RUTHFULLY YOURS

As we approach the Jewish New Year, the volume of new Israeli innovations is phenomenal. They include new medical treatments in development, a new concept in microprocessors, 100 startups presenting in London, a new World record, and new lives for critically sick patients, thanks to Israeli donors…..Michael Ordman

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Double-whammy cancer treatment. Israel’s Khar Medical plans to begin human trials of its DSP-107 treatment on lung cancer patients. It will be tested both standalone and in combination with Roche’s Tecentriq (atezolizumab). DSP-107 finds and marks cancer cells, then alerts the immune system and blocks the cancer.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-startup-joins-roche-to-hold-clinical-trials-for-double-whammy-cancer-drug/
 
Blood test for lung cancer. I reported previously (31st Dec) on Israel’s Savicell and its ImmunoBiopsy blood test for detecting early stage lung cancer. Savicell’s test checks for the metabolic reactions that the immune system produces when it detects and attacks a tumor. Experts say the method is very promising.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/startup-says-its-blood-test-can-detect-early-stage-lung-cancer/
 
Another discovery in treating melanoma. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have found that treating melanoma with immunotherapy is only successful if the cancer cells are homogeneous (simple / comprised of a small number of subtypes). Other treatments should be used if they are heterogeneous (complex / diverse).
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/cancer-protocols-new-approach-predicting-treatment-outcomes
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30951-1
 
Hi-tech safety system at Ashdod hospital. (TY OurCrowd) I reported previously (Jan 2017) on Israel’s Medaware and its medication error protection system. The potentially life-saving solution has just been implemented at Assuta hospital in Ashdod. It is already deployed at Sheba medical center in Tel Hashomer.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/09/09/assuta-ashdod-hospital-deploys-medawares-patient-safety-platform/
 
Making Salmonella slip up. Bacteria such as salmonella use a layer of biofilm to attach themselves to surfaces such as skin, medical devices, tissues, etc. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute used Alzheimer’s treatments to disrupt the biofilms. The salmonella virus couldn’t stick to the surfaces and became much less aggressive.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/researchers-tackle-biofilm-to-make-salmonella-infection-less-aggressive/
 
Genetic testing could save lives.  Israel’s Igentify develops a digital genetic testing analyzer that can provide medical professionals with the means to focus on, treat and counsel high risk patients. Already in use in two major Israeli hospitals, Igentify has just raised $10.5 million including from crowdfunding company OurCrowd.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3770478,00.html  https://www.igentify.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEvMEG_xjHE
 
EU grant for Israeli treatment of eye diseases. The European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program has awarded a 2.4 million euros grant to Israel’s Tarsius. Tarsius’s new molecule “re-engineers” the immune system to treat autoimmune and inflammatory ocular diseases that can eventually cause blindness.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3770582,00.html http://tarsiuspharma.com/
 
Minimizing the trauma of spine surgery. Surgeons have now used the Dreal system from Israel’s Carevature in over 1600 spine decompression procedures. The system helps remove the minimum amount of obstructing tissue, reducing patient trauma and speeding recovery. Now available at Scripps Green hospital in California.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carevatures-cutting-edge-dreal-technology-now-available-to-spine-surgeons-at-scripps-health-300904272.htmlhttps://www.carevature.com/dreal/ 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmimilm9r9g
 
AI in Israeli health care. The Wall St Journal reports that Israel is becoming a testing ground for the power of artificial intelligence to improve health care. It suggests that digitized records and big data could make medicine cheaper and more effective.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-prepares-to-unleash-ai-on-health-care-11568599261

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14901/palestinians-lebanon-better-life

“We talked about the general situation of Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for the past 72 years. We told them that Palestinians in Lebanon are banned from working in 70 professions and have no right to own property. We gave them a list of 2,300 Palestinian refugees from Syria who want to go to Canada.” — Mu’awya Abu Hamideh, a representative of the Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon after 2011, akhbarten.com, September 9, 2019

Human Rights Watch says that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in “appalling social and economic conditions” and are barred from employment in at least 25 professions, “including law, medicine, and engineering.”

“The Palestinian factions and others who benefit from our stay in Lebanon are denouncing us as traitors and of serving foreign agendas… but if anyone has another solution, he should bring it to the table. We are sure, however, that these voices are designed to prevent us from living in dignity.” — Mu’awya Abu Hamideh.

Instead of encouraging and assisting their people to move on with their lives and seek a better future for their children, Hamas and other Palestinian groups continue to lie to the refugees by promising them that one day they will go back to their villages and towns in Israel.

Are the Lebanese seeking to get rid of the Palestinians living in Lebanon? Many Palestinians seem to think that the Arab country they have been living in for decades has plans to throw them out.

Palestinian factions, meanwhile, are working in precisely the opposite direction, trying to stop the Palestinians from leaving their refugee camps. The factions want the refugees to continue living in misery and poverty so that they can continue to use them as pawns in the conflict with Israel.

They are hoping that the continued presence of refugee camps will keep the issue of the refugees at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In recent weeks, many Palestinians have been flocking the embassies of several Western countries in Lebanon asking to be granted asylum for humanitarian reasons.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-Belittling-Bibis-mastery-by-calling

Stunned that this campaign hasn’t been as successful as they’d anticipated, Netanyahu’s naysayers minimize his ability to remain in power by calling him a “magician.”

When Tuesday’s elections for the 22nd Knesset resulted in an a fully expected stalemate between Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party and its key rival, Blue and White, schadenfreude busted out all over.

In an unveiled effort to express their glee, media outlets abroad have been bidding Bibi a cheerful farewell. Never mind that most of these “eulogies” exhibit confusion, if not outright ignorance, about the Israeli electoral process; many analysts at home who understand it perfectly similarly appear to believe that Bibi’s days are numbered – even if those 24-hour units add up to a few years.
It doesn’t take a PhD in political science to realize that the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history – who turns 70 on October 21, perhaps before the formation of the next government – is closer to the end of his tenure than to the beginning.

Nor is this the first time that the academic anti-Netanyahu choir has attempted to write him off, counting on the hackneyed fact that “even a broken clock is accurate twice a day” to prove their predictions right.

To explain Netanyahu’s uncanny ability to defy the so-called “odds” time and again, his detractors expend a lot of energy delegitimizing him. Accusing him of hedonism, hubris and criminality is one method. Yes – they moan – he enjoys expensive cigars, paid for by rich friends. Tsk tsk.

Oh, and he has a thing for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, funded by our hard-earned tax shekels. Outrageous. 

Worst of all, he wheels and deals to get positive press coverage. Send him to prison.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/09/bibi-triuble-matthew-vadum/

Unless he convinces Israeli lawmakers from outside his party to join him in a national unity government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 10-and-a-half-year run in office may soon end following inconclusive results inhis country’s parliamentary elections this week that appeared to deprive him of a governing majority in the Knesset.

President Donald Trump took a hands-off approach when asked about the elections in America’s foremost ally in the Middle East.

“Our relations are with Israel, so we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters while touring California.

In Israel, Netanyahu has leveraged his ideological affinity with Trump as a selling point in his reelection bid. Trump has described Netanyahu as a close friend. Trump won praise from Netanyahu and others for his bold decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and his statement recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu encountered various political headwinds as he campaigned to stay in office.

Israel’s attorney general wants to indict him on corruption charges. Critics say he claimed the media and government officials were out to get him. He apparently turned off some segments of the voting public by promising to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank and vowing to go after militants in Gaza.

At 69, “Bibi” Netanyahu is the longest-serving head of government in the Jewish state’s history and the first to be born in Israel after it was created in 1948.

A constructive US-Israel defense pact should be based on shared values and shared strategic interests, expanding the two-way-street, win-win US-Israel strategic cooperation.

An effective US-Israel defense pact should enhance Israel’s self-reliance and independence, rather than Israel’s dependence upon the US.

A useful US-Israel defense pact should bolster and leverage Israel’s posture of deterrence at the geographic junction of the Mediterranean-Europe-Africa-Asia, which is a focal point of global terrorism, the proliferation of ballistic and nuclear technologies and unpredictable tectonic military eruptions. Israel’s role is doubly critical at a time when Europe’s posture of deterrence is rapidly collapsing.

A beneficial US-Israel defense pact should further extend the strategic hand of the US – through Israel’s proven capabilities – without additional US aircraft carriers and troops in the Middle East.

A worthwhile US-Israel defense pact should underscore the role of Israel as the most cost-effective, battle-tested laboratory of US defense industries, upgrading US military performance, research and development, production, export and employment. The unique Israeli battle experience has benefitted US military operations by enhancing the formulation of US battle tactics and maneuverability.

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last-minute election pledge to apply Israeli sovereignty in parts of the West Bank could possibly see a large part of the remainder of the West Bank being offered to Jordan as an exclave in direct negotiations between Jordan and Israel.

An exclave is a piece of land that is politically attached to a larger piece but not physically conterminous (having the same borders) with it because of surrounding foreign territory.
Netanyahu’s pledge was clear:

“We will apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea as soon as the next government is established in the next Knesset.  Today I have appointed a working team led by the director-general of my ministry, Ronen Peretz, to formulate an outline for applying sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea”
Netanyahu has now gone even further reportedly saying that if re-elected he plans to annex additional “vital” parts of the West Bank in coordination with the United States.
Trump’s Ambassador in Israel, David Friedman, has already indicated that Trump’s plan will not call for the creation of an additional Arab state between Israel and Jordan based on the 1949 ceasefire lines agreed between those two former enemies.

Friedman declared:

“Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”
Friedman then declined to say how the United States would respond if Netanyahu moved to annex West Bank land unilaterally – stating:

“We really don’t have a view until we understand how much, on what terms, why does it make sense, why is it good for Israel, why is it good for the region, why does it not create more problems than it solves. These are all things that we’d want to understand, and I don’t want to prejudge.”
Trump seemingly has not yet secured an ironclad guarantee from Jordan or any other Arab interlocutor that they stand ready to negotiate with Israel on Trump’s plan. Releasing it without such a guarantee would constitute political suicide for Trump.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Area-C-Occupation-or-annexation-601907

The failure to resolve the conflict between Israel and Arab Palestinians has left the government with only two options regarding the “military occupation” of Judea and Samaria’s (the “West Bank”) Area C: either continue the current military administration of the area by the IDF/COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), the sovereign power in the area, or extend Israeli sovereignty there – annexation. This reality is not only a political issue; it affects Israel’s economy and its survival. It is, above all, a humanitarian issue.

Continuing to build and extend Jewish communities (“settlements”) in Area C without clearly defining to whom the area belongs does not avoid condemnations of Israel by the international community, but rather invites criticism. 
Moreover, as long as the government is ambiguous about the status of Area C, it defies reality and jeopardizes the future of these communities. If Israel does not claim ownership of Area C and extend sovereignty over it, the logical conclusion is that it is part of “Occupied Palestinian Territory” (OPT).TIn addition, this ambiguity, encourages those who propose that Area C – including its settlements – be taken over by the Palestinian Authority (PA), along with eastern Jerusalem, thereby moving Israel’s boundaries back to the 1949 armistice lines and establishing a second (or perhaps third in Gaza) sovereign Palestinian state. Not only would this be a strategic security disaster and imperil Jews living there, but it will also have serious political and economic ramifications.