RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13431/palestinians-shooting-pregnant-woman

According to the logic of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Ministry of Information, Israeli soldiers searching for terrorists is an “act of terrorism,” but not the shooting of a pregnant woman and six other Israeli civilians standing at a bus stop.
The message that Abbas is sending to the world is: How dare these Israelis take security measures to stop terrorist attacks against their soldiers and civilians!
Finally, we might mention an important detail about which Abbas and his representatives are keeping their mouths shut tight: the Israeli crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank actually serves the interests of the Palestinian Authority. Without this ongoing crackdown, Hamas would have long ago overthrown Abbas’s regime and seized control of the West Bank.

Three Israelis have been killed in the latest wave of Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank in the past week. The victims are two soldiers and a four-day-old baby who was prematurely born after his mother was shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting attack carried out by Palestinian terrorists.

The terrorist attacks took place near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority (PA), where President Mahmoud Abbas and most of his senior officials live and work. The car used in the drive-by shooting, which took place outside Ofra settlement, was later discovered by the Israeli army in the Ain Musbah neighbourhood of Ramallah, a few hundred meters from the private residence and headquarters of Abbas.

No one is suggesting that Abbas knew in advance of the terrorist attacks. However, the response of Abbas and his top officials to the attacks raises serious doubts about their purported commitment to peace with Israel.

Hours before the Ofra attack, Abbas said in a speech before leaders of his Fatah faction that he remains committed to “peaceful popular resistance” and diplomacy. “We don’t believe in weapons, and we don’t believe in rockets,” Abbas said in a reference to the rockets launched by Hamas and other terrorist groups from the Gaza Strip toward Israel.

The same Abbas who says he is opposed to the use of weapons and rockets has nonetheless failed to condemn the terrorist attacks in which these three Israelis were killed. Instead, his officials and he have been condemning Israel on a daily basis for cracking down on the terrorists.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272237/operation-northern-shield-deprives-hezbollah-major-ari-lieberman

On November 14, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left many scratching their heads in bewilderment when he unexpectedly agreed to a ceasefire with the Gazan-based terror group, Hamas. In a two-day spate of cross-border violence, sparked by an intelligence operation in Gaza, the terrorist group fired an unprecedented 460 rockets and mortars into Israel, the highest ever for the terror group in such a brief period.

Of course, the fact that no Israelis were killed during the bombardment (a Palestinian living in Israel was killed) made Netanyahu’s announcement more palatable to the Israeli public but there was another more pressing matter that was dogging the prime minister. At an event hosted in honor of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, He made a cryptic reference to other “considerations that must be hidden from the enemy,” which “the public can’t always be privy to.”

Two weeks later, on November 29, Israel struck multiple enemy positions near Damascus and southern Syria. The target bank included pro-Iran militias as well as weapons bound for Hezbollah. It was the first reported Israeli strike in Syria since the September 18 downing of a Russian IL-20 “Coot” surveillance aircraft by inept Syrian anti-aircraft crews.

At the time, some speculated that Netanyahu was referring to this operation since it carried with it the potential of conflict with the Russians. Within days however, it became clear that Netanyahu was referencing a more sinister development on the Israel-Lebanon border. On December 4, Netanyahu announced that Israel had undertaken Operation Northern Shield, an undertaking aimed at uncovering and destroying Hezbollah tunnels penetrating Israel from Lebanon.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

FDA designation for solid tumor treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (28 Jan) that the AGI-134 solid tumor treatment from Israel’s BiolineRX showed promise. The U.S. FDA has just granted Biological Product Designation for the novel immunotherapy compound. Early trials show complete regression of tumors.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biolinerx-announces-receipt-of-fda-biological-product-designation-for-novel-cancer-immunotherapy-candidate-agi-134-300753579.html

Restoring the digestive system. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s E-Motion Medical has just received the CE Mark (i.e. European approval) for its E-Motion System, providing stimulation therapy that restores the natural motor function of the digestive system for patients with acute gastrointestinal dysmotility (GID).
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/e-motion-medical-receives-ce-mark-approval-for-its-novel-stimulation-therapy-for-patients-with-acute-digestive-dysmotility-300753556.html http://emotionmed.com/

New pathway for treating loss of hearing. Tel Aviv University scientists have produced the world’s first map of “methylation” (natural gene manipulation) that impacts development and ultimately loss of function of the entire inner ear. They have revealed many new genes that may help restore hearing to deaf children and adults.
https://www.aftau.org/weblog-medicine–health?&storyid4704=2424&ncs4704=3 http://kbalab.com/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6255903/

Going bats to understand spatial awareness. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have found that humans are more like bats than rats in how our brains help us navigate the environment. Rat neurons only emit predictable. rhythmic oscillations, whereas bats and primates additionally use far more complex mechanisms.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/bat-brains-forgo-rhythm-when-encoding-space

New program for treating eating disorders. Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center has set up a new daily program to treat young people up to age 30 in Northern Israel with eating disorders. Each patient receives an intensive, personized plan plus access to doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, dieticians and social workers.
https://www.rambam.org.il/en/rambam_news/New_eating_disorders_treatment.aspx

Sleeping sickness parasite genome decoded. Dr. Noam Kaplan of Israel’s Technion Institute is a member of an International team of scientists that has decoded the genome of the fatal parasite Trypanosoma brucei – the cause of human “sleeping sickness”. It should help in the development of techniques to block the fatal disease.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/home-2/#/hazardous-sleep/%20#content

Gut microbiome-analysis startup’s $5 million lab. I wrote previously (19th Aug)that Israeli startup DayTwo will provide members of health care provider Clalit with personalized nutrition plans based on DNA analysis of gut microbiome. DayTwo is now setting up a $5 million lab in Rehovot, working with the Weizmann Institute.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3751336,00.html

Of mice and men. (TY Atid-EDI) Israeli biotech CytoReason and Israel’s Technion Institute are analyzing the immune system at the cell level. As a result, they have just published a groundbreaking new mouse to human model. It will help scientists develop treatments faster that work both in clinical and human trials. Great video.
https://medkit.info/2018/06/19/cytoreason-builds-largest-reference-of-immune-focused-inter-cellular-communications/ http://www.cytoreason.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjmJzS7_QN4

New treatment for heart failure. Israeli-founded Irish-Israeli startup Whiteswell has developed a minimally invasive solution for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). It involves a catheter to drain excess fluid. Whiteswell has just raised $30 million of funds to support development and trials.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-heart-failure-treatment-co-whiteswell-raises-30m-1001264383
http://whiteswell.com/

Patient motoring guidance system. I reported previously (Dec 2011) that the universities of Haifa and Ben Gurion were building MobiGuide to monitor patients outside clinically controlled environments. MobiGuide is now the first AI system for the automated management of atrial fibrillation and gestational diabetes patients.
https://moh-it.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/mobiguide-a-personalized-and-patient-centric-decision-support-sys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njgsdqe23fE https://aabgu.org/bgu-innovation-mobiguide/

See the new migraine relief device. I reported previously (21st May) that Israel’s Neurolief was developing a non-invasive brain neuro-modulation interface system that could relieve migraine headaches. This Israel21c article shows the device, describes the technology and plans. The device is also in trials to treat depression.
https://www.israel21c.org/migraine-relief-from-an-israeli-neuro-modulation-device/

https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-america-helps-hezbollah/

It is well understood now that the terror organization Hezbollah built tunnels from Lebanese territory into northern Israel; the intention was infiltration. It turns out, however, that Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence had been tracking them and last week entered southern Lebanon to destroy them. (You can watch the IDF video of a Hezbollah member actually finding the camera in a tunnel before it blows up.) The Israeli operation—“Operation Northern Shield”—will likely not cause a major cross-border war because Iranian is not prepared to lose the assets it put there to the Israel Air Force.

What appears less understood is how the United States—by its financial and training support of the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)—is providing resources that allow Hezbollah to pursue its deadly machinations on the border.

Not deliberately, of course, and not directly. The Trump administration strongly supported Israel’s decision to strike Hezbollah. Even the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a press briefing, “We do not question Israel’s right to ensure its national security, including by preventing anyone from entering the country.”

Where this become hazy is when both the United States and Russia—and the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council—try to make a distinction between Hezbollah the terror organization and Hezbollah the government of Lebanon. The Russian spokesperson said, “We hope that no actions taken … will be in conflict with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701,” and Moscow hopes the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would “fulfill its monitoring mission and will not allow any violations.” That last bit was public window-dressing. Every inch of southern Lebanon is a well-known violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701’s 2006 demand that UNIFIL ensure:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272203/israeli-mom-and-premature-infant-battle-their-ari-lieberman

On Sunday, seven Israeli civilians were wounded after Palestinian terrorists in a white sedan sprayed a group of people waiting at a bus stop with automatic machinegun fire. The attack occurred near the community of Ofra, which is situated north of Jerusalem in the Samaria district.

The injured included a pregnant woman, identified as Shira Ish-Ran, who was hit in the abdomen and was initially listed as critical, though her condition has improved somewhat. Her unborn child, who was 30-35 weeks old, was delivered by emergency cesarean section and placed in the neo-natal intensive care unit. His condition is listed as critical and doctors fear he may have incurred a brain injury as a result of the attack. He is currently in a medically induced coma. Both mother and son are at Shaarei Zedek Medical center in Jerusalem.

The attack was captured on CCTV and Israeli security officials believe that there were at least two perpetrators. The Israel Defense Forces in combination with the General Security Service have launched an intensive dragnet for the terrorists, conducting sweeps of nearby hostile villages, including Silwad and al-Bireh. The Palestinian Authority-controlled Wafa propaganda outlet in the nearby city of Ramallah was also raided.

When I saw the headline, I was naturally shocked by the indiscriminate heinous nature of the attack and saddened for the fates of Mrs. Ish-Ran and her newborn baby boy, who were among the most seriously wounded. This bestial act of violence perpetrated by lowly cowards, was praised by Hamas, who referred to the attack as “heroic.” The Palestinian Authority has yet to issue a statement condemning the attack but judging by their past actions, they will likely name streets and squares after the perpetrators and issue hefty stipends for their families, a repulsive practice known as pay for slay. Under the leadership of Donald Trump, the United States has curtailed aid to the Palestinians, citing among other things, the Palestinian practice of pay for slay. The Europeans seem oblivious to this practice and are still lavishly funding the Palestinian Authority, courtesy of EU taxpayer.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/silence-over-un-anti-israel-votes-exposes-disingenuous-concern-for-anti-semitism/

Was the concern for anti-Semitism in the wake of the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue massacre among the media and political establishment heartfelt and genuine, or, sadly, more cynical and calculating?

Are white nationalists the primary drivers of a growing scourge of Jew-hatred, or are its purveyors largely to be found elsewhere?

Both of these propositions were put to the test recently at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The results are sobering, and challenge the prevailing chattering class narrative.

At the 73rd session of the UNGA, the vast majority of its 193 member states voted to share a rotten early Chanukah gift with the Jewish people: Six blatantly anti-Israel resolutions.

These resolutions collectively cast the New Jersey-sized, most liberal, democratic and prosperous nation in the Middle East – faced with existential threats from all sides on a daily basis – as a deplorable, illegitimate “occupying Power.”

Beyond leveling the usual calumnies at the Jewish state, among other things, the resolutions: (i) deem invalid any Israeli control over its own capital of Jerusalem; (ii) suggest that the Jerusalem-based Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism – yet where Jews are perversely forbidden from praying — is solely the domain of Muslims, referring to it by its Arabic name “Haram al-Sharif;” and (iii) cast as illegal all Israeli development in Judea and Samaria — also religiously and historically vital Jewish lands, seized in Arab wars of aggression and reclaimed by Israel in the Six-Day War — for which too, Israel’s legal claims under international law are robust. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2018/12/indivisible-jerusalem-belongs-to-israel/

Jewish Jerusalem is a shining symbol of our Judeo-Christian civilisation’s origin. Out of it has flowed individual freedom, a culture of tolerance and decency, science, technology, capitalism and prosperity. Nothing matches it — except in the inverse, the refusal to recognise the city as Israel’s rightful capital.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel

These are the first two lines of a well-known hymn which opened the service at my local Anglican church on Sunday last. It is apparently taken from a 9th-century Latin hymn. I assume it is no accident that Muslim invaders were occupying Jerusalem at the time. But it doesn’t matter whether that linkage is historically true, it is incidental to my theme which is that Israel and the people of Israel — to wit the Jews, distinctly not Palestinian Arabs — figure prominently in Christianity and in Western civilisation.

Jesus, the Apostles, Saint Paul were part of a Jewish population long occupying the land to the west of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem. They were not interlopers. The interlopers came later via conquest. Imams did not go barefoot into the unknown carrying copies of the Koran to proselytize by sweet reason.

But step back. Conquest was the name of the game for much of the history of mankind. It is useless to attach blame based on recent norms. That leaves us to make a judgment call. Who should ‘we’ recognise as being the rightful owners of the city of Jerusalem. Leave aside the broader question of the rightful geographical boundaries of Israel; though it has strong historical claims to all of Judaea and Samaria (the West Bank), which it currently occupies.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/news-services/article222709440.html

“We are most certainly not the experts when it comes to the historical disputes in this region,” Airbnb stated in announcing that it would no longer list rentals by Israeli citizens in the West Bank. Arbnb’s modesty is commendable, but its ignorance is insidious.

Its policy for the West Bank subjects Israel to a singular global standard and reflects an all-too-common narrative about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By empowering one-sided Israel-haters, it also makes peace less likely, not more.

The West Bank is obviously disputed territory, but Airbnb sees the dispute only through Palestinian eyes.

After all, it isn’t leaving the West Bank. If you want a place to rent there, you can use Airbnb to find one that’s owned by a Christian or a Muslim. You just can’t find any of the 200 or so owned by an Israeli Jew.

Airbnb concluded that “Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank” are “at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.”

So, Airbnb believes, what’s not “at the core of the dispute” is the rejection of Israel’s right to exist that’s broadly shared among Palestinians and their leaders; or the incitement to violence against Jews on Palestinian TV and social media; or textbooks that teach Palestinian school children that a future Palestine should encompass all of what’s now Israel; or Palestinian claims that Jews have no historical ties to key religious sites in Jerusalem.

https://freebeacon.com/blog/operation-northern-shield-notch-israels-belt/
Operation Northern Shield is a victory for Israel. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 4, Israel’s military thwarted a Hezbollah plan to attack the country through tunnels. Israel revealed the first tunnel that day. It has since found two others. The Israel Defense Forces estimate there are 10 such tunnels.
It’s easy to become confused as to whether the operation should in fact be considered a success when confronted with Israel’s turbulent punditry, where everything is thrown into doubt, including whether even to call it an “operation.”
As one Israeli columnist noted (who argued it was indeed an operation), when Israelis hear that word they expect columns of troops marching into enemy territory, not a couple of soldiers standing around a rock drill with their hands in their pockets. The scene resembles peaceful preliminary work on a new highway.
Nevertheless, it’s difficult to overstate the catastrophe that Israel avoided. Hezbollah planned to use these tunnels—large enough to drive motorcycles and tractors through—to mount a small invasion, sending elite forces into Israel under cover of artillery fire to cut off Metullah and other Israeli towns in the upper Galilee.
The thought of hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists wreaking murder and mayhem is terrifying. It would have been a painful defeat for Israel. Yes, the IDF would have regained control, but Israeli society would have spun into depression while Muslim morale skyrocketed. Propaganda videos of Hezbollah killers planting victory flags over Metullah would have streamed throughout the Islamic world.