RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-bigger-picture-behind-the-narrow-gantz-ngo-controversy/

When Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced on Friday that he is listing six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist groups, all hell broke loose on the left. The outcry, which emanated not only from Washington and Brussels, but from the halls of the Knesset in Jerusalem and Muqata in Ramallah, could have been anticipated.
There’s no sacred cow as holy as a self-described “humanitarian organization,” especially when it’s associated with and financed by equally untouchable foundations. Thus, though the impetus behind Gantz’s move was perfectly reasonable, he was promptly attacked, including from within the government of which he is a prominent member.
The groups in question—Al-Haq, Addameer, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees—have, according to Gantz, been “active under the cover of civil-society organizations, but in practice belong to and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] … the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel.”

Most of Gantz’s critics don’t dispute that the Iran-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a terrorist organization. In fact, it is officially designated as such by the United States, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Israel. Naturally, the thugs in the Palestinian Authority have a different view, as they consider the indiscriminate murder of Jews and enemies of other stripes to be a legitimate form of political, ideological and religious protest.

The controversy, then, has focused not on the PFLP, but rather on a number of different issues, each more disingenuous (and revealing) than the next.

Let’s start with U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price’s stern reaction to the news, telling reporters that Israel hadn’t given America “advance warning,” and stating that the administration “will be requesting more information regarding the basis for these designations.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17880/palestinian-prisoners-no-one-talks-about

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad prisoners, who have been convicted of terrorism against Israel, received wide coverage because they are being held in Israeli prisons. They are being held in prison because many of them were involved in major terror attacks against Israel, including murder. The international media and the Palestinian Authority (PA), however, refuse to call the prisoners terrorists. Instead, they call them “militants” or “political detainees.”

While the world’s attention remains focused on the Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, there is hardly any mention of prisoners and detainees held by the PA security forces in the West Bank

A Palestinian who goes on hunger strike in a Palestinian prison can only dream of being noticed by a foreign journalist or a human rights organization in the US and Europe. A Palestinian who declares a hunger strike in an Israeli prison, on the other hand, has nothing to fear. He or she knows very well that within minutes the whole world will learn about his “grievances.”

A report by the Committee of the Families of Political Detainees revealed that the Palestinian security forces committed 217 “violations” against Palestinians just during September.

If Abbas cares so much about Hamas and PIJ prisoners, why is he ordering his security forces to arrest and beat Palestinians for being affiliated with the two groups? If he thinks that these prisoners should be released from Israeli prisons, why doesn’t he first release those who are being held in Palestinian prisons?

A final, damning question: Why are the Palestinian security forces arresting or interrogating prisoners shortly after their release from Israeli prisons? How can the PA condemn Israel for arresting these men, but later arrest them on suspicion of belonging to Hamas or PIJ?

In public, Abbas demands that Israel free all the prisoners; but when Israel complies, he rushes to arrest them for “security reasons.” The Palestinian prisoners were lucky when they were in Israeli prisons: they attracted the attention of human rights organizations and journalists around the world.

Those who are now being held in Palestinian prisons are undoubtedly wishing that they could be sent back to Israeli prisons, where they would be better treated and win international sympathy.

A recent hunger strike by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) prisoners held by Israel caught the attention of many journalists and media outlets. Reports about the hunger strike appeared in newspapers around the world and were included in dispatches by major news agencies.

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/why-the-us-really-wants-a-palestinian-consulate-in-jlem/

The US Embassy in Jerusalem already provides consular services to the Palestinians. Why do they need an independent consulate in the same city?

The Biden administration is trying to partially undo one of Israel’s greatest diplomatic achievements of recent decades – the recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over all of Jerusalem by the US, followed by numerous other countries. The good news is unlike many diplomatic attacks, the Israeli government has the power to stop it.

The US is pushing to open up a new diplomatic office in Jerusalem – one that would be directed to the Palestinian Authority. The US Embassy in Jerusalem already provides consular services to the Palestinians. It is unheard of to have an independent consulate in the same city where a country has an embassy. The point of creating a separate consulate is to undermine former US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem. But under international law, the US would need Israel’s permission for this move.

The US does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic liaisons with the PA. If that is all they wanted, they could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah – where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA. Or they could reopen the Palestinian mission in Washington, DC, which Trump also closed. But by instead demanding that Israel accede to a consulate in Jerusalem, the administration is showing this is not just about having a convenient place for coffee with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Indeed, the purpose of opening the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem. If the PA has no legitimate claim to Jerusalem, there can be no reason to have a consulate there. To be sure, this is why opening the consulate is the main Israel-related policy demand of radically anti-Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar. Point of fact, former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro made clear before the last US election that opening a separate consulate to the Palestinians would be designed to signal US support for a Palestinian capital in that city.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-governments-assassination-of-israels-character-opinion-682760

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid outdid himself on Monday evening. Yes, the “alternate” premier slated to replace Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the helm in September 2023, took the opportunity of a special parliamentary session commemorating the 26th anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to insult the national camp.

“There is a [direct] line between Rabin’s murder and the past year,” he said. “Both are part of Israel’s great struggle, not between Right and Left, but between those who believe in democracy and those who are trying to destroy it.”

Rabin, he continued, “wasn’t murdered by the Right – the true right wing is democratic – but by anyone who isn’t willing to accept Israeli democracy. Anyone who tells himself that the majority doesn’t rule isn’t really in the national camp; he’s a dangerous, nationalist extremist. Instead of loving the country, he hates anyone who doesn’t think the way he does.”

He went on to claim that the “ideological heirs” of Yigal Amir – Rabin’s assassin, who is justifiably in prison for life – “are sitting in the Knesset today, and if not for the miracle of the change government, they’d be sitting in the government.”

“Do you mean the Joint [Arab] List?” heckled Religious Zionist Party leader MK Bezalel Smotrich, referring to the members of Knesset who openly oppose the Jewish state.

“Aren’t you ashamed?” added Smotrich, who knew full well that Lapid had been pointing a finger at him and his political allies. When he and a few other MKs from Shas and Likud exited the premises, Lapid resumed his inexcusable tirade.

“The coalition that we formed isn’t left-wing or right-wing,” he announced. “It’s a coalition of the majority of Israel’s citizens who decided to rescue Israeli democracy.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17866/palestinians-peace-israel

The Palestinian Authority, which is largely funded by American and European taxpayers’ money, is imprisoning Palestinians for even trying to engage in real estate deals with Jews.

The Palestinian public seems generally supportive of the death sentences and extrajudicial killings of suspected “land dealers” and informants. Even Palestinian human rights organizations appear to be extremely careful when they mention such issues.

As far as Hamas and many Palestinians are concerned, peace with Israel or any form of “collaboration” with the “Zionist enemy” is an act of treason punishable by death.

Mahmoud Abbas is already facing accusations of being a traitor because of the security coordination between the PA security forces and the Israeli authorities in the West Bank.

As long as the PA and Hamas punish Palestinians who work with Israel or are willing to sell real estate to Israeli Jews — frequently by issuing sentences of hard labor or death — the hope of reviving the “peace process” is, unfortunately, a pitiful waste of time and effort.

The verdicts passed against the “land dealers” in the West Bank and the suspected “collaborators” in the Gaza Strip show that Palestinians remain as far as ever from accepting Israel, let alone making peace with it.

The verdicts are yet more proof of how Palestinian leaders continue to radicalize their people against Israel — to the point that no Palestinian who wishes to stay alive would ever claim that he or she seeks to make peace with Israel or recognize all of the land as anything other than totally Palestinian in every way.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have again shown that peace with Israel is not only extremely ill-advised and most likely doomed from the start but critically dangerous as well. The two Palestinian parties, both the PA and Hamas, do not want Palestinians to engage in any real estate transactions with Israeli Jews; they also do not want Palestinians to assist Israel in the war on terrorism.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/rabin-peres-metoo-and-the-battle-among-sacred-cows/

 Every year at this time, Israel stops to mourn and memorialize Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995 at a rally celebrating the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Whatever one thought of the late premier prior to after his murder at the hands of “right-wing extremist,” Yigal Amir instantly turned him into the country’s most hallowed figure—one with a legacy named after him. National trauma will do that, especially under the circumstances at the time.

The so-called “polarization” that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett bemoans and vows to rectify was on full display all those decades ago, just as it has been since the establishment of the state. Then, as now, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was called the culprit by the self-anointed peace camp.

It was allegedly his and his supporters’ ostensible incitement against Rabin and Oslo that led Amir to gun him down. That the accords would prove to be the disaster of which Netanyahu had warned—mass Israeli casualties at hands of Israel’s Palestinian “peace partners,” ruled by PLO chief Yasser Arafat—is absent from the discussion.

To everyone’s great surprise, Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged victorious in the Knesset elections that took place a mere seven months after the assassination. Though the entire nation was still reeling from the tragedy and the left demanded that the right engage in “soul-searching,” more voters opposed the Oslo Accords than supported them.
Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres, who had assumed the role of prime minister upon Rabin’s death. Ironically, Peres and Rabin had been personal and political archrivals for the bulk of their lives. They had managed, somehow, to bury the hatchet in plenty of time to jointly sign the first Oslo agreement with Arafat in 1993 on the White House lawn. The three subsequently shared the Nobel Peace Prize for the charade.

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
End of the 4th wave? The number of serious Covid cases in Israel is now under 400 (mostly unvaccinated) and several hospitals have closed their Covid wards. Over 3.8 million Israelis have now had the booster vaccination. The government plans to allow in fully vaccinated, individual tourists from 40 countries from late November.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-virologist-says-delta-defeated-predicts-6-months-of-covid-quiet-for-israel/
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-set-to-reopen-for-tourists-on-november-1-1001386943
 
Blood test to detect recurring cancer. (TY UWI) Asaf Zviran co-founded Israel’s C2i Genomics (see here previously). It has developed a blood test that can identify whether a cancer patient will survive after the tumor has been completely removed, or whether further chemotherapy is necessary.
https://www.israel21c.org/a-blood-test-that-can-identify-recurrent-cancer/
 
The biological basis of empathy. Scientists from Tel Aviv University and North America used phosphorus and calcium markers to monitor brain patterns in rats when they go to the aid of a trapped member of their breed. A neural network activates in a similar way to when they are given a chocolate reward.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-research-exposes-the-biological-basis-of-empathy/
https://elifesciences.org/articles/65582
 
High ranking for Sheba. (TY JNS) In its annual list of the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals, Newsweek magazine ranked Israel’s Sheba Medical Center number 40 for neurosurgery, 42 for cardiology care and 44 for gastroenterology. See here for previous top Newsweek rankings for Sheba.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/10/08/newsweek-lists-israeli-cancer-heart-treatment-among-worlds-best/
 
Personalized Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. (TY JBN) Israel’s Sagol Center at Shamir Medical Center is the world’s largest hyperbaric medicine and research facility. Israel’s Aviv Scientific has partnered with Sagol to provide personalized cognitive and physical HBOT training. It also has clinics in Florida and Dubai.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-aging-process-data-co-aviv-scientific-raises-40m-1001385214  
https://aviv-clinics.com/hyperbaric-medical-program/  
 
The doctor who invented a typhus vaccine in Buchenwald. Dr Ludwik Fleck, who fled to Israel from Poland in 1957, made a groundbreaking discovery of a vaccine for typhus whilst a prisoner in the Nazi’s Buchenwald concentration camp during WWII. He managed to fool the Nazis and vaccinated many thousands of Jews.
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/How-an-Imprisoned-Jewish-Doctor-Invented-a-Typhus-Vaccine-in-Buchenwald.html
 
7th partner for AI treatment discovery startup. Israel’s CytoReason (see here previously) has added SPI (part of Japanese giant Sumitomo) to its growing list of partners.  SPI will use CytoReason’s unique immune focused machine learning platform and represent CytoReason in the Japanese market – the third largest globally.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/japanese-pharmaceutical-firm-taps-israels-cytoreason-for-ai-drug-development/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3918547,00.html
 
A med-tech visionary. Israel’s PixCell Medical (see here previously) has won the 2021 MedTech Visionary award for Best Medical Device, plus MedTech Visionary in the Field of Medical Devices for Real-Time Blood Testing. PixCell’s HemoScreen allows blood tests to be performed by anyone, anywhere.
https://nocamels.com/2021/10/israels-pixcell-medical-wins-2021-medtech-visionaries-award/
 
Helping Jordan tackle Covid. (TY Hazel) Mohammed Al-Hadid, president of the Jordanian Red Crescent, praised Israel for training his paramedics to face the Covid pandemic.  He said Magen David Adom was “a fantastic organization” and the staff they trained “were instrumental in the Covid crisis.”
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/jordanian-red-crescent-chief-mda-training-prepared-our-medics-for-covid/
 
Muslim wedding couple’s first response. Muslim United Hatzalah EMTs Nour and Mohamed, had finished their pre-wedding photos when they saw an accident involving a young cyclist and a truck. Dressed in their wedding clothes, they didn’t hesitate to provide emergency medical treatment to the injured nine-year-old boy.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/bride-and-groom-respond-to-vehicular-accident-hours-before-their-wedding/
 
 

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/what-lies-beneath-the-progressives?token=

Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States who is now a candidate to head the Jewish Agency, has rightly said that the decline in support for Israel among American Jews has reached a crisis point. The Jewish Agency, he said, “needs to bring young American Jews back from the brink”.

However, the Jewish Agency won’t address this problem by simply tackling American Jews. The roots of this crisis are broader and deeper.

At a conference at the Al Quds University in Ramallah in June, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas delivered a recorded speech with the title, “The Zionist Narrative: Between Reversal and Cancellation”.

In a piece for the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser has written that Abbas “proudly noted” in this speech that international public opinion had recently undergone a gradual shift towards accepting the Palestinian narrative.

As Kuperwasser wrote, this “narrative” is a tissue of demonstrable and idiotic lies designed to promulgate the fiction that the Palestinian Arabs are the true inheritors of the land of Israel rather than the Jews.

But as Kuperwasser also observes, the Palestinian position is that the Jews of Israel must return to the places from where they allegedly came — not the land of Israel, their actual original homeland, but Europe, where they were scattered in exile, persecuted and murdered in great number.

“The narrative,” he writes, “also emphasises that the Palestinian struggle is national and Islamic at the same time and ultimately states that, in light of all this, all of Palestine is included, and Israel should not be recognised in any way as the nation-state of the Jewish people — which, at any rate, does not exist. At most, it is possible to temporarily accept the existence of an ‘Israeli people’ which is a new concept referring to Israel as the state of all its citizens”.