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ISRAEL

Israeli Leader Visits Oman’s Ruler in Sign of Improving Relations Netanyahu and Sultan Qaboos meet for the first time to discuss regional stability By Felicia Schwartz

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-leader-visits-omans-ruler-in-sign-of-improving-relations-1540575081

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to meet Oman’s ruler this week to discuss regional issues, the first official summit between the leaders and a sign of improving relations between Israel and the Arab Gulf states.

Mr. Netanyahu returned from Oman on Friday afternoon after meeting Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, the Israeli leader’s office said in a statement. He was accompanied by his wife, Sara, and several senior Israeli officials including the head of the country’s spy agency, Yossi Cohen. A brief statement released by Oman said the meeting between the two leaders took place on Thursday.

Israel has no formal diplomatic relations with Oman or its Arab Gulf neighbors. But boosting ties, particularly on the basis of a shared interest in countering regional rival Iran, has been a priority for Mr. Netanyahu as prime minister. Israel shares some intelligence information with Arab Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., according to current and former American and Israeli officials. But cooperation has remained tacit absent a resolution to the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office said the visit is a significant step toward his goal “of deepening relations with the states of the region while leveraging Israel’s advantages in security, technology and economic matters.”

The Trump administration welcomed the visit and described it as useful to its effort to bring about peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Bolivia promoting another anti-Israel event at UN Security Council Ariel Kahana

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/24/bolivia-promoting-another-anti-israel-event-at-un-security-council/

Bolivian ambassador invites Randa Siniora, a known supporter of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, to ‎address the Security Council • “Circus of Bolivian hypocrisy continues,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon says.

The Bolivian mission to the United Nations, which ‎holds the Security Council presidency this ‎month‎, ‎announced Tuesday that it plans to host another anti-‎Israel event at the forum.‎

Bolivian Ambassador to the U.N. Sacha Sergio ‎Llorenti Soliz has invited Randa Siniora, director ‎of the Ramallah-based Women’s Center for Legal Aid ‎and Counselling and former director of Al-Haq – both ‎groups that promote anti-Israel lawfare and support ‎the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement – to ‎address the Security Council.‎

Al-Haq’s delegitimization campaign against Israel ‎is especially virulent, and past ‎officials in the organization have been convicted of ‎affiliation with the Popular Front for the ‎Liberation of Palestine, designated by Israel as a ‎terrorist group.‎

Soliz was also the driving force behind inviting ‎Hagai El-Ad, director of the human rights group B’Tselem to ‎address the Security Council.‎

Report: Jordanian MPs demand review of peace treaty ‎with Israel ‎ Daniel Siryoti

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/24/report-jordanian-mps-demand-review-of-peace-treaty-%e2%80%8ewith-israel-%e2%80%8e/

In wake of a decision to void clauses in 1994 peace deal leasing borderlands to Israel, hawkish lawmakers urge King Abdullah to exit treaty altogether • Security around Israeli Embassy in Amman increased ahead of a mass anti-Israel march planned for Friday.

Members of the Jordanian Parliament on Tuesday demanded a special session be held to review the 1994 peace treaty with Israel, and some hawkish lawmakers urged King Abdullah to cancel the agreement altogether, local media reported.

The move followed an announcement by Abdullah on Sunday that he has decided ‎to pull out of clauses in the ‎agreement that allow Israel to lease two small areas – ‎Baqura, known as Naharayim in Hebrew, in the northern Jordan Valley, and Ghamr in ‎the south – from the Jordanians for 25 years. ‎

The leases expire next year and the deadline for ‎renewing them is Thursday.‎

Naharayim, a small parcel of land also called the “Isle of Peace,” has become the center of recent friction between the longtime peace partners.

The 1994 peace treaty, signed between then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Abdullah’s father, King Hussein, is vastly unpopular in Jordan, where ‎‎pro-Palestinian sentiment is widespread.

‎‎Activists and politicians have been vocal against a ‎‎renewal of the lease clauses, which they say is ‎‎”humiliating” and perpetuates “‎Israeli occupation” ‎of Jordanian territory.‎

Palestinian Arab women in the Intifada: The “ultimate Trojan horse.” The role of Palestinian Arab women in the first Intifada, Part I Dr. Alex Grobman,

Dr. Alex Grobman is a historian and author of The Palestinian Right To Israel (Balfour Books, 2010). He co-authored “Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened And Why Do They Say It?” (University of California Press, 2000). His newest book is License to Murder: The Enduring Threat of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

“Naila and the Uprising,” a controversial film produced by Just Vision, is about the role ostensibly played by Palestinian Arab women in the first intifada. According to the producers, who are “a team of human rights advocates, journalists, and filmmakers,” their goal “is to contribute to fostering peace and an end to the occupation by rendering Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders more visible, valued and influential in their efforts.”

In reality, the film is another attempt to defame Israel as the aggressor and an occupier of Arab lands. In contrast, the objective of the article below is to briefly outline the role of Palestinian Arab women as suicide bombers, and their position during the first intifada.

Women have been involved in terrorist activities in a number of countries including Algiers, Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Nigeria, West Africa, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Peru, Jordan, Pakistan, Japan, Syria, Russia and Turkey. Terrorist organizations, including ISIS, began using women once they realized they were far better able to evade detection than men.

Palestinian Arabs believed women would be less likely to be stopped at checkpoints or be subjected to meticulous security searches, and their participation increased the ability of terrorist organizations to succeed in mounting an attack. [1] In an attempt to deceive the Israeli military, some terrorists initially used fake ID cards, particularly Red Crescent ID’s. [2]

The young terrorists did whatever is required “to blend in” to get near to as many people as possible to blow them up or maim them. From a description of the first intifada:

Hashemite Chutzpah by Gerald A. Honigman

http://q4j-middle-east.com

Herb Keinon and Khaled Abu Toameh reported in the October 21, 2018 Jerusalem Post on King Abdullah II of Jordan’s decision to downgrade its peace treaty with Israel.

More specifically, this decision involves Jordan wanting to…“opt out of annexes from its 1994 peace treaty with Israel that leased two border areas that historically were difficult to delineate…the king’s decision followed a request from government activists not to renew the agreement and to revoke Israeli ownership from Jordanian land.” Israel had been using the areas for agricultural purposes. The report further explained that…

“Abdullah is in a vice. While he needs the peace treaty with Israel for the security of his regime, he has domestic Islamic elements to deal with and at times placate. He is also dealing with Syrian crisis, which has not only inundated his country with refugees, but also put Iran perilously close. The language Abdullah used in announcing the move–Jordanian land, Jordanian interests–is a bone thrown to the Islamists.”

In reality, I doubt that Islamists care much about the “Jordanian” aspect to this issue.

What Islamists do care about is the land being in the hands of folks from their perceived Dar al-Harb (realm of war)–not Dar ul-Islam…especially those of the Arabs’ despised kilab yahud ilk–“Jew dogs.”

Palestinians ‘Peoplehood’ Based on a Big Lie Eli E. Hertz

http://www.mythsandfacts.org/article_view.asp?articleID=348

There is no age-old Palestinian people. Most so-called Palestinians are relative newcomers to the Land of Israel.

Palestine is ‘not a state’
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton

The Palestinians claim that they are an ancient and indigenous people fails to stand up to historic scrutiny. Most Palestinian Arabs were newcomers to British Mandate Palestine. Until the 1967 Six-Day War made it expedient for Arabs to create a Palestinian peoplehood, local Arabs simply considered themselves part of the ‘great Arab nation’ or ‘southern Syrians.’

Palestinian Arabs cast themselves as a native people in “Palestine” – like the Aborigines in Australia or Native Americans in America. They portray the Jews as European imperialists and colonizers. This is simply untrue. Until the Jews began returning to the Land of Israel in increasing numbers from the late 19th century to the turn of the 20th, the area called Palestine was a God-forsaken backwash that belonged to the Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey.

What caused the collapse of Palestinian society? In addition to serious cleavages dating to Ottoman times that existed in local Arab society, it was the absence of an alternative Arab infrastructure after the British pulled out of Mandate Palestine. Because Palestinian Arab society had been so dependent on British civil administration and social services, Britain’s departure left Arab civil servants jobless. As a result, most social services and civil administration ceased to function in the Arab sector, disrupting the flow of essential commodities such as food and fuel, which added to their hardships and uncertainties.

Why Israel? Because Iran Shoshana Bryen

American Ambassador David Friedman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and their wives were hosted by Commander David Coles, and the speeches emphasized the close relations between the United States and Israel — specifically, between the two navies.

Amid the comradery, however, it was noted that the ceremony was the first U.S. port visit to Ashdod in twenty years.

The naval base at Haifa has seen more action. Most recently, in June, the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook visited, following March visits by the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima and the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney.

In that context, however, when the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush docked in Haifa in July 2017, it was the first carrier visit to an Israeli port since the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in April 2000.

The 1980s and 1990s were the heyday of the Sixth Fleet in Haifa. American ships did repairs at Israel Shipyards and brought the first Marines for training in Israel. The American government paid to refurbish the shipyards to enable them to handle the fleet’s larger ships. A well-used USO facility opened in Haifa in 1984 and the sailors contributed about $1 million a day to the Israeli tourist economy.

In 2000, however, after the bombing of the USS Cole near Yemen, liberty for American sailors in the Middle East was largely curtailed — in Israel as well as in countries that posed an overt threat to American interests.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL: MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Israeli heart surgery for Iraqi-Kurdish newborn. (TY Nevet) An Iraqi baby born with a congenital heart defect is being flown to Israel for life-saving surgery after an emergency appeal to Israel’s Interior Ministry. Baby Ahlam, from Iraqi Kurdistan, suffers from the reversal of the main arteries carrying blood from the heart.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iraqi-kurdish-baby-heads-to-israel-for-urgent-surgery-after-minister-intervenes/

US approval for brain scan software. I reported previously (Nov 2016) on Israel’s Aidoc whose AI image software helps radiologists in fast detection of acute brain bleeds in CT scans. Aidoc’s system has now received US FDA approval and is currently in use at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-brain-scan-reading-ai-based-software-gets-thumbs-up-from-fda-time/

US approves Teva’s cancer treatment. (TY Arlene) The US FDA’s oncology committee has approved CT-P10 – Teva’s monoclonal antibody biosimilar to Rituxan (rituximab) for the treatment of various forms of cancer. The development of biosimilars has the potential to increase accessibility to therapies for patients.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-teva-receives-fda-nod-for-rituxan-biosimilar-cancer-drug-1001256084

“Moses” blasts bladder stones. Conventional treatment of bladder stones uses a laser that causes the stone to be repelled, extending the time taken to destroy it. Israeli biotech Lumenis’ laser technology (named “Moses”) keeps the stone in place, saving time, anesthesia and money. Nice simple video demonstrates this.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/moses-a-new-stone-striking-method-seen-as-game-changer-for-urologists
https://www.youtube.com/embed/eU4sdpa9rLM?rel=0

A replacement for the “forgotten valve”. Israeli startup Trisol Medical is developing a minimally invasive device that can replace a faulty tricuspid heart valve. The tricuspid valve is known as the “forgotten valve” as other bio-techs have focused efforts developing replacements for the aortic and mitral valves.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-trisol-medical-raises-27m-1001256513

Contact lenses for the nose. Israel’s Beck Medical has developed NozNoz – a silicon nasal insert that curbs the appetite by blocking the senses of smell and taste. The effect is to prevent stimulating the body’s olfactory bulb that controls hunger and food preferences. NozNoz is comparable to contact lenses for the nose.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-contact-lenses-for-the-nose-that-might-help-you-lose-weight/

Hope in sight for vision impaired. (TY WIN) Israeli startup ICI Vision has developed Orama – digital glasses to help the visually impaired to see more clearly. Orama uses artificial intelligence (AI), eye-tracking software, a built-in 3D camera and more, to map and project images onto an individual’s remaining healthy retina cells.
https://www.israel21c.org/digital-glasses-offer-hope-of-sight-for-vision-impaired/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/BrR_CbsHLkU?rel=0

Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss — Lara Alqasem’s enablers: Caroline Glick

http://carolineglick.com/bret-stephens-and-bari-weiss-lara-alqasems-enablers/

For the past two weeks, Israel-bashers have had a brand-new poster child. Her name is Lara Alqasem.

Alqasem is an American citizen registered in a masters degree program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is also a key operative in the so-called BDS or “boycott, divestment and sanctions” campaign against Israel.

Alqasem flew to Israel two weeks ago. Upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport, in accordance with Israeli law, which bars BDS activists from entering Israel, Alqasem was denied entry and immigration officials attempted to deport her.

Rather than agree to go home, Alqasem called in a battery of attorneys to appeal the decision in court. The move went from one judicial body to another, gathering the force of a massive media storm from day to day until it landed on the laps of three justices in Israel’s radical Supreme Court.

The three justices, who care more about looking good to the Left — and the New York Times — than the law, predictably ignored the law and let her in.

How did an expulsion order against a 22-year-old graduate student cause such a maelstrom? How did it come about that Alqasem was immediately defended by a battery of lawyers? Why did Israel’s leftist media outlets and the world media immediately embrace her as a heroine, and so ensure that Israel’s radical justices would pounce at the opportunity to prove their leftist credentials and let her into the country?

To understand how Lara Alqasem became an instant celebrity for Israel-haters and an attractive victim worth saving for Israeli leftists, we need to understand a few basic truths.

U.S. Closes Jerusalem Consulate Serving Palestinians Israel cheers move, while Palestinian officials call it another blow to aspirations for an independent stateBy Felicia Schwartz

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-closes-jerusalem-consulate-serving-palestinians-1539882780

TEL AVIV—The Trump administration said it would merge its Jerusalem consulate responsible for relations with the Palestinians into its newly relocated U.S. Embassy there, another symbolic blow to American-Palestinian relations.

The consulate in Jerusalem has functioned essentially as an embassy to the Palestinians. It was separate from the operations of the U.S. Embassy, which stewarded relations with the Israelis from Tel Aviv until May, when President Trump moved it to Jerusalem to fulfill a campaign promise.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said the consulate closure was aimed at efficiency and wasn’t a policy change. He said a newly created Palestinian Affairs unit will operate out of the old consulate building, conducting reporting, outreach and programming with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.

Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for diplomacy and a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., welcomed the move on Twitter, calling it a great day for Israel, Jerusalem and the U.S.

Senior Palestinian officials called it another blow to their aspirations for an independent state.

“The Trump administration is making clear that it is working together with the Israeli government to impose greater Israel rather than the two-state solution on the 1967 borders,” said Saeb Erekat, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s secretary-general. “The U.S. administration has fully endorsed the Israeli narrative, including on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements.”

Palestinian officials have cut off contact with the Trump administration since December, when Mr. Trump said he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.