RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/columns/p-david-hornik/2020/06/28/netanyahu-is-a-peacemaker-and-dont-think-the-left-will-mention-it-n583470

The “last decade,” notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change” in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.”

And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.

True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a common enemy; the Obama administration’s courting of Iran and signing of a nuclear deal with it that scared the wits out of both Israelis and Arabs; and the Trump administration’s ambivalence about the U.S. role in the Middle East. Sunni radicalism in the form of ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others is another common enemy of Israel and Arab states.

Added to that are Israel’s ever-intensifying military activity against Iran, particularly in Syria, which Arab governments watch with approval, along with Israel’s dramatically growing military, economic, technological, and diplomatic clout in general, to the point that in 2019 US News and World Report ranked it — despite how tiny it is — the world’s eighth most powerful country.

But ripe conditions are one thing; the ability to convert them into results is another. And the repeatedly reelected Netanyahu is little less than a diplomatic genius, under whose tenure Israel’s ties have surged not only with Arab states but also with India, China, Russia, as well as East European, African, and South American countries — basically in every niche of the world.

In the Arab sphere, as Sinkinson notes, “Israel’s cooperation and communication with the leadership of eight…nations — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Morocco, Bahrain, and Sudan — is greater than ever.”

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

World’s first passive immunization. Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital is cautiously optimistic after the world’s first passive immunization of a critically ill coronavirus patient. After an injection of Kamada’s IgG antibody product (see here), a CT-scan of the lungs showed some improvement and doctors are hopeful of a recovery.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/505083

https://hadassahuk.org/new-innovative-hyperimmune-therapy-for-covid-19-at-hadassah/

Why some Covid-19 patients get blood clots. Dr. Abd Al-Roof Higazi at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital has found that high levels of peptide Alpha-defensin in some Covid-19 patients cause blood clots in their lungs. He is now testing the medication colchicine for dissolving the clots, as standard anticoagulants are ineffective.

https://www.israel21c.org/hadassah-researchers-find-source-of-corona-blood-clots/

Israeli facemask effective against Covid-19. Internationally-conducted tests on the facemasks produced by Israel’s Sonovia (reported here previously) have proved that the metal-oxide coated masks destroy the novel coronavirus. Sonovia produces several thousand masks per day and has sold several hundreds of thousands.

https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-sonomasks-confirmed-effective-against-covid-19/

Remote monitoring of chronic patients. The original glucose monitor of Israel’s DarioHealth (reported here previously) is now MyDario – a full Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) device. DarioHealth has just been approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dariohealth-announces-two-remote-patient-monitoring-rpm-agreements-and-commences-enrollment-301074359.html

Fighting immune system overreaction. In Covid-19 and autoimmune diseases, the body’s immune system goes out of control. Israeli biotech Stero uses CBD to reduce and even replace the usual steroid treatment for these diseases. With funding from Israel’s Clalit, it is trialing CBD on 30 Crohn’s steroid-dependent patients.

https://www.israel21c.org/cbd-may-improve-steroid-therapy-in-autoimmune-covid-19-patients/

http://sterobiotechs.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nw9ss2c-ns

Intel wins Sheba’s Covid-19 challenge. The Coronavirus Data Challenge by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center was reported here previously. It was won by Intel’s Analytics AI group’s system to predict patients with life-threatening reactions or needing ventilators. It will be implemented at Sheba and at Mount Sinai in New York.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/sheba-medical-center-names-winner-of-coronavirus-data-challenge-632115

Positive results in MS study. Doctors at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital used a nano-engineered supplement made from high antioxidant pomegranate oil to treat 30 multiple sclerosis patients. In just 3 months, the patients already significantly improved their learning ability, text comprehension, word recall and categorization.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/nano-engineered-pomegranate-oil-holds-hope-for-brain-disease-study-shows/

Combining non-cancer medicines to kill cancer. A 3-year study by Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists has discovered that a combination of an antiviral AIDS treatment and another to treat memory loss was effective in fighting liver and skin cancers. Separately, the medicines had no effect on the cancer.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-breakthrough-paves-the-way-to-chemo-free-cancer-treatment/

Neuroscience competition winner. A team from Bar-Ilan University was one of four winners of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research DREAM Challenge. The Israelis were the only non-US winners from the 43 competing teams. Their winning entry focuses on movement disorders resulting from cell damage.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282310

Leading the way in psychiatric treatment. This video highlights the enlightened approach and up-to-date facilities for psychiatric care at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak.  Also, during the Covid-19 epidemic, the hospital successfully adopted tele-psychiatry – the new norm for patient-practitioner meetings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFsLXSeFvuc&t=163s

A Medtech degree course. Israel’s Holon Institute of Technology (HIT) is launching in October a new bachelor’s degree program in Medical Technology (Medtech). The first 60 students will study digital medical technologies, including telemedicine, smart medical systems, and big data.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3831931,00.html

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-lefts-message-of-peace-with-the-palestinians-is-brainwashing-633009

For half a century the Left has been brainwashing us with a simple but devious message: “Peace with the Palestinians instead of war.” Ignore the reality that the Arab and Muslim world, aided by the Soviet Union sought Israel’s destruction, and still does. Peace now! It was a powerful drug that continues to numb our critical thinking.

Although enticing, however, peace campaigns were not about peace; they were about creating a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. The first stage was accomplished beginning in 1993 with the Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority run by the PLO, and the withdrawal of Israeli control from large sections of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) and eventually from the Gaza Strip. None of this brought peace, of course, but the opposite: waves of terrorism. Solemn commitments made by PLO leaders were meaningless, a subterfuge to advance their agenda to destroy Israel. Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups were clear and explicit. The guarantors, the European Union and UN, went along with the hoax.

The basic problem, however, remained: most of the international community considers any Israeli presence beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines to be “illegal” and a “violation of international law” – as they interpret it. Major organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the designated authority of the Fourth Geneva Convention, an important basis for humanitarian law, declared Israel was “occupying Palestinian territory.” The UN, the EU and of course the entire Arab and Muslim world agreed; the ICJ and ICC gave it their “judicial” support.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16147/palestinians-annexation

It is dead wrong to assume that if Israel abandons its plan, most Muslims would give up their desire to destroy Israel and replace it with an extremist Iran-style Islamic state.

[Islamic officials] are now calling on Palestinians to launch terror attacks against Israel, not because of the “annexation” plan, but in order to drive the Jews out of the “Palestinian Arab Islamic lands.”

Those who are pressuring Israel not to proceed with the “annexation” plan need to hear what Islamic leaders are saying, day and night: that the conflict is not about Jewish settlements or the Jordan Valley, but the “big settlement” called Israel.

As far as Palestinian Islamic religious clerics are concerned, Israel’s intention to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, particularly Jewish settlements and the strategic Jordan Valley, means very little: to them Jews “have no right to Palestinian, Arab and Islamic land.”

The position of the Islamic figures contradicts the Palestinian Authority’s claim that the annexation plan would “destroy the two-state solution and any chance of a peace process with Israel.”

The picture Palestinian Authority officials are painting is that the Israeli annexation of any part of the West Bank is the one and only obstacle to regional peace, security and stability. According to these officials, the Israeli plan would deprive the Palestinians of their right to establish an independent and sovereign state on the pre-1967 armistice lines.

A large group of Palestinian Islamic scholars and clerics, however, evidently disagree with the Palestinian Authority’s claim.

On June 21, the Association of Palestine Scholars held a meeting in the Gaza Strip to discuss the Israeli plan. The meeting was attended by several Islamic religious judges representing the Supreme Council of Sharia Judiciary, senior officials of the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs, academics from several Islamic colleges and universities, as well as jurists who issue rulings on Islamic law (sharia).

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/netanyahu-must-stay-strong-sovereignty-pressure-caroline-glick/

Over the past week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has changed his mind countless times regarding how and when he will implement Israel’s sovereignty plan in Judea and Samaria in consonance with President Donald Trump’s vision for peace. Netanyahu’s vacillations are clearly a product of the immense pressure being exerted on him to cancel the plan to apply Israeli law to the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and to the Jordan Valley and turn his back on Trump’s Middle East peace plan.

This is a shame. It is also absurd. When we consider the source of much of the pressure—and the reasons it is being exerted—it becomes glaringly clear that the critics and opponents must be ignored. Their actions are not being taken out of conviction so much as hostility or distress. Israel must cast aside their hectoring and pressure and implement the sovereignty plan with all due haste.

Consider one of the most talked-about recent efforts to pressure the Israeli public and Netanyahu to set aside the sovereignty plan and spurn Trump.

Last Friday, United Arab Emirates Ambassador in Washington Yousef Al Otaiba published an article in Yediot Ahronot. Otaiba threatened that if Israel implements its sovereignty plan in Judea and Samaria, the prospect of normalized ties with the Sunni Arab states in the Persian Gulf will fall by the wayside.

The media played up the author. But it quickly became clear that the idea of publishing the article in Hebrew in an Israeli newspaper didn’t come from Otaiba. Hours after the morning papers arrived, the media reported that it was Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban’s idea to have Otaiba publish his threatening article in Yediot.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/06/116-republican-house-members-supporting-israeli-daniel-greenfield/

This is what actually being pro-Israel looks like.

JNS – Republican lawmakers on Monday released a statement of support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and parts of  Judea and Samaria.

The letter, which was signed by 116 of the 198 Republicans in the House, was led by Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Leader Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and David Kustoff (R-Tenn.)

The sovereignty measure would apply Israeli law to parts of Israel that were liberated in 1967. It ought to be non-controversial, but here we are anyway.

As Rep. Scalise notes, “The move follows several letters led by Democrat Members of Congress threatening the collapse of bipartisan Congressional support for Israel. The Republican letter affirms common democratic values between our nations and voices strong support for President Trump’s Vision for Peace Plan.”

Here’s the letter.

June 22, 2020

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu:

We write to reaffirm the unshakeable alliance between the United States and Israel, to emphasize that Israel has the right to make sovereign decisions independent of outside pressure, and to express our support for you as you make such decisions in your capacity as Israel’s democratically-elected prime minister.

We are aware of and deeply concerned by threats being expressed by some to retaliate against Israel as it makes decisions to ensure defensible borders. It is shortsighted to threaten relations with Israel, a long-time friend and critical ally that shares our democratic values. We support the Trump administration’s engagement with Israel on the Vision for Peace Plan, which was based on the critical premise that Israel should never be forced to compromise its security. We assure you that we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and oppose any effort to apply pressure.

As you know well, the Palestinians have rejected Israel’s bids for peace time and again and have shunned the Trump administration’s efforts to bring peace to the conflict since the administration’s earliest days, even before the President’s vision was unveiled. The Trump administration’s new approach offers the promise of success where past efforts have failed, recognizing Israel’s vital national and security interests while providing for a fair and reasonable compromise with the Palestinians, should Palestinian leadership opt finally to prioritize peace.

It is our hope that this plan brings peace, security, and prosperity to a region that has long endured conflict. As dedicated friends of the Jewish state, we reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the relationship between our two nations and Israel’s right to sovereignty and defensible borders.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/19/ron-dermer-we-must-stop-pursuing-two-state-illusion-commit-realistic-two-state-solution/

Ron Dermer is Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

Determined to advance a realistic solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s prime minister laid out his vision of peace in a speech to the Knesset. The Palestinians, he said, would have “less than a state,” Israel would retain security control over the Jordan Valley “in the broadest meaning of that term,” Jerusalem would remain united under Israel’s sovereignty, and settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria would become part of lsrael.

Those words were not spoken recently by Benjamin Netanyahu but by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, when he defended the Oslo peace process he had initiated two years earlier with President Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat and for which he would be assassinated one month later.

Twenty-five years later, a gulf has emerged between the positions Rabin staked out and what is increasingly believed to be the gold standard for a potential Israeli-Palestinian peace. The result has been the emergence of a two-state illusion that will never happen rather than a two-state solution that might advance peace.

The extension of Israeli sovereignty to certain territories in Judea and Samaria will not, as many critics suggest, destroy the two-state solution. But it will shatter the two-state illusion. And in doing so, it will open the door to a realistic two-state solution and get the peace process out of the cul-de-sac it has been stuck in for two decades.

Let me explain why.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16135/palestinians-family-law

“I understand the head of the clan, who does not want sovereignty other than the rule of the male, but what do the lawyers refuse?” Harhash asked. “This means that the woman here would not have a law that protects here or a lawyer who represents her if she is killed, beaten or assaulted.” — Nadia Essam Harhash , Palestinian journalist, raialyoum.com.

“Is preserving the Palestinian family by beating and killing the woman and denying her right to inheritance? How can a lawyer stand against a law that might do justice to an oppressed woman or person? How can a lawyer stand against a law that might do justice to an oppressed woman or person?” — Nadia Essam Harhash , Palestinian journalist, raialyoum.com.

For now, it appears that the PA government is hesitant to pass the law out of fear of alienating Islamists and conservative clan leaders. The widespread opposition to the proposed legislation is further proof of the growing popularity… of Hamas and other extremist Islamist groups among Palestinians. According to them, criminalizing the beating or murder of women is a clear-cut violation of Islamic teachings and values.

Palestinian women and human rights organizations are under attack by Hamas and other Islamic groups and figures for supporting a new family protection bill that is currently being drafted by the Palestinian Authority (PA) government.

The PA’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs says the proposed law would amend the penal code to establish a minimum age for marriage, review current legal protections for victims of domestic violence, impose harsher penalties on perpetrators, and train the police force in assisting victims.

For many Palestinians, particularly Islamists, the proposed law is like a red rag to a bull.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Covid-19 antibody treatment is now available. Israel’s Kamada (reported here previously) has completed manufacturing the first batch of its plasma-derived Immunoglobulin G (IgG) product for Covid-19 patients. Initial vials of the antibody have been made available for compassionate use in Israel.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3834010,00.html
 
Human trials for possible Covid-19 cure. (TY Dick) In a world first, a trial of Ivermectin – an antiparasitic treatment – has been launched at Sheba Medical Center on Covid-19 patients. Ivermectin has been available since 1981 and in the laboratory was recently found to kill the coronavirus within 48 hours.
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-researcher-anti-parasitic-drug-could-cure-coronavirus-631526
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin#History
 
Remote detection of Covid-19 complications. Israel’s Clew Medical (reported here previously) has just received US FDA emergency use authorization to remotely identify patients who are likely to experience common coronavirus complications, including respiratory failure and hemodynamic instability.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3833655,00.html
 
Adapting virus test for Covid-19. (TY Hazel) Israel’s MeMed (reported here previously) identifies whether an infection is viral or bacterial. MeMed is now working with hospitals in Israel, the Netherlands and elsewhere to identify Covid-19 patients and the potential severity of the infection.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-firm-advances-diagnostic-solutions-for-covid-19/
 
Israeli progress combating Covid-19. Good video summarizing some of Israel’s latest projects to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68uvUsUAxGI
 
More telemedical devices. Israel’s Beecardia connects patients, doctors and remote specialists. The startup of ex-Ukrainian immigrants has developed a portable cardiograph, a wireless ECG recorder, a digital stethoscope, a portable spirometer (measuring lung capacity), a pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor and glucometer.
https://beecardia.com/products  https://beecardia.com/about
 
Donating blood saves lives. New video featuring Magen David Adom’s blood donation service and how vital it is for use in surgical operations and medical research. Also, blood plasma helps patients with compromised immune systems. Finally, construction of the world’s first underground blood bank is proceeding well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXuctXsdfzM
 
Self-healing electronic artificial skin. Muhammad Khatib, PhD student at Israel’s Technion. has developed a polymer that is strong, water resistant, conducts electricity and is super elastic. Furthermore, when it is cut and put into water it will repair itself! Future applications include robotic skin, prosthetics and wearable devices.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-researcher-invents-self-healing-electronic-skin/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI0xP66cS58
 
Focusing protons to kill cancer. (TY I24 & WIN) A new video from Israel’s P-Cure (reported here previously) that is using its focused proton radiation therapy device to destroy cancer tumors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3qtQAXPX8