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ISRAEL

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The EU And Brennan Lament Fakhrizadeh’s Demise Fakhrizadeh had planned the nuclear “Final Solution” to the Jewish State. Joseph Puder

By on December 15th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/eu-and-brennan-lament-fakhrizadehs-demise-joseph-puder/

Once again the European Union (EU) has shown its hypocrisy by lamenting the assassination of Iran’s nuclear project chief, Moshen Fakhrizadeh. Peter Stano, the spokesperson for Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs chief, tweeted that: “The killing of Moshen Fakhrizadeh and others is a criminal act and runs counter to the principle of respect for human rights that the EU stands for.” He was echoing former CIA Director John Brennan, an Obama appointee, who tweeted that, “this was a criminal act and highly reckless. It risks lethal retaliation and a new round of regional conflict.” The EU officials expressed their condolences to the family members of the individuals who were killed, while wishing a prompt recovery to any other individuals who may have been injured.

Significantly, when the EU does condemn Iran’s radical regime, it is a half-hearted condemnation. Specifically, when the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the “elimination of the Zionist entity” last May, the EU responded to Khamenei’s threat by stating that, “Such statements are totally unacceptable and represent a deep source of concern. They are also incompatible with the objective of a stable and peaceful Middle East region pursued by the EU.” Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, responded to the EU statement, saying that, Khamenei did not just bring into question Israel’s legitimacy, he wrote explicitly about ‘eliminating the Zionist regime’ which goes from denying the Holocaust to promoting one. The gravity of his remarks is not reflected in the EU reaction that should go beyond words.”

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Equating Zionism With White Supremacy in the Age of Trump The newest thrust in the campus tactical assault against Israel. Richard L. Cravatts

By on December 14th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/12/zionism-equating-white-supremacy-age-trump-richard-l-cravatts/

Nazifying ideological opponents is a tactic that campus anti-Israel groups and individuals have long used as part of the ongoing cognitive war against Israel, in which Zionism is racism, Israelis are the new Nazis, Gaza is equivalent to the Warsaw Ghetto, Israel is committing genocide against the guiltless Palestinians (a “Holocaust in the Holy Land,” as one student event called it), and the Star of David of the Israeli flag is regularly manipulated to incorporate a swastika.

This intellectually destructive behavior is nothing new for these anti-Israel activists; what is new is that they made a tactical pivot after the election of Donald Trump, choosing to join the chorus of shrill voices accusing the White House, conservatives, Republicans, and even white people in general of being a new incarnation of racists, fascists, and white supremacists, emboldened and given influence by the Trump administration’s alleged racist and xenophobic ideology.

This newest thrust in their tactical assault against Israel, using the hysteria about a phantom alt-right infecting government and academia to justify a more aggressive bludgeoning of the Jewish state, means that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other radical campus groups and individuals have felt no compunction at all in increasing the tenor and intensity of their tactical assault on Israel and using the current political climate to reinforce a new slur—white supremacy—against it.

Some of that tactical poison flows to campuses through The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), a coalition of hundreds of organizations that “is ‘at the very heart’ of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement’s efforts to isolate Israel in the U.S,” and which provides resources for radical student groups such as SJP. “Since Trump came to power, we have seen a very open alliance between Zionists and white supremacists,” the organization’s website announces definitively. “This alliance becomes all the clearer when we look at the shared histories and values of the United States and Israel,” since “Both the United States and Israel are European settler colonial states built on the exclusionary ideology of white supremacy,” and “Zionism and the US empire, both manifestations of white supremacy, collaborate closely to achieve shared goals.”

Apparently, this toxic view has taken hold on university campuses. At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign’s SJP chapter, for example, this hateful ideology was on full display when, in a September 2017 Facebook post, the group announced that since “there is no room for fascists, white supremacists, or Zionists at UIUC,” they had organized a rally called “Smashing Fascism: Radical Resistance Against White Supremacy.” It would hopefully occur to any sentient being that characterizing Zionists as keeping company with or in fact being fascists and white supremacists is not only a historically grotesque notion, it would also seem to be self-contradictory.

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A Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump and His Majesty King Mohammed VI? by Mohammed Habib

By on December 13th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16852/nobel-peace-prize-trump-king-mohammed

Salmi Gailani, who was born in 1991, the year of the ceasefire, “blames the U.N. for the fact that for 30 years, Western Sahara has been a frozen conflict…. ’30 years is long enough to place ballot boxes,’ he said.” — Euronews, November 17, 2020.

The international community has been trying to broker a peace for the Western Sahara for 30 years. Some observers, however, suggest that “if the Polisario Front were to have sovereignty over the Western Sahara, it would mean that Algeria was effectively surrounding Morocco.”

Along with last week’s the triumph for President Trump and King Mohammed VI, there have also been charges that Morocco could have joined the Abraham Accords without the US recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara. So far, however, no one has quite said how.

Last week, US President Donald J. Trump and His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco, in a move that immediately prompted calls for a Nobel Peace Prize, agreed that Morocco would be the fourth Arab country — joining the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan — in establishing a solid peace with Israel this year. A felicitous reciprocity is that Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States.

Since 1975, when Spain gave up its colony in the Western Sahara, the sovereignty of the territory has been under dispute. The area, about the size of Britain, wedged between Morocco and Mauritania, runs southward along the Atlantic Ocean. The territory and its waters are rich with phosphates, bauxite, fish, and possibly offshore oil reserves. Although Morocco has officially administered the area for the last 30 years, it has been claimed by the Polisario Front, (an abbreviation for “Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro”), an Algerian-backed group composed of a nomadic people, the Sahrawis.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL

By on December 13th, 2020

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

A new Israeli stem cell treatment can halt and reverse MS.
Israel has received its first deliveries of coronavirus vaccines.
An Israeli-Ethiopian immigrant has won a scholarship to Oxford University.
Over 130 Israeli hi-tech companies have been exhibiting in Dubai.
New investment in Israeli startups is at record levels.
An Israeli has won the NASCAR European championship for the 3rd time.
Morocco and Israel are to establish diplomatic relations.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Stem cell treatment can help MS patients. (TY Nevet) Jerusalem’s Hadassah-University Medical Center and Israel’s NeuroGenesis have developed a stem cell treatment for patients with progressive multiple sclerosis. A Phase II human trial not only halted progression of the disease but led to improvement in neurological ability.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/hadassah-stem-cell-treatment-could-let-ms-patients-walk-again-651475

https://www.hadassah.org/news-stories/hadassah-and-neurogenesis-announce-groundbreaking-results-ms-study.html  https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/brain/awaa333/6012789

https://www.neurogenesis-cell.com/

Hope for stroke and dementia patients. Israel’s BrainsGate (reported briefly here previously) has developed a technology for the treatment of ischemic strokes and vascular dementia. The Ischemic Stroke System is based on an implantable electrode stimulator that increases blood flow to the brain. Clinical trials are in progress.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3879615,00.html  http://www.brainsgate.com/eng/

Hackathon for autism. Israeli innovators and entrepreneurs participated in Hackautism 2.0 – a virtual tech marathon to create innovative technological solutions for the challenges of children and adults on the Autism Spectrum. The winning teams addressed sleep quality, non-verbal communication and job finding,

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3879838,00.html 

Israeli blood tests for the Gulf. The OLO finger-prick blood tests from Israel’s Sight Diagnostics (reported here previously) will soon be available in medical centers across the Gulf region. The Israeli company is partnering with Dubai’s Phoenix Capital who will install OLO initially in the UAE and then other Gulf states.

https://elwatanelarabynews.com/archives/67584

Games to fight diabetes and cognitive decline. Israel’s Maccabi Healthcare Services research and innovation center has initiated KSM Playzone – focusing on the field of health gaming. KSM has awarded $25,000 to the developers of two health education games – Diabattle (for diabetics) and Memento (cognitive rehabilitation).

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3879792,00.html

http://www.diabattle.mobi/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-ibwc4ziBw

https://humanfirst.hac.ac.il/neuro-and-social/neuro-and-social-nofar-laor/

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

Israeli doctors in Gaza. (TY Hazel) Israeli-Arab orthopaedists, neurologists, heart surgeons, and mental health experts are in the Gaza Strip relieving the strain on hospitals fighting coronavirus. They are conducting urgent (previously postponed) surgeries on non-Covid-19 patients and training up Palestinian Arab medical teams.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-medical-delegation-heads-to-gaza-to-provide-essential-care/

First vaccines arrive in Israel. An end to the coronavirus pandemic is in sight as hundreds of thousands of doses of Pfizer vaccines were flown into Tel Aviv. Vaccinations are due to begin on Dec 27. Israel is scheduled to receive 4 million doses of the vaccine by end Dec.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/1st-doses-of-pfizer-vaccine-arrive-in-israel-ahead-of-mass-inoculation-program/

Israel’s vaccine is vital. Progress has been made with the Israeli-developed vaccines and treatments. The MigVax oral vaccine is ideal for developing countries as it easy to transport and distribute. It is also much safer, e.g., for those who have allergies or compromised immune systems.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/after-coronavirus-vaccine-success-is-israels-migvax-still-needed/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK7u5e922f0

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Hezbollah’s Great Diversion by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on December 11th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16845/hezbollah-great-diversion

Many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port “massacre.” They are also demanding an end to Iran’s occupation of Lebanon.

Although the Lebanese government has set up a commission of inquiry into the port explosion, many Lebanese are wondering why the results have not been published yet. They are convinced that the Lebanese government is afraid to point the finger of blame at Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah trusts the judiciary it controls with its weapons.” — Nizar Salloum, Lebanon, Twitter, December 7, 2020.

The UN is not going to provide relief or answers to the families of the victims of the Lebanon explosion because its members are busy passing resolutions day and night against Israel.

The only step left for the Lebanese is to revolt against the terrorist organization that has turned their country into a military and political base for the mullahs in Tehran.

More than four months have passed since the huge explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and many Lebanese are demanding answers to role of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in the port “massacre.” They are also demanding an end to Iran’s occupation of Lebanon.

On August 4, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Beirut port exploded, causing at least 204 deaths, 6,500 injuries, and $15 billion in property damage. An estimated 300,000 people were left homeless.

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Gideon Sa’ar and another referendum on Netanyahu Ruthie Blum

By on December 10th, 2020

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/gideon-saar-and-another-referendum-on-netanyahu

All of the details surrounding the campaign, which will be shifting regularly during the coming weeks, are secondary to the big picture that’s gotten lost in the fray.
After the Knesset voted last week to dissolve itself and set a date for what will amount to the fourth election in less than two years, the political echelon went into a customary flurry of behind-the-scenes activity. Most of the bustle has been focused on unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yesh Atid-Telem MK Moshe Ya’alon was the first to declare his intention to establish his own list to run in the next election. In an interview with Channel 12 last Friday, he said that former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot was likely to join his party – as number two, of course. Eisenkot promptly denied it.

Then came MK Gideon Sa’ar’s dramatic announcement on Tuesday that he was quitting Likud to establish his own party. Reminding the public about his unsuccessful attempt a year ago to replace Netanyahu as head of Likud, he went on the say that everything disastrous that has happened in the country since then underscores just how necessary it was for him to have tried.

Sa’ar further stated that it was a painful decision for him to leave Likud, of which he has been a loyal member throughout his career. However, he said, the character of the party he once loved so dearly “dramatically changed” and strayed far from its origins.

“The movement became a tool serving the personal interests of its leader, including those relating to his criminal trial,” said Sa’ar, who formally resigned from the party and the Knesset on Wednesday morning. “Replacing Netanyahu is the order of the hour.”

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Palestinian Incitement Against Israeli Journalists by Bassam Tawil

By on December 9th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16832/palestinian-journalists-incitement

The Palestinian journalists’ group is angry not only because two Israeli reporters visited Ramallah. It is upset because the reporters dared to reveal an inconvenient truth: that Palestinians are enjoying themselves and that, despite the outbreak of the coronavirus, the economy in Ramallah is doing well.

This truth goes against the Palestinian leadership’s official and long-standing propaganda line: that the Palestinians are “suffering” as a result of the bad economy and therefore the world needs to continue providing them with hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

The only journalists the Palestinian leadership tolerates are those who do not question its policies and decisions and who do not ask embarrassing questions.

Will the International Federation of Journalists [the largest in the world; it represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organizations in 146 countries] condemn the Palestinians for threatening Israeli journalists on a regular basis? … International organizations rarely see any evil on the Palestinian side. The only culprit, for them, is Israel. The silence of the IFJ and other international media organizations and human rights groups is nothing short of a green light to Palestinians to physically attack the next Israeli reporter they see on the streets of Bethlehem or Ramallah.

At a time when Arab journalists from the Gulf are visiting Israel and saying that they are looking forward to working with their Israeli colleagues, Palestinians are continuing to incite hatred against the Israeli media and threaten Israeli journalists.

While the Arabs in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are working toward normalizing their relations with Israel, the Palestinians are continuing to threaten anyone who wants to make peace with Israelis.

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The immoral inversion of victim and perpetrator Ruthie Blum

By on December 8th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-immoral-inversion-of-victim-and-perpetrator/

Dozens of demonstrators gathered on Saturday night at the entrance to the southern Israeli city of Arad to express solidarity with their friend and neighbor, Aryeh Schiff.

Schiff, 70, was arrested the previous week for killing 36-year-old Bedouin Muhammad el-Atrash, who had broken into Schiff’s car and was driving off when Schiff and his wife awoke to the noise. Schiff promptly drew a pistol and fired twice in the direction of the vehicle.

The first thing he did when he realized that the thief had been hit was to call the police and an ambulance. EMTs who arrived on the scene evacuated el-Atrash to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva, where he was pronounced dead from a bullet wound to the head.

Meanwhile, Schiff fully cooperated with police, acknowledging in his initial interrogation that he had not fired a warning shot in the air. He claimed, however, that he had aimed at the wheels of the car, not the driver.
“All my life, I will have to live with the fact that I killed a person unintentionally,” Schiff told the Beersheva Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday. “My grief is deep for taking a person’s life. … [W]hen I shot, I had no intention of killing him. I am very sorry for the tragic event. I have already received my punishment.”
When the court ruled to release him on house arrest for the duration of the investigation, police and prosecutors appealed. They claimed that video footage of the incident told a different story—one showing that Schiff had purposely pointed his pistol at the driver.

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Moshe Phillips: Trump should let the Quartet die with James Wolfensohn see note please

By on December 6th, 2020

https://www.jns.org/opinion/trump-should-let-the-quartet-die-with-james-wolfensohn/

James Wofensohn was also one of the philanthropists that had the hair brained idea of buying the productive and state of the art Jewish farms and agricultural machines and systems in Gaza, in order to persuade Israel to leave Gaza. As soon as the Israelis left, local Arabs trashed and burned every single appurtenance and every home, barn, greenhouse and all the produce…..rsk

A review of the Quartet’s website is instructive in examining just what’s wrong with the body. Its failures—and they are plentiful—stem from its entire approach to Israel.

James Wolfensohn, the former president of the World Bank Group, passed away on Nov. 15, and in the conclusion of his obituary, The New York Times quoted his “mission impossible” quip about his envoy experience with the Quartet on the Middle East.

“The Middle East turned out to be my mission impossible,” claimed Wolfensohn. He was tasked with working on Israel’s so-called disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would succeed Wolfensohn in leading the Quartet and be the last leader of the Quartet to have any gravitas on the world stage.

The Quartet has outlived both the involvement of Wolfensohn and Blair, who ended his own involvement with his 2015 resignation and now has outlived Wolfensohn himself. But it has also quite literally outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any at all.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL

By on December 6th, 2020

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

In the midst of so much gloom in the world-pandemic, catastrophic rise in global anti-Semitism and persecution of Christians, political upheaval and election tampering- I get hope and cheer from Michael Ordman’s compilations of Israel’s remarkable success and contributions. Happy Chanukah! (December 10-18) rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

More accessible cancer treatment. The Car-T cancer therapy invented by Israel’s Professor Zelig Eshhar (see here) is curing thousands of blood cancer patients. But the manual effort is hugely expensive. Now Israel’s ADVA Biotechnologies is developing a simpler, automated process. More lives will be saved with less cost.

https://www.advabio.com/   https://www.jpost.com/health-science/adva-biotechnology-643385

AI in Israeli hospitals. Good to see that Israel’s six largest medical centers are using AI-based software from Israel’s Aidoc (see here) to analyze CT scans and pinpoint cerebral hemorrhage, pulmonary embolism, stroke and C-spine fractures. They are Sheba, Hadassah, Sourasky (Ichilov), Rabin, Shaare Zedek and Assuta centers.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/6-biggest-israeli-hospitals-use-aidoc-software-to-read-ct-scans-firm-announces/

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-discover-brain-injuries-in-record-time-with-new-ai-tech/

Go barefoot to reduce foot pain. Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered a simple cure for people suffering from osteophytes (bone spurs) – lumps that grow on the heels of the feet. A 1-month controlled study of 50 patients found a 10-30 minute daily barefoot walk at home, or on a treadmill, significantly reduced pain.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/foot-pain-israeli-researchers-discover-simple-cure-for-most-common-cause/

Not heart-stopping at all. Israel’s Mitrassist Medical (reported here previously) has advanced to human trials of its innovative heart valve implant that avoids the risks of stopping the heart during open heart surgery. Mitrassist has just raised funds to recruit more employees and tackle additional structural heart diseases.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3878551,00.html   http://mitrassist.com/

Blood test analyzers for Australia. (TY Hazel) Israel’s PixCell Medical (reported here previously) will be deploying its blood test analyzers in labs and emergency departments in New South Wales, Australia. PixCell’s HemoScreen low-cost portable hematology analyzer can perform a complete blood count at the point of care.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pixcell-to-deploy-blood-test-analyzers-in-australias-new-south-wales/

Relieving the pressure on Cypriot hospitals. (TY Hazel) Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem will accept non-Covid patients from Cyprus with serious and life-threatening medical conditions to relieve local hospitals under strain from Covid-19. Hadassah also wants to build a hospital complex and rehabilitation center in Cyprus.

https://cyprus-mail.com/2020/11/26/israels-hadassah-to-accept-critical-non-covid-patients-from-cypriot-hospitals/

Israeli masks are good for you. (TY Uri) Nice article in TravelTrend about how the SonoMask facemasks from Israel’s Sonovia (reported here previously) protect their wearers and the public against the coronavirus.

https://www.trvltrend.com/technology/sonovia-antiviral-facemask/   https://sonoviatech.com/

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