RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14909/jerusalem-jewish-history

As has been true with previous archaeological discoveries in Israel, however, this one is unlikely to put a dent in the long-term international campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state by rewriting and distorting its history, even by renaming the Jewish sites Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem to “Bilal ibn Rabah mosque” (it was never a mosque) and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs the Ibrahimi Mosque.

“Rewriting the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Israel’s right to exist is central to Palestinian Authority (PA) policy. Long before it started the PA terror campaign (the ‘Intifada,’ 2000-2005), the PA was fighting a history war – erasing Jewish history and replacing it with a fabricated Palestinian history.” — Palestinian Media Watch.

Where Palestinian propaganda is concerned, however, none of the above [documentation or archeological evidence] appears to matter.

The City of David Foundation recently delivered a major blow to the Arab effort to erase Judaism’s 3,000-year ties to Jerusalem. On September 9, the foundation’s leading archaeologist, Eli Shukron, announced the discovery of a 2,600-year-old royal seal, found near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, which bears the name (in Hebrew) of Adenyahu, a son of King David mentioned in the biblical Book of Kings.

As has been true with previous archaeological discoveries in Israel, however, this one is unlikely to put a dent in the long-term international campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state by rewriting and distorting its history, even by renaming the Jewish sites Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem to “Bilal ibn Rabah mosque” (it was never a mosque) and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs the Ibrahimi Mosque.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/netanyahu-holds-on-11569454352

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been counted out of politics many times in his long career, including after last week’s election saw his center-right coalition fail to win the necessary 61-seat parliamentary majority. On Wednesday he was granted a mandate to form a government, though what happens next is anyone’s guess.

Mr. Netanyahu’s main rival, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, also failed narrowly to win a majority. If Mr. Netanyahu can’t twist enough arms to form a government, Mr. Gantz may get a chance—or Israelis may need to head to the ballot box for an unprecedented third time.

There are wider lessons to be drawn from the political tumult. The first is that Israelis have moved right on security. Last week’s election was triggered because Mr. Netanyahu’s longtime partner Avigdor Lieberman, a secular-nationalist hawk, split with Mr. Netanyahu over religious issues. Mr. Lieberman felt comfortable sinking a center-right government in part because he knew that the opposition would not deviate much from Mr. Netanyahu’s positions on borders and security.

While the Blue and White party strikes a more inclusive tone when it comes to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, many of its leaders are drawn from the upper ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, including General Gantz. In power he may be more aggressive about defending Israel’s interests in the region. American liberals hoping that a Prime Minister Gantz would repudiate President Trump’s Iran policies and make a priority of restarting the peace process will be disappointed.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/trump-and-israel-lasting-love-not-a-broken-bromance-with-bibi/

(September 24, 2019 / JNS) Approached by reporters on the tarmac of a California airport last Wednesday as the tally from the Sept. 17 Knesset elections was still being calculated, U.S. President Donald Trump measured his words.

When asked whether he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—whose political future appeared to be hanging in the balance of what was clearly leading to the current deadlock—Trump replied: “I have not. Those results are coming in, and it’s very close. Do you have any updates? You people [the press] usually should know before the president, right?”

Indicating that he was not surprised by the turn of events, Trump added, “Everybody knew it was going to be very close. We’ll see what happens.”

Grasping the point of the question, which had to do with his much-touted close personal bond with Netanyahu, he concluded by saying, “Look, our relationship is with Israel.”

It was like a shot that could be heard around the world. For days on end, media outlets highlighted this little exchange as evidence that Trump is a fickle fair-weather friend turning his back on an embattled buddy.

Yes, journalists known for their hostility to both leaders gleefully portrayed Netanyahu as a pitiful figure whose campaign posters included a photo of himself with the American president, and described Trump as a man giving his Israeli counterpart the cold shoulder.

As we approach the Jewish New Year, the volume of new Israeli innovations is phenomenal. They include new medical treatments in development, a new concept in microprocessors, 100 startups presenting in London, a new World record, and new lives for critically sick patients, thanks to Israeli donors…..Michael Ordman

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Double-whammy cancer treatment. Israel’s Khar Medical plans to begin human trials of its DSP-107 treatment on lung cancer patients. It will be tested both standalone and in combination with Roche’s Tecentriq (atezolizumab). DSP-107 finds and marks cancer cells, then alerts the immune system and blocks the cancer.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-startup-joins-roche-to-hold-clinical-trials-for-double-whammy-cancer-drug/
 
Blood test for lung cancer. I reported previously (31st Dec) on Israel’s Savicell and its ImmunoBiopsy blood test for detecting early stage lung cancer. Savicell’s test checks for the metabolic reactions that the immune system produces when it detects and attacks a tumor. Experts say the method is very promising.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/startup-says-its-blood-test-can-detect-early-stage-lung-cancer/
 
Another discovery in treating melanoma. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have found that treating melanoma with immunotherapy is only successful if the cancer cells are homogeneous (simple / comprised of a small number of subtypes). Other treatments should be used if they are heterogeneous (complex / diverse).
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/cancer-protocols-new-approach-predicting-treatment-outcomes
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30951-1
 
Hi-tech safety system at Ashdod hospital. (TY OurCrowd) I reported previously (Jan 2017) on Israel’s Medaware and its medication error protection system. The potentially life-saving solution has just been implemented at Assuta hospital in Ashdod. It is already deployed at Sheba medical center in Tel Hashomer.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/09/09/assuta-ashdod-hospital-deploys-medawares-patient-safety-platform/
 
Making Salmonella slip up. Bacteria such as salmonella use a layer of biofilm to attach themselves to surfaces such as skin, medical devices, tissues, etc. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute used Alzheimer’s treatments to disrupt the biofilms. The salmonella virus couldn’t stick to the surfaces and became much less aggressive.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/researchers-tackle-biofilm-to-make-salmonella-infection-less-aggressive/
 
Genetic testing could save lives.  Israel’s Igentify develops a digital genetic testing analyzer that can provide medical professionals with the means to focus on, treat and counsel high risk patients. Already in use in two major Israeli hospitals, Igentify has just raised $10.5 million including from crowdfunding company OurCrowd.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3770478,00.html  https://www.igentify.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEvMEG_xjHE
 
EU grant for Israeli treatment of eye diseases. The European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program has awarded a 2.4 million euros grant to Israel’s Tarsius. Tarsius’s new molecule “re-engineers” the immune system to treat autoimmune and inflammatory ocular diseases that can eventually cause blindness.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3770582,00.html http://tarsiuspharma.com/
 
Minimizing the trauma of spine surgery. Surgeons have now used the Dreal system from Israel’s Carevature in over 1600 spine decompression procedures. The system helps remove the minimum amount of obstructing tissue, reducing patient trauma and speeding recovery. Now available at Scripps Green hospital in California.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carevatures-cutting-edge-dreal-technology-now-available-to-spine-surgeons-at-scripps-health-300904272.htmlhttps://www.carevature.com/dreal/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmimilm9r9g
 
AI in Israeli health care. The Wall St Journal reports that Israel is becoming a testing ground for the power of artificial intelligence to improve health care. It suggests that digitized records and big data could make medicine cheaper and more effective.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-prepares-to-unleash-ai-on-health-care-11568599261

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14901/palestinians-lebanon-better-life

“We talked about the general situation of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for the past 72 years. We told them that Palestinians in Lebanon are banned from working in 70 professions and have no right to own property. We gave them a list of 2,300 Palestinian refugees from Syria who want to go to Canada.” — Mu’awya Abu Hamideh, a representative of the Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon after 2011, akhbarten.com, September 9, 2019

Human Rights Watch says that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in “appalling social and economic conditions” and are barred from employment in at least 25 professions, “including law, medicine, and engineering.”

“The Palestinian factions and others who benefit from our stay in Lebanon are denouncing us as traitors and of serving foreign agendas… but if anyone has another solution, he should bring it to the table. We are sure, however, that these voices are designed to prevent us from living in dignity.” — Mu’awya Abu Hamideh.

Instead of encouraging and assisting their people to move on with their lives and seek a better future for their children, Hamas and other Palestinian groups continue to lie to the refugees by promising them that one day they will go back to their villages and towns in Israel.

Are the Lebanese seeking to get rid of the Palestinians living in Lebanon? Many Palestinians seem to think that the Arab country they have been living in for decades has plans to throw them out.

Palestinian factions, meanwhile, are working in precisely the opposite direction, trying to stop the Palestinians from leaving their refugee camps. The factions want the refugees to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can continue to use them as pawns in the conflict with Israel.

They are hoping that the continued presence of refugee camps will keep the issue of the refugees at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In recent weeks, many Palestinians have been flocking the embassies of several Western countries in Lebanon asking to be granted asylum for humanitarian reasons.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-Belittling-Bibis-mastery-by-calling

Stunned that this campaign hasn’t been as successful as they’d anticipated, Netanyahu’s naysayers minimize his ability to remain in power by calling him a “magician.”

When Tuesday’s elections for the 22nd Knesset resulted in an a fully expected stalemate between Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party and its key rival, Blue and White, schadenfreude busted out all over.

In an unveiled effort to express their glee, media outlets abroad have been bidding Bibi a cheerful farewell. Never mind that most of these “eulogies” exhibit confusion, if not outright ignorance, about the Israeli electoral process; many analysts at home who understand it perfectly similarly appear to believe that Bibi’s days are numbered – even if those 24-hour units add up to a few years.
It doesn’t take a PhD in political science to realize that the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history – who turns 70 on October 21, perhaps before the formation of the next government – is closer to the end of his tenure than to the beginning.

Nor is this the first time that the academic anti-Netanyahu choir has attempted to write him off, counting on the hackneyed fact that “even a broken clock is accurate twice a day” to prove their predictions right.

To explain Netanyahu’s uncanny ability to defy the so-called “odds” time and again, his detractors expend a lot of energy delegitimizing him. Accusing him of hedonism, hubris and criminality is one method. Yes – they moan – he enjoys expensive cigars, paid for by rich friends. Tsk tsk.

Oh, and he has a thing for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, funded by our hard-earned tax shekels. Outrageous. 

Worst of all, he wheels and deals to get positive press coverage. Send him to prison.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/09/bibi-triuble-matthew-vadum/

Unless he convinces Israeli lawmakers from outside his party to join him in a national unity government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-and-a-half-year run in office may soon end following inconclusive results inhis country’s parliamentary elections this week that appeared to deprive him of a governing majority in the Knesset.

President Donald Trump took a hands-off approach when asked about the elections in America’s foremost ally in the Middle East.

“Our relations are with Israel, so we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters while touring California.

In Israel, Netanyahu has leveraged his ideological affinity with Trump as a selling point in his reelection bid. Trump has described Netanyahu as a close friend. Trump won praise from Netanyahu and others for his bold decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and his statement recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu encountered various political headwinds as he campaigned to stay in office.

Israel’s attorney general wants to indict him on corruption charges. Critics say he claimed the media and government officials were out to get him. He apparently turned off some segments of the voting public by promising to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank and vowing to go after militants in Gaza.

At 69, “Bibi” Netanyahu is the longest-serving head of government in the Jewish state’s history and the first to be born in Israel after it was created in 1948.

A constructive US-Israel defense pact should be based on shared values and shared strategic interests, expanding the two-way-street, win-win US-Israel strategic cooperation.

An effective US-Israel defense pact should enhance Israel’s self-reliance and independence, rather than Israel’s dependence upon the US.

A useful US-Israel defense pact should bolster and leverage Israel’s posture of deterrence at the geographic junction of the Mediterranean-Europe-Africa-Asia, which is a focal point of global terrorism, the proliferation of ballistic and nuclear technologies and unpredictable tectonic military eruptions. Israel’s role is doubly critical at a time when Europe’s posture of deterrence is rapidly collapsing.

A beneficial US-Israel defense pact should further extend the strategic hand of the US – through Israel’s proven capabilities – without additional US aircraft carriers and troops in the Middle East.

A worthwhile US-Israel defense pact should underscore the role of Israel as the most cost-effective, battle-tested laboratory of US defense industries, upgrading US military performance, research and development, production, export and employment. The unique Israeli battle experience has benefitted US military operations by enhancing the formulation of US battle tactics and maneuverability.