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ISRAEL

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Will Israel lose its freedom to operate against Iran? – opinion Israel needs to prepare for this new reality where its ability to combat Iranian forces and proxy groups is concerned. By Ruthie Blum

By on January 15th, 2021

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/will-israel-lose-its-freedom-to-operate-against-iran-opinion-655483?fbclid=IwAR3z6bPkCu03rcuy6zviDXEA8tR0PxZObv4aaG4KM0TV5KTZIz3b3jBNzko

Speculation about the extent to which the incoming American administration will appease Iran has been rampant. But US President-elect Joe Biden’s picks for relevant top positions don’t seem to leave much room for conjecture.

Let’s start with William Burns, Biden’s nomination for CIA director. Burns currently serves as president of the left-wing foreign-policy think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of whose donors is the Open Society Foundations network, established by George Soros.

Burns has decades of experience as a career diplomat under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Contrary to false hopes, however, this is not a good sign. Burns is a longtime associate of Biden’s. The two have worked closely together, most recently when the latter was vice president and the former was deputy secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, during the administration of former US president Barack Obama.

The most disturbing thing about Burns, whose posts have included ambassadorships to Russia and Jordan, is his key role in covert talks with the regime in Tehran in 2013. These led to the 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 countries: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China plus Germany. By that time Burns had retired, but his imprint lived on in the disastrous nuclear deal.

In this context, Biden’s statement about Burns – “[He] shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical” – is amusing, if not downright disdain-inducing. Equally ridiculous, but cause for greater concern, is Burns’s current faith in the JCPOA from which outgoing US President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Pakistani Muslim Cleric: Israel Belongs to the Jews “Not for the Palestinians.” Hugh Fitzgerald

By on January 13th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/pakistani-muslim-cleric-israel-belongs-jews-hugh-fitzgerald/

If you thought there was no way to top the news about the normalization of ties between Israel and four Arab states – the U.A.E., Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco – well, this just in from Pakistan may do it: a leading political and religious figure in the country has just announced that Israel belongs solely to the Jews. It was never meant for the “Palestinians.” The amazing report is here: “Pakistani cleric: We should recognize Israel,” by Dean Shmuel Elmas, Israel Hayom, December 20, 2020:

Pakistani political and religious leader Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani announced Saturday, Dec. 20, at a conference, that he supports the normalization of his country with Israel, according to a report by British-Pakistani writer Noor Dahri.

“This is an international issue, I support recognition of Israel,” Sherani said. “Educated Muslims need to understand that the Quran and history prove to us that the Land of Israel belongs only to the Jews. King David built the house of God in Jerusalem for the Israelis and not for the Palestinians.”

The honorific “Maulana” means that Sherani is a learned Muslim cleric. He is also a formidable figure in Pakistani politics, having served in Pakistan’s National Assembly from 1988 to 2018, save from 1999-2002, and from 2007 to 2013. In other words, he’s served at the national level for more than 20 years. But he’s never made such a remarkable statement, recognizing that “the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews”: It is “not for the Palestinians.”

One cannot help but wonder if this declaration was sua sponte, an expression of Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani’s deeply held beliefs, uttered without consulting anyone else, and expressing his desire to push forward the case for Pakistan to normalize ties with the Jewish state. Of course, other Muslim states have normalized relations with Israel, but all of them took care to formulaicly express their hope for the establishment of a Palestinian state. This Pakistani cleric has in breathtaking fashion stated uncompromisingly the case for the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel that the ghost of Zev Jabotinsky could not have bettered.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Media: Israel Must Be Denigrated for Its World-Beating Vaccination Programme by Richard Kemp

By on January 12th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16930/israel-vaccination-programme

The same negative policy [by the press and many purported human rights groups] extends to other major benefits that Israel has brought to the world, including scientific innovation, medical technology and life-saving intelligence. It goes against editorial agendas to report on the Jewish state in a positive light unless they can somehow twist a good story to turn it bad.

Under the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, which created the Palestinian Authority (PA), it alone and not Israel, is responsible for their health care, including vaccinations. Nearly 150 UN members recognise “Palestine” as a state, yet these media and human rights bodies, displaying deplorably predictable bias, cannot bring themselves to allow it agency.

Contradicting allegations of a racist or “apartheid” policy, Israel has been vaccinating its Arab citizens since the programme began. Given some reluctance to be vaccinated among these communities, the Israeli government, in conjunction with Arab community leaders, have been making concerted efforts to encourage them, including a visit by Prime Minister Netanyahu to two Arab towns in the last few days for this purpose.

The same approach can be seen over the Abraham Accords of 2020, historic achievements in a hitherto elusive peace between Israel and the Arabs. These have often been received with callous cynicism in the media as well as among veteran peace processors, whose own prescriptions have repeatedly failed.

[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is the driving force behind the Abraham Accords, whose origins date back to his speech to a joint session of Congress in 2015, when he made a stand against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu’s solitary stance was seized on by Arab leaders, who began to realise they had common cause with the State of Israel, which could lead to a brighter future for them than one encumbered with unnecessary animosity.

Prejudice against the Jewish state is so intense in the Western media that praiseworthy actions guaranteed to hit the headlines if attributable to any other country are frequently ignored, diminished or denigrated when it comes to Israel. When there is a disaster anywhere in the world, for example, Israel is often the first, or among the first, to offer assistance and send in relief workers. Most recently, last month the Israel Defence Forces dispatched a team to Honduras following the devastation of category 4 hurricanes Eta and Iota which left thousands homeless.

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EDUCATION, ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Terror U: Who is Suppressing Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities? Terrorism against Israel is not only promoted within the university walls; it is celebrated publicly. Richard L. Cravatts

By on January 12th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/terror-u-who-suppressing-academic-freedom-richard-l-cravatts/

In January of 2019, the Academic Freedom Committee of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) wrote a letter to Benyamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, and several other ministers and officials. In that condemnatory letter, MESA, an organization that has been obsessively and chronically anti-Israel, chastened Israel, with the purpose of the complaint “. . . to urge a halt to the Israeli army and security forces conducting arbitrary arrests at and incursions into Palestinian universities, assaulting students, faculty, and staff and obstructing the education of thousands of students.” 

Of specific concern to MESA was the 2018 arrest of Yehya Rabie, the President of Birzeit University’s Student Council by the IDF and a similar arrest of Omar al-Kiswani, the previous President of Birzeit University’s Student Council. “While the Israeli army accused Rabie and al-Kiswani of ‘suspected involvement in terror activity,’” the letter flippantly stated, “both men remain in detention without trial. These arbitrary arrests and detentions without trial are not the exception but the rule” and such arrests, it was claimed, “follow a pattern of Israeli forces’ aggression on Palestinian campuses.” 

For an organization of coddled, safely-ensconced professors in American universities it is easy, of course, to castigate Israel for its behavior in insuring the safety of its citizenry, particularly since in discussing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, MESA has reliably expected no rational or reasonable behavior from the perennially-oppressed Palestinians and has singularly blamed Israel for its alleged brute treatment of the Palestinians, including these specific arrests which, it contended, “follow a pattern of Israeli forces’ aggression on Palestinian campuses,” and the “attacks, assaults, and detentions described above are grave violations of basic rights to education and academic freedom.”

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on January 10th, 2021

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

More vaccines arrive. The first 120,000 doses of the 6 million coronavirus vaccines ordered from Moderna have arrived in Israel. These are to be primarily used to vaccinate homebound citizens. Over 1.5 million Israelis have now received their first vaccination and millions more Pfizer vaccines are arriving this coming week.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/120000-moderna-coronavirus-vaccinations-land-at-ben-gurion-654610

https://worldisraelnews.com/moderna-vaccine-warmly-welcomed-to-israels-shores/

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294287

Race for the vaccine. Technion UK hosted a webinar featuring Professor Yotam Bar-Or of Israel’s Technion, who explained everything you need to know about the vaccines to protect against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. He also gave many excellent answers at the end, to great questions raised by attendees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn83-1RFjvs

Why Israel is a Covid-19 vaccination leader. The reasons for Israel’s high vaccination rate include universal healthcare, loyalty to health funds, focus on prevention, experience with emergencies and flu vaccines, secure access to patient medical records, hi-tech systems, publicity about vaccine availability and a willing public.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/nine-reasons-why-israel-leads-the-world-in-vaccine-distribution-654160

Green passports for vaccinated citizens. Israel’s Health Ministry is to issue “green passport” for Israelis who have been inoculated against the coronavirus. The app or printout will enable access to cultural and sporting events, museums, conferences, and possibly restaurants, cafes, malls, hotels, gyms and swimming pools.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-ministry-says-vaccinated-recovered-to-get-green-passport-for-6-months/

Safe removal of blood clots. Israel’s Ceretrieve has designed and developed CathTrap, a unique catheter for neuro-thrombectomy – the fast and safe removal of blood clots from the brain that are the common cause of strokes. The CathTrap device has an expandable soft tip that enlarges its diameter to encompass the whole clot.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3886030,00.html  https://www.ceretrieve.com/

Minimally invasive lung biopsies. Analysis of suspicious lesions in the lungs used to involve surgery. But the new bronchoscopic navigation system at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center, now enables Israeli doctors to take biopsies even from the more distant peripheral regions of the lungs – all without having to make an incision.

https://www.rambam.org.il/en/rambam_news/lung_navigation.aspx

Robot-guided knee surgery. (TY UWI) Surgeons at Israel’s Galilee Medical Center successfully replaced the knee joints of two Israeli women. They used robots to adapt the implants to the precise anatomical structure of the patients. In addition, the surgeons were able to simulate the surgery in advance and in real time.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/doctors-at-galilee-hospital-perform-first-surgery-by-robot-in-north-654302

Radiology scans can save European lives. Israel’s IMedis (reported here previously) has received European CE approval for its AI-based quality control system for radiology departments. The IMedis system can identify anomalies that may be missed by the radiologist in an initial reading, that may otherwise lead to cancer.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3885413,00.html

Spray-on skin rolls out to Europe. The breakthrough SpinCare wound protection system from Israel’s Nanomedic (reported here previously) is now being used in hospitals in the UK, Germany and Switzerland. The news was reported in the normally anti-Israel UK Guardian.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-spray-on-skin-tech-has-burns-in-europe-india-covered-report/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/04/spider-man-style-medical-gun-spins-out-skin-substitute-for-burns   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJlSm9sjM64   https://nanomedic.com/

Prize for human tissue printer. Israel’s Matricelf has won Calcalist’s StartUp+ competition for its platform that enables 3D printing of tissues and organs. Matricelf developed the technology that Tel Aviv University scientists used to 3D print the first heart produced from human tissue (as reported here previously).

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3884750,00.html

Fifteen uses for Hyperbaric Oxygen.  There are three HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy) centers in Israel. Citizens can get treatment for 15 conditions including decompression sickness, wound healing, and strokes. But it can potentially also treat PTSD, cerebral palsy, complex pain, fibromyalgia, cognitive decline and even aging. 

https://www.israel21c.org/from-aging-to-chronic-wounds-can-hyperbaric-oxygen-cure-everything/ 

https://www.shamir.org/en/unique-pages-default-aspx/the-sagol-center-for-hyperbaric-medicine-and-research/ministryofhealthapprovedtreatments/

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HISTORY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Mystery of Theodor Herzl A young secular Viennese writer had an experience 125 years ago that would lead him to change Jewish history forever. He could never explain it. Can anyone else? Rick Richman

By on January 5th, 2021

https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/israel-zionism/2021/01/the-mystery-of-theodor-herzl/?utm_source=

Not since Moses led the 40-year Exodus from Egypt did anyone transform Jewish history as fundamentally as Theodor Herzl did in the seven years from the publication in 1896 of his pamphlet The Jewish State to his historic pledge in 1903 on the subject of Jerusalem at the Sixth Zionist Congress. Then he died suddenly in 1904, at the age of forty-four.

In 2017, on the centennial of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Britain’s historic promise to facilitate a Jewish national home in Palestine, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Declaration resulted “largely thanks to Herzl’s brilliant appearances in England.”

Herzl created something out of nothing. He turned Zionism into a mass movement. He created the organizational and economic tools for the World Zionist Organization. Perhaps above all, he gained access to kings and counts . . . and this was no small thing [because a Jewish statesman] did not exist at the time, . . . certainly not one who was a journalist and playwright, and who was only thirty-six years old. It was unthinkable.

How did a man opposed by Orthodox rabbis (who believed a Jewish state should await the messiah), Reform rabbis (who wanted a Jewish state relegated permanently to the past), assimilated Jews (who feared accusations of dual loyalty), Jewish socialists (who considered any type of nationalism reactionary), and Jewish public figures (who thought the whole idea absurd) create a worldwide movement? How did a young writer with no political connections, no ties to Jewish organizations, and no financial backing beyond his own resources negotiate with leading figures in the Western world’s ruling empires, engaging in what Netanyahu called “inconceivable diplomatic actions” that would lead to the Balfour Declaration and eventually the creation of the state of Israel?

Those are important questions. Even more important a question is that of why Herzl did all this, given his minimal ties to Judaism and the Jewish people during his early adulthood. While he had a bar mitzvah and attended a predominantly Jewish high school, he had sought assimilation ever since his days as a university student in Vienna. Nor was he religiously observant as an adult: when his son was born in 1891, he did not have him circumcised. On December 24, 1895, six weeks before the publication of The Jewish State, Herzl was at home lighting a Christmas tree for his three children.

For many years, biographers believed Herzl became a Zionist after covering the Dreyfus trial in 1894 in Paris, as a foreign correspondent for a Viennese newspaper. More recently, however, scholars have shown that Herzl’s embrace of Zionism had virtually nothing to do with that case.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on January 3rd, 2021

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

One million vaccinations.  Over a million Israelis have now had their first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. More than 150,000 vaccinations are being administered each day – the highest per capita in the world. The number of vaccinated Israelis is now double the total number that have ever been infected with Covid-19.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/294096

https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-health-minister-meet-500000th-israeli-to-receive-covid-19-vaccine/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-smashes-goal-of-150000-daily-covid-19-vaccinations/

Positive results for Covid-19 treatment. Preliminary data from Phase 2 trials of opaganib from Israel’s Redhill (reported here previously) on 40 hospitalized Covid-19 patients showed positive results. Patients receiving opaganib had significantly reduced dependence on ventilators and faster time to discharge.

https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/redhill-s-phase-2-3-covid-19-candidate-opaganib-reduces-ards-related-blood-clotting-in-preclinical-model-813822864.html

Treatment may cure genetic deafness. One in 400 children are born with a genetic mutation that causes hearing loss. Tel Aviv University scientists have developed a harmless synthetic virus that replaces defective genes with healthy genes. It may prevent deafness when injected into the inner ear hair cells soon after birth.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-develop-gene-therapy-to-restore-hearing-in-children/

https://english.m.tau.ac.il/news/gene-therapy-for-deafness

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202013259

Futuristic surgery today. Doctors at Israel’s Galilee Medical Center successfully completed the first-ever repair of a fracture in the floor of an eye socket using augmented reality (AR) and 3D technology. A CT-scan of the patient’s eye was used to 3D print the new socket and the surgeon used HoloLens AR glasses to insert it.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-performs-first-ever-augmented-reality-3d-eye-socket-surgery-653901

15-minute Covid-19 test. Several years ago, Bar-Ilan University’s Dr. Amos Danielli founded the biotech MagBiosense (reported here previously) to commercialize his innovative device to detect an imminent heart attack and also to diagnose the Zika virus. He has now adapted it to diagnose Covid-19 in just 15 minutes.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3884554,00.html    https://magbiosense.com/

https://www.israel21c.org/israel-races-to-find-solutions-for-coronavirus/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8mwBY4UjEc

Race for the vaccine. An opportunity on 5th Jan to attend a Technion UK webinar featuring Professor Yotam Bar-On of Israel’s Technion Institute. Professor Bar-On is a virologist, specializing in COVID- 19 who will speak about immunity, about the virus itself along with its variants and how different vaccines work.

https://technionuk.org/event/race-for-the-vaccine/

Genesis winner donates prize to medical startups. Israel’s 2019 Genesis Prize winner, Natan Sharansky, donated his $1 million prize to 10 Israeli startups developing innovations to combat Covid-19. The 10 are Kamada, Pluristem, Sight Diagnostics, Sonovia, Biobeat, EyeControl, K Health, Picodya, IAI and MyZeppi.

https://nocamels.com/2020/12/sharansky-genesis-prize-10-companies-covid/

https://www.genesisprize.org/press-center/2020-12-24-genesis-prize-and-start-up-nation-central-announce-winners-of-the-competition-in-honor-of-natan-sharansky

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RUTHIE BLUM: DOCTORS AGAINST LOCKDOWNS

By on December 29th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/doctors-against-lockdowns/

As the year winds down and a third near-standstill takes place, more than 100 Israeli medical experts took a welcome ax to conventional coronavirus wisdom.

 Even after Israel entered its third nationwide lockdown on Sunday afternoon, members of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee were still duking out the details. It wasn’t until Monday at noon that the current restrictions were approved by a vote of 8-7. And even those were altered somewhat.

Ironically, just as many Israelis flooded hair salons and malls ahead of the latest closure as they have been lining up to get vaccinated. But at least the latter is being carried out with startling efficiency. Indeed, Israel is leading the world in the number of vaccines distributed per capita.

The opposite applies to the former. As has been true since the coronavirus pandemic hit the shores of the Jewish state at the end of February, the public is still being made bonkers by the arbitrary nature of the rules. It’s no wonder, then, that people have been making up their own.

Why there is even a need for a third lockdown, particularly with the vaccination campaign underway—one that has run totally counter to polls a few weeks ago showing much of the population unwilling to be inoculated—is a question that naturally arises.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s answer, basically, is that there is a dangerous spike in the rate of COVID-19 infection, accompanied by a rise in the number of patients on ventilators and an increasing death toll. He and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein have been warning against complacency and urging the public to let the new combination of lockdown and vaccines work its magic.

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Palestinians: An International “Peace” Conference to Displace Israel by Bassam Tawil

By on December 29th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16891/palestinians-displace-israel

While Abbas is talking to the international community about his desire to achieve a peaceful settlement alongside Israel, his Fatah faction is sending messages to the Palestinians that glorify the “armed struggle” against Israel and that promise a “revolution until victory” — meaning replace Israel.

The poster chosen by Fatah to celebrate the January 1, 1965 anniversary of the first terrorist attack against Israel depicts a map of “Palestine” superimposed over the entire state of Israel.

It is important to note that Fatah is one of the groups forming the Unified Leadership of the Palestinian Resistance. When the Palestinians talk about “resistance,” they are referring to actions such as throwing rocks and firebombs at soldiers and settlers, as well as stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks.

Abbas has long been dreaming of a multi-party conference that will impose a solution on Israel. He does not want to hold direct negotiations with Israel.

Abbas claims to the international community that he just wants to establish a Fatah-controlled Palestinian state next to Israel, with the help of the UN, Russia, China, and the European Union…. He does not want Biden and other world leaders to hear the messages of violence that Fatah is spreading (in Arabic), including his pledge to “liberate Palestine.”

What Fatah is saying in Arabic is infinitely more important than what Abbas writes in a letter to the UN secretary-general or to any world leader…. Failure to call out the Palestinians for their self-contradictory messages will not advance any cause of peace, but, on the contrary, only further embolden Palestinians to carry out more terrorist attacks and thwart the way to peace.

The Palestinian ruling Fatah faction has just celebrated the 56th anniversary of the launching of its first terrorist attack on January 1, 1965 by promising, in Arabic, to continue the fight to do away with Israel. On that day, Fatah terrorists attempted to bomb Israel’s National Water Carrier.

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Israeli Researchers Rank Top in the Scientific World by Deborah Danan

By on December 28th, 2020

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2020/12/27/israeli-researchers-rank-top-in-the-scientific-world/

A dozen Israeli researchers were ranked among the world’s top 50 in their disciplines, a new study from Stanford University showed, with a further 333 researchers coming in the top two percent of the world.

Out of 160,000 researchers evaluated from 149 countries, researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) consistently ranked top. 33 of them were among the top two percent, of which 155 were included in the top one percent and 74 in the top 0.5 percent.

“This is a cause for real national pride. TAU is known for its academic excellence and recognized as a leading interdisciplinary university,” said the university’s vice president for research, Prof. Dan Peer.

“It is a great honor for us that 333 of our researchers rank among the top two percent of the world’s best researchers,” he said.

He added the university is also ranked among the top 0.4 percent in the world in nanotechnology.

The study evaluated researchers in 22 scientific disciplines and 176 sub-disciplines based on their publications, citations and impact.

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