RUTHFULLY YOURS

According to the UN’s own definition, the status of “refugee” cannot be passed from generation to generation — as it conveniently has been for the Palestinians. A Palestinian with a European, American or Jordanian passport has no reason to be considered a refugee. Except by UNRWA.

“Since the UN took them over, the Palestinians started burying their dead at night, without declaring them, in order to share their rations. As a result, for nearly 20 years, the official death rate in the camps was close to zero. In addition, there was a lot of movement between the camps. But these displacements were rarely recorded, so that a Palestinian could appear in several camps at the same time…” — Said Aburish, Palestinian Refugee and biographer of the late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat.

UNRWA is not just a humanitarian agency. Its political stance is evident at all levels of the organization. A report from the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, says that the 2016-2017 curriculum for elementary schools in PA, partly funded by UNRWA, “teaches students to be martyrs, to demonize and deny the existence of Israel, and to focus on a ‘return’ to an exclusively Palestinian country.”

In the context of announced budget cuts, the US administration recently announced that it will drastically reduce its financial support of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wanted the outright cancellation of the $364 million allocated each year to the UN agency, as long as it did not implement reforms and transparency, but US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was for the time being content to halve the first tranche of aid, originally set at $125 million.

At the heart of this case is the desire of US President Donald Trump to stop financing any agency or international organization that does not reflect American interests. There is also, however, a 180-degree turn on the US position in the Arab-Israeli conflict by the new administration. It seems determined not to make the same mistakes — and fall into the same traps — as previous administrations.

First, what is UNRWA?

Established in December 1949 with a one-year mandate, UNRWA aimed at its birth to help resettle the 600,000 Palestinian Arabs who had fled the conflict zone during the rebirth of the state of Israel, after five Arab armies had attacked it — and lost.

The causes of this exile were threefold, according to several polls undertaken in refugee camps and summarized in an article by Tibor Mende, published in French newspaper Le Monde on April 21, 1951:

“Some did not want to live in a Jewish state, others fled the battle and, once that was over, could not return home. Many more left because they were told that it was for a few days, a few weeks at most, and that they would return with the triumphant Arab armies. ”

Surprisingly (or not), no parallel office was created to help the 870,000 Jews expelled and despoiled by the majority of Arab-Muslim countries between 1948 and 1974 — including those militarily forced out of Judea and Samaria by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which hastened to rename this region the “West Bank” after illegally annexing it in 1948.

www.geraldahonigman.comBack in President Obama’s second term in office, Secretary of State John Kerry, like his boss and other members of the same peapod (Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, etc.), liked to warn Israel about such things as its isolation andalienation if it did not agree to Arab demands to return to its pre-’67 war, ’49 armistice lines (not borders) which made it an over-sized ghetto, 9-15 miles wide at its waist, where most of its population and infrastructure are located. President George W. Bush commented that Texas had driveways larger than that. I don’t know about driveways, but I also don’t doubt the size of some Lone Star ranches. And I’m pretty sure Mrs. Obama had to travel farther than that for shopping trips to Target.

Others like President Jimmy Carter supposedly worried/worry (and even wrote books) about Israel’s soul and looming “apartheid nature” if it insists on the more secure, defensible, real borders that UNSC Resolution 242 promised in the wake of the ’67 fighting–a war Israel was forced to fight after being blockaded by Egypt (a casus belli), shelled by Jordan, abandoned by the UN Emergency Force placed in Sinai after the ’56 war (largely fought over another blockade and acts of terror), and other hostile acts and constant threats of annihilation.

All of 242’s architects (Lord Caradon, Eugene Rostow, etc.)–and Presidents Johnson, Reagan, and others (including George W. Bush in his letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon)–agreed that Israel would never return to those pre-’67 Auschwitz lines. That, dear readers, is what the “settlement” issue is mostly all about…besides Jews having both modern, religious, and historical connections to Judea and Samaria (only since the 20th century, the “West Bank”) for over three thousand years. Question: Was Jesus born in Bethlehem of the West Bank or Bethlehem of Judea? Ask the Gospels’ Matthew.

As Saudi Arabia and Iran spar for influence across the Middle East, Israel is using the Arabic language to seek common ground with Tehran’s enemies and sway its sympathizers.

The efforts have been met at times with hostility and ridicule—in part because Maj. Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesman leading the outreach, doesn’t shy away from provocation.

Maj. Adraee’s recent output includes a Facebook post of image of Iran’s flag superimposed over the Gaza Strip and a Twitter video simulating an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, home of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Text messaging

A tweet from the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Maj. Avichay Adraee accuses Iran for dragging down Gaza, including the message that Iran “will not care about the peoples it attempts to exert its influence over.”

With 1.2 million followers on his Arabic Facebook page and more than 181,000 on Twitter, Maj. Adraee is the face of the Israeli messaging campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued videos with Arabic subtitles denouncing Iran, and the foreign ministry routinely posts rosy images of Israeli-Arab coexistence for its own million-plus Arabic-language Facebook followers.

For Israel, which doesn’t have diplomatic relations with most of its neighbors, social media has become a way to engage with Arabs and reinforce a growing alignment with Sunni Muslim Arab states.

The most influential of those states is Saudi Arabia. In a sign of that emphasis, the Israeli military chose a newspaper owned by a Saudi publisher when it offered the first Arab-media interview with its chief of staff in more than 10 years.

Iran is the “biggest threat to the region,” chief-of-staff Lt. Gen Gadi Eisenkot told the publication, Elaph, which is based in London, in November. “In this matter, there is complete agreement between us and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

An official at Iran’s United Nations mission didn’t respond to a request for comment on Israel’s media outreach.
CONTINUE AT SITE

Following the rains, Israel is awash with news of more successes in medical research, international trade and global recognition. Very appropriately we are about to celebrate the Jewish festival of Tu B’Shvat – The New Year for Trees and the time for the almond blossom.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Good results in pancreatic cancer treatment trials. Israel’s BioLineRx has announced encouraging initial results from its Phase 2a trials of its BL-8040 treatment on patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. After only five days of treatment the treatment substantially increased the numbers of T-cells fighting the tumors.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biolinerx-announces-partial-monotherapy-results-from-phase-2a-combat-study-in-pancreatic-cancer-300583808.html

Melanoma treatment shows promise. When Israel’s BioLineRx bought UK’s Agalimmune, it also acquired its AGI-134 treatment for solid tumors. BioLineRX has just demonstrated successful results of AGI-134 in two pre-clinical melanoma studies. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biolinerx-reports-data-at-asco-sitc-conference-showing-complete-tumor-regression-by-agi-134-in-pre-clinical-studies-670669553.html

Predicting and preventing PIE. Post Injury Epilepsy (PIE) occurs several months after a stroke in at least 10% of patients. Scientists at Ben Gurion University have been able to detect likely PIE sufferers using EEG (electroencephalographic) recordings of theta brain waves. Early treatment with medication can prevent attacks.
https://aabgu.org/discovered-biomarker-predicts-post-injury-epilepsy/

The gene that causes colon cancer. Israel’s NRGene has confirmed the identity of a genetic mutation that causes colon cancer in 60% of its hosts. NRGene was contacted by scientists at Stanford University and used its GenoMagic software to genetically screen the DNA of inherited colon cancer sufferers.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-nrgene-successfully-identifies-colon-cancer-mutation/

European approval for stroke analysis system. (TY Atid-EDI) Viz.ai has received the CE Mark for its Israeli-developed Direct-to-Intervention system, ContaCT, a novel approach to stroke care that automatically analyzes brain CT-scans and notifies a specialist that a suspected large vessel occlusion has been identified.
https://interventionalnews.com/viz-ai-announces-ce-mark-first-artificial-intelligence-powered-direct-intervention-system/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/_721LqeON3U?rel=0

Personalized cancer treatment. (TY UWI and TIP) This video shows that Israeli doctors are saving lives of cancer patients by testing different treatments on samples of the tumors outside of the patient’s body. They can then determine the best cancer treatments to offer patients based on the success of the treatment.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/QK_4kO1VgPI?rel=0

Gene cancer therapy prepares to launch. Israel’s VBL Therapeutics has opened its new gene therapy production facility to manufacture VBL’s lead cancer therapy ofranergene obadenovec (VB-111), when finally approved. The Modiin gene therapy plant is one of the largest in the world, and the first in Israel.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/23/1151526/0/en/VBL-Therapeutics-Celebrates-Opening-of-its-New-Gene-Therapy-Manufacturing-Plant-and-Company-Headquarters.html
https://www.youtube.com/embed/4HeISdYw7d8?rel=0

An app to monitor the brain. Israel-based startup Montfort Brain Monitor won Israel’s Henry Ford Health System’s artificial intelligence challenge. Montfort’s “master app” uses a smartphone’s sensors to track a patient’s motor, cognitive, and affective activity. It can be tailored for the specific neurological disorder.
http://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3730184,00.html

NIS 1 billion digital health project. In Davos, Israeli PM Netanyahu met with William McDermott, the CEO of SAP who agreed to partner with Israel on a new five-year NIS 1 billion digital healthcare project. The project aims to develop personalized and preventative medicine – regarded as a revolution in the health sector.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-netanyahu-sap-ceo-launch-nis-1b-healthcare-project-1001221143

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

Vice President Mike Pence gave an epic speech at the Knesset this week. His was the most powerful embrace of Zionism and the Jewish people any foreign leader has ever presented. Pence’s fluency in Jewish history, and his comprehension of the centrality of the both the Bible and the Land of Israel in the vast flow of that history in far-flung-exile communities across time and space was spellbinding. He touched the hearts of his audience, causing knots in the throats of most of the people sitting in the Knesset on Monday afternoon.

Pence’s speech was rendered poignant and the friendship he bore became tinged with urgency with the publication, the very next day, of the latest Pew Center survey on American views of Israel.

Speaking in the name of the American people he represents, Pence said on Monday: “The friendship between our people has never been deeper.”

And when it comes to the Republican voters who elected President Donald Trump and Vice President Pence a year and two months ago, Pence is certainly correct. But the Pew data showed that on Israel, as on so many other issues, the cleavage between Republicans and Democrats is vast and unbridgeable.

Most of the coverage of the Pew survey focused reasonably on its main finding. The good news is that overall American support for Israel over the Palestinians remains more or less constant, and overwhelming. Forty-six percent of Americans support Israel over the Palestinians while a mere 16% of Americans support the Palestinians against Israel. The numbers haven’t changed much since polling began in 1978.

But then the news becomes more fraught. The disparity between Republican support for Israel and Democratic support for Israel has never been greater. Whereas 79% of Republicans support Israel over the Palestinians, only 27% of Democrats do. Moreover, the further one goes to the Left among Democratic voters, the more anti-Israel the respondents become. Liberal Democrats are now nearly twice as likely to support the Palestinians over Israel as they are to support Israel over the Palestinians. Thirty-five percent of liberal Democrats support the Palestinians against Israel. A mere 19% support Israel more than the Palestinians.

Conservative and moderate Democrats still support Israel far more than they support the Palestinians with 35% of moderate and conservative Democrats supporting Israel over the Palestinians, and 17% supporting the Palestinians more than Israel. But the level of support for Israel among this demographic has dropped precipitously in the last year and a half. In the previous survey, which took place in April 2016, support for Israel was 53%, or 19 points higher.

The five journalists were arrested shortly after Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas signed the controversial cyber-crime law in June 2017. Critics say the new law is aimed at silencing and intimidating journalists and political opponents of the PA and its president.

Ammar Dweik, head of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, said the new law is “one of the worst” since the PA was established in 1994.

The Palestinian Authority claims it does not tolerate “incitement.” The “incitement” it is referring to, however, is criticism of Abbas and his cronies. In fact, the PA tolerates incitement quite well, and has spent decades driving such incitement — when it is directed against Israel and the US. Indeed, Palestinians are free to incite against Israel and the US day and night.

Palestinian journalists have decided to renew their campaign against the Palestinian Authority’s assault on freedom of expression.

The decision came after the Palestinian Authority (PA) filed charges against journalist Tareq Abu Zeid, for “incitement” and “jeopardizing the security of the State of Palestine.”

Abu Zeid is the latest victim of a new Palestinian law targeting journalists and social media activists.

Earlier this week, a Palestinian magistrate’s court in Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, decided to refer the case of Abu Zeid to the PA’s Grand Criminal Court. Abu Zeid, who was arrested in August 2017 for 15 days, is facing charges over Facebook posts criticizing the Palestinian Authority. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of one year in prison and a fine.

Four other Palestinian journalists who were arrested by the Palestinian Authority around the same time are facing similar charges. However, it is still not clear when they will be brought to trial. The four are: Mamdouh Hamamreh, Kutaiba Qassem, Amer Abu Arafeh and Ahmed Halaikah. Many other journalists and Facebook users have also been summoned for interrogation over the past few months on suspicion of “incitement.”

The five journalists were arrested shortly after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed the controversial Palestinian cyber-crime law in June 2017. Critics say the new law is aimed at silencing and intimidating journalists and political opponents of the PA and its president.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s great to be with Prime Minister Netanyahu. We’ve developed a great relationship, both as countries where I think it’s never been stronger — and I can honestly say that — and also, as personal friends.

We have discussions going with Israel on many things, including trade. But the big move and something that was very historic and very important was the fact that we will be moving our embassy, as you know, to Jerusalem. And as we also know, that is way ahead of schedule, by years, and we anticipate having a small version of it opened sometime next year. So that’s a long time ahead of schedule.

It’s an honor, and it’s great honor to be with you. Thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Thank you. Mr. President, Donald — thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Mr. President, I want to say something, because this is the first meeting we’ve had since your historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the embassy, and now to expedite the movement of the embassy, to Jerusalem.

I want to say that this is a historic decision that will be forever etched in the hearts of our people for generations to come. People say that this pushes peace backward. I say it pushes peace forward because it recognizes history, it recognizes the present reality, and peace can only be built on the basis of truth. And by recognizing this history, you’ve made history. And we will always remember that.

We also support you completely in your stalwart position on the Iran nuclear deal. You’ve said it’s a disastrous deal. You’ve said that if its fatal flaws are not fixed, that you should walk away from it. And I want you to know that if you decide to do that, then we will back you all the way.

The PLO’s terror boss just got a nice $50 million jet. He might want to look into getting a refund before he flies it too far from the lot.

Speaking in Davos, with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump had some strong words for the terrorists of the PLO’s Palestinian Authority front group.

Israel has always supported the United States. So what I did with Jerusalem was my honor. And hopefully, we can do something with peace. I would love to see it.

You know, if you look back at the various peace proposals — and they are endless — and I spoke to some of the people involved, and I said, “Did you ever talk about the vast amounts of funds, money that we give to the Palestinians?” We give, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. And they said, “We never talk.” Well, we do talk about it.

And when they disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great Vice President to see them — and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support — tremendous numbers; numbers that nobody understands. That money is on the table, and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace. Because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace. And they’re going to have to want to make peace too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer.

But they have to respect the process also, and they have to respect the fact that the U.S. has given tremendous support to them over the years, in terms of monetary support and other support.

Not only is rhetoric like this from Jordan-approved Imams a clear-cut violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (which makes incitement to genocide a crime), Jordan’s tolerance for anti-Jewish and anti-Western rhetoric at the site is a violation of the treaty signed between Israel and Jordan in 1994.

“Allah called them ‘infidels’ so why should I be ashamed to call them that?… There is only one kind of punishment for those people: to stop them, to wreak vengeance upon them, and to teach them a lesson. This is not achieved through tolerance, negotiations, or kindness.” — Palestinian Imam Issam Amira, using the Al Aqsa Mosque, June 18, 2016.

In the United States, landlords who allow their tenants to use a property for criminal enterprises, such as the sale or manufacture of drugs are liable to having their property seized in a process called “asset forfeiture.” Maybe a similar process needs to be applied to Jordan’s custodianship of the Temple Mount, for clearly, the Hashemite Kingdom is not serious about preventing the site from being used for criminal incitement against Jews and Westerners.

When ISIS put a Jordanian Air Force pilot into a cage, poured gasoline on him, set him on fire and broadcast a video of the gruesome murder on the internet in February 2015, the Jordanian government responded decisively. It hanged two jihadists affiliated with Al Qaeda and broadcast images of Jordan’s monarch, King Abdullah II, wearing military fatigues to highlight Jordan’s participation in an American-led coalition that engaged in bombing raids against the terror organization. The Jordanian press office also publicized the king’s promise to exact revenge on ISIS for the murder of the pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, via a statement that was quoted in countless outlets.