RUTHFULLY YOURS

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ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Breakthrough leukemia cure is “Israeli”. I was suspicious of the BBC’s report on the “innovative” US immunotherapy that cured 27 of 29 “no-hope” leukemia patients. Sure enough, the genetic modification of T-cells was developed by Weizmann Institute Professor Zelig Eshhar, and the US researchers accredited him.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/breakthrough-cancer-cure-has-deep-israeli-roots/#.VsSHARjfTx8.email

Positive trials for treatment of Graft vs Host disease. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Kamada has reported positive interim results from a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its proprietary alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) to treat steroid-refractory Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD). Subjects responded well to treatment in the small study.
http://www.kamada.com/news_item.php?ID=217

Patent for kidney cancer test. (TY Atid-EDI) Israeli biotech Rosetta Genomics has been granted a US patent for its gene signature method of distinguishing four different types of kidney cancer. The molecular diagnostic test recognizes the profile of 29 microRNAs that are expressed in patients with renal cancer.
http://www.rosettagx.com/files/press_releases/2016/012516_ROSG_Kidney_Tumor_Classification_Patent_FINAL.pdf

Watching memory at work. Tel Aviv University Professor Itzhak Fried has completed his study of how memory neurons behave in real time when they are “remembering.” He will present his findings at an upcoming Jerusalem symposium. These have important implications for understanding dementia such as Alzheimer’s.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/doh-how-homer-simpson-helps-researchers-understand-memory/

ReWalk is medically necessary. (TY Dan) A US surgeon, confined to a wheelchair following a spinal cord injury, has successfully won his case to be reimbursed by his health plan for a ReWalk exoskeleton. The ruling will help make ReWalk available to all eligible patients. http://rewalk.com/rewalk-robotics-exoskeleton-deemed-medically-necessary-by-independent-medical-review-organization/

Hospital search engine wows Russia. Russia’s most dominant email service Mail.Ru is integrating the database of Archimedicx. Health Mail.Ru is one of the most popular health portals in Russia. Israeli Moni Milchman (see here) developed ArchimedicX, the world’s first search engine for information about hospitals.
http://www.geektime.com/2016/02/16/belgian-israeli-archimedicx-to-feature-its-listings-on-russian-mail-ru/

Israel-California biotech agreement. Israeli Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis signed a biotechnology agreement with the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Its focus is stem cell research and breakthroughs in treating diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and HIV-AIDS.
http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2016/2/10/israel-and-california-sign-biotech-deal-with-emphasis-on-stem-cell-research

New government guidance will prevent any public body from imposing a boycott on a member of the World Trade Organization to which Israel
belongs.

The British government has done something in support of Israel, and
the progressive intelligentsia is in shock. Prime Minister David
Cameron is taking action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
movement.

New government guidance will prevent any public body from imposing a
boycott on a member of the World Trade Organization to which Israel
belongs.

Local boycotts breach the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, which
demands that all suppliers are treated equally.

The guidance aims at preventing publicly funded bodies such as
municipal councils or National Health Service trusts from boycotting
goods produced by what they believe to be “unethical companies,” such
as firms involved in arms trading, fossil fuels or tobacco products as
well as companies based in Israel.

Brown University students are whining that classes and homework are interfering with their social-justice activism — and it’s, like, totally unfair for sensitive, forward-thinking minds like theirs to be expected to do so much schoolwork at school.

Yes, you read that right . . . expectations to do schoolwork at school are oppressive, and it is a very, very serious problem:

“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” one anonymous student, referred to as “David,” told the Brown Daily Herald.

“My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now. [Counseling and Psychological Services] counselors called me. I had deans calling me to make sure I was okay,” he said.

Now, David did add that he was able to get the deans to give him notes for extensions for his deadlines . . . but said that those were just “bandages” and definitely not enough to make up for those mean old racist professors wanting him to do his homework.

Another activist student, Justice Gaines — “who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr,” according to the Herald — explained that the notes should be “more accessible” and “more serious, so that professors will be more inclined to follow them,” because as it stands, it’s ultimately up to the professors to make the final decision on whether to do so.

Hm. Well, David was able to get a note, so clearly, they’re not all that unaccessible. And in terms of making professors honor the notes? Assistant Dean of Student Support Services Ashley Ferranti told the Herald that she estimates they’re accepted more than 90 percent of the time.

A student group at Harvard Law School claimed this week that its stance on free speech and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drove Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy to withdraw generous annual funding for student-run activities at the school.

Harvard said that Milbank had not rescinded its $1 million-dollar gift—$200,000 a year spread over five years—but the funds would now be administered differently.

The student group, HLS Justice for Palestine, said Milbank decided to pull its funding after $500 in firm-donated money was used to buy pizza for an event advocating free speech for pro-Palestine advocates. Milbank was recognized as a sponsor of the event, sparking a “flood of angry phone calls and emails” from “Milbank executives” and others, according to the group.

The students made their claims in an unsigned letter published by the Harvard Law Record. The letter was later publicized by pro-Palestinian media organizations and on Twitter by journalist Glenn Greenwald and others.

The group had purchased pizza for the event with money from the Milbank Tweed Student Conference Fund, according to the letter. The fund is endowed by Milbank and administered by the law school, which instructed student groups that receive money to recognize the firm as a sponsor in materials that promote Milbank-funded events, the letter said.

The day after the event, Justice for Palestine was contacted by the Dean of Students office and asked to remove Milbank’s name from a Facebook page promoting the lunchtime discussion, according to the letter. The group says it then asked the school to guarantee that it would not be barred from receiving money from the Milbank fund in the future.

The letter claims that Milbank asked that its funding for Justice for Palestine “be rescinded completely.” When the law school did not honor that demand, the firm pulled its funding from all student events, the letter asserted.

Yesterday, Adam Falk, the president of Williams College, disgraced himself, the college that he leads, and the institution of free speech that he has claimed to support. He did this by disinviting John Derbyshire, the mathematician and commentator, from speaking at Williams for a student-run program called “Uncomfortable Learning,” a series specifically designed to bring serious but alternative points of view to the expensive (this year’s tab: $63,290) and coddled purlieus of Williamstown, Massachusetts, where nearly all the faculty are left-leaning and the students, with rare exceptions, are timid if irritable politically correct babies.

This is not the first time someone scheduled to speak for the Uncomfortable Learning series has been disinvited. Last fall, the author Suzanne Venker was first invited and then disinvited by the organizers themselves. Her tort? Harboring unacceptable opinions about feminism. Imagine, she even had the temerity to publish books with such inflammatory titles as The Flipside of Feminism and The War on Men. Everyone knows that feminism is a wild success and that the only social war in town is the supposed “war on women,” punctuated every now and then by a “war on blacks.”

Ms. Venker was disinvited by the crybullies who could not bear to contemplate the presence of someone with a different perspective on feminism present in the same geographical space as themselves. But the invitation to John Derbyshire required bigger ammunition. It couldn’t be left to the students themselves to disinvited him. No, Adam Falk had to dust off his lofty horse, trot into the public square, and discharge a smug, emetic proclamation designed first of all to highlight his own greater virtue while also castigating John Derbyshire as the author of “hate speech.”

Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos made an appearance at Rutgers University, and his ideas and rhetoric so traumatized the delicate flowers who heard him that many of them attended a “group therapy” session afterward.

You are not going to believe what happened next:

According to the paper, students and faculty members held a wound-licking gathering at a cultural center on campus, where students described “feeling scared, hurt, and discriminated against.”

“A variety of different organizations and departments were present to listen, answer questions and show support” to the apparently weak and vulnerable students, who just a few days prior had disrupted Yiannopoulos’ event by smearing fake blood on their faces and chanting protest slogans.

One student at the event told the Targum that they “broke down crying” after the event, while another reported that he felt “scared to walk around campus the next day.” According to the report, “many others” said they felt “unsafe” at the event and on campus afterwards.

“It is upsetting that my mental health is not cared about by the University,” said one student at the event. “I do not know what else to do for us to be heard for us to be cared about. I deserve an apology, everyone in this room deserves an apology.”

A number of organizations were at the event to offer support to the poor, traumatised students. These included Psychiatric Services, the Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance, and the Rutgers University Police. However, as far as we know, none of the protesting students were institutionalized, arrested for vandalism, or for assaulting the peaceful attendees of Milo’s talk with red paint.

Common sense suggests that simplistic and erroneous assumptions produce simplistic and erroneous policies, as has been the case of all US initiatives towards the Palestinian issue, which has been erroneously perceived – by the US foreign policy establishment – to be the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hence, the initial US opposition to the 1977 Israel-Egypt peace initiative and the attempt to inject the Palestinian issue on the eve of the 1979 signing ceremony; the 1987 US recognition of the PLO, which rewarded a role-model of – and provided significant tailwind to – international terrorism; the passive US role in the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace initiative; the US endorsement of Arafat as a Nobel Laureate and the embrace of the self-destruct 1993 Oslo Accords; the failure to punish the Palestinian Authority for its hate-education and other systematic violations of the Oslo Accords; and the resounding failure of President Obama’s initiatives, which have highlighted the Palestinian issue.

In contrast to the US foreign policy establishment’s worldview, the first 1948/49 Arab-Israeli War was not launched, by Arab countries, on behalf of Palestinian aspirations. The Arabs launched the war in order to advance their own particular – not Palestinian – interests through the occupation of the strategic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the Palestinians blame Arab leaders for what they term “the 1948 debacle.”

Quietly, the German pharmaceutical and tech firm has emerged as a major international player in Israel

With more than 300 employees at four sites throughout Israel, Merck KgaA, a multifaceted chemical and technology company, has quietly emerged as one of the major multinational firms with a significant presence in Israel.

The company announced this week that it was furthering its stake in Israeli tech by signing a new framework agreement with the Weizmann Institute to research new solutions in the area of biotechnology and cancer research.

“We have focused our healthcare research activities on the highly promising fields of immuno-oncology, immunology and oncology, as we’re striving to deliver new solutions to respond to unmet medical needs,” said Stefan Oschmann, deputy CEO and vice chairman of the executive board of Merck. “We’re excited that the new framework agreement will cover the first two of these three areas, and we are already looking forward to the proposals of the distinguished Weizmann scientists.”

As part of the new framework agreement, Merck will fund each of the two research areas with up to € 1 million per year over the initial three-year period.

Merck (there are actually two separate companies called Merck; Merck KgaA, which operates everywhere except the US and Canada, where an independent company called Merck and Co. operates) is no stranger to the Weizmann Institute. Merck is best known for its drugs, but less well known is the strong connection the company — established in 1688 — has with Israel, where it has been active since 1978.

On a recent visit to Israel, Karl-Ludwig Kley, CEO of Merck KgaA, said that “15 percent of our products have an Israeli background, many of them researched at the Weizmann Institute. We have strong working relationships to develop products with all of Israel’s research institutes.

On Thursday afternoon, two 14-year-old Palestinians went on a stabbing spree in a supermarket in Samaria (the West Bank), killing 21-year-old IDF Staff Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman, the married father of a 4-month-old baby, and moderately wounding another Israeli man.

Weissman, like the shoppers who subdued the terrorists with their shopping carts, was not on duty; he was simply at the store buying groceries for his family.

This kind of scenario has become a tragically familiar part of the Israeli landscape since the beginning of the current surge in Palestinian terrorism in September. Though commonly referred to as the “Knife Intifada,” it is also characterized by the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails, guns and vehicles as weapons with which to murder Jews.

Because the average age of the terrorists is young, when they are neutralized (tackled, beaten or shot) — whether by members of the Border Police or armed civilians — the customary rumbling from abroad about Israel’s use of “excessive” or “disproportionate” force is always soon to follow.

As shameful as this double standard is in relation to the Jewish state in general and its response to life-threatening acts of aggression in particular, it is at least held by Israel’s ill-wishers. It is against these propagandists that Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and others have been working tirelessly and painstakingly to combat in the battlefield of ideas.

Imagine our dismay, then, when the top Israeli official commanding the actual war arena provides ammunition to the enemy.

About 10 miles northeast of Jerusalem sits the Israeli community of Ma’aleh Michmas. To the international community, this place is a “settlement” (emphasis on the “sssss”). In the Bible, it is mentioned in 1 Samuel, Isaiah, and Ezra. The ancient Israelites fought the Philistines there.

This week, a resident of Ma’aleh Michmas fought modern enemies, the Palestinians, at a market, in the homeland of his forefathers.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a combat sergeant with the Nahal Brigade, was stabbed to death by two Arab teenagers as he intervened in an attack. The 21-year-old leaves behind a wife and baby.

The demons that walk up and down in the earth today manifest in myriad ways. For Yanai and Yael, the fiends have stolen their future. When Yanai heard the commotion at the market, he left his baby daughter, Neta, with his wife. He was stabbed as he tried to save others. At his funeral, Yael pierced the veil now between them:

“Give me the strength to look Neta in the eyes and tell her that everything will be fine. I promise to take care of her as best I can. I am sorry that we did not have a chance to realize our dreams.

“I love you and I already long for you.”

The young husband and father was taken to a hospital, where doctors tried for hours to save him. Incredibly, his murderers (I couldn’t care less that they are both 14) are being treated in two Jerusalem’s medical centers; Sha’are Tzedek and Hadassah Ein Karem.

I wish they weren’t. I have to be honest.

I wish the Weissmans were able to return home and spend the next 60 years together.