RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://worldisraelnews.com/synagogue-desecrated-in-jerusalem-recalls-dark-periods-of-jewish-history/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&

A synagogue in Jerusalem was vandalized over Monday night. It is the second case of a synagogue having been desecrated this week.

A synagogue serving the French community in Kiryat Yoval, a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, was vandalized on Monday night. The synagogue’s Torah ark was smashed and the Torah scrolls thrown on the ground.

Police have already set up a special investigation team and the synagogue was closed this morning to allow forensic investigators to work, Israel’s Channel 20 reports. The neighborhood has a history of friction between religious and secular Jews, according to Israel Hayom.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin expressed shock at the news. Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon said the vandalism was “a grave event reminiscent of dark periods of the Jewish people.”

“I’ve spoken with the Jerusalem bureau at the moment and I am sure that the Israeli police will soon put their hands on the criminals,” the mayor said.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Arming white blood cells to fight cancer. Scientists at Tel Aviv University have discovered that the white blood cells called Eosinophils secrete powerfully destructive proteins that can kill tumors. When activated by the protein IFN-gamma, they induced an even greater immunotherapy response and a new anti-cancer pathway.
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/science-and-tech/israeli-research-white-blood-cells-related-to-allergies-asthma-may-also-destroy-cancer-cells/2019/01/22/

New biomarker helps detect high risk of cancer. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and others have found that high levels of the protein ubiquilin-4 cause cells to become prone to genome instability and more likely to develop into tumors. Once discovered, these cells can be treated with other forms of cancer therapy.
https://www.israel21c.org/israelis-find-biomarker-linking-genome-instability-cancer/
https://www.aftau.org/weblog-medicine–health?&storyid4704=2430&ncs4704=3

Successful trials of treatment for severe burns. I reported previously (see here) on the innovative NexoBrid treatment for severe burns from Israel’s MediWound. MediWound has just announced positive top line results of its pivotal U.S. Phase 3 clinical study. Dead skin was completely removed from 93% of trial patients.
http://ir.mediwound.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mediwound-announces-positive-top-line-results-its-pivotal-phase

US approval for groundbreaking inhaler. (TY Atid-EDI) The US FDA has approved the ProAir Digihaler made by Israel’s Teva. It is the first and only digital inhaler with built-in sensors that connects to a companion mobile app and provides relevant information to people with asthma and COPD.
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/teva-announces-fda-approval-of-first-and-only-digital-inhaler-with-built-in-sensors-proair-digihalertm-albuterol-sulfate-117-mcg-inhalation-powder-2018-12-21

The neurons that recognize a face. Researchers at Israel’s Bar Ilan University and in Paris have identified neurons in the human visual cortex that can selectively respond to faces. The discovery came while studying an epileptic patient that had micro-electrodes implanted in the vicinity of the Fusiform Face Area.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/i-see-you-in-first-israeli-french-team-finds-neurons-that-respond-to-all-faces/
http://n.neurology.org/content/92/4/197

Breakthrough cancer treatment available to Israelis. (TY I24 News) The Israeli-developed CAR-T cancer treatment is one of NIS 460 million worth of new treatments added to Israel’s 2019 Health Basket. CAR-T has over 80% success rate, even in terminal cases. The new treatments will benefit an estimated 70,000 Israelis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7UtUXNF4_U
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/257940
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-over-half-israels-2019-drug-basket-budget-goes-to-cancer-1001267676

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/israel-gives-irish-ambassador-severe-dressing-down-for-anti-semitic-d%C3%A1il-bill-1.3770529

Irish ambassador to Israel Alison Kelly has been warned of “serious consequences” for Irish-Israel relations and Dublin’s standing in the region if the controversial Bill prohibiting importing goods from the occupied territories in Palestine becomes law.

The ministry said Ms Kelly was given an “angry rebuke” over the “scandalous” Bill. The severe diplomatic dressing down at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem on Friday morning followed Thursday’s passage of the first reading of the measure in the Dáil.

The Israeli government described the Bill, which covers goods produced on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Golan Heights and in east Jerusalem, as “hypocritical and anti-Semitic.”

Israeli officials told the ambassador that Dublin should “concentrate on dark dictatorships and terrorist organisations instead of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272651/week-military-and-diplomatic-success-israel-ari-lieberman

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured another diplomatic victory for Israel with the dramatic announcement that Chad and the Jewish State would be reestablishing diplomatic relations. The Muslim majority nation had severed ties in 1972 following intense pressure from Libya, its menacing neighbor to the north, which at the time was led by the dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi. But following a visit by Chad’s President Idriss Déby to Jerusalem and a reciprocating visit by PM Netanyahu to N’Djamena, forty-seven years of animosity instantly vanished.

Israel’s historic diplomatic achievement occurred despite intense efforts by the Palestinian Authority and Iran to torpedo the initiative, and reflects a rise in Israel’s standing on the African continent and in the Muslim world at large. Indeed, Israel has much to offer in terms of military expertise, cyber technology, water technology and agricultural technology, commodities that are in high demand in parched, battle-plagued Africa.

Upon Netanyahu’s return flight to Israel, Sudan granted permission for Netanyahu’s plane to fly in airspace controlled by Khartoum. This may seem to be insignificant but considering that Sudan was once firmly in Iran’s camp and served as an Iranian transit point for arms shipments to Gaza, the gesture was remarkable.

Following the breakthrough with Chad, Jerusalem announced that it is preparing to host Mali’s Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga in the “coming weeks.” The West African Muslim majority nation severed diplomatic relations with Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War but is now set to restore full diplomatic ties.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Right-from-wrong-The-lost-cause-campaign-to-challenge-PM-578612

According to an Army Radio poll released Tuesday, the Likud Party will lose four Knesset seats if Attorney- General Avichai Mandelblit decides next month to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery. As is characteristic of most such surveys, this one is not only unreliable; it belies its political motivation.

To achieve Army Radio’s desired outcome that Netanyahu’s popularity is in peril, the pollsters – in this case, the Midgam and iPanel research companies – posed two questions to respondents. The first was straightforward, asking, “Which party would you vote for if elections were held today?” The second was, “If Mandelblit decides to indict Netanyahu before the elections, which party will you vote for [on April 9]?” The results indicated a discrepancy in the number of seats that would be won – pending an indictment – by five of the 14 parties running. Likud, according to the poll, would be reduced from 29 mandates to 25; Israel Resilience would increase its mandates from 13 to 14; ditto for Yesh Atid; and both Kulanu and Yisrael Beytenu would each gain six seats, as opposed to five. The other nine parties purportedly would not be affected.

Aside from being mind-numbingly boring – as it shows that Netanyahu and his party are still way ahead of their rivals – the poll reveals something interesting about the agenda behind it.
With the Left in shambles – and intent on seeing Netanyahu sent to jail – the rest of the “anybody but Bibi” camp has been grasping at straws in order to present an electoral alternative to the long-standing Likud-led government.
Disgruntled former Likud politicians, retired IDF generals and other bubble-dwellers vying for a place at the table, are desperate to come up with a formula that will guarantee their own aggrandizement at Netanyahu’s expense.
The only magic potion they have managed to conjure up, however, is one that has been tried repeatedly in the past and failed: aiming for the so-called “center.”

A brand new, two-story shopping mall just opened in Atorot, a poor, largely Arab section of northern Jerusalem that will serve both Palestinians and Israeli Jews. It is not being celebrated by everyone and may come with a price.

The mall has drawn the ire of Palestine Arab leadership who say ‘coexistence’ between the groups is criminal and in many ways, it reveals the internal machinations of the deep divide that has made the U.S. peace negotiations so difficult.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week that a U.S. peace push “won’t be [uniquely] a U.S.-driven process” and would require the cooperation of all parties, including allies in the region.

“Ultimately, the Israelis and the Palestinians will have to come to an agreement,” he said.

If anything, the Atorot Mall, is another test of that process. It is just across Israel’s separation barrier from Ramallah, the government seat of the Palestinian Authority. Atorot, known as Al-Ram in Arabic, is a little more than six miles from downtown Jerusalem.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/is-israels-inevitable-war-with-iran-underway/

It would be a mistake to dismiss nuclear threats coming out of Tehran as mere saber-rattling, given its stated intention and increasingly overt attempts to annihilate Israel, even at its own potential peril.

Israelis enjoying themselves on the slopes of the Mount Hermon ski resort in the Golan Heights were startled on Sunday afternoon to witness an Iranian missile heading their way. Had it not been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile-defense system, many innocent vacationers, as well as residents in the area, would have been killed.

The surface-to-surface projectile, fired by the Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force in Syria, did not cause the skiers to pack up their gear and run for shelter and hot chocolate, however. After filming the scene on phones and helmet cams, they picked up where they left off. For most Israelis, the rain of enemy rockets is not nearly as novel as mounds of fresh snow.

Disappointment was high, then, when the Israel Defense Forces announced that the popular site, adjacent to the Syrian and Lebanese borders, would be closed on Monday. The IDF was already planning the retaliatory strikes that it carried out late Sunday night against Iranian bases and soldiers stationed near Damascus—a mere 30 miles from Mount Hermon.

https://bit.ly/2TbG6lY

1. Israel’s most successful ever government bonds issue totaled 2.5BN Euros: 1.25BN 10-year bond and 1.25BN 30-year bond. The European demand was six times the amount of the bond issued (15BN Euros!) in spite of the low interest rate – 1.5% for the 10-year bond and 2.5% for the 30-year bond – reflecting confidence in Israel’s economy, Israel’s responsible management of its economy and Israel’s solid bond-repayment track record. Some 300 investors from Britain, Germany, France and other European countries – including European Central Banks, pension fund and insurance companies – participated in the bond issue. At the same time, Saudi Arabia had to increase its interest rate to 3%, in order to raise 3BN Euros (Globes Business Daily, January 10, 2019).

2. Israel surged to 5th place in the latest Bloomberg Innovation Index, 2019, trailing South Korea, Germany, Finland and Switzerland, ahead of Singapore, Sweden, USA, Japan, France, etc. Israel was 10th in the 2018 Index. In 2019, Israel is the only country ahead of South Korea in the category of research & development expenditure as a percentage of GDP (4.3%). Israel’s major surge is in the area of patent activity – from 19thspot in 2018 to the 4th spot in 2019. The Bloomberg Innovation Index ranks the globe’s 60 most innovative countries according to the following criteria: GDP, productivity, patent activity, concentration of researchers, postgraduate PhD students engaged in research & development per 1-million people and concentration of high-tech companies (Globes, January 22).

3. The largest ever Japanese delegation of 200 senior executives of 100 leading Japanese corporations, including Mitsubishi and Toshiba, along with Japan’s Minister of Economic Affairs, visited Israel, exploring ways and means to expand bilateral trade and investment. In 2018, Israel’s export to Japan grew 42% to $1.16BN, mostly medical, optical and metal equipment and products. Since 2014, Japanese companies have made over 200 venture capital investments in Israel’s high tech sector. However, Japan – the world’s 3rd largest economy – accounted for only 2% of foreign investment in Israel during the past five years. In addition to commercial high tech, Japan is increasingly interested in cooperation and acquisitions in the areas of defense and homeland security. Israel’s innovation track record has enticed dozens of Japanese companies to explore the potential of research, development and production cooperation with compatible Israeli companies. Japan’s and Israel’s Economic Ministers signed an agreement, enhancing digital health cooperation, teaming substantial Japanese corporations and ground-breaking Israeli startups. Another agreement highlights the matching of Israeli innovations (e.g., artificial intelligence, cyber technologies) and Japanese manufacturers, targeting the Japanese market. A leading Israeli venture capital fund, Vertex, has benefitted from hundreds of millions of dollars, invested by 31 Japanese investors, including financial institutions and major corporations (Globes, January 17).

https://worldisraelnews.com/exposed-arabs-silently-taking-over-land-in-gush-etzion/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1548352996&pushcrew_powered=1

Israeli NGO and politicians campaign to fight Palestinian landgrabs in areas where Israel is in full control.

By Aryeh Savir,TPS

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has recently increased its efforts to take control of a strategic area in the Nahal Heletz area between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion.

Regavim, a research-based legal advocacy NGO which says it is dedicated to ensuring accountable use of Israel’s national land, published on Wednesday a report which exposes the PA’s construction work at Nahal Heletz, near Har Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

A large number of heavy tractors have been turning the landscape of the riverbed into a wide and flat expanse, and ancient agricultural huts have been renovated and transformed into residential buildings for Arabs.

These lands are survey lands which are not privately owned and therefore can be declared state lands.

Yishai Hemo, the Regavim director in Judea and Samaria, argues that the engineering work and high cost involved in the effort prove that this is not a private initiative.