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ISRAEL

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

 

Israeli innovations continue to flow at an amazing pace. This week’s newsletter includes medical cures for Alzheimer’s and Covid; a cancer mutation database and saliva-based testing kits. The EU awarded a top prize to a female Israeli innovator; Israelis developed innovative devices for the disabled; and Innovation: Africa showcased to 25 African UN Ambassadors. Technological innovations include a new process for extracting hydrogen from water; purifying polluted water using UV LED light; capturing atmospheric CO2 in balloons; and destroying coronavirus using millimeter radiation. In business, Mastercard has opened an Israeli innovation lab; Israeli smart trolleys are heading to the US; and an Israeli startup has launched more virtual shops…..Michael Ordman

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed a method of removing copper ions that cause the toxic buildup of amyloid plaque in Alzheimer’s patients. Professor Galia Maayan and PhD student Anastasia Behar have patented the groundbreaking “chelation” (extraction) process.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/israel-scientists-molecule-alzheimers-disease-technion/
 
Genetic database saves lives in 44 countries. Israel’s Genoox (see here previously) has developed Franklin – a repository of genetic biopsy information relating to cancer mutations. Doctors in more than 1700 healthcare organizations in over 44 countries use Franklin to personalize cancer treatments to the patient’s genetic makeup.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/genoox-precision-medicine-analyzing-genetic-data/
 
Covid treatment reduced deaths by 70%. (TY Hazel) In its latest Phase 2 trial at three major Israeli hospitals, MesenCure from Israel’s Bonus BioGroup (see here previously) reduced Covid-19 deaths to 6.7% compared to 23.3% of the control group. It is now aiming for emergency use authorization in US, EU, and Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/israeli-drug-for-severe-covid-reduces-death-by-70-percent-phase-2-trial-686879
 
Saliva-based test kits. Israel’s Salignostics has developed Salistick, the world’s first and only saliva-based rapid pregnancy test kit. It detects the pregnancy hormone β-hCG and delivers a test result in 10 minutes. Another of Salignostics kits, SaliCov, detects Covid-19 from saliva in just 15 minutes.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3922310,00.html   https://www.salignostics.com/salistick/  
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/salignostics-world-first-saliva-based-pregnancy/  https://www.salignostics.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WinGNhtSBnw
 
The memory can aid healing. Researchers at Israel’s Technion (a team of Jews and Arabs) have discovered that the brain can induce a psychosomatic response not only to cause illness, but also to heal it. Inflammation in mice activated specific neurons which later could be manipulated to re-create or control the inflammation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286742101223X?dgcid=coauthor
 
UK extends partnership for research into aging. The Britain-Israel Research and Academic Exchange (BIRAX) partnership has launched a new £1.6 million grant program to fund joint research between Israeli and UK scientists in the field of ageing. (see here for 2018 initiative)
https://english.tau.ac.il/news/healthy-aging-research   https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/316469
 
Stay on your feet. Comprehensive article describing the innovative device from Israel’s Votis (see here previously) that can identify peripheral artery disease (PAD) in its very early stages.
https://www.israel21c.org/finding-diabetic-foot-disease-before-symptoms-show-up/
 
$75 million initiative to tackle diabetes. Bar-Ilan University is creating a program to transform diabetes care. The Social Precision-medicine Health Equity Research Endeavour (SPHERE). is supported by a $20 million grant from the Russell Berrie Foundation and will identify genetic mutations that cause diabetes.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/316803
 
Fixing hearts of children from the Congo. (TY I24 News) Israeli charity Save a Child’s Heart (SACH – see here previously) is bringing its first group of Congolese children to the Jewish state for life-saving heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDTcl8UqLZo
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-israeli-ngo-brings-african-children-to-jewish-state-for-heart-surgery/
 
Saving a life while wearing pajamas. United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Noemie was asleep after finishing a late shift in the pediatric ward of Sheba Hospital. She was suddenly alerted to go to the aid of a 92-year-old unconscious woman but had no time to get dressed. She saved her patient, performing CPR in her pajamas!
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/316902
 

Being Pro-Palestinian Actually Means Being Anti-Israel By Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/12/being_propalestinian_actually_means_being_antiisrael.html

Writing in 2009 about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the insightful Palestinian/Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh observed that, “What is happening on the U.S. campuses is not about supporting the Palestinians as much as it is about promoting hatred for the Jewish state. It is not really about ending the ‘occupation,’” he wrote, “as much as it is about ending the existence of Israel.”

And that is what those who observe the campus activism against Israel have never fully understood: that being pro-Palestinian, by definition, means being anti-Israel.

It does not involve urging the Palestinian leadership to come to terms with Israel about long unsettled negotiation points about borders, Jerusalem, the return of refugees, and other key issues. Is has never involved advising Palestinians to abandon terror, or so-called “resistance,” as a tactic for advancing political ambitions.

Those helping to promote Palestinian self-determination have not been firm in suggesting that Palestinian leaders and other officials end incitement, stop the indoctrination of children in textbooks and lesson plans that demonize Israel and Jews and teach children to look at the Jewish state as an abomination, an illegal regime, a perverse example of the malignancy of Jews who steal land, commit genocide, and oppress an innocent indigenous people.

The Palestinians have never been told by their supporters that it morally repugnant and diplomatically lethal to engage in a “pay to slay” program through which terrorists and their families were financially rewarded with $183 million in 2017, for example, garnered from foreign aid heaped on the Palestinians, purportedly for humanitarian aid.

In debating the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict, social justice activists, of course, demonstrate their hypocrisy by endlessly dwelling on the many evils of Israel without bothering to examine or measure the Palestinians’ own central role in contributing to the many pathologies endemic to their civil society and institutions. Like many Western elites do when choosing sides, social justice warriors infantilize the Palestinian victim and assume he has no agency to ameliorate his own conditions.

How the Associated Press Covered Israeli President Herzog’s Candle-Lighting in Hebron The twisted world of anti-Israel bias. Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/how-associated-press-covered-israeli-president-hugh-fitzgerald/

The AP covered, in its peculiar way, the latest contretemps between Arab and Jew in Hebron, the second holiest city in Judaism. It involved President Herzog’s lighting of the first candle for Hanukkah at a menorah in the Cave of the Patriarchs. When he first announced his intention to do so, Hamas reacted furiously, warning that if he went through with his candle-lighting, Israelis in Hebron, and perhaps elsewhere in the West Bank, would be attacked. He went ahead anyway, and so far those threatened attacks have not taken place, because the IDF has reinforced its presence in Kiryat Arba, that part of Hebron where 7,236 Jews bravely live, in the face of the 200,000 Palestinian Arabs who are living in the rest of Hebron. .

A report on the AP’s coverage of the candle-lighting in Hebron is here: “AP Demotes Second Holiest Place in Judaism to ‘West Bank Site’, Ignores Recent Hamas Threat Against Hebron’s Jews,” by Gidon Ben-Zvi, HonestReporting, November 29, 2021:

Imagine if one of the world’s leading news publications in a headline referred to Washington DC merely as a ‘City on the Potomac River.’ Yet this is exactly what The Associated Press, a wire service with more than 1,300 clients, did in a piece titled “Israeli president celebrates Hanukkah at West Bank site.” Beyond diminishing the Jewish people’s historic connection to Hebron, AP also chose to ignore Hamas’ threat of violence against the city’s Jewish residents that was made following the announcement that President Isaac Herzog would be lighting the first candle of Hanukkah at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

The Associated Press rather belatedly mentions, in the eighth paragraph of the November 28 piece written by Moshe Edri, that “the cave is believed to be the burial site of the Jewish and Muslim patriarch Abraham. It also is revered as the burial site of other Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs and is considered the second holiest site in Judaism.”

The Middle East Studies Association’s Shameful Betrayal of Academic Freedom An obsessive hatred of the Jewish state.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/mesas-shameful-betrayal-academic-freedom-richard-l-cravatts/

Unsurprisingly for an organization whose membership has been perennially hostile to Israel, members of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) voted at their recent annual meeting to advance a resolution endorsing an academic boycott of Israeli academics to a full membership vote in 2022.

The sententious language of the MESA boycott resolution, which ironically purports to protect academic freedom, asserts that there is evidence of “successive Israeli governments’ systematic violations of the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli direct or indirect control” and that these so-called “systemic violations include restricting freedom of movement for Palestinians; isolating, undermining, or otherwise attacking Palestinian educational institutions; harassing Palestinian professors, teachers, and students . . ; and maintaining inequality in educational resources between Palestinians and Israelis.”

But MESA’s notion that Israeli universities are “imbricated in these systematic violations” is flawed in at least two respects. It, first, exonerates academics in any country other than Israel for any misdeeds committed by their own governments, for which, by the same standard that the boycotters apply to Israel, they as concerned citizens and scholars should have to answer. The notion that Israeli academics should, or could, be held responsible for the actions of their own government was at best hypocritical, and at worst yet another example of how, where Israel is concerned, the standards applied in measuring its actions are impossibly high.

Secondly, making Israeli academics complicit in the actions of their government ignores the reality that, as is the case on European, Canadian, and American campuses, many Israeli professors veer to the Left politically and many, incredibly, share the same virulent anti-Israel, anti-Zionism sentiments so proudly touted by the boycott supporters.

In fact, MESA President Dina Rizk Khoury ludicrously claimed that the boycott would not only help Palestinian scholars whose rights are allegedly denied by Israel but would also help insulate anti-Israel Israeli academics, too, academics she contends face imaginary “attacks” from their peers within Israel. “Today’s vote clears a path for our full membership to collectively determine how we can do our part to support the academic freedom and education rights of Palestinian scholars and students,” Khoury proclaimed, “not to mention Israeli scholars facing attacks from their own government for criticizing its policies.”

The funny feminist angle to Gilat Bennett’s defiance of her husband’s Omicron plea: Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-funny-feminist-angle-to-gilat-bennetts-defiance-of-her-husbands-omicron-plea/

It’s not clear which of the two women who aroused the ire of the Israeli public last week received the lioness’s share of contempt. It was definitely a tough competition between Gilat Bennett, wife of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and Channel 12 broadcast journalist Dana Weiss.

The brouhaha began when it was announced last Wednesday that Mrs. Bennett was taking the couple’s four children on a vacation abroad. This wouldn’t have elicited a yawn, let alone nationwide resentment, had the news not come less than a week after the premier urged the public to avoid traveling overseas.

Naftali Bennett’s request that we all sit tight until further research is done on the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus followed his Cabinet’s decision to forbid entry into the country of foreign nationals—with some exceptions, of course, including all the contestants arriving to compete in the “Miss Universe” pageant on Dec. 12 in Eilat.
Yes, while thousands of tourists and family members of Israeli residents were forced suddenly to cancel their flights to Ben-Gurion Airport—with no prior warning and great confusion surrounding refunds and rescheduling—beauty queens from some 80 parts of the world were ushered in, no problem.

Still, the closure wasn’t imposed on Israelis entering or exiting the country, though the PCR-testing and quarantine rules for them were to be tightened. Nor were pre-planned Hanukkah parties and other events canceled or even curtailed, save for a tweak in the number of people allowed in closed spaces.

Giving Cover to Palestinian Extremists The UN and other apologists who continue to enable Palestinian terror and lies. Mon Dec 6, 2021 Joseph Klein

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/giving-cover-palestinian-extremists-joseph-klein/

The executive director of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) Nihad Awad, speaking at a panel that was part of the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) annual conference in Chicago on November 27, 2021, demanded that the Biden administration move the U.S. Embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Adding insult to injury, Awad described Tel Aviv as “occupied,” but, he vowed, it “will be free later.”

AMP is an extremist pro-Palestinian group that promotes the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. There is “a significant overlap between AMP and people who worked for or on behalf of organizations that were designated, dissolved, or held civilly liable by federal authorities for supporting Hamas,” according to Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President of Research Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Schanzer testified about AMP and its radical agenda at a 2016 Joint Hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.

The theme of AMP’s 2021 annual conference was “On the Road to Free Palestine.” In addition to Awad, other pro-Palestinian extremists who spoke at the hate Israel propaganda fest included Linda Sansour and Zarefah Baroud.  The latter wrote an opinion piece earlier this year claiming that “racialized violence has always defined Israel,” which was posted last May on Hamas’s website.

But you don’t have to go to an American Muslims for Palestine conference to hear the vile rhetoric directed against the Jewish State of Israel and its supporters. All you need to do is to go to the United Nations.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (pictured above) issued a statement on November 29th commemorating the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” He blamed Israel for the Palestinians’ self-inflicted plight. Guterres fed into the Palestinian victimhood narrative, claiming that “[P]ersistent violations of the rights of Palestinians along with the expansion of settlements risk eroding the prospect of a two-State solution.”

False. It is the rejectionism of the Palestinian leaders and their enablers, starting with their refusal to accept the UN General Assembly’s original two-state partition plan in 1947, and lasting to the present day, that is responsible for the Palestinians’ failure to achieve their aspiration for an independent state. By rejecting the idea of living side by side under secure and durable peace terms with the Jewish State of Israel, the Palestinian leaders and their enablers have nobody but themselves to blame for the decades-old stalemate and violence.

Sorry, Everyone, Hamas is Still a Terrorist Group by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17999/hamas-terrorist-group

First, the document reportedly depicting Hamas as a moderate group that accepts the “two-state solution” is a bluff intended to dupe the international community.

As Mashaal himself explained, even if Hamas accepts a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, that does not mean that it would ever recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Second, Hamas has not renounced violence and terrorism. In fact, it intends to continue the “resistance” and jihad (holy war) against Israel after the establishment of the Palestinian state with the purpose of “liberating all of Palestine.”

Third, the new document did not cancel or change the content of the Hamas charter, which, according to Hamas leaders, remains valid and relevant to this day.

Hamas’s representative in Iran, Khaled Qaddoumi, confirmed…. that the talk about Hamas accepting a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem was in the context of a plan to destroy Israel in phases.

“There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad.” — Hamas charter, Article 13.

Hamas, of course, never misses an opportunity to remind its followers and the rest of the world that it remains faithful to the words of the prophet Mohammed, who said: “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” — Hamas charter, Article 7.

Days after the decision was announced, the Hamas leadership leader said…: “Palestine – all of Palestine – from its [Mediterranean] sea to its [Jordan] river, is for the Palestinian people, and there is no place or legitimacy for strangers over any inch of it.” — hamas.ps, November 29, 2021.

The statements of Hamas leaders show that they dissemble less than many of their own apologists in the West, who claim that they understand Hamas better than Hamas understands itself.

One of the arguments that is being raised against the British government’s recent decision to designate Hamas an extremist terrorist organization is that the Gaza-based movement, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, has changed and now supports the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel.

Opponents of the UK’s decision claim that in 2017 Hamas “softened its stance on Israel by accepting the idea of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in the six-day war of 1967.”

A Beautiful Black Woman Shatters the BDS Movement

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/12/03/blue-state-blues-a-beautiful-black-woman-shatters-the-bds-movement/

On one side of the issue stands Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane, stunningly beautiful and beaming, waving from the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

http://www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

On eight days of Chanukah we light candles, and on each of those days Israel contributes research and development of dazzling scientific and technological advances that bring the light of hope to millions of people. rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
New way to treat blood cancer. (TY JBN & WIN) Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have found that malignant cells in hematologic cancer (leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma etc.), rely on a cytoskeletal protein, called WASp. Attacking WASp can destroy malignant cells without threatening healthy ones.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/bar-ilan-u-team-develops-treatment-approach-for-hematologic-cancers-683190    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25210148/
 
Digitizing neurology. Israel’s NeuraLight uses video from smartphone or web camera, to catch neurological patterns and digital markers. Its computer vision and deep learning algorithms help accelerate development of therapies including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3921318,00.html   https://neuralight.ai/
 
Small molecules to treat ALS. Israel’s Neuromagen is developing a new class of small molecules to treat ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and other neurodegenerative diseases. The molecules activate the enzyme telomerase reverse transcriptase, which protects and rehabilitates neuronal cells.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/ALS_neuromagen.aspx   https://www.neuromagen.com/
 
Innovative eye treatment technology. Israel’s BioLight (see here previously) is partnering with Tel Aviv’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center, to locate and develop innovative technologies in ophthalmology. Also, Biolight’s subsidiary Diagnostear has begun a clinical trial in India of its diagnosis of Dry Eye Disease.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3923641,00.html
https://bio-light.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DiagnosTear-article-oct-2021-00000002.pdf
 
Natural remedies for feminine ailments. Israel’s Algamed is using natural-based compounds made from algae plus its own innovative FemTech to treat sensitive feminine conditions. The algae excretes a gel that keeps it moist, and has numerous anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and anti-aging benefits.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3923598,00.html
 
Fast genetic data analysis. Israel’s Geneyx Genomex utilizes the world’s largest unified global knowledge base for interrogating genetic-based diseases and disorders. It provides fast analysis, interpretation, and reporting to help labs accelerate the development of targeted and personalized therapeutics.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3922324,00.html  https://geneyx.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhhxgCLq1sU
 
Massive donation for autism research. The Canadian-Israeli Azrieli Foundation has given NIS 40 million ($13 million) to the National Autism Research Centre of Israel in BeerSheba (see here previously). It is the largest ever donation for an autism infrastructure project in Israel.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-massive-donation-israel-autism-center-aims-to-impact-policy-worldwide/
 
Best of Health. Israel’s Aidoc, (see here previously) has been selected the “Best New Health Application” award of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Health Awards competition. Aidoc’s artificial intelligence (AI) solutions have revolutionized medical imaging.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/11/04/ucsf-health-awards-israeli-aidoc-is-best-new-health-application-in-u-s/
 
Anti-viral nasal spray is a hit. Israel’s Enovid (see here previously) is ramping up production of its SaNOtize anti-Covid Nasal spray to keep up with demand. It is to manufacture up to 250,000 units per month in the US alone. In August, Enovid struck a deal with India’s Glenmark to manufacture the spray for South-East Asia.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/sanotize-anti-covid-nasal-spray-production/
 
Smell the coronavirus. Very interesting article about Israel’s NanoScent (see here previously), which has developed a device so sensitive that it can detect viruses in the breath, such as SARS-Cov2. 50% of employees are female and it is another example of Christian Arabs, Muslims, and Israeli Jews working side by side.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3921893,00.html
 
The world’s steepest decline in Covid morbidity. Israel has seen the biggest drop in coronavirus morbidity anywhere in the world, according to global trackers. Covid-19 may be here to stay, but thanks to boosters, virus-killing masks, nasal sprays, and vaccine passports, Israel has only some 5,500 active cases (115 serious).
https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/10/29/israel-sees-worlds-steepest-decline-in-covid-morbidity/  
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-30/israel-uses-booster-shots-masks-and-passports-against-covid/100569256  https://www.timesofisrael.com/
 

A Good Word for Melbourne’s Queer Film Festival Timothy Cootes

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/12/a-good-word-for-melbournes-queer-film-festival/

“Although they may shudder to hear it from from Quadrant, we should offer three hearty cheers for the organisers and schedulers of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. For once, when the anti-Zionist cancel mob came howling to have an Israeli film scratched from the programme, the organisers told them what to do with their complaints.”

he Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF), I suspect, is not an event to which many Quadrant readers will have rushed to secure tickets. This fixture on the LGBT-etc calendar, squeezed in between Carols by Queerlight (self-explanatory) and Southern HiBearnation (no, Google ‘bear’ for yourselves) offers attendees two weeks of cinematic merry-making, or so I’d been led to believe. The theme of this year’s event, I’m sorry to report, is frequent sniping and a decided lack of chirpiness, and I see little prospect of renewed cheer occurring before closing night.

The trouble began with the inclusion in the lineup of Adam Kalderon’s film The Swimmer, a story about a gay Olympics prospect, the institutional discrimination he faces and his struggle for self-acceptance. Topical and important issues, the reviewers would say. The film also features, I have been reliably informed, lingering close-ups of strapping young fellows in Speedos. For many viewers, that all sounds like a jolly night at the cinema, so one could be excused for wondering what all the bloody fuss is about.

Well, The Swimmer, you see, is an Israeli production, and it turns out that screening such a film is something of a festival faux pas. As soon as the incriminating schedule arrived in the inbox, there was a good deal of inquiry as to why MQFF had failed to adopt the expected policy of anti-Israel fanaticism. A vigorous social media campaign soon got underway, urging MQFF to drop the film, apologise for all the bruised feelings, and commit to being a better ally in the future.

This noisy reaction is due to the fact that some portion of the festival’s supporters also happen to be enlistees in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a movement which seeks to extirpate all traces of Israel’s business, cultural and general dealings with the rest of the world. One of the many accusations they bung around is pinkwashing, a term which calls for a bit of elucidation.