RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/offering-to-help-lebanon-doesnt-mean-hailing-its-flag-637743

It is one thing for Jerusalem to offer assistance, but it quite another that Tel Aviv cover its
Following the horrific explosions that ripped into Beirut on Tuesday, leaving at least 135 dead and more than 4,000 injured, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveyed his condolences to the people of Lebanon, and offered assistance, “as human beings to human beings.”

President Reuven Rivlin, too, expressed his sorrow, saying that Israel “shares the pain of the Lebanese people in this time of disaster and extends its hand to help at this difficult time.”

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman tweeted, “Humanitarian aid to Lebanon – now is the time to rise above any conflict.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16310/palestinians-china-concentration-camps

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas… is saying that he fully supports China’s right to hold more than one million Muslims in re-education camps and crack down on human rights activists and journalists in Hong Kong. Yet Abbas, a Muslim, sees no reason why he or anyone else should ask the ICC to launch an investigation into China’s “war crimes” against Muslims.

Why have Palestinian leaders chosen to side with China? Money and political support. The Palestinians are hoping that China will replace the US as an “honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Iran, Egypt, Syria and dozens of other countries that could not tolerate a magical realist novel can live with the mass sterilisation of Muslim women. They will give concentration camps a conniving wink of approval, but draw the line at cartoons in a Danish newspaper.” — Nick Cohen, The Guardian, July 4, 2020.

The Palestinians’ hate for Israel and the US has blinded them to the point where they are prepared to support the penning up of more than a million Muslims in re-education camps in China. Such a show of support ought to serve as a re-education for the international community about the warped Palestinian perspective of justice.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) says it is determined to proceed with its request that the International Criminal Court (ICC) launch an investigation against Israel for “committing war crimes” against the Palestinians. The PA is hoping that such a move by the ICC would pave the way for filing “war crimes” charges against several Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While it is seeking to indict Israeli officials for their ostensible “war crimes” against Palestinians, the PA leadership is working to strengthen its relations with China, where more than one million Muslims are being held in detention in re-education camps.

Palestinian leaders have a long record of supporting dictators and autocratic states, including Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and the North Korean leader Kim Jon Un. The Palestinian leadership’s current support for China’s repressive regime is part of a larger pattern. They have proven that they are always ready to support any dictator who openly challenges Israel or the US.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16302/saeb-erekat-lies

Saeb Erekat’s continued lies and fabrications about Israel promote anti-Semitism and embolden terrorists.

As a veteran negotiator, it would be a good idea for him to use his experience to persuade the Hamas terrorists to release the remains of the two soldiers instead of waging a propaganda campaign on behalf of a terrorist who woke up one morning and decided to kill Jews.

With negotiators like Erekat, one can understand why the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stalled for so many years.

Ahmed Erekat, a 26-year-old Palestinian from the village of Abu Dis, south of Jerusalem, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on June 23 after ramming his car into an Israeli military checkpoint. One soldier was lightly wounded in the attack.

Footage released by the Israeli authorities leaves no room for doubt that Erekat was on a mission to kill soldiers. The footage shows Erekat deliberately turning his car as he waited in line, driving directly at the soldiers, hitting one female soldier and then crashing into a guard booth. Erekat then got out of the vehicle and started walking towards the soldiers, who fired a number of bullets at him, killing him instantly.

Such terrorist attacks are not uncommon in the West Bank, where Palestinian terrorists have carried out dozens of car-rammings against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the past few years.

This attack, however, caught the attention of the international media because the terrorist happens to be a relative of Saeb Erekat, the former Palestinian chief negotiator with Israel who currently serves as secretary general of the PLO.

Since the car-ramming, Saeb Erekat has been waging a campaign of incitement and lies against Israel. He has accused it of “cold-blooded murder” and now of the “extrajudicial execution” of his cousin.

The senior PLO official is deliberately ignoring the video that clearly shows his cousin using his car in an attempt to kill Israeli soldiers. He is also, perhaps not surprisingly, ignoring the testimonies of the soldiers his cousin tried to kill.

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Pre-clinical success for Covid-19 ARDS treatment. Israel’s BrainStorm (reported here previously) reported promising results of pre-clinical trials for its Nurown treatment for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) brought about by Covid-19. The NurOwn cells reduced the cytokine storm and lung damage.

https://ir.brainstorm-cell.com/2020-07-23-BrainStorm-Announces-Groundbreaking-Pre-Clinical-Study-of-NurOwn-R-derived-Exosome-Based-Treatment-for-COVID-19-ARDS

Vitamin D impacts Covid-19 infection and severity. (TY UWI) Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have identified low plasma vitamin D level to be an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization. They studied 782 Israeli COVID-19 positive patients and 7,807 COVID-19 negative patients.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/1595758992-lack-of-vitamin-d-could-make-you-more-vulnerable-to-coronavirus-researchers

You’ve got Covid – is that bad news? (TY Janglo) Two recent Jewish immigrants to Israel from France have developed an algorithm named PhysioZoo. Using data from a pulse oximeter (that measures oxygen in blood) the algorithm can determine if a Covid-19 patient is going to develop pneumonia long before symptoms appear.

https://www.jpost.com/jpost-tech/young-professor-combines-aliyah-covid-19-into-ai-breakthrough-636277

VeryGoodNewsIsrael on TV. Barry Shaw of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies and The View from Israel interviewed me last week about the projects that Israel is working on to help combat the coronavirus infection. We hope to produce a monthly video featuring positive Israeli news.  Please pass it on.

http://www.cooltv.se/video/the-view-from-israel-israels-s-search-for-a-covid-cure (Please ensure the sound is on.)

US approval for AI mammography. Israel’s Zebra Medical Vision (reported here previously) that uses artificial intelligence technology to help read medical scans, has received US FDA clearance for use of its algorithm to read mammograms. It already received European (CE) approval for its “HealthMammo” solution.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-zebra-gets-fda-nod-for-ai-based-software-that-helps-spot-breast-cancer/

Two-hour analysis of a biopsy. (TY Honest Reporting) Technion Professor Daphne Weihs has developed a fast test to analyze cancer cells. Biopsies are placed into a special gel and measured. Two hours later the extent that the cells have embedded denotes whether they are benign, non-metastatic or metastatic (potential or actual).

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/new-cancer-test-can-diagnose-aggressive-tumors-in-just-two-hours-636650

So how is your health? Another exciting webinar (see previous) from Technion UK featuring Technion Professor Shai Shen-Orr, one of the leading Israeli researchers into the mysteries of the immune system. Also featured is Professor Ester Sager who is developing biosensors to diagnose diseases within minutes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOli7AezlrU

Sleep and Dream. Professor Peretz Lavie (ex-President of Israel’s Technion Institute) founded the Technion Sleep Medicine Center and authored several books on sleep disorders. Thanks to Technion UK, he is giving a free (donations welcome) webinar on Weds 5th Aug at 6pm UK time – 1pm EST.  Register below to view live.

https://technionuk.org/rsvp-sleep-and-dream-insomnia-dreams-and-stress

Sharing stuff that works. An Israeli startup has launched an online platform where people suffering from chronic diseases can share information to learn which treatments work best for their specific condition, based on the experience of their peers. The crowdsourcing site is appropriately called StuffThatWorks.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3841285,00.html  https://www.stuffthatworks.health/

https://stuff.health/s/1SaJPrvA  (personal survey for specific conditions)

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/israel-woke-religion

This year many people have discovered that liberal life and institutions in the West are in the grip of something resembling a new religion. Anyone following the doings of the past few months won’t need a recap of the attempted “cancellations” of scholars and scientists for heresies, the purge of editors for running the wrong op-ed, or the excommunication of J.K. Rowling.

Adherents of the thought system vaguely described as “woke” believe themselves to be fighting evil in the name of justice. They share a hierarchy of good, a lingo, purity tests, and a stark division of the world into friend and foe, all of which borrow heavily from religious modes of thought. But one of the most obvious signs that religion is in play, and not merely empirical observation or political criticism, is the way this ideology has focused and amplified the condemnation of Jews.

All of this has made me think differently about my experience as a reporter in Israel a decade ago, and particularly about an essay I wrote in 2014 for Tablet, which was one of the first publications to pick up on these trends. That essay, “An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth,” and a second one that appeared in The Atlantic, described the replacement of journalism here by activism, the subjugation of objective description to higher ideological truth, and the manufacture of politically driven morality plays in the guise of news. I took this to be a problem related to, and perhaps limited to, perceptions of Jewish people and of Israel.

In this week’s positive Israel newsletter, Israeli innovators continue to provide solutions to global problems. These are as diverse as Covid-19, cancer, gastro surgery, access to computers for disabled children, the effects of isolation, electric vehicle batteries, noise pollution, animal cruelty, road accidents, public transportation, local economy, on-line security, foreign travel and emergency medical treatment.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
The 3rd most Covid-19 solutions. Cross-border investment specialists Cukierman & Co state that Israel has the most Covid-19 solutions, after the USA and China. Some 180 of Israel’s 1,600 life sciences companies are either fully or partially dedicated to coronavirus. Israel is also a top global pioneer in personalized medicine.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3840111,00.html
 
Latest Covid-19 research at HUJ. This video shows some of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s latest medical research into the novel coronavirus. They include the overactive immune response; locating the virus during the incubation period; analysis of virus receptors; and boosting the oxygen needed by immunity T-cells,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JEOhlCUKEI
 
Positive report on “second wave”. (TY Pamela). Contrary to several media reports, the current Covid-19 situation in Israel is not “out of control”. Listen to this 45-min presentation by Professor Yonatan HaLevy of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The elderly are protected and treatments are working.
https://soundcloud.com/user-699337879/covid-19-israel-and-the-world-where-weve-been-and-where-were-headed  
 
A sense for detecting respiratory problems. Israel’s NanoVation (reported here previously) has been awarded a €2.5 million EU Horizon 2020 grant to develop SenseGuard. The device’s nano-sensor technology detects respiratory problems (e.g. COPD). Professor Hossam Haick (Sniff phone inventor) is Chief Scientific Officer.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israeli-startup-secures-25-grant-from-eu-to-develop-respiratory-monitor-635793  https://www.nanovation-gs.com/team  https://www.nanovation-gs.com/
 
Bubbles plus ultrasound kills cancer. Tel Aviv University researchers have developed an innovative cancer treatment. They shoot microbubbles at cancer cells and then blow them up using ultrasound. This destroys 80% of the cancer cells and a simultaneous “trojan horse” immune system gene therapy kills the remaining 20%.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israelis-turn-ultrasound-into-powerful-cancer-fighting-weapon/
 
Filter out cancer-causing proteins. (TY Hazel) Scientists at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre are trialing a new cancer treatment called immunopheresis. It involves filtering a patient’s blood to remove proteins produced by malignant cells from the bloodstream. These proteins suppress the immune system’s cancer-killing T-cells.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283420
 
Did we remove all the cancer? (TY UWI) Currently after cancer surgery biopsies are taken, but testing takes weeks. Now a new experimental tool developed by Tel Aviv University researchers tests a sample taken during surgery. An hour later and the surgeon knows if an immediate return to the operating theater is needed.
https://www.israel21c.org/breakthrough-finds-leftover-cancer-cells-in-real-time-during-surgery/
 
Reduce stress before cancer surgery. Tel Aviv University researchers have found that the weeks before and after cancer surgery are critical for the prevention of metastases development. Patients require immune-therapeutic treatment as well as treatment to reduce inflammation and physical and psychological stress.
https://ecancer.org/en/news/18246-immune-system-treatment-to-reduce-stress-prevents-cancer-metastases
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41571-019-0319-9?proof=true
https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cncr.32950
 
Warning of post-gastro surgery problems. Israel’s Exero Medical has developed a bio-degradable wireless sensor for the early detection of leaks following gastrointestinal surgery procedures. Doctors at Israel’s Rabin Medical Center have just completed the first human implantation of the device as part of a clinical trial.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-clinical-trial-sensor-implanted-to-detect-dangerous-gastrointestinal-leaks/
https://www.exeromedical.com/
 
Triage system for Mayo Clinic. Israel’s Diagnostic Robotics is to implement its triage system (reported here previously) at the Mayo Clinic’s headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota (see here also).  The system cuts down emergency room wait times (currently 2.5 hours on average in the US) and reduces the burden on physicians.
https://nocamels.com/2020/07/mayo-clinic-diagnostic-robotics-ai-system/
 
Safe analysis of dangerous viruses. To safely develop vaccines against deadly viruses, scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have developed a method for producing artificial cells that can assemble just part of the virus. Researchers can then test their vaccines on a safe section of the virus.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/chemistry/artificial-cells-produce-parts-viruses-safe-studies
 

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/jewish-apathy-jewish-privilege-and-antisemitism-636135

At a meeting on Monday of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, participants bemoaned the condition of world Jewry. The discussion centered on the implementation of a plan – approved earlier this month by the Israeli government – to protect Jewish communities abroad from extinction.

“We are swimming against the current,” said Diaspora Affairs Ministry Director-General Dvir Kahana, claiming that 80% of Jews outside of Israel “live comfortably” and feel no connection to their Judaism.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch concurred that “large segments of our nation are moving away from their Jewish identity and from Israel,” warning, “We have to wake up before it’s too late.”

Aside from the fact that the discussion itself is as old as the hills, and that the plan involves education and outreach – not exactly an innovative concept – it comes on the heels of reports that the COVID-19 pandemic is spurring many Jews to consider immigrating to Israel. Some are even in the actual process of doing so, though it means entering quarantine for two weeks upon arrival in the Holy Land.

So the pandemic may be doing more to encourage aliyah than any educational program requiring multi-millions in taxpayer shekels. And the last thing that Israelis have on their minds at this moment is funding greater competition in the work force. Indeed, the economic pressure felt by those who have lost their jobs, and by small business-owners whose enterprises are in jeopardy as a result of coronavirus closures, is not conducive to a sense of Jewish unity.

Israelis are human, after all. Not that they’re acting like it these days, mind you, engaging in violent riots more reminiscent of tantrums than expressions of political malaise. Such mob behavior is something to which American Jews have grown accustomed of late. Yet only those who wish to escape the cancel-culture chaos would consider Israel a welcome alternative.