RUTHFULLY YOURS

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According to the British daily Financial Times (August 28, 2019), the Israeli shekel ranks as the best performing currency against the US dollar among 31 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, up almost 6%, as fund managers have sought refuge from global economic turmoil.  The shekel had strengthen thanks to Israel’s perceived status as an emerging markets’ safe haven and improved economic fundamentals such as:

*A long term expansion in employment;
*Current account surpluses;
*A fall in the Debt-to-GDP ratio under a 16-year-old fiscal stabilization program;
*Bank of Israel raised interest rate once since 2011, allowing it to hover near zero (0.25%) for years, as the economy reaches near full-employment.

The British daily quotes Win Thin, Head of Currency strategy at New York’s Brown Brothers Harriman: “Israel is one of the best of the lot among emerging markets.  It is stable and away from the fray of the trade wars. It has just been a good solid story.”

The Financial Times adds: “The haven status appears to be decoupled from political instability, including growing tensions with Iran; air and drone strikes attributed to the Israeli military in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq; inconclusive elections last April, and the possibility of Prime Minister Netanyahu facing indictment for alleged bribery and fraud.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Bibis-incumbency-disadvantage-601547

Having a proven record in office is not always a good thing for a politician, as it opens him up to all kinds of criticism, some legitimate.

Nothing better illustrates the candidates’ hysteria in the run-up to next week’s Knesset election than the amount of coverage devoted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behavior during a rocket attack on Tuesday evening.

While the incumbent PM was about to deliver a pep talk to his supporters at a Likud campaign gathering in Ashdod, a red-alert siren began to blare, indicating that projectiles were on the way to the immediate vicinity. Though a familiar sound to Israelis, particularly in the South, the rise and fall of the air-raid siren always causes panic. The prospect of being hit by a missile will do that.  As a result, many of the people in attendance began to shriek and run a bit wild. Netanyahu’s security detail immediately tried to whisk him off the stage to safety. But he did not rush.       

In a cool and collected manner, he paused to instruct the crowd to keep calm and slowly make their way to the nearest bomb shelter. Only then did he allow his guards to escort him off the premises. The IDF subsequently reported that two rockets launched by terrorists in Gaza were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.

When the incident was over, Netanyahu returned to the podium to resume the rally.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/11/israels-sovereignty-claims-over-the-jordan-valley-are-legitimate/

A nation cannot annex land over which it already has sovereign claims.
September 11, 2019 By Erielle Davidson

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Tuesday regarding his plan to formalize Israeli sovereignty in Jordan Valley has sent shockwaves across the world. However, much of the outrage has stemmed from a misunderstanding about Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria and historical claims over the region. Even the standard newspaper accounts of Netanyahu’s plans as envisioning the “annexation” of territory is inaccurate. 

Netanyahu never said “annexation.” Instead, he spoke of “applying sovereignty” to refer to Israel’s territorial claims over the Jordan Valley. International outlets, particularly left-leaning ones, have referred to Netanyahu’s campaign promise as a promise to annex land. But there is a reason for the PM’s careful choice of wording, and for its mistranslation and misrepresentation abroad.

A nation cannot annex land over which it already has sovereign claims. Netanyahu purposefully referred to the process as an application of Israeli sovereignty, abstaining from using the Hebrew word for annexation, sipuach. As Eugene Kontorovich, director of the International Law Department at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, noted, Netanyahu’s proclamation is about “translating long-standing Israeli consensus into action.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-baseball-team-now-starring-actual-israelis-11568119037

The underdog Israeli team that emerged as a sensation at the 2017 World Baseball Classic came with an asterisk. Despite the name of the country splashed across their uniforms, almost none of the players who helped upset powerhouses like South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Cuba were actually Israeli. Instead, the roster featured a collection of Americans participating under the tournament’s heritage rule, which granted eligibility to anybody with a Jewish grandparent or spouse.

Buoyed by that unexpected success, Israel now hopes to earn a spot in the Tokyo Olympics next year, with baseball returning to the program for the first time since 2008. Unlike the WBC, the Olympic Charter requires all athletes to be a national of the country they represent—a problem, since only about 1,000 people play baseball in Israel.

So Israel found a solution: Over the past year, more than a dozen Jewish-American professional ballplayers have obtained Israeli citizenship under the nation’s Law of Return, a process known as making aliyah—Hebrew for “ascent.” With their help, Israel is one of 12 teams currently playing in the European championship, with the top five advancing to the Olympic qualifiers in Italy.

“Playing for us was the impetus for this,” said Peter Kurz, the president of the Israel Association of Baseball. “But they all feel something toward Israel. There’s a feeling among them that we’re doing something different, doing something more. The WBC experience was incredible. This could be even bigger.”

https://www.jns.org/opinion/was-netanyahus-latest-nuclear-bombshell-election-propaganda/

You’d think that this was a bigger bombshell than the news of Iran’s continued and very concrete efforts to develop nuclear warheads for its long-range missiles. You know, in its pursuit of regional hegemony and its stated aim of “wiping Israel off the map.”

(September 10, 2019 / JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the airwaves on Monday evening to reveal the existence and exact location of yet another secret nuclear-weapons development site in Iran—this one at Abadeh, in the Fars province of Tehran.

In a brief message that he delivered first in Hebrew and then in English—pointing to a screen with aerial photos obtained by Israeli intelligence—Netanyahu said that the site was exposed in the trove of documents that the Mossad had retrieved last year from a warehouse in Turquzabad.

“When Iran realized that we uncovered the site, here’s what they did: They destroyed the site. They just wiped it out. They wiped out the site. … They destroyed the evidence or at least tried to destroy the evidence. … It’s incredible. Every time we reveal, they try to cover up their tracks,” he said.

Netanyahu went on: “Even before that, Iran knew that we were on to them, so they cleared the site. They cleared it of these capacities, they cleared them, and then they actually covered up the site. This is a [literal] cover-up. They put gravel on it to try and hide their traces. But they didn’t. The IAEA found traces of uranium that Iran hid in these sites. That’s a direct violation of the NPT, the nonproliferation treaty.”

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/09/09/watch-pm-netanyahu-makes-live-statement-on-iran/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Monday that Iran was apparently in violation of its nuclear obligations, saying it had a “nuclear weapons development site” south of Isfahan.

Netanyahu said that the site, in Abadeh, was uncovered in the nuclear archives that Israel seized in a secret mission.

“In this site, Iran conducted experiments to develop nuclear weapons,” he said. “When they realized we uncovered this site, they destroyed it; they wiped it out. When they realized we were onto them, they tried to destroy the evidence,” he continued.

He then sent “the tyrants of Tehran” a stern warning: “We know what you are doing; Israel knows when you are doing it, and Israel knows where you are doing it. We will continue to expose your lies; what we see is a consistent pattern of Iranian lies, deception, and violations.”

He also spoke about the “atomic nuclear warehouse” that Iran had just outside Tehran, a day after nuclear inspectors confirmed it was indeed an undeclared site that contained radioactive material.

http://verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com/ 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

“Last resort” myeloma treatment approved. The US FDA has granted accelerated approval to XPOVIO for the treatment of resistant or relapsed multiple myeloma. XPOVIO (Selinexor) was developed by Karyopharm Therapeutics, established by Israel’s Dr. Sharon Shacham,.and based in Newton MA. 

https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-made-innovative-cancer-treatment-gets-FDA-stamp-of-approval-600505  https://investors.karyopharm.com/news-releases/news-release-details/karyopharm-announces-fda-approval-xpoviotm-selinexor-treatment  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1NW1Tq57YU

Tech to rehabilitate at home. Israel’s WizeCare offers physiotherapists and clinicians an app that enables them to guide their patients during their at-home rehabilitation exercises. It has partnered with the Cleveland Clinic for their staff to provide personalized videos for patients and monitor compliance.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3769531,00.html 

Super prawn controls disease afflicting 220 million. I reported previously (Aug 2016) that Ben Gurion University scientists were cultivating all-male prawns to eradicate schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, with Israeli startup Enzoomic, they have produced all-female prawns – much better at controlling the disease.

https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/super_shrimp.aspx  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOBl3TPNdk

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-47509-6

Donated ambulances attended 75,000 calls. As reported previously (see here), retired UK surgeon Norman Rosenbaum, 84, has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for Magen David Adom. His 12 MDA ambulances have attended some 75,064 calls over the years. Its crews have helped 997 women to give birth.

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/mda-ambulances-donated-by-retired-surgeon-attended-over-75000-calls/

IDF soldiers have saved 2,000 lives. The Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registry has just reached an amazing milestone: 2,000 IDF soldiers have donated their stem cells to save 2,000 patients around the world. They not only protect citizens of the State of Israel, but also globally, those whose lives depend on a stem cell transplant.

http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/because-of-you-65/