RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/human-rights-watch-did-a-one-sided-takedown-of-israel-opinion-667590

“Israeli authorities do face legitimate security challenges,” Human Rights Watch acknowledged after accusing Israel of committing two “crimes against humanity” – apartheid and persecution – against Palestinians.

It was a grudging, and altogether disingenuous, admission in a new 217-page report about Israeli actions in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem that ignores history and belies reality, all to paint a strikingly one-sided picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The admission, in fact, seems designed to present a facade of balance in a report that is anything but. In describing Israeli behavior, over the course of decades and today, the report all but ignores the very same “legitimate security challenges,” thus painting a picture of gratuitous Israeli oppression.

Moreover, the report comes as Palestinian leaders in the West Bank and Gaza erect more barriers to peace with Israel, and as they themselves degrade the human rights of the Palestinian people. But you’d never know that from the tone of the report, or from what it includes and what it leaves out.

“Israel,” the report declares, “has maintained military rule over some portion of the Palestinian population for all but six months of its 73-year history.” Nowhere does the report note that Palestinian leaders have rejected multiple offers of a state since 1947, or that most Palestinians oppose the very notion of an Israel that occupies any land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

A few examples of Israel’s Jewish demographic momentum

In 2020, the number of Israel’s Jewish births was 134,866 – 68% higher than 1995 (80,400). In 2020, the number of Israel’s Arab births was 42,435 – 16% higher than 1995.

In 2020, Jewish births were 76% of total births, compared with 69% in 1995.
 
The surge of Jewish births has taken place due to the unprecedented rise of births in the secular sector, simultaneously with a rising level of education, income and wedding age. Israel’s ultra-orthodox sector has experienced a mild decrease of fertility.
.In 1969, Israel’s Arab fertility rate (number of births per woman) was six births higher than the Jewish fertility rate. In 2019, Jewish fertility rate was 3.09 (3.27 when the husband was Israeli-born), compared to 2.98 for Israeli Arabs and 3.02 for Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Arabs.

The Westernization of fertility rate has characterized all Muslim countries, other than the sub-Sahara region: Jordan – 3 births per woman, Iran – 1.93, Saudi Arabia – 1.95, Morocco – 2.29, , Iraq – 3.32, Egypt – 3.23, Yemen – 3.1, United Arab Emirates – 1.65, etc. 
 

The unique growth of Israel’s Jewish fertility rate reflects optimism, patriotism, attachment to roots, communal solidarity, frontier mentality and a declining number of abortions.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/mahmoud-abbass-default-ploy-antisemitic-incitement-opinion-667449

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may be losing his grip at home, but he still knows what to say to persuade donors abroad that all he wants is an independent state for his “oppressed” and “occupied” people.

The latter is why he called for elections that he never intended on holding, and then canceled them as they drew near, on the false grounds that Israel was to blame for “forbidding” the participation of east Jerusalem Arabs.
It also explains the letter he sent to President Reuven Rivlin on Friday, expressing his “sorrow” over the tragedy at Mount Meron late Thursday night “that claimed the lives of dozens of victims.”

Referring to the deadly crowd-crush at the grave site of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai during Lag Ba’omer celebrations, Abbas added, “We are praying for the victims and hope for the recovery of those injured.”

This might sound like heartfelt condolences – perhaps even a goodwill gesture toward Israel – if not for the fact that Abbas has spent his entire career, starting with his Holocaust-denying doctoral thesis, inciting his people to kill Jews.

Nor is it necessary to review his past. All along, and as recently as this week, PA officialdom under his rule has been consistent in its support for the cold-blooded murder of innocent Israelis.

https://worldisraelnews.com/opinion-mount-meron-a-tragedy-waiting-to-happen/

The Mount Meron tragedy reflected the best and worst of Israeli society.

The best could be seen in its wake. Israel unified around the victims and their families. Over 2,200 units of blood were donated in a single day. Sunday was declared a national day of mourning.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said while visiting recovering victims of the tragedy at Rambam Hospital in Haifa: “One of the parents told me the sentence that summarizes everything: ‘Here one reveals that the people of Israel has one heart.’”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who had recently warned the country was dangerously divided, said “At the end of the day, and however hard it is for us to remember it, we are better than they tell us, more united than the election campaigns try to suggest. We are more committed to each other than this or that person with an ax to grind would have it. At the moment of truth, we are one human fabric.”

The outpouring during a time of national sorrow was especially poignant as the victims were haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jews, a segment of the population scorned by many for its insularity and hostility to Zionism. Antipathy toward the haredim has been exacerbated during corona, when it was felt that they ignored pandemic guidelines.

All that was pushed aside after the catastrophe – the worst civil disaster in Israel’s history – which took 45 lives on a festive holiday marked by dancing, singing and bonfires celebrating a famous Torah sage from the second century C.E. and, as chance would have it, the end of death from an ancient plague.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/mount-meron-and-israels-paradoxical-nature/

On Saturday night, as Tel Aviv’s City Hall lit up with the image of the Israeli flag to commemorate the dozens killed and 150 injured in the crowd-crush two nights earlier on Mount Meron, Israelis of all backgrounds came together to light yahrzeit (memorial) candles.

Some of the people present at Rabin Square that evening, like others around the country, configurated tea lights in the shape of the numeral 45—the number of people trampled to death during the Lag B’Omer celebrations that would become the source of multiple funerals.

The outpouring of nationwide grief over the victims and empathy with their families was not unusual in a state sadly accustomed to burying citizens who are, by all measures, too young to die. Nor was it novel for Israel’s Kan Radio to play sad music, out of respect for the gravity of the hour.

The same can be said of the public’s lining up in droves, and for hours on end in sweltering heat, to donate blood for the treatment of those still in the hospital. Though less frequent an occurrence, the offer by Israel’s national carrier, El Al, of free passage for anyone from abroad needing to pay their last respects or provide bedside comfort to loved ones was also not surprising.

Even the fact that Arab villagers from the Meron area in the north rallied to help their Jewish brethren in distress—distributing free food and drink to survivors—wasn’t totally out of the ordinary.
But all of the above has been noteworthy nevertheless, due to the identity of the casualties. All were ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jews who had made a pilgrimage to the gravesite of second-century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to dance around the holiday’s traditional bonfire—hosted, as it happened, by the Jerusalem-based, anti-Zionist sect, Toldot Aharon.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/05/04/abbas-declares-state-of-emergency-following-elections-deferral/

The decision to delay what would’ve been the first Palestinian election in 15 years sparked protests

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a 30-day state of emergency in the Palestinian Authority.

While the announcement follows the leader’s decision last week to indefinitely postpone what would have been the first Palestinian elections in 15 years, such declarations have become routine during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the postponement, Hamas – the Gaza Strip-based terrorist group that would have faced off against Abbas’s Fatah party – accused Abbas of perpetrating a “coup” against their partnership.

Protests against Abbas immediately flared both in Ramallah and in Gaza City.

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While the leader cited the tense situation in East Jerusalem as the pretext for calling off the vote, critics have said that the 85-year-old’s decision is due rather to his unwillingness to submit to the electoral process.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the deferment as “deeply disappointing.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/05/biden-considering-obamas-anti-israel-shill-israel-daniel-greenfield/

Wexler, now the head of the far-left S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, was back in town. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, he said that Israel should consider extending the ban on Jewish property rights to within the 1949 armistice lines. Anyone Biden picks as his ambassador to Israel is going to be bad. 

While some Jewish Biden donors thought that they would get the job, that’s not happening. It’s a State Dept post for leveraging pressure on Israel to make concessions to Islamic terrorists, take the blame for failed Biden policies in the region, and to do nothing about Iran.

The word is that the horse race has come down to Tom Nides and former Rep. Steve Wexler.

Here’s Tom.

While he was seen as a pro-Israel voice in the Obama administration, he also did work to thwart efforts by Congress to limit US support for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Biden administration recently announced that it would restore funding for UNRWA that had been cut by the Trump administration.

That’s the nicer version of it.

This week, a deadly crush at a religious festival, still under investigation, brought shock and gloom to Israel’s citizens and the nation’s protagonists. The resilient nation responded swiftly with succor to survivors. America’s strong commitment to Israel suffered a setback with the Biden administration’s reversion to past discarded policies. Behind the headlines Israel’s contributions to science, health, agricultural innovation, water resource technology and quantum computing continued apace. Here is another dazzling list brought to us by Michael Ordman. rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Panic over. Israel is recording less than 100 new Covid-19 cases a day, with under 1,600 total infections. Swimming pools, gyms and dining at restaurants are to be opened even to the unvaccinated. And a new Israeli report shows that any country can control Covid-19 if more than 50% of the over-60s are vaccinated.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/scientists-israel-proves-every-developed-country-can-subdue-covid-with-vaccines/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-sees-just-38-new-covid-cases-the-lowest-daily-tally-in-a-year/
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/coronavirus/1619419343-israel-sees-just-36-new-covid-cases-in-24-hours-less-than-2-000-active-patients-in-total

Masks cut asthma and allergies. A study by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has concluded that the wearing of facemasks protected many citizens not only from Covid-19 but also from asthma and allergies. Urgent visits to Sheba’s emergency unit during the pandemic by asthma patients dropped by 49% and hospitalizations by 65%.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-sees-dramatic-drop-in-severe-asthma-due-to-face-masks/
https://www.israel21c.org/wearing-masks-for-covid-saved-us-from-asthma-and-allergies/

Nose spray blocks Covid variants. In recent trials at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, the Taffix nose spray from Israel’s Nasus (see here previously) blocked 100 percent” of the British and South African variants of SARS-CoV-2 virus.  https://nocamels.com/2021/04/israeli-nasus-nasal-spray-taffix-covid-variants/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqdurzubL18

Poised to transform brain surgery. Israel’s Tamar Robotics (see here previously) is developing a surgical robot to revolutionize brain surgery. It will give doctors a minimally invasive tool to remove tumors and blood clots and treat other brain conditions that now require major surgery. See video of founder Professor Shohan.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/israeli-startups-precision-robots-poised-to-transform-brain-surgery/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPYQOycveU

Proteins that cause intestinal disease. Researchers from Tel Aviv University have developed an Artificial Intelligence platform that can identify the specific proteins that allow bacteria to infect the intestines. It should lead to new therapeutics that can neutralize the proteins and prevent disease, eliminating the use of antibiotics.
https://www.aftau.org/news_item/tau-researchers-identify-proteins-that-cause-intestinal-disease/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33707240/

Opening the arteries. MultiGeneAngio from Israel’s VESSL Therapeutics is in human trials for treating peripheral and coronary artery disease. The patient’s cells are extracted, enhanced with genes and re-implanted, to increase blood flow to oxygen-starved muscles. And VESSL’s MultiGeneGraft treats end-stage renal disease.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/04/25/vessl-therapeutics-is-a-medtech-startup-offering-new-cardiovascular-treatments/  http://vessltherapy.com/

Repairing bones. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have new technology for bone and soft tissue repair. Instead of grafting bone from elsewhere in the body, they used stem cells from the soft tissue inside discarded teeth. They then combined this with other cells to repair spinal cord in laboratory tests.
https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2021/04/27/technion-scientists-develop-new-technology-for-bone-and-soft-tissue-repair/   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202008687

European approval for smart IVF treatment. Israel’s AIVF (see here previously) has received the CE Mark for its unique AI IVF analysis platform that avoids risky biopsies. AIVF’s system improves the success of IVF treatment – a costly and invasive process. US approval is now also being sought.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3906485,00.html

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Arab woman is Vice President of Hebrew U. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has elected Professor Mona Khoury-Kassbari Vice President of Strategy and Diversity.  She will be responsible for broadening the mix of faculty members and students from Orthodox Jews, Arabs, Ethiopians and those with disabilities.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/israeli-arabs/hebrew-u-appoints-arab-woman-as-vice-president/2021/04/28/

Saving life in Jerusalem. Khaled is one of nearly 700 Muslim paramedics in United Hatzalah – Israel’s emergency medical organization. During Ramadan, Khaled fasts during the day but still responds to all calls and treats patients of all religions equally.
https://www.jns.org/view-from-the-other-side-of-violence-saving-lives-in-eastern-jerusalem/

Making every drop of water count. (TY UWI) Great video of Israel’s globally enhancing water technologies. A single drop of saltwater taken from the Mediterranean, travels from an Israeli desalination plant to a domestic tap, is drunk, re-cycled, and piped across Israel to water crops via Israeli drip irrigation. Hardly a drop is lost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YscEfqIllt4

La Parisien promotes post-Covid Israel. (TY JNS) Israel’s success in beating coronavirus attracts much attention in the international media. French magazine Le Parisien devoted a cover story to Israel as an example of “life after Covid”. It describes a busy Tel Aviv and Israel’s unprecedented national vaccination operation.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/04/25/french-magazine-devotes-cover-story-to-post-covid-israel/

Israeli and UAE jets in exercise together. Israeli Air Force planes flew alongside Emirati aircraft week as part of the Iniohos international aerial exercise hosted by Greece. The other countries involved were Cyprus, France, the US, Spain and Canada. The UAE and Israel flew together also in 2017 and 2019 (see here previously).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-uae-fighter-jets-fly-together-in-large-international-exercise-in-greece/
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-idf-fighter-pilots-join-uae-troops-for-aerial-drill/

Another agreement signed with UAE. (TY JNS) Israel and the UAE signed a bilateral accord to tackle pandemics, cybersecurity and data protection. The agreement will also see the enactment of large-scale joint economic and health-related projects. Minister Yuli Edelstein said it would “bolster Israel’s healthcare system”.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/04/22/israel-uae-sign-healthcare-agreement/

AI for social good. (TY JNS) Google has partnered Tel Aviv University to launch a new program to promote AI-related multidisciplinary research for the benefit of society. AI for Social Good selected 10 researchers who are using Artificial Intelligence to advance humanity by addressing major global social issues.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/on-campus/google-tau-launch-new-program-ai-for-social-good/2021/04/27/

Aid to Uruguay, Ethiopia, India & Caribbean. Doctors from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center are heading to Uruguay to help it tackle coronavirus. Also, from Assuta Ashdod Hospital to Ethiopia and equipment from Israel’s SmartAID to India. And IsraAID responders go to the Caribbean following a major volcanic eruption.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-to-send-covid-aid-to-uruguay-665521
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-dispatching-team-to-ethiopia-to-help-fight-covid-19/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305115
https://www.jns.org/israaid-sending-team-of-responders-to-caribbean-in-wake-of-volcano-eruption/