RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-wrong-when-bubble-dwellers-go-too-far-581442

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israel Resilience Party leader Benny Gantz made the kind of blooper that only someone living in an insulated bubble is capable of.
Announcing his party’s final list for the April 9 Knesset elections, Gantz launched an attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that can best be described as an own goal. The assault was so outrageous that it caused even many of Netanyahu’s harshest critics to flinch at its stupidity, and spurred Israeli public relations powerhouse Rani Rahav to tweet that whoever wrote Gantz’s tirade ought to “resign immediately and take responsibility for the damaging speech that no Israeli wanted to hear.”

Indeed, rather than go after Netanyahu’s policies and performance in office – which is what a contender against an incumbent normally does – the former IDF chief of staff ridiculed the PM for not having illustrious enough military credentials – oh, and for being too American.

“When I lay in the muddy trenches with my soldiers on frozen winter nights,” Gantz said, “you, Benjamin Netanyahu, left Israel to learn English and practice it at luxurious cocktail parties. On the days when I commanded the Shaldag Unit in life-threatening operations in enemy states, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, worked your way bravely and with determination between the makeup rooms of TV studios. While I trained generations of commanders and fighters, you took acting lessons in a New York studio. And during the nights of tension and stress, when I fell asleep in my uniform and boots, you, Benjamin Netanyahu, had world’s most respected tailors taking your measurements, and returned safely to your bed in your prestigious hotel.”

https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/TAU-develops-blood-test-to-detect-genetic-disorders-in-early-pregnancy-581252

The research, led by Prof. Noam Shomron of the university’s Sackler School of Medicine, was published Wednesday in the Genome Research journal.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new blood test to detect genetic disorders in fetuses as early as 11 weeks into pregnancy.The simple blood test enables doctors to diagnose genetic disorders
caused by minuscule impairments in the fetal genome by sequencing small amounts of DNA in the mother’s and the father’s blood.

A computer algorithm processes the sequencing results to produce a “map” of the fetal genome, identifying countless mutations with atleast 99% accuracy, depending on the mutation type.

https://www.space.com/spacex-to-launch-israeli-moon-lander.html?utm_source=notification

SpaceX will launch an Israeli robotic lunar lander during the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launch tomorrow (Feb. 21). If the lander succeeds, this will be the first privately funded moonshot to reach the lunar surface.

The lander, called “Beresheet” (in the beginning), will launch at 8:45 p.m. EST (0145 GMT, Feb. 22) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. You can watch the launch live on Space.com courtesy of SpaceX or directly through SpaceX’s webcast page or on Facebook via the lander’s creators.

The Beresheet lander is a joint venture between Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL — one of the participants in the Google Lunar X Prize, which challenged companies to land spacecraft on the moon — and Israel Aerospace Industries, the country’s largest aerospace and defense company. [Israel’s 1st Moon Lander: SpaceIL’s Beresheet Lunar Mission in Pictures]

While the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize challenge ended with no winner in 2018, several participating companies said they are continuing work on their concepts. The SpaceIL project will be the first of those designs to launch, and Israel now has a shot at becoming the fourth country to land a robotic probe on the moon — after the former Soviet Union, the United States and China.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/palestinian-pay-for-slay-policy-will-go-on-despite-israels-new-law/

The Israeli security cabinet decided on Sunday to put into effect a law passed in July to deduct half a billion shekels (approximately $138.2 million) from the annual tax revenues it transfers to the Palestinian Authority each year. The purpose of the legislation—like its precursor, the Taylor Force Act, which was approved by the U.S. Congress in May—is to coerce the P.A. to cease rewarding terrorists with hefty “pay-for-slay” stipends.

Initially, Israeli security officials opposed cutting the funds on the grounds that doing so could endanger security cooperation between Jerusalem and Ramallah, and lead to an escalation of terrorist attacks. But after 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher was raped and murdered earlier this month by a Palestinian wannabe “martyr for Allah,” public pressure on the government to crack down on the P.A. caused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say that he would begin implementing the law to withhold funds as soon as he received the green light from the security cabinet. Which he finally did.

The P.A. was quick to issue an incensed response.

“The Palestinian Authority views the approval of the decision to deduct funds as a robbery of the Palestinian people’s money and as a unilateral violation of the agreements signed between the two sides, such as the Paris agreement,” P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Abu Rudaina said in a statement. “This decision will have dangerous consequences on all levels.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272877/palestinians-un-propaganda-tool-joseph-klein

The Palestinian leadership continues to avoid direct negotiations with Israel, preferring to use the United Nations as a tool to delegitimize the Jewish state. Their latest gambit was an attempt to initiate an official visit by the UN Security Council hosted by the Palestinian Authority to their stomping ground in the West Bank. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, knew that the Palestinians were looking to exploit the Security Council’s presence for propaganda purposes. He objected to Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador to the UN, Anatolio Ndong Mba, who is currently president of the UN Security Council. Israel would be willing to host individual visits by UN ambassadors, he told Ambassador Mba, but not as part of a Palestinian initiative aimed at exploiting the Security Council visit for more propaganda fusillades aimed against Israel.

“The Palestinian initiative is part of an ongoing effort to present a false narrative to the international community,” Ambassador Danon said. “Israel has hosted dozens of UN ambassadors from around the world in recent years, exposing them to the historical truth the Palestinians refuse to accept, and instead choose to engage in terrorism and incitement.” Israel’s ambassador noted the recent brutal murder of a 19-year-old Israeli girl and called upon the Security Council to act against the Palestinian Authority’s “incitement campaign and policy of paying salaries to terrorists.”

All 15 members of the Security Council must approve an official visit along with the countries concerned. Equatorial Guinea’s delegation is still working on the matter. Hopefully he is on a fool’s errand. Talking about foolishness, Kuwait’s UN Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi, who currently serves on the Security Council, whined that “We want an official trip.”

https://freebeacon.com/blog/high-stakes-for-likud-as-netanyahu-indictment-looms/

The “Bezeq-Walla! Affair,” or Case 4000 as it’s been dubbed by Israeli media, is one of three corruption cases facing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s also the most serious in that everyone, including the prime minister, believes that it will lead to an indictment in the coming weeks—an X factor that could prove fatal to Likud Party hopes in the April 9 elections.

The Israeli police, who recommend indictment, say that Netanyahu helped Israeli tycoon Shaul Elovitch by pushing through the merger of two companies he owned, telecommunications firm Bezeq and satellite TV company Yes. (Elovitch made $269 million on the deal.)

In exchange, Netanyahu and his family would receive favorable news coverage from Walla!, a news site Bezeq owned.

But the closer one looks, the less things add up. According to all those involved, the merger of Bezeq-Yes was done by the book. The head of Israel’s Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, Dr. Yifat Ben Hai Segev, who served in the position from 2014-2018, said “There wasn’t any pressure from the side of Netanyahu’s people to approve the merger.”

A realistic evaluation of the key elements which have shaped US-Israel relations, should not focus on the relatively secondary role – regionally and globally – played by the Arab-
Israeli conflict, the Palestinian issue and domestic US politics.

The substantial amplification of the mutually-beneficial US-Israel cooperation – militarily, intelligence-wise, technologically and commercially – has been driven by Israel’s operational, innovative and industrial capabilities, regional (Middle East) and global American interests as well as the rising threat of Islamic terrorism to the US homeland security.

US-Israel relations have been transformed dramatically since 1948, when the State Department, Pentagon and CIA opposed the founding of the Jewish State and prevented the delivery of military supplies to the newly-born state. They claimed that a Jewish state would join the Soviet Bloc, would be wrecked demographically by an eventual Arab majority, would be decimated by the surrounding Arab armies, and would undermine vital US interests in the Middle East. These claims have been demolished by Middle East reality.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Human trials for X-ray surgical glasses. I reported previously (Oct 2017) on Xvision (previously VIZOR), the Augmented Reality surgical navigation system from Israel’s Augmedics. Following testing on cadavers, Xvision is now undergoing human trials and has been successfully tested in six spinal operations.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180808005218/en/Augmedics-Begins-First-in-Human-Clinical-Trial-xvision-spine-XVShttps://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-made-goggles-give-surgeons-x-ray-vision/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xDCiCT2nH4

The first wireless VAD. Doctors in Kazakhstan have implanted a wireless ventricular assist device (VAD) into a human for the first time. The VAD is made by Jarvik Heart Inc but the technology for charging the battery was developed by Israel-based Leviticus Cardio. Wireless VADs have less risk of infection than wired VADs.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-wireless-heart-pump-implanted-in-first-patient/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JI_2cgccA
https://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(19)31346-4/fulltext

Better connections for dialysis patients. 50% of dialysis patients experience failure of their AV fistula – the tubes that connect their arteries and veins to the dialysis machine. Israel’s Laminate Medical has developed the VasQ – a vascular support device that protects the connection. It takes only one extra minute to implant it.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3755441,00.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W3HoTH2x58

Nano wound protection. Israel’s Nanomedic has developed the SpinCare device – a portable electrospinning wound care system that remotely generates a nano-fibrous protective layer on the skin for tissue healing. The wound is never touched, preventing infection and bandages can be changed without sticking to the wound.
http://nocamels.com/2019/02/groundbreaking-israeli-medical-device-treats-burns/
http://israelbetweenthelines.com/2019/02/14/easier-cure-for-burn-victims/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqKqTIgXZT8

Treatment for pulmonary hypertension. Israel’s Teva has launched ALYQ – a generic form of Adcirca, to reduce the symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-teva-launches-generic-pulmonary-hypertension-drug-1001272239

Israeli cancer death rates drop. Between 1995 and 2016, cancer deaths for Israeli Jewish men dropped by an average of 1.7% every year and for Israeli Jewish women by 1.6%. Cancer deaths for Israeli Arabs also dropped significantly. Although Israel has the 50th highest cancer rate in the world, it is 92nd for cancer deaths.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/cancer-cases-drop-among-men-almost-double-among-arab-women/

Finding donors for complex kidney patients. Israel’s Beilinson Hospital has implemented a new program that locates matching donors for kidney transplant patients who suffer from high levels of antibodies due to previous transplants or blood donations. It has already helped the hospital perform successful transplants for 39 patients.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/programme-at-israeli-hospital-to-locate-kidney-transplant-donors/

Link between Celiac disease and Eating disorders. (TY Kay) Kay’s son-in-law Dr. Itay Tokatly-Latzer and his Tel Aviv University research team have linked adolescents and young adults with celiac disease (CD) to higher incidences of disordered eating behavior. Many CD patients exhibit excessive control over their food.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Could-celiac-disorder-cause-disordered-eating-Israeli-researchers-find-a-link-579759

Health company’s $150 million fund. The Assuta chain of medical clinics and private hospitals, controlled by Israel’s Maccabi Health Services, has founded a venture capital fund for investing in medical devices in the later stages of development. It has already raised $35 million and plans to reach $150 million by mid-2019.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-assuta-to-raise-150m-vc-health-fund-1001269776

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/a_palestinian_terrorist_too_brutal_for_fatah.html

The Palestinian Authority (PA) finally found a terrorist act committed by a Palestinian against an Israeli from which it wishes to disassociate. The horrific rape and knife murder of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher prompted Qadura Fares, head of the PA-affiliated Prisoner’s Club to say, “From our perspective, this (rape) becomes a criminal case. We’re against the idea that anyone who commits a criminal act can then try to cloak themselves in the nationalist flag.”

A senior Fatah official said, “Even if there was no rape, a murder like this is unacceptable. The victim wasn’t a soldier, and this wasn’t wartime. If you want to be a hero, you don’t go and murder an innocent woman who went into the woods to read a book.”

No go, guys. In the world of the PA, everyone is a soldier and every day is wartime. You own this and you own Arafat Irfaiya.

Irfaiya is 27 years old, just about the same age as the Oslo Accords. In 2006, when Irfaiya was just a boy, the PA, aware that it could not field an army to go to war against Israel’s army, adopted a strategy of “popular resistance” (i.e., popular terrorism) at the 6th Fatah Conference. Seemingly unplanned low-tech attacks (car ramming or stabbing) against Israelis and Jews were described after the fact by Palestinian leadership as “heroic actions” and “the natural response to Israel’s crimes.”

https://worldisraelnews.com/man-stabbed-in-jerusalem-condition-listed-as-serious/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1550382374&pushcrew_powered=1

A 43-year-old man was stabbed Sunday morning in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood.

Paramedics provided emergency medical treatment and evacuated him to Shaare Zedek Hospital in serious condition with several knew wounds to his upper body.

The victims was conscious and said the man who attacked him was Arab in appearance.

Israeli police, however, are calling the incident a criminal attack and not a terrorist incident.

A member of Magen David Adom, Israel’s ambulance service, said: “When I got to the place, I saw a man sitting, leaning against the fence, vaguely conscious. He had a number of stab wounds in his upper body.

“I gave him life-saving medical treatment that included stopping bleeding. We took him to an intensive care unit and quickly evacuated him to the hospital when he was in moderate condition. “