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Ukraine: The Decimation Point by Amir Taheri

Posted By on December 3rd, 2023

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20193/ukraine-decimation-point

[B]oth Russia and Ukraine have passed what military theoreticians call the “decimation point” when you see that you have lost at least 10% of your fighting manpower.

In the West, public opinion saw the war as a means of keeping the Russian giant in chains, while anti-West forces admired Putin for challenging the American big bad wolf.

Thirsting for a bit of good news in these bad times of war, Ukraine’s media headlined what it saw as a victory: The return to Kiev of a haul of artefacts from Crimea that had been on exhibit in European cities before Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014.

The return came after a ten-year legal battle in which Russia claimed that it should receive the artefacts because they were made before the 1950s when the then Soviet ruler Nikita Khrushchev “handed Crimea over to Ukraine.” Ukraine counter-argued that the artefacts were loaned to a Dutch museum before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops annexed Crimea.

Well, in every war even the tiniest bit of good news could help divert attention, even momentarily, from bigger bad news.

Though actual and sustained fighting started in February 2022, Russia’s war against Ukraine started almost a decade ago when Crimea was annexed. Since then, the fratricidal war has offered no good news for either side. Putin called the war “special operations”, implying it would be over in a matter of weeks if not days. Although not as starry-eyed, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky also dreamed that thanks to support from NATO, the biggest military machine in history, his side would quickly emerge victorious.

The bad news that didn’t get the headlines either in Moscow or Kyiv is that both Russia and Ukraine have passed what military theoreticians call the “decimation point” when you see that you have lost at least 10% of your fighting manpower.

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POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on December 3rd, 2023

The news from Israel is dominated by reports of war, hostage exchanges, and hostages including children still in bondage in appalling conditions. Beyond the headlines Israeli resilience and patriotism, and research and development to benefit humanity continue apace. Michael Ordman compiles an essential catalog of the foregoing every week. Here is positive news at a time of suffering and despair. Read it all…..rsk

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR

Female tank crews save kibbutzim. (TY Manfred) On Oct 7 Israel’s all-female tank crews made history when they fought Hamas terrorists and prevented them from overrunning many Israeli southern communities. They are the first female armored crews in Israel, and perhaps the world, to participate in active battle.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/female-idf-tank-crews-ran-down-dozens-of-hamas-terrorists-on-october-7/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjy0wpdSAI0

The farmer who neutralized a Hamas cell. Eran Smilansky was a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz’s emergency squad. On Oct 7, he eliminated eight Hamas terrorists who had stormed his home. He then saved his father and his two daughters at his father’s home that the terrorists had tried to burn down with his family inside.

https://idsf.org.il/en/stories-of-valor/singlehandedly-neutralized-a-terrorists-cell/

Eritrean given residency for saving life. Eritrean national Mulugeta Tsagi received permanent residency status in Israel as a “thank you” for saving an Israeli soldier’s life on Oct. 7. Tsagi gave lifesaving first aid to an IDF officer shot by Hamas in Sderot, then stayed with him for several hours until he finally reached hospital.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/eritrean-given-permanent-residency-in-israel-after-saving-idf-officers-life-on-oct-7/  https://www.jns.org/eritrean-granted-israeli-residency-for-oct-7-heroism/

What’s cooking? Beraha Astruk is a Head Nurse at Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya. After work, she voluntarily spends her evenings and weekends cooking for two IDF battalions stationed near the northern border. She even invites the soldiers to do their laundry at her house. Beraha has two sons in the IDF in Gaza.

https://www.israel21c.org/after-hospital-shifts-head-nurse-cooks-for-idf-battalions/

Care for released hostages. (TY Cynthia) Schneider Children’s Hospital is THE hospital designated to receive many of the released children and their families. It has a media-free area, decorated recovery rooms, a multi-disciplinary team of medical and support staff, even family pets are allowed. See photos & donation links here.

https://www.schneider.org.il/?CategoryID=844&ArticleID=5328

https://www.schneider.org.il/?CategoryID=1011&ArticleID=5327

https://www.justgiving.com/ukfriendsofschneider/donate (UK donors)

https://www.schneider.org.il/?CategoryID=1063&ArticleID=3238 (Israeli & US donors)

Late birthday present for released hostage. On his 9th birthday, Ohad Munder was a hostage in Gaza. He was told that his favorite soccer team, Hapoel Be’er Sheva, wished him a happy birthday on TV. It gave Ohad renewed strength and on his release, the players visited him in hospital.

https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-soccer-teams-heartfelt-reunion-with-9-year-old-captive-is-a-birthday-wish-fulfilled/

Entrepreneur raises $40 million for IDF. Since Oct 7, Dutch-based Israeli entrepreneur Eran Efrat, has raised some $40 million to produce tactical gear for IDF soldiers. He didn’t simply give the money to the army but directly solicited US-based manufacturers to produce helmets, ceramic vests, and more.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bkseqpnnp

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Liver cancer patient saved. A patient with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) who participated in the Phase II trials of namodenoson from Israel’s Can-Fite (see here previously) had an extremely good response. His liver function returned to normal, and he is looking forward to a good quality of life.

https://ir.canfite.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1035/can-fite-complete-response-and-6-9-yearsoverall-survival

Traffic lights to silence cancer genes. (TY Laura) Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered how DNA methylation acts as a gene control system, like a traffic light that can modulate gene activity and trigger or prevent cancer mutations. It will help develop personalized therapies for cancer patients.

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-775427

https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-023-03094-6

Clearing the airways. The LibAirty compression vest from Israel’s Synchrony Medical (see here previously) has begun clinical (human) trials at the National Cystic Fibrosis Center of Sheba Medical Center, where it was developed. Synchrony’s CEO says the device is twice as effective as similar products currently on the market. 

https://nocamels.com/2023/11/compression-vest-that-clears-the-lungs-in-clinical-trial-in-israel/

Amorphous calcium to treat IBD. Israel’s Amorphical (see here previously) has adapted its amorphous calcium carbonate production technology to treat inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. The mineral neutralizes the acidity within affected tissue to prevent inflammation.

https://nocamels.com/category/news-briefs/#post-125592

Developing RNA-based treatments for rare diseases. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Skip Therapeutics is partnering with Sheba Medical Center to develop ASO-based (short RNA sequences) treatments for rare genetic diseases. Skip’s ASOs (Antisense Oligonucleotide) aim to restore the function of mutated genes in genetic disorders.

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/skip-therapeutics-and-sheba-medical-center-to-collaborate-for-the-development-of-rna-based-treatments-for-rare-diseases-301994662.html   https://www.skiptx.com/

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Islamic Terrorists Bomb Catholic Mass in Philippines It’s a religious war. by Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on December 3rd, 2023

https://www.frontpagemag.com/islamic-terrorists-bomb-catholic-mass-in-philippines/

It’s not just Israel. Islamic terrorists are coming after the entire world.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr condemned a deadly bombing on Sunday, blaming “foreign terrorists”, as police and the military strengthened security in the country’s south and around the capital Manila.

At least four people were killed and at least 50 injured after a bomb exploded during a morning Catholic Mass in a university gymnasium in Marawi, a city in the south of the country besieged by Islamist militants for five months in 2017.

The blast in Marawi, capital of Lanao del Sur province, followed a series of military operations against local pro-Islamic State groups in the southern Philippines, the military chief said, including one on Sunday in Lanao del Sur that led to the killing of a leader of the Dawlah Islamiya-Maute group.

The Islamic State-linked Maute seized Marawi on May 2017, seeking to make it a Southeast Asian “wilayat” – or governorate – for Islamic State. In the ensuing five-month battle, Islamist fighters and Philippine forces killed more than a thousand people, including civilians.

Hamas or its counterparts are everywhere that any sizable Islamic colonial population has been embedded.

It’s not a coincidence that they targeted a Christian religious service. Much as it’s not a coincidence that on Oct 7, Hamas struck on a Jewish religious holiday.

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The red-green alliance against the West by Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky

Posted By on December 3rd, 2023

https://romirowsky.com/27373/red-green-alliance-against-west

The murderous Hamas attack on Israel can be described as a success only in a limited and horrific tactical sense: More Jews were murdered in a single day than at any time since the Holocaust. The surprise was achieved thanks to elaborate planning and lavish Iranian funding and to Israeli complacency on the part of the military and distracted political echelon. The price was immense and terrible.

But in a strategic sense, the attack was a failure and illustrates a truism of Middle Eastern history: The Palestinians, in this case Hamas, are their own worst enemies. Even their successes are, or will be, failures. Consider some of the unintended consequences of the Hamas attack. These range from local to regional to global effects.

To begin, Hamas has set back the Palestinian movement and destroyed Gaza. The Palestinian movement has long been characterized by two theoretically distinct but interrelated strands: Islamic rejection of Jews and a nationalist strand that played on contemporary concepts such as Third Worldism, liberation movements, and, most lately, decolonization. In practice, however, these were mutually reinforcing and in neither case contributed to the conception of a functioning nation-state. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas has run or can run a state.

The resurgent Islamic violence — the Oct. 7 raid was at one level a classic Muslim razzia of unconstrained violence, rape, and looting, in the tradition of Muhammad — proved again that Hamas, Islamic governance, and the Palestinian movement as a whole are addicted to violence. The reconfiguration of Gaza, using international aid money, into a gigantic base in which civilians existed only as human shields is another aspect of this failure. Add to this the complete collapse of Hamas on its own carefully prepared battlefield, which proved the ineptitude of its strategy, leadership, and field capabilities. The self-victimization of Gaza by Hamas, the intentional “martyring” of innocents along with terrorists, was a fundamental part of this plan. But the scale of destruction, apparently unanticipated, that has reduced northern Gaza to near-uninhabitable rubble proves the failure of that plan as well.

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Isaiah Berlin and the Meaning of Life: Mervyn Bendle

Posted By on December 2nd, 2023

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2023/11/isaiah-berlin-and-the-meaning-of-life/

Excerpt:An amusing vignette about Churchill and  Isaiah Berlin, from a very long article on Isaiah Berlin.

What to do? As it turned out, the Second World War ensured the question was deferred while Isaiah Berlin spent the next five years working for the British Information Service and Foreign Office in Washington and elsewhere, building up a vast network of useful contacts and a reputation as an incisive researcher and commentator on political, diplomatic and economic issues.

So prominent did his reputation become that he was honored with an invitation to lunch at Downing Street with the Churchills, along with the Commander of the Imperial General Staff and other dignitaries. At the table, the Prime Minister eagerly sought out the views of his special guest on various complex political matters, including the likelihood of Roosevelt being re-elected for a fourth term, but the answers he received seemed not particularly well-informed. He then asked Mr Berlin what he felt was the most important thing he had ever written. “White Christmas,” was the reply. Churchill, perplexed, gave up and turned to someone else. It was only later that he was told that through a mix-up it was the composer Irving Berlin who had been invited to enjoy lunch and Churchill’s company. Ironically, when the story of “the Irving–Winston–Isaiah affair” got out, it further enhanced Isaiah’s reputation, and he found that even more doors in the corridors of power and influence were now open to him.

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University Quietly Abandons DEI Requirements, Free Speech Activists Celebrate Victory By Eric Lendrum

Posted By on December 2nd, 2023

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/01/university-quietly-abandons-dei-requirements-free-speech-activists-celebrate-victory/

The University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass) ended an application requirement that forced potential employees to pledge their support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Fox News reports that the decision, which had previously brought criticism to the university, was celebrated as a “victory” for freedom of speech by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

“Public institutions like the University of Massachusetts Boston are bound by the First Amendment to make hiring decisions in a viewpoint-neutral manner,” said FIRE’s Program Officer Haley Gluhanich. “We’re glad the university eventually changed course. But maybe next time, it doesn’t need to take five months of advocacy.”

FIRE first discovered the existence of the requirement in June, where faculty applicants were ordered to submit statements expressing their “experience and commitment” to DEI. FIRE denounced these rules as a “clear violation of both prospective faculty’s academic freedom and the university’s obligation to uphold the First Amendment.

“UMass Boston tried dodging the issue for several months,” Gluhanich continued, noting that FIRE “recently discovered that the DEI requirements had finally been removed from the job listings we flagged and that newly posted job listings contained no similar requirements.”

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Democrats have no Biden backup plan for 2024, despite age concerns by By Jeff Mason

Posted By on December 2nd, 2023

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democrats-have-no-biden-backup-plan-for-2024-despite-age-concerns/ar-AA1kOhSF

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democratic Party has no Plan B if President Joe Biden decided for any reason to halt his 2024 re-election campaign, and a sudden need to replace him as its standard-bearer would spark a messy intraparty battle.

Despite weak poll numbers and questions, including from some Democrats, about his age, Biden has stuck to his plan to seek a second term after clearing the field of serious Democratic primary challengers when he announced in April that he was running again.

Even if more Democratic candidates were to jump in now, the path forward would be unclear as deadlines to get on the primary ballot in critical states such as Nevada, South Carolina and Georgia have already passed.

Biden loyalists, citing his record in office, argue that the party does not need a backup plan to defeat probable Republican nominee Donald Trump, who Biden beat in the 2020 election.

Among the possible scenarios if the president, 81, did drop out: Democrats could pick another nominee next August at their convention, or even later, in line with party rules.

Reuters spoke to multiple current and former officials who, while making clear they want Biden to succeed, acknowledge the party could face upheaval should the oldest president in U.S. history encounter a health issue or step aside for other reasons during the White House contest.

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Before and After, in House Testimony For former Mike Pence official Olivia Troye, what a difference one hour made Matt Taibbi

Posted By on December 2nd, 2023

https://www.racket.news/p/lol-before-and-after-in-house-testimony

I know I said I wasn’t going to dwell on this, but some things are too funny. In yesterday’s surreal House hearing on censorship, the Democrats’ witness Olivia Troye denied to North Carolina congressman Dan Bishop something she’d said in her opening statement.

It turns out the time between Troye statements “Instead of continuing to spread conspiracy theories about government censorship” and “I’ve never said this was a conspiracy, you have not heard that comment from me” was exactly one hour. That has to be a first of some kind, although one minute would’ve been more impressive. Just an FYI from the train home…

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How George Soros funds anti-Semitism Rachel Ehrenfeld

Posted By on December 2nd, 2023

https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/how-george-soros-funds-anti-semitism

Congress is debating legislation to strip tax-exempt status from “terrorist-supporting organizations.” The Open Society Foundations would be a prime target.

As pro-Hamas, virulent anti-Semitic propaganda against Israel and Jews erupted and continues spreading after Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7, the silence of the poster boy of anti-Semitic victimhood, George Soros, is deafening.

Deafening but not surprising.

In his 1995 book, “Soros on Soros,” the Hungarian-American financier declared that Zionism “doesn’t appeal” to him because it is “the founding of a nation [Israel] where the Jews are in the majority.” For Soros, “being a Jew [is] being in a minority.” He also asserted moral equivalence between the Jews’ response to attacks and that of their attackers, saying that sometimes Jews choose to “identify with their oppressors” and even “try to become like them.”

In 2003, at a Yivo Institute for Jewish Research event, Soros blamed the rise of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred in Europe on the George W. Bush administration’s war on Islamic terrorism and “likened the behavior of Israel [in defending itself against Arab terrorist attacks] to that of the Nazis, invoking some psychological jargon about victims becoming victimizers.” He was booed, and many walked out of the event.

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We mustn’t let the left erase the truth of 7 October Owen Jones’s reaction to the footage of Hamas’s atrocities speaks to a serious sickness in the bourgeois left. Brendan O’Neill

Posted By on December 2nd, 2023

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/11/29/we-mustnt-let-the-left-erase-the-truth-of-7-october/

There is a video doing the rounds related to Hamas’s barbaric pogrom of 7 October that is difficult to watch. It is making viewers wince and recoil. It shows the madness that can flourish when people retreat from reason. I am speaking, of course, about Owen Jones’s reaction vid to the footage of Hamas’s atrocities; that arch Guardianista’s 25-minute YouTube musing over what he saw Hamas do. It is a disturbing watch. It provides the starkest proof yet of the collapse of moral reason and plain decency that has occurred on the middle-class left these past seven weeks.

The IDF has put together a graphic 43-minute video of the savagery Hamas filmed itself committing against the Jews of Southern Israel on 7 October. The morally deracinated cynics of the liberal Western media say the video is an IDF ruse to whip up support for its war in Gaza. In truth, Israel felt compelled to put out this gross footage of anti-Semitic mass murder because there has been so much 7 October doubt in influential circles in the West. It was the atrocity denialism of unhinged Israelophobes that forced Israel to say: ‘Okay, here are the atrocities.’ They showed the film in London last week and Mr Jones was in attendance.

To be clear, Jones does not deny that Hamas committed ‘grave war crimes’ on 7 October. He is not an October denialist as some on the viscerally anti-Israel left are. And yet his reaction to the footage is chilling nonetheless. He casts doubt on many of the claims about 7 October. He sows seeds of suspicion. It is a masterclass in moral obfuscation. Yes, Hamas did wicked things, he says, but where’s the evidence for the really wicked things it is said to have done? The beheaded babies. Raped women. Children killed ‘intentionally’. There’s no ‘conclusive evidence’ for that, he says. I am trying my best to understand the mind that can see images of the corpses of Jewish children and wonder, ‘But were they killed intentionally?’. But I cannot. It is beyond my moral bandwidth to understand this.