RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/god-ancient-israel-and-nationalism/

“……I wasn’t arguing that God ordained nationalism (I did jokingly say that God was the first nationalist, and I believe the record will show that people laughed). My point was that, via the influence of the Bible, Ancient Israel was the model of the nation that the West looked to, and that the national idea has been incredibly powerful throughout Jewish history.

I think Zionism was the most inspiring nationalist movement of the 20th Century, which is why I dwelled on the amazing return of the Jews to their homeland a couple of millennia after their exile.I also pointed out how important Ancient Israel has been to the American national identity, and how it figured in the freedom rhetoric of Martin Luther King.None of this should be controversial; in fact, it’s all a matter of historical record…..”

https://freebeacon.com/blog/how-to-reform-israels-runaway-supreme-court/

Israel’s Supreme Court banned Michael Ben-Ari, a member of the Otzma Yehudit or “Jewish Power” Party, from being a candidate in the Israeli elections. The court made its decision even after Israel’s Central Elections Committee said he could run. What especially provoked indignation was that at the same time the Supreme Court rejected Ben-Ari, it also overturned the Central Election Committee’s decision to ban the Arab party, Balad, which rejects the very idea of a Jewish State, and a radical-left Jewish candidate, Ofer Cassif, who is running on a joint list of two other Arab parties, Hadash and Ta’al, and who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and referred to Israel’s War of Independence as the “Naqba” or catastrophe.

The Supreme Court ruling was 8-1. Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked decried the ruling: “The decision by the High Court of Justice to disqualify Ben-Ari [for anti-Arab racist statements] and, on the other hand, to permit terror-supporting parties is a blatant and misleading intervention that goes to the core of Israeli democracy.”

Simcha Rothman, legal adviser to the Israeli Movement for Governability and Democracy, a nonprofit group that has been leading the charge for reforming Israel’s legal system, believes that by employing such a naked double standard, the Supreme Court may have played into the hands of its critics.

“I believe it will bring people out to vote for right-wing parties as a whole and, in particular, for the party that Ben-Ari was part of,” Rothman told the Free Beacon. “People will go to vote for them out of rage, as a vote of nonconfidence in the court.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/436993-cultural-obstacles-are-the-real-barriers-to-israeli-palestinian-peace

“The attacks on civilians, breaking their arms, and beating them, constitute humiliation, disgrace, and injustice,” Nasser Al-Laham, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Authority’s Maan News Agency, said about Palestinian rule in the territories.

“Prison cells? Torture? Burn marks?” he asked. “What have we adopted from the Arab countries apart from their garbage?… Is this the kind of homeland we want – a homeland in which I can no longer trust my neighbor? A homeland in which my fellow citizen comes and, in front of my wife, drags me by my feet or by my hair and tramples me underfoot?… You’re doing this under the pretext of fighting Israel? You’re lying!”

Al-Laham’s outrage, which he voiced in a recent TV interview, puts the lie to the well-entrenched narrative that borders, settlements, and Jerusalem explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Peek below the surface and you will find the cultural obstacles, and the distrust they engender, that really drive the conflict – and that will require nothing short of a Palestinian cultural revolution to erase.

Based on the events of recent days, here are four huge cultural obstacles that prevent progress toward peace:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273315/israels-tourism-triumph-edwin-black

The virulently anti-Israel movement known as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions—BDS—is roiling through campuses, overflowing into city councils, encroaching into corporate boardrooms, and now chomping at the essence of Israel’s special niche in the world: its travel and tourism industry. Everywhere, the boycotters have been asking to isolate Israel. BDS even convinced Airbnb to stop listing Jewish locations in Judea and Samaria—also known as the West Bank (a term invented after Jordan invaded in 1948, when the UN’s partition suggestion failed to create two states). In Ireland, a bill advancing through Parliament may criminalize visiting the old city and even purchasing lunch or a keepsake.

Whereas similar boycotts against other countries have inflicted withering effects on national economies, in Israel—it simply hasn’t worked. The opposite is true. Yes, boycotters are busy demonizing Israel. Yet despite this, Israel’s tourism industry has rocketed to a singular triumph and now employs tens of thousands. Flights are packed and new non-stops are being added across the globe. Even though new luxury hotels are going up as fast as the Mideast sun will dry concrete, rooms remain in high demand and, thus, are scarce and expensive. Israel has become world famous for creative cuisine and trendy eateries; so if you want to get a table at the most popular restaurants, you’ll need to book weeks in advance.

Travel and tourism to Israel has dramatically changed. It’s not just synagogue sisterhoods and Jewish organizations. Swelling up from Israel’s “Start-up Nation,” world famous top chef culture, and hard-won penetration of markets beyond America and West Europe, as well as its sophisticated travel industry burnishing, Israel is now a destination for the entire world. Traditional Jewish-American travelers from Miami to Seattle must now compete with Silicon Valley techies, Chinese students, Indian tourists, East European Christian pilgrims, and diverse businessmen from across the planet. The numbers are multiplying.

THANKS TO JANET LEVY ROSS
Amnesty International thinks that the only reason Jews pray at the Western Wall is to erase “Palestinian history.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPD1VOlhp7M

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2019/03/david-singer-trump-could-replicate.html

President Trump’s Proclamation on Recognizing the Golan Heights as Part of the State of Israel (Proclamation) could have important implications for America’s future policy regarding territorial claims by the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

Trump first signalled America was voting against the United Nations long-held position on the Golan Heights – when US Ambassador to the United Nation Nikki Haley declared on 15 November 2018:

“The annual United Nations resolution entitled “The Occupied Syrian Golan” is scheduled for a vote on Friday, November 16. In previous years, the United States has abstained from voting on this resolution. However, given the resolution’s anti-Israel bias, as well as the militarization of the Syrian Golan border, and a worsening humanitarian crisis, this year the United States has decided to vote no on the resolution.
“The United States will no longer abstain when the United Nations engages in its useless annual vote on the Golan Heights. If this resolution ever made sense, it surely does not today. The resolution is plainly biased against Israel. Further, the atrocities the Syrian regime continues to commit prove its lack of fitness to govern anyone. The destructive influence of the Iranian regime inside Syria presents major threats to international security. ISIS and other terrorist groups remain in Syria. And this resolution does nothing to bring any parties closer to a peace agreement. The United States will vote no.”

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Growing cells to kill cancer. Israel’s Sheba hospital is partnering with Switzerland’s Lonza Group to fast-track production of the CAR-T cancer immunotherapy invented by Israeli scientists. Sheba is the first hospital to trial and refine Lonza’s Cocoon manufacturing platform for growing cells to treat hundreds of oncology patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/replacing-clean-rooms-sheba-hospital-to-use-pods-to-grow-cancer-killing-cells/

Fast cancer diagnosis. Israel’s Ibex Medical Analytics develops a diagnostic system that uses computer vision, machine learning, and electronic medical records to confirm cancer diagnoses of tissue biopsies. Ibex’s technology helps minimize the risk of misdiagnosis. Ibex has just received $11 million of funding.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3758538,00.html https://ibex-ai.com/

Manufacturing center for tumor lasers. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s HIL Applied Medical and its focused proton beam lasers to treat tumors. HIL is spending $5 million to set-up a research and development and manufacturing center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3758448,00.html http://hilappliedmedical.com/?p=864

Treatment for iron overload. Israel’s Teva has launched a generic version of EXJADE (deferasirox) in the US. It treats patients two years of age and older for chronic iron overload due to blood transfusions. Currently, one in eight generic prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. is filled with a Teva generic product.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-teva-launches-generic-iron-overload-treatment-1001279327

Marseille base for Israeli infusion pumps. (TY Calcalistech) I reported previously (Feb 2013) that Israel’s Q-core Medical was expanding the distribution of its infusion pumps to the US and Europe. Due to the increased demand for IV infusion systems in France, Q-Core has opened a new regional hub in Marseille.
https://www.qcore.com/single-post/2019/02/27/Q-Core-Medical-Opens-European-Hub-in-France-Kicks-Off-Direct-Sales-of-Leading-Infusion-Systems