RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://benjaminkerstein.substack.com/p/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and

“I used to care,” Bob Dylan once sang, “but things have changed.”

I’m afraid that I’m feeling much the same these days regarding the prospect of Palestinian statehood. Up until Oct. 6, I felt that while a Palestinian state would be problematic in many ways, we still had an obligation to adhere to the same right we demand for ourselves—self-determination. I also believed that demographic issues and the corrosive effect of continuous occupation left Israel no option but the two-state solution.

As a result, I supported the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza because I felt those arguments still held despite multiple Palestinian refusals of peace and their continuing embrace and promotion of terrorism.

I must admit that I was wrong. Things have changed. A generational trauma will do that sort of thing. At the moment, “the day after” this war is a matter of complete indifference to me. I do not know what the political future of the Palestinians will be. I also don’t care. I care solely about preventing another Oct. 7 or worse. If that means a Palestinian state must never be established, then so be it.

I believe this for two reasons. The first is a matter of principle, the second is wholly practical in nature

First, though I still believe that all peoples have a right to self-determination, I do not believe that the Palestinians have the right to determine themselves upon the destruction of Israel. Oct. 7 made it clear that this is precisely what they have done and intend to keep doing. Statehood would only further this ambition, and this cannot be morally justified under any circumstances. In fact, to do anything that would further such an ambition would be, by definition, not only immoral but anti-moral.

In practical terms, it is now very clear what the nature of a Palestinian state would be. The Gaza withdrawal was often described at the time as an experiment. On Oct. 7, we received the results. They have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that a Palestinian state would be a genocidal terrorist entity, likely of a theocratic nature, with the ultimate intention of aiding in the establishment of a global Islamic tyranny. The world already has several states of this kind—most notably Hamas’ ally Iran—and certainly does not need another one.

https://www.nysun.com/article/four-months-into-the-war-against-hamas-the-idf-is-far-outperforming-american-expectations-report-says

Did President Biden try in October to throw Israel off a ground operation in Gaza? If so, Israeli pluck and knowhow are — at least so far — carrying the day.

What is for some a slow go and daunting political landmine is for others a bigger success story than has been publicly acknowledged — namely, Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the American outlook on it could be about to change. 

It is no secret that the relationship between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu is about as warm as the month of February. What is lost in the miasma of increasingly strained relations between Washington and Jerusalem is that irrespective of attempts by the White House to micromanage the conflict and despite comments by Mr. Biden himself that Israel’s military response has been “over the top,” the truth is that some bumps in the road notwithstanding, it has mostly been spot on. 

For proof of that, one can look at how all of Hamas’s terrorist battalions in the northern Gaza Strip have been decimated or how the Hamas mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, is said to be cowering like a rat in a dark tunnel somewhere underneath Khan Younis. 

One can also look at an underreported meeting that took place in Israel about a week after Hamas attacked on October 7. As journalist Amit Segal reports in this weekend’s edition of the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, at that time Mr. Biden dispatched a three-star Marine heavyweight, Lieutenant General James Glynn, to Israel as well as two senior officers with a view to advising Israel on what to do — and what not to do — in  its operation to rout Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

According to the Yedioth report, the Americans sought, at the president’s behest, to “help the commanders of the IDF think about the difficult questions before them.” That thinking hinged mainly on trying to dissuade Israel’s military leaders from launching a ground operation in Gaza. 

It was done by playing the Jewish guilt card: to wit, by prognosticating 20 daily IDF casualties if Israel went forward with a ground invasion, which by Mr. Glynn’s estimation, Mr. Segal writes, would be “time-consuming and bloody.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/14/david-camerons-patronising-advice-would-doom-israel/

David Cameron has virtually called on Israel to surrender to Hamas as it prepares to destroy the terrorist group in Rafah. For that is surely the meaning of his words on Monday: “What we want is an immediate pause in the fighting and we want that pause to lead to a ceasefire”. That’s also exactly what Hamas want, and has demanded from Israel — an end to the war that it is catastrophically losing. 

Would Cameron have called for a ceasefire as Allied troops were poised to cross the Rhine in March 1945? By that time millions of German civilians had been killed in the fighting and it was a certainty that many more would die as the war proceeded towards unconditional German surrender. 

Of course Israel cannot halt its offensive now any more than the Allies could then, and Cameron must know that – just as Blinken knows it. In reality their words of caution to Israel amount to virtue signalling aimed at the Israel-sceptical elements of their electorates. Like a schoolmaster lecturing a recalcitrant schoolboy, Cameron has told Israel to “stop and think very seriously before it takes any further action”. 

Who does he think he’s talking down to? Does he seriously believe the Israeli war cabinet and general staff have not been working round the clock for months, “thinking seriously” about every action they take in this war? Meanwhile Blinken has told Israel to come up with a plan to minimise civilian casualties before they launch the campaign against Hamas in Rafah. In other words, exactly what they are already doing and have been doing with considerable success since this war began. 

So far the IDF has wreaked devastation on Hamas. It appears the terror army is no longer able to function as a coherent entity, with reports that senior leaders are unable to communicate with their combat units. The IDF says the Hamas fighters that remain in Rafah must now be dealt with, along with the terrorist leadership there. 

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

In 1922 the infamous British White Paper bowing to Arab pressure ceded 76 percent of the Palestine Mandate- all the land east of the Jordan River to the Hashemites who forbid Jewish settlement.

The British justified their betrayal with the statement: “England…does not want Palestine to become ‘as Jewish as England is English’, but, rather, should become ‘a center in which Jewish people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride.’ 

Well Michael Ordman’s weekly catalog does indeed inspire interest and pride and current demographics show that Israel is far more Jewish than England is England. rsk

POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
 
Dramatic rescue of two Israeli hostages. (TY WIN) All of Israel celebrated the news that IDF special forces had rescued two Israeli-Argentinian hostages in a daring overnight operation in Rafah. The President of Argentina had just completed his historic visit to Israel and was also delighted with the outcome.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel-at-war/1707714683-idf-rescues-2-hostages-during-op-in-rafah
 
Rescue app saves lives.  The app Digital 101 is one of the technical innovations that has vastly improved survival rates of wounded IDF personnel during the current war. The app, developed by Israel’s K Health (see here previously) and two army reservists, transfers medical data about the wounded from battlefield to hospital.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/ryc9a00yia
 
Critical gear for female IDF soldiers. Operation Israel is a group of over 100 volunteer professionals and experts. They have shipped millions of dollars’ worth of critical gear to the IDF. They are now responding to urgent requests from female IDF soldiers for properly fitting shoes, helmets, vests, uniforms, and backpacks.
https://www.jns.org/wire/operation-israel-launches-girl-power-to-equip-women-idf-soldiers-with-critical-gear/
https://www.operationisrael.org/   https://www.operationisrael.org/girlpower
 
‘Falafel King’ donates 25,000 portions to IDF. Shimon Biton, owner of Falafel Biton in Be’er Ya’akov, south of Tel Aviv, has been dubbed the “King of Falafel.” He has donated 25,000 portions of Israel’s national snack to IDF soldiers fighting in Khan Yunis in Gaza. In addition, security personnel always eat free at his restaurant.
https://www.jns.org/falafel-restaurant-donates-25000-portions-to-israeli-soldiers/
 
The biggest homecoming yet. 80% of southern moshav Shokeda’s 132 families have returned to their national-religious community, 4 miles from Gaza. The homecoming was the largest single movement of people into the Tekuma Region near Gaza since its evacuation following Oct 7. Some immediately began mowing their lawns.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/4-miles-from-war-in-biggest-homecoming-yet-hundreds-of-evacuees-return-to-shokeda/
 
Malawi kibbutz workers sing for hostages. In recent months, agricultural workers from Malawi in Africa have been working at Kibbutz Zikim. The issue of the kidnapped Israelis touches their hearts and prompted an acapella band to make a new arrangement of the song; “Home” and a music video filmed in Malawi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzJpEwpYsLA
 
Gaza mystery (TY UWI) While the IDF was fighting Hamas in the Bani Suheila neighborhood of Khan Yunis, they discovered a desk in one of the houses. On it was an inscription which read: “The table of the late Levi Eshkol.” Donation of Dubek Ltd. 1981.” How did the desk of Israel’s ex-Prime Minister (1963-69) get there?
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385142
 
Oct 7 Heroes medal. (TY UWI) “The President’s Medal for Civilian Heroism,” is to be awarded to civilians who showed outstanding heroism on October 7. The announcement said it is to honor ordinary citizens, who risked their lives, “out of a sense of unity of fate and mutual Israeli guarantee, with the aim of saving lives.”
https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/02/13/israels-president-announces-new-civilian-heroism-medal-for-heroes-of-october-7/
 
Bedouin Oct 7 heroes honored. Military service for members of the Bedouin tribes is not mandatory, yet more than 1,500 are presently serving in the IDF. Public figures came to the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem as a tribute to 13 civilian Bedouin who saved men, women, and small children while being fired at by Hamas.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-786571  
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Another breakthrough in dementia research. Tel Aviv University researchers found a method of preventing memory deterioration in the animal model of Alzheimer’s disease. They detected physiological changes that appear 10 to 20 years prior to cognitive decline. They also hope to prevent cognitive issues from anesthesia.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-team-prevents-memory-deterioration-in-alzheimers-animal-model/
 
A gut feeling. (TY UWI) Researchers from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have uncovered a potential link between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the composition of the gut microbiome. Certain bacteria were more prevalent and diverse in those with ASD. It could lead to the development of possible treatments.
https://tps.co.il/articles/israeli-research-points-to-gut-microbiomes-role-in-autism-spectrum-disorder/
 
Neurofeedback device effective for treating PTSD. (TY Dr Salem) In a recent trial, the Prism neurofeedback device from Israel’s GrayMatters Health (see here previously) significantly improved the condition of 67% of the chronic PTSD patients in its recent trial. Almost one third achieved remission after three months of therapy.
https://nocamels.com/2024/02/brain-activity-monitor-proves-efficacy-in-ptsd-therapy-study-finds/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178123006613
https://www.graymatters-health.com/clinical-publications
 
Doctors removed 3lb tumor from 4-year-old. (TY UWI) Surgeons at Israel’s Emek Medical Center in Afula successfully removed a huge Wilms tumor (see here previously) weighing 1.3 kg from a four-year-old child. The tumor, in the right kidney, measured 16 cm by 12 cm and constituted over 7% of the girl’s body weight.
https://tps.co.il/articles/israeli-doctors-remove-1-3-kilo-tumor-from-toddler/  
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/wilms-tumor/symptoms-causes/syc-20352655#
 
Hadassah’s new rehab center. Wounded IDF soldiers from Gaza are being treated at the new Gandel Rehabilitation Center in Jerusalem, part of the Hadassah Medical Organization, which opened in January 2024. Construction sped up after Oct 7, thanks to $29 million from the government plus $5.5 million donations.
https://www.jns.org/wounded-warriors-find-multiple-ways-to-heal-at-hadassahs-new-rehab-center/
 
Egyptian girl treated in Israel. The daughter of an Egyptian official was injured in a traffic accident and hospitalized in Cairo. She was then transferred to Hadassah Hospital, where there is a dedicated ward for complex trauma in children. Israel approved the transfer as a humanitarian gesture.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384823