RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/11/pa-promises-doomsday-scenario-if-it-doesnt-get-hugh-fitzgerald/

The story is here: “Palestinians threaten Israel: ‘Either Palestine, or a fire for a generation,’” JNS, October 28, 2020:

Claiming that the United States and Israel are planning to “redesign” the Middle East via “normalization” and the US peace plan, the Palestinian Authority is threatening “anarchy, violence and instability.”

“Normalization” of ties with Israel by several Arab states has not been the result of some kind of diabolical American and Israeli plot. It reflects, instead, the sober decisions by the governments of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan to do what will best further their national interests, and the well-being of their peoples, instead of allowing themselves to continue to be held hostage by Palestinian demands. UAE businessmen have already been rushing to sign deals with Israeli counterparts, in trade, technology, and tourism. So have Bahrainis, though on an understandably lesser scale, given the state’s small size. And now Sudan will begin to reap benefits from its own normalizing of ties with the Jewish state, with Israel now eager to share with Sudanese farmers its own advances in drip irrigation, waste water management, and solar energy, all areas where Israel is a world leader. But the Palestinians are indifferent to what the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan want, and have achieved, for their own people; every Arab state should in their view put the Palestinians first. That means there should be no normalization of ties with Israel until there is, as they put it, a “Palestinian state in the 1967 lines” – which means Israel would be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines, with a nine-mile wide waist from Qalqilya to the sea.

According to a report by Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch, an Oct. 13 editorial in the Ramallah-run Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily, the PA lashed out at the Arab states that have recently signed peace agreements with Israel, stating that “a fire [will burn] generation after generation” unless the PA gets “Palestine.”

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Israeli innovations just get more and more exciting. The week that Israel began human trials of its Covid-19 vaccine, saw several other groundbreaking achievements. They include a new generation of antibiotics, new treatments for eye disease and diabetes, discovery of how the brain learns movement, detecting heart attacks from speech and new fast tests for Covid-19 infections. Israel sent humanitarian aid to Europe and Asia. There were scientific breakthroughs in robotics, X-ray generation, recycling and accident prevention. Economic breakthroughs continue with the UAE, India, Japan, Italy and global maritime transportation. Israel21c has launched “Groundbreaking Israel” and groundbreaking projects are underway in Israel’s capital.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
First human tests of Israeli Covid-19 vaccine. On Nov 1, two Israelis received the first doses of Israel’s coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by the Israel Institute of Biological Research. The volunteers were inoculated at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and Hadassah’s Jerusalem Ein Kerem Medical Center.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/first-2-volunteers-injected-with-israeli-virus-vaccine-kicking-off-human-trials/
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-launches-coronavirus-vaccine-human-trials-647631
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJiEVoP-Hs8
 
The next generation of antibiotics. Israel’s Omnix Medical (reported here previously( is developing novel antibiotic agents for the treatment of hospital-acquired infections involving resistant bacteria. Omnix has successfully completed lab testing and has now raised funding to allow it to commence human clinical trials.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3868294,00.html  https://www.omnixmedical.com/
 
How the brain learns movement. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have discovered which of the brain’s neurons are involved in learning complex movements of the body. These neurons remember success or failure and adjust their initial state for the next trial, so that the body’s movement can adapt.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2020/10/skilled-movement-the-brain/
 
Monitoring high blood pressure in the voice. Israel’s Vocalis (reported here previously) has partnered with the Mayo Clinic to detect and monitor pulmonary hypertension (PH) from analyzing a person’s voice. Initially, they will identify PH vocal biomarkers indicating an increase in blood pressure within the arteries of the lungs.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-vocalis-mayo-clinic-to-develop-voice-based-medical-biomarkers/
 
New microcatheter saves patient. Doctors at Israel’s Sheba Neuro-Interventional & Stroke Center performed a unique procedure using the BENDIT steerable microcatheter. They saved a 74-year-old Israeli who had a giant brain aneurysm that was compressing his brainstem and had a high risk of brain hemorrhage.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/10/30/man-survives-brain-aneurysm-thanks-to-israeli-startups-device/
https://www.bendittech.com/
 
Joint Israeli-UAE stem cells project. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Pluristem (reported here previously) and the Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center (ADSCC) have unveiled their first joint projects. One – a potential Covid-19 treatment – is the first time Pluristem’s PLX cells will have been administered via a nebulizer.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/10/01/2101896/0/en/Abu-Dhabi-Stem-Cells-Center-and-Pluristem-Unveil-Joint-Projects-at-Malta-Conferences-Foundation-Online-Event.html
 
Diabetes treatment in US. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes (see here) has partnered a number of US health clinics. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford; Billings Clinic Montana; Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, NYU Langone and UF Health will provide diabetes patients with DreaMed’s personalized solutions.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200930005419/en/DreaMed-Expands-Its-Remote-Diabetes-Solution-to-Four-Clinics-Across-The-U.S.
 
Knee cartilage implant is a breakthrough. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s CartiHeal (reported here previously) has received US FDA breakthrough device designation for its Agili-C implant. Agili-C has been implanted in over 500 study patients with knee, ankle and big toe cartilage lesions in trials at leading centers in Europe and Israel.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/cartiheal-receives-fda-breakthrough-device-designation-for-the-novel-agili-c-implant-301150023.html
 

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/11/04/oslo-and-the-lack-of-peace/

Weeks ago, on September 28, it was the 25th anniversary of the Taba signing of the Oslo II Accord — and no one celebrated. Hardly anyone even seemed to notice. Recently, a former high level staffer for Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin penned an article where he claimed, “Oslo was derailed”; he otherwise supported the longtime claims of Israel’s harshest critics in the Arab world and beyond. His idea that Israeli families living in communities in Judea-Samaria are the true obstacle to peace is untrue. This academic and many like him strive to recall the Oslo agreements as something they never were, and still want to assign responsibility for the lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Jews in Judea and Samaria instead of supporters of terrorism in Gaza and the PA itself.

Professor Meron Medzini, who taught modern Japanese history for over 20 years at Hebrew University, made several mistakes in his book review article for the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. The journal is published by the Israel Council on Foreign Relations (ICFR), and Medzini’s piece appeared in issue 14:1. The ICFR is an official part of the World Jewish Congress.

Dr. Medzini claims that “Oslo was derailed because of continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank; heightened Palestinian terror; and the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to effectively freeze the entire process after he gave up Hebron.”

But Medzini is mistaken on all three counts.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16678/muslims-al-aqsa-mosque

These Gulf Muslims are also demanding an end to the Palestinian “monopoly” over the Islamic holy site in Jerusalem.”

“We will visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque because it does not belong to you, it belongs to all Muslims.” — Laila Al-Awadhi, Emirati political activist.

“How wrong we were when we thought that Israel was preventing Muslims from visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” — Ali Al-Aslami, Emirati social media user, Twitter, October 19, 2020.

The furious response of these Muslims to the Palestinian assault on the Emirati delegation is yet another sign of the deepening crisis between the Palestinians and the Arab world, particularly the Gulf states…. Yet, once again, the Palestinians have opted for hating Israel and any Arab who seeks peace with it over improving their basic living conditions.

In the past few years, the Palestinians have regularly condemned Jews for visiting the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) in Jerusalem. The Palestinians depict the visits by Jews as “incursions” and claim that the visitors “defile” the Al-Aqsa Mosque when they enter the compound.

The Jewish visitors, however, do not set foot inside the mosque; they only tour the outdoor compound under the protection of the Israeli police. It is also worth mentioning that Palestinians often hurl insults at the Jewish visitors and try to physically assault them.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the place toward which Jews turn during prayer. Among Sunni Muslims, the Temple Mount is considered the third holiest site in Islam.

The Palestinians are now saying that they are opposed not only to Jews visiting the holy site, but also to Muslims who believe in peace with Israel.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16701/palestinians-boycott-israel-hospital

Particularly outrageous is the fact that Erekat was admitted to an Israeli hospital for the best medical treatment at a time when the Palestinian government is denying ordinary Palestinians permits to go to Israeli hospitals.

The Palestinian official’s treatment in an Israeli hospital shows that the Palestinians themselves “are in a reality of full normalization with Israel.” — Nadim Koteich, Lebanese journalist, Asharq Al-Awsat, October 27, 2020.

The fact that Erekat chose to go to an Israeli, and not a Jordanian hospital, was a sign that he “has full confidence in the Israelis despite his public statements against them.” — alarab.co.uk, October 19, 2020

If and when Erekat recovers from his current illness and returns to his family, it would behoove him to apologize to the UAE and Bahrain for having denounced their normalization agreements with Israel. Next, he might want to apologize to the Palestinian people for depriving them of the superb medical treatment that he himself received at Hadassah Hospital.

Perhaps Erekat might also consider thanking the Israeli doctors who worked around the clock to keep him alive. Additionally, he can thank the Israeli medical teams and soldiers who escorted him from his home in Jericho to Jerusalem. Finally, Erekat might inform the world that he regrets having called for the boycott of Israel — the country he knew he could turn to save his life, no matter what harm he had inflicted upon it.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat spent the past two decades calling for the boycott and isolation of Israel. In the past few months, Erekat, a PLO leader who previously headed the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel, came out against the agreements to normalize relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

He and other Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, accused the UAE and Bahrain of betraying the Palestinians and stabbing them in the back by making peace with Israel.

On October 8, Erekat announced that he had been infected with COVID-19. A few days later, as his condition seemed to worsen, Erekat was rushed from his home in the West Bank city of Jericho to an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem: Hadassah Ein Kerem. An Israeli ambulance guarded by Israeli soldiers transferred Erekat to the Israeli hospital at the request of his family and the Palestinian Authority leadership.

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/authors/shoshana-bryen/

The cornerstone of America’s security commitment to Israel, since the administration of Lyndon Johnson, has been an assurance that the United States would help Israel uphold its Qualitative Military Edge (QME). This is “Israel’s ability to counter and defeat credible military threats from any individual state, coalition of states, or non-state actor, while sustaining minimal damages or casualties.” This commitment and the language were written into law in 2008 and every security assistance request from the Israeli Government is evaluated in light of America’s promise.

So, what happens when the United States agrees to sell the F-35 jet fighter – the most sophisticated plane in our arsenal – to the United Arab Emirates after UAE establishes relations with Israel? Is UAE permanently out of the group of “individual states or coalition of states” that QME refers to? Can other states get out?

Following the announcement, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel has no power to prevent U.S. sales of advanced weaponry to the Gulf states. Steinitz, in an interview, explained that if countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia “want it and are willing to pay, no doubt that sooner or later they’ll get” the aircraft and other weapons systems.  

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Starving leukemia cells to protect the brain. Israeli and Scottish scientists have found that the brain can be protected from metastatic leukemia by blocking the production of the fatty acid stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD). The discovery is particularly important for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children.

https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2020/10/leukemia-and-the-brain/ 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-020-00115-2

Prospective treatment for liver failure. There are some 2,000 cases (80% fatal) of Acute Liver Failure (ALF) in the US each year. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have managed to control the severity of ALF in the lab by blocking signals from the gut microbiome to the MYC protein in the liver.

https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/surprising-players-acute-liver-failure-point-potential-treatment

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1102-2

Early stroke detection. The Scan&Sound app developed by students at Israel’s Technion Institute uses AI to analyze subtle changes in a potential stroke victim’s voice and facial expressions. Scan&Sound won 2nd place at John Hopkins University MedHacks in the category “Personalized Medicine Using Data-Driven Healthcare.”

https://www.israel21c.org/hackers-build-prize-winning-early-stroke-detection-app/  https://medhacks.io/

Track the eyes to reduce stress. Israel’s Umoove (reported here previously) has partnered British behavioral change consultant Matt Hudson to reduce stress and anxiety. The app MindReset uses the mobile camera and Umoove’s mobile eye tracking technology to observe the user’s nonverbal responses to stress.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/289974  http://www.umoove.me/press.html

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.umoove.mindreset

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyE1q0B8Ov8

Radiotherapy institute for Jerusalem. Construction is underway on a new innovative radiotherapy institute at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. It will serve as a national center for cancer treatment, with advanced treatment methods and technologies.  https://www.jpost.com/health-science/new-innovative-radiotherapy-institute-approved-for-shaare-zedek-646876

https://www.szmc.org.il/eng/article/news,217/ https://shaarezedek.org.uk/cutting-edge-cancer-treatment/

Better clinical trials. The race to produce a Covid-19 vaccine has spurred researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University to partner with Israeli startup Panacea to speed up the human test phases. They have developed an AI tool to help select participants and markers, improve the analysis of results and presentation of findings.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3865794,00.html

A new way to diagnose infections. Israel’s MeMed (reported here previously) has received clearance in Israel, Europe and Switzerland for its MeMed BV and MeMed Key infection analyzers. They measure 3 biomarker proteins and use AI algorithms to determine if an infection is viral or bacterial and whether to use antibiotics.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3865516,00.html

Femtech telemedicine at Sheba. A follow-up to the article reported here previously about the new Women’s Health Innovation Center at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center. The pioneering femtech (female technology) center, was originally set up to promote patient and doctor safety during COVID-19.

https://nocamels.com/2020/10/women-health-innovation-center-sheba-femtech/

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-plight-of-palestinian-refugees/

If I was a Palestinian, I would be immersed in gloom. As I look around the Middle East, where my staunchest allies were once located, I now see nothing but betrayal. First, the United Arab Emirates, then Bahrain and now Sudan have reached agreements with the despicable Jewish State of Israel. In the foreseeable future, Saudi Arabia will likely join them. My people have been abandoned, and any possibility that even a sliver of Israel and its illegal settlements on Palestinian land will become a Palestinian state has all but vanished. Our scattered 5 million refugees and their descendants, cared for by UNRWA, will remain forever homeless.

Although I am not a Palestinian, I sympathize with the Palestinian lament of homelessness even if it is self-imposed. But as a historian, I must rely upon facts, not fantasies. Palestinians may fervently believe that they are being robbed of “their” land, but history—from antiquity to modernity—suggests otherwise.

Ever since the Jewish nation was shattered in the second century C.E. after Bar Kokhba’s failed rebellion against Roman conquerors, Jews yearned to return to their ancient homeland, especially Jerusalem, where King David had ruled and the Holy Temple was built. (“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,” was embedded in Psalm 137.) There were no Palestinians then. Indeed, the oldest surviving indication of an Arab (not Palestinian) national identity is an inscription in 328 C.E. referring to the “King of all the Arabs.” Islam appeared three centuries later, during Muhammad’s lifetime. By then, Jews were a well-established, if widely scattered, people with an embedded attachment to their promised land.

Late in the 19th century, after nearly two millennia in exile, Jews began their return to the Land of Israel. Nearly 30 years before Theodor Herzl called for the revival of Jewish statehood, Hovevei Zion (“Lovers of Zion”) had built more than a dozen new communities in Palestine. During World War I, the Balfour Declaration called for a “national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.” There was no mention of Palestinians. Even when Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill reneged on that promise, gifting three-quarters of Palestine east of the Jordan River to Abdullah ibn Hussein for his own kingdom of Transjordan, there still was no recognized, or self-identified, “Palestinian” people.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/coronavirus-election-fever-and-matti-caspis-exit-stage-left-opinion-647431

The combination of coronavirus malaise and election fever has disgruntled American and Israeli notables threatening to emigrate if their leaders are not replaced.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the start of serious campaigning in the United States, with President Donald Trump working to secure a second term in office and the Democrats attempting to field a candidate who could topple him.

During the past several months – prior to and since August, when the Democratic National Convention nominated Joe Biden to run against the incumbent – celebrities have been voicing their intention to make a grand exit out of the country in the event of a Trump victory.

American actress/activist Jane Fonda has been more optimistic of late about staying put. Her position is that the virus was “God’s gift to the Left,” and she may be right. The US economy was booming before COVID-19 struck and lockdowns were imposed to keep it at bay. The rise in morbidity and death rates, coupled with the drop in employment, became the manna from heaven that Trump-haters had been seeking.

The same perversity applies to Israel, where the movement to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been throwing caution and saliva droplets to the wind and gathering in droves – masks and bandanas beneath their chins – to demand that he resign or be sent to jail, whichever comes first. What they don’t want is another set of democratic elections that could keep him at the helm.