RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273444/netanyahu-wins-joseph-klein

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have secured enough votes for his conservative Likud party to form a right-wing, ultra-orthodox coalition government. Based on vote totals calculated the morning after Tuesday’s vote, the Likud party itself tallied 26.27% of the vote, which translates to 35 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Along with five supportive right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties that amassed enough votes collectively to secure about 30 seats amongst them, Prime Minister Netanyahu is eyeing a 65-seat governing majority. Likud’s main challenger, the Blue and White party, led by the former chief of the Israel Defense Forces Benny Gantz along with former finance minister Yair Lapid, came in a close second with 25.94% of the vote. Although the Blue and White party’s vote total appears enough to also entitle it to 35 seats in the Knesset, it is nowhere near being able to reach the magic majority number of 61 seats with eligible coalition partners. Thus, barring some unforeseen occurrence, Prime Minister Netanyahu is on his way to commencing a record-setting fifth term, albeit under the cloud of possible indictment on bribery and other corruption charges.  

President Trump wasted no time in congratulating Prime Minister Netanyahu for his victory. “He’s been a great ally and he’s a friend, I’d like to congratulate Bibi Netanyahu, that was a well-thought out race I can tell you,” President Trump said on Wednesday.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273400/israels-tourism-triumph-part-2-edwin-black

[Read Part I: HERE]

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement [BDS] has taken particular aim at Israel’s tourism industry. Tourism accounts for about 11 percent of global GDP and 350 million jobs worldwide—more than ten percent of employment on the planet. In Israel, tourism is more than just sun, seashore, and spirituality; it infused Israel’s economy with $6 billion in 2018. Tourism is also the geopolitical inhalant that allows Israel to sustain its diplomatic and sovereign niche in the world.

For all its efforts to isolate Israel—including convincing Airbnb to remove Jewish listings in Judea and Samaria—BDS has failed to even dent Israel’s triumphant tourism growth. In 2018, a record 4.1 million visitors streamed into Israel from all over the world. Massive tourist influxes are now seen from the Chinese and Indian travel markets as well as America’s Christian community.

The escalating global demand has created an increasingly acute hotel room shortage. Year-round occupancy—with many seasonal and situational carve outs—now averages some 70 percent nationally for the country’s approximately 55,000 rooms. But on many days, Nazareth achieves 85 percent, Jerusalem hits 83 percent, Tel Aviv tops 79 percent, Haifa reaches 75 percent, and Eilat scores 72 percent. About half those rooms are taken by overseas visitors, not domestic tourists. An estimated 20 percent of all foreign visitors aren’t even using hotels, opting to stay with friends and family, rent apartments, or utilize alternative short-term boarding.

At times, the sheer volume can overwhelm capacity. One tourism insider indicates that a single American company, not of Jewish ownership, will be bringing 6,000 individuals to Israel in fall 2019 as part of a corporate incentive program. That one program is so large that no single city can host it. The company’s travelers are being split between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

https://worldisraelnews.com/netanyahu-celebrates-tremendous-tremendous

“The right-wing bloc led by Likud clearly won. I thank Israeli citizens for their trust,” Netanyahu stated at Likud headquarters Tuesday night.
It was a tense national election day on Tuesday, with the 10 p.m. exit polls showing the new Blue and White party in the lead or standing neck and neck with Likud.

Just after 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged as the clear winner, with Likud leading 35 to 34 over Blue and White. They were followed by religious and right-wing parties – natural partners for Likud – putting Netanyahu in a strong position to form the next government.

“The right-wing bloc led by Likud clearly won,” Netanyahu told thousands of jubilant supporters at Likud headquarters. “I will begin forming a right-wing government with our natural partners already tonight… This is a night of tremendous, tremendous victory.”

“Already tonight, almost all of them declared publicly that they will recommend me to form the next government,” he said. “I intend to finish the job quickly in order to establish a nationalist, stable government.”

“It will be a right-wing government, but I intend to be the prime minister of all the citizens of Israel – right and left, Jews and non-Jews alike. All the citizens of Israel,” he declared.

Acknowledging the major hurdles facing Israel regarding security, economy, society and foreign relations, Netanyahu expressed confidence that “we will be able to meet all these challenges.”

Concerning the “path to peace with Arab nations,” for example, “even as we speak, it’s happening,” he said.

The Israeli leader tearfully thanked his wife and children for their support, noting “how much suffering my family has endured” during a particularly vicious election campaign fraught with mudslinging and defamation.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14041/palestinians-target-students

The Palestinian students are being targeted because of their political affiliations and not because of any crime they committed.

While the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are busy beating up each other’s supporters, “pro-Palestinian” activists on US and Canadian university campuses are busy blaming Israel for Palestinian woes.

For these alleged activists — who are remarkably passive when it comes to truly assisting Palestinians — their protests seem more about hating Israel than anything else. If they really cared about the Palestinians, they might stop abusing Israel long enough to notice the abuse that the Palestinian “leaders” inflict on the people under them.

“Pro-Palestinian” activists at university campuses in the US and other Western countries have long been waging various campaigns to denounce Israel and hold it fully responsible for the continued “suffering” of Palestinians.

These activists, however, seem to care little about violations committed against the Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank or Hamas in the Gaza Strip — even when fellow students in the West Bank and Gaza are being targeted.

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2019/04/david-singer-hashemite-rule-in-jordan.html

King Abdullah seems increasingly hell-bent on ending 99 years of Hashemite-dynasty rule in Jordan.

This possibility is emerging as Abdullah is:

Seemingly refusing to commit to negotiating with Israel on President Trump’s soon-to-be-released deal of the century to end the Jewish-Arab conflict and
Taking active steps to place the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty in jeopardy.

Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1950) has always been the key to resolving competing territorial claims by both Arabs and Jews in former Palestine.

Transjordan comprised 78 per cent of the territory placed under the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine after being wrested from 400 years of Ottoman Empire sovereignty during World War One.

Mandatory Palestine was designated in April 1920 by the Principal Allied Powers at the San Remo Conference and in August 1920 by article 95 of the Treaty of Sevres as the location for reconstitution of the ancient and biblical homeland of the Jewish people.

Transjordan’s first Hashemite ruler – Abdullah I – arrived there in November 1920.

https://saraacarter.com/israelis-vote-on-tuesday-heres-how-it-works/

At a lunch table in a restaurant in an artsy town near the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, several people were discussing the upcoming elections. Most of the conversation was in Hebrew, with large smatterings of other languages, as is so common throughout many cities and large towns in Israel.

“I will not vote for Bibi [Netanyahu]!” said the one Israeli-born person at the table about the current Israeli Prime Minister. “He is a liar and a thief!” This 80-plus year-old former kibbutznik is voting for HaAvoda – the Labor Party.

“I swore I would not vote for Netanyahu again, but I am going to,” said another woman at the table, an emigre from England who has lived in Israel for more than 35 years.BIBI EXHAUSTION SYNDROMEMost Israelis, it appears, fall into the camp of the second speaker. Many Israeli voters suffer from “Bibi Exhaustion Syndrome,” yearning for a prime minister with a fresh face and less arrogant demeanor. But despite the consistently strong showing in the polls of the new party Kachol v’Lavan (Blue and White), many Israelis secretly believe – or fear – that when Israelis slide their slips into the ballot box on Tuesday they will be unable to place their trust in Israel’s security with anyone other than Netanyahu. This,  despite the Prime Minister’s current legal problems.

HOW ISRAELI GOVERNMENTS ARE FORMED

Unlike the U.S., Israel has many viable political parties. Viable at least in the sense that a dozen have realistic chances of attaining some seats in the 120 seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Preventing strokes without excessive bleeding. Biotech eXithera is a portfolio company of Israel’s Clal Biotechnology. It has developed an anti-coagulant which has successfully completed Phase 1 trials. The treatment delays coagulation rather than prevents it and its effects cease quickly when the treatment stops.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-sichuan-haisco-invests-in-clal-biotechs-exithera-1001280424

European funds for depression therapy. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on the brain analysis system developed by Israel’s elminda. The EU has just awarded elminda a 2-year grant through its Horizon 2020’s phase 2 program. It will help elminda develop and trial its BNA-PREDICT product for depression.
https://elminda.com/multi-million-euro-award-european-commission-will-support-deployment-elmindas-bna-predict-improve-depression-treatment-effectiveness/

Same microbe different effect. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have developed algorithms that can identify structural variants in the genomes of human gut microbiomes. People with a certain variant were much thinner than those who had the same microbe but not the variant. The variants can also pinpoint disease factors.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/same-microbe-different-effect
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1065-y

Technion printer for human tissues. (TY Nevet) Israel’s Technion Institute has set up a 3D center for the printing of cells, tissues and organs. Its purpose is to enable Technion researchers to develop tissues containing blood vessels or 3D scaffolds that quickly connect to the patient’s own blood vessels.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/need-a-new-ear-technion-opens-3d-tissue-printer-for-researchers/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mH-QxWJKY

Bio-inspired robots. (TY WIN & i24 News) Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have created tiny robots that could soon become part of medical procedures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwNHSh_fo0o

Rare pediatric double organ transplant. 13-year-old Hila Amram received a new liver and pancreas at Petah Tikva’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center. The double transplant saved her life and freed her from insulin dependence. The op was even more complex due to the donor’s internal organs being reversed – a rare anomaly.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/261176

Israeli bio-techs merge. I reported previously (see here) on Jerusalem-based immunotherapy company Enlivex Therapeutics. Enlivex has merged with Tel Aviv-headquartered Bioblast (see here), which is developing treatments for rare genetic diseases.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3759270,00.html

Snow on Mt Hermon – good news for cancer patients. During the winter, Israeli charity Ezer Mizion often takes oncology clinic kids on a trip to Mt. Hermon. And if their blood count results are anything to go by, the benefits to the children last long after they return from the “sledging, tobogganing and fun, fun, fun!”
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/rx-fun-on-mt-hermon/

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14020/opposition-peace-israel

The anti-Israel campaign in the Arab and Islamic world sees peace with Israel — and not failed leadership, bad economic policies and corruption — as the biggest threat to Arabs and Muslims. Recognizing Israel’s right to exit is also seen by many Arabs and Muslims as a humiliation to their values, their culture, their political power and their economic traditions. They seem concerned that Arabs and Muslims might wake up one morning and start demanding freedom of expression and free and democratic elections like the ones held every few years in Israel.

The anti-peace camp seems to want its people to continue living in misery and under dictatorships, so that it is easier to recruit people to jihad against Israel and the West. Also, if people are lifted from poverty and misery and begin to enjoy the fruits of modern civilization, there is a chance that Arabs and Muslims will move away from Islam and even start endorsing the inadmissible values of the West.

The Trump administration will soon discover what every child in the Arab and Islamic world already knows: that the Israeli-Arab conflict is not about a settlement or a checkpoint or a security fence, but about Israel’s very right to exist in the Middle East. The Trump administration will also learn that peace with Israel is seen by many Arabs and Muslims as nothing but an unacceptable threat that must at all costs be stopped.

Peace with Israel is purportedly a form of surrender and submission that will harm the dignity of Arabs and Muslims.

This is the theme of a massive campaign being waged by Palestinians and other Arabs in preparation for the announcement of the US administration’s plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the “deal of the century.” The plan, according to US officials, is expected to be announced sometime after the general elections in Israel, slated for April 9.

The latest campaign is designed to thwart the “deal of the century” and terrorize Arabs and Muslims who may wish to accept the US administration’s peace plan.

Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz crossed a rhetorical redline this week that made every other malicious maneuver of the current campaign, on both sides of the political spectrum, seem like child’s play.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-From-Wrong-Benny-Gantzs-immoral-analogy-585792

In an interview he gave on Tuesday – exactly one week ahead of the Knesset elections – Gantz likened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-From-Wrong-Benny-Gantzs-immoral
Expressing “deep worry” for Israeli democracy, Gantz explained, “What we… see is a phenomenon reminiscent of Turkey, where Erdogan is protecting himself from investigations and from other efforts aimed at preventing corruption.”

Even the Times of Israel reporters did a double take on that statement – which was not only a pathetically mild and misleading description of Erdogan’s Stalin-like purges and absolute control of every sector of Turkish society, but also an egregious misrepresentation of Netanyahu’s legitimate efforts to counter charges that have not even been formally brought against him. Unlike Turks subjected to Erdogan’s repressive rule, after all, Israeli citizens enjoy human and civil rights. Among these is the presumption of innocence.But it was only the former part of Gantz’s outlandish analogy that his interviewers challenged, by asking whether he really fears that Israel “could become like Turkey.”