RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Bloody-murder-is-not-normative-605035
32-year-old Michal Sela’s killing is a perfect example of pundits and the public trying to make sense of it by adopting a socio-political stance before the ink of the printing presses are dry.

With new details emerging about the recent murder of 32-year-old social worker Michal Sela at the hands of her husband, Eliran Malul, many initial judgments about the case require reevaluating.

As frequently happens when faced with unfathomable evil in Israeli society, pundits and the public try to make sense of it by adopting a socio-political stance well before both the blood of the victim and ink of the printing presses are dry. Sela’s killing is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Her story, or at least what we know of it so far, is one that lends itself to individual and collective speculation for seemingly contradictory reasons.

On the one hand, the young wife and mother – whose social media photos and posts show a beautiful and vibrant woman beaming with gratitude for her blessings – could be any one of us. Or any of our married daughters. We therefore identify with, if not partly envy, her life.

On the other, her tragic end is incomprehensible. Beyond the pale. The stuff that crime novels and movies are made of. After all, Sela was stabbed multiple times and left to bleed to death in her home by the father of the ostensibly happy couple’s eight-month-old baby girl. An infant not yet weaned from breast milk, who witnessed her daddy slash her mommy with a butcher knife and then turn the weapon on himself.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-European-Union-Commissions-war-against-Israel-604470

Moreover, according to EUC spokespeople, the EUC supports “non-military” branches of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria through transfers of funds to those governments.

According to the European Union Commission’s website, during the last decade the EUC has given over two billion euros to Palestinians in the “West Bank” and the Gaza Strip. This does not include extra payments for health, welfare and education, and legal services to assist claims against Israel. Additionally, the EUC is funding illegal Arab building in Area C, which is under Israeli control via the authority of the IDF and its civilian branch, COGAT. This includes assistance to Palestinian Authority residents who infiltrate into Area C and build illegal homes in Arab villages.

The EUC’s stated purpose is to promote an independent sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1949 Armistice lines (the “two-state-solution”) and “end the occupation of Palestinian territory.” Oblivious of the fact that the PLO/PA and Hamas are corrupt, brutal dictatorships which support and engage in terrorism, the question is:  Why does the EUC waste so much money to advance a goal – Palestinian statehood – which threatens the State of Israel? Is the European community using Arab Palestinians as proxies in a renewed attempt to wipe out as many Jews as possible in Israel? Are EUC policies intended to promote eliminating Israel and genocide? 

Moreover, according to EUC spokespeople, the EUC supports “non-military” branches of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria through transfers of funds to those governments. There is, unfortunately, no accountability for how these funds are used.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

The Jewish festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) celebrates Israel’s fruit harvest. The latest positive Israel newsletter includes many examples of the fruits of Israeli labor. Lives saved by new medical treatments, innovations and humanitarian activities; new vegan foods, successful startups, record numbers of tourists and reviving endangered species.I will publish my next newsletter, hopefully, on Sun 27th Oct.  Wishing a Chag Sukkot Sameach / Happy Tabernacles to all who celebrate it. Michael Ordman

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Positive results in human trial of ALS treatment. As reported (here)previously, the stem cell ALS therapy developed by Israel’s Kadimastem showed promise in the lab. Now, early results from human trials at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem show that it has significantly slowed down disease progression without major side effects.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/early-clinical-trial-for-als-sufferers-shows-biotech-firm-on-the-right-track/
 
Helping doctors focus on treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Maverick Medical AI has developed software for reading patient notes to analyze chronic conditions and risk factors. US Health Systems (USHS), in partnership with Arizona Complete Health, is to deploy Maverick’s software within its organization.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-releases/maverick-medical-ai-announces-its-first-commercial-deployment-at-ushs-health-system-to-automatically-detect-medicare-advantage-risk-factors-300910593.html
 
Predicting high-risk cardiac patients. (TY Atid-EDI) As reported (here)previously, the algorithms of Israel’s Medial EarlySign detect disease early. Its latest algorithm identifies cardiac patients with a high risk of complications after hospital discharge following a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) procedure.
https://earlysign.com/news-and-events/new-study-shows-earlysigns-machine-learning-algorithm-can-predict-which-cardiac-patients-are-at-high-risk-following-discharge/
 
Blocking bone cancer in children. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have had promising results in the lab with experimental treatments for Ewing sarcoma – a bone cancer common in teenagers with a specific defective gene. Mifepristone – a glucocorticoid receptor blocker – stopped the cancer spreading to other organs.
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/a-new-route-to-blocking-children-s-bone-cancer
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(19)31150-7
 
Another early warning of Alzheimer’s. As reported (here) previously, there are at least two signs of the early advance of Alzheimer’s disease. Now doctors at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center have developed Clara – an AI chatbot that questions the patient and compares the answers to a baseline. It is 95% accurate.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-chatbot-could-diagnose-early-alzheimers-disease/
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/52/16024.short https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-23212-001

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/10/moral-restoration-israel-jason-d-hill/

As I wrote in my prescient article a few months ago: A Moral Philosopher’s Letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s victory was inevitable. A moral and political mandate has indeed been issued to the great patriarch of Israel and, at least for now, Israel’s implosion has been forestalled. As the looming October deadline bears down on him to form a coalition government, Israeli’s and all who regard  themselves as defenders of Israel and allies of Netanyahu must face tough fundamental challenges and ask the question: What ultimately must he do to convince the Israeli people that he is indeed their moral and political leader?

First, he must continue to use the moral force of his convictions to form a coalition by communicating directly to the Israeli people that failure to do so will result in the country’s implosion. Netanyahu is a born leader, a man of moral convictions and, like all moral leaders, one possessed of a formidable and charismatic character. It would be in his rational self-interest to point out to his petulant and soulless rivals who have implacably stated that they will not form a coalition union with him what Israel will rightfully become and be seen as in the eyes of the world if they fail to partner with him: a politically failed state and an incompetent democracy. The only beacon of light in a dark and politically primitive and regressive Middle East would have been extinguished. With the ugly presence of the Joint List, the Arab backed third largest party in the 20th Knesset, the country is ripe for a Third Intifada, and a large-scale strike from Gaza.

http://q4j-middle-east.com

As of September 3rd, with the failure of talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Beitenu’s Avigdor Liberman to form a national unity government, Israel’s fate is still anyone’s guess. 

Possibly the only good news is that the give-away-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Left, which repeatedly has prostrated itself to Arabs who won’t accept a viable Jewish State in the neighborhood whether it’s nine or nine hundred miles wide, has been so horrendously discredited by the murderous rejectionist violence by the very Arabs whose derrieres they’ve kissed, is that no suicidal, Lefty government is on the horizon. The willingness, however, of some Jewish parties to ally themselves with Israeli Arab parties which call for the destruction of the Jewish State themselves, and support other non-Israeli Arabs who actively murder Jews, is yet another headache.

Given all of this, perhaps it’s time to turn the clock back–way back–and rethink what politics in the reborn nation of the Jews should be all about. 

Let’s begin…

“And it came to pass that when (the Hebrew Prophet) Samuel was old, he made his sons Judges over all of Israel…And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, took bribes, and perverted justice…So all the Elders of Israel came together in Ramah and said to Samuel, ‘appoint a king over us so that we can be like other nations’ [Note: Ramah is located in the area of the 20th century C.E.’s renamed , formerly known as Judea and Samaria… 

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-EUs-hypocritical-patronizing-attitude-toward-Israel-603650

Alan Baker served as legal adviser to Israel’s Foreign Ministry and as Israel’s ambassador to Canada.

One wonders why the EU did not view the recent declarations by the Palestinian leadership canceling the territorial division between areas A, B and C in a similar light.The curious article in The Jerusalem Post (“Peace needs international law and political will,” September 21), by European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Susanna Terstal, is indicative of a serious and worrying lack of awareness as well as considerable possible ignorance by the EU as to the legal and political realities inherent in the peace process.

The EU representative evidently believes that incessant repetition of the phrase “two-state solution” adds some element of legitimacy and feasibility to the idea. But the two-state solution has never been agreed-upon between Israel and the Palestinians, and does not figure in any of the agreements between them. It is nothing more than an expression of wishful thinking within the UN and the EU. 

To the contrary, the Oslo Accords, to which the EU itself is a signatory, clearly leaves the issue of the permanent status of the territories to be decided in negotiations. The accords do not predetermine the outcome of the negotiations. Thus, whether the outcome will be one, two or three states, or a federation or confederation, remains on the negotiating table. This cannot be dictated by the EU, however much they might be enamored with the idea of a two-state solution.