RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270878/legitimacy-israels-nationality-law-joseph-puder

Upon passing the Nationality Law in Israel’s Knesset (Parliament) by a vote of 62 to 55, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the podium and declared, “One hundred and twenty-two years after Theodore Herzl published his vision we have enshrined into the law the basic principle of our existence.” He added, “This is our country, the state of the Jews. But in recent years there have been some people who have been trying to undermine that, and by so doing, to undermine the foundations of our existence and rights. Well, today we etched into the rock of law: this is our country, this is our language, this is our national anthem, and this is our flag. Long live the state of Israel.”

Netanyahu, in defending the Nationality Bill pointed out that “When Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the state, he didn’t see the need to legislate Basic Laws to ensure its Jewish and democratic character…now there are those that challenge the state of Israel’s Jewish character…” Netanyahu’s reference had in mind Mahmoud Abbas’ refusal to recognize Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people.” Netanyahu also made the point that Israel is the only state in the Middle East that honors equal rights.

Isaac Herzog, the Opposition leader, told the plenum, that “it’s a little sad to me that the last speech I make will be against this kind of backdrop. The question is whether the law will harm or benefit Israel. History will determine. I really hope that we won’t find the fine balance between a Jewish and democratic state to be hurt.”

Yariv Levin, Israel’s Minister of Tourism, was one of the sponsors of the Nationality Law. Speaking prior to the vote, he appealed to the opposition by saying, “I ask you my friends from the Zionist Union, (a left-of-center Zionist party) to reply honestly to the question of what is in the law that you oppose. It is a law that expresses the deepest foundations of Zionism and the foundation on which the State of Israel was built. It states the obvious: The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people,”

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A genetic test for aging. The WizeAging study at Israel’s Weizmann Institute has enrolled 150 volunteers who take a blood test once a year to check for genetic mutations that indicate abnormal aging. Their target is 10,000 volunteers over the age of 50, to help with the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of age-related diseases.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/genetic-test-aging

Instant blood tests from a pin-prick. I reported previously (see here) on Israeli startup Sight Diagnostics and its Malaria blood test. Now Sight Diagnostics has launched a “lab-grade” desktop blood count analyzer called OLO, that digitizes blood images into complete blood count (CBC) tests from only a finger prick of blood.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/12/sight-diagnostics-launches-an-ai-based-diagnostics-device-for-faster-blood-tests/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWwwJ8L7Veo

Re-engineering the immune system to fight cancer. I have reported nearly 20 articles (see here) about Israeli scientists using immunotherapy to tackle cancer. Now Israel’s Cancer Research Fund and US Cancer Research Institute are partnering to decide which, of 160 Israeli research projects, could make the next big breakthrough.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/248564

Positive emotions can shrink tumors. (TY WIN) Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have linked positive emotions with cancer remission. In laboratory tests, increased levels of the pleasurable neurotransmitter dopamine helped the immune system to reduce tumor size by 50 per cent.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-study-shows-positive-emotions-may-shrink-cancer-tumors/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/gDZUiOqhzfA?rel=0

Palestinian Arab baby saved. Israeli Border Police in the city of Hebron saved the life of a nine-month-old Palestinian Arab baby. Hearing shouts from a house, they found an unconscious baby boy and distraught parents. They administered CPR until an Israeli medical team arrived to restore the baby’s breathing.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-troops-save-life-of-palestinian-baby-in-hebron/

Mobile dental clinic for Kenya. Israeli humanitarian aid organization IsraAID set up a mobile dental clinic for one week in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. The four-person dental team treated many of the 190,000 refugees in the camp, many of whom had never received dental care in their lives.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-set-up-mobile-dental-clinic-in-kenya/

https://freebeacon.com/blog/israels-nation-state-law-matters/

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the “spirit of Hitler has been revived, Israel is the most fascist and racist state.” He then called on—well, everybody—”to work against Israel.” What sent Erdogan into orbit was Israel’s newly minted Nation-State Law, which passed last week by a vote of 62 to 55 after a boisterous Knesset debate lasting over eight hours.

The law declares the Land of Israel is the Jewish people’s historic homeland. It identifies symbols of the state—the flag with its Star of David, the menorah, the national anthem Hatikvah (“the Hope”). It codifies certain official holidays like the Sabbath, recognizes Hebrew as the official language and proclaims encouragement for Jewish immigration and Jewish settlement.

Much of this sounds ho-hum. The law in good part is a reprise of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that it is the “natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.”

Nevertheless, the Nation-State Law is significant:

1) It gives the 1948 declaration the force of law. As the first president of Israel’s Supreme Court said: “The Declaration expresses the vision and credo of the people; but it is not a constitutional law making a practical ruling on the upholding or nullification of various ordinances and statutes.”

For many years, Israeli legal scholars have called for turning the Declaration into a Basic law—Basic Laws in Israel have greater force than other laws as they cannot be easily overturned. Israel has about a dozen such laws. They are akin to a Bill of Rights in a country that has yet to pass a constitution.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12762/dignity-for-the-palestinians

Given that all Palestinian leaderships have called for a Palestinian state that will encompass and obliterate the state of Israel, it is not surprising that they cannot bear to accept any proposal that will give them only one small state (or two small states) in the territory allotted to them by the United Nations in 1947.

Re-imposition of Islamic waqf law will not restore Spain, Portugal, Sicily, India, Greece and all the other states of the abandoned caliphal empires to Muslim rule, and it is futile to think that is nothing more than a fantasy.

A recent US report revealed that there are, it seems, actually no more than 20,000 Palestinian refugees in the world.

In the end, it is so-called pro-Palestinian activists such as Robert Fisk or writers for papers such as The Independent, The Guardian, or the New York Times who do their utmost to persuade the world to favour Palestinian intransigence over offers of upgrading lives and international law.

Anyone who cares for Israel, who aspires to peace, who has a good understanding of the historical, ethical, political, and legal facts that underpin the right of the Jewish people to a state of which they are the indigenous people, will be familiar with the name of Robert Fisk. But not in a good way.

For decades, Fisk has been one of the most unrelenting of Israel’s many haters and one of the most uncritical supporters of the rights of the Palestinians and their unending calls and actions aimed at the total destruction of Israel and the expulsion or massacre of the Jewish people living there.[1]

Fisk is a clever man. He took his PhD in 1983 from Trinity College, Dublin, an ancient and respected university. Although his doctorate was in political science on a topic related to Ireland and Britain, he has worked as the Middle East correspondent for the Times (1976-1988) and, since 1989, for the left-wing daily, The Independent.

Over the years, he has reported on many wars in many countries and has written and co-authored many books about them, all of them about their conflicts.[2]

Given his Jack-of-all trades character, it is not surprising that Fisk does not always get his facts straight, and for this he has often been criticized by people with deeper knowledge, as here or here: He is opinionated, often in an extreme way, functioning more as an activist than a reporter. According to UKMediaWatch:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270854/anti-semitism-full-display-un-joseph-klein

Natan Sharansky has written about what he called the “new anti-Semitism,” which “is aimed at the Jewish state.” He described his ‘3D’ test “to help us distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism.” The 3D’s stand for “demonization,” “double standards,” and “delegitimization.”

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the outgoing head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, displayed once again how he has satisfied all 3D’s that define today’s brand of anti-Semitism. In a video address to the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Monday, he condemned only Israel for the ongoing violence in Gaza. He blamed the “grossly inadequate living conditions” only on Israel’s 11-year Gaza partial blockade. Zeid gave the terrorist organization Hamas a free pass. For good measure, Zeid also denounced the Israeli Knesset’s recent approval of a law that declared Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people. He said the law “anchors inherent discrimination against non-Jewish communities, most notably the Arab citizens of Israel and residents of occupied East Jerusalem.”

The principal reason why Zeid’s inflammatory comments constitute rank anti-Semitism is not because they criticize Israeli government policies and actions. Such criticisms, if based on objective facts, are legitimate, as Mr. Sharansky has acknowledged. Zeid is anti-Semitic because he demonizes and spreads lies about Israel and delegitimizes its Jewish identity, while applying a hypocritical double standard in his denunciations.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its military from Gaza and dismantled its settlements there in 2005. The Palestinians then became the masters of their own fate. Israel worked cooperatively with the Palestinian Authority after its withdrawal to keep border crossings between Gaza and Israel as open and secure as possible. Once the Hamas terrorists came into power, however, and forcibly threw their Fatah rivals out of Gaza, they set about converting what could have been an economically self-sufficient, independently governed prototype of a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace with Israel, into a haven for terrorism.

http://theettingerreport.com/Palestinian-Issue/The-Palestinian-polygraph-%E2%80%93-hate-education-and-inc.aspx

The Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum, dogmatic education system and controlled-media reflect its worldview and core values, as is the case in all non-democratic regimes.

The Palestinian school curriculum has been the most critical tool to indoctrinate and mold Palestinian youth – K through 12 – in accordance with the dominant ideology and policy of the Palestinian Authority, aiming to sustain the regime and advance its goals.

Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish themes, which have dominated the Palestinian curriculum and controlled-media, reflect the inherently primary geo-strategic goals of the Palestinian Authority. As documented by the Palestinian curriculum, the Palestinian Authority has not been preoccupied with the size – but with the existence – of the “infidel” Jewish State in the “abode of Islam.”

For example, “Where are the cavalrymen who will dash to liberate [the Jerusalem Al Aqsa Mosque] from the fists of the infidel aides of the devil [the Jews]” (7th grade, Arabic Language, volume 1, p. 66)? “The Jews did not honor the accord [with the Prophet Muhammad] and resorted to betrayal, treachery and hostility, which forced the Moslems to fight them” (7th grade, Islamic Education, volume 1, p. 50). “The Jews repeated their attempts to murder The Messenger [Muhammad]” (5th grade, Islamic Education, volume 2, p. 66). “Jihad [a binding Holy War] is one of the gates to Paradise” (7th grade, Arabic Language, volume 2, p.92).

The aforementioned quotes featured in a June 2018 study of over 200 Palestinian school books – many of them used in UNRWA schools – which was conducted by the veteran researcher of Palestinian curriculum, Dr. Arnon Groiss, commissioned by the Jerusalem-based “Center for Near East Policy Research” and published by Israel-based “Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.”

www.geraldahonigman.com

So, the Arabs of Gaza have come up with a new method to attack Israel.

At least one dead falcon was found tied to incendiary materials to set the Jewish State ablaze–along with fire kites, balloons, and other such materials already being used. Not to mention mortars, missiles, and Qassam rockets. The latter, along with Hamas’s Qassam Brigade, are named for that late, great “native Palestinian” throat-slitter-of-Jews hero, Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam.

Like many, if not most, other alleged Arab “aboriginals,” Izzy came into the early post-World War I Mandate of Palestine from elsewhere, outside the Mandate. In his case–along with scores of thousands of other Arabs–from Latakia and other parts of Syria. Primary sources from the period such as the Minutes of the Permanent Mandates Commission of The League of Nations, are filled with such accounts. Scores of thousands of their Syrian Jewish neighbors would flee Syria as refugees a while later. They had lived in Syria since biblical times, long before Arabs conquered the land many centuries later.

Moving on to current news…

Regarding the deceased bird of prey drafted for the Arab cause (i.e., the latest Arab use of live creatures, Homo sapiens included, as ILEDs–Improvised Living Explosive Devices), one of the most vocal animal rights groups offered:

“As an animal-protection organization, PETA notes that animals claim allegiance to no nation, don’t choose sides, and can only rely on human beings to show them mercy, and it is unacceptable to use them as weapons of war.”

PETA, of course, is correct–but there’s more to this callous disregard for life than what one dead bird might suggest. So, please bear with me…

Let me begin by stating that there is a tradition in both Judaism and, much later, Islam to treat animals in a humane way. And, in the modern age of factory farming and such–with all the inhumane practices which accompany them–none but the vegetarian comes out really looking good regarding this matter. Having stated this, there are still, nevertheless, some vey real differences in general practice between adherents of those two faiths.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12753/palestinian-authority-silences-students

By targeting Palestinian journalists and university students, the Palestinian Authority shows that it has turned the territories under its control into a dictatorship that systematically grinds public freedoms into the ground.

Palestinians are permitted to badmouth Israel and the US — but that is where their “freedom of speech” ends. Let a Palestinian utter a bad word about his leaders — he will find himself (or herself) behind bars. This bodes rather poorly for the future of democracy and free speech in a Palestinian state. In fact, it discloses exactly what a Palestinian state would look like, if and when it is ever established.

Failing to hold the PA leadership accountable for its actions against journalists and university students drives Palestinians into the open arms of Hamas. Yet the international media remains mute in the face of the PA’s flouting of the right to freedom of expression. Why? Because, for the foreign media, a story that does not serve to bash Israel is not “news that’s fit to print.”

A Palestinian electric engineer from the West Bank is facing up to one year in prison and a heavy fine. Ibrahim Al-Masri, who was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces on June 19, is the latest victim of the PA’s continued crackdown on its political opponents and dissenters.

Al-Masri’s lawyer said that his client was taken into custody under the PA’s new controversial Cyber Crime Law, which targets Palestinian social media users. His family said they learned about his detention more than 24 hours after he was taken into custody. They pointed out that Al-Masri was arrested for posting comments on Facebook criticizing the PA security forces for beating him during a demonstration in Ramallah last month. The demonstration was organized by Palestinian activists to protest the economic sanctions imposed by the PA government on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The Cyber Crime Law, which has drawn sharp criticism from Palestinian human rights and media organizations, states that, “Anyone who creates or manages or an information technology platform that aims to publish news that would endanger the integrity of the Palestinian state, the public order or the internal or external security of the State, shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of at least one year and no more than 5,000 Jordanian dinars (approximately $7,000) or by a combination of both punishments.”

The law effectively authorizes the PA security forces to arrest Palestinians for their activities on social media, especially if their postings are deemed “offensive” to senior Palestinian officials or harmful to the “integrity of the Palestinian state” which, one might note, remains to be established.

Palestinians are now wondering whether the Ramallah-based PA leadership has created a “Facebook Police” to monitor their activities on the giant social media portal.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270837/whos-afraid-jewish-state-daniel-greenfield

“Israel, the “Palestinians”, the two-state solution and all the rest of it was never the issue. Jewishness is. The only people who are afraid of a Jewish State either hate Jews or hate being Jewish.”

The Palestinian Authority’s basic law and draft constitution states that “Palestine” is an “Arab” entity, that “Islam is the official religion”, that “Islamic Sharia” is the basis for its law and Arabic is its official language. Unlike Israel’s nation-state bill which defines the Jewish State as Jewish, there’s been no criticism of this PLO document. And the media has not labeled it as divisive or controversial.

The constitution of neighboring Jordan states, “Islam is the religion of the State and Arabic is its official language.” “The people of Syria are part of the Arab nation,” Syria’s constitution declares. “The religion of the President of the Republic is Islam; Islamic jurisprudence shall be a major source of legislation”. That means Syria may only be ruled by a Muslim. “The official language of the state is Arabic.”

Egypt’s constitution declares it to be an “Arab Republic” and “part of the Muslim world”. You will not be surprised to learn that, “Islam is the religion of the state and Arabic is its official language. The principles of Islamic Sharia are the principle source of legislation.” These same statements, with minor variations, hold true for most of the Muslim countries in the region, and excluding Arabic, throughout the world.

All of Israel’s Arab Muslim neighbors very clearly define their countries as Arab and Muslim. Their religion is Islam, their identity Arabic, variations of the same document declare, their language is Arabic.

These assertions of Arab and Muslim national identity are not criticized by the same gaggle of organizations, governments and reporters tearing their hair out over Israel’s nation-state bill.

The nation-state bill defines Israel as the “the historical homeland of the Jewish people” and “the nation-state of the Jewish people”. Hebrew is its official language with Arabic enjoying a special status. (No Arab constitution bothers offering Hebrew a similar status.)

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the bill as “racist”. The state sponsor of Islamic terror complained that, “human civilization tends to celebrate diversity”. Qatar’s own constitution declares that it is an Arab country whose “religion is Islam” and “Sharia law” is the basis for its laws.