RUTHFULLY YOURS

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According to the February 2022 annual Gallup poll of country favorability, 71% of Americans accord Israel a “very favorable” and “mostly favorable” rating. It matches

Israel’s average favorability since 2013, compared to 58% in 2002, 71% in 2012, 69% in 2019 and 75% in February 2021.  Israel’s all-time high favorability was in February 1991 – 79% – in the aftermath of the January-February Iraqi Scud Missiles striking Tel Aviv.

Israel is ranked 7th among countries rated by Gallup, trailing Canada, Britain, France, Japan, Germany and India. However, none of these countries have been targeted – as has Israel – for daily criticism by the State Department (which fiercely opposed Israel’s establishment in 1948), the United Nations, the NY Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, CNN, MSNBC and many of the political and social science departments on US campuses.

While Israel is considered favorably by 71% of Americans, the Palestinian Authority has earned a meager 27% favorability rating, at the bottom of the favorability scale, along with Cuba – 40%, Pakistan – 21%, China – 20% (all time low), Libya – 19%, Iraq – 16%, Iran – 13%, Afghanistan – 12%, Russia – 12% and North Korea – 10%.

Israel has retained a high-level of favorability among the three major US political groups: 63% of (mostly moderate) Democrats, 71% of Independents and 81% of Republicans. At the same time the Palestinian Authority received a 38% favorability rating among Democrats, 29% – Independents and 14% – Republicans.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/04/12/the-unholy-alliance-of-israel-haters/

Certain rituals follow every terror attack in the West. People take to social media to express feelings of grief. They post an image of the flag of the nation whose citizens have been slaughtered. ‘I Stand With…’ France, Belgium, Spain, they say, or whatever unfortunate nation has attracted the bloody attention of ideological mass murderers. They might even take part in a sing-song. They might gather somewhere, flowers in hand, to sing ‘Imagine’ or hum along to a national anthem. But there’s one exception to this custom. One nation for which this never happens. For whom virtue is never signalled, flags never waved, songs never sung, no matter how much terror comes its way. You know which nation it is. Israel.

Israel has been subjected to a wave of terror over the past three weeks and social-media mourners are nowhere to be seen. You’ll be searching a long time – forever – to find a blacked-out square on Instagram or an Israeli flag in the Twitter bio of a member of the great and good. Many people I’ve mentioned the terror wave to hadn’t even heard of it. From the mass stabbing carried out by an ISIS-supporting fanatic in the city of Beersheba on 22 March, which left two women and two men dead, to the mass shooting at a crowded bar in Tel Aviv last Thursday, in which three people were murdered, horrific attacks on Israeli citizens have passed many by. Five terror attacks, 14 deaths, and it barely makes a ripple in the Western consciousness.

The individual stories behind the wave of terror are truly grim. In the attack of 29 March – in which a Palestinian terrorist opened fire in the city of Bnei Brak, killing five – two Ukrainian nationals were among the victims. Aged just 23 and 32, they were sitting outside a shop, taking a rest, when they were shot to death. So it isn’t only in Ukraine that Ukrainians face murder in the streets right now – they’re at risk in Israel, too. One of the other victims in Bnei Brak was an Israeli-Arab police officer, a 32-year-old Christian who was engaged to be married. Two of the victims at the Tel Aviv bar were lifelong friends, both 27, meeting for a post-work drink. These are the human realities behind a wave of indiscriminate slaughter that many in the West can’t even be bothered to notice.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Here are some highlights of two weeks in Israel brought to us by Michael Ordman:

For A (astronaut) to C (cancer cures) to Q (quantum computers) to T (Twelve Tel Aviv Techstars) to U (Ukraine and United Arab Emirates) to V (value ofIsrael’s 2021 exports volume of $143 billion) to W (women’s ice hockey team and whiskey distillery) to X (advanced x-ray tech) to Z and the legacy of Zionism-the dream of centuries and the reality in 1948. Happy holidays!

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Cancer therapy “double-whammy”. (TY UWI) Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a 2-in-1 anti-cancer nanoparticle. It is the world’ first RNA-based treatment to combine chemotherapy to destroy cancer cells and immunotherapy to stimulate the immune system to identify and attack the remaining cancer cells.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-2-in-1-cancer-drug-shows-promise-in-boosting-chemo-and-immunotherapy/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q88d4GVq9KM

Natural antibodies fight cancer too. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that in addition to cancer-fighting T-cells, the immune system’s B-lymphocytes also produce antibodies that take part in battles against cancer cells. They target the enzyme MMP14, a cause of metastasis and can be used in future therapies.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/antibodies-fight-cancer-too/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324515

Toxic cancer treatment made safe. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have improved a cancer therapy that killed tumors but was too toxic for use.  They added a specially created antibody that targets only the CD40 receptor protein molecule which stimulates the immune system to fight the cancer.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lab-says-its-made-a-powerful-but-toxic-cancer-treatment-safe/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-022-00329-6

US approval for fast diagnosis of collapsed lung. Israel’s Aidoc (see here previously) has received US FDA approval for its newly developed X-ray solution that detects cases of pneumothorax (collapsed lung) on X-rays for more efficient triage. Fast diagnosis of the condition can prevent subsequent respiratory or cardiac failures.
https://nocamels.com/2022/04/aidoc-pneumothorax-lung-x-ray/

Eye-opening breakthrough. Doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center have performed the first implant of the thinnest artificial cornea ever printed in the world. The 50-micron thick EndoArt implant (see here previously) reduces recovery time and risk of rejection. The patient had a previous human cornea rejected.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/eye-opening-breakthrough-israeli-doctors-implant-worlds-thinnest-artificial-cornea/

The first “shining star” baby. (TY Hazel) Israeli doctors delivered by Caesarian section the first baby born at the “Shining Star” Israeli field hospital in Ukraine. Mother and baby are doing well.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/first-baby-born-at-israeli-field-hospital-in-ukraine/

Israeli Arab leads Ukraine field hospital lab. Arab-Israeli Amir Zoabi heads up the laboratory at the Israeli field hospital in Ukraine. Set-up in an unused schoolroom, his lab can conduct any required test. In this article Amir shares his feelings about being part of the Israeli humanitarian delegation.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-arab-israeli-leads-lifesaving-lab-in-war-torn-ukraine/

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/palestinians-are-going-to-end-up-starting-a-third-intifada/

After a slew of deadly terrorist attacks this month and now rioting in Jerusalem, it’s increasingly starting to look like there’s a coordinated effort by Palestinian authorities to spark another Intifada. It’s unsurprising. Every time Abu Mazen needs more funding to prop up his kleptocracy, he triggers new bloodshed and takes his case to the international community. The traditional way to accomplish this is by fanning false rumors about Jewish plans to appropriate Islamic holy sites.

Back in 1929 — before the modern state of Israel was formed or “occupied territories” existed — the father of Palestinian nationalism, Amin al-Husseini, used the Holy Mount site to spread blood libel and whip up violence that resulted in the murder of 133 Jews. In nearby Hebron, an ancient neighborhood was destroyed and 67 Jews were slaughtered by their neighbors. This same strategy has been implemented numerous times since. The pretext for the Second Intifada was an Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount area. Any openly Jewish presence near Al-Aqsa is considered a “provocation” by Palestinians. And international organizations help fuel their grievances by attempting to erase the religious and historical connection between the city and the Jewish people.

There has never been a shred of evidence to back the claim that Israel wants to eject Muslims from the Temple Mount. Indeed, after taking back the site from Jordan in 1967, Israel handed custodianship to the Hashemites and Waqf Muslim religious trust. To put that act into context, it’s worth remembering that before 1967, Jewish holy sites that were occupied by Arabs were treated as garbage dumps — and not much better today in Arab-controlled areas.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/israel-foreign-minister-lapid-walks-near-damascus-hugh-fitzgerald/

We all remember how the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in 2000 was used as a pretext by the Palestinians, who described it as a “provocation” and started the violence that became the Second Intifada. In fact, Sharon’s aides had in advance told Jibril Rajoub, who was then in charge of security on the Temple Mount, of his planned visit; Rajoub raised no objections at the time, though later he denied having been contacted by Sharon’s men. Tightly guarded by an Israeli security cordon, Sharon led a group of Israeli legislators onto the bitterly contested Temple Mount to assert Jewish claims there, setting off a stone-throwing clash that left several Palestinians and more than two dozen policemen injured.

The violence spread later to the streets of East Jerusalem and to the West Bank town of Ramallah, where six Palestinians were reportedly hurt as Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated bullets and protesters hurled rocks and firebombs.

‘‘I brought a message of peace,” Mr. Sharon said after a one-hour tour of the Temple Mount that Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, condemned as a ”dangerous action” against Muslim holy sites.

‘‘I believe that Jews and Arabs can live together,” Mr. Sharon declared as stones and rubber-coated bullets flew at the holy site. ”It was no provocation whatsoever,” he said of his visit. ”It’s our right. Arabs have the right to visit everywhere in the Land of Israel, and Jews have the right to visit every place in the Land of Israel.”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325726

The Arabs have been planning this ever since the last one, 20 years ago.

This is what Arafat envisioned when he formed the PLO in 1964, and used (via the Oslo Accords) to implement his goal of destroying Israel.

This is what happens when the PLO Covenant and Hamas Charter, which call for Israel’s destruction, and promote incitement against Israel, are ignored.

This is what happens when the PA has a “pay-for-slay” program that sends money to families of terrorists who were ‘killed-in-action,’ and glorifies them.

This is what happens when children in schools run by the PA/PLO and UNRWA are taught to hate Jews and Israel.

This is what happens when Jews were expelled from the Gaza Strip, which enabled Hamas to occupy it; similarly, destroying “hilltop” Jewish communities and preventing Jews from building in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem is an anti-Zionist message of surrender.

This is what happens when Hamas, Jihadists and Islamists are empowered, especially by the news media that won’t even call them terrorists.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-wave-terrorism-terrorist-attack-israel-sunni-arab-jews-shootings-killing-jihad-islamist-tel-aviv-bnei-brak-hadera-beersheba-sunni-arab-11649693150?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

The attack in Tel Aviv last Thursday, in which a gunman opened fire on a bar, killing three, brought the number of Israelis murdered in terror incidents since March 22 to 13. It confirms the suspicion, raised and then suppressed with dread by many Israelis over the same period, that their country faces a new wave of terror.

This is a new incarnation of a known phenomenon, the latest chapter in a long, smoldering and intractable conflict. Close observation of the latest events offers three clues as to the emerging shape of the next chapter in the long dispute between Jews and Arab Muslims west of the Jordan River.

First, note that the conflict now runs, unambiguously, on religious time. The old secular nationalist shells are past. It is now the month of Ramadan. Over the past half-decade, Israeli residents of mixed towns and cities (I’m one of them) have come to expect that this month of fasting and heightened Islamic religious sensibilities will bring a corresponding increase in attacks. Not all these take the headline-grabbing form of the latest events in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Hadera and Beersheba. Rather, these are the sharpest edge of a much broader pattern of increased incidents of harassment, street violence and tension, which have become the familiar accompaniment to Ramadan.

Second, this atmosphere of tension is neither incited nor controlled by any organized political or religious element. The four most recent incidents involved perpetrators from a variety of ideological backgrounds. The Beersheba and Hadera attacks were carried out by Arab citizens of Israel who were supporters of Islamic State. (ISIS claimed responsibility for the Hadera attack, though not for Beersheba.) The Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv incidents were committed by residents of the northern West Bank. Both hailed from the Jenin area, a stronghold of the Iran-supported Islamic Jihad organization. Neither, however, were militants of that organization.