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The ‘First Iran War’ is just around the corner The next war won’t be a “Third Lebanon War.” Iran plans to strike Israel from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, internally with some Arab Israelis’ help, and through long-range missiles from Iran and Yemen. Nir Barkat

By on December 4th, 2021

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/the-first-iran-war/

As Jews and Israelis, these days are nothing short of bizarre. Iran, a terrorist state behind a global axis of evil, is once again having the last laugh. It is hard to watch as the US and Europe politely attempt to reach a deal with Tehran at the cost of an existential threat to Israel.

The murmurings in Europe of providing Iran an opportunity to take advantage of negotiations along with American ambiguity toward Israel on this issue are a warning sign to Jerusalem. The removal of sanctions will see billions of dollars pour into the Revolutionary Guard coffers for the country’s transformation into a nuclear state. No less dangerous, it will boost their confidence ahead of military action against Israel on multiple fronts.

The next war on our northern front won’t be a “Third Lebanon War” but the “First Iran War.” The Iranians are planning to strike Israel on six fronts: Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, internally with the assistance of some Arab Israelis, and through the use of long-range missiles from Iran and Yemen. This will be a conventional war, but it will be far from straightforward.

To date, Iran has succeeded in establishing a regional axis of evil through the creation of a ring of armed divisions around the State of Israel.

In practice, Tehran is working toward the kind of warfare it is comfortable with, meaning far from its borders. Hundreds of thousands of Iranian missiles are dispersed on Israel’s borders, and they are launched in accordance with Tehran’s interests from time to time.

The Iranian working model is to build a security network in the form of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organizations.

Change the equation

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Yom HaGirush: The Inside Story of ‘Expulsion Day’ The largely forgotten ethnic cleansing, almost unparalleled in the history of human rights abuses Edwin Black

By on December 3rd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/yom-hagirush-inside-story-expulsion-day-edwin-black/

Today, we speak of a largely forgotten ethnic cleansing largely unparalleled in the history of humanitarian abuses. Recall the coordinated international expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim lands, where they had lived peaceably for as long as 27 centuries. As some know, in 2014, the Israeli government set aside November 30 as a commemoration of this mass atrocity. It has had no real identity or name like “Kristallnacht.” But today, from this day forward, the day will be known as Yom HaGirush: “Expulsion Day.”

It has been a years-long road to identify and solidify this identity. It began the moment Hitler came to power in 1933. The international Pan-Arab community, coordinated out of Palestine and spanning four continents, formed a vibrant political and later military alliance with the Nazis. This partnership functioned in the rarefied corridors of governments, the riot-torn streets of many cities on all sides of the oceans, and eventually the gun-powdered trenches and frontlines of war-strangled Europe. The overseer of this alliance was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, but he led an eager coalition of Arab leaders organized into the Arab Higher Committee, along with popular supporters from the Arab Street. They had fused with Nazi ideology and goals, which included the destruction of the Jews and the defeat of British influence.

After the Mufti fled criminal prosecution in Jewish Palestine in October 1937, he relocated to Baghdad. Iraq became the new center of gravity for the Arab-Nazi collaboration. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Iraqi Arabs under the guidance of the Mufti had imported all sorts of Nazi ideology and confederation into Iraq. On June 1–2, 1941, as Germany was poised to attack Russia and needed Arab oil, Nazi Arabs in Iraq launched a bloody two-day pogrom against its Jewish community which had dwelled there for 2,700 years—a thousand years before Muhammad. The hyphenation Arab-Nazi applies, not merely because these Arabs were fascist in mind and deed, but because they actually identified with Germany’s Nazi Party. Some rioters wore swastikas; many had actually marched in the Nuremberg torchlight parades. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party adopted a flag that spun off from Nazi Germany’s.

In that nightmare June 1–2 riot, Jews were hunted in the streets. When found, Jewish girls were raped in front of the parents, fathers were beheaded in front of their children, mothers were brutalized in public, babies were sliced in half and thrown into the Tigris River. The Baghdad mobs burned dozens of Jewish shops, invaded Jewish homes and looted them.

We will never know how many hundreds were murdered or mutilated because in the investigation that followed, many were afraid to come forward. But that bloody event became known as the Farhud, meaning violent dispossession. The Farhud spelled the beginning of the end of Iraqi Jewry—more than 140,000 souls.

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University of Toronto’s Jewish Problem Social justice warriors seek to blacklist and purge pro-Israel Jews from campus. Richard L. Cravatts

By on December 2nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/university-torontos-jewish-problem-richard-l-cravatts/

As if to confirm the depth of its anti-Israel animus, the Student Union of the University of Toronto at Scarborough (SCSU) passed a poisonous motion during its virtual November 24th meeting stipulating that the student union “reaffirm its commitment to the BDS movement by . . . rais[ing] awareness about Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine and war crimes against Palestinian peoples;” in light of this, the union decided the University must “refrain from engaging with organizations, services, or take part in events that further normalize Israeli apartheid . . ,” and even ban speakers from campus who “support the military occupation of Palestine.”

More insidious was an item from an original motion passed in 2013 that will require that any kosher food brought to campus must be sourced from firms that do not support “Israeli apartheid,” not to mention the creation of a pernicious “BDS List” that will serve to blacklist organizations that support Israel.

This recent vote is the latest in a long campaign of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic actions at the University of Toronto, activism which has created a hostile climate for Jewish students, a situation which has not gone unnoticed. In June of 2020, for example, B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, together with two U of T professors, Stuart Kamenetsky and Howard Tenenbaum, produced a lengthy and substantive report, “Confronting Antisemitism at the University of Toronto: A Path Forward,” written for the University’s president, Meric Gertler. That report, which fastidiously reviewed a long list of anti-Israel events and their deleterious effect on Jewish students, went largely ignored by the university’s administration, troubling in light of the many bigoted events cataloged in the report.

At this particular university, specifically, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU) has the dubious distinction of being the only student union in Canada with a committee dedicated solely to promoting the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and in 2019 outrageously rejected Hillel’s request to recognize the “Kosher Forward” campaign to have kosher food offered on campus since, as the Union decided in their grotesquely anti-Semitic way, Hillel is pro-Israel and therefore kosher food should not be allowed.

What is next for the purge of anyone who might be considered pro-Israel? No Jews allowed in cafeterias that use Soda Stream products? The removal of Jewish names from endowed professorships or campus buildings if those benefactors supported Israel? Will “Open Hillel” centers—those renegade Hillels which allow pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel dialogue and events to take place in their spaces—be allowed to remain on campuses but conventional, pro-Israel Hillels not?

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Iran’s military gears up for Vienna talks by vowing to annihilate Israel By Ruthie Blum

By on November 30th, 2021

https://www.jns.org/opinion/irans-military-gears-up-for-vienna-talks-by-vowing-to-annihilate-israel/

 Renewed negotiations over a return to or revision of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers from which former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018—kicked off in Vienna on Monday with feigned fanfare.

The Islamic Republic has made it clear that no agreement can be discussed, let alone reached, unless all sanctions hindering the regime’s operations are removed. It has also been engaging in double-speak, bragging about its strides in uranium-enrichment, on the one hand, while insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, on the other.

Nobody buys the latter assertion, but the other parties to the JCPOA have convinced themselves that the interests of all concerned are best served through diplomacy. Never mind that Tehran refuses to allow American representatives anywhere near the room where the talks are being held. Washington is willing to have the mullahs dictate the terms of the entire arrangement, and let European, Russian and Chinese envoys enjoy face-to-face contact with their Iranian counterparts.

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For Palestinians, Terrorism or Peace? Abbas Wants It Both Ways by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on November 29th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17978/palestinians-abbas-hamas

If Abbas is really interested in returning to the negotiating table with Israel, he needs to decide whether he is on the side of his peace partners in Israel or his political enemies in Hamas.

Abbas needs to decide whether he belongs to the pro-peace camp in Israel and the Arab world, or the enemies of peace, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their patrons in Iran.

For now, it seems that Abbas wants it both ways.

Abbas, in other words, is telling Westerners that he supports peace with Israel while reaching out to the Iranian-backed terrorist group that openly states its intention to eliminate Israel and wage jihad (holy war) on Jews.

Instead of welcoming the UK’s decision to ban Hamas, Abbas was one of the first Palestinians to condemn the move. By condemning the decision, Abbas is sending a message to the international community that he actually does support terror and Hamas.

Yet, in the world of the Palestinian Authority, it seems that combating a radical terrorist group is a bad thing.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said this month that he is interested in resuming peace talks with Israel. Abbas made his statement on the eve of a meeting he held on November 23 with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

Abbas specified that he wants the peace talks with Israel to resume under the auspices of Russia and the three other members of the International Quartet: European Union, United Nations, and the United States.

If Abbas is really interested in returning to the negotiating table with Israel, he needs to decide whether he is on the side of his peace partners in Israel or his political enemies in Hamas. Abbas needs to decide whether he belongs to the pro-peace camp in Israel and the Arab world, or the enemies of peace, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and their patrons in Iran.

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Shutting Down Pro-Israel Speech at Duke Defending the Jewish state from lies is not allowed. Richard L. Cravatts

By on November 24th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/shutting-down-pro-israel-speech-duke-richard-l-cravatts/

As if further evidence were needed for the hypocrisy about who may say what about whom on college campuses, the recent action by the Duke Student Government to withhold recognition to a new pro-Israel student group seems to confirm that academic free speech is not always free depending on who is speaking. On November 9th, DSG President Christina Wang made the outrageous decision to veto the recognition of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) after the group posted a response to an anti-Israel Duke sophomore, Elyana Riddick, who had captioned a now-deleted Twitter post about SSI by writing, “My school promotes settler colonialism.”

“To Yana and others like her,” SSI posted on its Instagram account, “please allow us to educate you on what ‘settler colonialism’ actually is and why Israel does not fall under this category whatsoever. These types of narratives are what we strive to combat and condemn, which is why Duke’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel has been officially established & is here to stay,” the post read.

While it seems that denouncing Israel, as Ms. Riddick did, as a racist colonial occupier of stolen Arab land is perfectly acceptable, SSI’s response to her was obviously totally unacceptable, violating, it seems, her sensibilities and right to express disdain for groups with which she disagrees.

Ms. Riddick posted on Twitter, a social media platform that is open for all to see, so she certainly could not and should not have what lawyers refer to as an “expectation of privacy,” since SSI did not quote her from statements she made in a private conversation or email exchange, for instance, where she had not agreed to have her opinions publicized.

And, more to the point, her counter-factual assertion that Israel is an example of settler colonialism is precisely the type of slander against the Jewish state that groups like SSI have as their mission to answer back to—and particularly when that type of characterization of Israel is both historically and factually inaccurate and slanderous. The campus enemies of Israel have regularly tried to suppress pro-Israel views from being heard or even debated in an honest dialogue with those with pro-Palestinian viewpoints, and the DSG’s decision to drop recognition of SSI at Duke achieved that very situation, making it impossible for SSI to correct falsehoods that are the animating content of the anti-Israel campaign at Duke and elsewhere.

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Ruthie Blum: Bennet’s Big Twitter Blunder

By on November 23rd, 2021

https://www.jns.org/OPINION/BENNETTS-BIG-TWITTER-BLUNDER/

 Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett chose a particularly inopportune moment to enrage disgruntled voters. Though a member of his staff was likely responsible for the extremely poor judgment call, Bennett is the one in whose name the move was made. Its subsequent reversal after an outcry, then, proved insufficient.

The incident in question involved the bereaved father of Shir Hajaj, 22, a female Israel Defense Forces lieutenant killed in a 2017 Palestinian truck-ramming attack. She was murdered along with three other innocent IDF soldiers enjoying an educational field trip in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.
In a post on Sunday evening—mere hours after 25-year-old Eliyahu Kay, an immigrant to Israel from South Africa, was gunned down by a Hamas-linked terrorist on a rampage near the Western Wall in Jerusalem—Herzl Hajaj announced that Bennett had blocked him on Twitter.
Referring to him as the “prime minister of the terrorist [coalition] … who knew how to ask us to support him in the election,” Hajaj accused Bennett of “now being unable to handle my criticism of the formation of his government with the terrorist-supporting Ra’am Party. … Now he can embrace the terrorist-supporting [Ra’am leader Mansour] Abbas in peace, without criticism [and] without our reminding him of the truth.”

The stir caused by Hajaj’s tweet, which accompanied a screen shot of Bennett’s account blocking him, spurred the prime minister’s staff to engage in on-the-spot damage control. Less than an hour after it appeared, the prime minister unblocked Hajaj and issued an odd semblance of an apology.
Saying that blocking Hajaj had been done with “good intent,” the prime minister’s office claimed that “The moment his social-media team understood it, the block was lifted.” By “it,” the PMO seemed to mean the foolishness of the decision—taken by tech-savvy but otherwise pretty ignorant young people—to protect their boss by penalizing his critics.

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The Palestinian Jihad against Jews by Bassam Tawil

By on November 22nd, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17958/palestinian-jihad-jews

If Palestinian leaders believe that Jews are not entitled to their holiest site, the Temple Mount, and that Jerusalem belongs only to Muslims and Christians, how can they talk about establishing a Palestinian state that would exist in peace and security next to Israel?

Western donors seem not to understand that the refusal by Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people remains a major obstacle to peace and the “two-state solution.”

“We categorically reject the Jewish state,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stated on more than one occasion. “We will not backtrack on this matter.”

On the eve of the meeting of the donor countries, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh reminded Palestinians that there is no such thing as Jewish history in Jerusalem…. “Jerusalem has Canaanite, Roman, Islamic, and Christian antiquities, and no one else has any traces in it.”

This is the same Shtayyeh who days earlier told foreign journalists in Ramallah that the Palestinians have no problem with Jews.

Perhaps Shtayyeh thought that his remarks in Arabic during the PA cabinet meeting would not be translated or noticed by non-Arabic speakers.

On the same day the Western donors were meeting in Norway, the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the Palestinians oppose visits to the Temple Mount by Jewish students.

The Norwegian foreign minister and the donor countries should have taken note of what Palestinian leaders are telling their people and the rest of the Arabs and Muslims about Israel and Jewish history. Had they paid attention to the words of the Palestinian leaders, they would have realized why it is impossible to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel at a time when the PA is openly saying that Jews have no right to live in their own homeland.

Western donors might wish to consider this Judenrein type of Palestinian anti-Semitism and incitement against Israel and Jews the next time they open their wallets to the PA.

As representatives of donor countries were meeting in Norway on November 17 to discuss providing financial aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Palestinian leaders were busy doing what they have perfected: denying Jewish history and inciting their people against Israel.

Denial of Jewish history and the delegitimization of Israel have long been an integral and major part of the rhetoric of Palestinian leaders and the Palestinian narrative. In the world of the Palestinians, Jews have no history in Jerusalem; they have never lived there, and the Jewish Temples never existed.

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Israeli Tourist Couple Freed After 8 days of Illegal Detention by Turkey Another example of Turkish hostage diplomacy? Ari Lieberman

By on November 22nd, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/11/israeli-tourist-couple-freed-after-8-days-illegal-ari-lieberman/

An Israeli couple, illegally detained for eight days by Turkish authorities on spurious charges of espionage and spying, was released yesterday and returned to Israel following intense back-channel diplomatic efforts to free them. Their detention highlights the extent to which Turkey, under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has descended into a moral abyss with arbitrary arrests and detention being the norm rather than an aberration. 

The saga involving the couple – Mordy and Natalie Oknin – began late last week when they were arrested by Turkish police ostensibly for taking photos of Erdogan’s Istanbul palace. Their guide was also arrested. The couple – both employees of the Israeli Egged bus company – claimed that they were unaware of the prohibition on taking photos but irrespective, the subject area, which is a common tourist attraction, had been photographed thousands of times in the past by thousands of tourists.

Cognizant of the minimal nature of the transgression, Turkish police were originally inclined to releasing the two and deporting them from the country. Even that action would have been draconian but what occurred next appeared to be taken from a chapter straight out of Orwell’s 1984. Turkish prosecutors, almost certainly acting on orders from higher political echelons, elected to charge the pair with “political and military espionage,” prompting the notoriously corrupt Turkish judiciary to extend their detention by at least 20 days.

At that stage, Israeli officials still hoped that the issue would be resolved swiftly because no high-level Turkish official publicly addressed the matter. Hopes were quickly dashed, however, when to Israel’s dismay, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, called the Israelis spies. 

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on November 21st, 2021

Hot topics in recent positive Israeli news include the Israeli-led discovery of hot spots in cancer cells that can be exploited to destroy tumors, plus dozens of other hot medical innovations and breakthroughs. International news includes more examples of warming relations between Israel and the Arab world. Israeli tech hot topics include Intel’s (Israeli-developed) fastest microprocessor, several solar power energy projects and innovations, and four of the world’s best inventions of 2021. Record investments are fueling Israeli startups; two “fired-up” Israeli women won gold medals in judo and there are many heart-warming stories to celebrate life in the Jewish State.   Michael Ordman

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Targeting cancer hotspots. A team of researchers, led by Israel’s Weizmann Institute, used algorithms to find neoantigens – “hot spots” on tumors – that provide access to current immunotherapies for multiple cancer patients. The scientists then engineered T cells from healthy individuals to completely destroy the tumors.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/new-israeli-cancer-study-leads-to-possible-breakthrough-in-immunotherapy-682152   https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315059
https://www.jci.org/articles/view/129466   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLbQwKHpLF0
 
App lowers blood pressure. A 3-year study of the digital health app from Israel’s Hello Heart (see here previously) shows that over 84% of participants with stage II hypertension achieved a reduction in their systolic blood pressure. It was the largest multi-year efficacy study of a digital therapeutic to control hypertension.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3920395,00.html
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2785012
 
11 more projects for precision medical research. 11 new projects have been granted a total of NIS 32 million in the 4th annual round of the Israel Precision Medicine Partnership (see here previously). They include AI for cancer and Crohn’s, discovery of new disease genes, and treatments for rare disorders.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/11-israeli-projects-get-millions-in-funding-for-personalized-medicine-research/  
 
New AI innovation lab for personalized treatment. Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck and Teva have opened AION Labs – a new Israeli innovation lab for startups to develop cutting-edge AI-based technologies for personalized treatments. Startups will use computational biology to discover and develop patient-centric precision medicines.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-innovation-lab-brings-together-pharma-biotech-giants-for-ai-therapeutics/
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/pfizer-astrazeneca-help-launch-computational-science-lab-in-israel-682248
 
Testing new treatments for safety. Israel’s Quris has launched a “patient on a chip” – the world’s first AI platform for predicting which candidate medicines will work safely in humans. Quris’s leadership team includes Israel’s Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover and Dr. Robert S. Langer, co-founder of Moderna.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/10/18/quris-ai-to-predict-which-drugs-will-safely-work-in-humans/
https://www.quris.ai/
 
Roche partners Ibex for AI cancer detection. Roche has entered an agreement with Israel’s Ibex Medical Analytics to jointly develop an embedded image analysis workflow. It will allow pathologists to check biopsies using Roche’s NAVIFY & uPath software while seamlessly accessing Ibex’s AI algorithms, insights, and tools.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-ibex-medical-aims-to-transform-cancer-diagnostics-with-ai-tech/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3920455,00.html
 
Hospital counters obesity with computer game. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has launched a smartphone gaming-based program to help overweight children adopt a healthier lifestyle. They are using the Rumble app from Israel’s UVTAL (see here previously), and a smartwatch to monitor sleep, heart rate and physical activity.
https://www.jns.org/sheba-medical-center-initiates-gaming-program-to-combat-child-obesity/
 
A faster Aliyah for medical professionals. A new Israeli government program will speed and support the Aliyah process for Jewish health professionals. It will benefit some 3,000 Jews, mainly from the former Soviet Union, the US, Canada, France and Argentina and overcome the shortage evident during the Covid pandemic.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-seeks-to-ease-immigration-for-doctors-nurses-due-to-manpower-shortage/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315208
 
Surgeons rebuild soldier’s shattered face. Two weeks after an IDF captain was shot in the head, surgeons at Rambam Hospital used 3D technology to rebuild his face. A bullet hit the officer near his brain, eyes, and tongue, shattering his jaw. But with the exception of some scarring, it will soon be completely restored.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-idf-soldier-takes-bullet-to-face-doctors-rebuild-his-jaw-in-high-tech-op/
 
Magician saves choking baby. United Hatzalah’s Aharon HaKosem, “the magician” works performing magic shows in Hod Hasharon. In his unpaid work as a volunteer EMT, he was called to save a choking baby. After back blows and chest compressions, “abracadabra” – the infant spat out a small object and re-started breathing.   
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315217
 

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