RUTHFULLY YOURS

As I walked out of the Knesset following Vice President Mike Pence’s Monday afternoon address, an Israeli cameraman turned to me with a jovial expression. Speaking in Hebrew, he asked me about the man whose speech he had just heard: “Was that the messiah, or the vice president of the United States?” He was, perhaps, referring to the rapturous reception Mr. Pence had received from the Knesset members and the hundreds of spectators in the gallery. Yet the cameraman was also probably struck by how religious, and biblically based, the speech was. Mr. Pence threaded his remarks with references to Scripture, a rhetorical technique Knesset audiences have rarely heard from a political leader since Menachem Begin resigned as prime minister in 1983.

Mr. Pence’s address was one of the most Zionist speeches ever given by a non-Jew in the Knesset. The vice president is a devout evangelical Christian, and he said that in the birth of the modern state of Israel, we see nothing less than a fulfillment of the biblical promises of God. The speech was a milestone in American-Israeli relations, and a window into the heart of many American Christians who, like Mr. Pence, observe Israel’s emergence with wonder and reverence.

Drawing on the Book of Deuteronomy, Mr. Pence described how through “conquests and expulsions, inquisitions and pogroms,” and a Holocaust “that transformed the small faces of children into smoke under a silent sky,” the Jewish people nevertheless “held fast to a promise through all the ages, written so long ago, that ‘even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens,’ from there He would gather and bring you back to the land which your fathers possessed.”

Citing Isaiah, Mr. Pence suggested that in Israel’s 1948 founding “the Jewish people answered that ancient question: Can a country be born in a day, can a nation be born in a moment?” For Mr. Pence, the birth of modern Israel also reaffirmed the Jews’ covenantal bond to both the Holy Land and Jerusalem, where “Abraham offered his son Isaac, and was credited with righteousness for his faith in God,” and where “King David consecrated the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.” In the emergence of the modern Jewish state, Mr. Pence concluded, we see the hand of God: “The miracle of Israel is an inspiration to the world.”

Sometimes it seems as if Fatah and Hamas are competing to show which party hates Israel and the US more.

This call is a clear message to Palestinians to launch more terror attacks. This, in fact, is the real “license to kill” that Fatah has been talking about. It is not Trump who gave Israel a “license to kill.” The real license is being issued here by Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah.

The glorification of terrorists and the denial of Jewish rights and history have always been a main pillar of the ideology of Abbas and Fatah. They have worked hard over the past two decades to create the false impression that they differ from Hamas. It now appears that the jig is up: their true colors are showing for all to see.

Is there any difference between the “moderate” Fatah faction headed by Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas?

In recent weeks, Fatah, which is often described by Westerners as the “moderate” and “pragmatic” Palestinian faction, has escalated its rhetorical attacks against Israel and the US to a point where one can no longer distinguish between its rhetoric and that of Hamas.

Like Hamas, Abbas’s Fatah regularly glorifies terrorists and encourages Palestinians to take them as role models. This is the very Fatah that is supposed to be Israel’s peace partner and whose leader, Abbas, claims that he is still committed to the “two-state solution.”

The latest example of Fatah’s glorification of terrorists came last week, when the Israel Defense Forces killed Ahmed Ismail Jarrar, of Jenin, in the northern West Bank. Jarrar belonged to a terror cell whose members murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach two weeks ago.

Although Jarrar is believed to be a member of Hamas, Fatah was quick to publish posters depicting him as one of its “martyrs.” In one of the posters, Fatah described the slain terrorist as a “hero” and “martyr of Jerusalem.”

Fatah’s student faction at Al-Quds University also confirmed that Jarrar was one of its members. In a statement published hours after the terrorist was killed, the Fatah Shabiba [Youth] Movement at Al-Quds University boasted that he was “one of our prominent leaders and a member of our administrative body.”

1. Tourism to Israel rose by 24.6% in 2017 and reached a record level of 3.6MN tourists, 800,000 from the USA. Tourism comprises around 2.5% of Israel’s GDP and is a substantial employer – a 35% growth in employment since 2010. (“Economist Intelligence Unit,” January 15, 2018).

2. Israel’s national debt-to-GDP ratio declines, systematically, from 70.6% in 2008, 69.6% in 2010, 67.1% in 2012 and 64.8% in 2014 to 60.6% in 2016 (Globes Business Daily, January 12, 2018). Israel’s exports are challenged by the appreciation of Israel’s Shekel, reflecting the robust performance of Israel’s economy (e.g., keeping inflation at 1%-3%; 4.1% unemployment, rising GDP and GDP per capita, etc.). In 2017, Israel’s exports surged, for the first time, beyond $100BN ($43BN hightech) – a 5% increase over 2016.

3. Israel-India commercial, defense, intelligence and counter-terrorism cooperation is second only to Israel-US. Israel is involved in 80% of the irrigation-solution market in India – which is expected to reach a value of $4BN in four years – as represented by the India-Israel multi-national corporation Na’anDanJain, which is active in 100 countries, considering Africa a top target. Israel and India collaborate in the area of agricultural development with India providing the production resources, while Israel generates the knowhow. According to Index Mundi, the economic profile of India includes an impressive annual economic growth of 7% during 1997-2016, a 5% unemployment, a 5.2% inflation and an $8.7 trillion GDP.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

New target for cancer treatments. Researchers at Israel’s Bar Ilan University have discovered a new enzyme called FerT, which exists only in the energy-generating mitochondria of cancer cells. When the enzyme was targeted in lab tests, the malignant cells were unable to produce energy and died.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/on-campus/israeli-scientists-discover-new-enzyme-to-destroy-in-metatastic-cancer-cells/2017/10/24/

US approval for Leukemia treatment. Following a Priority Review, the US FDA has approved Israel TEVA’s Leukemia treatment, TRISENOX® (arsenic trioxidec). Trisenox is to be used in combination with tretinoin for treatment of recently-diagnosed low-risk adults with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/fda-approves-teva-leukemia-treatment/2018/01/15/

Lymphoma treatment approved. I reported previously (3rd Sep) on the US takeover of Israeli biotech Kite for $12 billion. The US FDA has now approved Kite’s Yescarta treatment for adults with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma. The treatment uses Israeli-developed CAR-T therapy from the patient’s own T-cells.
http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2017/10/20/israeli-developed-breakthrough-cancer-drug-receives-fda-approval

Stem cell treatment inhibits cancer. I’ve reported previously (18 times) on Israeli biotech Pluristem’s PLX stem cell treatment for many life-threatening conditions. Recent lab trials with modified PLX cells showed significant inhibitory effect on various lines of breast, colorectal, kidney, liver, lung, muscle and skin cancers.
http://www.pluristem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/PLX_Cancer_Publication_final_isa.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18428-1

Successful trials of implant to prevent OAB. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (July 2016) that the minimally invasive RENOVA leg implant from Israel’s BlueWind to treat Overactive Bladder (OAB) had been granted European approval. Recent trials show that device gave over 50% improvement to 71% of participants.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluewind-medical-announces-the-publication-of-breakthrough-results-for-bluewind-renova-implantable-tibial-nerve-neuromodulator-668016233.html
http://www.bluewindmedical.com/products

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched into a long-winded diatribe last Sunday against President Trump and against Israel’s legitimate right to exist as a Jewish state. Abbas called President Trump’s decision on Jerusalem a “slap in the face” and threatened that the Palestinians “will slap back.” Abbas declared, “Politically, Jerusalem is our capital; in our religion, it is our capital; geographically, it is our capital.” As for Israel, Abbas claimed that “Israel is a colonialist project that has nothing to do with Jews. The Jews were used as a tool under the concept of the promised land — call it whatever you want. Everything has been made up.”

Abbas even insisted that Great Britain apologize and pay reparations for the 100-year-old Balfour Declaration, which had stated British support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

One is tempted to agree with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said that Abbas had “lost his senses.” However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was closer to the mark when he observed that Abbas “tore off the mask” of feigned moderation and revealed the “root” of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians – the Palestinians’ “continuous refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders.”

Abbas used his 2½-hour speech to the PLO Central Council to falsify history with anti-Semitic rhetoric worthy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. One problem he has, however, is in reconciling his own current brand of anti-Semitism in defense of an independent Palestinian state with, for example, the brand of anti-Semitism put forth by an Arab leader in 1937, who claimed that the notion of an independent Palestine was a Zionist plot. Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi submitted the following statement in 1937 to the British Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country [as Palestine]! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries, part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it.”

Palestinian boss Mahmoud Abbas recently declared that Israel is “a colonial enterprise that has nothing to do with Jewishness.” Moses, King David and thousands of years of Jewish history would disagree. Israel and the Jews are part of the story of human civilization. Over 50% of the human race has a holy book that tells of the Jewish journey to Israel. That includes Mohammed’s own copy of the Koran.

Israel isn’t a “colonial enterprise.” Palestine is.

Anyone who wants to find out where the name Israel comes from can open the Book of Genesis 32:29. The story even appears in Islamic hadiths. But where does “Palestine” really come from?

Palestine isn’t a Hebrew or Arabic word. The Greeks used it to describe the area. And when the Romans and their Arab mercenaries repressed the indigenous Jewish population, they renamed it all Palestine.

Palestine, after the Philistines: but why did the Greeks and Romans name the area after the Philistines?

The Philistines were one of the Greek origin sea peoples who had originally invaded and colonized the area. The Jewish resistance to Philistine colonialism is chronicled in the histories of Samson, King Saul and King David. It was natural for the Greek and Roman colonies that the Jews of the Second Temple era clashed with to use “Palestine”, the name associated with earlier colonies, to refer to their new colonies.

That latest phase of Greek colonialism led to an extended conflict between the Persian Empire and Greco-Roman civilization. The Romans made extended use of Arab mercenaries and rulers to secure their dominions. One such ruler was Herod, the son of an Idumean father and a Nabatean Arab mother, (according to the Greek historian Strabo they were both Arabic peoples), who repressed the Jews.

The eventual decline and fall of the Roman and Persian empires made way for the Islamic conquests of the region. But the Islamic bandit hordes had no original ideas. Their religion was a hodgepodge of Judaism, Christianity, assorted pagan beliefs and Mohammed’s violent fantasies. The rest of their culture they took wholesale from the Greeks. This game of historical Idiocracy ended with a collection of Arab colonists who call themselves “Palestinians” and claim to be descended from… somebody.

In Germany, Abbas declared that, “the nation of Palestine, throughout its long history, has been a beacon of generosity, and our people are an extension of the 3,500-year-old Canaanite civilization.” The Palestinian Authority that the unelected dictator runs was created in 1993. There was never any such independent country before that. And inquiring minds would love to know what an Islamic terrorist group and the Arab clans it oversees have in common with the Canaanite civilization. Fire, the wheel?

But then, Abbas also insisted that, “Mohammed the Prophet was a Palestinian”. According to Islamic tradition, Mohammed was an Adnanite Arab from Arabia. They claim descent from Ishmael and Abraham. That means they aren’t Canaanites. And a number of the Arab clans who make up the “Palestinians” do have their origins in Arabia. For a brief, shining moment, Abbas was telling the truth.

Previously, Abbas had also claimed that Jesus was a Palestinian. If you’re keeping track, that means the Palestinians are Canaanites, Arabs and Jews. That certainly covers a lot of historical bases.

But we’re just getting started.

Economic indicators for Israel showed another successful year in 2017 as, for the first time ever, Israel’s GDP per capita has surpassed that of major industrialized countries such as Britain, Japan and France.

http://en.mida.org.il/2018/01/15/israel-successful-powerhouse-collapsing-middle-east/

Israel stands out among the nations that won their independence after the Second World War. Despite facing more challenges than virtually any other country, Israel has transformed from a poor and fragile socialist backwater to a first world Start-Up nation of cutting-edge technologies and knowledge during seven brief decades, while fighting for its existence.

The failures of the Arab boycott and later the Boycott Divestment Sanction (BDS) campaign movement to destroy Israel’s economy are no less spectacular than the Muslim Arab failures to defeat Israel in the military battlefields. Israel’s economy is far stronger today than when BDS was launched in 2005.

The Economist publishes an annual global report with numerous data on the countries of the world. In its newly released report, Israel’s GDP per capita has, for the first time ever, surpassed $40,000. According to the Economist’s data, Israel’s GDP per capita grew from $38,127 in 2016 to $44,019 in 2017.

Israel’s economy expanded by 4.4 % during 2017, the highest growth rate among advanced economies. By contrast, the GDP per capita of France was almost $41,000 and nearly $40,000 for Japan.

Private consumer spending rose 3.0% in 2017, 1.1% per capita. Per capita spending on semi-durable goods (clothing etc.) grew 4.7%. Per capita spending on current consumption (housing, food, services, etc.) was up 2.2%. The account deficit in the government sector totaled NIS 8 billion in 2017, making up 1.1% of the GDP, down from NIS 15.6 billion in 2016.

The contrast between first world Israel and the surrounding third world Arab world is larger today than ever before. Israel’s GDP per capita is almost 20 times the GDP per capita of impoverished Egypt and five times larger than semi-developed Lebanon.

Like any human project, Israel is a never-ending work in progress and much work remains to integrate Haredi Jews and Israeli Arabs into Israel’s knowledge economy.

Properly addressing Israel’s high costs of living requires more economic and legislative reforms and breaking up inefficient oligopolies that keep the prices artificially high. However, by any standard, the reborn Jewish state is a remarkable success story that overcame tremendous odds and obstacles.

According to Professor Jonathan Adelman, author of the book The Rise of Israel – a history of a revolutionary state, Israel’s current success was far from certain and required two Zionist revolutions.

The first Zionist revolution was Socialist democratic and lasted roughly from the first modern Aliyah in 1882 to the defeat of the Israeli Labor party in the 1977 national election.

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and has decided to modify an existing property to accommodate the new mission that will open next year, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. won’t be building a new structure, in a shift from what Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and others from the Trump administration have said in describing the move recently. Mr. Tillerson has also said previously that the move is at least three years away.

“The secretary’s primary focus is on security,” said Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of state for diplomacy and public affairs. “We will not be moving to a new facility…we are going to retrofit a building,” which will be ready in 2019.

People familiar with the plans say officials intend to reconfigure portions of an existing U.S. consular facility in West Jerusalem, an area Israel has held since 1948, so that it can be designated as the U.S. Embassy.

“There is no plan for anything temporary,” Mr. Goldstein said.

Jerusalem is contested by Israel and Palestinians.

While a 1995 U.S. law requires officials to move the embassy to Jerusalem, Mr. Trump’s predecessors routinely have exercised their statutory power to postpone the project.

Mr. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and directed the State Department to begin to move the U.S. embassy there.

State Department officials at first said this would involve locating property and building a new facility, which could cost as much as $1 billion and take several years. Under that scenario, it might not have opened until a second Trump term or beyond.

Many career diplomats and others have been dismayed by Mr. Trump’s decision, which some believe has infuriated Palestinians while producing no obvious benefit to American diplomatic objectives.