RUTHFULLY YOURS

March saw a return of economic warfare against Israel, masked in discontent with Israel’s “occupation” of “Palestine.” On March 24, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 32-0-15 to create a database of companies that have profited from Israeli settlements, which the Israeli government has called a “blacklist.” A petition by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK, and others, which has surpassed 144,000 signatures, calls for Airbnb to “[s]top listing vacation rentals in Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and deemed illegal under international law.” On March 7, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on its members and all other countries to “ban products produced in or by illegal Israeli settlements from their markets.”

The “occupation” theme also made a recent appearance in the 2016 presidential race. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in his first major policy statement on the Middle East, stated that “peace will mean an end to what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory.”

What these economic and political warriors don’t seem to realize is that Israel is not occupying anything. There was never an Arab state known as Palestine. In fact, the Arabs have rejected multiple offers to establish such a state.

Before Jewish sovereignty was reestablished with the modern state of Israel in 1948, the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire ruled the Holy Land for approximately 400 years up until 1917. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in World War I, the British and French administered it in a period of joint military administration (1917-1920). The San Remo Conference (1920) formally established the British Mandate of Palestine’s borders to encompass modern day Israel, Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and what is today often referred to as the West Bank.

Britain Created “Palestine” for the Jews…

The legal document that created the Mandate recognized the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home” and called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People.” The document also obligated the British to “facilitate Jewish immigration” and “encourage…settlement by Jews on the land…” The British, with the approval of the League of Nations (the predecessor to the United Nations) took on the obligation to help Jewish immigration and settlement of the Mandate, which included the West Bank. Indeed, Jews lived in this area in historic (Hebron, today’s “East” Jerusalem, Nablus/Shechem) and new (Gush Etzion) communities during the Mandate period.

…And Then Gave 75% of it to the Arabs.

In 1922, Britain partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into two separate mandates, Palestine (west of the Jordan River) and the Transjordan (east of the Jordan River). Transjordan eventually became sovereign Arab territory. Despite the partition, the land that is now known as the West Bank still remained within Palestine and was still slated to be included in a new home for the Jewish people.

The Arabs Rejected the West Bank Twice.

Arab leaders did not accept any further partitions. The Arabs rejected two offers (in 1937 from Britain and in 1947 from the United Nations) that would have established Arab independence from Jewish sovereignty west of the Jordan River, including the West Bank. The Jewish community in Palestine, on the other hand, accepted both of these offers. So, before Israel’s War of Independence (1947-1949), there was no Arab ownership of the West Bank, and no sovereign from which to occupy it.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Successful trial of blocked artery treatment. Israel’s Eximo (see 30th Aug newsletter) has successfully completed a multicenter clinical trial of its laser system and unique catheters for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD). Doctors cured 20 patients, some of whom otherwise required bypass surgery or leg amputation.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-eximo-succeeds-in-trial-of-blocked-artery-treatment-1001115579

Prostate cancer treatment goes live. (TY JBN) I reported on Weizmann Institute’s groundbreaking prostate cancer treatment previously (in my 10th Jan newsletter). After 100% successful Mexican and European trials it has now been approved by Israel’s Ministry of Health and administered to a patient at Beilinson Hospital.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4787207,00.html

Nanotech antioxidant protection. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Israel’s Technion have activated the body’s natural defense against free radical damage. Enhanced micro-emulsion liquids produce a powerful antioxidant protein called Nrf2 and nanotechnology delivers it to the skin and organs.
http://www.israel21c.org/nanotech-formula-could-be-skins-fount-of-youth/
http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9284/3/1/1/htm

Detecting diseases at cell level. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a disease diagnostic method called methylation which identifies the source of fragmented DNA caused by cell death. In tests on 320 patients it has identified pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis, diabetes, traumatic brain injury and MS.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/209423#.VwO5Fkfn95R
http://www.pnas.org/content/113/13/E1826.abstract http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/29796

Bionic heart patch unveiled. (TY Nevet) Tel Aviv Professor Tal Dvir has unveiled his remote-controlled, bionic heart patch, which researchers say could become a revolutionary alternative to heart transplants for patients whose hearts have been damaged by heart attacks or cardiac disease. (See also Oct 2014 newsletter)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-u-unveils-revolutionary-cyborg-heart-patch/
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4590.html

Sleep apnea solution goes global. At the 13th International Dead Sea Symposium on Innovations in Technology, Treatment & Prevention of Cardiac Arrhythmias, Israel’s Itamar Medical announced that 60 international hospitals have now adopted Itamar’s Total Sleep Solution. (see 17th May newsletter)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/how-sleep-apnea-causes-heart-attacks-and-how-israeli-tech-helps/

An implant to treat spinal degenerative disc disease. (TY Dan) Israel’s Rainbow Medical is working with with Medos International Sarl (part of Johnson & Johnson) to develop a minimally invasive implant to treat spinal degenerative disc disease – which has no current cure and leads to acute chronic back pain.
http://www.orthospinenews.com/rainbow-medical-to-collaborate-with-johnson-johnson-innovation/

The lengths Israel goes to save Syrian girl. (TY Ron) Doctors at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center healed a 5-year-old Syrian girl from her civil war wounds but then discovered she had cancer. Israeli security services mounted a secret operation to smuggle a relative with matching bone marrow from “an enemy state” into Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-doctors-spies-rally-to-save-5-year-old-syrian-girl/

Fighting the Zika virus. One of the Grand Challenge Israel winners is Israeli startup BioFeed. It will use the 500,000-shekel prize money to advance its solution in the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, carrier of the Zika virus. Biofeed uses odor to attract insects to poison that eliminates the pest without spraying crops.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-start-up-takes-on-grand-challenge-of-beating-zika/

Fish virus identified. Israeli scientists have helped isolate a deadly virus that is killing both wild and farmed tilapia fish – an important global food source. Tilapia eat algae and are essential for freshwater quality. The tilapia lake virus is related to the influenza virus and the research will help the development of a vaccine.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/210367#.VwSJRUfn95Q

The recent nuclear deal with Iran. The ongoing threat of terrorism in the Middle East. The still-unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Issues involving Israel appear in the news almost daily. And the country’s political actions continue to spark strong opinions inside and outside its borders.

But often lost in public perceptions of Israel is what this tiny country of a mere 8 million people — founded only 67 years ago, possessing few natural resources, and facing constant security threats from its neighbors — has achieved from an economic and business standpoint. Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, recently spoke at Wharton on this subject and promised to reveal “the secret of Israel’s success.”

The second-youngest ever Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Dermer was born and raised in Miami Beach, Fla. He earned degrees from both Wharton and Oxford. He graduated from Wharton in 1993 where, he noted, he arrived “a supporter of capitalism,” and left “a champion of it.” In 2004, Dermer co-authored, with Israeli human rights activist Natan Sharansky, the bestseller The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, which has been translated into 10 languages.

The Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority at Dartmouth College has canceled its annual Kentucky Derby–themed party after people complained that the theme was racist.

The invite-only party will now be Woodstock-themed instead.

According to an article in the Daily Caller, the Kentucky Derby theme had created controversy on campus last year — even causing some students to protest outside of it on the grounds that it was apparently a racist and elitist theme.

Sorority vice president Nikol Oydanich told the school’s official newspaper, the Dartmouth, that these protesters had convinced the sorority members to change the theme.

“[It is] related to pre-war southern culture,” she said. “Derby was a party that had the power to upset a lot of our classmates.”

Students in a Tampa middle school were instructed to fill out a form designed to measure how much privilege they have.

The children were given a form in their Spanish class at Monroe Middle School by teacher Yoselis Ramos titled “How much privilege do you have?”

The different categories included, “Race”, “Skin Color”, “Religion”, “Sex”, “Gender”, Sexual Orientation”, and “Disability.”

Parents were not happy about the assignment.

Regina Stiles has a daughter who revealed she had ADHD on the “privilege” form.

“She has ADHD and apparently the teacher said there are some kids in this class that have ADHD, and ADHD is a mental illness, and that’s why she circled that. To me ADHD is not a mental disability. It’s something she has,” said Stiles.

MonroePrivilegeForm

Other questions on the survey broached controversial subjects for middle-schoolers. Children were asked to identify if they were “Cisgender,” “Transgender” or “GenderQueer.”

“She’s 12. Some of these things should be taught at home,” said Stiles.

Stiles along with other angry parents approached the school principal, who began an investigation. It turns out the “privilege” form was not part of any official curricula or authorized by the principal.

“This is not a district form, this is a teacher-generated form and it was without principal consent and at the district level we do not collect that information,” said Hillsborough County School Spokesperson Tanya Arja. She also pointed out that students were not required to turn in the form.

According to Arja, the teacher said the goal was to teach the students about inequality through literature they had been reading.

The violent Islamic intolerance of the “infidel” was reflected by the highly-ignored and misrepresented persecution and expulsion of 820,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands, which exceeded the scope of the Palestinian Arab refugees, occurred well before the 1948-49 Arab war on Israel, and persisted following the war.

On November 14, 1947, before the war, Egypt’s representative to the UN, Heykal Pasha warned: “The partitioning of Palestine shall be responsible for the massacre of a large number Jews…. It might endanger a million Jews living in Moslem countries… create an anti-Semitism more difficult to root out than the anti-Semitism which the allies were trying to eradicate in Germany….”

On February 19, 1947, before the war, Syria’s UN representative, Faris al-Khuri told the NY Times: “Unless the Palestine problem is settled [with no Jewish State], we shall have difficulty in protecting Jews in the Arab world.”

Before the November 1947 UN vote on the Partition Plan, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri Said shared with Alec Kirkbride, the British Ambassador to Jordan, his plan to expel Jews from Iraq and threatened: “severe measures would be taken against all Jews in Arab countries.” On November 28, 1947, Iraq’s Foreign Minister told the UN General Assembly: “The partitioning of Palestine will cause the uprising of the Arabs of Palestine, and the masses in the Arab world will not be restrained.”

On March 1, 1944, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the top Palestinian Arab leader, incited in an Arabic broadcast from Nazi Germany: “Kill the Jews wherever you find them. It would please God, history and religion.” Jamal Al-Husseini, the acting Chairman of the Palestinian Arab Higher Command, threatened: “Palestine shall be consumed with fire and blood if the Jews get any part of it.”

Last Oct. 13, a few weeks into the current “knife intifada,” a 22-year-old Palestinian named Baha Alyan boarded a Jerusalem bus with an accomplice — Hamas terrorist Bilal Ghanem, who had served time in an Israeli prison — and went on a stabbing and shooting spree whose purpose was to kill Jews.

The two monsters were pretty successful in their endeavor that day, managing to wound more than a dozen passengers and slaughter three: Haim Haviv, 78, Alon Govberg, 51, and Richard Lakin, 76, who suffered multiple gunshot and stab wounds and died two weeks later. Alyan was killed by Israeli security forces; Ghanem was arrested.

While Lakin, an immigrant to Israel from the United States, was lying critically wounded in the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paid a visit to his hospital bedside. It was the least Ban could do, while calling on “both sides” to ease tensions and exercise restraint — especially since Lakin had been a lifelong promoter of peace and social justice.

Upon Lakin’s death, Ban even stressed this fact in a condolence letter to Lakin’s widow, which he ended by assuring her that the U.N. would “continue its efforts to promote a return to negotiations aimed at resolving this bitter conflict once and for all.”

Four months later, in February, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas invited 11 families of “martyrs” to his compound in Ramallah to honor them for having sons who were killed while committing terror attacks against Israelis. Alyan’s parents were among these distinguished guests.

Two months before their upcoming conference at Sydney University (13-15 May), entitled “Socialism for the 21st century,” Aussie far leftists, who include Green Left activists and members of the Socialist Alliance, have just announced the line-up for their inevitable session bashing Israel.

Meanwhile, another Israel-undermining initiative, altogether smarter and more subtle, which has infiltrated the school system in the Aussie state of Victoria, appears to have gone relatively unnoticed.

I refer to the fact that the play City by the Sea, by poet, writer and activist Samah Sabawi, a Gaza-born (1967) Australian/Canadian, is now on the 2016 playlist for school students taking the Victorian Certificate of Education. It means that students in years 11 and 12 will be attending performances of the play at La Mama Theatre in Melbourne in May.

An official document listing the plays selected for study in 2016 states, inter alia:

‘Students will undertake an assessment task based on the performance of a play on the Playlist. Question/s will also be set on the performances of the plays in the end-of-year Drama written examination.

While the VCAA [Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority] considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity might be needed where particular issues or themes that are explored may be challenging for students. Teachers are advised to familiarise themselves with the treatment of these issues and themes within the context and world of the play prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript. This might involve reading the playscript, talking with the theatre company, researching the playscript, the work of the playwright, director and/or company, attending a preview performance and/or discussing the matter with the school administration. Information provided in this notice about themes and/or language used in specific plays is a guide only. In some plays, suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. This language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community’ [Emphasis added]

On a nightly show following the Wisconsin primary, science celebrity Bill Nye (“the science guy”) argued that the Republican Party will need young people to win in November, and that the vast majority of millennials believe in climate alarmism. As a conservative millennial, I deny his sweeping generalization, and the data back me up.

Nye lamented that the Republican candidates for president are all “deniers,” and argued that the campaign has yet to pivot to real issues. Then he made the ridiculous claim, saying the gap between alarmists and “deniers” is almost entirely generational.

I don’t think the party can quite get enough votes without millennials. Climate denial is almost entirely generational. Only now and then do you meet a young person — nobody your age is a climate denier. very few. It’s all old people.

To his credit, the show’s host, Larry Wilmore, was a bit skeptical. “I don’t know,” Wilmore replied. “I may have to disagree with you a little bit. I think a lot of it is ideological.”

The numbers back Wilmore on this one. In a Harvard Institute of Politics poll released in April of last year, millennials ended up largely agreeing with their older Americans in being skeptical about climate alarmism.

While 55 percent agreed with the statement that “global warming is a proven fact and is mostly caused by emissions from cars and industrial facilities such as power plants and factories,” a full 43 percent disagreed with this alarmist statement. Twenty percent held to a more moderate view: “Global warming is a proven fact and is mostly caused by natural changes that have nothing to do with emissions from cars and industrial facilities.”

Money is certainly tight in the post-secondary system nowadays, which raises the question of why a Canadian university in the province of British Columbia is going to spend $110,000 in up-front costs to construct a solar road that will provide enough electricity to power only 40 personal computers.

As reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

A decorative compass that students and others at Thompson Rivers University [TRU] walk over to enter the campus’ Arts and Education Building will soon start generating solar energy as a “solar roadway.” …

[According to Michael Mehta, a geography and environmental studies professor at TRU,] “People will be able to walk on it, vehicles will be able to drive on it and it will — in the same way as these other rooftops systems — capture the energy from the sun and produce electricity to operate the Arts and Education building.” …

“It’s expected to produce about 10,000 kilowatt-hours a year of power, which we estimate is the equivalent of running all the computer labs in the building, about 40 computers, for eight hours a day on an annual basis.”

Mehta said he hopes the project will inspire others to make use of the technology, which is already being used in other places around the world. He said the Netherlands already has a 70-metre bicycle path made from solar panels, and France is planning to build long stretches of “solar roads”.

The project’s proposal states that “this array will produce on average 9700 kWh/year of electricity over its planned 25-30 year lifetime.”