Displaying posts categorized under

ISRAEL

Palestinians: What Needs to Be Done by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16634/palestinians-what-needs-to-be-done

The question is: Will Iran step in to influence the Palestinian Authority? Will Iran manage to convince the Palestinian Authority to become part of an axis that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all the Iranian‑backed militias in Iraq? Where is Mahmoud Abbas taking the Palestinian Authority? No one knows. Most people I speak to they say he doesn’t really have a strategy to deal with the with the Middle East conflict. His only strategy, they say, is just to remain in power forever.

The Palestinians…. are further isolating themselves by alienating the entire Arab world by going against countries such as Egypt, Jordan and all these Gulf states that once used to give them a lot of money…. Those who were inciting against Israel all those years are now inciting against the Arab world. Those who were demonizing Israel are now trying to demonize their own Arab and Muslim brothers…. The gap between the Palestinians and the Arab world is growing.

One of the reasons why mainstream media does not want to report about many stories over here, is that these stories do not have an anti‑Israel angle.

This whole conflict, whether we like it or not, is not about a settlement, a checkpoint, a wall, and a fence or a settlement. This conflict is really about Israel’s very existence….

They [Palestinian leaders] do not want Arabs and Muslims to be exposed to the wonderful things that are happening in Israel. They do not want them to see that Israel has been a story of success. They do not want these wonderful things to be seen in the Arab and Muslim world because then the Arabs and Muslims might go to their leaders and say, “Excuse me. We want something like what these Jews have. Why can’t we have democracy? Why can’t we have a functioning parliament?”

The question we need to ask ourselves is not who is going to succeed Mahmoud Abbas. The question is will anyone who succeeds Mahmoud Abbas, will he be different? Will he be able to bring about any changes? I’m sorry to tell you that the answer is no…. We are talking about the same ideology, the same mentality, and the same people running the show.

Do not expect many changes in the post‑Abbas era. What needs to change is the mindset. What needs to stop is the incitement, the daily delegitimization of Israel. It is very bad, and it is very widespread. If you do not change that, then you will not see any changes. In addition, the Palestinians need to change their education system. They need to start preparing their people for peace with Israel.

Palestinians: What Failure Looks Like by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16652/palestinians-failure-syria

The leaders did not travel to Syria to find ways to help the Palestinians living there.

It is one thing to fail your people by stealing the money that the international community sends to them. But it is another level of unacceptable indifference to turn a blind eye to atrocities committed against your own people by an Arab country.

By praising the Syrian government for “achieving security and stability,” the Fatah leaders are actually sending the message to Assad that he can continue to kill, imprison and torture Palestinians by the thousands.

By holding meetings in Damascus without discussing how to help their beleaguered people in Syria, Palestinian leaders are sending the message that thwarting peace plans and condemning Arabs for making peace with Israel take precedence over the safety of their people. In short, this visit marks another star “failure” of the Palestinian leadership.

When Arabs such as Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz denounce Palestinian leaders as “failures,” they are specifically referring to financial corruption, divisions among the Palestinians, ingratitude toward Arab countries that supported them financially and politically, and the many missed opportunities to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Recently, however, Palestinian leaders displayed another of their ongoing “failures” when they visited Syria, where, for the past nine years, thousands of Palestinians have been killed, wounded, displaced, arrested and forced out of their homes. The leaders did not travel to Syria to find ways to help the Palestinians living there.

This time, the Palestinian leaders, representing the ruling Fatah faction, arrived in Damascus during the first week of October for talks with leaders of Syria-based Palestinian factions on ways of achieving “national unity,” holding new elections for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency and parliament (Palestine Legislative Council) and “confronting Israeli-American conspiracies” against the Palestinian people.

Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge – What’s in it for the USA? Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/3jevDm4

Benefits to the US

The reinforcement of Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME) – through the most advanced US military systems – bolsters Israel’s national security, while enhancing the US’ own geo-strategic interests.

For example:

*Israel’s QME has upgraded its capabilities to extend the strategic hand of the US with no need for US soldiers, serving as the most cost-effective, battle-experienced, reliable and democratic force-multiplier; as a US outpost in the inherently explosive geo-strategic junction of Europe-Asia-Africa, between the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Persia Gulf.

*Israel’s QME has elevated its efficiency as the most cost-effective, battle-tested and trustworthy laboratory of the US armed forces (sharing with the US unique air, ground and sea battle tactics and intelligence) and providing the US defense industries unique lessons (operation, maintenance and repair), which have been integrated as upgrades, sparing many years of research and development, increasing US exports and expanding US employment.

*Israel’s QME has improved its potential to circumvent the regional and global maneuverability of rogue Middle East regimes and organizations (e.g., Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah), which have served as epicenters of the global proliferation of Islamic terrorism, conventional and non-conventional military systems and drug trafficking from Central Asia through the Middle East and Africa to South and Central America.

*Israel’s QME has boosted its posture of deterrence, in the face of a multitude of rogue regimes and organizations, thus reducing the threat of regional wars – which could expand globally – while enticing moderate Arab regimes to seek peace, rather than war, with the Jewish State.

Ruthie Blum Arab-Israeli politicians against peace

https://www.jns.org/opinion/arab-israeli-politicians-against-peace/

The Joint List—the third-largest faction in the Knesset—is more hostile to Zionists than the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi and Manama.

 An overwhelming majority of Israeli parliamentarians, including those in the opposition, voted on Thursday to ratify the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords. With 80 members of 120-seat Knesset in favor of the treaty with the United Arab Emirates and 27 in absentia, the remaining 13 lawmakers were unable to block the historic peace agreement that was approved unanimously by the Israeli Cabinet on Oct. 12.

Though the quantity of MKs nixing the deal was negligible, their identity is not. All of the more than dozen legislators who reject Israel’s peace-making—not only with the UAE, but with Bahrain as well—are Arab citizens of the Jewish state, belonging to the Joint Arab List.

The Joint List is a bloc of disparate communist, socialist, Islamist and Arab-nationalist parties Balad, Hadash, Ta’al and the United Arab List, supported by an increasing number of radical Jews disillusioned with the Zionist left.

It is headed by MK Ayman Odeh, who said last week that Israel’s normalization with the Gulf states is based on “twisted logic” that [the Joint List] cannot accept … either morally or nationally.”

He was referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-standing view that a lack of peace with the Palestinians is not at the root—or even a blip on the radar screen—of Middle East strife in general or of traditionally regional hostility to Israel in particular. It is this position that the Israeli left, obsessed with the failed “land for peace” paradigm, cannot tolerate.

U.S.-Sponsored Arab-Israeli Rapprochement Gaining Steam By P. David Hornik See note please

https://pjmedia.com/columns/p-david-hornik/2020/10/19/u-s-sponsored-arab-israeli-rapprochement-gaining-steam-n1067479

David Hornik is one of the best commentators and writers in Israel today. He is also a wonderful writer of fiction and his new novel is: “And Both Shall Row.”

On September 15, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain signed a U.S.-sponsored deal in Washington on normalizing relations between Israel and the two Arab Gulf states.

Since then things have been moving fast. On Sunday, at a ceremony in Bahrain’s capital of Manama, Israel and Bahrain inked an agreement formally establishing diplomatic ties between them. It was accompanied by memoranda on cooperation in a wide range of fields from aviation to agriculture. The U.S. was represented by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who called the signings “a remarkable accomplishment.”

Things are moving forward with the UAE as well. Also on Sunday, Israel and the UAE agreed to enable 28 weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi. Calling it “one of the first, important fruits of the peace agreement,” Israel’s Transportation Ministry said the flights would smooth the way to “tourism, trade, and business between the countries.”

It’s all a far cry from the days of the “Arab-Israeli conflict,” when the Arab states were perceived — not entirely accurately, but considerably so — as a united bloc of hostility toward Israel.

With the Trump administration claiming it’s hard at work on further normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries, speculation centers on which of those countries may be next.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL COMPILED BY MICHAEL ORDMAN

https://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/ 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Covid-19 prevention cocktail. Trials will start soon of an antibody cocktail developed by Tel Aviv University scientists to treat Covid-19 patients and to protect highly vulnerable individuals from the virus until a vaccine is available. The serum contains six different antibodies that can provide immunity for several months.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-corona-cocktail-provides-covid-19-immunity/

Nasal spray prevents Covid-19 spread. Israeli biotech Nasus has developed the Taffix anti-viral nasal spray. It creates a thin gel over the nasal mucosa, blocking viruses for 4-5 hours. In recent tests, Taffix reduced Covid-19 infections from 10% down to 2.4%. Taffix is marketed in Europe and available at SuperPharm in Israel.

https://www.nasuspharma.com/nasus-pharma-announces-first-clinical-data-demonstrating-efficacy-of-taffixtm-intranasal-antiviral-protection-against-sars-cov-2-in/  https://www.nasuspharma.com/taffix/

BBC says Israeli Covid-19 tests work like magic! (TY Hazel) Ben Gurion University Professor Tomer Hertz, was interviewed on the BBC World Service’s statistics show “More or Less” about how Israel’s “mathematical magic” of testing pooled swab samples could help countries to ramp up their Covid-19 testing capacity.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08s7b5d

Webinar featuring Professor Haick. An opportunity to see and hear the amazing Technion Professor Hossam Haick (reported here previously), discuss with fellow Professor Naama Geva-Zatorsky, about fast Covid-19 testing. The Technion UK event is on Tues 20 Oct at 6pm (UK), 8pm (Israel) or 1pm EDT.  Register below.

https://technionuk.org/event/imagine-covid-19-testing-being-cheap-and-fast-webinar/

Sleep apnea device wins major US award. The US National Sleep Foundation (NSF) has chosen Israel’s Itamar Medical.(reported here previously) as the winner of its 2020 SleepTech Award, which recognizes the year’s most innovative achievement in sleep technology. Itamar’s WatchPAT ONE diagnoses sleep apnea.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/itamar-medicals-sleep-apnea-device-wins-us-national-sleep-foundation-award/

AI triage for Brown University. Israel’s Diagnostic Robotics (reported here previously) is bringing its Artificial Intelligence-powered patient triage and prediction platform to the Brown University-Lifespan Center for Digital Health in Providence, Rhode Island.

https://nocamels.com/2020/10/diagnostic-robotics-ai-triage-brown-lifespan/

Train the brain for a better game. Israel’s i-BrainTech uses neuroscience to train the brains of soccer players off the field. With a unique helmet, players visualize their tactics while an avatar (image of the player) performs the actions on a screen. A 30% improvement in 2 months is claimed.  It is also used in stroke rehabilitation.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3857331,00.html  https://i-brain.tech/en/

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

Spine surgery under local anesthetic. (TY UWI) Surgeons at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital repaired several vertebral fractures in the spine of an Israeli who stayed awake throughout the operation. Due to the 74-year-old patient’s heart and lung issues, only local anesthesia was used – a procedure only Hadassah surgeons perform.

https://www.israel21c.org/amazing-spinal-surgery-done-with-patient-fully-awake/

Surgeons save baby unable to breathe. During a C-section at Israel’s Ichilov hospital, doctors bypassed a tumor that was blocking the baby’s airways. Only then could they cut his umbilical cord to avoid oxygen starvation. The doctors practiced the complex operation using a 3D-printed model of the baby’s neck. 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/halfway-through-birth-tel-aviv-doctors-open-babys-tumor-blocked-airways/

Bio-convergence is the next big thing. The Israel Innovation Authority is to invest up to about $30 million in bio-convergence technologies and companies, the next growth engine for the Israeli economy. Bio-convergence is the overlap of biology, physics, computer science, math, engineering, materials science and nanotechnology.

https://www.israel21c.org/whats-the-next-big-thing-from-israel-bio-convergence/

Middle East Vibrations Shoshana Bryen

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/insight/

One more regional look.

Although I don’t think the Saudis will “make peace” any time soon, the Kingdom has been publicly pleased with the current machinations and publicly furious with Palestinian leadership. Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former Ambassador to the U.S. and head of security for the Kingdom, gave an extraordinary interview to Al Aribiya. Not pro-Israel, not even historically accurate in many ways, but the truth of the Saudi position…..

In the movie, “The Guns of Navarone”the WWII commandos evade the enemy, scale the mountain, enter the fortress, plant the explosives designed to wreck the guns used against Allied forces, and escape to a safe place to watch the effects. But there are no effects, no blast. One team member berates the explosives expert, who calmly replies, “It is the accumulation of little vibrations that does it.” And indeed, in short order – and in the nick of time – the accumulated vibrations crumbled the side of the mountain, washing away the guns that threatened the allied advance.

It isn’t always that – sometimes it is Hiroshima and Nagasaki – but the old Middle East appears to be crumbling bit by bit, decision by decision.

Two fundamental propositions underpinned the old Western (read State Department) view of the Middle East: that the Palestinians had to be satisfied before the Arab States could make peace with Israel; and that this was, in large measure, due to the adamant and sometimes violent “Arab Street” that would rise up against conservative Arab leaders if the Palestinians were unsatisfied, or the status of Jerusalem changed.

The move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem produced hardly a ripple. Resolution of Israel’s Golan border was met with yawns.

President Donald Trump’s “Vision” for Middle East Peace changed the focus from Palestinian demands to Israel’s security – leaving room at the table for the Palestinians, should they accept the invitation and its conditions. The participation of the Ambassadors from the UAE, Oman, and Bahrain in the White House ceremony with the President and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a visible vibration, but it followed years of quiet communication and consultation (and trade) between Israel and Gulf States concerned about Iran. Modification in the “Vision,” led to the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE, with the U.S. as mediator and witness.

Normalization With The Saudis…At What Price? by Gerald A. Honigman

There’s much talk now, in the wake of other Gulf Arab breakthroughs, that Saudi Arabia is being heavily courted to join the normalization/peace movement regarding Israel. 

While shalom/salaam is good, it’s important to realize that, as with another alleged soon-to-be Arab or Arabized nation–the Sudan–Saudi Arabia comes into this with its own severe baggage  https://ekurd.net/what-arab-nation-next-israel-2020-09-29.  And yes–it would be nice for Israel to be able to cut travel time and save fuel by being able to fly over Saudi air space…etc..

For starters, however, let’s just say that the much-touted, decades old Saudi peace (of the grave) plan must be dropped like a nuked potato.

As a reminder, back when he was still a senator, a Times Of London story on November 16th, 2008, reported that President-elect Obama stated that Israel would be crazy (exact words) not to accept the resurrected, alleged Saudi “Peace Plan.” 

A bit earlier, a stop along President George W. Bush’s Middle East trip–after further pressuring Jews to accept his State Department’s vision of Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas’s latter day terrorist Arafatians as being the good cops as opposed to simply more honest Hamas bad cops–took President Bush to the sands of the Saudis and other Arabian Peninsula nations.

A photo was published worldwide of the President wielding a sword along with Bahraini hosts, and Dubya brought along a New Year’s present — tens of billions of dollars in military aid…

Hey, if we don’t sell it to them, the Brits, Germans, French, and so forth certainly will. So goes the argument…And with Bahrain now opening doors to Israel, perhaps it wasn’t a bad decision after all.

The EU’s Discrimination Against Israel An inherited instinct to scapegoat the Jews. Fri Oct 16, 2020 Joseph Puder

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/eus-discrimination-against-i

The European Union (EU) discriminating policies against Israel are not new. The EU court approved the labeling of products from Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. This labeling is reminiscent of the “Yellow Star of David” Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany and in Nazi occupied Europe. Israel considers the EU court decision to be unfair and discriminatory. It pointed out that other countries involved in land disputes are not similarly sanctioned. Now the EU has come up with a new discriminating formula in which to single out Israel. It is spelled by the EU as “housing demolitions” in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria for most Israelis).

According to Professor Hillel Frisch of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, “Entering the phrase ‘housing demolition’ in the EU’s official website yields a shocking result: 18 of the first documents to appear concern Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the West Bank. In other words, 80% of the EU reports on this worldwide phenomenon involve a population and an area less than one-tenth of 1% of the world’s population or landmass.”

Ironically, an EU report from 2005, acknowledge widespread discriminatory demolition and eviction within the EU against Gypsy, Roma, and Sinti populations in such countries as Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Portugal.  Housing demolition as a punitive practice occurs throughout the world.  India accuses Pakistan of the practice in Hindu areas in Pakistan’s Punjab region. Egypt evicted thousands of Bedouins in the Sinai to clear the way for housing projects for Egyptians from outside the Sinai Peninsula. In the U.S., likewise, evictions and demolition of homes occur for the purpose of urban renewal.

Israel has continued a practice that dates back to the British Mandate, when British authorities demolished homes of terrorists. Israel has continued the practice as a deterrent against would be terrorists. These terror practitioners know that it would cost their family their home. Moreover, Israel, in following the rule-of-law, has the right to demolish illegally built homes whether the occupants are Arab-Palestinians or Jews.

Why Palestinians Will Not Accept Advice from Arabs by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16555/palestinians-advice-arabs

Palestinian leaders are continuing to act not only against the advice of [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak and other Arabs, but also against the interests of their own people.

“The Palestinian leadership has lost its credibility in the eyes of the new Arab generation, which is a generation of technology….” — Abdullah Al-Ghathami, professor of criticism and theory at King Saud University, Twitter, September 25, 2020.

Pointedly,…. the Fatah delegation in Istanbul last week met with officials from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as well as Turkish and Qatari intelligence officers…. and discussed… ways of “coordinating positions to direct blows to the interests of the Arab countries, especially the Arab Gulf states and Egypt.”

The report added that “analysts specializing in the Palestinian issue commented that Qatar and Turkey will use Abbas to harm the interests of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.”

The report also revealed that Qatar recently gave Abbas and some of his aides more than $50 million for their personal bank accounts inside banks in Israel and the Palestinian Authority areas.”

Shortly after Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005, Egypt’s then President Hosni Mubarak was asked what advice he would give Palestinian leaders.

Mubarak, in an interview with the Al-Arabiya television network, replied:

“There has to be a new thinking about the Palestinian issue. Otherwise, we [Arabs] will continue to say no. We have been saying no for the past 50 years, and that is why we missed many opportunities. We said no to the [UN’s 1947] Partition Plan, and in 1967 we said no to recognizing Israel in return for a withdrawal [to the 1949 armistice lines]. At the time, we said that what was taken by force can only be restored by force.