Displaying posts categorized under

ISRAEL

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on September 23rd, 2020

Lasting six years and one day, the Second World War started on 1 September 1939 with Hitler’s invasion of Poland and ended with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust-that is one of every three Jews in the world.  Three years after the war, in spite of British duplicity and Arab terror the ancient state of Israel was reborn. Today Israel’s population constitutes 0.11% of the world. However, Israel’s outsize contributions in science, technology, agriculture, medicine and social services contribute to the welfare and quality of life of billions of people. This is the miracle of Jewish survival that we celebrate during the Holidays…. Best wishes to all and to Michael Ordman who compiles this wonderful list….rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Know your enemy. (TY Hazel) Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute and the Israel Institute for Biological Research have identified four new proteins and 19 peptides that Covid-19 infected patients produce. They believe that these may help the virus to replicate, so targeting them could lead to new treatments.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-coronavirus-proteins-found-by-israeli-lab-potentially-helping-drug-efforts/
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/profiling-covid-19-coronavirus
 
That 3D-printed heart. Back in 2019 there was much excitement when Tel Aviv University scientists 3D-printed the first heart produced from human tissue (reported here previously). What was not reported was that the technology itself was licensed to Tel Aviv University from award-winning Israeli biotech Matricelf.
https://www.bioworld.com/articles/431737-matricelf-wins-seed-award-with-3d-printing-heart-design
https://matricelf.com/
 
New allies in the fight against viruses. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that bacteria contain viperins – enzymes that produce antiviral molecules.  These substances are undergoing testing that may lead to the development of highly effective antiviral treatments against influenza and COVID-19.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/bacteria-could-provide-us-next-antivirals
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2762-2
 
Israel hosts Covid-19 conference. Israel hosted an online conference to discuss cooperation on fighting the coronavirus. It comprised science ministers of Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Peru, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israel-hosts-international-conference-for-18-ministers-on-fight-against-covid-19/
 
Bridge over troubled water. (TY UWI) This newsletter previously (here) featured the coronavirus sanitation bridging tunnel developed by Israel’s RD PACK. The video describes its key component – the disinfectant spray – comprised, amazingly, of electrolyzed water (no chemicals) developed at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPsHGKQaJTI
 
Printing lungs & kidneys. Good article about Israel’s Collplant (reported here previously) and its technology that turns tobacco leaves into bio-ink for printing human organs. Collplant, together with United Therapeutics Corporation have already made lung parts and will now start working on printing replacement human kidneys.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-use-tobacco-plants-to-produce-3d-bioprinted-lungs-and-kidneys/
https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/09/21/us-firm-to-start-3d-printing-kidneys-using-israeli-technology/
 
Expanding digital health across USA. Israel’s DarioHealth (reported here previously) is partnering US giant HMC Healthworks to incorporate DarioHealth’s digital therapeutics solution into HMC’s comprehensive care management programs.  The platform will also be offered on a stand-alone basis.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/dariohealth-and-hmc-healthworks-announce-partnership-agreement-301134581.html
 
 

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

The One and Only Enduring Palestinian Vision Dreaming of the destruction of the Jewish state. Joseph Puder

By on September 22nd, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/absence-palestinian-leadership-vision-joseph-puder/

James Zogby of the Zogby Research Service (ZRS) is not known to be a friend of Israel. In fact, he serves as an effective spokesperson for the Palestinians. An Arab-Palestinian himself, Zogby has been a harsh critic of Israel. Yet, in an opinion piece in Cairo’s Ahramonline (the online version of Egypt’s major outlet Al-Ahram, September 7, 2020) Zogby expressed disappointment with the Palestinian leadership lack of vision.  He expressed it in his piece titled Absent But Needed: A Palestinian Vision.

Zogby pointed out that, “what had gone wrong with the Palestinian cause then (and now) is “visionless leadership.” He elaborated, that they (the leadership) “Lost their spark and their way after repeated costly setbacks: Black September in Jordan, their use of horrific acts of terror against innocents, their expulsion from Beirut in 1982, and their foolish embrace of Saddam in 1990.” The latter actions were decisions Yasser Arafat took in provoking an Israeli response to repeated terror attacks by Palestinians commanded by Arafat, including the attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to London, which led to the First Lebanon War.

It was Arafat’s decision in 1990 to support Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s dictator, brutal invasion of Kuwait. As a result of Arafat’s action, the Kuwaiti government expelled half a million Palestinians who lived in the oil rich sheikdom. What Zogby failed to mention was the fact that Arafat once again provoked the Second intifada which killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians and brought destruction and economic ruin to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Arafat, who gave Hamas a ‘green light,’ to execute suicide bombing against Israeli civilian targets was in total violation of the Oslo Accords. He hoped that it would weaken and demoralize Israel, then Israel would fall apart once the Palestinians launched a full-scale armed struggle.

Zogby suggested that more recently, the vehement reaction in Ramallah by the Palestinian Authority leadership to the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace deal, “By focusing their wrath on the recent UAE-Israel accord, the Palestinian leaders missed the mark. The UAE’s move to normalize in order to stop annexation is not the cause of Palestinian woes; it is a symptom of the state of affairs that has for too long plagued the noble cause of justice for the long-oppressed Palestinian people.” Clearly, the Palestinians have once again missed an opportunity to be part of a positive development brought about by the Trump administration’s “Peace of the Century” deal. It might not have satisfied all of the Palestinian aspirations, including the disappearance of the Jewish state, but it would have given the Palestinian people an economic stake that would have improved their lives, and that of their children.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Amateur Jared Kushner vs. Pro John Kerry By Eugene Veklerov

By on September 22nd, 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/amateur_jared_kushner_vs_pro_john_kerry.html

Donald Trump has outsourced his Middle East policy to his son-in-law Jared Kushner. At best, it would be a waste of time, as Kushner had no experience in foreign policy. At worst, he will use this opportunity to line his own pockets.

That was one of the many lines of attacks waged by the mainstream media on President Trump. Why is amateur Kushner in the White House at all, they asked indignantly? Then something unexpected happened: 

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced peace deals with Israel. This good news for the world was bad news for the media. The news was reported, well, kind of, but no one acknowledged that miserable failure of the media’s gloomy predictions.

Here is how John Kerry, a seasoned professional, lectured his audience in a professorial tone of voice in 2016:

“There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world,” Kerry began at a speaking engagement. “I want to make that very clear with all of you. I’ve heard several prominent politicians in Israel sometimes saying, ‘Well, the Arab world is in a different place now. We just have to reach out to them. We can work some things with the Arab world and we’ll deal with the Palestinians.’ No. No, no, and no.”

He continued, “I can tell you that, reaffirmed within the last week because I’ve talked to the leaders of the Arab community, there will be no advanced and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality.”

Apparently, Kushner did not receive Kerry’s memo, and borrowing from “Star Trek,” he boldly went where no man has gone before. Those who “have not gone there before” included other experienced Secretaries of State, such as Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton. It took amateur Kushner to succeed and that was a bitter pill for CNN and the Washington Post to swallow.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

No, Jewish Behavior Does Not ‘Enable’ Palestinian Rejectionism by Moshe Phillips

By on September 18th, 2020

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/09/18/no-jewish-behavior-does-not-enable-palestinian-rejectionism/

Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune said this week that Jewish critics of the Israel-UAE/Bahrain agreement were “enabling” Palestinian Arab extremists. I respectfully disagree.

Mr. Efune was asked by an interviewer about left-wing Jews who have criticized the agreement. He replied that such criticism is “enabling Palestinian rejectionism,” “encouraging the Palestinians to take that position,” and “keeping this ongoing conflict alive for as long as possible.”

I have no sympathy for left-wing Jewish supporters of the Palestinian Arab cause. In fact, I have been one of their most vocal critics in the pages of The Algemeiner and elsewhere for many years. But they are not guilty of this charge. The dictionary’s definition of “enable” is “to make able,” “to make possible,” and “to give ability to.” No, Jewish behavior does not “enable” Palestinian rejectionism.

Palestinian Arab rejection of Israel is rooted in extremist Islam, militant Arab nationalism, and antisemitism. It long predated the rise of Peace Now or J Street. From Grand Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini to Yasser Arafat to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Arabs have waged an unrelenting war against the Jewish People for more than a century. They didn’t need Peter Beinart or J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami to “enable” them.

Groups like Jewish Voice for Peace are harmful to Israel and the Jewish people. But their criticism of the UAE/Bahrain agreement is not what is “keeping this ongoing conflict alive,” to use Mr. Efune’s phrase. What’s keeping it alive is Palestinian Arab bigotry against Jews and Israel.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL Comments turned off

Hell hath no fury like peaceniks who get upstaged Though it’s hard to keep track of their disparate gripes, their response to the Abraham Accords makes it easy to spot their hypocrisy.  By  Ruthie Blum

By on September 17th, 2020

https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/hell-hath-no-fury-like-peaceniks-upstaged/

Israeli protesters gathered on Sunday night along the highway to Ben-Gurion International Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was headed to board a flight to the United States.

With their usual chants of “crime minister” and other trite anti-Bibi mantras, these self-anointed guardians of freedom and democracy – members of the so-called “peace camp” – were livid that the premier was on his way to Washington, DC.

That the purpose of his trip was to sign the U.-brokered Abraham Accords – a peace treaty with the United Arab Emirates and declaration of peace with Bahrain – didn’t matter to them. On the contrary, it became another excuse for their outrage.

A mere two or so hours earlier, Netanyahu had announced that the steep and steady rise in coronavirus morbidity made a three-week countrywide lockdown necessary. As if this weren’t sufficient cause for exasperation, even among his supporters, his detractors took the opportunity to rail against him for going off to a “cocktail party” at the White House, leaving Israelis ill in every sense of the word, thanks to his government’s failed COVID-19 policies.

Yes, they insist, he is responsible simultaneously for the increasing mortality rate and disintegrating workforce – for opening up the economy too soon on the one hand and for not “having a proper plan” to prevent the spread of the virus on the other.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Arabs: Israel Is Not Our Enemy by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on September 17th, 2020

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16518/arabs-israel-enemy

“Times change, everything has changed, except for the Palestinian mood that rejects anything and everything.” — Saudi writer Amal Abdel Aziz al-Hazany, Asharq al-Awsat, September 15, 2020.

“Palestinian leaders are the main cause for the suffering of their people. They have achieved nothing for the Palestinians. They only care about power and achieving personal and partisan gains at the expense of the Palestinian issue.” — Emirati political analyst Issa bin Arabi Albuflasah, Al Bayan, September 12, 2020.

“We were told that Israel’s slogan was [to expand] ‘From the Euphrates to the Nile.’ Iran, however, does not hide its expansionist ideological trend, which it is already practicing through its militias in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. Turkey, on the other hand, is seeking to seize new sources of energy in Libya and has sights on Africa along the Red Sea. These developments prompted the moderate Arabs to start reconsidering previous their political positions.” — Saudi writer Fahd al Degaither, Okaz, September 14, 2020.

“The Palestinian issue concerns the Arab peoples who want a solution, but the leaders benefit from the status quo. These leaders benefit from the problems and suffering of their people. There is no solution under corrupt leaderships.” — Saudi writer Osama Yamani, Okaz, September 11, 2020.

Al-Shkiran also advised the Palestinians to hold their leaders accountable on two levels: “The first is political accountability: The reasons and causes of the continued rejection of all realistic deals that were offered to them since the beginning of the problem until today. Second: Opening the files of corruption. The Palestinian has the right to ask about the billions of dollars paid by the Gulf states for the Palestinian cause. All that money has disappeared.” — Saudi writer and researcher Fahd al-Shkiran, Asharq Al-Awsat, September 16, 2020.

A growing number of Arabs, particularly those living in the Gulf, say they finally understand that Israel is not the enemy of the Muslims and Arabs. This change of heart manifested even before the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed peace agreements with Israel during a ceremony at the White House on September 15. It is the direct result of the expansionist ambitions of Iran and Turkey in the Arab world and the feeling among Arabs that those two states pose the real threat to their national security.

Until recently, it was unimaginable to see Arabs openly admitting that they had been mistaken in their belief that Israel was the enemy of the Muslims and Arabs. Now, Arabs seem to have no problem saying that they were wrong all these years about their attitude toward Israel. These Arabs now are saying out loud that Iran and its proxies in the Arab world, and not Israel, are the real enemies of Arabs and Muslims.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Successes How Trump’s paradigm-shift ended a long string of failures under both parties. Bruce Thornton

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/09/donald-trumps-foreign-policy-successes-bruce-thornton/

The recent agreements between Israel and two Gulf states mark yet another foreign policy achievement by the Trump administration. Five years ago no one could have anticipated that two more Arab states would normalize relations with Israel, with others to follow, perhaps even Saudi Arabia, “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.” The decrepit “peace process” was stalled, and Barack Obama’s appeasing nuclear deal with the mullahs had left the region to the tender mercies of Iran and Russia. America was, as Obama put it, just one nation among others, “mindful of its imperfections.”

Then came Donald Trump, the amateur outsider whom the foreign policy establishment, trapped like a fly in amber by stale, failed paradigms, mocked and dismissed with predictions of existential doom from his foreign policy ignorance and bumbling. Yet Trump, like the “amiable dunce” Ronald Reagan, understood that the establishment’s narratives were endangering our security and interests. He brought some practical wisdom, common sense about human nature, and real-world experience to foreign policy, and recalibrated it with a few simple, Reaganesque principles: We win, they lose; America’s interests are paramount; and we should always be “no better friend, no worse enemy,” a foundational principle of foreign relations that Obama had turned on its head.

Trump’s current successes, on top of the agreement he brokered between bitter historical enemies Serbia and Kosovo, show that his paradigm-shift must be followed by a new foreign policy that can end the long string of failures under both parties. The longest of these is the Israeli-Arab conflict. Resolving this dispute has been the greatest prize for the “rules-based global order” that believes brokered negotiations, treaties, summits, photo-ops, and copious foreign aid, are the only means of ending conflict.

In terms of the Israel-Arab conflict, the old approach favored––and worsened––by Barack Obama illustrates the revolutionary nature of Trump’s foreign policy shift. Obama, a product of the elite’s unexamined received foreign policy wisdom, accepted the State Department’s hoary nostrums and doctrines. Seventy years of wars and terrorist violence were thus explained by the Palestinian people’s unfulfilled nationalist aspirations and dreams of independence, unlike the old colonies of the Western nations who gained independence after World War II.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Long Road to Israel’s Very Good Month The Jewish state has become too valuable to the Arab world to be treated as a pariah. Walter Russell Mead

By on September 16th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-israels-very-good-month-11600124843?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=9

Not since May 1948, when both the U.S. and the Soviet Union recognized the state of Israel in the critical weeks of its war for independence, has Israel had a diplomatic month like this. On Aug. 13, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed an agreement to normalize relations, with the formal ceremony to be held Tuesday in Washington with President Trump. On Sept. 11, Bahrain followed suit. The Palestinian Authority, holding the rotating chair of the Arab League, introduced a resolution condemning the U.A.E. move at a Zoom session of Arab foreign ministers, but in a shocking departure from past practice, the motion failed to pass. On Sept. 13 another Arab nation, Oman, issued a statement of support for Bahrain’s decision to normalize relations.

Meanwhile, defying pressure from the European Union and in exchange for Israeli recognition of Kosovo’s independence, Kosovo became the first Muslim-majority country in the world to agree to place an embassy in Jerusalem in another Trump-brokered deal. (The status of a similar pledge from Serbia isn’t clear.)

With Saudi Arabia allowing flights from Israel to the U.A.E. to pass over its territory and Morocco reported to be close to allowing direct flights to the Jewish state, something of a tipping point seems to have been reached in the Middle East. Resentment of Zionism and sympathy for the Palestinians will no longer be allowed to interfere with what embattled Arab rulers see as a vital relationship.

These changes are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Arab opposition to Israel’s existence has never been as unanimous or implacable as casual observers sometimes assume. Geopolitically, conservative Arab states have long understood that their interests and Israel’s are connected.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Pilotless Pilot Program By Seth J. Frantzman

By on September 15th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/a-pilotless-pilot-program/

Israel–U.S. drone cooperation could revolutionize what soldiers carry into battle.

The U.S. and Israel reached a new milestone in defense cooperation this month as Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced that an Israeli start-up named Xtend would be part of a pilot program with the U.S. Department of Defense to use its Skylord drones. The program will initially include several dozen of the small drone systems, which are designed for air defense against drone or other threats.

If this all sounds a bit futuristic and confusing, using drones to confront other drones, it is because the current threats that we face from drones and other types of enemy innovations are increasing daily. Xtend’s innovation is in using augmented reality, basically wearable goggles like the ones hi-tech gamers use, to guide the drones to find and destroy threats. Imagine soldiers guarding the perimeter of a base and being alerted to a terrorist drone threat, like the kind ISIS used in the battle for Mosul. Now, instead of taking cover or plinking away with rifles at a hard-to-hit small drone, the soldier can put on virtual-reality glasses and guide their own drone in for the kill.

The Combating Terrorist Technical Support Office at the Department of Defense is supporting this project. It is part of a much wider ecosystem of defense and research-and-development cooperation between Israel and the U.S. For instance, the military is evaluating Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, which can be used against rockets and other threats. Americans have been killed this year in Iraq by pro-Iranian groups firing rockets at bases where soldiers are housed. An Iron Dome–style system could help protect them. Similarly, American tanks use the Trophy defense system developed by Israel. The technology goes both ways: Israel is among the most active users of the American-made F-35.

Continue reading →
ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Questions for American Jewish leaders about the Israel-UAE deal Democracy demands US Jewish groups ask members what they think before taking drastic new positions, like UAE peace trumps sovereignty.

By on September 15th, 2020

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287256

Whenever there is a major diplomatic development involving Israel, news reporters call the presidents of various American Jewish organizations for their comments. Naturally they are tempted to immediately respond. But the statements some Jewish officials issued in response to the Israel-United Arab Emirates deal remind us that caution is often the more prudent course.

Of course, leaders of Jewish organizations have a practical need for the public’s attention. Getting quoted in a newspaper is critical to fundraising. It demonstrates to potential donors that their particular organization is significant and valuable. It’s the donations that keep our many Jewish and Zionist organizations alive. That’s what pays for the salaries and the per diems and more.

Still, although Jewish leaders may have their reasons for rushing, to give statements and issue press releases, it’s fair to ask whether it is appropriate for a leader of a American Jewish organization to take a public stance on a major controversial issue without consulting the members of that group. Especially when it involves taking a stance that differs significantly from the traditional positions taken by that organization.

Consider the decision to suspend declaring sovereignty over any part of Judea-Samaria, in exchange for diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates.

This question might not apply to the various left-of-center American Jewish organizations. They have always been strongly opposed to Israeli sovereignty in the territories, so the leaders of their groups are on safe ground with their constituents on that issue. It’s hard to imagine any members of J Street or Peace Now opposing the statements which their leaders made in support of the Israel-UAE agreement. The very essence of the agreement is the fulfillment of the classic slogan that Peace Now dreamt up in the 1970s, “Peace is better than an undivided Land of Israel.”

Continue reading →