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ISRAEL

Ilhan Omar: Poster Child for the Red-Green Axis By James Simpson

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/ilhan-omar-poster-child-for-the-red-green-axis/

Stop ignoring this virulently anti-Semitic, anti-American coalition of subversives. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), along with her comrades Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), has gotten a lot of press since winning a seat in Congress. Despite her non-apology for bigoted, anti-Semitic statements she made earlier this month, Omar remains a virulent anti-Semite. But it is much worse than that: In addition to likely criminality, her extreme Left positions and connections to terrorists make her a security risk.

Some have demanded she be removed from the House Foreign Relations Committee, a position awarded to her by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But she has no business in Congress at all, and should at the very least be investigated for numerous crimes committed over a period of years.

Omar’s position on Israel is long-established and well-known. She supports the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and is overtly anti-Zionist. The 2012 tweet below — which she only deleted in the past few days — reiterates the incessant Arab narrative that casts Israel as an invader and abuser of Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu ignores global opinion at Israel’s peril By Lawrence J. Haas

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/431613-netanyahu-ignores-global-opinion-at-israels-peril

Few things are more infuriating than to hear Western leaders lecture Israel about how it should behave – whether the issue is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or other matters – while they say little if anything about far more serious matters of regional stability or human rights around the world.After all, it’s Israel – and no other nation – that sustains the rocket fire that the terrorists of Hamas direct from Gaza, and it’s Israel that suffers the consequences of anti-Jewish incitement by the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority from the West Bank. No Western leader should tell Israel how best to protect its people.

Having said that, rising anti-Semitism that’s often cloaked in the politer guise of anti-Zionism is a global fact of life, and so is growing hostility to Israel among leftist political parties across the West. Thus, the Jewish state, which seeks U.S. and other Western support when it’s under attack at the United Nations or elsewhere, should be at least somewhat sensitive to the global ramifications of its actions.

Ruthie Blum False hopes, unwarranted hysteria

https://www.jns.org/opinion/false-hopes-unwarranted-hysteria/

The glee with which the “anybody but Bibi” camp responded to the national and international outcry of the prime minister’s nod towards the Otzma Yehudit Party was uncontainable. Then the news turned towards peace …When U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, Jared Kushner, told Sky News Arabia on Monday that Washington’s yet-to-be-revealed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan includes a “redrawing of boundaries and resolving final-status issues,” right-wing campaign rhetoric went up a notch.

For days, those to the left of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been happily slamming the merger he helped broker between the Jewish Home and National Union parties, together with Otzma Yehudit, an offshoot of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane’s outlawed Kach Party. The glee with which the “anybody but Bibi” camp responded to the national and international outcry was uncontainable. Finally, here was a move—made to ensure that the votes for right-wing parties at risk of not passing the electoral threshold are not lost—that would be the nail in Netanyahu’s political coffin. The feeling was that if the prime minister’s legal troubles didn’t topple him, the wrath of American Jewry might just do the trick.

Palestinians: “No Place for the Zionist Entity in Palestine” by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13796/palestinians-zionist-entity

Hamas and Islamic Jihad should be given credit for their clarity and honesty regarding their ambitions. The two groups are clearly saying that their ultimate goal is to see Israel removed from the region and replaced with an Islamic state. As far as they are concerned, the conflict with Israel is not about a settlement, a checkpoint or even Jerusalem. Instead, it is about the presence of Jews in what they regard as their own state and homeland.

What will happen the day after a Palestinian state is established? The answer, according to Hamas and Islamic Jihad (and other Palestinians) is that they will use it to continue the “armed struggle” until the liberation of the supposedly occupied cities of Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Tiberias, Haifa and Ashdod. Under these current circumstances, a Palestinian state will pose an immediate existential danger to Israel.

The Islamic Jihad threat to turn Israeli cities into “hell” by firing missiles at them needs to be taken seriously by those who are working on the upcoming US peace plan. Any land that is given to Abbas and his Palestinian Authority in the West Bank will be used in the future by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as a base for launching rockets and missiles at Israeli cities. Then, the terror groups will not need accurate, long-range rockets to achieve their plan to destroy Israel’s population centers: they will be sitting right across the street from them.

A Palestinian terror group says that its engineers have developed “accurate and destructive” missiles that can reach the “occupied” cities of Tel Aviv, Netanya and Jerusalem. Abu Hamza, spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Iranian-funded Islamic Jihad organization in the Gaza Strip, threatened that his group’s “rocket unit” would turn Israeli cities into “hell.”

Trump’s War against UNRWA Will Benefit the Palestinian ‘Refugees’ By Ted Belman

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

In August 2017, President Trump declared war on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) by rejecting its estimate of over 5 million Palestinian refugees, suggesting that the number was more like 500,000. In effect he was saying that a new definition should be operative. If he were to exclude descendants, there would be fewer than 20,000 people still living who fled in 1948The State Department followed this attack up by announcing that the US would make no further contribution to UNRWA.

The intent wasn’t to save money or shift the financial burden to others, but rather was to begin the process of doing away with UNRWA itself because it served to perpetuate the refugee problem and the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, rather than to solve it. And President Trump, and his envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, wanted to solve it.Not only that, but UNRWA has been known to assist Hamas in its wars with Israel, and it uses Palestinian Authority textbooks that incite hatred of Jews and promote a non-existing right of return.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Pluristem’s cells prevented amputation. A patient, with Buerger’s disease was at pre-amputation stage due to non-healing foot ulcers. Regulatory approval was given for compassionate treatment using Pluristem’s PLX-PAD cells. A year after treatment, the wound is fully closed, and the patient has resumed normal activities.
http://www.pluristem.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pluristem_Buergers_final_isa.pdf

Slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease. I reported briefly previously (9th Dec) that Israel’s KidneyCure was developing cell therapy for treating chronic kidney disease (CKD). Here are some more details of this innovative technology that turns damaged cells into healthy cells. https://www.kidneycure.com/
https://www.israel21c.org/delaying-dialysis-for-patients-with-chronic-kidney-disease/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-kidney-cells-startup-gets-backing-from-billionaire-kahns-venture-arm/

Laser treatment of vascular disease. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Eximo and its lasers for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD). The Center for Cardiovascular Excellence in Orlando, Florida is the first to use Eximo’s B-Laser Atherectomy System commercially to successfully treat a patient.
https://www.vasculardiseasemanagement.com/content/eximo-medical-ltd-announces-first-commercial-case-its-b-lasertm-atherectomy-system-us-and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6eMGlGknxU

Israelis to get better scan diagnoses. Tel Aviv’s Ichilov (Sourasky) Hospital and Israel’s largest health companies Clalit and Maccabi will use the algorithms of Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision to analyze scanned images from X-rays, CT scans and MRIs.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756385,00.html

Safer epidurals in China. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (Aug 2013) on Israel’s Omeq Medical and its smart sensor-based epidural injection system. Omeq has partnered with Shanghai-based Pharos Medical, which will establish a production line and commercialize Omeq’s system in China.
https://www.trendlines.com/omeq-medical-raises-3-million-and-signs-commercialization-agreement/

Your personal antibiotic cocktail. (TY Israel21c) Researchers from Israel’s Technion Institute have devised a system for measuring the effectiveness of a combination of antibiotics in fighting infection.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2019/01/integrated-attack/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-018-0252-1

Jefferson-Israel Center. Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University has partnered with the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to form the Jefferson-Israel Center. The US university will provide a $1 million fund for Israeli companies to advance healthcare technology solutions. They can also access Jefferson’s medical facilities.
https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/Jefferson-Innovation-Authority-offer-1m-to-healthcare-innovators-580758

Monitoring newborns in Kenya. The Save the Children Fund (like Oxfam and UNICEF) is no friend to Israel. However, it didn’t stop the NGO from buying monitoring systems from Israel’s EarlySense to continuously track key vital signs of newborns in hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya. Another BDS fail.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3755791,00.html
https://www.israel21c.org/save-the-children-tests-israeli-lifesaving-tech-in-africa/

Microsoft’s Israeli virtual healthcare system. Microsoft’s Israeli R&D team, supported by several US medical partners, have launched the Microsoft Healthcare Bot. This innovative AI-powered virtual health assistant service aims to empower healthcare organizations to build and deploy virtual health assistants.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-developers-behind-Microsofts-AI-powered-healthcare-bot-580249
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756073,00.html

Eliminating transmission of genetic diseases. The Pre-Implantation Genetic Unit of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center uses the latest technology to ensure IVF patients have healthy babies. All procedures are in accordance with Jewish law and religious authorities are consulted when necessary.
https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Advanced-procedures-bring-hope-to-couples-with-genetic-diseases-579959

US Peace Initiative – A Reality Test Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/2GMh4HR

A successful pursuit of peace is preconditioned upon the predominance of reality over well-intentioned eagerness to produce peace. The latter is frequently tainted by oversimplification, short-term considerations and wishful-thinking.The enhancement of US national security interests behooves the architects of US peace initiatives to recognize the inherent constraints set by the 14 century old Middle East reality since the 7thcentury emergence of Islam.  Middle East reality has been shaped by systematic inter-Muslim and inter-Arab relations, conflicts, back-stabbing, subversion, terrorism and wars.  These endemic features have been totally unrelated to the Arab-Israel and the Palestinian-Israel conflicts.

Architects of peace initiatives should be cognizant of the predominance of inter-Arab and inter-Muslim threats and challenges, which have superseded the Palestinian issue. The latter has been showered with much Arab talk, but hardly any Arab walk, militarily and economically.  For example, on January 30-31, 2019, the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain convened in Jordan, in order to discuss the clear and present dangers of Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and additional top Middle East priorities. The absence of a Palestinian representative and the lack of any discussion of the Palestinian issue – while counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation between these six Arab countries and Israel is surging – underlined the fact that the Palestinian issue has never been a top regional priority, nor the crown-jewel of Arab policy makers, nor the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

The architects of peace initiatives should pay attention to a Texas colloquialism: “When smothered by sandstorms, while driving in West Texas, don’t get preoccupied with the tumbleweeds on the road.”

Right from wrong: when bubble-dwellers go too far By Ruthie Blum

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.”

TAU develops blood test to detect genetic disorders in early pregnancy By Eytan Halon

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.

To the Moon! SpaceX to Launch Israeli Lunar Lander (and More) on Thursday By Elizabeth Howell

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.