RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/abbas-parliamentary-list-includes-terrorists-and-hugh-fitzgerald/

So much has been happening with the Palestinians and their new friends in Washington. First, there was the announcement by Linda Thomas-Greenwood, our ambassador to the U.N., that the U.S. would be giving $15 million to the PA, presumably as a token of American affection and esteem. No one mentioned that this violated the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits American aid to the Palestinians as long as the “Pay-For-Slay” program continues. And it is continuing. But the Biden Administration is so eager to lavish money on the Palestinians that it is willing to take a chance that Congress won’t raise a fuss about Taylor Force. And so far it hasn’t. To make matters still worse, now the Biden Administration says it will send another $80 million to the Palestinians. That constitutes another, even bigger, violation of the Taylor Force Act. And yet that news was met with the same inexplicable silence from Congress. And while we are at it, we have a question for Biden, Blinken et al. What exactly have the Palestinians done to deserve having the spigot of American aid turned back on? They did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

But it gets worse. Mahmoud Abbas has announced his list of candidates for the Palestinian parliamentary elections that are to be held on May 22. A report on that list is here: “Report: Abbas’ Party List for Upcoming Elections Includes Terrorists and Their Relatives,” by Benjamin Kerstein, Algemeiner, April 1, 2021:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has placed convicted terrorists and relatives of terrorists in high positions on its list for the upcoming PA elections, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported Thursday.

Second on Abbas’ party list is the widow of one of those responsible for the notorious 2001 attack that killed Israeli 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass, during the second intifada.

Putting this woman second on the party list for the Palestinian parliamentary elections is a sign of the respect in which she is held by Mahmoud Abbas. After all, she is the widow of Mahmoud Amru, who took deliberate aim at a Jewish baby sitting in her stroller, and killed her, thus becoming a true Palestinian hero. By honoring his widow as a way of paying tribute to Amru himelf, Abbas is deliberately flaunting his willingness to reward terrorists, even beyond what Pay-For-Slay provides.

Decolonization from Great Britain accelerated greatly in the aftermath of World War 2. Jordan, India Pakistan, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Israel and Sudan all gained independence from British rule in one decade. Taken in proportion to their respective populations Israel’s development of state-of-the-art technology, medicine, and science is outsize and benefits the entire globe. Israel’s music, art, theater, dance, cuisine and cinema bring creativity and entertainment to the world. Its admirable social and help institutions bring succor to the victims of disaster, famine and illness whenever needed. And it is a vibrant democracy protected by government and a proud military on land and sea. All the foregoing and Michael Ordman’s weekly blog gives the lie to the slanderous and biased Israel bashers. rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Bacteria can help anti-cancer immune response.  There is a complex relationship between bacteria and cancer (reported here previously). Now, scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that bacteria inside cancer cells can provoke an immune reaction against the tumor, which chemotherapy can further exploit.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/bacteria-may-aid-anti-cancer-immune-response
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03368-8
 
Jumpstarting the brain to treat “Covid depression”. Israel’s BrainsWay (reported here previously) is now using its transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technology to treat patients suffering with depression due to Covid. It is focusing on those struggling with recovery, who have lost loved ones, in financial difficulties etc.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3901032,00.html
 
Background radiation and cancer. (TY UWI) Ben Gurion University scientists studying naturally occurring ionizing radiation in the US, discovered that, contrary to expectations, higher levels of radiation lead to lower levels of many solid cancers. Levels of other cancers were not influenced by background radiation levels.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/background-radiation.aspx
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10522-020-09909-4
 
 
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
 
Partnering NASA to benefit global food security. Israel’s CropX (reported here previously) has partnered NASA Harvest (NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program) to provide NASA with soil insights for its global agricultural monitoring efforts. NASA is testing CropX across Arizona farms to fine-tune its algorithms.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-harvest-and-cropx-partner-to-support-sustainable-agriculture
 
US teens return to study in Israel. As Covid-19 infection rates fall, JNF-USA has launched Operation Zion to bring global students to Israel. They will study at JNF-USA’s Alexander Muss High School in Hod Hasharon, and travel around Israel. 240 teens, mainly from the US have just arrived and more are on their way.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jewish-national-fund-usa-first-to-bring-american-teens-back-to-israel-301264042.html   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdUHghrIPU
 
 
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
 
Back on campus. Israeli students at Israeli institutes of higher education have returned to study physically at their colleges following the end of the Passover holiday. Those not fully vaccinated continue to study virtually.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2021/03/technion-city-opens-for-spring-semester/
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/Pages/coronavirus-updates.aspx  https://international.huji.ac.il/  
https://english.tau.ac.il/covid19center  https://www.biu.ac.il/en/news/8947
 
Powering the Israeli nanosatellites. The high-functioning LEON processors of Israel’s Ramon.Space (reported here previously) powered the three Technion nanosatellites launched into orbit in March. Having powered missions from many countries, CEO Avi Shabtai was proud to be a key part of an Israeli one.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3900826,00.html
 
Helping the US re-open after Covid. Felicity Kay, from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), speaks at Atlantic City Airport about IAI’s Tamar COVID detection technology designed to keep airline passengers safe. She also describes IAI’s Grenada Covid-19 disinfecting UV flashlight (see here). See other IAI Covid innovations here.
https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/videos/news/2021/04/01/watch-new-covid-19-detection-technology-demonstration-atlantic-city-airport-iai-grenada-tamar/4828932001/
 
All-seeing. Israel-based Nanomotion has developed precision motion technology that could revolutionize vision technology. It has potential benefits from complex surgery to emergency rescue drones. Miniature motors use ultrasonic standing wave piezoelectric technology, to form the basis of tiny, powerful high-resolution cameras.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3900535,00.html   https://www.nanomotion.com/
 
Cyber security for ships. Maritime vessels, e.g. tankers, have no IT experts on board, slow Internet access, and spend weeks at sea. Israel’s Cydome Security provides a niche cyber solution to safeguard ships, including command and control, communications, guidance, sensors, and links to coastal infrastructures.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3900451,00.html
 
Teaching English to Israeli techies. Israeli online business school Jolt (reported here previously) is partnering  TALMA, the Israel Program for Excellence in English (reported here previously), to help raise the standard of English speaking, writing, and reading, required for employment in the high-tech industry.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3902031,00.html
 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-stands-in-silence-with-holocaust-remembrance-day-siren-664490

The State of Israel went quiet apart for a single, constant tone on Thursday morning as the two-minute siren rang through the streets, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The siren is heard from every corner of the country. The public rises on its feet and stands in silence in a two-minute break meant to allow the country to keep those who were murdered during the Holocaust in their minds.

Israelis stop to stand for Holocaust Remembrance Day, from offices to schools to highways and city streets.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/israels-claim-under-international-law-occupied-hugh-fitzgerald/

The Biden Administration seems to think that the way to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians is to push Israel back within what it describes as the “1967 lines,” which is a more acceptable way of saying “the 1949 armistice lines.” Those lines were not recognized borders; they merely reflected where the respective armies, of Israel and its Arab enemies, when the shooting stopped n 1949.

Let’s give the misinformed Biden Administration the necessary Short Course it clearly needs about Israel’s claim under international law to the West Bank, about the misnomer “occupied territories, ” and about the Palestinian Arabs and a “two-state solution.”

There are two sources for Israel’s claim to the West Bank. The first, and the most important, is the Mandate for Palestine, set up by the League of Nations in 1922, for the sole purpose of creating the Jewish National Home that in time, sympathetically nurtured by the holder of the Mandate, Great Britain, would become the Jewish state. The Arabs were well-provided for, too, by the League of Nations. They were given several mandates – for Iraq, for Syria, and Lebanon. Furthermore, all of Palestine east of the Jordan River “out to the desert,” which had originally been intended for inclusion in the Palestine Mandate, was closed to Jewish immigration by the British, and given to the Hashemite Emir Abdullah to rule over, as the Emirate of Transjordan. And as we know, the Arabs now have twenty-two independent states, far more than any other people, while the Jews have exactly one, a tiny sliver so small that it can scarcely be discerned on a world map.

The Mandate for Palestine – see the Preamble and Articles 4 and 6 — was meant to create “the national home for the Jewish people” by “encouraging Jewish immigration” and “close settlement by Jews on the land.” That was its only purpose: not “two states” but one. The Arabs were already well provided for, by the mandates, and would be even more provided for outside the mandates system. At present, the Arabs have twenty-two independent states, far more than any other people, while the Jews have exactly one, a tiny sliver so small that it can scarcely be discerned on a world map.

The Mandates system of the League of Nations was never thought to “flagrantly violate international law.” It became part and parcel of international law. It did not cease to be relevant, either, when the League dissolved, to be replaced by the United Nations. Article 80 of the U.N. Charter – known as “the Jewish people’s article” – committed the U.N. to bring to a successful conclusion any mandates that still remained.

The Mandate for Palestine is the indispensable document for comprehending the history of modern Israel, yet is too rarely discussed, even by many of Israel’s well-wishers, who may not comprehend its significance. Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan et al must take it upon themselves to study that document. And then they should look at the Mandate maps, that clearly show the territory included in the Mandate.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/04/when-cultural-appropriation-and-historical-caroline-glick/

Two weeks ago, a bus filled with veteran Israeli generals from the Bithonistim, a grassroots national security organization, slowly made its way up the slopes of Mt. Ebal in Northern Samaria to visit a biblical-era site that was severely damaged by a Palestinian Authority contractor in late January.

They came to draw the public’s attention to the strategic implications of the war the Palestinians are waging against Jewish history.

The site was excavated between 1980 and 1989 by the late Professor Adam Zertal, who identified it as Joshua’s Altar as described in the Books of Deuteronomy, (27; 1-9) and Joshua (8; 30-35). The animal remains at the site contained thousands of burnt bones of year-old male, exclusively kosher, animals. They were burned in an open flame 3,250 years ago—the time generally identified as the period of ancient Jewish settlement of the Land of Israel under Joshua. Other remains found at the site included earrings and scarabs made in Egypt at the time of Ramses II, the Egyptian pharaoh often associated with the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

As Zertal explained in a lecture in 2013, the altar was buried under a layer of rocks, in keeping with Jewish prescriptions for preventing the desecration of abandoned holy sites. In keeping with the biblical narrative, the altar is made of unhewn stones; instead of steps, there are two ramps for the priests to alight to the platform—blocks of plaster were found nearby. The altar at Mt. Ebal also matches a Talmudic description of an altar from the Second Temple period, around 900 years later, indicating a continuity of Jewish practices throughout the biblical period.

Although initially controversial, Zertal’s general finding that the site is around 3,300 years old and is a Jewish historical site, where sacrifices were carried out in keeping with biblical guidelines, has become widely accepted—although many continue to dispute the specific identification with Joshua.

In late January, the Palestinian Authority (PA) posted a video on its website of 60 meters of the ancient wall surrounding the altar being destroyed to pave a road connecting the Palestinian village of Asira ash-Shamaliya to Nablus. Nablus, built on the ruins of the biblical city of Shechem, is located in northern Samaria between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim.

Zertal was a fiercely secular son of hardcore socialists. Yet, he explained in a 2013 lecture, his scientific work compelled him to accept that the biblical narrative “from Deuteronomy through the Books of Kings was historically accurate.”

“There are people who refuse to acknowledge that the damage done here was deliberate,” Major General Gershon Hacohen explained to Newsweek. “That since it was the surrounding wall—rather than the altar itself—that was destroyed, the altar wasn’t harmed. That’s like saying that if someone destroys the steps to the Acropolis, they aren’t harming the Acropolis. It’s the same complex.”

“They also say the Palestinians weren’t trying to damage the site—they just needed stones for their road. But look at this place,” he said and waved his hand across the landscape.

The slopes of Mt. Ebal are strewn with loose rocks.

“If they needed rocks for the road, all the Palestinians had to do was bring up a truck and take as many as they needed. Instead, they brought a bulldozer all the way up here and deliberately destroyed 60 meters of a 3,250-year-old wall.”

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

While Israeli politicians bicker and jockey as they do in every parliamentary election, scientists and researchers are hard at work with state-of-the-art technology, agricultural modalities, and medical advances that bring hope and light to citizens throughout the world. The biased media and ignorant academics ignore Israel’s contributions. Michael Ordman brings this news almost every single week.

Stay tuned. The next newsletter is slated for April 11, and by then hundreds of thousands of people will have benefited from Israel’s astonishing benefactions.   rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Huge drop in coronavirus reproduction. Israel’s “R” factor – the average number of people that one person infects with the SARS-Cov-2 virus – has fallen to just over 0.5 and less than 1% of tests are returning positive. Israel has no “red” (high infection rate) cities for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/299353
 
IDF has herd immunity. (TY WIN) Israel’s Defense Force was the first army in the world to vaccinate over 80% of its personnel. The whole operation was conducted with military precision in just 10 weeks without wasting a single vial. Currently, no IDF member has died from Covid-19 and only one had a serious infection.
https://www.jns.org/idf-becomes-first-vaccinated-military-in-the-world/
 
It could have been much worse. Excluding the Negev desert, Israel’s population density is by far the highest in the OECD – a key factor for high Covid-19 mortality rates. But Israeli fatalities were lower than most of the 37 OECD countries. Only South Korea had both less deaths per million and a higher total population density.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/298575
 
The human-cloud interface. Israel’s X-trodes has developed a wireless sensor patch combined with data analysis algorithms that a patient wears on their body. It remotely measures and analyzes the health of the brain, eyes, muscles, or heart during sleep or everyday tasks. The technology was developed at Tel Aviv University.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3896277,00.html
 
Developing an oral Covid-19 vaccine. Israel’s Oramed (reported here previously) has launched Oravax – a joint venture with India’s Premas Biotech to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine is administered orally (not injected) and targets 3 virus proteins, so should counter any mutations. Human trials expected soon.
https://www.oramed.com/oramed-forms-a-joint-venture-oravax-medical-inc-for-the-development-of-novel-oral-covid-19-vaccines/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQXaylnGXLM
 
Treating heart & kidney patients remotely. The IPUD (Implantable Peritoneal Ultrafiltration Device) from Israel’s Paragate Medical (reported here previously) removes excess fluid from patients coping with chronic heart and kidney failure at home. Paragate is a portfolio company of Nazareth’s NGT3. Human trials start soon.
https://www.med-technews.com/news/latest-medtech-news/implantable-device-developed-for-remote-care-of-heart-and-ki/   https://www.startupvalley.news/uk/paragate-ngt3-vc/
 
Saving lives from snakebites. (TY Israel21c) Some 1.8 million people are bitten by snakes each year – about 94,000 fatally. An international research team including Tel Aviv University’s Eyal Goldstein have designed a model to determine (and so avoid) the probability of a snakebite at specific places, months, and times of day.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/tel-aviv-university-participates-in-new-study-to-predict-snakebites-661850
 
Training the brain to see. Israel’s Revitalvision has developed vision training software to improve eyesight in adult amblyopia, eye diseases and vision impairments. The FDA-approved therapy uses Gabor patches with a patented stimulation technique to stimulate the visual cortex and create new neural connections.
https://www.revitalvision.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfEWPRCUDbw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyvsyKBZmQ
 
Treating diabetics & women in Dubai. (TY Hazel) Doctors from Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre are flying out to Dubai to treat an initial 350 diabetes patients in the UAE army, police, and firefighting services. Sheba is also sending physicians to train medical staff at Medcare Women & Children Hospital in Dubai.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-14/israel-s-largest-hospital-to-treat-emirati-security-personnel
 
Saved twice by the same medic. When United Hatzalah volunteer medic Alan Malka saved a 30-year-old man who suffered a heart attack in Petah Tikva, he recognized that he saved the same man two months previously. Resuscitation was much quicker this time, and he now should get treatment to prevent a further incident.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/298658