RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://dsadevil.blogspot.com/2018/12/from-river-to-sea-guide-to-perplexed.html
So we’re all talking about the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — which, after Temple Professor Marc Lamont Hill said it at a UN conference, reportedly caused his termination from CNN.

I don’t want to talk about Hill directly though. Quickly: He should face absolutely zero professional consequences at Temple — that’s a straightforward academic freedom issue. There is no academic freedom analogue to a sinecure at CNN, but I probably wouldn’t have fired him either — then again, I have a pretty high bar for firing people in cases like these. Certainly, the network that employs Rick Santorum doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on in this respect.

What I do want to do is give some context — hopefully helpful — to the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” I do not wish to directly challenge anyone’s substantive political commitments on the score. Much the opposite: my assumption is that there are a great many people for whom the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” sounds wholly innocuous if not laudatory — who doesn’t want freedom for all people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea? — and are a bit baffled that such a statement could trigger such an intense backlash.

In particular, my target audience is someone I imagine thinking along roughly the following lines:

They support freedom for all people who happen to reside between the Jordan and Mediterranean;
They read “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as a pithy way of expressing the above commitment;
They’ve noted, with some confusion, that many Jews seemed to react extremely poorly to the use of this phrase; and
They assume that there’s at least a decent chance that the reason for this negative reaction is not that the Jews in question are opposed to all or some people between the Jordan and the Mediterranean being free, and accordingly wonder what the actual reason is.

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-UNs-delusion-573363

Former US ambassador to the United Nations and staunch Israel defender Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”

For decades, the UN has repeatedly shown that it thinks it can set its own facts about Israel, history be damned.Moynihan is known for, among other things, giving a speech against the UN’s 1975 decision that “Zionism is racism,” a distortion that he called an “infamous act” by which “the abomination of antisemitism has been given the appearance of international sanction.”

On Friday, 43 years later, UN member countries authorized six anti-Israel resolutions in the General Assembly, including writing the Jewish people out of Jerusalem’s history, showing all these years later that the institution has not changed.

A resolution approved by 148 countries, and opposed by 11 that are committed to the historic truth, denied Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. That and another, which was approved 156-8, spoke of al-Haram al-Sharif without mentioning that Jews and Christians call it the Temple Mount and that it is Judaism’s holiest site.

After the UN declared Zionism to be racism, Moynihan said in his speech: “As it is a lie which the United Nations has now declared to be a truth, the actual truth must be restated.”

The same applies to Friday’s decisions.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Boost for prostate treatment. I reported previously (Feb 2012) on Israel’s Medi-Tate and its non-invasive treatment for benign prostate enlargement. Now Japan’s Olympus Corporation has invested $20 million in Medi-Tate and will market Medi-Tate’s iTind implant in several countries.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3749102,00.html

Israeli innovation saves lives. Hospitals all over the world use Israeli medical technology. But Israeli Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next big item. This article highlights Israel’s MedAware (preventing prescription errors), MobiGuide’s Patient Guidance system, Zebra Medical, and AI systems at Israeli hospitals Sheba and Sourasky.
https://www.jpost.com/In-Jerusalem/Artificial-intelligence-shall-come-forth-from-Zion-572610

Toolbox for chemists. Researchers at Israel’s Technion have developed a “toolbox” technique to give organic chemists a cheap and quick method to design complex molecules and make safe medicines. They place smaller molecules in a ring, make them rigid, use a catalyst to break their bonds and re-assemble them like toy bricks.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/technion-scientists-develop-new-way-to-study-complex-molecules/

Recognition for pain monitor. I reported previously (Feb 2017) that the PMD200 pain measurement device from Israel’s Medasense had received European CE Approval. Now, the international Society of Critical Care Medicine has included the innovative technology in its Intensive Care Unit Clinical Practice Guidelines.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-pain-assessment-tool-cited-in-new-icu-guidelines/

Treatment to combat mustard gas. The US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) has invested $43 million in Israel’s MediWound to develop its NexoBrid product for the treatment of mustard gas injuries. In 2015 BARDA invested $112 million to help MediWound develop NexoBrid for burns.
http://nocamels.com/2018/10/biomedical-firm-mediwound-mustard-gas/

Guidance system for visually-impaired goes global. I reported previously (Sep 2017) on Israel’s RightHear and its app that enables the visually impaired to navigate shopping malls, hospitals, universities etc. RightHear has since been installed in Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal, launched in the US and is heading for the UK.
https://m.thegrocer.co.uk/571341.article?mobilesite=enabled (TY Hazel)

Bio-ethics conference. We’ve just returned from Jerusalem. The hotel where we stayed was also hosting the UNESCO 13th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics and Health Law and many of the international delegates were pleased to hear about VeryGoodNewsIsrael.
https://ethics-2018.isas.co.il/ https://ethics-2018.isas.co.il/hotels/

https://www.jns.org/opinion/israel-u-s-jews-and-the-left-right-rift/

In an op-ed this week on the rift between American Jews and Israel, Haaretz’s Chemi Shalev compares the “troubled marriage” to a romantic union gone sour. He does this through metaphor—a literary device that he clearly prides himself on employing to provide a snide description of the touted “match made in Jewish heaven” that is now, in his view, completely “on the rocks.”

“For many years it seemed like a love story from a fairy tale,” Shalev writes, apologizing in good liberal fashion for his use of “gender assignments” to the protagonists. “He [Israel] was brave, brash and handsome, like Paul Newman. She was rich and smart, a Jewish American princess, and what she lacked in beauty she made up for in unbridled worship for the very ground he marched on. It took them awhile to warm to each other—they kept at arm’s length for their first 19 years—but after June 1967 [the Six-Day War] they fell into each other’s arms like long lost lovers.”

The “world’s foremost power couple,” according to Shalev, proceeded to engage in a kind of mutual opportunism, with Israel serving as American Jewry’s arm candy in exchange for the coveted advantage of “cruising on the fast lane to unparalleled power, money and influence” in Washington.

This metaphorical “dynamic duo” lived in harmony for several years, until the husband’s “attractive self-confidence morphed into obnoxious arrogance.” Sadly, writes Shalev, “70 years of overall success went to his head.” As a result, “He turned holier than thou, rebuffed reproof, wallowed in victimhood, labeled his critics anti-Semites and was mortified when [his wife], of all people, seemed to echo some of their sentiments. He wanted her to remain dutifully compliant, to do exactly as she’s told and to keep the checks coming, as always.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272063/airbnbs-corporate-act-anti-semitism-ari-lieberman

Airbnb’s November 19th decision to delist some 200 accounts of Jewish citizens who reside in the districts of Judea & Samaria, alternatively known as the West Bank, will have little economic impact on those account holders. Most of their business is generated by other advertising and hosting platforms so nothing will change. The tourists will still come. Moreover, Airbnb specifically excluded rentals from East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights from its delisting efforts. Nevertheless, despite its miniscule economic impact, it is crucial that supporters of Israel and opponents of antisemitism muster all efforts to reverse Airbnb’s illogical and discriminatory policy. This includes legal action, petitions, political and economic pressures.

The decision to ban West Bank accounts of Jewish residents exclusively is discriminatory on two levels. First, despite numerous conflict zones throughout the world – Tibet, Kashmir, Crimea, Western Sahara, Northern Cyprus, Falkland Islands, Nagorno-Karabakh, to name just a few – Airbnb decided to focus its efforts on Judea and Samaria. Second, Airbnb distinguishes between Jewish and Arab homes within Judea and Samaria. Thus an Arab resident of Jericho can freely rent his apartment, while his Jewish neighbor who resides in the community of Mitzpeh Jericho, cannot.

Judging from its disparate treatment of Israel, it is patently clear that Airbnb’s decision was motivated by pressure from nefarious anti-Israel elements. The United Nations Human Rights Council, a body hosted by the world’s worst purveyors of Antisemitism and human rights violations, placed Airbnb on its black list of companies doing business in Judea and Samaria. Human Rights Watch and other anti-Israel non-governmental organizations also chimed it. As a result, Airbnb chose the morally reprehensible path and succumbed. It is time for Airbnb to recognize that its deleterious action comes with adverse legal and economic consequences.

Within days of Airbnb’s action, a class action lawsuit was filed in Israel seeking an unspecified sum on behalf of those aggrieved by the company’s delisting campaign. A newly enacted Israeli law empowers courts to award compensation to plaintiffs who can prove that they were denied goods or services on the basis of their domicile.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/netanyahu-iran-and-threats-that-have-come-to-light/

Without the prime minister’s persistence in exposing the extent of threat posed by the regime in Tehran, as well as his forging of alliances to combat it, Israelis would not have the luxury to laugh at his diagrams.

In an address to the nation last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to critics angry with him for agreeing to a premature ceasefire with Hamas, and those accusing him of being more preoccupied with keeping his government from falling than with implementing wise policies.

“Most Israeli citizens know that when I make security-related decisions, I do so … out of a genuine and deep concern for the welfare of our country, the security of our citizens and the safety of our soldiers,” he said. “These are not slogans.”

He went on to state ominously that a multi-pronged operation is in the works. “I have a clear plan,” he announced. “I know what to do and when to do it. And we are going to do it. … This will involve sacrifice, but … we will overcome our enemies.”

Netanyahu seemed to imply that he was not solely referring to “our enemies” in Gaza or Ramallah, but to the mullahs in Tehran. Those of us convinced that his incessant harping on the Iranian nuclear threat is warranted can only imagine, with both hope and trepidation, what his “clear plan” entails.

The remaining minority of the Israeli public thinks that Netanyahu dangles the dangers of a nuclear Iran as a scare tactic to garner votes. This sector is responsible for ridiculing him every time he opens his mouth on the topic, especially when he whips out props for backup.

The most famous example is a cartoon-like diagram of a bomb that he held up during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 2012. To stress his point about the need for the international community to draw red lines on Iran’s nuclear program, he drew an actual red line between the base of bomb and the fuse. For this, he was made fun of relentlessly by every Israeli comedian, satirist, caricaturist and rival politician for months.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272038/netanyahu-still-israels-preferred-leader-joseph-puder

At the Likud party meeting on Monday (November 19, 2018), Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu declared, “We have an entire year until the elections.” He made the statement a day after he called on his coalition partner not to dissolve the government. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the “Israel Our Home” party, originally a party of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, resigned last week as Defense Minister, and pulled his party out of the coalition government. He was hoping to bring down Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud (party) led government. The pretext for his decision was Netanyahu’s reluctance to engage the Israel Defense Forces in another Gaza war, and his decision to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas. Lieberman denounced the move as “surrender to terror.” Lieberman’s thinking was that his resignation will prompt other coalition partners to leave as well, and thus new elections will be called, since the Netanyahu government would not have the necessary 61 votes to govern. He failed. Now he will sit on the Opposition benches next to Ayman Odeh, of the United Arab List. Lieberman learned two lessons. One, the country and seated Knesset Members are not eager for new elections to take place, and two, Netanyahu is not led by his coalition partners, but rather the opposite.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the “Jewish Home” party and coalition partner was also in a heated disagreement with PM Netanyahu over the response to the massive rocket attacks from Gaza. Like Lieberman, Bennett also sought more aggressive action against Hamas and its terrorist partners in the Gaza Strip. Bennett used Lieberman’s departure as Defense Minister to petition for this job, the second most powerful post in the Israeli government. Bennett’s eight seats in the 120 Knesset seats (Israeli Parliament), three more than Lieberman’s party, posed a veiled threat to Netanyahu. The “Jewish Home” party departure from the coalition would have brought the government down, and new elections would become a certainty. Netanyahu however, decided not give in. He was aided by Jewish Home party constituents, who pressured Bennett to stay put. They simply figured that Bennett’s quest for the Defense portfolio was not worth risking an early election result that might harm the party, and diminish its representation in the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who sought early elections at one point, has changed his mind and is determined to go on with his narrow coalition government of 61 seats until its official term expires next year. Polls have consistently predicted that the Likud would end up increasing its representation in the Knesset. And Netanyahu predicted in August of this year that the Likud might possibly garner “35 (mandates), 40 is the goal.” Netanyahu has held the office of Prime Minister for 12 years, and if he manages, as it appears, to hold on until next year, he could surpass Israel’s founding father, David Ben Gurion, as the longest serving prime minister.