Displaying posts categorized under

ISRAEL

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Will Israel Be Able To Withstand Biden Administration’s Pressure? A new administration’s unbridled hostility towards Israel. Caroline Glick

By on January 21st, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/will-israel-be-able-withstand-biden-caroline-glick/

In an interview with The New York Times last month, President-elect Joe Biden restated his intention to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Israel opposes this plan because the 2015 deal ensures Iran will become a nuclear-armed state.

Media reports over the past few weeks have detailed some of Israel’s plans to convince the incoming administration to reconsider its position. Among other things, the government intends to use documents from Iran’s nuclear archive, that Mossad agents spirited out of Tehran in 2018, to show Biden and his advisers that the 2015 deal was based on the incorrect assumption that Iran’s nuclear program was defensive and civilian.

The archive proves incontrovertibly that Iran’s nuclear program was conceived with the aim of and has always been about making nuclear bombs, not medical isotopes, and that the purpose of that nuclear arsenal is not to defend against its enemies, but to obliterate them.

Although Israel’s case is rock solid, it is unlikely to convince the Biden team to change course. Even without the benefit of the archive, there was massive evidence five years ago that Iran’s actions and intentions in relation to its illicit nuclear program were aggressive.

Israel shared that evidence with the Obama administration, and Barack Obama and his advisers didn’t care. They drove forward and demonized Israeli leaders and their American supporters as warmongers.

The same people who dismissed Israel’s evidence then are now leading Biden’s national security team.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Biden Reverses on Change to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Twitter Name to Include West Bank and Gaza Adam Kredo 

By on January 21st, 2021

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/biden-changes-u-s-ambassador-to-israel-tw

The Biden administration on Wednesday reversed a change to the U.S. ambassador to Israel’s Twitter account name to read, “the official Twitter account of the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza” after a Washington Free Beacon report highlighting the shift.

For a time on Wednesday, the official Twitter feed for the U.S. ambassador to Israel had its title changed to add “the West Bank and Gaza,” territories the United States has for decades avoided taking a stand on due to ongoing peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. The title change sparked an outcry online, including among Republican lawmakers, and was quietly changed back to read only, “U.S. ambassador to Israel.” The State Department would not comment on the initial change or why it was changed back to its original form.

Embassy officials have speculated that the title was inadvertently changed by Twitter due to a technical glitch when the accounts were switched from the Trump administration over to the Biden administration. The Free Beacon could not confirm the veracity of these claims.

“The U.S. doesn’t have ambassadors to any other disputed territory in the world. Singling out Israel, once again, is wrong,” said Len Khodorkovsky, former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department. “Instead of building on all the progress that’s been made toward peace in the Middle East, the Biden administration seems to be reversing course toward the failed policies of the Obama years.”

During the Obama administration, former ambassador Dan Shapiro was referred to in official communications as the “U.S. Ambassador to Israel.”

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

From Pompeo’s Twitter Account, an Understated Policy Statement By Jimmy Quinn

By on January 19th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/from-pompeos-twitter-account-an-understated-policy-statement/

Mike Pompeo’s Twitter account has apparently tucked a notable policy statement into an otherwise unremarkable legacy-burnishing tweetstorm — and it has significant implications for U.S. support of Israel at the U.N.

The tweet was just one of the dozens that the secretary of state’s account has fired off every day since the start of 2021 to note his foreign-policy accomplishments as he nears the end of his tenure. It’s generally unremarkable stuff — some old pictures and graphics with snappy, occasionally stilted sloganeering (though more than a few Pompeo critics have seized on it as an opportunity to go after the top Trump official).

But Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noticed a decision that has otherwise gone unremarked upon: When @SecPompeo shared the 2018 press release announcing the U.S. decision to halt funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the post stated that “it’s estimated <200,000 Arabs diplaced in 1948 are still alive and most others are not refugees by any rational criteria.” UNRWA serves Palestinian refugees exclusively — it says that there are 5.8 million of them in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine — and it’s the only organization within the U.N. system that focuses on a specific set of refugees. (All other refugee groups are handled by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.) It’s a testament to the U.N.’s single-minded obsession with criticizing Israel, holding the Jewish state to a different standard.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

What apartheid? When B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad, who is Jewish, decides that I, my Arab family, and my Arab friends are all living under an apartheid regime, he and his organizations are basically telling us they see us as second-class citizens. By Yoseph Haddad

By on January 18th, 2021

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/what-apartheid-2/

Last week, I woke up one morning in my Nazareth home and was astonished to discover I was living under a racist apartheid regime whose only purpose is “the promotion and perpetuation of the superiority of one group of people – the Jews.” I rubbed my eyes, read the story in greater depth, and calmed down as soon as I realized the reports were based on yet another report by the left-wing NGO B’Tselem.

The problem is that this report has spread like wildfire around the world, and the propaganda is working. B’Tselem, which presents itself as a human-rights organization, is in fact known as an organization with a clear political stance that is in contrast to Israel’s position. As it turns out, people have no boundaries. How dare they say that I, an Arab Israeli who served along with Jewish soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and managed hundreds of Jewish employees, live under an apartheid regime?

How can anyone say our society is living under an apartheid regime when among us you will find doctors, judges, and even lawmakers? How can you say Samer Haj-Yehia lives in an apartheid regime when he is the head of the biggest bank in Israel? B’Tselem has already broken the record for hypocrisy, but to compare Israel to an apartheid regime for its racial laws is not only a distorted lie but an insult to all those South Africans who actually lived through apartheid. It is contempt for and cynical exploitation of the concept.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, KRD NEWS Comments turned off

ISRAEL Memo to President Biden: Please Don’t Mess Up the Abraham Accords Memo to President Biden: Please Don’t Mess Up the Abraham Accords by Bret Stephens

By on January 18th, 2021

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/bret-stephens/president-biden-abrah

https://mailchi.mp/a3b1df29446b/krd-news-bret-stephens-memo-to-president-biden

In November 2013, I participated in an interview at the Wall Street Journal with Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi prince of legendary riches and blunt, if sometimes unsavory, views.

To New Yorkers with long memories, Alwaleed was the man who, after September 11, 2001, had sought to donate $10 million to the city, along with the suggestion that the U.S. government “adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.” (Then-mayor Rudy Giuliani returned the check.) To the Journal, he was a major shareholder in News Corporation, the paper’s parent company. Getting a meeting with the editorial board, of which I was then a member, was not a problem.

It turned out to be an exceptionally interesting interview. Three months earlier, Barack Obama had surrendered his red line in Syria, refusing to make good on his prior threats of military action in response to Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Instead, Obama seized on a Russian proposal to have Assad voluntarily relinquish his declared arsenal—a proposal that proved remarkably easy to violate while heralding a new era of American fecklessness in the Middle East.

“The U.S. has to have a foreign policy,” Alwaleed said that day. “Well-defined, well-structured. You don’t have it right now, unfortunately. It’s just complete chaos. Confusion. No policy. I mean, we feel it. We sense it.”

As dismayed as Alwaleed was by Obama’s climbdown in Syria, he was even more alarmed by Obama’s turn toward Iran, in the form of an interim nuclear deal that would later become the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The prince warned that Iran’s supposedly moderate leaders were not to be trusted, and that the only policy that could work was to “put maximum pressure now on the United States not to succumb to the president of Iran’s soft talk.” He also hinted that Saudi Arabia had a nuclear option thanks to an “arrangement with Pakistan.”

And then Alwaleed dropped a little bomb of his own. “For the first time,” he said, “Saudi Arabian interests and Israel’s are almost parallel. It’s incredible.”

That a prominent Saudi prince was willing to say it on the record, in the pages of a leading U.S. daily and in impolitic defiance of an American president, proved how right he was.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Why Is Israel Doing Better Than Everyone Else in COVID Vaccinations? By Joel M. Zinberg

By on January 18th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/01/why-is-israel-doing-better-than-everyone-else-in-covid-vaccinations/

Eleven years ago, Dan Senor and Saul Singer dubbed Israel the “Start Up Nation” for its disproportionately large number of technology start-ups and NASDAQ stock listings. Make way for the Vaccination Nation.

Israel leads the world in COVID-19 vaccinations. It has already vaccinated nearly a quarter of its population, including 75 percent of the population most at risk, people over age 60. It has administered 24.5 doses per 100 persons, nearly double the next-best country (the United Arab Emirates) and about 8 times as many people per capita as in the U.S. and the U.K. Israel’s per capita vaccination rate is 24 times that of the normally efficient Germans and 50 times better than the world average. Only three other countries in the world — the U.S., China, and the U.K. — have administered more vaccines.

Why is Israel doing so much better than anyone else? Israel’s small size simplifies logistics. But there are other factors.

First, unlike American states, which have administered only about a third of the doses they have received, Israeli made sure it was ready to use its supply. Officials set up large vaccination centers and mobile units in advance. They reached out to minority groups, such as the ultra-Orthodox and Arab citizens, ahead of the roll-out to encourage vaccine uptake. Israel started vaccinations in mid-December and by the end of the month was vaccinating more than 150,000 people a day.

Second, Israel secured a large supply from Pfizer by promising to provide comprehensive safety and effectiveness data. Israel has a nationwide, computerized health database that can provide anonymized outcomes for all citizens, letting Pfizer use the country of nearly nine million as a real-time laboratory. In return, Pfizer has pledged to provide enough doses to vaccinate every Israeli over 16 by the end of March. In addition, Israel was the first country outside of North America to approve the Moderna vaccine and has purchased six million doses. Israel also paid premium prices — a wise investment in ending the economic devastation occasioned by pandemic lockdowns.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on January 17th, 2021

  https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

The nation’s achievements in technology, social services, agriculture, medicine are dazzling. And now that the old paradigm for peace, namely, that Israel must offer dangerous concessions in return for “recognition of its right to exist “has been relegated to the dustbin of history by the Abraham Accords,  the Arab nations may enjoy the fruits of collaboration with Israel. Thank you, President Donald Trump, for shepherding this magnificent achievement! And Thank you Michael Ordman for compiling this list which never fails to amaze and gratify me. rsk  

Israeli surgeons used a new Israeli device to unblock the heart valve of a 96-year-old woman.
An Israeli Arab’s sight was restored by the first transplant of an Israeli artificial cornea.

Despite Covid, Israel is still repairing the hearts of children from Gaza.

Intel announced two more Israeli-developed microprocessors.

An Israeli car safety device prevents its gas tank from catching fire.

An Israeli company is to modernize the training of the Royal Navy.
An Israeli is Belgium’s soccer Player of the Year.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Vaccine rollout. 2 million+ Israelis have had their first Pfizer vaccination. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first of over 110,000 Israelis to receive the second dose. He also announced that Israel could be the first nation to be fully vaccinated. Inoculation of teachers and the over-50s has begun; the over-40s will start shortly.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-vaccine-shipments-arrive-netanyahu-says-over-50s-eligible-from-next-week/   https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294568

https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/BJ1mN11CAP

Allergies? No problem. (TY Hazel) Some 100 Israelis with severe allergies are being vaccinated at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center as part of a pilot program.  Previously, those with severe allergies were turned away from health clinics because of the risk of serious reactions, including anaphylactic shock.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/100-high-risk-allergy-patients-to-get-covid-19-vaccine-at-sheba-friday-654643

An effective anti-Covid nasal spray. The Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray, developed by Israeli-founded, Canada-based SaNOtize (reported here previously) has proved 99.9% effective in lab tests by Utah State University’s Antiviral Research Institute. Phase 2 trials continue in Canada and are just beginning in UK hospitals.

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/could-this-israeli-s-anti-viral-nasal-spray-save-the-world-1.510530

A natural Covid-19 treatment? (TY UWI) Israel’s Novel Concepts Medical claims to have developed a combination of natural compounds that significantly decreases the amount of coronavirus spike protein, which binds the virus to the lungs. If its US patent application is approved, it will progress to clinical trials.

https://www.cityam.com/israeli-medtech-firm-claims-it-may-have-found-covid-19-cure/

https://cyprus-mail.com/2021/01/01/cure-covid-19-israeli-medtech-firm-claims-its-possible/

Groundbreaking heart surgery. Instead of open-heart surgery, doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center performed the world’s first catheterizations to unblock heart valves, including of a 96-year-old woman. They used the “ShortCut” – a tiny knife inside a catheter, developed together with Israeli startup Pi-Cardia.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/in-first-of-its-kind-operation-israeli-doctors-use-micro-knife-instead-of-open-heart-surgery/  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210107005066/en/Pi-Cardia-Successfully-Treats-First-Patients-with-ShortCut%E2%84%A2-Device   http://www.pi-cardia.net/

Improved diagnosis of heart problems. Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed a way to detect heart problems based on routine electrocardiography (ECG). The new system demonstrated 96 percent average accuracy in diagnosing the various conditions, compared to 80% for currently available algorithms.

https://www.israel21c.org/automated-analysis-of-routine-ecg-detects-cardiac-problems/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73060-w

The correct personal treatment for cancer. Israel’s OncoHost (reported here previously) has achieved about 90% accuracy in predicting how melanoma and lung cancer patients respond to various therapies. And now Israeli Nobel Prize winner Professor Aaron Ciechanover has joined OncoHost’s scientific advisory board.

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/oncohost-welcomes-nobel-prize-winner-to-scientific-advisory-board-301205142.html   https://jitc.bmj.com/content/8/Suppl_3/A11.2

https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/nobel-prizewinner-ciechanover-hails-much-more-precise-cancer-treatment/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3IJFoPW60E

$1 billion for cancer therapies. Israel’s Biond Biologics (reported here previously) has signed an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Sanofi for its innovative cancer therapies. Biond will receive $125 million up-front with more than $1 billion in potential payments. Biond’s plans BND-22 human trials to start mid-2021.

https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/01/12/biond-biologics-and-sanofi-enter-into-global-licensing-agreement-worth-1-billion/

Searching for pancreatic cancer cures. (TY EEJH) This article describes the work of 3 Israeli scientists who received grants from the Israel Cancer Research Fund to research pancreatic cancer therapies. They include cell profiling to find early-stage markers; how glucose affects resistance; and cancer spreading along nerve fibers. 

https://www.jta.org/2021/01/11/health/israeli-researchers-use-novel-methods-to-seek-treatments-for-deadly-pancreatic-cancer

Artificial cornea restores sight. (TY Hazel & EEJH) Surgeons at Rambam Medical Center conducted the first implant of a synthetic cornea from Israel’s CorNeat (reported here previously). 78-year-old Israeli Arab Jamal from Haifa was able to see clearly immediately after the transplant, for the first time in 10 years.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/corneat-visions-first-patient-regains-sight-following-artificial-cornea-implantation-at-rabin-medical-center-ending-a-decade-of-blindness-301205312.html

https://www.corneat.com/corneat-vision-primetime-news

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel and the U.S.: Maintaining the Alliance Against Iran Shoshana Bryen

By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.newsweek.com/israel-us-maintaining-alliance-against-iran-opinion-

There are three primary threads involved in Western containment of the Islamic Republic of Iran and preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities: diplomacy, economic pressure and what the Israelis call “cutting the grass.” 

Diplomacy can be harsh and can include economic pressure, as in the “maximum pressure campaign” of the outgoing administration, designed to cut off the mullahs’ funds in hopes of either collapsing the Tehran regime or forcing it to enter serious negotiations. It can also be soft, as in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal) of the Obama administration, offering positive incentives in exchange for limitations or time constraints on threatening behaviors. “Cutting the grass”—reducing or eliminating actual military threats as they emerge in real time—has been Israel’s preferred method, and can be coupled with either of the two others.

“Maximum pressure” and “cutting the grass” have worked in tandem to severely constrain Iran. Hezbollah’s budget has been cut, Iran’s formerly 80,000-strong militia in Syria, commanded by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, has been reduced to approximately 10,000, and the people of Iran have been protesting against their government. On the other hand, Iran has found ways to spend its limited funds on its priorities—namely, ballistic missile technology and nuclear weapons capability.

While the incoming Biden administration has made clear its preference for soft American diplomacy, a continuing alliance with Israel—public or tacit—that pressures Iran on the ground can serve both countries’ interests.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Trump orders US military’s Central Command to include State of Israel

By on January 16th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/trump-orders-us-militarys-central-command-to-now-include-israe

Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of JINSA, noted that the realignment “will strengthen strategic planning, defense cooperation and deterrence against Iran by America and its regional allies.”

 U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the mission of the U.S. military in the Middle East, to include Israel, reported The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

Until now, Israel had been part of the U.S. European Command for the sake of America’s Arab allies that have had adversarial relationships with the Jewish state.

The development of the Abraham Accords—in which CENTCOM members the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized relations with Israel—has allowed for pro-Israel groups to make the case that the time is ripe for Israel to fall under CENTCOM as well. (Sudan and Morocco, the other more recent signees of the Abraham Accords, are not part of CENTCOM, as Sudan does not have military cooperation with the United States and Morocco is part of the U.S. Africa Command.)

One of the pro-Israel groups to advocate for the move was the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), whose president and CEO, Michael Makovsky, said that the realignment “will strengthen strategic planning, defense cooperation and deterrence against Iran by America and its regional allies.”

“I hope it might also smooth the way for the Pentagon to utilize Israel more for regional operations, including by prepositioning precision-guided munitions (PGMs) and other much-needed weaponry for American, Israeli, and possibly, partner Arab forces,” he continued. “PGMs are critical to Israel’s continued ability to defend U.S. interests by rolling back the military footprint of Iran and its proxies.”

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Will Israel lose its freedom to operate against Iran? – opinion Israel needs to prepare for this new reality where its ability to combat Iranian forces and proxy groups is concerned. By Ruthie Blum

By on January 15th, 2021

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/will-israel-lose-its-freedom-to-operate-against-iran-opinion-655483?fbclid=IwAR3z6bPkCu03rcuy6zviDXEA8tR0PxZObv4aaG4KM0TV5KTZIz3b3jBNzko

Speculation about the extent to which the incoming American administration will appease Iran has been rampant. But US President-elect Joe Biden’s picks for relevant top positions don’t seem to leave much room for conjecture.

Let’s start with William Burns, Biden’s nomination for CIA director. Burns currently serves as president of the left-wing foreign-policy think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of whose donors is the Open Society Foundations network, established by George Soros.

Burns has decades of experience as a career diplomat under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Contrary to false hopes, however, this is not a good sign. Burns is a longtime associate of Biden’s. The two have worked closely together, most recently when the latter was vice president and the former was deputy secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, during the administration of former US president Barack Obama.

The most disturbing thing about Burns, whose posts have included ambassadorships to Russia and Jordan, is his key role in covert talks with the regime in Tehran in 2013. These led to the 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 countries: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China plus Germany. By that time Burns had retired, but his imprint lived on in the disastrous nuclear deal.

In this context, Biden’s statement about Burns – “[He] shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical” – is amusing, if not downright disdain-inducing. Equally ridiculous, but cause for greater concern, is Burns’s current faith in the JCPOA from which outgoing US President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

Continue reading →