RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-double-standard-in-dealing-with-israel/

The New York Times and the current US administration have questioned the Israeli elected government choice of ministers and speculated on its policies. While it’s true that friends and allies such as the US and Israel occasionally can question one’s policy, it is usually the US that does most of such questioning, and the US administrations have on occasion attempted to influence Israel’s election outcomes. This was the case when President Bill Clinton openly supported the election of Ehud Barak over Benjamin Netanyahu. President Joe Biden is more circumspect about taking sides in Israeli elections, but he too wished for a left-leaning and easily manipulated Israeli government that would make concessions to the Palestinians. This was the case of Yair Lapid’s short government. Israel is a mature democracy and the people of Israel, in an open and purely democratic election, have the right to elect their chosen leaders and parties. Labeling Netanyahu’s government as “extremist” before it has begun to govern is unfair and counterproductive.

The Biden administration does not like the new Israeli government, and top administration officials have expressed concerns about the posts in Netanyahu’s government of at least two right-wing politicians: Naftali Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir (the Biden administration did not qualify some parties in Lapid’s government as left-wing). Smotrich is slated to serve as Minister of Finance along with some sections of the Defense Ministry, and Ben-Gvir is to serve as Minister of Public Security. It has been said that President Biden declared that he would hold Netanyahu responsible for the policies of Israel’s government. It is interesting to note that no such concerns by the Biden administration or the New York Times were raised when Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid as Prime Ministers included an Arab Islamist party in their coalition government.

The New York Times (NYT), which tends to influence Democratic administrations and generally guide its policies, blasted the Netanyahu coalition. In an opinion piece on December 17, 2022, the NYT expressed fear that Netanyahu was catering to the demands of the most extreme elements of Israeli politics with a coalition of radical and far-right cabinet picks. The NYT opined that, “Mr. Netanyahu’s government, however, is a significant threat to the future of Israel — its direction, its security and even the idea of a Jewish homeland. For one, the government’s posture could make it militarily and politically impossible for a two-state solution to ever emerge. Rather than accept this outcome, the Biden administration should do everything it can to express its support for a society governed by equal rights and the rule of law in Israel, as it does in countries all over the world. That would be an act of friendship, consistent with the deep bond between the two nations.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19266/palestinians-kill-jewish-worshippers

The Palestinian Authority, which is in charge of security in Nablus, has — despite official agreements in the Oslo Accords — nevertheless refused to fulfill its commitment to protect and ensure free access to Joseph’s Tomb.

So far, no one has called out the Palestinian Authority for its grave violations of the international commitments signed with Israel ensuring free access to, and the protection of, all holy sites.

Encouraged by the silence of the international community, the Palestinian Authority has been trying to prevent Jews from visiting another holy site, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem… which is abutted by the Western Wall…. This wall happens to be the holiest site in Judaism where Jews are permitted to pray.

Instead of denouncing Abbas for his incitement and the Palestinians for their denial of Jewish links to the holy site, the United Nations General Assembly in 2021 approved a resolution that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.

Without the presence of the Israeli security forces in Jerusalem, Jews would have been attacked and slaughtered every day on their way to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

If the city or these sites were ever to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, Jewish worshippers would have to visit their holy sites in bullet-proof vehicles accompanied by platoons of soldiers and police officers, as is necessary these days at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus.

The Biden administration and the rest of the international community would do well to wake up to the fact that the Palestinian state they are clamoring for means the continued slaughter of Jews and the denial of their safe access to Jewish holy sites.

Tolerance and freedom of worship are not terms that can be found in the Palestinian lexicon. The Palestinians will be satisfied only when they replace Israel with an Iranian-backed terror state and erase all traces of Jewish history and faith.

 https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-false-prophets-of-an-impending-israeli-apocalypse/

 Within minutes of the swearing-in of Israel’s 37th government, the self-proclaimed “forces of light” who were defeated by it began a campaign to prove that the voters were already suffering from buyer’s remorse—and that the public was in for an Armageddon of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s making.

As part of the effort, Channel 13 on Sunday broadcast a survey, conducted on its behalf by leading pollster Camil Fuchs, showing that if Knesset elections were held today, Bibi’s bloc would garner eight seats fewer than the 64 it gained at the ballot box on Nov. 1 . Leaving aside the consistent inaccuracy of Fuchs’s forecasts in the lead-up to that date, the local media’s inability to accept that the “most right-wing coalition in the country’s history” was neither a fluke nor a mark of Cain has been almost comical.

In the first place, the very commissioning of an electoral poll at such an early stage—some five minutes into the changing of the guard—was as ridiculous as it was transparent. Secondly, the only company that proved worth its salt was Direct Polls. Nevertheless, its research is still viewed as biased for two reasons.

One is that its CEO, Shlomo Filber, the former Communications Ministry director-general who turned state witness against Netanyahu in Case 4000 (the Bezeq-Walla affair), yet wound up giving evidence in support of the defense. The other is that it was hired by the politically conservative Channel 14 to present what would emerge as the best predictor of the results of the actual election.

Then there’s doom-and-gloom purveyor Yair Lapid, the opposition leader whose thankfully short premiership was nipped in the bud by his nemesis, Netanyahu. In a speech to parliamentarians in the plenum on Monday, he outdid himself in leftist hyperbole.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/israel-a-country-that-chooses-resilience-over-trauma/

Editors’ note: Frontpage Associate Editor Christine Douglass-Williams recently had the honor of attending the Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem hosted by the Israel Government Press Office. Below, she shares her experience and analyzes the ongoing challenges facing the Jewish State.

With the goal of strengthening ties between Christians around the world and the State of Israel, the 2022 Christian Media Summit (CMS) convened in Jerusalem from Dec. 11-14 for dialogue and to experience Israel firsthand. Following my last attendance in 2019, I wrote at WND “Israel: World leader in tech, diversity, human development.” Israel’s culture of life and progress radiates, despite its coexistence with deadly enemies, its fight for survival and an effective propaganda war against it that propagates anti-Semitism. It is a country united by an inviolable collective determination that transcends partisanship, a determination that characterized this year’s summit.

The summit launched with a Gala Event featuring a warm welcome by Nitzan Chen, director of the Israel Government Press Office (who openly acknowledges that Jesus was a Jew) and speeches that included Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, who captured the essence of Christian-Jewish relations today: “We are living in the golden age of Jewish-Christian relations with some serious flaws and challenges. … We have never had a relationship with the Christian world as good as the one we have now.”

One disappointment drew some local media attention: the absence of a scheduled welcome by Benjamin Netanyahu, a favorite among evangelicals. Sentiments were split amid whisperings, yet an understanding prevailed that Netanyahu was under extreme pressure to form a coalition, and quickly. Yair Lapid could have greeted us, as could have Naftali Bennett or Isaac Herzog, but Israel’s government was in a crisis moment – in the face of global realignments to boot. Netanyahu’s absence, though felt, was hardly viewed by most attendees as a mortal sin given the political climate.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/israeli-liberals-arent-doing-the-lgbtq-flag-or-democracy-proud/

In a Army Radio interview on Monday, MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu—an openly gay member of outgoing caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party—warned that the coalition deals currently being finalized could be deadly for the LGBTQ community. He was referring, in particular, to a Religious Zionist Party (RZP)-proposed amendment to existing anti-discrimination laws. The updated version would enable private businesses not to provide services that contradict their faith.

“I really think it will end in murder,” he said, dubbing the issue in question “incitement” by “irresponsible elected officials … Words will not be the end of it; words have power.”
Funny he should have mentioned that, given the incessant, ugly, anti-Orthodox vitriol his camp has been spewing, not to mention calls for civil insurrection against the not-yet-instated government. But then, Lahav Hertzanu is among the many disgruntled losers of the Nov. 1 Knesset election who distort the language of their nemeses, while displaying bald-faced hypocrisy in the process.

Let’s start with the first half of the double whammy. The latest brouhaha erupted when RZP MKs Orit Strock and Simcha Rothman defended the need to legislate the right of establishments to operate in accordance with their religious beliefs. Strock said that this should apply to doctors, if and when alternative physicians are available to take their place. Rothman gave hotels as an example.

Predictably, the response from the soon-to-be opposition has been to accuse Prime Minister-designate Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu of caving to his “homophobic” and “racist” partners. Petitions and letters rejecting the move, assumed by detractors to be targeting LGTBs—have popped up all over, from the ivory towers of academia and high-tech to the halls of hospitals.

The outrage, like that expressed by the “anybody but Bibi” crowd over the haredi parties’ demand for the right to hold gender-segregated events, wasn’t spontaneous, however. On the contrary, it’s been cultivated and nurtured over time to combust on command.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-new-government-isnt-what-youve-heard-free-market-religious-exercise-democracy-judicial-reform-eu-11672172820?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The U.S. media has vilified me and the traditionalist bloc to which I belong since our success in Israel’s November elections. They say I am a right-wing extremist and that our bloc will usher in a “halachic state” in which Jewish law governs. In reality, we seek to strengthen every citizen’s freedoms and the country’s democratic institutions, bringing Israel more closely in line with the liberal American model.

Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and will remain so. After five elections in less than five years and suffering the rule of a weak and fractious coalition dependent on a radical Islamist party’s backing for a year and a half, the country has finally formed a popular and stable government. Our bloc will strengthen Israel in the face of radical Islam and its terror proxies, open the country up economically, and usher in growth and prosperity for the benefit of all citizens.

As finance minister, I will pursue a broad free-market policy. This includes removing the government price controls and import restrictions that have limited competition and kept consumer prices high, as well as regulatory reforms and a loosening of bureaucratic control over small businesses. Inspired by U.S. right-to-work laws, we will pursue similar measures to reduce union control in Israel’s labor force.

On matters of religion and state, the new government will never seek to impose anything on a citizen that goes against his or her beliefs. We wish only to increase the freedom of religious people to participate in the public sphere in accordance with their faith, without coercion on secular people. For example, arranging for a minuscule number of sex-separated beaches, as we propose, scarcely limits the choices of the majority of Israelis who prefer mixed beaches. It simply offers an option to others. We also will work to guarantee that religious believers aren’t punished by the government for standing by their beliefs. This is no different from the rights the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed in its Masterpiece Cakeshop decision. Contrary to some American reporting, we seek to protect all citizens from coercion that would violate their conscience—nothing more.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/12/a_leaked_document_shows_the_eu_seeking_to_clear_jews_from_judea_and_samaria.html

Europe has always dreamed of being Judenrein (Jew-free). Even as countries that the Nazis occupied bemoaned their fate, most cooperated with the mandate to turn over their Jews, some more enthusiastically than others (Ukraine, I’m looking at you). The impulse lives on, whether it’s the way in which Europe has spent decades inviting in Arabs who hate the Jews every bit as much as the Nazis did or the way it has undermined Israel at every turn. Regarding the latter effort, a leaked EU document shows that the EU has a secret plan to turn the Jewish sections of Judea and Samaria over to the “Palestinians.”

I should explain why I put the word “Palestinians” in quotation marks. It’s because they are an invented people, a product of Yassir Arafat’s manufactured history for the region. The scant number of Arabs who populated the swampy, fever-ridden land that marked the Biblical nations of Israel and Judah–land that had been a continuous home to the Jews for almost 4,000 years–was a mix of Tunisians, Algerians, and random Arabs who drifted there beginning in the early 1800s when the land was a colony of the Ottoman Empire.

It was the Romans who imposed the name “Palestine” on the Jewish land they controlled as a colony. They did so as an insult, to remind the Jews under their rule of the hated Philistines. There has never been a Palestinian nation. It is a name that reflects only colonial rule, whether Roman, Ottoman, or British.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Yesterday Christmas Day was also the penultimate day of Hannukah, both holidays of lights, history, and faith which  inspire the best human instincts. When the menorahs are put away, and trees and decorations are taken down, both faiths pray for a brighter future with good deeds and benevolence in the coming year.

As Michael Ordman details, researchers and scientist in Israel, return to their laboratories to unravel innovations in medical and scientific technologies which will make life longer and better for billions of people in 2023. The new year also promises growing relations and cooperation among Israel and Moslem nations.  rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Novel cancer treatment begins trials. Israel’s Nectin Therapeutics (see here previously) has started human trials of its NTX1088 cancer treatment. NTX1088 blocks the protein PVR expressed by tumors to suppress the immune system. The treatment also restores DNAM-1, needed to activate anti-cancer T & NK cells.
https://nocamels.com/2022/12/treatment-for-resistant-cancer-patients-raises-25m/
 
Cystic fibrosis treatment begins trials. (TY Dr Salem) Israel’s SpliSense (see here previously) has begun a first Phase 1/2 human trial of its SPL84 treatment for a specific genetic mutation that causes cystic fibrosis. SpliSense utilizes proprietary RNA therapies called ASOs (antisense oligonucleotides) to correct mutations.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/splisense-initiates-phase-12-study-of-spl84-rna-based-therapy-for-the-treatment-of-cystic-fibrosis-301702837.html
 
It’s a wrap. Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a new technology to encapsulate (i.e., wrap) molecules and then release them within the body. They designed a peptide that forms compartments for the molecules and then UV light to break up the compartments. It can deliver therapies to wherever it is needed.
https://english.tau.ac.il/encapsulation_molecules_2022  https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.1c21006
 
Warning – impending heart failure. A new tool developed at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center and the US’ Mayo Clinic is saving the lives of patients with myositis (weak, painful, and inflamed heart muscle). Using 20 years of ECG data, the AI system has an 80% accuracy of predicting and preventing impending heart failure.
https://nocamels.com/2022/12/lifesaving-ai-warns-of-patient-heart-failure/
 
Warning – your medication may harm you.  Israel’s MDI Health Technologies (see here previously) is now up and running in the USA and Israel with its AI-based system to detect adverse interactions of medication. 20% of patients 65+ take dangerous combinations of medicines, causing 12 million hospitalizations in the US.
https://nocamels.com/2022/12/ai-protects-patients-from-dangerous-drug-interactions/
 
Infusion at home. The Covid pandemic has impacted positively on many of the patients using infusion systems from Israel’s Eitan Medical (see here previously). What was once regularly a long visit to hospital is often now a 5-minute procedure performed at home. Earlier this year Eitan received Israel’s Outstanding Exporter’ award.
https://eitanmedical.com/eitan-medical-receives-2020-outstanding-exporter-award-from-israeli-ministry-of-economy-and-industry/  https://www.israel21c.org/devices-that-deliver-injectable-drugs-right-at-home/
 
A mattress to decompress your spine. Israeli startup Daily Backup has developed the CogniSpine – a semi-inflatable mattress that returns your spine to its natural curvature when lying on it in a prone position. It also stimulates the vagus nerve, which regulates heart rate, etc., switching it into “relaxed mode”.
https://nocamels.com/2022/12/relax-lying-face-down-could-be-the-best-stress-buster/  https://cognispine.com/
 
New research center for autoimmune diseases. Thanks to a generous donor, Tel Aviv University is to establish a multidisciplinary center for the research of autoimmune diseases. The new Colton Center will focus on big data analytics, sourced by Israeli medical institutions, to direct traditional scientific lab work.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-725197