RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14041/palestinians-target-students

The Palestinian students are being targeted because of their political affiliations and not because of any crime they committed.

While the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are busy beating up each other’s supporters, “pro-Palestinian” activists on US and Canadian university campuses are busy blaming Israel for Palestinian woes.

For these alleged activists — who are remarkably passive when it comes to truly assisting Palestinians — their protests seem more about hating Israel than anything else. If they really cared about the Palestinians, they might stop abusing Israel long enough to notice the abuse that the Palestinian “leaders” inflict on the people under them.

“Pro-Palestinian” activists at university campuses in the US and other Western countries have long been waging various campaigns to denounce Israel and hold it fully responsible for the continued “suffering” of Palestinians.

These activists, however, seem to care little about violations committed against the Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank or Hamas in the Gaza Strip — even when fellow students in the West Bank and Gaza are being targeted.

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2019/04/david-singer-hashemite-rule-in-jordan.html

King Abdullah seems increasingly hell-bent on ending 99 years of Hashemite-dynasty rule in Jordan.

This possibility is emerging as Abdullah is:

Seemingly refusing to commit to negotiating with Israel on President Trump’s soon-to-be-released deal of the century to end the Jewish-Arab conflict and
Taking active steps to place the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty in jeopardy.

Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1950) has always been the key to resolving competing territorial claims by both Arabs and Jews in former Palestine.

Transjordan comprised 78 per cent of the territory placed under the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine after being wrested from 400 years of Ottoman Empire sovereignty during World War One.

Mandatory Palestine was designated in April 1920 by the Principal Allied Powers at the San Remo Conference and in August 1920 by article 95 of the Treaty of Sevres as the location for reconstitution of the ancient and biblical homeland of the Jewish people.

Transjordan’s first Hashemite ruler – Abdullah I – arrived there in November 1920.

https://saraacarter.com/israelis-vote-on-tuesday-heres-how-it-works/

At a lunch table in a restaurant in an artsy town near the coastal Israeli city of Haifa, several people were discussing the upcoming elections. Most of the conversation was in Hebrew, with large smatterings of other languages, as is so common throughout many cities and large towns in Israel.

“I will not vote for Bibi [Netanyahu]!” said the one Israeli-born person at the table about the current Israeli Prime Minister. “He is a liar and a thief!” This 80-plus year-old former kibbutznik is voting for HaAvoda – the Labor Party.

“I swore I would not vote for Netanyahu again, but I am going to,” said another woman at the table, an emigre from England who has lived in Israel for more than 35 years.BIBI EXHAUSTION SYNDROMEMost Israelis, it appears, fall into the camp of the second speaker. Many Israeli voters suffer from “Bibi Exhaustion Syndrome,” yearning for a prime minister with a fresh face and less arrogant demeanor. But despite the consistently strong showing in the polls of the new party Kachol v’Lavan (Blue and White), many Israelis secretly believe – or fear – that when Israelis slide their slips into the ballot box on Tuesday they will be unable to place their trust in Israel’s security with anyone other than Netanyahu. This,  despite the Prime Minister’s current legal problems.

HOW ISRAELI GOVERNMENTS ARE FORMED

Unlike the U.S., Israel has many viable political parties. Viable at least in the sense that a dozen have realistic chances of attaining some seats in the 120 seat Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Preventing strokes without excessive bleeding. Biotech eXithera is a portfolio company of Israel’s Clal Biotechnology. It has developed an anti-coagulant which has successfully completed Phase 1 trials. The treatment delays coagulation rather than prevents it and its effects cease quickly when the treatment stops.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-sichuan-haisco-invests-in-clal-biotechs-exithera-1001280424

European funds for depression therapy. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on the brain analysis system developed by Israel’s elminda. The EU has just awarded elminda a 2-year grant through its Horizon 2020’s phase 2 program. It will help elminda develop and trial its BNA-PREDICT product for depression.
https://elminda.com/multi-million-euro-award-european-commission-will-support-deployment-elmindas-bna-predict-improve-depression-treatment-effectiveness/

Same microbe different effect. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have developed algorithms that can identify structural variants in the genomes of human gut microbiomes. People with a certain variant were much thinner than those who had the same microbe but not the variant. The variants can also pinpoint disease factors.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/same-microbe-different-effect
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1065-y

Technion printer for human tissues. (TY Nevet) Israel’s Technion Institute has set up a 3D center for the printing of cells, tissues and organs. Its purpose is to enable Technion researchers to develop tissues containing blood vessels or 3D scaffolds that quickly connect to the patient’s own blood vessels.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/need-a-new-ear-technion-opens-3d-tissue-printer-for-researchers/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mH-QxWJKY

Bio-inspired robots. (TY WIN & i24 News) Researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have created tiny robots that could soon become part of medical procedures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwNHSh_fo0o

Rare pediatric double organ transplant. 13-year-old Hila Amram received a new liver and pancreas at Petah Tikva’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center. The double transplant saved her life and freed her from insulin dependence. The op was even more complex due to the donor’s internal organs being reversed – a rare anomaly.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/261176

Israeli bio-techs merge. I reported previously (see here) on Jerusalem-based immunotherapy company Enlivex Therapeutics. Enlivex has merged with Tel Aviv-headquartered Bioblast (see here), which is developing treatments for rare genetic diseases.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3759270,00.html

Snow on Mt Hermon – good news for cancer patients. During the winter, Israeli charity Ezer Mizion often takes oncology clinic kids on a trip to Mt. Hermon. And if their blood count results are anything to go by, the benefits to the children last long after they return from the “sledging, tobogganing and fun, fun, fun!”
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/rx-fun-on-mt-hermon/

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14020/opposition-peace-israel

The anti-Israel campaign in the Arab and Islamic world sees peace with Israel — and not failed leadership, bad economic policies and corruption — as the biggest threat to Arabs and Muslims. Recognizing Israel’s right to exit is also seen by many Arabs and Muslims as a humiliation to their values, their culture, their political power and their economic traditions. They seem concerned that Arabs and Muslims might wake up one morning and start demanding freedom of expression and free and democratic elections like the ones held every few years in Israel.

The anti-peace camp seems to want its people to continue living in misery and under dictatorships, so that it is easier to recruit people to jihad against Israel and the West. Also, if people are lifted from poverty and misery and begin to enjoy the fruits of modern civilization, there is a chance that Arabs and Muslims will move away from Islam and even start endorsing the inadmissible values of the West.

The Trump administration will soon discover what every child in the Arab and Islamic world already knows: that the Israeli-Arab conflict is not about a settlement or a checkpoint or a security fence, but about Israel’s very right to exist in the Middle East. The Trump administration will also learn that peace with Israel is seen by many Arabs and Muslims as nothing but an unacceptable threat that must at all costs be stopped.

Peace with Israel is purportedly a form of surrender and submission that will harm the dignity of Arabs and Muslims.

This is the theme of a massive campaign being waged by Palestinians and other Arabs in preparation for the announcement of the US administration’s plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the “deal of the century.” The plan, according to US officials, is expected to be announced sometime after the general elections in Israel, slated for April 9.

The latest campaign is designed to thwart the “deal of the century” and terrorize Arabs and Muslims who may wish to accept the US administration’s peace plan.

Blue and White Party chairman Benny Gantz crossed a rhetorical redline this week that made every other malicious maneuver of the current campaign, on both sides of the political spectrum, seem like child’s play.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-From-Wrong-Benny-Gantzs-immoral-analogy-585792

In an interview he gave on Tuesday – exactly one week ahead of the Knesset elections – Gantz likened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-From-Wrong-Benny-Gantzs-immoral
Expressing “deep worry” for Israeli democracy, Gantz explained, “What we… see is a phenomenon reminiscent of Turkey, where Erdogan is protecting himself from investigations and from other efforts aimed at preventing corruption.”

Even the Times of Israel reporters did a double take on that statement – which was not only a pathetically mild and misleading description of Erdogan’s Stalin-like purges and absolute control of every sector of Turkish society, but also an egregious misrepresentation of Netanyahu’s legitimate efforts to counter charges that have not even been formally brought against him. Unlike Turks subjected to Erdogan’s repressive rule, after all, Israeli citizens enjoy human and civil rights. Among these is the presumption of innocence.But it was only the former part of Gantz’s outlandish analogy that his interviewers challenged, by asking whether he really fears that Israel “could become like Turkey.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/god-ancient-israel-and-nationalism/

“……I wasn’t arguing that God ordained nationalism (I did jokingly say that God was the first nationalist, and I believe the record will show that people laughed). My point was that, via the influence of the Bible, Ancient Israel was the model of the nation that the West looked to, and that the national idea has been incredibly powerful throughout Jewish history.

I think Zionism was the most inspiring nationalist movement of the 20th Century, which is why I dwelled on the amazing return of the Jews to their homeland a couple of millennia after their exile.I also pointed out how important Ancient Israel has been to the American national identity, and how it figured in the freedom rhetoric of Martin Luther King.None of this should be controversial; in fact, it’s all a matter of historical record…..”

https://freebeacon.com/blog/how-to-reform-israels-runaway-supreme-court/

Israel’s Supreme Court banned Michael Ben-Ari, a member of the Otzma Yehudit or “Jewish Power” Party, from being a candidate in the Israeli elections. The court made its decision even after Israel’s Central Elections Committee said he could run. What especially provoked indignation was that at the same time the Supreme Court rejected Ben-Ari, it also overturned the Central Election Committee’s decision to ban the Arab party, Balad, which rejects the very idea of a Jewish State, and a radical-left Jewish candidate, Ofer Cassif, who is running on a joint list of two other Arab parties, Hadash and Ta’al, and who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and referred to Israel’s War of Independence as the “Naqba” or catastrophe.

The Supreme Court ruling was 8-1. Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked decried the ruling: “The decision by the High Court of Justice to disqualify Ben-Ari [for anti-Arab racist statements] and, on the other hand, to permit terror-supporting parties is a blatant and misleading intervention that goes to the core of Israeli democracy.”

Simcha Rothman, legal adviser to the Israeli Movement for Governability and Democracy, a nonprofit group that has been leading the charge for reforming Israel’s legal system, believes that by employing such a naked double standard, the Supreme Court may have played into the hands of its critics.

“I believe it will bring people out to vote for right-wing parties as a whole and, in particular, for the party that Ben-Ari was part of,” Rothman told the Free Beacon. “People will go to vote for them out of rage, as a vote of nonconfidence in the court.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/436993-cultural-obstacles-are-the-real-barriers-to-israeli-palestinian-peace

“The attacks on civilians, breaking their arms, and beating them, constitute humiliation, disgrace, and injustice,” Nasser Al-Laham, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Authority’s Maan News Agency, said about Palestinian rule in the territories.

“Prison cells? Torture? Burn marks?” he asked. “What have we adopted from the Arab countries apart from their garbage?… Is this the kind of homeland we want – a homeland in which I can no longer trust my neighbor? A homeland in which my fellow citizen comes and, in front of my wife, drags me by my feet or by my hair and tramples me underfoot?… You’re doing this under the pretext of fighting Israel? You’re lying!”

Al-Laham’s outrage, which he voiced in a recent TV interview, puts the lie to the well-entrenched narrative that borders, settlements, and Jerusalem explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Peek below the surface and you will find the cultural obstacles, and the distrust they engender, that really drive the conflict – and that will require nothing short of a Palestinian cultural revolution to erase.

Based on the events of recent days, here are four huge cultural obstacles that prevent progress toward peace: