RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/opinion/robbing-israels-far-left-labor-leader-of-plausible-deniability/

Contrary to common wisdom, the overruling of the ban on Ibtisam Mara’ana-Menuhin’s run in the Knesset election is good news for the right.

(March 2, 2021 / JNS) Much of the Israeli right is furious about the Supreme Court ruling on Sunday that Labor Party candidate Ibtisam Mara’ana-Menuhin is kosher to run for a Knesset seat in the March 23 election.

The ruling overturned the Feb. 17 Central Elections Committee (CEC) decision to ban Mara’ana-Menuhin—a documentary filmmaker and creator of the Arabic-language TV series “Bila Muakada” (“No Offense,” broadcast on Israel’s Kan network—from participating in the process. When the Arab-Israeli leftist who calls herself a “Palestinian” won the seventh slot in the Labor primaries at the end of January, opponents dug up her past social-media posts to prove that she is unfit to sit in the parliament of the Jewish state.

These naysayers happened to include fellow Labor Party members who, along with the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party, filed a petition with the CEC to disqualify her. To back up their objections, they went digging into her social-media history.

What they uncovered was political gold. Among the statements that she had made on Facebook were attacks on Zionism in general and the Israel Defense Forces in particular. She also boasted in 2012 about refusing to stand for the two-minute siren on Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers.

https://worldisraelnews.com/

This week saw a trifecta of decisions giving aid and comfort to Israel’s enemies.

Even more frightening, it’s only Monday.

First, the Supreme Court on Sunday reversed the Central Elections Committee’s Feb. 17 ban against Ibitisam Mara’ana, an Arab candidate for the Labor party.K

Among her disgusting comments were those in 2008 when she told an interviewer: “You are naturally frightened. You are a frightened people. Fear [is] in your genetics.”

By “you” she meant Jews.

She continued, “It did not start in the Holocaust and has nothing to do with the Arabs. You are a terribly possessive and domineering people.”

If that’s not anti-Semitic, then we don’t know what is.

She wasn’t done.

“If I would order an apocalyptic script, I would destroy Zichron Yaakov… so they’d go back to the United States or Poland,” she told the interviewer.

Zichron Yaakov, on the Carmel range, is one of the prettiest cities in Israel. It was founded in 1882 at the start of the First Aliyah, the initial wave of Zionist immigration.

The soft-minded would argue she just has something against Zichron Yaakov, where she and her mother once cleaned houses.

That kind of argument reminds us of the famous remark by Zionist leader Max Nordau who said that when you spit on the Jews, they call it rain.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Dozens of Israeli innovations, products and programs were launched in the two weeks since the last newsletter. But the important launches included Tel Aviv University’s satellite to measure cosmic radiation; new medical devices; the TAU Artificial Intelligence training center; the project to build a gas pipeline to Egypt; plus, many hi-tech and financial-tech products and programs.  Meanwhile, the blossoming of Israeli trees and blooming of red anemones in the south coincided with the re-launch of Israeli museums, malls, hotels and more, as millions of Israelis celebrated receiving their newly launched fully-vaccinated certificates.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Astonishing vaccination results. (TY WIN) Over 50% of all Israeli citizens have now received at least one Covid-19 vaccination, with 3 million (nearly one-third) having had both. The Pfizer vaccine is shown to be 95.8% effective in preventing new Covid-19 infections and nearly 99% effective in preventing serious illness.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/02/21/pfizers-covid-vaccine-99-effective-at-preventing-serious-illness-death/
 
Breakthrough in fighting resistant myeloma. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have overcome the resistance of the most aggressive forms of multiple myeloma. In a trial of 41 patients at 15 Israeli hospitals they discovered that Cyclosporin A neutralizes the disease’s resistance to cancer-killing proteasome inhibitors.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/uncovering-anti-myeloma-resistance-files
 
Blood cancer treatment trial succeeds. (TY Nevet) Israel’s Gamida Cell (reported here previously) published the results of its Phase 3 trial of omidubicel (previously NiCord) in blood-based cancer patients. The treatment resulted in faster blood count recovery, fewer bacterial and viral infections, and fewer days in the hospital.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hope-grows-for-blood-cancer-patients-as-cell-therapy-firms-key-trial-succeeds/
 
Innovations in Life Sciences. On 2nd Mar, the JNF is hosting a webinar featuring Israeli and US innovations in the Life Sciences. It includes the Chief Scientific & Medical Officer Prof. Dror Mevorach of Israel’s Enlivex Therapeutics – developer of COVID-19 “cure” Allocetra.  Registration required; donations are welcome.
https://www.jnf.org/events-landing-pages/us-israeli-innovations-in-the-life-sciences-part-2
 
A healthier alternative to antibiotics. Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a biological antibiotic derived from human monoclonal antibodies, as an alternative to traditional chemical antibiotics. The antibodies were taken from a recovered tuberculosis patient and were shown to kill TB bacteria – still a major global issue.
https://english.tau.ac.il/news/antibiotics-alternative-2021
 
Just one drop of blood. (TY UWI) Ben Gurion University researchers have invented a miniaturized micro-electrode sensor that accurately checks clozapine levels in a tiny sample of blood obtained by a simple finger prick. Clozapine treats schizophrenia but the sensor is the basis for monitoring many other chemical levels.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/ben-gurion-university-researchers-develop-novel-method-for-personalizing-dose-of-schizophrenia-drug-clozapine-301228713.html
 
Unique medical approval for a wristwatch. Israel’s CardiacSense has received the European CE Mark for its medical-grade wristwatch that continually measures heart rate and arrhythmias. It is the first time an official regulator has approved such a device. CardiacSense has distribution agreements worth some $100 million.
https://www.cardiacsense.com/news/cardiacsense-medical-grade-watch-receives-ce-mark-for-continuous-detection-of-atrial-fibrillation/  https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3892750,00.html
 
Calm in a pandemic. Israeli-founded Dendro Technolgies and its Calmigo handheld device (reported here previously) are helping to make life less stressful for those struggling to cope in a coronavirus world.  The US Veterans Administration is giving Calmigo free to veterans and the IRS have even approved it as tax deductible.
https://www.israel21c.org/a-new-handheld-device-aims-to-calm-panic-attacks-fast/
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/hillels-tech-corner-calmigo-anxietys-kryptonite-651770
 
Off the hook. Surgeons at the Baruch Padeh Medical Center near Tiberias saved the eye of a fisherman who accidentally speared himself with his own fishhook. The delicate operation included cutting the hook, releasing the eye tissue and repairing the eyeball. The doctors were optimistic of restoring full visual function to the eye.
https://worldisraelnews.com/fishermans-eye-saved-after-being-speared-by-his-own-hook/
 

https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-pregnant-pause-to-consider-vaccine-denial/

(February 23, 2021 / JNS) A tragedy that befell a Jerusalem family this week and resonated throughout the country should serve as a cautionary tale. A pregnant mother of four was admitted last Tuesday to the COVID-19 intensive-care unit of Hadassah Medical Center-Ein Kerem with respiratory problems.

By Saturday night, despite the best efforts of doctors in various fields, as well as a team of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) experts, Osnat Ben Shitrit went into multi-system failure. Her 30-week fetus, also infected with coronavirus, was delivered by emergency caesarian section but didn’t survive.

Ben Shitrit’s bitter end struck a national nerve. The thought of an Israeli “everywoman”—with little children and another on the way—having her life come to such a halt is a terrifying proposition.

It’s particularly scary right now, with at least 50 pregnant women currently hospitalized with COVID-19, some in serious condition.

One reason for this phenomenon is that the median age of those afflicted with the virus has dramatically decreased since the start of the pandemic. Another is the fact that some two months ago, thanks to a statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the uncertain safety of vaccines for pregnant women, Israeli authorities initially recommended against it.