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ISRAEL

The Hamas March to Destroy Israel by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14548/hamas-march-destroy-israel

By choosing to hold the protests under the banner of the “Three No’s,” the organizers of the “Great March of Return” have again proven that the weekly demonstrations are not about improving the living conditions of Palestinians or easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip. Instead, the message the organizers are sending to the Palestinians and the rest of the world is: “We don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist and therefore we will never make negotiate or make peace with it.”
Hamas’s two other “No’s” – no to recognizing Israel and no to making peace with Israel – do not come as a surprise. In fact, Hamas appears to be reminding Palestinians of its true objectives as outlined in its 1988 charter: “There is no solution for the Palestinian question expect through Jihad (holy war). Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors…[Hamas] believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered.”
This is all that Hamas has to offer the Palestinians 12 years after its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip? Sadly, thousands of Palestinians continue to heed Hamas’s call for trying to breach the border with Israel every Friday while ignoring that it is their leaders who are mainly responsible for dragging them from one disaster to another.

When the Palestinians launched the weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border in March 2017, they said that their No. 1 goal was to force Israel to lift the “blockade” on the Gaza Strip. The protests, however, according to the organizers, have another goal: achieving the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes inside Israel.

The protests, held under the banner “The Great March of Return,” have since been hijacked by Hamas and other Gaza-based Palestinian armed groups who are using them to advance their political agendas.

The weekly demonstrations are no longer aimed either at lifting the “blockade” on the Gaza Strip or paving the way for millions of refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes.

Tlaib blasts Israel for ‘dehumanization and racist policies’

https://worldisraelnews.com/tlaib-blasts-israel-for-dehumanization-and-racist-policies/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1563119813&pushcrew_powered=1

“I see more Americans understanding the plight of Palestinians,” the Michigan congresswoman tells  Jacobin.

In her latest comments against the State of Israel, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) says that she “can’t separate” the Civil Rights Movement in her hometown of Detroit from the lack of equality in Israel, which she refers to as Palestine.

“My African-American teachers and others used to show me neighborhoods and communities that were segregated, where if you were a biracial couple you couldn’t live or work or eat in certain places, you couldn’t eat in certain places,” the Muslim congresswoman told Jacobin, which describes itself as “a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.”

“So my dad only went up to a fourth-grade education, my mom an eighth-grade education, and both were born in Palestine. My mom grew up in the West Bank in the occupied territories,” she says of her background.

“I can tell you when I was in Palestine with my mother and she had to get in a separate line,” says the Michigan representative, without elaborating on where this happened.

Then, she adds, “there are different colored license plates if you are Palestinian or Israeli,” referring more accurately to the days before Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza were granted self-rule. Since the 1993 understandings which set the stage for the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, those different license plates have indicated that the motorist is a resident of a Palestinian entity.

“There is continued dehumanization and racist policies by the state of Israel that violate international human rights but also violate my core values of who I am as an American,” she says, this time referring to the Jewish State by its name, but adding that “‘separate but equal’ doesn’t work.”

Within Israel, ironically, the left-wing argues that separation is necessary between Israelis and Palestinians, while right-wing nationalists are more likely to support Arabs and Israelis living together in Judea and Samaria.

“I know that my ancestors were killed, died, uprooted from their land. That’s something that no one even wants to acknowledge that had to happen to create the state of Israel,” she said.

“Do I want to see that happen to other people? Absolutely not!” she continues, in a more conciliatory tone. “But I want there to be a recognition that it happened and from there on, do some sort of healing process and understanding that it needs to then lead to equality and freedom for my grandmother who still lives there,” Tlaib told Jacobin.

“I see more Americans understanding the plight of Palestinians, in a way that doesn’t dehumanize or degrade Israelis either but does hold the leadership of the Israeli government accountable,” she said.

Read of the day: A strong dose of reality on Israel By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/07/read_of_the_day_a_stron

I strongly recommend a long interview with Michael Oren, and American-born Israeli, who has served as Israel’s ambassador the United States and currently is a Member of the Knesset and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. He speaks very frankly on many issues, and provides perspectives that I found fascinating and useful.

I had never before seen the website (https://octavianreport.com/article/michael-oren-israel-world-power/?) that published the interview, but I am impressed with it and will be returning.

Here is a short sample of Oren’s perspectives on matters of current concern:

About five years ago, when Secretary of State Kerry was traveling back and forth between Israel and the Palestinians, he almost invariably paused before getting on a plane back to the United States to issue a not-so-veiled threat against the state of Israel. The threat was, and we understood it as a threat, that if Israel did not make concessions to the Palestinians, we would be isolated internationally. To quote the Secretary: “isolated on steroids.”

Today, you’ll find that Israel today is pointedly and emphatically less isolated than at any other time in its history. To the best of my knowledge, we’ve yet to make peace with Palestinians.

Our relationship with Latin America is at an unprecedented high. We’ve had the Prime Minister be the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit any country south of the United States of America. Now he’s visited four.

There are 51 countries in Africa, most of which cut off relations with us after the Arab boycott of the 1970’s, that have renewed relations with us. They’re standing in line to strengthen those relationships with us. Our relationships with Eastern Europe, the former Soviet bloc countries, are excellent.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
“Ghost” decoy cells kill cancer. Israel Technion Professor Marcelle Machluf has developed tumor-shrinking technology using normally “good” mesenchymal stem cells that tumors hi-jack to help them grow. Machluf’s team removed the cells’ contents and filled the membranes with chemotherapy.  They lure and destroy tumors.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/technion-professor-creates-army-of-cell-ghosts-to-battle-deadliest-cancers/
 
Colon capsule has further positive trial results. I’ve reported previously (see here) on the C-Scan colon diagnostic capsule from Israel’s Check-Cap. In its latest (post CE approval) study, C-Scan detected 76% of small (potentially cancerous) polyps as opposed to only 28% using currently approved non-invasive techniques.
http://ir.check-cap.com/2019-07-09-Check-Cap-Announces-Positive-Final-Results-from-Its-Post-CE-Approval-Study-of-the-C-Scan-R-System
 
Surgical navigator approved. (TY OurCrowd) The Israeli Ministry of Health approved marketing of the Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform (SNAP) and SuRgical Planner (SRP) systems from Israel’s Surgical Theater. The VR systems help surgeons plan and perform complex operations including brain, heart and spinal.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/surgical-theater-received-approval-market-190000527.html
https://www.surgicaltheater.net/
 
Pain relief without pills. Israel’s Solio has developed Alpha Plus – the world’s first US FDA and European CE approved radio frequency (RF) topical pain relief device. It combines bipolar RF to increase blood circulation, infrared to heat and ease pain and stiffness, and low-level laser to relieve the skin. All in a simple external unit.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-at-home-device-uses-radio-frequency-to-relieve-pain/
https://www.soliotherapy.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iw1qvfm8sQ
 
Anti-bacterial tooth fillings. Tel Aviv scientists have developed dental fillings made of resin-based composites enhanced by antibacterial nano-assemblies. It can hinder bacterial growth on dental restorations, the main cause of secondary tooth decay that can lead to root-canal treatment and tooth extractions.
https://www.israel21c.org/new-antibacterial-fillings-may-fight-repeated-tooth-decay/
 
Paramedics cross the seas. Israel’s Magen David Adom has inaugurated its new ‘Sea-Bulance’ service to assist people in need of critical medical treatment and rescue while at sea. It currently operates in the Sea of Galilee equipped with advanced medical tools and can carry up to six people at speeds of up to 35 knots.
http://nocamels.com/2019/07/mda-sea-ambulance-emergency-water-rescue/
 
Paramedics scale the heights. Israel’s Magen David Adom paramedics treated a Haifa crane operator who lost consciousness, 50 meters above ground. Using advanced medical equipment, they provided treatment before harnessed firefighters and security guards extracted and evacuated him to hospital in stable and good condition.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265830
 

The Palestinian Problem Is Dying of Natural Causes David Spengler

https://pjmedia.com/spengler/the-palestinian-problem-is-dying-of-natural-causes/

“West Bank grows calmer as pocketbook issues take priority of protests” is the headline of a New York Times story today. It seems that the Palestinian jihadists of the old intifadas are more concerned about making a living than killing Israelis. Writes reporters Isabel Kershner:

BILIN, West Bank — On a recent weekday, Muhammad Abu Rahma returned to the place where Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers used to clash in weekly confrontations that made the West Bank village of Bilin a symbol of resistance against the Israeli occupation.

But this time, he came not to protest but to picnic with his wife and three children. He had served three terms in prison for his activities at the height of the protests. But now, at 33, he had a family and a job as a garbage collector.

“People want money to live, and permits,” he said, referring to the Israeli permits allowing laborers to work in Israel, where they can earn twice as much as they do in the Palestinian territories.

It turns out that time is on Israel’s side, as Ambassador Yoram Ettinger and other Israeli analysts have argued for years. The Arab “demographic time bomb” turned out to be a dud, as fertility rates plunge across the Muslim world, a phenomenon I discussed in my 2011 book How Civilizations Die. In a 2011 analysis for Asia Times, I counseled Israel not to attempt to make peace with a Palestinian population heavily tilted towards hot-headed youngsters, and to wait until the declining Palestinian fertility rate had raised the average age of the West Bank population. Like Northern Ireland, the militants would find themselves married with mortgages (at least those who survived). Prime Minister Netanyahu generously commented on the article when it was published.

Right From Wrong: Rage and responsibility in the nanny state By Ruthie Blum

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-From-Wrong-Rage-and-responsibility-in-the-nanny-state-595399

Mass demonstrations took place across Israel on Sunday night, following the indictment of 25-year-old Carmel Mauda on 18 counts of abuse and assault of infants and toddlers in her care. Until her arrest last month, Mauda had been running the “Baby Love” preschool, a private creche she co-owned with her father near the family home in Rosh Ha’ayin.

Luckily for police, who were tipped off about Mauda’s cruelty by aides she had fired, the daycare facility was equipped with surveillance cameras, oddly installed by the perpetrator herself. The shocking footage obtained by investigators provided the kind of irrefutable evidence that made it simple for them to extract a confession from the suspect, who initially denied any wrongdoing.

When confronted with one of the videos in which she is seen angrily flinging a baby, by his outstretched arms, into a crib, Mauda said, “That day, I was in a black funk.”

When questioned about another scene, showing her tying a toddler’s hands behind his back – a regular practice that she later admitted lasted from minutes to hours – she acknowledged having been “satanic.”

UK Tory leadership front-runner Boris Johnson declares his love for the State of Israel, willingness to launch sanctions against Iran.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/uk-leadership-frontrunner-boris-johnson-im-a-passionate-zionist/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&

In a recent exclusive interview with the UK-based Jewish News, British MP Boris Johnson, a leading candidate to replace Prime Minister Theresa May, praised Israel and said he would pursue Palestinian leaders about their “pay for slay” policy.

May will be leaving her post this month.

Johnson, who was mayor of London from 2008 until 2016, described himself as a “passionate Zionist” and referred to Israel as a “great country” that “I love.”

As for the Iran’s breaching of the nuclear deal, Johnson told the Jewish News, “I think that there are enough tensions in that region without triggering a nuclear arms race, whose consequences would be very hard to foresee, and which would certainly pose very difficult choices for any Israeli government.

“I certainly think you could not fault the UK government for being tough on Iran’s sanction busting. As Prime Minister, I’d make sure we continue to do everything we can to constrain Iran’s disruptive behaviour in the region,” he said.

Concerning a Palestinian state, Johnson said that should only happen when Palestinian leaders “meaningfully recognize Israel and stop threatening to revoke recognition.”

In 2016, the British government froze $30 million earmarked for aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA.) Though the PA had claimed the money was to pay civil servants in Gaza, it was used to support terrorists in Israeli jails and their families.

Why Palestinians Do Not Trust Their Leaders by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14520/palestinians-leaders-trust

Evidently, Palestinian leaders do not grasp that the Palestinian public cares a great deal more about being treated like human beings by their own leaders than about anti-Israel and anti-US rhetoric.

This incitement is Palestinian leaders’ way of distracting attention from problems at home. They want their people to be busy hating someone else – in this case Israel, the US and pro-US Arab leaders. Otherwise, these people might wake up one fine morning and demand reform, transparency and democracy from their leaders in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

If Palestinian leaders spent a fraction of the time that they waste on condemning Israel and the US, on bringing good government to their people, the Palestinians would be in a much better situation. It seems that some senior Palestinian leaders cannot go to sleep at night without having disgorged fiery statements against Israel and the US. Needless to say, this does not make for particularly constructive governance.

When fighting an unseen peace plan becomes a greater priority than bettering the lives of your people, one can only say that, with failed leaders such as these, the time has come for the Palestinian public to raise its collective voice and demand its rights from its unelected leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Until this happens, Palestinian leaders will continue to enjoy the good life on the extremely burdened backs of its people.

While Palestinian leaders continue to dedicate their time to vilifying Israel and the US administration, the Palestinian public seems to have more pressing matters on its mind. Take, for example, the debilitating and dangerous lack of public freedoms and the corruption under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian leaders, however, appear oblivious to the urgent concerns of their people. Evidently, Palestinian leaders do not grasp that the Palestinian public cares a great deal more about being treated like human beings by their own leaders than about anti-Israel and anti-US rhetoric.

Thus, the gap between Palestinian leaders and their people appears to widen by the moment, and the Palestinians’ dissatisfaction with the performance of these leaders grows at a parallel pace.

The number of Palestinians who heeded the Palestinian Authority’s call to take to the streets in protest against the recent US-led “Peace to Prosperity” economic conference in Bahrain was relatively small.

Although the Palestinian leaders were hoping that tens of thousands of people would participate in the rallies against the US and Israel, it was evident that the number of participants was much lower than expected. In fact, most of the protesters in the West Bank were members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction or employees of his government.

Similarly, the number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are heeding Hamas’s call to head to the border with Israel for the weekly protests is in steady decline. The protests, which began in March 2018, are organized by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip under the title: “Great March of Return.”

The decreasing number of Palestinians who are willing to go to the border and endanger their own lives by catapulting stones, firebombs and other lethal objects at Israeli soldiers is a positive sign; it is possible that the Palestinian public in the Gaza Strip is getting fed up with Hamas’s empty arguments and rhetoric.

Two recent public opinion polls have revealed the depths of Palestinians’ mistrust for their leaders.

Associated Press Targets Jewish Americans Who Support Israel The leftist art of personal destruction. Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274235/associated-press-targets-jewish-americans-who-caroline-glick

Last week, the Associated Press ran a hit job on a successful American businessman. Simon Falic and his two brothers own the Duty Free Americas chain, a private company that runs duty free stores in airports throughout the United States and Latin America.

They also happen to be Jewish. Simon Falic in particular is a powerful advocate for Jewish causes worldwide and for the State of Israel.

Through their family foundation, Simon Falic and his wife donate to dozens of organizations in Israel. The causes they support run the gamut from medical research to Jewish education. They support synagogue construction and refurbishment; archaeological excavations and preservation of archaeological sites; battered women’s shelters and day care centers; and the construction of new Jewish communities in Israel.

AP’s hit piece centers on Falic’s charitable work.

The title of the article gave the game away. It read, “U.S. duty free owners give millions to settlements.”

The obvious question is: so what? There is nothing even vaguely illegal about Falic’s charitable undertakings. And indeed, the article doesn’t accuse him of committing or facilitating any crime.

Peace Doesn’t Exist – Nor Do the Palestinians Ask these three questions if you really want peace. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274210/peace-doesnt-exist-nor-do-palestinians-daniel-greenfield

Salah Abu Miala, a Hebron businessman, traveled to Bahrain to attend the Bahrain peace conference. When he returned home, he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority.

A security official for the Islamic terror group admitted that there was no actual charge.

“It was a warning,” he said. “He must understand the implications of this sort of collaboration.”

Collaboration with the United States. The country that set up the PA and lavished billions in aid on it.

Another businessman managed to evade the crackdown on peace conference attendees.

The Palestinian Authority had not only boycotted the peace conference, but it arrested participants in the peace conference, and warned that participating in the peace conference was collaboration.

Collaboration, under Palestinian Authority law, can be punishable by death.

The message is that the Palestinian Authority really doesn’t want peace. It has sabotaged peace conferences under Clinton, Bush, Obama, and now Trump. Every approach running the same narrow gamut from pressuring Israel to bribing the Palestinian Authority has been tried. They all end the same.

Just ask Salah who was locked up for attending a peace conference.

The pattern here is so obvious that it would take a diplomat or a politician to miss it. That’s why we’ve been mired in it for so long. And the billions of dollars wasted and thousands of lives lost could have been saved if only our leaders had questioned their premises by asking three simple questions.

1. What if the Palestinians don’t want peace?

2. What if there are no Palestinians?

3. What if there’s no such thing as peace?

The three assumptions, that the Palestinians exist, that they want peace, and that enduring peace is an attainable condition in the region, are at the root of the senselessly Sisyphean peace process.