RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-Wrong-What-Gantzs-speech-revealed-605718

Upon officially receiving the mandate from President Reuven Rivlin to take a stab at establishing the next government, Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz put on a noteworthy performance.

After spending the past four weeks refusing to accept any of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposals for a national-unity coalition, Gantz took to the podium at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday night with the peculiar air of someone who had just won a landslide victory, yet delivered what can only be described as a campaign speech. He couldn’t have been more blatant about his belief that a third round of Knesset elections is in the cards if he had said so in no uncertain terms.

But then, waxing poetic and disingenuous is something at which Gantz has grown proficient since he first threw his hat in the ring ahead of the April 9 elections, and on which he greatly improved before the September 17 do-over – even with the occasional malapropisms that have provided the public, punditry and cast of the political satire TV show, Eretz Nehederet, with fodder for laughter, if not ridicule.

There was nothing funny about his mandate-acceptance address, however. On the contrary, it was a well-rehearsed exercise in feigned statesmanship with deadly serious flaws. Chief among these was Gantz’s effort to present himself as all things to all people: to the Israeli populace and the whole Jewish world, to the periphery and the center, to the ultra-Orthodox and National-Religious; to Arabs and Druze, to members of the LGBTQ community, and to the country’s young men and women whose military service earned them the right to enjoy chilling out at bars.

Gantz described Blue and White as a faction that came into being eight months ago to tackle “the schism and rift in Israeli society, out of a deep sense of responsibility on my part and on the part of my co-leaders, Yair Lapid, Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi. We put aside every personal consideration… and made a commitment to put Israel before all else.”

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/anti-zionism-and-anti-semi

Anti-Zionism is a flourishing politics today on many university campuses and on parts of the left, and the standard response from many Jewish organizations and from most of the Jews I know is to call it the newest version of anti-Semitism. But anti-Zionism is a subject in itself; it comes in many varieties, and which ones are anti-Semitic—that’s the question I want to address here. I take “Zionism” to mean a belief in the rightful existence of a Jewish state, nothing more. Anti-Zionism denies the rightfulness. My concern here is with left-wing anti-Zionism in the United States and Europe.

Most versions of anti-Zionism first appeared among the Jews. The first, and probably the oldest, takes Zionism to be a Jewish heresy. According to Orthodox doctrine, the return of the Jews to Zion and the establishment of a state will be the work of the Messiah in the days to come. Until then, Jews are required to accept their exile, defer to gentile rulers, and wait for divine deliverance. Political action is a usurpation of God’s prerogative. Zionist writers hated the passivity that this doctrine produced with such passion that they were called anti-Semites by orthodox Jews, who would never have given that name to their own rejection of the Zionist project.

“Waiting for the Messiah” has a left version, which might be called “waiting for the revolution.” Jews (and other minorities) were often told that all their problems would be solved, and could only be solved, by the triumph of the proletariat. Many Jews took this to be an expression of hostility, a refusal to recognize the urgencies of their situation. But I don’t see anti-Semitism here, only ideological rigidity and moral insensitivity.

The second Jewish version of anti-Zionism was first proclaimed by the founders of Reform Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany. There is no Jewish people, they insisted, only a community of faith—men and women of the Mosaic persuasion. Jews could be good Germans (or good citizens of any state) since they were not a nation like the other nations and did not aspire to a state of their own. Zionism was perceived as a threat to these good Germans, since it suggested that they had an allegiance elsewhere.

Many leftists have adopted this denial of Jewish peoplehood, and then they go on to claim that a Jewish state must be a religious state, something like a Catholic or Lutheran or Muslim state—political formations that no leftist could support. But Reform Jews adopted this position knowing that most of their fellow Jews didn’t share it. If the nation is a daily referendum, as Ernest Renan said, the Jews of Eastern Europe, the great majority, were voting every day for peoplehood. They weren’t all looking for a homeland in the land of Israel, but even the Bundists, who hoped for autonomy in the Tsarist empire, were Jewish nationalists.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/israels-holiday-government/

It’s not an electoral impasse per se, but a month of Jewish festivities in September and part of October that shuts everything down for a month.

While the world oohed and aahed with the news that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was returning his coalition-building mandate to President Reuven Rivlin—who, in turn, would offer it to Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz—Israelis reacted with a shrug and a nod. During the weeks since the second round of Knesset elections on Sept. 17, it became increasingly clear that Netanyahu, the head of Likud, would not be able to cobble together a government under the current circumstances.

Netanyahu’s pact with the right-wing/religious parties that they would be part of a “package deal” in any coalition negotiations was unacceptable to Blue and White, which rejected any such “preconditions,” while also asserting that it would not join a national-unity government with a party led by someone under indictment. This is in spite of the fact that Netanyahu has yet to be indicted on any of the flimsy charges for which he has been under investigation.

Be all that as it may, Gantz probably won’t be able to succeed where Netanyahu failed, making a third round of elections likely, if not inevitable. Most Israelis have resigned themselves to such a scenario. Even Hebrew news outlets started relegating items about coalition-building to below-the-fold, inner-page or last-spot-before-the-weather-report exile. Until Monday evening, that is, when Netanyahu effectively placed the ball in Gantz’s court.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-netanyahu-says-hes-failed-to-form-new-government-11571679595

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he failed to form Israel’s next government after a September election that saw no clear winner, giving rival Benny Gantz the opportunity to create a coalition that could end the tenure of the country’s longest-serving premier.

President Reuven Rivlin said he would begin consultations with the parties in the Knesset to initiate Mr. Gantz’s 28-day turn at trying to form a majority government of at least 61 seats in Israel’s parliament. However, Mr. Gantz will face many of the same political hurdles that sidelined Mr. Netanyahu’s efforts.

Mr. Gantz’s Blue and White party won the most seats in the September elections, 33 to Likud’s 32, but Mr. Netanyahu was given the first chance to form a government because he had more support from other smaller parties elected to the 120-seat Knesset. He faced a deadline later this week to form a government or return the mandate.

Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement, on his 70th birthday, marks a setback for the prime minister who has earned the nickname “the magician” for his ability to wiggle out of tight spots in a political career spanning three decades. After the attorney general announced in February his intent to indict Mr. Netanyahu on corruption charges pending a hearing, Mr. Netanyahu campaigned on his security credentials and strong relationships with President Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders. But he failed to form a government after the April elections, triggering the second vote.

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