly oxygenates blood while the patient remains conscious.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3894246,00.html   https://inspira-technologies.com/

A natural treatment for Covid? IDC Herzliya researchers at Israel’s MIGAL laboratory, with Icelandic scientists, have identified that spirulina algae can reduce the cytokine storm that kills Covid-19 patients. The algae was supplied by Israel’s VAXA (Iceland based) who have EU funding to find natural cures for Covid-19.

https://www.newsrael.com/post/-MUZUMu2rI9dtUFz07He   https://www.vaxa.life/

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-researchers-say-spirulina-algae-could-stop-covid-19-deaths-660064   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10126-021-10020-z    

Breakthrough in protein synthesis. Arab-Israeli Professor Ashraf Brik (see here previously) of Israel’s Technion and his team have overcome a 60-year technical problem to synthesize plectasin, a peptide with promising antibiotic results against multi-resistant bacteria, and linaclotide, to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2021/02/six-decades-old-protein-synthesis-problem-solved-at-technion/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21209-0

New way to diagnose neurological conditions. Scientists at Ben Gurion University have confirmed the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury and stroke from electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns. Analysis of changes in brain blood vessel pathology can provide fast diagnosis of those conditions.

https://www.israel21c.org/scientists-discover-new-way-to-diagnose-neurological-conditions/

Eliminating animal testing. Hebrew University researchers have developed a chip containing human tissue with microscopic sensors to precisely monitor the response of the kidney, liver and heart to specific treatments. It is believed to be the first treatment to be submitted to the US FDA for human trials without animal testing.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israelis-create-cancer-drug-using-human-simulating-chip-instead-of-animal-tests/  https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/13/582/eabd6299

Fast glaucoma treatment in trials. Israel’s Belkin Laser (reported here previously) is conducting a large-scale clinical study of its Eagle laser glaucoma treatment in Europe and Israel. Patients at more than 10 sites are testing the computer-guided device that uses healing lasers far less intrusively than currently approved devices.

https://www.israel21c.org/the-glaucoma-treatment-that-only-takes-seconds/         

Transforming ophthalmic surgery. Israeli startup ForSight Robotics is developing a microsurgical robotic platform for eye surgery. The platform will exceed human surgical capabilities with unprecedented dexterity and maneuverability to within only a few microns.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3897656,00.html   https://www.forsightrobotics.com/

Minimally invasive hysterectomies. (TY Nevet) Some 600,000 hysterectomies are performed annually in the US. The US FDA has just approved the Hominis Surgical System, developed by Israel’s Memic. The surgeon operates using the Robotically Assisted Surgical Device (RASD) via tiny incisions in the patient’s body.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-robotic-arms-get-fda-nod-for-minimally-invasive-hysterectomies/

https://www.memicmed.com/

Israeli women saving lives.  Four women from Israel’s diverse, inclusive society enthusiastically speak about their life-saving work as volunteer paramedics with Israeli emergency service United Hatzalah. 

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

Ask me anything. (TY Nevet) Tel Aviv University Professor Neta Erez made the unusual offer on Reddit.com to answer any questions in one day, about her specialty of cancer research. She answered 61 tough questions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/lws8ge/askscience_ama_series_hi_i_am_tel_aviv_university/

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-03-24/israel-baseball-olympics-p

For Israel’s first Olympic baseball team, it’s wait until next year-  March 2020

Never has Israel won an Olympic medal in a team sport. The chances would have been 50-50 this summer.

Israel had qualified for one of the six spots in the Olympic baseball field. On Monday, Team Israel announced that four-time All-Star Ian Kinsler had obtained Israeli citizenship and signed up for the team.

On Tuesday, the Olympics were postponed, a particularly cruel blow to Israeli baseball officials who have toiled for years to establish the sport in a country that loves basketball and soccer above all. In the 2017 World Baseball Classic, an underdog Israeli team and its “Mensch on the Bench” mascot beat powers Cuba and South Korea in a magical run.

While the WBC is a niche event, the Olympics command a worldwide stage. Because of the size of a baseball team, Israel would have sent its largest delegation ever to the Olympics. And, with Israeli baseball officials planning youth fields outside Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Olympics could have spurred the development of the sport in Israel like nothing else.

“Baseball is not popular in Israel,” outfielder Jeremy Wolf said. “This was going to make a huge impact with the kids who would see us on television.

“So, when you get rid of the eyeballs of the Olympics, we’re just going to have to keep momentum going so, in 2021, when it happens, people are still going to be interested.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16931/palestinians-terrorists-murderers-soleimani

For Hamas and Islamic Jihad, what matters is the money and weapons coming from Iran. They see Soleimani as a hero because of his role in providing the Gaza-based terror groups with cash and weapons in order to continue their jihad (holy war) against Israel and Jews.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and all of Iran’s militias throughout the Middle East have a single goal in common: the annihilation of Israel.

“Instead of providing a fish or teaching how to catch a fish, we taught our allies and friends how to make a hook,” Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, adding that Hamas and Hezbollah are now in possession of advanced missile technologies.

Soleimani, the man responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Arabs, is being commemorated as a hero and martyr by these terrorist groups because he was supplying them with cash and weapons. His death has not stopped Iran from continuing its support for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

This is why the next US administration must maintain pressure on the mullahs in Iran. An easing of the sanctions will embolden the terrorist groups and facilitate their mission of pursuing their jihad against Israel. Iran’s proxies want to see Israel obliterated — and if that means aligning themselves with mass murderers such as Soleimani, so be it.

While many Palestinians hold Iran’s slain military commander Qassem Soleimani responsible for committing massacres against Palestinians and Arabs, especially in war-torn Syria, the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are continuing to heap praise on him for supporting their anti-Israel terrorist activities.

Soleimani, former commander of Iran’s Quds Force, was killed in a US drone attack in Iraq on January 3, 2020. Many Palestinians and Arabs have denounced Soleimani as the “murderer of hundreds of thousands of women and children” in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

The Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad have marked the anniversary of his death by hanging large billboards with Soleimani’s picture in some areas of the Gaza Strip. The two terror groups say they miss Soleimani, whom they describe as the “martyr of Jerusalem.”

The billboards have provoked many Palestinians, including those living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, who consider Soleimani a terrorist and mass murderer.

Majdi al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip who reportedly tore down a poster of Soleimani, was arrested by Hamas’s Internal Security Force.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israel-elections-voters-are-weary-not-stupid-opinion-661754

Stories of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to fly on Thursday to the United Arab Emirates for a meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) spurred the press to highlight the event’s proximity to the March 23 Knesset elections. The predictable swipe went beyond mere innuendo, however.

Barak Ravid of Beltway-area website Axios supposedly reported, yet in reality opined, that Netanyahu meant to use the occasion – that would be the first-ever official trip by an Israeli prime minister to the UAE and Netanyahu’s first since the signing of the Abraham Accords in September – “to rally his base and stress his foreign-policy advantage over his less experienced rivals.”

Aside from attributing a cynical motive to the move (which was delayed at the last minute, due to his wife’s hospitalization with appendicitis and Jordan’s blocking of his flight from entering its airspace), Ravid went on to explain that “Netanyahu is in need of a boost [as] his right-wing bloc is short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the latest polls.”

Ravid further claimed that for 10 days, Netanyahu basically begged the hesitant Emiratis to receive him on their soil, and even had Mossad chief Yossi Cohen do his bidding. According to Ravid, they weren’t keen on being perceived as having “interfered” in the Israeli election. In other words, the UAE sheikhs wouldn’t want to give Netanyahu’s campaign some kind of unfair edge.

https://worldisraelnews.com/opinion-how-israel-just-proved-its-true-title-to-the-land-of-israel/

It’s not often that you get to see the mystical connection between the Jews and their land play out in real time.

Witness the response to the oil spill that hit Israel’s shores on Feb. 17, dumped by a cargo ship holding 600,000 barrels of Iranian crude, almost certainly deliberately.

As one would expect, Israel’s government responded, allocating $14 million for cleanup.

What was unexpected was the flow of Israelis to the beaches when the call went out for help.

“Over 11,000 people came within a week,” Maya Jacobs, CEO of Zalul, an environmental group devoted to protecting Israel’s waters, told Israel21c.

Israelis didn’t just bend their backs to the work. They did it with smiles on their faces.

They picked through the sand and pebbles across 100 miles of polluted Mediterranean coastline as if it was their own backyard.

They rescued tar-soaked turtles as if they were saving their own pets.