RUTHFULLY YOURS

TEL AVIV—An Israeli airstrike killed four Islamic State-affiliated militants in the Syrian Golan Heights on Sunday, Israel’s military said, after its soldiers came under fire in one of the first major clashes with the extremist group.

An Israeli unit was conducting an operation beyond a fence that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria but within the border when it was shot at by Islamic State militants, the army said. The soldiers returned fire before an Israeli warplane struck a machine gun-mounted vehicle that was carrying the militants, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.

The strike killed at least four militants, according to a visual assessment by the pilot. No Israeli soldiers were injured.

The military said the militants were fighting for the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in June after the group pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

The brigade is made up of roughly 600 fighters and has been operating on Syria’s borders with Jordan and Israeli-controlled Golan for about three years, Israel’s military said.

The group gained notoriety for kidnapping United Nations observers in 2013 but has so far refrained from cross-border attacks so as not to provoke Israel or Jordan.

Sunday’s attack was unlikely to signal a new wave of Islamic State violence on the border, said Nitzan Nuriel, former director of the counterterrorism bureau in Israel’s prime minister’s office.

“I don’t think that at this stage…someone decided to open up a new front against Israel,” he told reporters Sunday.

The Israeli side of the Golan Heights, land captured from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has seen periodic clashes since the civil war began nearly six years ago. Most of the incidents have been caused by the Syrian regime misfiring against rebels and Israel returning fire.

Israel has said it won’t allow Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad to open a front in the Syrian Golan Heights. It has regularly launched airstrikes against weapons convoys bound for Hezbollah.

TEL AVIV—Israeli police have arrested about two dozen Arabs on suspicion of arson after wildfires spread across the country, local authorities said Sunday, drawing sharp criticism from some politicians as tens of thousands fled their homes.

Police said it wasn’t clear what proportion of the fires in recent days were arson-related, and how many had been started due to windy conditions and dry weather after a long hot summer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the fires hadn’t been totally extinguished. He warned that anyone proven to have ignited the blazes would be brought to justice.

“Whoever starts a fire, either by malice or negligence, whoever incites to arson—we will act against them with full force,” he said at a special cabinet meeting in the northern city of Haifa where damage was most serious.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 23 people in custody were found lighting fires or connected to those who had started blazes. Some of them had been caught in the act and chased by police helicopters before being arrested by ground forces, he said.

The alleged arsonists didn’t appear to be coordinated by one group, but “it’s hard to say this is just because of winds,” said Mr. Rosenfeld. “There were several areas where fires started in [a] short space of time. That was significantly suspicious.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also on Sunday said authorities had proof that at least 17 cases of the 110 recorded outbreaks of fires were caused by arsonists. He visited the Jewish settlement of Neve Tzuf in the central West Bank where hundreds evacuated their homes.

The wildfires began late Monday in central Israel and subsequently blazed around Jerusalem, Haifa and Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, destroying hundreds of homes and causing millions of dollars of damage.

Some 75,000 residents of Haifa were evacuated as whole neighborhoods were hit by the blazes. Israeli health authorities said more than a hundred people had been treated for smoke inhalation and other injuries across the country, but reported no deaths.

Israel’s military deployed thousands of soldiers to join hundreds of firefighters in tackling the fires. Firefighting planes and equipment were flown from the U.S., Russia, Greece, Italy, Turkey and other nations to help. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also sent crews of firefighters and trucks.

Mr. Netanyahu and his defense minister both issued thanks to the Palestinian Authority for sending trucks to help with the infernos. But Mr. Lieberman also called on the government to expand settlement construction in the West Bank to punish those Palestinian and Israeli Arabs who had allegedly started the fires.

Other Israeli leaders also were quick to label the fires a new form of terrorism against Israel. CONTINUE AT SITE

My e-pal and friend Victor Sharpe sent this to me…There is a “fire intifada raging in Israel” which the MSM ignores.

Palestinian and local Arab arson attacks on the beautiful forests planted over the decades by Israel for the betterment, health and beauty of Jews, Arabs and all humanity have destroyed homes and entire neighborhoods as well as killed untold numbers of birds and animals living in the verdant forests and green places. This is an odious crime against not only the Jewish state but all of nature, perpetrated by misbegotten followers of Islam whose souls are filled with such unredeemable hatred that they would consign all that is good to the burning flames of Hell on Earth.

Some years ago, another exceptionally beautiful forested area near Haifa, Israel, known as Little Switzerland, was torched by Palestinian and local Muslim Arabs. Jewish residents nearby were horrified as they heard the screams of the forest animals burning to death in the flames.

Perhaps the international greenies and environmentalist will have the courage they need to display in order to condemn outright and unequivocally this, oh, so vile Palestinian Arab crime against nature. Will they? Victor Sharpe

This from Israel National News:

According to reports in Israel National News, fires are raging across Israel, including inside the northern coastal city of Haifa, the blazes are mostly intentional – an attempt by some Arabs to take advantage of the dry, windy weather to pursue war against the Jewish state by other means.

Among the proponents of this view is Dr. David Bukay, a Professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Haifa, an expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict and a resident of one of the Haifa neighborhoods which was evacuated on Thursday.

In an interview to Arutz Sheva, Dr. Bukay recalled the evacuation.

“Our neighborhood is being completely torched,” said Bukay, “there’s no other way of describing it. We were evacuated two hours ago from the new Romema [neighborhood] to an older one; now both of them are ablaze. We left everything behind, but the important thing is that we and the children are all safe.”

While Haifa, a mixed-city with a significant Arab population, has long pursued “progressive multi-cultural policies,” Thursday’s firestorm is an illustration of what that approach is yielding for Israeli society.

“Today we saw an illustration of what we’re going to get for all of the benefits that we give to the Arabs. The Haifa municipality hires Arabs in all of its operations, and the mayor thinks that’s how we’ll get peace and quiet. Today we see what ‘coexistence’ means.”

Given the number and timing of the fires across the city, continued, Dr. Bukay, the blazes appear to be the result of multiple Arab arsons.

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Protein H1.0 stops cancer cells re-activating. An international study led by scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Crick Institute in London has revealed that cancer stem cells survive even after aggressive treatments. However, they need low (or zero) levels of a DNA-packaging protein H1.0 to re-activate.
http://austfhu.org.au/researchers-uncover-a-survival-mechanism-in-cancer-cells/
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6307/aaf1644.long

Tiny barcodes record effectiveness of cancer treatments. Scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute have developed nano-packages of different anti-cancer treatments that are tagged with synthetic DNA sequences. Released into the bloodstream and collected 48 hours later, they identify which treatments are most effective.
http://www.technion.ac.il/en/2016/11/personalized-cancer-therapy/

Automatic analysis of mammograms. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (here) on Israel’s Zebra Medical and its computer algorithms that can detect osteoporosis, cardiac disease, liver disease etc from X-rays, CT scans and MRI scans. Now it has developed a new algorithm that detects breast cancer from mammograms.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161012006246/en/Time-October-Breast-Cancer-Awareness-Month-Zebra

AIDS treatment eliminates 97% of the virus. (TY Nevet) Scientists at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot have developed a treatment called “Gammora” that kills between 95-97% of the AIDS virus in laboratory tests. The Kaplan AIDS clinic is the largest in Israel, caring for 1,400 patients.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/zion-pharmaceuticals-kaplan-hospital-developing-gammora-cure-for-aids/2016/11/01/

A remedy for damaged knee cartilage. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Regentis Biomaterials is shortly to conduct a Phase III clinical study of GelrinC, a new treatment for focal cartilage defects in the knee. GelrinC is poured into the lesion in a minimally invasive procedure and converted into a solid implant using ultra-violet light.
http://www.regentis.co.il/product.asp?ID=9

A blood test for Parkinson’s. Israeli startup BioShai is developing the world’s first simple blood test for the early diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The PDx test measures changes in molecules associated with PD and can lead to more precise treatments and a higher quality of life for the patient. http://www.israel21c.org/worlds-first-blood-test-to-aid-diagnosis-of-parkinsons/

Ultrasonic comb to kill headlice. Israeli startup Parasonic (from Nazareth incubator NGT3) has developed a comb device that destroys lice and lice eggs with ultrasound waves, without any chemicals. The device is said to produce results after a single five-minute combing and is scheduled to go into production within one year.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-headlice-treatment-co-parasonic-raises-16m-1001161799

19 graduate Hadassah’s international medical program. (TY Karen) 19 students joined the 845 graduates of 41 courses of the International Master of Public Health program run by the Hadassah-Hebrew University Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine. They include students from 96 different countries.
http://www.hadassah.org/news-stories/graduation-imph-program.html?referrer=https://www.google.com.au/

Palestinians and Arabs across the Middle East are celebrating as Israel struggles for the third day in a row to control dozens of fires that have sprung up between the center and the north of the country, according to The Algemeiner.

Posts written under the hashtag #IsraellsBurning are proliferating on Twitter, in which Arabs attack the Jewish state and rejoice about the blazes. They are encouraging Palestinians to set more fires.

“The welcome acts of arson are a part of the Palestinian resistance against the Zionist entity,” wrote Twitter user nrg.

“The fire is burning inside the settlements in occupied Haifa,” wrote another.

“It’s God’s punishment,” declared a third.

“After a long and hard work day,” wrote one more, “#israelisburning will give me an exceptional weekend , let’s party!!!!”

“Finally they got what they did to Palestinians,” exclaimed yet another. “Now y’all feel how our hearts burned when you killed my brothers & sisters #israelisburning.”

“Even the lands and the trees says Get out,” wrote another.

Ofir Gendelman, Arab media spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted in response: “Arabs & Palestinians on social media rejoice over the wildfires that have erupted across Israel. Despicable fanatic hatred.”

It now appears that the Obama Administration’s failed policies in the Middle East have increased the Iranians’ appetite, such that they are convinced that they can expand their influence to the Palestinians as well.

Iran has one goal only: to eliminate the “Zionist entity” and undermine moderate and progressive Arabs and Muslims.

“Relations between Iran and Hamas are currently undergoing revitalization, and are moving in the right direction,” announced Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official. He went on to explain that “moving in the right direction” means that Iran would “continue to support the resistance” against Israel.

Hamas and Iran have no meaningful ideological or strategic differences. Both share a common desire to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamic empire. Iran expects results: Hamas is to use the financial and military support to resume attacks on Israel and “liberate all of Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”

As far as Iran is concerned, there is nothing better than having two proxy terror organizations on Israel’s borders — Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south.

The biggest losers, once again, will be President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Israel’s presence in the West Bank has thus far thwarted Iran’s repeated attempts to establish bases of power there.

The Iranians and Hamas are exploiting the final days of the Obama Administration to restore their relations and pave the way for Tehran to step up its meddling in the internal affairs of the Palestinians in particular and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general.

It was over the ruins of these sacred Jewish sites, left behind by the Romans, that Arab conquerors of Jerusalem in the seventh century built two mosques, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa, to lay claim on the City of David for Islam.

There can be no dispute about Jewish links with Jerusalem, and Jewish rights to their sacred sites that long pre-date the arrival of Arabs bearing Islam to the City of David. This latest effort by the UNESCO, however to deny the Jewish nature of Jerusalem is much more than a scandal; it is a Stalinist measure to airbrush history by an organization which, according to its own charter, is supposed to be devoted without prejudice to the preservation of historical records.

There is precedent for such a resolution to nullify the recent UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem. In December 1991 the UN General Assembly voted to repeal the UN resolution passed in 1975 that declared, “Zionism is a form of racism.”

When Arabs and Muslims deny Jewish links to Jerusalem they are also then in denial of their own history. Their claim on Jerusalem, or the holy land, on the basis of Islam is simply not found in the Quran.

Their claim on Jerusalem, or the holy land, on the basis of Islam is simply not found in the Quran. On the contrary, the Quran is explicit in addressing Jews as “children of Israel” and speaking of them, as in “Remember those blessings of Mine with which I graced you, and how I favoured you above all other people” (2:47).

Indeed, Muslim denial of the Jewish links to the City of David and their ancestral rights over Judea and Samaria, or Palestine, is ironically contrary to the Word of God in their own sacred scripture.