RUTHFULLY YOURS

Western conventional wisdom has systematically failed in assessing Middle East developments.

For example, in 1978, conventional wisdom turned its back on the Shah of Iran – who was the USA Policeman of the Gulf –providing a tailwind to Ayatollah Khomeini, who transformed Iran into the most critical, clear and present threat to regional and global stability, as well as the homeland security of the USA and Europe. In 1981 and 2007, conventional wisdom aggressively criticized Israel for bombing of the nuclear reactors of Iraq and Syria. Until Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, conventional wisdom considered the ruthless Iraqi dictator an ally of the USA, worthy of intelligence-sharing, dual-use systems and multi-billion-dollar loan guarantees.

In 1994, conventional wisdom awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Arafat, a role model of hate education, terrorism and intra-Arab treachery. In 2010, conventional wisdom misread the volcanic eruption of the anti-Western Arab Tsunami as the Arab Spring, a Facebook and Youth Revolution. In 2012, conventional wisdom turned its back on Egyptian President Mubarak, welcoming the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamic terrorist group in the world.

In 2018, Western conventional wisdom embraces Mahmoud Abbas as a moderate, in comparison to Hamas, highlighting Abbas’ talk, rather than focusing on his walk: intra-Arab subversion, the terror-oriented K-12 education system, generous monthly subsidies to terrorists and their families, and maintaining close ties with enemies and adversaries of the USA.

One way or the other, Israel is to blame for all of the Middle East’s problems, claim many leading Muslims.

Consider the logic of the highly respected Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb—once voted the “most influential Muslim in the world”— as expressed during a televised interview. After claiming that “the genocides perpetrated by the Zionist entity” prompt aggrieved Muslims to turn to terrorism, he added:

[T]here would never have been any problem [had Israel not existed]. The Middle East and the region would have progressed, and the Arab individual would have been like any other person in the world, enjoying a good life, or at least enjoying the right to live in peace. However, this is… Allah willing, if we have time, I will explain how come this place was selected in the days of British colonialism, and how a most devious and malicious plot was hatched to plunge this dagger into the body of the Arab world, so that it would remain sick [emphasis added].

Thus, for those unconvinced by the “grievance” myth—that Israel “provokes” Muslims to resort to terrorism—Tayeb offers another angle: Israel itself is the creator and controller of Islamic terrorism. Continues the well-respected imam:

Recently, I’m sad to say, we had to swallow a dose of poison. It is manifest in our own preoccupation with our own [infighting], while the [Zionist] entity can relax. All we hear about is Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, whatever, the “Arab Spring,” or the “Arab Hell”… Has anybody heard anything about Israel or the Zionist entity recently? Has it occurred to people that this might be premeditated?

In other words, that Arab/Muslim nations everywhere are experiencing internal turmoil and fighting one another—while the Jewish/infidel state is left to “relax”—must be proof that the latter is controlling events behind the scenes.

Such are the conspiracy theories that top ranked Muslim clerics, above and beyond al-Tayeb, regularly disseminate throughout the Muslim world.

For the record, I am not one to dismiss what are labeled “conspiracy theories” out of hand—since to believe that there are no conspiracies and that whatever the powers-that-be think or do is “transparent” and will be reported to the average citizen is also irrational. The problem, however, with this conspiracy theory is that, just as Islamic doctrine and history gainsay the grievance accusation against Israel, so do they gainsay the “Israel as puppet master” claim.

Opposing a peace initiative because you do not like its content is one thing. Opposing a peace initiative designed to improve the lives of your people is another thing entirely.

Palestinian leaders do not care about their own people, so why should they care about peace with Jews?

They will never accept another plan, even if it comes from Prophet Muhammad.

It is easy to see why Palestinians would be opposed to the US administration’s upcoming plan for peace in the Middle East. The Palestinians do not like what they are hearing about the plan, which has not yet been made public.

Opposing a peace initiative because you do not like its content is one thing. Opposing a peace initiative designed to improve the lives of your people is another thing entirely. The latter defies logic and reveals the disappointing aspects of human nature.

Palestinian hatred of the US administration and President Donald Trump is so intense that the Palestinians are prepared to prolong the misery of their people.

Palestinian leaders care nothing for their people’s ongoing suffering. Give those leaders jobs, money and power, and their people be damned.

Once again, the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have fallen victim to their leaders’ greed, carelessness and idiocy.

Last week, we witnessed another example of how Palestinian leaders are prepared to fight for their own interests, at the expense of their people, all in order to remain in power and keep the funds flowing to their secret (and sometimes public) bank accounts.

US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, announced that the White House would soon host a meeting of “key countries and stakeholders to find real solutions to the problems has caused” in the Gaza Strip.

1. https://youtu.be/A8E77TrxWDA – VIDEO – Mordechai Kedar – Only weak sue for peace

2. http://mordechaikedar.com/a-taste-of-my-debate-on-al-jazeera-about-jerusalem/ – Dr. Mordechai Kedar interview on al Jazeera

The House of Windsor, with Prince William’s projected summer arrival, will make its first official visit to Israel since David Ben-Gurion proclaimed independence on May 14, 1948, a nice birthday present for my own arrival on Planet Earth on May 8th and, coincidentally, also the birthday of the American President who would fight his own State Department in recognizing the resurrected Jewish nation.

In good times and in bad, pre-and post-statehood Israel has been tied to Great Britain.

From the days of 19th and early 20th century British Christian Zionists culminating in Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour’s 1917 Declaration; to the separation of almost 80% of the original land envisioned by Balfour in the post-World War I 1920 Mandate of Palestine (all the land east of the Jordan River) in 1922, engineered by Colonial Secretary Churchill as a gift to Arab nationalism for Hashemite support for London’s war effort; to Lt. General Sir John Bagot Glubb’s British-led Transjordanian Arab Legion’s attack on a reborn Israel in 1948; to London’s White Papers limiting entrance of Jews fleeing for their lives from Nazi gas chambers; etc. and so forth, the Jews’ and the Brits’ histories have been closely intertwined.

Add to this the irony that right now, today, as London joins most others in the United Nations assailing Israel for refusing to return to its pre-’67 war existence as a 1949 armistice line-created, 9-15 mile wide sardine can of a state, it was Great Britain’s own Lord Caradon, the chief architect of the final draft of carefully-worded UNSC Resolution 242 after the ’67 fighting, who saw to it that Israel would not have to return to the status quo ante and withdraw to the ’49 lines. As corroborated by 242’s other architects, like Professor Eugene Rostow, Israel was to get real, more defensible, secure, and (wishful thinking) recognized borders instead.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Brain bleed detection gets Europe approval. Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision has received EU regulatory approval (i.e. the CE mark) for its new algorithm capable of detecting Intracranial hemorrhages (brain bleeds) from uploaded CT or MRI Scans. http://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3733482,00.html

Glucose analyzer gets Europe approval. I reported previously (twice) about Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes monitors for analyzing the data from Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs). DreaMed has just received the CE mark from the European Union for its Advisor Pro product.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-smart-software-harnesses-flood-of-data-to-manage-diabetes-care/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/_eMkeq0lrFc?rel=0

Excellent results for new prostate cancer test. (TY Hazel) I reported previously (July 2016) that Israel’s Micromedic Technologies had good results in an 18-patient trial of its CellDetect prostate cancer diagnosis solution. Latest tests on 59 samples were 80% successful – far exceeding the 25% for existing PSI tests.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-breakthrough-in-noninvasive-prostate-cancer-test/

Lifestyle controls your microbiome. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have found from a study of over 1,000 Israelis that there is no genetic link to the good bacteria in your gut (microbiome). A person’s health (cholesterol, weight, blood glucose levels etc.) however, can be controlled by maintaining a healthy stomach.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/genetics-or-lifestyle-what-it-shapes-our-microbiome

A diagnostic kit on a USB drive. The tech-transfer company of Ben-Gurion University, plus Israeli-founded, Singapore-based Biosensorix, are developing $5 disease diagnosis kits that connect to a smartphone via its USB port. Instead of sending samples for lab tests, medical staff can get immediate blood test results and decide on a course of action. https://www.israel21c.org/new-usb-like-diagnostic-kits-provide-faster-results/

Using AI to analyze biopsies. Israeli startup Nucleai is developing computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to help overworked pathologists process and analyze biopsies for cancer quicker and more accurately. Nucleai founders have years of experience of computer vision gained during their IDF service.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-aims-at-disease-diagnosis-helping-pathologists-process-biopsies/

UK-Israel fund to research aging process. The UK has launched a new £5m fund to promote scientific collaboration and research between Israel and the UK into the aging process. The Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange (BIRAX) Aging fund will also promote research that into aging-related diseases.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-sets-up-5m-fund-for-collaboration-with-israel-on-aging-process/

$20 million donation for nuclear medicine center. Russian Jewish billionaire Roman Abramovich has donated $20 million to Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to build a new medical center for nuclear medicine and research. Its cyclotron particle accelerator will use radioactive ion beams to pinpoint and kill cancer cells.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/chessed-and-tzedaka/billionaire-donates-20m-to-israels-sheba-hospital-for-nuclear-medicine-research-center/2018/03/03/

The Arab exodus from Israel in 1948 was the direct result of a genocidal war declared against the newly established Jewish state by all of its Arab neighbors, including the Arabs of Israel… approximately 700,000 local Arabs were displaced.

Approximately the same number of Jews were displaced from their Arab homelands during this period. Nearly all of them could trace their heritage back thousands of years, well before the Muslims and Arabs became the dominant population. …The most significant difference is between how Israel dealt with the Jews who were displaced and how the Arab and Muslim word dealt with the Palestinians who had been displaced by a war they started. Israel integrated its brothers and sisters from the Arab and Muslim world. The Arab world put its Palestinian brothers and sisters in refugee camps, treating them as political pawns — and festering sores —in its persistent war against the Jewish state.

The time has come – indeed it is long overdue – for the world to stop treating these Palestinians as refugees. That status ended decades ago. The Jews who came to Israel from Morocco many years ago are no longer refugees. Neither are the relatives of the Palestinians who have lived outside of Israel for nearly three quarters of a century.

A visit to Morocco shows that the claim of Palestinians to a “right of return” has little historic, moral or legal basis.

Jews lived in Morocco for centuries before Islam came to Casablanca, Fez and Marrakesh. The Jews, along with the Berbers, were the backbone of the economy and culture. Now their historic presence can be seen primarily in the hundreds of Jewish cemeteries and abandoned synagogues that are omnipresent in cities and towns throughout the Maghreb.

I visited Maimonides’s home, now a restaurant. The great Jewish philosopher and medical doctor taught at a university in Fez. Other Jewish intellectuals helped shape the culture of North Africa, from Morocco to Algeria to Tunisia to Egypt. In these countries, Jews were always a minority but their presence was felt in every area of life.

The Juniper Cobra 18 exercise, held since 2001, practices the rapid deployment of American air-defense units and equipment to Israel from Europe in the event of armed conflict.
The Israeli and U.S. militaries are in the midst of a large-scale missile-defense exercise, designed to simulate responses to a Middle East war on multiple fronts.

The scenario at the heart of the planned, biannual drill involves the Israeli home front coming under heavy enemy fire from several directions simultaneously.

The Juniper Cobra 18 exercise, held since 2001, practices the rapid deployment of American air-defense units and equipment to Israel from Europe in the event of armed conflict, in addition to the integration of U.S. capabilities into Israel’s air-defense layers.

“If conditions arise, and we are requested by the government of Israel, through our government, we will deploy,” said Lt.-Gen. Richard M. Clark, commander of the United States 3rd Air Force. Clark, who is based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, added: “Once we get word, we can get here in days. I could be on the ground in one day. The fighting forces can be here within 72 hours.”

Brig.-Gen. Zvika Haimovich, who heads the Israeli Air Defense Command of the Israel Defense Forces, said it was the largest U.S.–IDF exercise to date, adding that it is expected to play out in the course of more than four weeks.

Some 2,500 American personnel are taking part in the endeavor. Most were mobilized to Israel, while some stayed in Europe and the United States. Around 2,000 IDF personnel are taking part as well.

The United States European Command, based in Germany, sent a number of American air-defense systems to Israel.

To the Washington, DC policy community, and to Jewish organizations across America, Uri Lubrani had become a familiar face.

The first time I met him in Washington was in November 1994, when he came to openly challenge the Clinton administration over what he saw as an appeasement policy toward the Iranian regime.

His words at the time ought to resonate in the ears of policy-makers and corporate lobbyists seeking to do business in Iran today.

As I wrote in Countdown to Crisis, the Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran:

“Let me make it absolutely clear,” Lubrani said. “The Iranis have no doubt in their mind that when some of the largest U.S. companies seek a working or trading relationship with Iran, even if this is done indirectly, it cannot be done without the knowledge and explicit approval and authorization by the highest quarters in Washington. This is so because it would be unthinkable to an Irani mind, which has no understanding of the inner workings of a democracy, that such activities are at all possible without being sanctioned from above.”

At the time, the company seeking to do business in Iran was oil giant Conoco. Today, of course, it is Boeing.

On Monday, with Lubrani’s peaceful death at the age of 91, Israel lost a warrior, and a giant.