RUTHFULLY YOURS

It was a moment in time truly never to be forgotten–July 4, 1976.

I was watching those spectacular tall sailing ships from countries all over the world passing under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in salute to America’s two hundredth birthday. Tears of pride were in many an eye that day.

Arie and I were there together, but, at almost the very same moment that those ships were sailing by, something else was happening which would link Israel and America together in many a heart and soul forever after…

During the night before and the early morning hours of July 4, 1976, Israel launched Operation Thunderball–aka, Operation Entebbe—aka, Operation Yonatan.

On June 27, Air France Flight 139 had been hijacked by Arabs and some European soul mates. The plane was taken to Idi Amin’s Uganda, where the hijackers were met with open arms.

The passengers were soon asked to form two lines–one for Jews, the other for Gentiles. Most of the latter were freed, but the Jews became Idi Amin’s “guests.” Amin’s buddies next announced that the Jews would be killed if demands were not met.

I won’t go into all of the details, but it is truly an amazing story which sired books, movies, and so forth.

The bare basics, however, are that on July 4, 1976, while I was watching the parade of sailing  ships, Israel raided Entebbe (almost 2,200 miles away), freed the hostages, and showed the world that it was possible to defeat terror–a lesson many still need to learn today, especially when the chief enabler of much of the world’s terror is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power…the would-be atomic ayatollahs. Entebbe was also a wonderful gift, commemorating America’s own liberty as well.

https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-israels-foreign-minister-visits-united-arab-emirates

Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz visited Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where he presented a regional economic plan linking Israel with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/ehud-barak-yair-golan-and-israels-new-left/

Only radical leftists in Israel and abroad believe that the IDF is ethically reckless, or that the Jewish state is not “very strict” when it comes to monitoring its own morality.

Maj. Gen. (ret) Yair Golan, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, is a gift to the left that keeps on giving.

But don’t take my word for it. Just ask former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who proudly displayed Golan last week in a Tel Aviv press conference that he held to announce his formation of a new party to run in the Sept. 17 elections for the 22nd Knesset.

Barak’s recruitment of Golan to the yet-to-be-named party—whose campaign pledge is to “do whatever it takes” to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—was clear. Older-generation Israeli politicians, particularly failed peace-camp has-beens like Barak, continue to harbor the dated notion that having military men on their ticket is an electoral draw, if not a must.

The idea, from a left-wing perspective, is that a highly decorated IDF uniform serves as a shield against accusations of disloyalty or a lack of patriotism. It is a perfect cloak to enable selling the country down the tubes, as Barak himself nearly did at Camp David in 2000, by offering arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat the moon and the stars. Oh, and swathes of Israeli territory in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Arafat’s response—the launch of a suicide-bombing war against innocent Israelis going about their business on buses, in restaurants and at shopping malls—led to Barak’s ouster in 2001. Later, he would insist that his overly generous offer to Arafat had been calculated to call the PLO chief’s bluff. But nobody bought it. Or cared. The daily sounds of sirens wailing through the streets on the way to the latest blown-up bodies will do that.

At the time, Barak was the head of the Labor Party, which presented itself as the sane center-left. You know, the successors of the founding fathers of the state. The rightful heirs to the throne, which had been “stolen” from them in 1977 by Menachem Begin and the increasingly riff-raff, right-leaning public.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/01/bds-anti-normalization-is-a-m
Anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) promoters have long tried to stake out the moral high ground — depicting themselves as the champions of the oppressed, and positioning their movement as being on the right side of history.

But the reality is that BDS rarely acknowledges, or works to prevent, harm to Palestinians that is meted out by their own governments and societal extremists.

What’s even worse is that BDS leaders often egg on and incite these depredations with an anti-normalization campaign characterized by coercion and strong-arm tactics against peace activists and co-existence groups — along with just about any Palestinian who dares to cross the BDS picket line to cooperate with or even just talk to Israelis.

This strategy of anti-normalization, long a mainstay of the BDS movement, originated at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa — an antisemitic hate fest where Jew-hatred became so ugly that the US delegation walked out. Ever since, BDS has opposed any contact between Palestinians and Israelis that fosters dialogue, so as not to “normalize” Israel’s existence.

 
The Roots of the Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Lobby

I have been going through the archives of the pro-peace, pro-Jewish state (later Israel) lobby, and I’ve found some interesting…

Basically, BDS calls for the boycott of all Israeli-Palestinian projects and programs that don’t sufficiently emphasize Israel’s alleged brutality and wrongdoings. In fact, the only people-to-people engagements that PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) condones are those that support “resistance.” All others are rejected as undermining Palestinian rights and the national struggle.

Consider, for example, how the Palestinian Authority (PA), which strictly enforces an anti-normalization policy, reacted several weeks ago to the “heartwarming scenes of coexistence” between young religious Jews and Palestinian revelers dancing together at a wedding in the West Bank village of Deir Qaddis.

For Palestinian leaders, ultra-Orthodox Jews from the nearby settlement of Modiin Ilit celebrating at the wedding of the son of village council leader Radi Nasser was unacceptable. It didn’t take long for the PA to sack him, and for the Fatah party, the PA’s largest faction, to condemn Nasser and remove him from its ranks on account of his “harmful behavior” in “the shadow of … threats of normalization between the Arab world and the Israeli occupation.”

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/07/01/we-need-to-take-advantage-of-trumps-time-in-office/
“The Trump administration is the most friendly toward Israel since the state was founded. In this administration, there isn’t a single official who is problematic for Israel,” says former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren. “We haven’t lost bipartisan support, but it is being challenged when it comes to the question of what issue is being discussed,” he says.

There were plenty of difficult discussions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former US President Barack Obama. In one of the last they held, Netanyahu asked for the US to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel. This was when the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran was being signed. Obama threw all his weight behind that deal, and Netanyahu was waging a war against it, the like of which had never been seen in the history of relations between the two countries. The battle ended with the deal being implemented but not ratified by the Senate, and a meeting was set for the two leaders in November 2015. Historian and former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren prepared a “compensatory” list of demands for Netanyahu to present to Obama.

“At the time, I was no longer the ambassador,” Oren tells Israel Hayom.

“I was serving as an MK, but I suggested, among other things, that the US and Israel prepare a document in which they would jointly define what would be considered a violation of the nuclear deal and agree ahead of time on how the US would respond to any violations. At the end of the list, I included a request for American recognition of the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory. Netanyahu brought the matter up, but Obama laughed in his face,” Oren says.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14466/palestinians-hamas-elections

New elections [the initiative of Mahmoud Abbas] are certain to result in the creation of another Hamas-controlled entity in the West Bank. The Palestinians would end up with two Hamas-run mini-states, one in the West Bank and one in the Gaza Strip.

If Fatah members are being systematically targeted and tortured by Hamas for expressing their views, how will they ever be allowed to conduct election campaigns that challenge the rulers of Hamas in the Gaza Strip?

“Hamas is not afraid of elections. In fact, it’s Abbas who’s afraid of elections because public opinion polls have shown that he and Fatah will be defeated by Hamas. Despite our mistakes, Hamas remains the conscience of the Palestinians because it does not conduct security coordination [with Israel] and does not steal the money of the people.” — Mohammed Nazzal, senior leader, Hamas.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that he is ready to hold long-overdue presidential and parliamentary elections, and has even instructed the Palestinian Central Elections Commission to start preparing for the vote.

Abbas seems to be taking quite a gamble. There is a real possibility that his rivals in Hamas will manage to push him off the presidential throne he has been occupying so persistently for the past fourteen years.

Hamas leaders have responded by welcoming the initiative to hold new elections. The leaders say they are not afraid of elections: they are confident that their movement will win.

Hamas leaders are clearly hoping that if and when new elections are held, they would facilitate its takeover of the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency and the Palestinian Legislative Council.

https://worldisraelnews.com/terrorist-state-coming-right-around-the-corner-warns-israeli-ngo/

More than 28,000 illegal Palestinian structures have been built in areas under Israeli jurisdiction in Judea and Samaria in the last decade, threatening Israel’s future, warns NGO Regavim.

A carefully planned and meticulously orchestrated takeover? More than 28,000 illegal Palestinian structures have been built in areas under Israeli jurisdiction in Judea and Samaria in the last decade, threatening Israel’s future, warns NGO Regavim.

After intensive data collection and a mapping project that took several months, Regavim has now released comprehensive – and extremely troubling – data on the Palestinian takeover of land in Area C, the section of Judea and Samaria under full Israeli jurisdiction.

Regavim’s stated mission is to ensure responsible, legal, accountable and environmentally friendly use of Israel’s national lands and the return of the rule of law to all areas and aspects of the land and its preservation.”

The newly drawn map of the situation on the ground reflects both illegal construction and land-grabs facilitated by “agricultural use” that takes advantage of the archaic system of law currently in force in these areas, says the organization. All of these projects – construction and agriculture in the service of the future Palestinian state – are made possible by massive financial support provided by the European Union, individual European governments and European NGOs.

Israeli innovations and activities are being developed so quickly that it’s difficult to keep pace with the news about them. They include cures for cancer, research into autoimmune diseases, technology for autonomous vehicles, water, construction, weather-forecasting, satellites, electric planes and cybersecurity.   From Michael Ordman

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Immunologist saves boy allergic to light. An Israeli boy suffering from solar urticaria (an allergy to light) has been saved by doctors at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. They inject him every three weeks with omalizumab, previously only prescribed to adults with severe asthma. He can now enjoy Israeli sunshine again.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Immunologist-saves-Israeli-boy-from-life-threatening-allergy-to-light-593082
 
BBC report hails success of (Israeli) cancer treatment. According to the BBC, the CAR-T cancer therapy, (invented by Professor Zelig Eshhar of Israel’s Weizmann Institute) is curing 40% of UK lymphoma patients who were otherwise untreatable and terminal.  Amazing case stories – but doesn’t mention Israel of course!
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48706822
 
Link between stress and autoimmune disease.  Researchers at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have found that chronic stress causes bacteria in the gut to become more “violent”. In response, the immune system kicks in and can increase the risk of autoimmune disease in susceptible individuals.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sick-from-stress-592054 https://cfbiu.org/uncategorized/new-israeli-research-finds-link-between-stress-and-increased-risk-for-autoimmune-disease/
 
A model of the brain. Scientists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and in Los Angeles have used patient-specific stem cells to create a personalized model of the human blood brain-barrier. This model can potentially predict which brain disease treatments will work best for an individual patient.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Scientists-create-duplicate-of-brain-structure-to-be-used-in-research-592048
 
Hot glue to seal wounds. (TY UWI) There are several innovative Israeli surgical sealants (see here) to help bond wounds after operations. Now researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute together with Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a hot-glue gun with non-toxic bio-degradable glue to fuse torn human tissues together.
https://www.israel21c.org/better-wound-sealing-with-a-hot-glue-gun/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.201900998
 
Improved infant oxygen monitor. (TY Sharon) Over 100 religious women students from Jerusalem College of Technology / Machon Tal conducted a 44-hour hackathon developing solutions to various challenges. The winning team designed a wireless oxygen saturation monitor for infants. Click to see some great photos.
https://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=37&ARTICLE_ID=119494
https://unitedwithisrael.org/orthodox-israeli-women-pioneer-breakthrough-in-infant-medical-care/  
 
More successful fertility treatments. The number of successful fertility treatments in Israel continues to rise. Details presented to the Israel Fertility Association conference also showed that technology improvements had reduced the incidence of IVF twins. Israeli women can receive public funds for IVF up to age 45.
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Successful-fertility-treatments-on-the-rise-in-Israel-new-data-592008
 
Microbiome analysis startup gears up. I reported previously (see here) on Israeli startup DayTwo which provides personalized nutrition suggestions based on your microbiome (gut bacteria). DayTwo has just raised $31 million for expansion in Europe and Asia, where it can help reduce diabetes and other metabolic diseases.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3765091,00.html
 
Motorcycle medic delivers her own baby. Magen David Adom paramedic Lita Barzon was seven months pregnant when she went into early labor. Her husband called the emergency services and, helped by the phone operator, Lita delivered her baby a few minutes later. Medics then arrived and mother and baby are doing well.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Motorcycle-Medic-gives-unexpected-birth-on-her-own-592040
 
Kurdish children arrive for heart surgery. Three children, aged five, two and 11 months, from Kurdistan have arrived in Israel with their mothers to receive life-saving medical treatment from Israeli NGO Save a Child’s Heart.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Save-a-Childs-Heart-treats-three-Kurdish-children-in-Israel-592253
 

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/27/in-israel-chilean-president-signs-agreements-on-health-science-tech/

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Chilean President Sebastian Piñera on Wednesday to further the relationship between Jerusalem and Santiago.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding between Israel’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space and the Chilean National Authority for Scientific and Technological Research, as well as agreements related to aviation, and a declaration of intent on health and medical cooperation between the two countries’ health ministries.

“Israel and Chile have a lot in common,” said Netanyahu. “We share values of democracy and human rights. We share a belief in market economies and both of us have done a few things to promote these values in our respective countries.”

“We believe in entrepreneurship. We believe in creativity. We have relatively small, not so small, but relatively small, very vibrant economies,” he continued. “It’s recognized by the countries in Latin America, Chile’s capacity in this regard just as the countries of the Middle East and the world recognize Israel’s capacities as an innovation nation.”

As part of his three-day visit, Piñera drew the ire of the Israeli government when he visited the Temple Mount on Tuesday accompanied by senior Palestinian Authority officials.