Displaying posts categorized under

ISRAEL

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Visiting Chadian president announces country to renew diplomatic ties with Israel

By on November 27th, 2018

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/11/27/visiting-chadian-president-announces-country-to-renew-diplomatic-ties-with-israel/

On historic Israel visit, Chadian President Idriss Déby stresses that move to renew diplomatic ties with Jerusalem in coming weeks does not mean country will ignore Palestinian cause • “We have no problem with Abbas or the Palestinians,” Déby says.

Visiting Chadian President Idriss Déby has announced he plans to renew diplomatic relations with Israel in the coming weeks.

In an interview with i24News, Déby stressed the move did not mean Chad would ignore the Palestinian cause.

Asked why he did not plan to hold meetings in Ramallah while in the region, Déby replied, “I am a former soldier and I fought wars. I know the price of war. I don’t wish it on any people in any country.

He said, “We came here this time with an exact plan because we have not had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1972, and the aim was to renew these relations.

Calling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “a friend,” Déby said, “We have no problem with Abbas or the Palestinians. He [Abbas] is our friend and participated in all the African union committees.”

Déby noted that “the world is changing before our eyes. Crises and wars we knew are changing as well. We don’t wish them on today’s generation or future generations. There’s a time for war and a time for peace. Our message is global to all leaders. Chad doesn’t presume to speak for black Africa. Chad comes to renew bilateral diplomatic relations.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Ruthie Blum :Netanyahu, Iran and threats that have come to light

By on November 26th, 2018

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahu-iran-and-threats-that-have-come-to-light/

Without the prime minister’s persistence in exposing the extent of threat posed by the regime in Tehran, as well as his forging of alliances to combat it, Israelis would not have the luxury to laugh at his diagrams.

In an address to the nation last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to critics angry with him for agreeing to a premature ceasefire with Hamas, and those accusing him of being more preoccupied with keeping his government from falling than with implementing wise policies.

“Most Israeli citizens know that when I make security-related decisions, I do so … out of a genuine and deep concern for the welfare of our country, the security of our citizens and the safety of our soldiers,” he said. “These are not slogans.”

He went on to state ominously that a multi-pronged operation is in the works. “I have a clear plan,” he announced. “I know what to do and when to do it. And we are going to do it. … This will involve sacrifice, but … we will overcome our enemies.”

Netanyahu seemed to imply that he was not solely referring to “our enemies” in Gaza or Ramallah, but to the mullahs in Tehran. Those of us convinced that his incessant harping on the Iranian nuclear threat is warranted can only imagine, with both hope and trepidation, what his “clear plan” entails.

The remaining minority of the Israeli public thinks that Netanyahu dangles the dangers of a nuclear Iran as a scare tactic to garner votes. This sector is responsible for ridiculing him every time he opens his mouth on the topic, especially when he whips out props for backup.

The most famous example is a cartoon-like diagram of a bomb that he held up during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 2012. To stress his point about the need for the international community to draw red lines on Iran’s nuclear program, he drew an actual red line between the base of bomb and the fuse. For this, he was made fun of relentlessly by every Israeli comedian, satirist, caricaturist and rival politician for months.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Netanyahu: Still Israel’s Preferred Leader Why none of the other party leaders are fit to be prime minister. Joseph Puder

By on November 26th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272038/netanyahu-still-israels-preferred-leader-joseph-puder

At the Likud party meeting on Monday (November 19, 2018), Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu declared, “We have an entire year until the elections.” He made the statement a day after he called on his coalition partner not to dissolve the government. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the “Israel Our Home” party, originally a party of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, resigned last week as Defense Minister, and pulled his party out of the coalition government. He was hoping to bring down Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud (party) led government. The pretext for his decision was Netanyahu’s reluctance to engage the Israel Defense Forces in another Gaza war, and his decision to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas. Lieberman denounced the move as “surrender to terror.” Lieberman’s thinking was that his resignation will prompt other coalition partners to leave as well, and thus new elections will be called, since the Netanyahu government would not have the necessary 61 votes to govern. He failed. Now he will sit on the Opposition benches next to Ayman Odeh, of the United Arab List. Lieberman learned two lessons. One, the country and seated Knesset Members are not eager for new elections to take place, and two, Netanyahu is not led by his coalition partners, but rather the opposite.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the “Jewish Home” party and coalition partner was also in a heated disagreement with PM Netanyahu over the response to the massive rocket attacks from Gaza. Like Lieberman, Bennett also sought more aggressive action against Hamas and its terrorist partners in the Gaza Strip. Bennett used Lieberman’s departure as Defense Minister to petition for this job, the second most powerful post in the Israeli government. Bennett’s eight seats in the 120 Knesset seats (Israeli Parliament), three more than Lieberman’s party, posed a veiled threat to Netanyahu. The “Jewish Home” party departure from the coalition would have brought the government down, and new elections would become a certainty. Netanyahu however, decided not give in. He was aided by Jewish Home party constituents, who pressured Bennett to stay put. They simply figured that Bennett’s quest for the Defense portfolio was not worth risking an early election result that might harm the party, and diminish its representation in the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who sought early elections at one point, has changed his mind and is determined to go on with his narrow coalition government of 61 seats until its official term expires next year. Polls have consistently predicted that the Likud would end up increasing its representation in the Knesset. And Netanyahu predicted in August of this year that the Likud might possibly garner “35 (mandates), 40 is the goal.” Netanyahu has held the office of Prime Minister for 12 years, and if he manages, as it appears, to hold on until next year, he could surpass Israel’s founding father, David Ben Gurion, as the longest serving prime minister.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Airbnb’s Anti-Israel Hypocrisy The tech company will operate anywhere and serve anyone—except Jews in the West Bank.

By on November 26th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnbs-anti-israel-hypocrisy-1543175767

Two very different organizations took action last week against Jews owning property in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority sentenced two Palestinians to 15 years hard labor for selling land to Jews. And Airbnb, the tech behemoth and online marketplace for lodging, announced it would no longer serve Jewish communities in the West Bank. The two actions differ in brutality but are based on the same idea: Jews should have no home in the West Bank.

Under Airbnb’s policy, an American Jew with a rental property in the West Bank is barred from listing it for rent on the website. But an American Arab is welcome to list his home a few hundred meters away, even though the Palestinian law forbidding real-estate deals with Jews carries a maximum penalty of death. That openly racist policy doesn’t trigger Airbnb’s delisting policy.

Airbnb admits the West Bank is the site of complicated “historical disputes.” Until 1948, the West Bank was part of the League of Nations’ 1922 British Mandate for Palestine, created to become a “national home” for the Jewish people. In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution suggesting the territory be divided into Arab and Jewish states, an idea the Arabs immediately shot down. Indeed, when the mandate ended and Israel declared independence in 1948, all its Arab neighbors invaded immediately. Jordan occupied the West Bank and massacred or expelled every Jew in the area, took their homes and destroyed their synagogues. Israel only regained the West Bank after Jordan foolishly attacked again in 1967. Many Jews then returned, including to lands Jews had purchased before Israeli independence.

Since then, the dispute has narrowed. Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian leadership in 1993, leaving all settlements—the new and returning Jewish communities—under complete Israeli control. Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994. To be sure, the Palestinians still demand the removal of Jews from the entire West Bank. But Airbnb’s policy applies only to the Israeli—primarily Jewish—communities in the disputed territories.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on November 25th, 2018

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Brain bleed detection approved. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s MedyMatch and its Artificial Intelligent Accipio Ix intracranial hemorrhage detection software. MedyMatch (renamed MaxQ AI) has now received both FDA and CE approval to sell its systems in both the US and in Europe.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maxq-ai-receives-fda-clearance-for-accipio-ix-intracranial-hemorrhage-diagnostics-intelligence-platform-300745201.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UrqJ84BJbc

US approval for portable blood test. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (8th Apr) on Israel’s PixCell which received a multi-million grant by the EU to help advance its HemoScreen portable blood test. The US FDA has just approved HemoScreen to sell in the USA. Meanwhile, Israel’s SightDx has launched its OLO blood tester.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hemoscreen-hematology-analyzer-for-point-of-care-receives-fda-510k-clearance-300745234.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xjPf1N8T0k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1iSO1KaJ-Y https://www.sightdx.com/

Treatment for advanced Parkinson’s disease. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Intec Pharma which is developing treatments based on its innovative Accordion technology. Intec’s COO Nadav Navon provided an update of Intec’s pipeline on ILTV. Phase 3 trials have now commenced on Intec’s Parkinson’s treatment.
https://ir.intecpharma.com/news-releases/news-release-details/intec-pharma-completes-enrollment-pivotal-phase-3-clinical-trial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEAH5L6Ng0

Quadriplegic bridegroom stands at his wedding. (TY TIP) I reported previously (Dec 2015) about a paraplegic bridegroom who walked down the isle in an Israeli ReWalk exoskeleton. Now a quadriplegic Israeli, Adir, was able to stand next to his bride, Liat, thanks to ReWalk’s latest “UPnRIDE” mobility solution.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-device-lets-wheelchair-bound-groom-stand-under-chuppah/

The right treatment is in the DNA. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s 2bPrecise takes sources of patient genetic data to help physicians determine the best treatment for individuals. 2bPrecise is partnering with US-based Innovation Institute and Avera Health’s GeneFolio to deliver a pharmacogenomics knowledge base to the point of care.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181102005411/en/2bPrecise-Honored-Israel%E2%80%99s-Top-Startups https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180307005764/enhttps://2bprecisehealth.com/

Pediatric orthopedic training for 50 African doctors. Professor Mark Eidelman of Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center led a unique 4-day training course in Addis Ababa. 50 doctors from Ethiopia and neighboring countries learned how to fix pediatric orthopedic deformities.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/254979

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

From Ethiopian immigrant to Israeli Parliament. (TY UWI) Penina Tamanu-Shata is the first Ethiopian-born woman to become a member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset). Penina came to Israel in 1984 at the age of 3 during Operation Moses. She tells of her Aliyah and her work helping other immigrants to integrate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-wNynsw0Ec

Audio books for kids with reading difficulties. (TY Moshe K) The Israel Audiobook Project provides children with reading difficulties free access to texts in audio, rather than written, form. Now they too can enjoy the pleasure of well-known children’s stories and their characters.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/listening-to-a-world-of-adventures-one-magic-book-at-a-time/

Training program for special needs. Tel Aviv University and AKIM have launched a training program for those with learning difficulties to become professional dental sterilization technicians. Skills include decontamination, assembling, packaging, and distribution of re-usable surgical instruments and equipment.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/training-program-for-adults-with-intellectual-disabilities-opens-at-school-of-dental-medicine/2018/11/21/

The guy who saves wild animals. Avihu Sherwood runs the “For the Wildlife” Animal Rescue at the Dear Park Country Zoo, founded by Tzvi Adiv, on Israel’s Moshav Elishama, in Central Israel. Avihu tries to save any injured animal and reintroduce it into the wild – some 3,000 – 4,000 animals per year.
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/healing-nature/2018/05/28/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo61yiz6Mwg

Continue reading →
EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

A.J. Caschetta: Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies: Ramallah on the Hudson Welcome to the PLO’s American academic wing.

By on November 24th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272033/columbia-universitys-center-palestine-studies-aj-caschetta

http://www.thetower.org/6865-columbia-universitys-center-for-palestine-studies-ramallah-on-the-hudson/

The Trump administration may have closed the PLO’s Mission in Washington, D.C., but its Morningside Heights Mission is open for business. I refer to Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies (CPS), an Ivy League clearinghouse for PLO propaganda and the demonization of Israel. Call it the PLO’s American academic wing.

When the CPS opened more than eight years ago, founding co-director Rashid Khalidi promised that it would avoid doing “anything that’s directly related to any political activism.” This is laughable. What Khalidi meant is that the CSP would not participate in anti-Israel activism, but this is a lie. The faculty members who comprise the center’s experts are rivaled only by the faculty of Birzeit University for their anti-Israel advocacy.

It might, in fact, take a Center for Palestine Studies to examine thoroughly the history of Palestinian organizations devoted to political violence. But instead, Columbia has assembled the anti-Israel all-stars of academia, such as Joseph Massad, who has called for “the continuing resistance of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories to all the civil and military institutions that uphold Jewish supremacy.” Another member of CPS is Hamid Dabashi, who wrote that Israel is a “key actor” in “every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world.”

In addition to being a professor at Columbia’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the CPS, Khalidi also happens to be a former member of the PLO, as Martin Kramer has shown. Not since Columbia hired former Weather Underground member Kathy Boudinat its School of Social Work has it given a platform to “reformed” terrorists. At least Boudin expressed remorse, even if it was insincere. Not so Khalidi, a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS ) advocate whose views have remained consistent since his PLO days, though they are now masked in the academic patois of post-colonialism.

Brinkley Messick, the CPS’s other founding co-director, hyped it as the first academic center devoted to the study of Palestinian Arabs. “Very simply,” he gushed, “there’s never been a dedicated space … for this kind of research.” He was partly right. Columbia already had one called the Middle East Institute, which has an anti-Israel bent, but the CPS brought together faculty from beyond Middle East Studies, all dedicated to delegitimizing Israel and whitewashing Palestinian violence. Several of them have even been immortalized in The David Project’s documentary Columbia Unbecoming (2004) where their purported reluctance to be political is exposed as fraudulent.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

ISRAELI SCIENTISTS DEVELOP IMPLANTED ORGANS THAT WILL NOT BE REJECTED

By on November 20th, 2018

https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-scientists-develop-implanted-organs-that-wont-be-rejected/

Breakthrough development uses a patient’s own stomach cells, cutting the risk of an immune response to implanted organs.

Israeli researchers report that they have invented the first fully personalized tissue implant, engineered from a patient’s own materials and cells. The new technology makes it possible to engineer any kind of tissue implant, for the spinal cord, to the heart, or brain, from one small fatty tissue biopsy.

“We were able to create a personalized hydrogel from the materials of the biopsy, to differentiate fatty tissue cells into different cell types and to engineer cardiac, spinal cord, cortical and other tissue implants to treat different diseases,” said lead researcher Prof. Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University’s Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology.

“Since both the cells and the material used derive from the patient, the implant does not provoke an immune response, ensuring proper regeneration of the defected organ,” Dvir explained.

The research was conducted by Dvir’s postdoctoral researcher, Reuven Edri, and doctoral students Nadav Noor and Idan Gal, in collaboration with Prof. Dan Peer and Prof. Irit Gat Viks of TAU’s Department of Cell Research and Immunology and Prof. Lior Heller of Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center in Israel. It was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Israel’s improved ties with China don’t diminish its US alliance A prejudiced double standard has been applied to Israel’s prudent cooperation with China David Goldman and Marc Zell

By on November 19th, 2018

http://www.atimes.com/article/israels-improved-ties-with-china-dont-diminish-its-us-alliance/

Israel often is called America’s best ally. After the first two years of the Trump Administration no-one can doubt it. Among all of America’s allies, Israel has aligned itself unambiguously and without deviation with Washington’s objectives, while our European and Japanese allies have complained, temporized, and occasionally dealt with China and Russia behind America’s back. The President’s unflinching support for the Jewish State, including the historic move of our Israel embassy to Jerusalem, is reason enough for Israel to cleave to its American alliance.

But there is also a deep confluence of strategic interests at work. There is only one country in the Middle East with the expressed intent and prospective ability to destroy Israel, and that is Iran. China is a major vendor of weapons as well as weapons technology to Iran, especially the know-how to make missiles that can reach Israel and eventually carry nuclear warheads. China also is Iran’s largest trading partner, and its most important provider of industrial goods and hydrocarbon investments. This is a consideration far more pressing than any economic benefits that Israel obtains from trade and investment with China.
The dailyReport
Must-reads from across Asia – directly to your inbox

The Trump Administration’s pressure on China in response to its unfair trading practices, technology theft and strategic expansionism offers an inestimable benefit to the Jewish State: China knows that it will suffer consequences for its misbehavior in the form of tariffs, sanctions on individual companies, and possibly other means. That gives China an incentive to act responsibly with respect to Iran, where it exercises great economic influence.

To the extent that China cooperates with the Trump Administration’s economic sanctions on Iran, it will help to suppress the one serious existential threat to Israel. Israel has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Trump Administration in its diplomacy towards China, because American pressure on China bears directly on issues of life-and-death concern to the Jewish State. As participants in meetings with Chinese officials and academics in October, we heard Israeli representatives convey this message in the strongest possible terms.

American pressure with Israeli backing may be having an impact. Reuters reported October 23, “The Bank of Kunlun Co, the key Chinese conduit for transactions with Iran, is set to halt handling payments from the Islamic Republic under pressure of imminent US sanctions against the country.” China also has cut back its purchases of Iranian oil. That appears to be a small victory for the Trump’s administration muscular diplomacy, and one of great benefit to Israel.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Palestinians Arresting Women; Where are the Media? by Bassam Tawil

By on November 19th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13313/palestinians-arresting-women

Mahmoud Abbas does not want his people and the rest of the world to know that his security forces are arresting women for criticizing a social security law or providing financial aid to Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip.

Unlike Jbara and Marab’eh, Ahed Tamimi was lucky to be arrested by Israel. Had she been arrested by the Palestinian Authority, no one would ever have known.

This attitude is another example of the anti-Israel bias of the international media and community. It is yet another example of how the West gives the Palestinians a pass to violate human rights and crack down on dissent.

Last August, the Palestinian Authority (PA) protested because Israel arrested a Palestinian woman from Hebron on charges of incitement and affiliation with Hamas. The 42-year-old woman, Lama Khater, is also known as a strong critic of the President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

Khater’s scathing attacks on Abbas and his government, however, did not stop the Palestinian Authority from condemning Israel and demanding her immediate release.

This was not the first time that the Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel for arresting a Palestinian woman who voiced criticism of Abbas and his policies. Last year, the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel for arresting Khaleda Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of several PLO terrorist groups. Jarrar was arrested by Israel for membership in a terrorist group and incitement.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel and the Sunni Arab States Cannot Resist Iran Alone By Brandon J. Weichert

By on November 19th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/11/19/israel-and-the-sunni-arab

The small democratic state of Israel finds itself outnumbered—and potentially outgunned—as the Iranian threat, supported by its Hezbollah terrorist allies, amasses to its north.

Recently, though, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got itself in an even bigger mess. After allowing for Qatar to transfer $15 million in financial aid and gasoline to the blockaded Gaza Strip, Hamas, the terror organization that controls the rebellious Gaza, along with their allies in the Islamic Jihad group, fired off nearly 500 rockets into southern Israel.

The response from Israel, usually a forceful practitioner of decisive counterterrorism, has been strangely muted.

When it comes to the unruly Gaza Strip, the Israeli government tends to take a low-cost “mowing the grass” approach. Instead of trying to implement regime change (because their options for replacing the ruling Hamas range from bad to worse), the Israeli military prefers to let Hamas grow in strength. Then, once Hamas gets too big for its britches, the IDF marches on Gaza and cuts Hamas down to size. Netanyahu’s response to the recent violence has confused everyone in the region.

Netanyahu is known to Westerners as a counterterrorism hawk. After he failed to respond militarily to the recent rocket attacks, his even more hawkish defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, resigned in protest. Lieberman was vehemently opposed to Netanyahu’s initial approval for the transfer of $15 million from Qatar into Hamas coffers. At the time, Lieberman likened Netanyahu’s decision to that of protection money one pays to the mafia.

In that, Lieberman proved correct. But is that the whole story?

Continue reading →