Displaying posts categorized under

ISRAEL

Airbnb’s Anti-Israel Hypocrisy The tech company will operate anywhere and serve anyone—except Jews in the West Bank.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnbs-anti-israel-hypocrisy-1543175767

Two very different organizations took action last week against Jews owning property in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority sentenced two Palestinians to 15 years hard labor for selling land to Jews. And Airbnb, the tech behemoth and online marketplace for lodging, announced it would no longer serve Jewish communities in the West Bank. The two actions differ in brutality but are based on the same idea: Jews should have no home in the West Bank.

Under Airbnb’s policy, an American Jew with a rental property in the West Bank is barred from listing it for rent on the website. But an American Arab is welcome to list his home a few hundred meters away, even though the Palestinian law forbidding real-estate deals with Jews carries a maximum penalty of death. That openly racist policy doesn’t trigger Airbnb’s delisting policy.

Airbnb admits the West Bank is the site of complicated “historical disputes.” Until 1948, the West Bank was part of the League of Nations’ 1922 British Mandate for Palestine, created to become a “national home” for the Jewish people. In 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution suggesting the territory be divided into Arab and Jewish states, an idea the Arabs immediately shot down. Indeed, when the mandate ended and Israel declared independence in 1948, all its Arab neighbors invaded immediately. Jordan occupied the West Bank and massacred or expelled every Jew in the area, took their homes and destroyed their synagogues. Israel only regained the West Bank after Jordan foolishly attacked again in 1967. Many Jews then returned, including to lands Jews had purchased before Israeli independence.

Since then, the dispute has narrowed. Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian leadership in 1993, leaving all settlements—the new and returning Jewish communities—under complete Israeli control. Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994. To be sure, the Palestinians still demand the removal of Jews from the entire West Bank. But Airbnb’s policy applies only to the Israeli—primarily Jewish—communities in the disputed territories.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Brain bleed detection approved. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s MedyMatch and its Artificial Intelligent Accipio Ix intracranial hemorrhage detection software. MedyMatch (renamed MaxQ AI) has now received both FDA and CE approval to sell its systems in both the US and in Europe.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/maxq-ai-receives-fda-clearance-for-accipio-ix-intracranial-hemorrhage-diagnostics-intelligence-platform-300745201.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UrqJ84BJbc

US approval for portable blood test. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (8th Apr) on Israel’s PixCell which received a multi-million grant by the EU to help advance its HemoScreen portable blood test. The US FDA has just approved HemoScreen to sell in the USA. Meanwhile, Israel’s SightDx has launched its OLO blood tester.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hemoscreen-hematology-analyzer-for-point-of-care-receives-fda-510k-clearance-300745234.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xjPf1N8T0k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1iSO1KaJ-Y https://www.sightdx.com/

Treatment for advanced Parkinson’s disease. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Intec Pharma which is developing treatments based on its innovative Accordion technology. Intec’s COO Nadav Navon provided an update of Intec’s pipeline on ILTV. Phase 3 trials have now commenced on Intec’s Parkinson’s treatment.
https://ir.intecpharma.com/news-releases/news-release-details/intec-pharma-completes-enrollment-pivotal-phase-3-clinical-trial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEAH5L6Ng0

Quadriplegic bridegroom stands at his wedding. (TY TIP) I reported previously (Dec 2015) about a paraplegic bridegroom who walked down the isle in an Israeli ReWalk exoskeleton. Now a quadriplegic Israeli, Adir, was able to stand next to his bride, Liat, thanks to ReWalk’s latest “UPnRIDE” mobility solution.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-device-lets-wheelchair-bound-groom-stand-under-chuppah/

The right treatment is in the DNA. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s 2bPrecise takes sources of patient genetic data to help physicians determine the best treatment for individuals. 2bPrecise is partnering with US-based Innovation Institute and Avera Health’s GeneFolio to deliver a pharmacogenomics knowledge base to the point of care.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181102005411/en/2bPrecise-Honored-Israel%E2%80%99s-Top-Startups https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180307005764/enhttps://2bprecisehealth.com/

Pediatric orthopedic training for 50 African doctors. Professor Mark Eidelman of Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center led a unique 4-day training course in Addis Ababa. 50 doctors from Ethiopia and neighboring countries learned how to fix pediatric orthopedic deformities.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/254979

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

From Ethiopian immigrant to Israeli Parliament. (TY UWI) Penina Tamanu-Shata is the first Ethiopian-born woman to become a member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset). Penina came to Israel in 1984 at the age of 3 during Operation Moses. She tells of her Aliyah and her work helping other immigrants to integrate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-wNynsw0Ec

Audio books for kids with reading difficulties. (TY Moshe K) The Israel Audiobook Project provides children with reading difficulties free access to texts in audio, rather than written, form. Now they too can enjoy the pleasure of well-known children’s stories and their characters.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/listening-to-a-world-of-adventures-one-magic-book-at-a-time/

Training program for special needs. Tel Aviv University and AKIM have launched a training program for those with learning difficulties to become professional dental sterilization technicians. Skills include decontamination, assembling, packaging, and distribution of re-usable surgical instruments and equipment.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/training-program-for-adults-with-intellectual-disabilities-opens-at-school-of-dental-medicine/2018/11/21/

The guy who saves wild animals. Avihu Sherwood runs the “For the Wildlife” Animal Rescue at the Dear Park Country Zoo, founded by Tzvi Adiv, on Israel’s Moshav Elishama, in Central Israel. Avihu tries to save any injured animal and reintroduce it into the wild – some 3,000 – 4,000 animals per year.
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/healing-nature/2018/05/28/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo61yiz6Mwg

A.J. Caschetta: Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies: Ramallah on the Hudson Welcome to the PLO’s American academic wing.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272033/columbia-universitys-center-palestine-studies-aj-caschetta

http://www.thetower.org/6865-columbia-universitys-center-for-palestine-studies-ramallah-on-the-hudson/

The Trump administration may have closed the PLO’s Mission in Washington, D.C., but its Morningside Heights Mission is open for business. I refer to Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies (CPS), an Ivy League clearinghouse for PLO propaganda and the demonization of Israel. Call it the PLO’s American academic wing.

When the CPS opened more than eight years ago, founding co-director Rashid Khalidi promised that it would avoid doing “anything that’s directly related to any political activism.” This is laughable. What Khalidi meant is that the CSP would not participate in anti-Israel activism, but this is a lie. The faculty members who comprise the center’s experts are rivaled only by the faculty of Birzeit University for their anti-Israel advocacy.

It might, in fact, take a Center for Palestine Studies to examine thoroughly the history of Palestinian organizations devoted to political violence. But instead, Columbia has assembled the anti-Israel all-stars of academia, such as Joseph Massad, who has called for “the continuing resistance of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories to all the civil and military institutions that uphold Jewish supremacy.” Another member of CPS is Hamid Dabashi, who wrote that Israel is a “key actor” in “every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world.”

In addition to being a professor at Columbia’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the CPS, Khalidi also happens to be a former member of the PLO, as Martin Kramer has shown. Not since Columbia hired former Weather Underground member Kathy Boudinat its School of Social Work has it given a platform to “reformed” terrorists. At least Boudin expressed remorse, even if it was insincere. Not so Khalidi, a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS ) advocate whose views have remained consistent since his PLO days, though they are now masked in the academic patois of post-colonialism.

Brinkley Messick, the CPS’s other founding co-director, hyped it as the first academic center devoted to the study of Palestinian Arabs. “Very simply,” he gushed, “there’s never been a dedicated space … for this kind of research.” He was partly right. Columbia already had one called the Middle East Institute, which has an anti-Israel bent, but the CPS brought together faculty from beyond Middle East Studies, all dedicated to delegitimizing Israel and whitewashing Palestinian violence. Several of them have even been immortalized in The David Project’s documentary Columbia Unbecoming (2004) where their purported reluctance to be political is exposed as fraudulent.

ISRAELI SCIENTISTS DEVELOP IMPLANTED ORGANS THAT WILL NOT BE REJECTED

https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-scientists-develop-implanted-organs-that-wont-be-rejected/

Breakthrough development uses a patient’s own stomach cells, cutting the risk of an immune response to implanted organs.

Israeli researchers report that they have invented the first fully personalized tissue implant, engineered from a patient’s own materials and cells. The new technology makes it possible to engineer any kind of tissue implant, for the spinal cord, to the heart, or brain, from one small fatty tissue biopsy.

“We were able to create a personalized hydrogel from the materials of the biopsy, to differentiate fatty tissue cells into different cell types and to engineer cardiac, spinal cord, cortical and other tissue implants to treat different diseases,” said lead researcher Prof. Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University’s Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology.

“Since both the cells and the material used derive from the patient, the implant does not provoke an immune response, ensuring proper regeneration of the defected organ,” Dvir explained.

The research was conducted by Dvir’s postdoctoral researcher, Reuven Edri, and doctoral students Nadav Noor and Idan Gal, in collaboration with Prof. Dan Peer and Prof. Irit Gat Viks of TAU’s Department of Cell Research and Immunology and Prof. Lior Heller of Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center in Israel. It was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Israel’s improved ties with China don’t diminish its US alliance A prejudiced double standard has been applied to Israel’s prudent cooperation with China David Goldman and Marc Zell

http://www.atimes.com/article/israels-improved-ties-with-china-dont-diminish-its-us-alliance/

Israel often is called America’s best ally. After the first two years of the Trump Administration no-one can doubt it. Among all of America’s allies, Israel has aligned itself unambiguously and without deviation with Washington’s objectives, while our European and Japanese allies have complained, temporized, and occasionally dealt with China and Russia behind America’s back. The President’s unflinching support for the Jewish State, including the historic move of our Israel embassy to Jerusalem, is reason enough for Israel to cleave to its American alliance.

But there is also a deep confluence of strategic interests at work. There is only one country in the Middle East with the expressed intent and prospective ability to destroy Israel, and that is Iran. China is a major vendor of weapons as well as weapons technology to Iran, especially the know-how to make missiles that can reach Israel and eventually carry nuclear warheads. China also is Iran’s largest trading partner, and its most important provider of industrial goods and hydrocarbon investments. This is a consideration far more pressing than any economic benefits that Israel obtains from trade and investment with China.
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The Trump Administration’s pressure on China in response to its unfair trading practices, technology theft and strategic expansionism offers an inestimable benefit to the Jewish State: China knows that it will suffer consequences for its misbehavior in the form of tariffs, sanctions on individual companies, and possibly other means. That gives China an incentive to act responsibly with respect to Iran, where it exercises great economic influence.

To the extent that China cooperates with the Trump Administration’s economic sanctions on Iran, it will help to suppress the one serious existential threat to Israel. Israel has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Trump Administration in its diplomacy towards China, because American pressure on China bears directly on issues of life-and-death concern to the Jewish State. As participants in meetings with Chinese officials and academics in October, we heard Israeli representatives convey this message in the strongest possible terms.

American pressure with Israeli backing may be having an impact. Reuters reported October 23, “The Bank of Kunlun Co, the key Chinese conduit for transactions with Iran, is set to halt handling payments from the Islamic Republic under pressure of imminent US sanctions against the country.” China also has cut back its purchases of Iranian oil. That appears to be a small victory for the Trump’s administration muscular diplomacy, and one of great benefit to Israel.

Palestinians Arresting Women; Where are the Media? by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13313/palestinians-arresting-women

Mahmoud Abbas does not want his people and the rest of the world to know that his security forces are arresting women for criticizing a social security law or providing financial aid to Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip.

Unlike Jbara and Marab’eh, Ahed Tamimi was lucky to be arrested by Israel. Had she been arrested by the Palestinian Authority, no one would ever have known.

This attitude is another example of the anti-Israel bias of the international media and community. It is yet another example of how the West gives the Palestinians a pass to violate human rights and crack down on dissent.

Last August, the Palestinian Authority (PA) protested because Israel arrested a Palestinian woman from Hebron on charges of incitement and affiliation with Hamas. The 42-year-old woman, Lama Khater, is also known as a strong critic of the President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

Khater’s scathing attacks on Abbas and his government, however, did not stop the Palestinian Authority from condemning Israel and demanding her immediate release.

This was not the first time that the Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel for arresting a Palestinian woman who voiced criticism of Abbas and his policies. Last year, the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel for arresting Khaleda Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of several PLO terrorist groups. Jarrar was arrested by Israel for membership in a terrorist group and incitement.

Israel and the Sunni Arab States Cannot Resist Iran Alone By Brandon J. Weichert

https://amgreatness.com/2018/11/19/israel-and-the-sunni-arab

The small democratic state of Israel finds itself outnumbered—and potentially outgunned—as the Iranian threat, supported by its Hezbollah terrorist allies, amasses to its north.

Recently, though, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got itself in an even bigger mess. After allowing for Qatar to transfer $15 million in financial aid and gasoline to the blockaded Gaza Strip, Hamas, the terror organization that controls the rebellious Gaza, along with their allies in the Islamic Jihad group, fired off nearly 500 rockets into southern Israel.

The response from Israel, usually a forceful practitioner of decisive counterterrorism, has been strangely muted.

When it comes to the unruly Gaza Strip, the Israeli government tends to take a low-cost “mowing the grass” approach. Instead of trying to implement regime change (because their options for replacing the ruling Hamas range from bad to worse), the Israeli military prefers to let Hamas grow in strength. Then, once Hamas gets too big for its britches, the IDF marches on Gaza and cuts Hamas down to size. Netanyahu’s response to the recent violence has confused everyone in the region.

Netanyahu is known to Westerners as a counterterrorism hawk. After he failed to respond militarily to the recent rocket attacks, his even more hawkish defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, resigned in protest. Lieberman was vehemently opposed to Netanyahu’s initial approval for the transfer of $15 million from Qatar into Hamas coffers. At the time, Lieberman likened Netanyahu’s decision to that of protection money one pays to the mafia.

In that, Lieberman proved correct. But is that the whole story?

Palestinian Settler-Colonialism By Dr. Alex Joffe (2017)

Thanks to Janet Levy for sending this column….rsk

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/palestinians-settlers-colonialism/

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The concept of “settler colonialism” has been applied with almost unique vehemence against Israel. But the fact that Jews are the indigenous population of the Southern Levant can be proved with ease. In contrast, historical and genealogical evidence shows Palestinians descend primarily from three primary groups: Muslim invaders, Arab immigrants, and local converts to Islam. The Muslim conquest of Byzantine Palestine in the 7th century CE is a textbook example of settler-colonialism, as is subsequent immigration, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries under the Ottoman and British Empires. The application of the concept to Jews and Zionism by Palestinians is both ironic and unhelpful.

One of the mainstays of the modern university is the idea of settler-colonialism. This argues that certain societies are birthed by settlers implanted in a foreign territory, either directly by or with the consent of an imperial power. These colonists then dominate and eradicate the indigenous population. They develop bellicose cultures that eliminate the natives from historical, literary, and other narratives. Primary examples often cited are the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia, and Israel.

The settler-colonial argument against Israel posits that Zionism was an imperial tool of Britain (or, alternatively, that Zionism manipulated the British Empire); that Jews represent an alien population implanted into Palestine to usurp the land and displace the people; and that Israel has subjected Palestinians to “genocide,” real, figurative, and cultural.

According to this argument, Israel’s “settler colonialism” is a “structure, not an event,” and is accompanied by a “legacy of foundational violence” that extends back to the First Zionist Congress in 1897 or even before. With Zionism thus imbued with two forms of ineradicable original sin, violent opposition to Israel is legitimized and any forms of compromise, even negotiation, are “misguided and disingenuous because ‘dialogue’ does not tackle the asymmetrical status quo.”

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Implants made from patient’s own cells. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed the first fully personalized tissue implant, made from of a patient’s own fat cells. It means that eventually there will be no risk of an immune response to any organ implant, whether heart tissue, brain tissue or spinal cord.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-team-makes-implants-using-patients-own-stomach-cells-biomaterials/

ALS treatment gets FDA boost. The US FDA has just given Orphan status to the ALS treatment being developed by Israel’s Kadimastem (see here). The designation qualifies the company for various development incentives and less rigorous bureaucracy. Kadimastem expects results of its Israeli clinical trials in mid-2019.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3749031,00.html

Bio-artificial pancreas to fight diabetes. Israel’s Kadimastem is also partnering with France’s Defymed to develop a stem cell-based bio-artificial pancreas for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. They received NIS 5.4 million from the European Commission and the intergovernmental research organization EUREKA.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3749642,00.html

Targeting liver and metabolic disorders. Israeli biotech 89Bio has just raised $60 million to advance its pipeline of biologic and small molecule treatments for liver and metabolic disorders. 89Bio’s BIO89-100 is in a phase 1 clinical trial for treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3748585,00.html

Halting the growth of Mesothelioma. (TY Grace) Scientists in the labs of Israel’s Technion and in the US have stopped the growth of mesothelioma – a cancer of the mesothelium membrane protecting the internal organs of the chest and abdomen. They found heparanase inhibitors PG545 and defibrotide slowed tumor growth. https://www.israel21c.org/cure-may-be-on-the-horizon-for-mesothelioma/
https://mesothelioma.net/mesothelioma-news/israeli-and-american-researchers-halt-growth-of-mesothelioma/

Repairing hearts again in Tanzania. Since 1999 (see here) surgeons from Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart have saved the lives of over 750 children from Tanzania. SACH doctors recently flew again to Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to conduct life-saving heart surgeries.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-heart-surgeons-save-childrens-lives-in-tanzania/

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

In their shoes. (TY Zissie) The Israeli charity In Their Shoes (ITS) trains caregivers to better serve patients with compassion. ITS’ Virtual Dementia Tour allows participants to feel the effects of dementia – hence “In Their Shoes”. ITS also conducts the Music and Memory Program for residents in nursing homes.
http://www.intheirshoes.org.il/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fAcE1Hjr20
https://il.musicandmemory.org/

Recycling fair funds special needs program. Israeli mum Ayelet Sanens launched the Ashdod Environmental Preservation and Recycling Fair. Toys, cosmetics, costume jewelry, clothing, household items etc. were sold to raise funds for Israeli charity Ezer Mizion’s special summer program for special needs children in Ashdod.
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/special-childrenspecial-parents/

New Israeli town to support special needs kids. I reported previously (19th Aug) about the new community named “Daniel” being built in the Negev that will provide home care for children (mainly Bedouin) with severe medical and therapeutic needs. Here is a much more detailed article on the new town and its aims.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israeli-town-aids-families-of-children-with-special-needs/

Israeli-Arab captain of women’s basketball team. (TY Hazel) Shahd Abboud, who plays for the Hapoel Petah Tikvah women’s basketball team in Israel, opened the 2018/19 season as their new captain, making history as the first female Arab captain of a professional Israeli basketball team.
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-israels-1st-female-arab-israeli-basketball-captain/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QWYd4-ZSqI

Friendship born on the soccer field. Nice story about Motke (“Berko”) Berkowitz and Mohammed Einan who have been friends for over sixty years, having played on Hapoel Nahariya’s soccer team in the 1950s and 1960s. Each week, Berko drives from Shavei Zion to the coastal village of Mazra’a to have coffee with Einan.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-sixty-year-friendship-of-muslim-and-jew-born-on-the-soccer-pitch/

Bahrain invites Startup Nation Minister. Israel’s Economy Minister Eli Cohen has received an invitation from Bahrain to participate in its “Startup Nations Ministerial” – an international high-tech conference. Cohen will join global leaders aiming to boost bilateral technology initiatives and partner on policy initiatives.
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/188308-181109-israel-s-economy-minister-invited-to-high-tech-conference-in-bahrain

Australia, Malaysia trade barbs amid Israel embassy move spat

http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/11/16/australia-malaysia-trade-words-over-possible-israel-embassy-move/

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warns moving embassy to Jerusalem could increase terrorism threat • Citing Mohamed’s history of anti-Semitic remarks, Australian treasurer insists Canberra will make its own decisions • Move makes sense, he says.

Australia’s treasurer on Friday said Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had a history of anti-Jewish statements, in an escalating war of words over the possibility Australia might move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison proposed the embassy move during a local election campaign last month, sparking concern from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad raised the potential embassy switch in a meeting with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison at a regional summit in Singapore on Thursday, later telling reporters such a move could increase the threat of terrorism.

“I pointed out that in dealing with terrorism, one has to know the causes,” Mahathir said. “Adding to the cause for terrorism is not going to be helpful.”

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg responded Friday, saying Canberra would make its own decisions. Frydenberg, the son of a Holocaust survivor, also pointed out past comments that the leader of Muslim-majority Malaysia has made about Jewish people.

“He has called Jews ‘hooked-nosed people.’ He has questioned the number of people that have been killed in the Holocaust. He banned ‘Schindler’s List’ as a movie being shown,” Frydenberg told reporters in Melbourne.

Malaysia’s film board rejected the movie as Zionist propaganda at the time.