RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jns.org/opinion/israeli-memorial-day-mourning-in-masks-and-ikea-gate/

For the first time in the history of the Jewish state, mourners did not descend en masse upon the country’s 53 military cemeteries on Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Instead, small ceremonies—with the president, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and other soldiers and dignitaries wearing surgical masks—took place on Monday evening at the Western Wall and on Tuesday morning at the Mount Herzl national cemetery.

This was not by choice.

As was the case ahead of Passover and Holocaust Remembrance Day this month, the Israeli government—at the urging of the Health Ministry—imposed a ban on gatherings due to the fear of a spike in COVID-19 infections. To explain each such restriction, health officials pointed to the drastic increase in the number coronavirus patients who caught the disease during the Purim holiday on March 9-10.

In spite of widespread disappointment, most of the public was obedient. Many connected with family and friends virtually via the video conferencing app Zoom. Those among the more stringently Orthodox or less computer-literate remained removed and forced to celebrate, or grieve, on their own.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/applying-israeli-sovereignty-changing-the-when-not-the-what/

The presumption was that exchanges of “land for peace” would happen after an agreement with the Palestinians. But that left the timing up to them; if they didn’t agree, then it wouldn’t happen. And so far, it has not.

European Union foreign-policy chief Josip Borrell put forward a surprise resolution on Israel’s new government that included the following: “The E.U. does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank. The E.U. reiterates that any annexation would constitute a serious violation of international law.” But E.U. statements have to be unanimous, and Borrell was thwarted by members of his own club. The details aren’t clear yet, but Hungary and Austria were definitely opposed, and an Israeli diplomat noted that the largest number of E.U. delegates to date opposed a resolution aimed at Israel.

It was the second time Borrell made such a move, and the second time countries of the European Union opposed him. In February, Borrell had met with Iranian leaders and shortly thereafter tried to ram through a condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan. Of the 27 E.U. members, six refused, including Italy, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.

In an apparent “sop” to Israel, Borrell’s latest statement also said that the European Union is willing to continue cooperation with Israel on fighting the coronavirus. He appears to have been channeling Omar Barghouti, founder of the BDS movement, who blatantly compromised his anti-Semitic principles because Israel appears set to create something he wants to use. Barghouti said, “If Israel finds a cure for cancer, for example, or any other virus, then there is no problem in cooperating with Israel.” Borrell’s point is the same—the European Union will happily benefit from Israel’s medical and high-tech innovation, as well as use Israeli security mechanisms (including intelligence that has saved countless European lives by thwarting planned terrorist attacks). Nevertheless, criticism of Israel will be attached to everything it says.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15918/palestinians-virus-normalization

If Hamas is opposed to any form of cooperation with Israel, why does it continue to allow medical supplies to be transferred from Israel into the Gaza Strip on an almost weekly basis?… It was also revealed that the sister of senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk had been admitted to an Israeli hospital for two weeks for cancer treatments.

Yet, Hamas is now saying that the Palestinian “peace activists” who talked to Israelis through an online videoconference will face legal measures for their “crime.”

If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should close the Gaza Strip border with Israel and refuse to medical supplies or truckloads of goods and fuel. If Hamas does not want any contact with Israel, it should stop sending family members of its leaders to receive medical treatment in Israel. If Hamas does not want any form of contact with Israel, it should stop sending Palestinian doctors to receive training from Israelis.

If and when the “peace activists” go on trial in the Gaza Strip, the international community and all those who describe themselves as pro-Palestinian advocates will have a golden opportunity to call out Hamas for its hypocrisy and lies. Failing to do so will directly facilitate the intimidation that Hamas and Palestinian extremists apply to anyone who seeks a better future for the Palestinians or peace with Israel.

Rami Aman, a Palestinian journalist and “peace activist,” has been under detention by Hamas since April 9 on charges of holding a videoconference chat with Israelis to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Eyad al-Bozom, a spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior, said that Aman and other Palestinians who participated in the videoconference with the Israelis are suspected of “holding a normalization activity with the Israeli occupation via the internet.” According to al-Bozom, “holding any contact with the Israeli occupation is a crime punishable by law and a betrayal of our people and their sacrifices.”

The arrest of Aman and his friends surprised none of those familiar with Hamas’s repressive measures against the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the arrest of the “peace activists” is right in line with the Palestinian and Arab anti-normalization campaign that prohibits any form of contact between Palestinians and Israelis.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/this-yom-hazikaron-remembering-what-we-have-lost/

It is our task in the Diaspora to bridge the miles and other differences, and mourn along with our fellow Jews in Israel.

Israelis and Zionists around the world will mark Yom Hazikaron this year starting on the evening of April 27. Yom Hazikaron LeHalalei Ma’arakhot Israel ul’Nifge’ei Pe’ulot HaEivah, literally: Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism is Israel’s Memorial Day, and it is not celebrated with barbecues but with tears of ultimate grief. And as so many Israelis mourn for their precious fallen fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, and friends and comrades, it is not the same for Jews outside of Israel.

We may all mourn together on Tisha B’Av and during Yizkor on Yom Kippur, but tragically, it is not the same observing Yom Hazikaron inside the Jewish state as it is anywhere else.

It is our task in the Diaspora to bridge the miles and other differences, and mourn along with our fellow Jews in Israel.

One book to read that may assist you to feel the depth of the loss that so many Israelis feel on Yom Hazikaron is Letters to Talia.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Another potential coronavirus treatment. Israeli biotech Redhill has announced that another of its pipeline medicines RHB-107 (upamostat) is to be tested by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) against SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (Redhill’s Opaganib is already saving lives.)
https://www.redhillbio.com/RedHill/Templates/showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=178&FID=2432&PID=0&IID=15260
 
US patent for coronavirus vaccine. (TY Richard) Tel Aviv University Professor Jonathan Gershoni has been granted a US patent for technology to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine targets the coronavirus’s Achilles’ heel, its Receptor Binding Motif (RBM), which the virus uses to bind to and infect a target cell.
https://english.tau.ac.il/news/covid19-Jonathan-Gershoni
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-grants-israeli-prof-patent-for-tech-that-could-see-virus-vaccine-in-months/
 
Giving coronavirus patients a LIFT. Scientists from Israel’s Technion Institute have developed Liquid Foam Therapy (LIFT). It improves the distribution across the lungs of surfactant, the liquid that coats the surface of alveoli in the lungs,. COVID-19 kills the cells that secrete surfactant, making it harder to breathe.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3807833,00.html
 
Protecting intubated patients. (TY Hazel) Israel’s Hospitech produces the AnapnoGuard (reported here previously) which seals the trachea of intubated patients and protects them against Ventilator Associated Pneumonia. It was in use in China before the coronavirus outbreak and is now in use in 5 Israeli hospitals.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-startup-protects-coronavirus-intubate-patients-from-complications-624552
 
Recovered from Covid-19. A 45-year-old coronavirus patient at Jerusalem’s Wolfson hospital woke up from a 29-day coma. A 22-year-old regained consciousness after a three-week coma. A 94-year-old Jerusalem woman has recovered from Covid-19. And Eli Beer, CEO of United Hatzalah returned home to Israel after his recovery.
https://worldisraelnews.com/45-year-old-israeli-wakes-up-from-coronavirus-coma/
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/florida/eli-beer-recovered-from-coronavirus-coming-back-to-israel/2020/04/21/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnD3FtoGeiw
 
Successful caesarian birth. A seriously ill corona patient, 32-week’s pregnant and on ventilation, gave birth to a healthy 5.2lb baby via cesarean section in the isolation ward at Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat (Safed).
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-israeli-hospital-drama-as-corona-patient-gives-birth-via-cesarean/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-yhawq-8WM
 
The first new antibiotic in 3 decades. Israel’s Regina Barzilay co-led an MIT team that used artificial intelligence to discover Halicin – the first entirely new antibiotic molecule in 30 years. It kills two of the most dangerous and durable bacteria which (unlike with other antibiotics) were unable to develop resistance to it.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3808712,00.html
 
The meaning of life. As the cell’s protein factory, the ribosome is the only natural machine that manufactures its own parts and is key to explaining how life develops. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute are now able to demonstrate the self-synthesis and assembly of the small subunit of a ribosome on a surface of a chip.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/self-synthesizing-ribosome
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/16/eaaz6020/
 
National breastmilk bank saves preemie. A premature infant at Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center became the first baby to receive donated milk from Magen David Adom’s new national milk bank. The baby was unable to digest formula milk and his mother was unable to nurse him. The baby is now doing well and gaining weight.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278984

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/494633-israel-has-lots-at-stake-with-annexation

With Israel’s new “unity” government now set, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a decision in the coming weeks with huge consequences for Israel’s relations with America and the wider world: whether to begin the process of annexing major parts of the West Bank.

That’s because an Israeli decision to pursue annexation would strike at the heart of a longstanding belief in major world capitals that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement establishing permanent borders between the two sides will result from direct negotiations, not unilateral action.

The decision will prove controversial enough in Jerusalem, much less overseas, because the two men who are to share power for the next three years – the Likud bloc’s Netanyahu and the Blue and White bloc’s Benny Gantz – don’t agree on the issue.

Netanyahu has long promised to annex West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley, while Gantz has been inconsistent on the matter. He has long opposed unilateral action to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but he expressed support this year for the Jordan Valley’s annexation while conditioning it on international coordination – even though the international community largely opposes annexation of any kind.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/RIGHT-FROM-WRONG-Hell-hath-no-fury-like-Bibi-haters-scorned-625706

According to a Channel 13 poll, most Israelis support the coalition deal signed on Monday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. The numbers (62% in favor and 22% opposed) are not surprising. 
 
Following three Knesset elections that ended in deadlock and numerous negotiations that led to nowhere, the public is both fed up and beaten down. The prospect of returning to the ballot box for a fourth time – particularly with the country in the throes of the coronavirus crisis – made the very inking of the Netanyahu-Gantz agreement for an “emergency national unity government” palatable. Under any other circumstances, the deal in question would be cause for dismay, if not outrage. 
 
With more than a quarter of the workforce unemployed and small businesses bankrupt due to forced closures, the provision for 36 ministers and up to 16 deputy ministers – not to mention a second official Prime Minister’s Residence – is pretty shocking to taxpayers of all ideological stripes. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the deal, which requires the changing of Basic Laws, will pass muster with the Supreme Court. 

https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/why-trump-should-not-send-corona-aid-to-palestinians/2020/04/21/

President Trump’s decision to send millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority is a grave mistake. Although motivated by humanitarian sentiment, the aid package will serve a very different purpose — it will free up funds for the PA to continue paying salaries to terrorists.

The reason that the United States cut off economic aid to the PA in the first place was precisely because providing that aid allowed the PA to maintain its policy of paying more than $134-million to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of dead and released terrorists.

The legislation mandating the cut-off, called the Taylor Force Act, was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in early 2018. The law did not cut off only aid that was used directly to pay terrorists. The law cut off all U.S. economic aid — because aid is fungible, so even aid which goes to, say, hospitals, frees the PA from having to help those hospitals, so it can use the money instead for terrorists.

And that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

The Trump Administration announced on April 16 that it will — through some legal loophole — send $5-million in American taxpayer money to PA hospitals to help cope with the coronavirus crisis. Sounds like a kind humanitarian gesture. But it’s badly misguided.

That $5-million is money which the PA would have otherwise had to pay, since obviously, it’s not going to let its hospitals collapse, especially in the midst of the crisis. So the PA will be able to turn around and apportion another $5-million to its “Pay for Slay” program.