RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Israel here and Israel there Israel shines everywhere. Michael Ordman’s weekly compilation details the nation’s dazzling contributions to the world  from  building national and international vertical farms, hospitals, sports and entertainment complexes, contributing research and development of technology and medicines for curing cancer, immunologic diseases, and adult-onset chronic illnesses.

Even hostile journalists who bash Israel in their daily screeds love being posted there. There are cultural and religious events, myriad cuisines and restaurants, cafes, monuments and beaches and parks for leisure and entertainment. Furthermore, the national sport is debate on every subject without fear of intimidation or harassment in a freewheeling and diverse democratic society.  

And here is an interesting nugget from President Biden’s recent visit:

One of the security staff accompanying US President Biden on his Israel trip is Anne Neuberger. She is an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn New York. Granddaughter of Shoah survivors, she speaks Hebrew, Arabic, and Yiddish (and English!). Her parents were rescued by Israelis at Entebbe in 1976 – the year she was born!

Read it all….. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Chronic disease breakthrough. Researchers from Haifa’s Bnai Zion Medical Center and Israel’s Technion Institute have developed semaphorin 3A – a molecule that maintains the balance of the immune system. It can help treat autoimmune or inflammatory diseases like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, MS, and IBD.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-711301  
https://www.gov.il/he/departments/b-zion-health-center/govil-landing-page
 
Bionic bacteria. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have engineered nano-sized hybrid biological components at room temperature. These fast-growing proteins, enzymes, and other biological compounds can be used to develop new, safer medicines and improved fuels that do not exist in nature.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2022/05/bionic-bacteria-novel-platform/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.202202457
 
How do the astronauts feel? Another experiment conducted by astronauts on the Axiom One Rakia mission to the International Space Station was the helmet of Israel’s Brain.Space (see here previously). Here is a detailed description of the experiment and the implications for future space travel.
https://nocamels.com/2022/07/brain-space-helmet-space/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do2U-4xGs_Q
 
Early warning of patient problems. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has just completed a clinical study of patients using the wearable vital signs monitor from Israel’s BioBeat (see here previously). It shows that the telehealth device can detect patient deterioration 38 hours before clinical deterioration, in 75% of patients.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356032
 
An alternative to psychiatric hospitals. An interesting report and separate analysis of the performance of three of Israel’s 13 Soteria Houses for psychiatric patients. Their compassion and supportive environments contrast with alternative psychiatric hospitals that focus on anti-psychotic drugs and more invasive therapies.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatry-through-the-looking-glass/202206/alternative-psychiatric-hospitals   https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17522439.2022.2057578
 
Superfood is even better than mother’s milk. Israel’s Maolac (see here previously) has progressed from just producing an alternative to mother’s milk for babies. It is now using one ingredient for an anti-inflammatory product to help athletes recover after exercise. And another, to make a probiotic that reduces stress in the gut.
https://nocamels.com/2022/07/superfood-breast-milk-proteins/
 
The future is in HealthTech. “The Future is in HealthTech” was one of a new series of meetings sponsored by Calcalist and Start-Up Nation Central. It highlighted the pandemic-induced rise of telemedicine, Zoom meetings, and virtual reality. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjzeu0gj9
https://newmedia.calcalist.co.il/conferences/2022/preseed/healthtech.html
 
More medical innovation partners. RISE is the innovation arm of Assuta – Israel’s leading private chain of hospitals. RISE already partners with 30 Israeli startups and has just added five more. Ibex Medical, Senseera, Theator, Magentiq Eye and MaveriQx – the only startup not previously reported in this newsletter.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/u25zmzuig   https://www.maveriqx.com/
 
Paralyzed man is now back on his feet. A mystery illness caused 41-year-old Nir’s muscles to deteriorate and eventually Nir collapsed, paralyzed. At Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, Nir was quickly diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Guillain-Barre syndrome. A transfusion and plasma replacement restored Nir’s life.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356063

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-disgraceful-disruption-of-the-abraham-accords/

 The debate in Israel about the significance of U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Israel and affirmation of America’s “bone-deep” relationship with the Jewish state should make way for a far more serious question. Biden wasn’t lying when he told Channel 12’s Yonit Levi in an interview last week that he considers the anti-Israel members of his party to be “wrong.”

The very fact that the pronouncement made such bold headlines goes to show that what he said had been in some kind of doubt. But Biden has never been a radical, despite his eight years under former President Barack Obama, a loyal Alinskyite on a mission to erode America internally and “lead from behind” abroad.

No, Biden is a typical, old-guard liberal with all that entails, such as a tendency to pander more to the left than the right. It is thus that the proud Catholic who once opposed abortion did an about-face and jumped on the bandwagon against the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

What hasn’t changed is his position on the “peace process.” And here is where his same old colors were on full display, which rendered his joint pledge with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons worse than meaningless.

https://bit.ly/3IzbK7q

*The US does not extend foreign aid to Israel. Rather, the US makes an annual investment in Israel, which yields to the American taxpayer an annual R-O-I (Return-On-Investment) of several hundred percent.

*Israel serves as the battle-tested, cost-effective laboratory of the US defense and aerospace industries and the US armed forces.

*Over 200 US high tech giants have established research and development centers in Israel, leveraging Israel’s brainpower.

*The US would have to establish five CIAs in order to procure the intelligence provided by Israel.

*Israel is the largest US aircraft carrier, which does not require American soldiers on board, sparing the US $15bn annually.
 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-712133

Nine European countries declared on Tuesday that they would continue backing the Palestinian NGOs designated by Israel last year as terrorist organizations. In a joint statement, the foreign ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden argued that Israel hadn’t provided “substantial information… that would justify reviewing [their] policy” towards the “civil society” groups in question.

Referring to the area in which the said organizations operate as the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories) – rather than the PA (Palestinian Authority) – these EU members said that “should evidence be made available to the contrary, we would act accordingly.”

This was after professing to take “accusations of terrorism or links to terrorist groups… with the utmost seriousness.” All well and good, if one’s definition of the deadly phenomenon is open to interpretation.

“A free and strong civil society is indispensable for promoting democratic values and for the two-state solution,” the countries concluded, to give grounds for their continuing to fund the NGOs on Israel’s list of outlaws. This sentence alone is proof of Western Europe’s willful blindness when it comes to all things Palestinian.

In the first place, there is nothing “free” about the PA, which is controlled by corrupt and evil leaders. Secondly, no “democratic values” are promoted by the honchos in Gaza and Ramallah. Nor do the rulers of either push for a “two-state solution.”

https://thejewishvoice.com/2022/07/anonymous-u-s-leaks-divulging-israels-secrets-to-iran/

Someone in the Biden administration may be “leaking” details about Israel’s covert operations in order to try to persuade Iranian leaders to return to the failed Iran nuclear deal created – at a cost of billions of dollars – by Barack Obama.

President Donald Trump withdrew America from the deal, which purported to prevent the rogue regime in Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons but actually only delayed that, when he determined there was no benefit to the United States. Joe Biden has been trying to resurrect it.

Now Just the News is reporting just as Biden is preparing to travel to Israel and Saudi Arabia next week, that “anonymous U.S. officials” are “leaking information to the media details about alleged covert Israeli operations against Iran, from targeted killings to explosions at nuclear sites.”

Those leaks could, in fact, generate a number of complications, from retaliation by Iran to failed efforts to take out Iran’s threats.

“It’s a sign of extraordinary incompetence and unprofessionalism from Biden and his foreign policy team,” Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who also served as a senior staffer on both the House Intelligence Committee and the National Security Council, told Just the News.

“It’s outrageous they would leak this kind of information.”

The “anonymous” reports have included those made recently to CNN about Israel increasing its covert attacks in Iran, the report said.

It may be the start of the summer holidays, but the busy pace of Israel’s positive activities remains at the highest level. Israeli scientists and medics have been busy kick-starting the immune system, boosting the body’s repair system, and (yes still) healing Ukrainian refugees. Israelis have been feeding the poor, swimming the Kinneret, schlepping baby formula to the US, training farmers, installing water pumps for the thirsty, and eradicating plagues of locusts. Innovative Israel startups are busy removing CO2 from the atmosphere, powering vehicles efficiently, heating and cooling offices without energy, securing and speeding up construction work, making production smarter, and helping businesses search their data. Israeli trade with Arab states is at unprecedented levels, Israeli technology is making on-line business safer and can help busy airlines and airports get travelers to their destinations quicker. Finally, Israel is busy welcoming numbers of tourists and new immigrants not seen for years.    Michael Ordman

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Rebooting the immune system. Israel’s NeoTX (see here previously) is now conducting a Phase 2 trial of its naptumomab estafenatox (NAP) bacteria-coated, immunotherapy cancer treatment on 30 patients in the US. It is also enhancing an AstraZeneca checkpoint inhibitor. NeoTX has 3 Nobel prizewinners in its team.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-cancer-treatment-fools-the-immune-system-to-attack/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/neotx-announces-successful-first-stage-120000979.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntk8XsxVDi0  https://neotx.com/
 
How we fight fungal infections. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have made a vital discovery in how Candida infections are countered in healthy humans. Until the immune system’s TH17 T-Cell lymphocytes turn up, rare lymphoid cells (Aire-ILC3s) spring into action to hold back the potentially dangerous fungal infection.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/355598  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-022-01247-6
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/curbing-candida-cells-keep-fungal-infections-bay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu7Qj5quVwM
 
T-Time. Dr. Elad Jacoby – Head of cell therapy, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center talks at Talpiot xmed 2022 about how they re-educate T-cells in the immune system to destroy cancers that used to take the lives of young children. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4oCvOtTgu4
 
Bacteria may help cancer patients. Israel’s Biomica (see here previously) has given 12 cancer patients, who had poor responses to immunotherapy, pills containing bacteria missing from their gut microbiome. In 2020, doctors at Sheba hospital used fecal bacteria to shrink the tumors of three cancer patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-company-to-test-if-fecal-bacteria-pills-boost-cancer-immunotherapy/
 
Smart fabric accelerates repair of nerves. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed an ultra-thin silicon-based membrane that speeds up the repair of damaged nerves. The material is wrapped around the nerve while the wound is open. When the wound is closed, the material is stimulated using near-infrared light.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-smart-fabric-uses-electricity-to-fast-track-repair-of-nerves/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01249-7
 
Diagnosing diseases in space. Scientists at Tel Aviv University and Israel’s Volcani Institute developed the kit that Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe tested on his mission on the International Space Station. It proved that even under zero gravity, diagnosis known as CRISPR-Cas can identify viruses and bacteria infecting crew members.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-experiment-uses-crispr-cas-to-successfully-diagnose-diseases-in-space/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-scientists-invent-space-age-diagnosis-method/
 
Warning of patients at risk of hospitalization. Suboptimal polypharmacy is when medication for two or more chromic conditions clash. Israel’s FeelBetter has been deployed by Israel’s Leumit Healthcare and preliminary results show it can identify 70% of elderly patients at risk of hospitalization in the next 3 to 9 months.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tech-works-to-avert-hospitalizations-by-flagging-problems-with-clashing-meds/   https://www.feelbetter.healthcare/
 
Joint medical research with UAE. Israel’s Maccabi Healthcare Services HMO and health organizations in the United Arab Emirates have signed several deals to promote joint medical research and tech innovation. They focus on advancing personalized medicine and includes building a genomic research registry for the UAE.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/all-news/article-710960

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18696/palestinian-cause-hard-left

Why does the Palestinian cause get so much attention, when there are much more compelling causes around the world such as those of the Kurds, Uyghurs, and other stateless and oppressed people? There are more demonstrations on university campuses against Israel than against Russia, China, Belarus and Iran. Why?

The answer has little to do with the Palestinians, and everything to do with Israel, as the nation state of the Jewish people. It is a political manifestation of international antisemitism. It is only because the nation accused of oppressing Palestinians is Israel.

It has little to do with the merits and everything to do with antisemitism. It calls itself anti-Zionism, but it is only a cover for anti-Jewish bigotry.

A recent example is the decision of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to boycott parts of Israel, while continuing to sell to countries in which far greater abuses occur. When asked why Ben and Jerry’s limits their boycott only to Israel, its founders admitted they had no idea.

Who is leading the crowd of antisemitic bigots? The movement to single out the nation state of Israel for boycott, known as BDS, was originated by a Palestinian radical named Omar Barghouti, who does not hide the fact that his goal is the destruction of Israel….

Do the Palestinians deserve a state? Yes, but no more so than the Kurds and other stateless people. Why no more so? Because the Palestinians have been offered statehood numerous times and have rejected it.

Palestinians were offered a state on the vast majority of arable land, as part of a United Nations proposed two state solution; the Jews were offered a state on a far smaller area of arable land. The Jews accepted the compromise two state solution. The Arabs rejected it and went to war against the new Jewish state seeking to destroy it. It was this act of unlawful military aggression that resulted in the Palestinian refugee situation, which they call the “Nakba” (“catastrophe”). But it was a self-induced catastrophe. And many current Palestinian leaders and followers fault their predecessors for not accepting the two-state solution offered by the United Nations 75 years ago.

The Palestinians could have had a state in 1948, 1967, 2000-2001, 2005 and 2008. They still preferred no Jewish state to a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. They can have a state now, if they would negotiate a compromise instead of fomenting terrorism.

I wonder how many of those who demonstrate against Israel have any idea of this history.

The anti-Israel claims of the Palestinians, though deeply flawed, have become a central part of hard left ideology, especially among those who adhere to so-called intersectionality.