RUTHFULLY YOURS

The notion that the Israeli pilot is the only one who has any responsibility for the child’s death is simply false. A lot of bad choices were made — by Palestinians — prior to the death of the young child and Atef Abu Saif knows it; he just can’t — or will not — address these choices, at least not in this text.

The reality that Saif will not confront in his book [The Drone Eats With Me] is that Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, bears a huge measure of responsibility for the suffering he documents. Hamas has repeatedly started wars that it cannot win against a country that cannot afford to lose.

During these conflicts, it has launched rockets from schoolyards and has used hospitals as command centers for its leaders, putting civilians on both sides of the conflict at risk. When children are killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas puts their bodies on display to demonize Israel, and writers such as Saif assist in this tactic.

During the war in 2008–2009, Hamas… used cement and other building materials allowed into the Gaza Strip—ostensibly for the benefit of Palestinian civilians—in order to construct tunnels that could penetrate Israel and serve as a means to kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians.

During its 2012 fight with Israel, Hamas leaders declared that killing Jews is a religious obligation. Hamas promotes a genocidal organization that seeks Israel’s destruction and yet Saif does not speak a word about this lethal ideology or actions before or during the 2014 war.

Honesty requires that the deaths of these Palestinian children serve to drive — not obstruct — the conversation toward Palestinian abilities and responsibility.

On and on he goes in an emotionally powerful but intellectually dishonest lament. Saif simply cannot come to grips with the responsibility Palestinian leaders have for the suffering in the areas they govern.

This is exactly what Saif’s condescending patrons and boosters in the West are looking for — narratives that allow them to embrace and broadcast baseless hatred for the Jewish state in the name of human rights.

Westerners who feast on this narrative do not help the Palestinians, but hurt them, by responding to the misdeeds of Palestinian elites with condescending pats on the head instead of the rebukes they warrant.

After returning from an awful weekend trip with a Christian youth group, I told my mother I wanted to stop going to church in the next town over and worship where we lived. “Nobody likes me over there,” I said. Her response was direct and brutal: “Maybe they are not the problem. Maybe it is you.”

It was a shock. Mothers are not supposed to talk that way to their 11-year-old sons (so I thought). In the years since, I have tried, with varying degrees of success, when in a difficult position, to look at the role I played in creating the circumstances I find myself in.

The Oslo Accords, the Wye Agreement, the Roadmap, ad nauseam, have all attempted to separate much, if not all, of the eternal possession of the Jewish people from their God given homeland? This decades long political foolishness has continued in order to appease a succession of occupants of the White House whose policies have, alas, too often become a clear and present danger to the very existence of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.

The reluctance by many Israeli leaders to resist various U.S. administrations or offend various presidents has inexorably led to Jewish rights not asserted vigorously enough. It has thus allowed the erosion of those very millennial and inalienable entitlements of the Jewish people to their ancestral heartland – primarily the narrow strip of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

History has proven that it was a near fatal mistake to embrace the pernicious, self-defeating and idiotic policies known as “land for peace” in which Israel gave away its historic land but never received peace.

That other evil seed, also spawned from the Oslo Peace Accords, namely what is called the “Two-State-Solution,” would, if enacted with the duplicitous and terrorist PLO, be as diabolical and deadly a euphemism for the Jewish state as was Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution” for Europe’s Jews.

Instead, there should have always been watertight demands made upon the so-called Palestinian Authority, which now occupies large swathes of Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank).

This was left undone and now the PLO and the so-called Palestinian Authority spew anti-Jewish propaganda in schools and through its regime controlled media, poisoning the minds of yet another generation of Arabs. At the same time its terrorist entities, Fatah and Hamas, unleash relentless and barbaric violence resulting in thousands of Israeli civilian deaths.

Demands should also have been made upon the artificial entity known as the Kingdom of Jordan for the return of biblical Gilead – the ancestral homeland of the Jewish tribes of Gad and Manasseh, east of the River Jordan.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government and previous governments stretching back to that of Yitzhak Rabin, all betrayed Jewish patrimony in the Land of Israel. They did not effectively reject the Arab and pro-Arab lie that Israel “occupies” Arab territory – specifically territory occupied by a fraudulent Arab people who have come to call themselves Palestinians.

Judea and Samaria have still not been annexed yet they are the very warp and woof, the heartland and very fabric and fiber of Jewish history during and after Biblical times.

I was looking back at what Professor Talia Einhorn of the University of Ariel wrote in 2003 about Judea, Samaria and Gaza, or as it is known by its Hebrew acronym, Yesha: meaning Yehuda, Shomron and Azza.

She was commenting on the ‘slip of the tongue” by then Prime Minister Sharon who used the word “occupation” in reference to Israel’s presence in Yesha. In 2003, Yesha still included Gaza.

This is generally a fair appraisal of the debate, but the majpr premise here is wrong. Israelis in the West Bank do not “occupy” another people’s land. The West Bank is a parcel of land included in the fraction of Palestine deeded to the Jews after Jordan was severed. rsk
Some want to annex the West Bank, others to separate from the Palestinians—and all view Jerusalem as anything but a settlement.

A billboard near the highway entering Jerusalem proclaims in Hebrew: “The Time for Sovereignty Has Come.” It is part of a new campaign for the formal incorporation into Israel of Ma’ale Adumim, one of the largest settlements in the West Bank and barely a 10-minute drive east of Israel’s capital. The campaign’s sponsors, backed by several ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s coalition, see annexing Ma’ale Adumim as the first step to annexing the entire West Bank and preventing the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israelis have been arguing about settlements ever since the Six Day War of June 1967, when the Israeli army captured the West Bank—the biblical regions of Judea and Samaria—and small groups of Israelis began establishing enclaves there. Annexation, long the goal of the settlement movement, has always been more aspiration than possibility, thwarted by opposition within Israel and from the international community.

But with the rise of Donald Trump, settlement leaders have sensed an opening. Mr. Trump’s nominee as U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is a longtime pro-settlement activist. And in a marked break with American policy, the Trump administration refused to condemn Israel’s announcement that it intends to build some 5,000 housing units in settlements, the largest expansion project in recent years.
A Palestinian laborer works at a construction site in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, near Jerusalem, Sept. 16, 2014. Photo: Dan Balilty/Associated Press

The collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the chaos of the Arab world in recent years have reinforced the settlers’ sense of opportunity. So too has the imminent approach of a date fraught with symbolic significance: the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War. According to Jewish tradition, 50 years—a jubilee—is the time for a reset. For those who believe that Israel needs to overcome its hesitancy and claim its rightful borders, it is a moment of high expectation.

Unlike critics abroad, including the U.N. Security Council, who denounce settlements as illegal under international law, mainstream Israeli discourse takes for granted the legitimacy of Israel’s claims to the West Bank—lands where the Jewish people find their deepest historical roots, won in a war of self-defense against the Arab world’s attempt to destroy the Jewish state. The debate, instead, is over the wisdom of implementing these claims to the “territories” (the more politically neutral term preferred by many in Israel).

Permanently absorbing the West Bank would mean adding more than two million Palestinians to Israel’s population, forcing it to choose eventually between the two essential elements of its national identity as both a Jewish state and a democracy.

That is precisely the point of another new campaign, from the opposite side of the political spectrum, urging withdrawal from the territories. “We’re Not Annexing—We’re Separating,” reads one billboard near the highway in Tel Aviv. A second billboard warns of what will happen if Israel doesn’t separate from the Palestinians: “The One-State Solution. Palestine.”

That warning reveals a profound shift in Israeli discourse. The mainstream Israeli left no longer promises “land for peace” but instead offers a more modest formula: withdrawal as the best way to ensure that Israel remains both Jewish and democratic. This shift recognizes that, after years of terrorism and Palestinian rejection of past Israeli peace offers (the last offer was in 2008), the Israeli public has become deeply skeptical of Palestinian intentions.

Polls consistently show that a majority of Israelis support a two-state solution, while doubting the possibility of peace. According to an October 2016 poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Peace Index, nearly 65% of Israelis backed peace talks—but only 26% thought they would succeed.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

US approves two Teva asthma treatments. The US FDA has approved two treatments developed by Israel’s Teva, for adolescents and adults with asthma. They are AirDuo RespiClick (fluticasone propionate and salmeterol inhalation powder) and ArmonAir RespiClick (fluticasone propionate inhalation powder).
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-fda-approves-two-teva-asthma-treatments-1001174386

Combatting fatty liver disease. (TY Atid-EDI) In advance of Phase 2 trials, preclinical data showed the potential efficacy of Namodenoson (CF102) from Israel’s Can-Fite (see Jan 2012). It inhibited the growth and proliferation of liver fibrosis cells, supporting its potential ability to combat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
http://ir.canfite.com/press-releases/detail/776/new-preclinical-data-show-can-fites-namodenoson-cf102-inhibits-liver-fibrosis—-supports-potential-efficacy-in-treatment-of-nash

Europe approves focused ultrasound treatment for prostate cancer. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (several times) on the focused ultrasound treatment from Israel’s Insightec to cure shaking and remove uterine fibroids. Now Insightec has been given the CE mark to use focused ultrasound to treat prostate cancer.
http://www.insightec.com/news-events/press-releases/2016/insightec-receives-ce-mark-for-the-exablate-prostate-for-treating-locally-confined-prostate-cancer

Patching up the brain after surgery. Israeli biotech Nurami Medical is developing the ArtiFascia, a biodegradable nanofiber patch that protects brain tissue and spinal cord damaged during neurosurgery. Nurami, founded by Jewish and Arab graduates, has just secured NIS 2.5 million ($650,000) of funds.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-biotechnology-startup-nurami-medical-raises-nis-2-5m/

Diagnosing sleep apnea by smartphone. Ben-Gurion University researchers have developed a system to assess obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity by analyzing the patient’s speech using his or her smartphone. It also records and evaluates overnight breathing sounds and has been tested successfully on 350 subjects.
https://aabgu.org/smartphone-diagnoses-sleep-apnea/

A shining example. Former Lieutenant Colonel Yossie Cohen made many life and death decisions in the IDF. But he never thought that filling in a form at the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registration Station was one of them. Ten years later he received a phone call. He donated some cells and gave another man the gift of life.
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/a-shining-example/

Universal flu vaccine – latest news. Knowing many sufferers of the current flu bout, it is timely to report positive preliminary results in the Phase 2b trials of the Universal Flu vaccine from Israel’s BiondVax. And thanks to a $2.8 million investment (see Jan 15), BiondVax is to “proceed confidently into Phase 3 as planned.”
http://www.biondvax.com/2016/11/biondvax-phase-2b-trial-preliminary-safety-results-the-universal-flu-vaccine-candidate-is-safe-and-well-tolerated/

With a new U.S. president, new ideas are emerging on how to resolve the Israel-Palestine debacle. One of the most promising comes from pro-Israel Palestinians who favor a new Palestinian state – in Jordan.

The GOP unanimously approved a pro-Israel platform at their convention in July 2016 which stipulated:

“The U.S. seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region,”

David Friedman and Jason Greenberg, representing Donald Trump, participated in the drafting and were in complete agreement with the final text.

Gone was any reference to the Palestinian people or to a two-state solution. In addition, the platform included the words “We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier.” If not an “occupier,” then presumably Israel is a sovereign.

Accordingly, the search is on for an alternate solution. Such a solution could take inspiration from the short-lived Feisal/Weizmann Agreement of 1919. The essence of this agreement was that Palestine as it then was, was to be divided into two states, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews. Chaim Weizmann on behalf of the Jews agreed to help develop the Arab state and King Feisal agreed to welcome Jewish settlement in the Jewish state and favored friendly cooperative relations.

Although the British didn’t breathe life into this agreement, they did separate Trans-Jordan from Palestine in 1922 with the Jordan River being the boundary between them. Trans-Jordan (Jordan) thus got 78% of the lands promised to the Jews. The remaining 22% consisting of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean was to be the Jewish state. This was enshrined in the Palestine Mandate signed by the League of Nations in 1922.

On June 30, 1922, a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress of the United States unanimously endorsed the “Mandate for Palestine,” confirming the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in Palestine—anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

With respect to the Arabs living in Jewish Palestine, the Congressional Record contained the following:

“(2) That if they will not consent to Jewish government and domination, they shall be required to sell their lands at a just valuation and retire into the Arab territory which has been assigned to them by the League of Nations in the general reconstruction of the countries of the east.

(3) That if they will not consent to Jewish government and domination, under conditions of right and justice, or to sell their lands at a just valuation and to retire into their own countries, they shall be driven from Palestine by force.”

The US was not a member of the League of Nations at this time. In order to be able to protect American interests in Palestine, she entered into the 1924 Anglo-American Convention in which the U.S. bound itself to the terms of the Mandate. This of course meant the recognition of Jewish right to close settlement of Palestine and that all of Palestine was to be the Jewish homeland.

During two intensive days of private and public sessions held at the Brookings Institution in Washington this week, focusing on the future of Israeli society, I spent considerable time with Mohammad Darawshe, director at The Center for a Shared Society at Givat Haviva, who has dedicated his life to improving Jewish-Arab relations and integrating Israeli Arabs into society.

Darawshe presented some astounding statistics that contradict the fabricated inflammatory rhetoric that we hear so often. Here are some of the facts:

• 23% of Israeli doctors are Arabs
• 46% of Israeli pharmacists are Arabs
• 28% of hi-tech students at the Technion are Arabs
• 16% of the students in all of Israeli higher education are Arabs Regarding perceptions about Israel within the Arab community (based on 2015 polling performed by Prof. Sammy Smooha, University of Haifa):
• 73% view “Israeli” as part of their identity
• 77% want to see their community fully integrated into Israeli society
• 60% are “at peace” with the reality that Israel has a Jewish majority, and 52% would actually vote in a nation referendum in favor of a constitution which declares Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, with equal rights for all minorities.

Concerning the Arabs and Knesset representation:
• 17% are against any Knesset participation
• 15% support the extremist Balad party; two-thirds support the more moderate parties within the Joint List
• 72% want to see the Arab parties in the government working to improve their quality of life
• 73% disagree with the decision by the Joint List not to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Israeli doctors save Arab baby with serious birth defect. Ibtihaj from Arab village of Kfar Kassam was born with her intestines outside her abdomen. After birth, surgeons at Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital put her organs back in place. They closed the wound with the Israeli TopClosure Tension Relief System (see here).
http://www.israel21c.org/israeli-patch-saves-baby-born-with-intestines-outside-body/

50 patients cured of essential tremor. (TY Karen) Haifa’s Rambam medical center has now used the non-invasive focused ultrasound brain treatment to cure 50 patients of essential tremor. This video features Haya Mandelbaum – a baker, who celebrated “getting her life back” by making Hanukkah donuts for hospital staff.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/imVN64BmRqk?rel=0

Golf event saved 16 lives. I reported previously (Jun 19) on the “Hole in One” golf event that Israeli charity Ezer Mizion uses to raise money for its bone marrow registry. Funds pay for specific genetic tests and the subsequent bone marrow donations are monitored. In 2016, 16 people were saved thanks to these donations.
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/every-stroke-a-strike-against-cancer/

Israeli tech cuts down prescription errors. (TY Nocamels.com) I reported previously (see here) about Israeli tech that prevents medical errors. Here now is an article about Israel’s Medaware that alerts doctors about mistakes when writing out prescriptions. A Harvard Medical School study proves Medaware saves lives.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tech-cuts-drug-errors-harvard-study-shows/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NzWTFbUdSbc?rel=0 http://www.medaware.com/

US approves media for growing stem cells. (TY Atid-EDI) The US FDA has approved the application from Israel’s Biological Industries for its NutriStem hPSC XF Medium to grow stem cells. The kibbutz-based company has over 30 years’ experience in cell culture media development and manufacturing.
http://blog.bioind.com/fda-drug-master-file-acceptance-nutristem-hpsc-xf-medium/ http://www.bioind.com/

US approves suturing system. (TY Atid-EDI) I wrote previously (Oct 10) that Israel’s Gordian Surgical had received CE (European) certification for its innovative TroClose1200 system for closing wounds after keyhole surgery. The system has now received US FDA approval and Gordian has received a $2.25 million investment.
http://trendlines.com/gordian-surgical-raises-more-than-2-million-dollars/

Advanced gene editing. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have combined two powerful research tools to advance the search for genetic breakthroughs. First, they use CRISPR gene editing to make changes to DNA molecules. Then they use single-cell genomic profiling to confirm the outcome of changes.
http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/gene-editing-takes-new-roles

Detecting disease in “healthy” people. (TY Karen) Recent video by Israeli-Arab Professor Hossam Haick of Israel’s Technion who invented the Na-Nose breath test to detect diseases such as cancer.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1dhOaArOYdM?rel=0

Predictive analytics health research institute set up. Israel’s Maccabi Health Services has set up a $6 million digital health research institute. It has already developed technology for predicting colon cancer among Maccabi patients who never considered going for a scan for this purpose. And it is not stopping there.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-predictive-analytics-health-research-institute-set-up-1001172819

Migraine treatment for South Korea. (TY Meron) Israel’s Redhill Biopharma and its Canadian co-development partner, IntelGenx have signed a definitive agreement with Korea’s Pharmatronic, granting an exclusive license (initially for 10 years) to market the acute migraine treatment RIZAPORT® in South Korea.
http://ir.redhillbio.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=1004141