RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahu-and-jewish-worry-about-what-the-neighbors-might-think/

America is already divided, as is Israel, between those who favor appeasing enemies while reprimanding friends, and those who espouse the opposite view.

A few days ahead of the Knesset elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to extend Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria. This campaign promise, which was reported by many unfriendly news outlets as a ploy to garner votes from the far-right, had nothing to do with his ultimate victory, however. The real reason for his win was simple. The Likud Party that he heads is most closely aligned with the position of mainstream Israeli society, which holds centrist views laced with the realism born of experience.

This is not to say that Netanyahu’s annexation announcement was insignificant. On the contrary, it was so straightforward and insistent that it led many right-wingers say that they’d believe it when they saw it.

Politicians tend to talk a big talk, after all, particularly during a campaign. And Netanyahu, as Israelis across the political spectrum agree, is nothing if not a brilliant politician. A “magician” is what he was called on election night by left-wing pundits shifting from elated to despondent as exit polls gradually were replaced by actual country-wide vote counts.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/16/moral-case-israel-annexing-west-bank-beyond/

Jason D. Hill is honors distinguished professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. His areas of specialization include ethics, social and political philosophy, American foreign policy, cosmopolitanism and race theory.

The April 2019 election victory for Benjamin Netanyahu will see him serve a record fifth term as Israeli prime minister and form a new right-wing coalition government. It also brings the promise of a commitment Netanyahu made to the nation during his campaign: That he would annex Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Vowing to extend sovereignty without distinguishing between settlement blocks and the isolated settlements, Netanyahu promised not to transfer any sovereignty to the Palestinians. His victory in the elections will, hopefully, see the enactment of Netanyahu’s promise.

Israel has the moral right to annex all of the West Bank (even Area C) for a plethora of reasons.
Israel’s Mistake Was Allowing the Palestinian Pretense

Israel made an altruistic mistake toward the Palestinian people after the 1967 defensive war with Jordan. Rather than regard them as “war settlers” or refugees or, after legally occupying conquered territory, as “illegal occupants,” they made the Palestinian people their political and moral problem.

After victory, the “war settlers” could have been seen as enemies of the state: supporters of the Fatah (Palestine Liberation Organization) Charter, which basically calls for the end of Jewry in the region. Under a malevolent and illiberal regime, they would have been regarded and treated as such, not as Israel did treat them: as human beings with specific, inalienable rights.

Under a different set of political sensibilities, the Palestinian people would have been militarily removed from the area because, morally speaking, after the 1967 war, they never belonged there. The proper response from Israel should have been to immediately annex the land and make the people there the responsibility of their original political homeland: Jordan.

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/winner-in-israel-turns-out-to-be-new-voting-law/90646/

Who was the real winner in the recent Israeli elections? The answer: the 2014 electoral law. It requires a list to garner at least 3.25 % of the vote to get seats at the Knesseth.

In 2015, the first time it was in force, it helped both Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party and Yitzhak Herzog’s liberal Zionist Union to emerge as the country’s main political forces, with 30 and 24 seats respectively out of 120 — against eight smaller parties, Right and Left, who got from 5 to 13 seats each.

This time, it was even more effective, providing 36 seats to Likud and 35 seats to the Blue-White Coalition, the indirect heir to ZU, and leaving less than one half of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to nine lesser lists. In other words, the 2014 law is turning proportional representation into something closer to a bipartisan system. Quite an achievement.

Pundits like to argue about the comparative theoretical merits of the majority system, a feature most famously of America, and proportional representation. More often than not, however, countries just pick up an electoral system for practical reasons.

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/2019/04/israels-good-news-newsletter-to-14th.html
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

First live op using holographic imaging. Surgeons at Toronto General Hospital performed the first live medical procedure using real-time holographic imaging developed by Israel’s RealView Imaging (see here). The 3D images allowed the surgeons to see inside the heart prior to a mitral valve replacement procedure.
http://nocamels.com/2019/04/israel-holographic-imaging-tech-1st-live-medical-procedure/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63ofSXSWgs http://realviewimaging.com/

First ever vein transplant from living donor. Avi Yavetz from Modi’in suffers from peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and a leg amputation was imminent. However, his son, 27-year-old Snir donated a long vein, which was implanted into his father in a first of its kind operation. Two weeks later and both are doing fine.
http://hadassahinternational.org/first-ever-vein-transplant-from-living-donor-son-saves-fathers-leg/

Brain monitoring in real time. I reported previously (Mar 2015) on the computer interface device from Israel’s Neurosteer used to monitor brain activity. The three-strip wearable device is now in clinical trials in Israel, Europe and the United States and proving far simpler and more useful than EEG and fMRI alternatives.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-monitoring-tool-could-revolutionize-brain-treatment/

US approval for surgical mesh. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Apr 2017) on the innovative FasTouch fixation system from Israel’s Via Surgical for hernia repairs. The company has just announced that it has received US FDA approval for the system. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/via-surgical-receives-fda-clearance-for-its-fastouch-absorbable-fixation-system-300813799.html http://viasurgical.com/science/

European approval for aortic arch repair system. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Apr 2018) when Israel’s Endospan received the CE mark for its Horizon stent graft system to treat Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. It now also has received the CE mark for its Nexus Stent Graft System to treat Aortic Arch Disease.
https://www.fdanews.com/articles/190639-endospan-earns-ce-mark-for-aortic-arch-repair-system

Fast test to identify the right antibiotic. I’ve reported previously (see here) on the many Israeli innovations that are trying to prevent antibiotics from becoming ineffective. Now Israeli startup Nanosynex offers a 4-hour test to determine which antibiotic will be effective and what dose to use to prevent it developing resistance.
https://www.israel21c.org/diagnostic-test-from-israel-aims-to-stop-superbug-surge/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieECO-C7XnM https://nanosynex.com/

Smart migraine patches heading for US. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Oct 2016) on the Nerivio Migra smart patch from Israel’s Theranica to provide migraine relief. Since then, Theranica has successfully completed a 12-center pivotal study of the patch and has raised $35 million for US FDA approval and beyond.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/theranica-announces-results-from-pivotal-study-of-device-for-treating-acute-migraine-832012898.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/theranica-raises-35m-to-bring-innovative-migraine-device-to-the-usa-300813846.html

Successful trials of pregnancy monitor. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Jun 2015) on the PregSense wearable fetal monitor from Israel’s Nuvo. Renamed Invu,,multi-center trials produced fetal and maternal heart rates comparable to existing standalone cardiotocographs (CTGs). US FDA review is in progress.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nuvo-group-ltd-presents-data-on-remote-monitoring-in-pregnancy-at-the-66th-annual-society-for-reproductive-investigation-sri-meeting-300813907.html

Good trial results for NASH treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Oct 2014) that the Aramchol treatment from Israel’s Galmed for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) had been fast-tracked by the US FDA. Latest trials show that twice-daily dosages of Aramchol significantly increased blood plasma levels.
http://galmedpharma.investorroom.com/2019-03-12-Galmed-Reports-Positive-Results-From-Pharmacokinetic-Split-Dose-Study-of-Aramchol

Hope for flu sufferers. The 3rd episode of Israel’s Weizmann in Focus, highlights that, since October, 7.3 million Americans have been sick with the flu virus with over 80,000 hospitalized. Weizmann Professor Ruth Arnon’s work has led to the development of the Universal Flu Virus, being trialed by Israel’s BiondVax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR0gNCcKGzw

Israelis have lowest diet-related deaths. An analysis of dietary data has shown that Israel has the lowest rate of diet-related deaths in the world. The Global Burden of Disease study, published in UK’s The Lancet, reported that in Israel, just 89 people out of every 100,000 die each year in deaths related to poor-quality diet.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-has-lowest-rate-of-diet-related-deaths-in-the-world-major-study-finds/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30041-8/fulltext

Probiotic chew for women. Israel’s Anlit has launched a probiotics chew targeting women’s health. Feminine Probiotics contains a blend of six different strains of live probiotic bacteria plus cranberry extract to support genitourinary tract health. It comes as a vanilla-cranberry flavored chew that melts in the mouth.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/feminine-probiotics-in-a-delicious-format-300823754.html

https://saraacarter.com/netanyahu-says-annexation-world-faints/

The foreign and the hostile local media were in an uproar: “The end of democracy in Israel!” they shrieked.

They were responding to the audacity of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of two super-charged words, “sovereignty” and “annexation,” regarding the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank,” as it is improperly referred to by most of the world) just days before Israel’s national election on Tuesday, April 9. This area is more properly referred to as Disputed Territory.

There is much to untangle here: geography, history and linguistics, just to name several threads. For a backgrounder on the area widely referred to as the “West Bank,” please see the section at the end of this article.

Netanyahu said several things to several different news outlets over the course of several days, some of which have been wildly misreported.

WHAT NETANYAHU SAID

Netanyahu said very clearly that Palestinian statehood would “endanger our [Israel’s] existence.” He ruled out that option. On the other hand, he said that the Palestinian Arabs would “run their own lives.” This means that for purposes of day-to-day governance, the Arabs are in charge of the residents of their communities. The one caveat to this is that Israel will continue to be in charge of non-domestic security, that is, terrorism against its own citizens, when committed by those residing in the Arab sectors.

https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-spacecraft-falls-short-in-attempt-to-reach-moon/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1555002664&pushcrew_powered=1

While the Israeli craft did not successfully land on the moon on Thursday evening, both the prime minister and president expressed hope for the future of Israeli space exploration.

By World Israel News and AP

An Israeli spacecraft has failed in its attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission.

The SpaceIL spacecraft lost contact with Earth late Thursday, just moments before it was to land on the moon, and scientists declared the mission a failure.

The small robotic spacecraft, built by the non-profit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, had hoped to match a feat that has only been achieved by the national space agencies of three countries: U.S., Russia and China.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on hand for what organizers had hoped to be a celebration.

https://worldisraelnews.com/

“….And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon….Deuteronomy 33:14….rsk

Excitement is building in Israel as its first-ever spacecraft, Genesis, is set to land on the moon today at 10:00 p.m. – 11 p.m. Israel time (3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT).

Israelis are looking skyward tonight as the Genesis spacecraft — the name was chosen in an online vote — is scheduled to touch down on Thursday between 10:00-11:00 p.m. Israel time (3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT).

Once Genesis touches the lunar surface, Israel will have entered the history books as only the fourth country to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon, sharing the honor with far larger countries with much deeper pockets – the U.S., China and Russia.

Israel has already made history with its spacecraft. Last week it became only the seventh country to place a spacecraft in lunar orbit.

Shortly before touchdown, Genesis will conduct a two-step deceleration process as it dives toward the lunar surface, an operation of about 15 minutes. After landing, it will take a selfie.