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ISRAEL

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

 www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

Israel is at war on several fronts- a war against Hezbollah and Hamas and local terrorists and Iran’s proxies. This remarkable nation is also waging a 24/7 war against epidemics, cancer, drought, famine, crime and bigotry as Michael Ordman details below.  rsk

In the 10th Nov 24 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

At least five news articles featuring Israelis bravely responding to adversity.

A major Israeli medical discovery, trials and a new treatment for cancer.

Israel organizes vaccinations for over a million Gazan children.

9% of Time Magazine’s “Best inventions of 2024” are Israeli.

Israeli innovations are globally preventing accidents and catching criminals.

Thousands of Bedouin Arabs watch Israel’s first state-approved camel race.

Two vital new resources for teaching children about Israeli history.

 POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Standing tall again. (TY Hazel) Nati Ganon was seriously injured by Hamas terrorists at the Nova party on Oct 7 2023. After enduring nearly 400 grueling days of treatments and rehabilitation, Nati stands tall again and able to continue to raise his three children. See him dance with Israeli-Arab Zionist Yoseph Haddad (2nd link).
https://www.timesofisrael.com/nova-survivor-who-lost-wife-on-oct-7-goes-home-after-almost-400-days-in-hospital/  https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-7/
 
Proud sisters. (TY Hazel) Despite losing their elder siblings at the hands of Hamas terrorists, Yael Eshel, sister of Sgt Roni Eshel, and Yuval Marciano, sister of Cpl Noa Marciano, have just begun their IDF service on the same day.  Their sisters were serving together on Oct 7 at the IDF’s Nahal Oz base near the Gaza border.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/younger-sisters-of-two-female-soldiers-killed-by-hamas-begin-their-idf-service/
 
From Sderot to the Technion, with nothing. Hila was planning to study at Israel’s Technion Institute on Oct 10, 2023. When Hamas attacked Sderot on Oct. 7, Hila had to evacuate her home, arriving at the Technion without any belongings. The Technion, however, made sure she had everything she needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WfhC77d6Hc
 
Farming under fire. Moshav Liman, just 1.3 miles from Lebanon, had a population of 850 before Oct 7.  Now, some 125 hardened Israelis continue to cultivate their small family farms. They include Kfir and Clarise who lived through bombardments in 1978, and the Lebanon wars of 1982 and 2006. They stayed then, as well.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/fortitude-under-fire-farmers-along-the-northern-border-stay-planted-despite-the-war/
 
Turning shelters into schoolrooms. (TY WIN) Kibbutz Yehiam near the Lebanese border, has converted its bomb shelters and protected rooms into classrooms. Now, over 110 students can locally learn instead of being driven on school buses to schools some half-an-hour away. When safe, children join from outside the kibbutz.
https://tps.co.il/articles/school-under-siege-kibbutz-yehiam-families-innovate-amid-daily-rocket-fire/
 
“Heros of Life”. Israeli emergency NGO United Hatzalah honored Oct 7 volunteers and victims at a “Heroes of Life” Memorial Ceremony in Jerusalem. The ceremony also paid tribute to United Hatzalah’s volunteers who played a pivotal role on Oct 7, and in the ensuing months, transporting wounded to hospitals while under fire.
https://israelrescue.org/en_GB/stories/united-hatzalah-honors-october-7th-volunteers-and-victims-at-heroes-of-life-memorial-ceremony/ 
 
Homeward bound. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Tekuma Administration – the government’s arm for rehabilitating the Gaza periphery – reveals that 87% (50,000 out of 64,000) of Gaza border residents have returned to their homes. 244 projects, totaling $1.7 billion, have been initiated, to rehabilitate the region.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/10/01/87-of-gaza-border-residents-have-returned-home-report-shows/
 
The first Haredi IDF combat brigade. The Tavetz training base in the Jordan Valley will serve as the training ground for the first cohort of ultra-Orthodox soldiers who will form part of a standard infantry brigade called “Hashmonayim”. It is also the first entirely new regular infantry brigade since the 1980s.
https://www.jns.org/idf-launches-first-ultra-orthodox-combat-brigade/
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-827522
 
Spurs fans sing for hostage. 70 fans of UK soccer team Tottenham Hotspur (“Spurs”) sang before their team’s match against Aston Villa, to publicize the plight of one of their own fans, Emily Damari. Emily was abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct 7 2023. She holds both British and Israeli citizenship.
https://www.jns.org/tottenham-hotspur-fans-sing-for-hamas-hostage/
 
US Jews support Israeli businesses. Since Oct 7 2023, American Jews have increased their purchases of Israeli Judaica by 134%. The study, conducted by business management students at the Jerusalem College of Technology, demonstrates American Jews’ solidarity with war-impacted Israeli businesses.
https://www.jns.org/study-u-s-jews-bought-134-more-israeli-judaica-since-oct-7/
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Another antibody to combat cancer. Following last week’s Israeli cancer breakthrough (see here), now Weizmann Institute researchers have found an antibody (against CD84) that prevents tumors building molecular bridges from suppressing the immune system. Lab tests were successful at treating triple-negative breast cancer.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-antibody-treatment-targets-most-aggressive-breast-cancer/#:
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/burning-cancer%E2%80%99s-bridges
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(24)01271-3#fig1
 
Treatment for Esophageal cancer. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s BeiGene has received Israeli Ministry of Health approval for its TEVIMBRA® to treat Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ESCC) after chemotherapy.  It has also gone on sale in the USA.  https://ir.beigene.com/news/beigene-receives-israeli-ministry-of-health-approval-for-tevimbra-for-the-treatment-of-oesophageal-squamous/dc2e4d21-42f4-4545-af69-ba4e09a40194/ 
https://ir.beigene.com/news/beigene-announces-availability-of-tevimbra-in-u-s/1d4b131f-7226-4196-bbac-dc310930b1ad/   https://www.beigene.com/
 
Treatment for knee osteoarthritis. Denmark’s Medicines Agency has approved Allocetra cell therapy from Israel’s Enlivex (see here previously) for Phase II clinical trials on patients with osteoarthritis in the knee. 40% of men and 47% of women develop knee osteoarthritis in their lifetimes. Allocetra also treats Covid and cancer.
https://enlivex.com/investors/news-releases/enlivex-receives-authorization-from-the-danish-medicines-agency-to-initiate-the-phase-ii-stage-of-its-phase-i-ii-trial-of-allocetra-in-patients-with-moderate-to-severe-knee-osteoarthritis/
 
$17 million for autism research. (TY Yanky) Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Prof Haitham Amal (see here previously) is the only non-USA member of a new consortium focused on pioneering autism research. It has just been awarded a research grant of $17 million by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
https://international.huji.ac.il/news/hebrew-university%E2%80%99s-prof-haitham-amal-awarded-major-grant-pioneering-autism
 
Front-line soldier saves 3-year-old. (TY UWI) A three-year-old boy hospitalized in Jerusalem with a severe blood cancer got a new lease on life thanks to the selflessness of Matan Amir, a 21-year-old IDF soldier fighting in Gaza who was identified as a suitable bone marrow donor for the toddler.
https://tps.co.il/articles/gift-of-life-israeli-soldiers-selfless-bone-marrow-donation-saves-three-year-old/
 
Low blood sugar and green Med diet. An international study led by Israel’s Ben-Gurion University scientists showed controlling blood sugar levels is a significant key mechanism linking diet to slower brain aging. The 300-participant study was one of the longest and largest brain MRI trials in the world.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/sygjvxrzje
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916524007457
 
Nobel prize winners’ Israel connection. The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA. Both men were awarded Israel’s Wolf Prize in 2014. Ruvkun, who is Jewish, won the Dan David Prize, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, in 2011.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/americans-victor-ambros-gary-ruvkun-win-nobel-prize-in-medicine-for-microrna-discovery/

Who are The Inheritors? Diane Bederman

I have always heard the residents of Judea/Samaria described as settlers. I just learned that “settlers” is an inappropriate translation of the word “mitnachalim.” It is Hebrew and is properly translated as “inheritors” in English; not settlers, as it is too often. Translating from one language to another is not easy all the time.

Too often Jewish people, today, are accused of occupying and settling “Muslim lands.” Jews are accused of being settlers; especially in Judea/Samaria. A gross mistranslation of mitnachalim: The Inheritors.

He is ever mindful of His covenant, the promise He gave for a thousand generations. Psalms 105:8

Now, there was a time when “settlers” was a positive word: people who come from one land to another and make a home on the land. At one time we used the word pioneer.  When I was growing up – during the time of the dinosaurs-there were movies and television shows, like Rawhide – my favourite – that extolled the virtues of the men, women and children who got into their covered wagons and made their way West to SETTLE the prairies. They were SETTLERS and they were considered brave.

But today, because of DEI, CRT and Woke “values,” settlers now carries a negative connotation.

Today, there are those who have decided that the meaning of settler is evil- an occupier of another’s land. A victimizer.

Words change meaning – in time (synchronic) and through time (diachronic).

Think of the word “gay.” In the 1920’s gay meant happy. Now it refers to a person who is a homosexual. This is a change of meaning through time. Diachronic.

Now, the word “fag.” Unless the meaning has recently changed in Britain, a fag is a cigarette. In America and Canada it is a derogatory word for homosexual. Same word. Different meaning. Synchronic.

Jews living in Israel, in JUDEA/SAMARIA, Biblical lands, are called settlers; which now means occupiers/victimizers; taken from the improper translation of mitnachalim. Why the mistranslation? A mistake, or an intentional error?

I keep asking how Jews can be settlers in and on the land they have been cultivating for more than 3000 years? Long before Christians or Muslims walked the earth. How did a people who built TWO Temples on the Temple Mount, the second destroyed in 70 CE long, long, long before Islam and the Dome of the Rock, become labeled as settlers, today?

The Gaza Famine Hoax Cost the Life of a US Soldier The only ones actually dying were Americans delivering food to Gaza. by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-gaza-famine-hoax-cost-the-life-of-a-us-soldier/

Weeks after the brutal Hamas assault of Oct 7, Cindy McCain who heads the UN World Food Program, falsely claimed that Muslims in Gaza were “literally starving to death as we speak”.

But the only ones who actually died were the Americans delivering food to them.

Next month, McCain contended that “food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza” while CBS News reported the claim by a British NGO that “more than half a million people… ‘face death by starvation.’” In December, the UN WFP claimed 570,000 Muslims were “starving” in Gaza and at risk of “famine”. “It doesn’t get any worse,” the UN WFP’s Arif Hussein argued.

By the end of January, the UN claimed that “this is a population that is starving to death.”

And had been “starving to death” for four months. They had somehow stayed alive for four months even though food and water were “non-existent” but every Hamas terrorist appeared morbidly obese. CNN explained that Gaza Muslims had taken to “eating grass” to survive.

After no food or water for a year and a diet of only grass, they’re somehow all still here.

We were assured in March 2024 that “large-scale famine mortality” would soon begin. It did not. Kamala claimed that “people in Gaza were starving” and there were “families eating leaves”.

A few days later, Biden announced a $320 million floating aid pier to deliver food to Gaza. The pier was completely unnecessary because Israel was delivering plenty of supplies. Hamas was seizing those supplies or demanding a percentage of them and used them to pay its terrorists.

Over 1,000 military personnel were dispatched to build the pier. The United States military also began air dropping supplies into Gaza. Much of it was thrown away by the locals. Meanwhile, a stream of TikTok videos showed laughing Gazans gorging themselves, shopping at markets filled with food and feasting at the end of Ramadan.

By June, even the UN was forced to temporarily admit that it had no evidence of a famine.

A humanitarian, holistic plan for Gaza The Gaza enclave can be rebuilt and replaced with an infrastructure that will benefit all residents in the area and the region. Dr. Moshe Dann

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/398755

Israeli control of the Gaza Strip is critical for its security and the future of the entire region. Allowing enemies of Israel to resume their control of the area — directly and indirectly — cannot be the basis for its future after the war. Hamas, the PIJ and other terrorist organizations turned the Gaza Strip into a vast underground system for hiding weapons, moving terrorists and attacking Israel. Except for tribal clans in Gaza, the population overwhelmingly supports Hamas. They chose Hamas over the PA/PLO in free elections, and they will do so again.

Although there are some exceptions, an overwhelming majority of Gazans support Hamas – directly and indirectly. They are, therefore, not actually civilians; their support for Hamas makes them accomplices.

Instead of repeating a mistake and trying to reconstruct the Gaza Strip under a new regime, it can become a new regional transportation and communications center under Israeli control that will benefit others as well. The tunnels that Hamas built, for example, can be used to provide a creative future for Israel and serve to promote peace. Smuggling of weapons and terrorists via Gaza will thus end.

After placing the area under Israeli sovereignty, Israel can expand the narrow tunnels to accommodate a light rail – similar to what exists in other urban centers — that will be linked to Israel’s transportation system, especially its airports, and eventually extend to other countries as well.

On the surface, the Gaza enclave can be rebuilt and replaced with an infrastructure that will benefit all residents in the area and the region. It will include new housing and agriculture development, as well as commercial enterprises and industrial use which incorporate ecological innovations and concerns.

Under no conditions should the Gaza area be given to those who oppose Israel’s existence. Arab Gazans who have no connection to any terrorist organization and wish to remain in the area can be allowed to do so providing that they are willing to support Israel and Israeli sovereignty. Those who choose to support terrorism and terrorist organizations will be required to leave and relocate. Israel is under no obligation to allow any threats to its security. Nor are Gazans entitled to pose a threat simply because they consider Gaza to be their “homeland.”

Hamas Must Be Defeated, Not Legitimized by Khaled Abu Toameh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21106/hamas-must-be-defeated

Hamas should not be permitted to play any role in the Gaza Strip after the war. This would allow the terror group to rearm and regroup and prepare for another October 7-style attack on Israel.

By negotiating with Hamas about the future of the Gaza Strip, Abbas is legitimizing the Iran-backed terror group and sending a message to the Palestinians and the rest of the world that he sees no problem with dealing with murderers and terrorists who committed the most horrific crimes… As we have seen most recently in the Chinese Communist Party, Iran and Afghanistan, negotiating with terrorists and their equivalents simply does not work.

Ever since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in wars they initiated with Israel. With the help of Europe, Qatar and Iran, Hamas transformed the Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians, into one of the largest bases for Islamist terrorism in the Middle East.

The assumption that Hamas would voluntarily give up its control of the Gaza Strip because of any unity agreement with Abbas is just laughable.

The Biden administration chose to turn a blind eye to Abbas’s efforts to legitimize Hamas. The US offered it a lifeline. A terror group committed to the elimination of Israel should have no role in any Palestinian government — not in the West Bank and certainly not in the Gaza Strip. Such a group should be completely destroyed militarily and politically, and not invited to join any Palestinian government.

As long as Iran’s regime remains in place, torturing both its own people and others… there regrettably will be no peace. That is the only way to secure a truly peaceful future, not only for Israelis but for Palestinians and the Free World.

More than a year after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to view the Iran-backed Islamist movement as a legitimate partner.

Last week, representatives of the PA’s ruling Fatah faction (headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas held talks in the Egyptian capital of Cairo to discuss establishing a joint administration to rule the Gaza Strip. An Egyptian source confirmed that the Fatah-Hamas discussions aim at to create a committee to manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip, in addition to pursuing efforts to reach a ceasefire there.

Peace in the Middle East: The First Step by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21104/middle-east-peace

Over the decades, Iran’s regime has embedded itself deeply within the region’s crises, stoking unrest and sponsoring terrorism. If the Middle East is to see any genuine peace and stability, a transformation of Iran’s regime is essential.

Without addressing the regime at the core, these threats will only intensify, especially when Iran acquires nuclear weapons… weeks away.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution orchestrated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Israel has been regarded as a cancerous tumor to be wiped off the map.

[O]nly Israel has demonstrated the courage and determination to confront the Iranian regime head-on, recognizing it as the “tumor” that fuels much of the region’s instability.

It is crucial to recognize that the core ideological mission of the Iranian regime — using religion as a pretext to seize power by force — is deeply ingrained and is not going to change. For years, Iran’s regime has not only been attacking its own citizens, especially women, and it has even been executing children. In the first six months of 2024 alone, “Iranian authorities executed 249 people” and an additional 166 people just in October.

A regime that treats its own people this way is not likely to treat anyone else any better.

The system in Iran was founded on principles aimed at “exporting the revolution” and imposing an Islamist governance structure across other nations. This ideological commitment is even enshrined in Iran’s constitution…

Notably, during significant waves of protests in recent years, the Obama and Biden-Harris administrations remained silent, offering no substantial support to the people risking their lives for freedom.

Often, Western countries have chosen to overlook Iran’s human rights abuses and advances in military power: they might interfere with profitable trade.

If these Western nations lack the will to fight the Iranian regime directly, then they should, at the very least, provide Israel with the necessary support — economically, militarily and politically. This is not an act of charity: supporting Israel in its mission serves their own interests.

Can the West set aside its hypocrisy long enough to stand with Israel in confronting Iran — this source of terror to them as well? If they cannot summon the nerve to act directly, then the least they can do is back those who do.

To embark on the path toward sustainable peace in the Middle East, it is essential to confront a fundamental truth: without addressing a crucial first step, peace across the region will remain nothing more than an illusion. This first step lies in directly confronting and ultimately changing the root cause of much of the ongoing conflict, violence, and terrorism — namely, the Islamist regime in Iran.

Over the decades, Iran’s regime has embedded itself deeply within the region’s crises, stoking unrest and sponsoring terrorism. If the Middle East is to see any genuine peace and stability, a transformation of Iran’s regime is essential.

Lebanon: Massive ‘Underground Combat Sites’ by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21085/lebanon-tunnels-hezbollah

“Hezbollah’s model is the same as the North Korean model: tunnels in which hundreds of combatants, fully equipped, can pass stealthily and rapidly underground. In our opinion, Hezbollah’s ‘Land of the Tunnels’ project is much larger than the Hamas ‘metro’ project in the Gaza Strip.” – Alma Resrearch and Education Center, July, 2021

These tunnels facilitate the movement of heavy equipment, missiles, and fighters and even allow missiles to be launched from within.

Built beneath the border between Lebanon and Syria, these tunnels allow Hezbollah’s smuggling unit and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force to transport ammunition, supplies, and fighters under the border.

Many of these tunnels are located beneath civilian infrastructure and populated areas, using civilians as human shields for their activities.

Some of the houses in Lebanon were destroyed by Hezbollah’s own rockets… after they were targeted by the IDF. “The explosions are caused by Hezbollah’s own weapons. In other words, Hezbollah’s tunnels are being used to blow up Lebanon. Hezbollah is displacing, starving and robbing the Lebanese.” — Mohammed Al-Obaid, Arab social media user, X, October 31, 2024

Hezbollah and Hamas bear full responsibility for the death of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians since the October 7, 2023 massacres… The two terrorist groups started the war, at the behest of their patrons in Iran, with the intention of killing a large number of Israelis and eliminating Israel. The vast network of tunnels they built in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip are an indication of the terrorist group’s determination to pursue their Jihad (holy war) against Israel, notwithstanding the risks to the Lebanese and Palestinian people living under their rule.

Even if Hezbollah say they will withdraw to north of the Litani River, the tunnels enable it easily to violate that pledge with no one above ground the wiser. Hezbollah, moreover, never abided by UN Resolution 1701 to stop building tunnels and storing weapons in south Lebanon.

The current war in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip must not end without the destruction of all the tunnels and the total defeat of Hezbollah and Hamas. Those who are pushing for an immediate ceasefire are only empowering the Iranian regime and its terror proxies, paving the way for another October 7-style massacre. The defeat of Hezbollah and Hamas will benefit not only Israelis, but the Lebanese and Palestinians, as well.

The Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah, as part of its preparations for war with Israel, spent the past 15 years building a vast network of tunnels in Lebanon. Some of the tunnels were supposed to be used for invading Israel to carry out atrocities against Israelis like the ones committed by Hamas, another Iran terror proxy, on October 7, 2023.

POSITIVE NEWS FROM ISRAEL EVEN DURING WARTIME FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

  www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

Israel’s daring, dazzling, and advanced prowess in defense has impressed Israel’s supporters and humiliated its enemies. Behind the military news, as Michael Ordman reminds us, research and development in every single aspect of humanitarian endeavor flourishes in the laboratories and social institutions of that remarkable nation from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. rsk

 
POSITIVE NEWS IN A WAR
 
Wounded paramedic returns. United Hatzalah emergency medic Rabbi Chaim Sassi was seriously wounded by a Hamas terrorist in Sderot on Oct 7. He has now returned to active service after receiving a custom-made “ambucycle” designed to accommodate his lingering leg injury. Rabbi Chaim was praised as “an inspiration”.
https://www.jns.org/volunteer-medic-injured-on-oct-7-returns-to-service-with-ambucycle/
 
Mezuzah from devastated kibbutz goes to Paraguay. A mezuzah was all that survived on Oct 7 from a home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. To honor the memory of the owners of the home, the mezuzah was placed on the doorpost of the new Israeli embassy in Paraguay.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/mezuzah-rescued-from-kfar-azza-finds-new-home-in-israeli-embassy-in-paraguay/
 
Boxer is champion defender. US boxing legend Floyd Mayweather has donated $100,000 to purchase 100 bulletproof vests for Israeli medical volunteers on the front lines. He announced the gift during a sold-out United Hatzalah event in Jerusalem to raise funds for 1,000 protective kits for its volunteer EMTs.
https://worldisraelnews.com/ex-boxing-champ-gives-israeli-rescue-group-100-bulletproof-vests/
 
US Christians donate armored ambulances. Samaritan’s Purse, founded by Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, has donated two more armored ambulances to Magen David Adom. They previously donated 14 ambulances and have committed to donate 28 more. They have also donated 1,000 trauma kits.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/us-evangelical-leader-donates-28-armored-ambulances-in-memory-of-murdered-hostages/
 
South African Christians donate MDA response cars. (TY Yanky) The South African branch of the Christian organization Bridges for Peace is spearheading a donation of two $80,000 Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency rapid response vehicles. MDA will use the cars in communities attacked on Oct. 7.
https://www.jns.org/south-african-christians-donate-emergency-vehicles-to-israel/
 
Gaza envelope kibbutz looks to regrow. Kibbutz Holit has begun to rehabilitate after the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. It will grow the potato developed by Israel’s Rumafeed (see here previously) that has eliminated the toxic glycoalkaloids in its foliage. Rumafeed has just been selected for the latest Intel Ignite accelerator group.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kibbutz-ravaged-on-oct-7-looks-to-renewal-through-gene-edited-vegetable-trials/  https://unitedwithisrael.org/kibbutz-holit-ravaged-on-oct-7-grows-into-hub-for-agricultural-innovation/
 
An AI view of Gaza without Hamas. ChatGPT was asked the question, “What would life, culture, and the economy be like in Gaza if Hamas were not  in control?”  ChatGPT also was also asked to generate a visual image of Gaza without Hamas.  I expect “Lebanon without Hezbollah?” might generate a similar response.
https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-chatgpt-shows-what-gaza-could-be-without-terrorism-and-hamas/
 
Anti-drone system recycled. Israel has deployed the Israeli-upgraded M61 Vulcan cannon along its northern border, to combat suicide drones launched by Hezbollah terrorists. An older version of the M61 Vulcan was originally provided to Israel by the U.S. during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and saw action in Lebanon in 1982.
https://worldisraelnews.com/unique-vulcan-anti-drone-cannon-deployed-in-north/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machbet   https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-826246
 
One Day raises $1 million. US Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu performed a concert titled “One Day” in New York City. It was part of a Ben Gurion University event that raised $1 million to help the rebuilding and recovery of Israel’s southern communities. “There’ll be no more wars, and our children will play. One Day!”
https://www.jns.org/one-day-benefit-featuring-matisyahu-raises-1m-for-recovery-education-in-southern-israel/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRmBChQjZPs  https://genius.com/Matisyahu-one-day-lyrics
 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Protein antibody to treat cancer. Tel Aviv University researchers were checking protein levels after exposure to UV light. They saw that Ly6a levels rose significantly and speculated it might suppress the immune system in cancer patients. Lab tests showed that antibodies against Ly6a reduced tumor size in many cancers.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/398375  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52079-x
 
Recovery from strokes. Israel’s BioXtreme has developed the deXtreme rehabilitation robot device for improving of motor recovery of upper limbs for stroke patients. And doctors in 30 countries use Tigertriever, from Israel’s Rapid Medical (see here previously) to respond in real time during thrombectomy procedures.
https://www.israel21c.org/8-startups-transforming-stroke-prevention-detection-treatment/
https://bio-xtreme.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJOPaxTO5gE
https://www.rapid-medical.com/tigertriever
 
Life-saving blood cancer analysis. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Scopio Labs (see here previously) has launched its groundbreaking Full-Field Bone Marrow Aspirate™ (FF-BMA) Application for effective, digital imaging and AI analysis of blood cells. It replaces previous slow, manual, expert-only, error-prone, analysis methods.
https://scopiolabs.com/news/scopio-labs-receives-groundbreaking-fda-clearance-for-first-ever-digital-bone-marrow-aspirate-application/  https://www.ourcrowd.com/startup-news/beckman-coulter-and-scopio-labs-add-worlds-first-digital-bone-marrow-imaging-and-analysis-to-long-term-partnership https://scopiolabs.com/ff-bma/
 
Reducing phantom pain. Israel’s 6Degrees (see here previously) is now using its MyMove virtual reality games to enable dozens of new war amputees to have independent physical therapy sessions while decreasing their phantom pain and dependence on pain medications. “Exercising” an amputated limb helps blood flow.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-virtual-reality-game-helps-dozens-of-new-war-amputees-reduce-phantom-pain/
 
500 successful transplants. The partnership between the Gift of Life Marrow Registry and Taglit-Birthright Israel has just celebrated its 500th successful transplant of blood stem cell and bone marrow from Birthright donors to patients. They have saved hundreds of sufferers with leukemia, lymphoma and immune disorders.
https://www.jns.org/wire/gift-of-life-marrow-registry-marks-500th-lifesaving-transplant-from-birthright-donors/
 
Personal park guide for the visually impaired. The audio orientation and guiding system Israel’s RightHear (see here previously) has now been installed at 2,500+ global locations from Angola to the UAE. In August, Natural Bridge State Park in Virginia became the first US state park to offer the digital accessibility solution.
https://www.israel21c.org/the-startup-opening-up-the-world-for-the-visually-impaired/
 
Ariel’s first medical graduates. Israel’s Ariel University celebrated the first class of graduates from its 2019-founded Adelson School of Medicine. 53 students (including 40 women) were awarded their “Doctor of Medicine.” degrees in a ceremony attended by Israeli President Herzog and philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson.
https://www.jns.org/ariels-adelson-school-of-medicine-marks-first-graduating-class/

Israeli anxiety, America and the ayatollahs: Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/israeli-anxiety-america-and-the-ayatollahs/

Tensions are high in Israel as the United States enters the last lap of its presidential election. Given the level of public concern surrounding the race and the amount of space devoted to it by local analysts, an alien observing from Mars might mistakenly assume that the vote is taking place between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, not across the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s already been established, through surveys and punditocracy consensus—including among those more predisposed politically to Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats in general than to former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party—that most Israelis are praying for the latter to emerge victorious.

Polls showing that the candidates are basically tied, with daily fluctuations in swing-state percentages, is causing a lot of nail-biting, and not exclusively in U.S. capitals or Jerusalem. No, it’s safe to say that the entire world is watching and waiting with bated breath for the outcome.

Though Joe Biden will remain at the helm in the White House until the beginning of 2025 regardless of the results at the ballot box, nobody thinks he’s running the show in any respect, nor has he been for at least two years. It’s assumed in Israel, however, that the figures behind him could engage in serious lame-duck sabotage in the weeks leading up to the inauguration of his successor.

After all, during a similar period at the end of 2016, outgoing President Barack Obama and his sidekick, Secretary of State John Kerry, pulled a few stunts that made Israel’s enemies proud. Key among these moves was the abstention on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, adopted on Dec. 23.

Resolution 2334, which passed by 14-0, condemned Israeli settlements and called for all construction of them to cease. It also called for further labeling of Israeli goods, not only those made in settlements. In addition, it categorized the Western Wall as “occupied Palestinian territory.”

The Desolation of Palestine Before Zionism, a largely uninhabited land. by Robert Spencer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-desolation-of-palestine/

In the eighteenth century, an English traveler, Thomas Shaw, noted that Palestine was “lacking in people to till its fertile soil.”The French count Constantine François Volney, an eighteenth-century historian, called Palestine “ruined” and “desolate,” observing that “many parts” had “lost almost all their peasantry.” Volney complained that this desolation was unexpected, for the Ottoman imperial records listed larger populations, which led to tax collection efforts’ being frustrated. Of one area, Volney wrote: “Upwards of three thousand two hundred villages were reckoned, but, at present, the collector can scarcely find four hundred. Such of our merchants as have resided there twenty years have themselves seen the greater part of the environs…become depopulated. The traveller meets with nothing but houses in ruins, cisterns rendered useless, and fields abandoned. Those who cultivated them have fled.”

Another English traveler, James Silk Buckingham, visited Jaffa in 1816 and wrote that it had “all the appearances of a poor village, and every part of it that we saw was of corresponding meanness.” In Ramle, said Buckingham, “as throughout the greater part of Palestine, the ruined portion seemed more extensive than that which was inhabited.” Twenty-two years later, the British nobleman Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, Lord Lindsay, declared that “all Judea, except the hills of Hebron and the vales immediately about Jerusalem, is desolate and barren.”

In 1840, another traveler to Palestine praised the Syrians as a “fine spirited race of men,” but whose “population is on the decline.” He noted that the land between Hebron and Bethlehem was “now abandoned and desolate,” marked by “dilapidated towns.” Jerusalem was nothing more than “a large number of houses…in a dilapidated and ruinous state,” with “the masses…without any regular employment.”

In 1847, a U.S. Navy officer noted: “The population of Jaffa is now about 13,000, viz: Turks, 8000; Greeks, 2000; Armenians, 2000; Maronites, 700; and Jews, about 300.” Significantly, he counted no Arabs there at all.