RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/columns/p-david-hornik/2020/06/18/to-annex-west-bank-land-or-not-to-annex-the-hour-draws-near-n545168

July 1, which is fast approaching, is the day on which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying Israel will start the process of applying sovereignty to the strategically vital Jordan Valley and the Israeli communities throughout the West Bank.

The issue remains fraught with controversy. The Trump administration, which seemed to green-light the move with its “Peace to Prosperity” plan, is still giving mixed signals and has a lot else on its plate. Rumors are flying about whether and what Netanyahu plans to “annex” (a convenient misnomer since the lands in question were not part of a recognized sovereign state before Israel regained them in the 1967 war).

The Trump plan is not, of course, just a plan for an Israeli application of sovereignty. It envisions Israel taking permanent control of about 30 percent of the West Bank (historically known as Judea and Samaria) while the other 70 percent would go to a demilitarized Palestinian state.

Not only are the Israeli right and left divided (predictably) on the merits of the plan, but there’s sharp disagreement even within the Israeli right.

For its more ideological wing, any talk of a Palestinian state is heresy. For its more pragmatic wing, a prospective demilitarized Palestinian entity (a “state minus” as Netanyahu calls it) would make sense because Israel cannot and should not annex over two million Palestinians to itself.

More significant, though, is the heated right-left dispute on the issue.

 https://bit.ly/3dglLFC

In 2020, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other pro-US Arab countries base their national security policy on issues which substantially transcend the Palestinian issue. These issues include lethal threats posed by Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Turkey’s Erdogan, the spillover of the civil wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the potential implosion of all Arab countries, etc.  

In 2020, these countries view Israel’s posture of deterrence as a most valuable asset in the face of the aforementioned lethal threats. They value Israel as a most productive resource to diversify their economy and enhance their standard of living. 

At the same time, they consider the proposed Palestinian state a potential rogue regime, which would add fuel to the Middle East fire.  Therefore, they are expanding their defense and commercial ties with Israel in an unprecedented manner, in defiance of Palestinian protests and irrespective of the paralysis of the Palestinian issue.

In 1979 and 1994, Egypt and Jordan concluded peace accords with Israel, in order to advance their national security – not as a gesture toward Israel – regardless of Palestinian threats and protests. Notwithstanding occasional anti-Israel Jordanian talk, the Hashemite Kingdom’s walk (militarily and commercially) reflects a realization that Israel makes an irreplaceable and critical contribution to the survival of the Kingdom in the face of domestic and external clear and present threats. Against the backdrop of these threats, the establishment of the proposed Palestinian state would be the straw that breaks the Hashemite camel’s back. 

conferenceofjewishaffairs@gmail.com

June 15, 2020 – Conference of Jewish Affairs spokesman Rabbi Aryeh Spero made the following statement today:

“The Conference of Jewish Affairs looks forward to the day when Israel will annex the portions of Judea and Samaria that from time immemorial have been part of the Land of ancient Israel.  The Jewish people were bequeathed this land and the name of Judea and Samaria was always its official name, even throughout the years of the British Empire. 

“There is and has been an historical and biblical attachment of these lands as a valve in the heart of Israel.  It is legitimately, by law, part and parcel of Israel and was never considered legally apart from the Jewish homeland until very recent years when enemies and bureaucrats hostile to the establishment of a Jewish state in its homeland began finagling international laws. 

“It must be observed that though this land lain mostly fallow since Roman times and no other empire or people developed it, it has been the Jewish people who have restored its cities and made its land productive and a flourishing place.  This achievement,” Rabbi Spero stated,  “was done by no other people except the Jewish people who loved the land, in contrast to other people who make claims on the land but have not dealt with it with love, sacrifice, ingenuity, and destiny.  And that is because the only nation that has been devoted to its fulfillment in and of itself are the Jewish people who are biblically and intrinsically married to it, as opposed to those who make claims for it but never had a history entwined with it.

“Historically there was no Palestinian people except for the Jews who were so named during Roman occupation; and there never was an Islamic state, flag, language, and peoplehood connected with Judea and Samaria.”

Rabbi Spero added, “We wish to acknowledge the singular vision of President Donald Trump and his courage and sense of truth in being the first world leader to finally bring this verity to sovereign reality.  We thank Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his steadfast strength in carrying out the wishes of President Trump.  As we began saying two years ago when President Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, there has not been a greater friend to the State of Israel and the Jewish people than Donald Trump, surpassing even the legendary King Cyrus.”

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

A new passive coronavirus vaccine prospect. (TY Janglo) Israeli researchers at Bar-Ilan University have identified short amino acid sequences (epitopes), that trigger an immune response to eliminate Covid-19. The discovery could lead to the development of a passive vaccine.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-researchers-on-road-to-new-covid-19-passive-vaccine-630988

Corona Data challenge. Sheba Medical Center – Israel’s largest hospital – has offered (non-personal) medical data on its 500+ recovered coronavirus patients to innovators, startups, defense companies and the IDF. They have been challenged to build the best artificial intelligence tool for saving lives in future virus outbreaks.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hospital-offers-up-data-for-shark-tank-style-contest-to-find-next-virus-advance/

Doctors, we have a problem. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) hopes to win Sheba’s Corona Challenge with its data analysis artificial intelligence system. It gives an 80% accuracy early warning that a Covid-19 patient is likely to suddenly deteriorate in the next hours. IAI uses similar systems to predict likely failure of its satellites.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-missile-maker-claims-its-ai-tech-can-predict-virus-patient-deterioration/

Saving lives of ventilated Covid-19 patients. (TY UWI) A new video featuring Israel’s AnapnoGuard (reported here previously) which is saving the lives from pneumonia of hundreds of coronavirus patients on ventilators in Israel, the USA and China. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gv0UXt8yp8

How are you? Check your cheek. Israeli startup Binah.ai was previously into financial analysis (see here). Now it uses its Artificially Intelligent technology to analyze a video the cheek of a human face to extract vital signs and mental stress measurements. It is used in Montreal hospitals to monitor Covid-19 patients remotely.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3832195,00.html  https://www.binah.ai/

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3809760,00.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeU0K662BA8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmEVpTSCzC8

Home blood tests for cancer patients. Israel’s PixCell (reported here previously) has partnered with Interreg Germany-Denmark’s Changing Cancer Care (CCC) initiative. They will assess PixCell’s HemoScreen hematology analyzer for cancer patients to perform blood tests as part of their homecare oncology treatment.

http://nocamels.com/2020/05/blood-test-device-home-chemo-treatments/

How old is your brain? Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have developed a deep learning framework based on Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) for age prediction. Specifically, an ensemble of deep neural networks was trained to predict a subject’s chronological age from brain imaging of healthy subjects.

https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/brain_age.aspx https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.25011

In-heart computer saves grandmother. Israel’s Vectorious Medical Technologies (reported here previously) has now patients from Italy, Germany, the UK and Israel, in the trial of its revolutionary in-heart monitor. It is safe and has already detected and prevented pulmonary edema and hospitalization for one elderly UK patient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVak3p1wf0

Converting public phones into defibrillators. (TY David F) Israel’s public phone booths are being converted into lifesaving public access defibrillator stations, as part of a new national collaboration between the country’s main phone company (Bezeq) and its ambulance service (Magen David Adom).

http://nocamels.com/2020/06/israel-public-phones-defibrillator-stations/

Pickles prevent tooth decay. Israeli scientists from Ben Gurion University working with Chinese scientists have discovered that probiotics produced in the pickling process can slow the buildup of dental plaque. The research can lead to a new generation of mouthwashes for maintaining dental health.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/united-by-passion-for-pickles-israeli-chinese-team-claims-dental-discovery/

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-trump-plan-political-wisdom-and-double-standards-opinion-631003

After having rejected the peace plan, the Palestinian leadership and the international community cannot, with clean hands, condemn Israel for declaring its aims to apply parts of the plan.

The long awaited Trump peace plan introduced in Washington on January 28, 2020 has thrown the Middle East and the international community into a maze of confusion, conflicting declarations and intense discussion as to its meaning and mode of implementation.

Regrettably, even before its conception, the peace plan was plagued by obstinate refusal of the Palestinian leadership to cooperate in its development and formulation. Their subsequent refusal to accept or even to consider it, despite the considerable political, economic and financial benefits that it proffered to the Palestinians threatens to undermine any possible return to a genuine mode of bona fide negotiation.This refusal emanated from an acute sense of betrayal felt by the Palestinian leadership, principally following President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, and his decision to locate the US Israel embassy in Jerusalem. It also was the result of deep personal enmity by Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO, to Trump, to the point of serious and most undiplomatic public insults voiced by Abbas against him.

Palestinian principled opposition to, and practical obstruction of a realistic attempt to reopen the impasse in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, even before they were aware of the contents of the plan, represents a serious, ill-advised mistake on the part of the Palestinian leadership. This especially so since their opposition to the plan has never been based on any substantive reasoning or analysis of its content, but more on personal pique and animosity.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/intersectional-protests-strengthen-netanyahus-push-for-sovereignty-631168

If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is able to make good on his vow to begin extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria on July 1, he will owe a debt of gratitude to his enemies.

Foes abroad include extremists of all stripes. Some of these openly pray for the Jewish state’s elimination, without regard to its leadership at a given time. Others cloak a similar desire in hatred for Netanyahu specifically. Still others profess to take issue solely with Israeli “policies,” using this as a ploy and an excuse to delegitimize the country in every international forum.

Had any of the above been slightly less anti-Zionist, they would have been able to hoodwink all unsuspecting Western liberals, not just manipulate those with a mea culpa complex. Indeed, the more radical that Israel’s defamers become – through terrorism, UN resolutions or university lectures – the less sympathy they garner from people with half a brain and a pair of eyes.

The same applies to Israel’s homegrown critics of Zionism. Like their counterparts abroad, these local paragons of virtue-signaling fit into a few related categories. While all loathe Netanyahu in particular, they are none too fond of his predecessors either.

This includes the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, whose assassination by right-wing fanatic Yigal Amir elevated him to the kind of saintly status that leftists never attached to him when he was alive. It was only when he signed the disastrous Oslo Accords with arch-terrorist and PLO chief Yasser Arafat that they gave him a little grace.