If we are smart we will erase our history so we can start all over again and get it right this time.
How do we do this? Simple, all become Democrats. (See 1 below.)
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Is Trump's ability to think outside the box likely to work if this is his plan to resolving the Palestinian- Israeli Issue? (See 2 below.)
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Are Democrats "Biding" their time before they lose again? Time will tell. (See 3 below.)
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Governments have a tendency to hide the truth even from themselves. Israel is no exception because governments are run by human beings and humans often cannot cope with truth. (See 4 below.)
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Ordman's good news from Israel. (Edited See 5 below.)
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Other worthy op eds:
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1) Even George Washington May Be Erased From Our Past
A mural in San Francisco, which dates from 1936, is assailed because it ‘traumatizes students.’
By Fergus M. Bordewich
A San Francisco mural has become the latest high-profile target of self-appointed censors who want to erase both history and art of which they disapprove. “Life of Washington,” a Works Progress Administration epic depicting scenes of America’s first president across 1,600 square feet, has been on display at a local school since 1936. Yet local activists and bureaucrats have decided its time has gone.
The president of San Francisco’s Board of Education is among the mural’s opponents, who have called the artwork “offensive,” “dehumanizing” and “insulting” to Native Americans and blacks. In February a school-board committee concluded that the art “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc.” and “traumatizes students.” No evidence was produced to show that the murals had traumatized anyone over the past 83 years. Yet the committee recommended destroying not only the two most controversial panels but the entire series.
Among the densely packed and vividly rendered scenes, including dignified images of Washington in war and peace, the mural depicts slaves working in Washington’s fields and the president pointing westward past the body of a slain Native American. Critics vilify these images, but they are not the stuff of saccharine hagiography. The mural’s painter, Victor Arnautoff, was a protégé of Diego Rivera and a communist. He included those images not to glorify Washington, but rather to provoke a nuanced evaluation of his legacy. The scene with the dead Native American, for instance, calls attention to the price of “manifest destiny.” Arnautoff’s murals also portray the slaves with humanity and the several live Indians as vigorous and manly.
Those who condemn the murals have misunderstood it, seeing only what they sought to find. They’ve also got their history seriously wrong. Washington did own slaves—124 men, women and children—and oversaw many more who belonged to his wife’s family. But by his later years he had evolved into a proto-abolitionist, a remarkable ethical journey for a man of his time, place and class.
Washington came to believe that blacks were neither biologically inferior to whites nor ordained to servitude by the Bible. As early as 1783 he considered founding a community for freed slaves with the ardently abolitionist Marquis de Lafayette. He came close to espousing emancipation publicly, but he demurred because he doubted that the fragile young nation could survive a crisis over slavery. In this, he was probably correct.
In his will, Washington freed every slave he owned—he couldn’t legally free those his wife’s family owned—and provided for them financially, stipulating “that this clause respecting Slaves . . . be religiously fulfilled . . . without evasion, neglect or delay.” Knowing that his will would become public, it was Washington’s way of speaking to the nation.
And far from encouraging genocide against Native Americans, Washington believed they should be fairly compensated for land already seized and that all future cessions of native territory should be negotiated legally. “While the measures of Government ought to be calculated to protect its citizens from all injury and violence, a due regard should be extended to those Indian Tribes whose happiness, in the course of events, so materially depends on the national justice and humanity of the United States,” Washington told Congress in August 1789. He tried to pry Indian affairs away from the control of state legislatures, whose political interests and corrupt speculation disrupted native communities by feeding chronic instability on the frontier. Unfortunately his efforts had little success.
In sum, Washington wouldn’t have met today’s standards of approved thought, but he was far from the racist caricature that the enemies of Arnautoff’s mural imagine.
The impulse to destroy troublesome art has become a crusade for those who imagine that revising history to suit their ideology is tantamount to revolution. Even the city’s arts commission, whose mission is to promote and defend art, has been AWOL, not taking a position on the mural. Earlier this month, another 80-year-old WPA mural was removed from a public school in Oak Park, Ill., solely because all the children portrayed in it happened to be white.
A mural panel at George Washington High School in San Francisco. Photo: Robert W. Cherny
Some egregious works of art deserve to be revised—for example, a grotesquely dishonest memorial in Colfax, La., honoring “those fighting for white supremacy” during an 1873 massacre in which as many as 150 black freedmen died. But on the whole, instead of indulging in emotional and intellectually obtuse efforts to erase the past, it would be better to honor the truth by investing our passions in memorializing those parts of history that earlier generations suppressed.
Two sterling examples are the powerful new lynching memorial in Montgomery, Ala., and a proposed art installation at Princeton that will express Woodrow Wilson’s muscular idealism as well as his unadulterated racism.
The alternative is to begin the never-ending destruction of images and language that someone, somewhere may find offensive. “My fear,” says Gray A. Brechin, a scholar at the Living New Deal documentary project and archive, “is that if they are successful at destroying the murals, then no art that anyone finds offensive will be safe. . . . Are we to have a Museum of Suppressed Art to contain this pogrom of images?”
It’s not the business of democracies but of tyrannies to airbrush people from history or, in San Francisco’s case, to obscure the savage repression of blacks and Native Americans. The censors’ intentions—good, bad or ignorant—are almost beside the point.
Instead of hiding history, let’s work to remember it more fully, warts, triumphs and all. The past, it has often been said, is a foreign country. We ought to know it better.
Mr. Bordewich is a historian and author of “The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government.”
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2) Trump’s 'Deal of the Century' and Jordan as the Palestinian State
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, recently told 100 foreign diplomats in the Blair House, that the Plan sometimes referred to as the Deal of the Century will be rolled out after the new Israeli government is sworn in and following the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends June 5.
But will it?
Many dates have been suggested over the last year or so for tabling the plan, but time and again they have been postponed for one reason or another.
Similarly, there have been many conflicting reports detailing the plan, ranging from creating a new Palestinian state on 90% of the West Bank to not creating a new state at all.
Daniel Pipes in his recent article, Anticipating Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ , wrote,
A stream of leaks, however, contains enough internal consistency that their collation, supplemented by conversations with administration officials, provides a plausible outline of the plan’s contents.
These suggest the plan boils down to a grand exchange: The Arab states recognize Israel and Israel recognizes Palestine, both with capital cities in Jerusalem.
After setting out the probable details of the plan he concludes that it will fail. He is not alone in saying so. Virtually all commentators do likewise. In effect, they are saying that Trump is naïve or stupid to think otherwise. Their forecasts are all based on their understanding that Trump is merely putting lipstick on a pig, the pig being what has been proposed before with new variations.
Everyone is selling Trump short. Surely, he knows that such a pig won’t fly. So, he must be thinking of an entirely out of the box solution.
The Beirut-based newspaper Al-Akhbar two weeks ago published a report which made no mention of a Palestinian state but did say the plan involves the emigration of one million Palestinians to Jordan and regional co-operation and financing. As such it is out of the box thinking. It is Trump’s intention to look to the Palestinians for consent rather than the Palestinian Authority (PA). But his suggested plan will require the approval of King Abdullah of Jordan, who is adamantly against it. Thus, even this plan will end in failure.
It is for this reason I do not believe that it will be tabled in June as Kushner suggests, unless the circumstances change.
Mudar Zahran, Sec Gen of the Jordan Opposition Coalition, and I have been promoting the Jordan Option for ten years now, which is premised on the belief that both Abbas and King Abdullah will never accept a plan acceptable to Israel. Thus, I argued that Abbas and the PA must be marginalized and Abdullah must abdicate and be replaced by Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian, as leader. With the election of Pres Trump we went into high gear.
The Jordan Option is a two-state solution in which Jordan is the Palestinian State and Israel the Jewish state with the Jordan River the border separating them. All Palestinians will be given Jordanian citizenship and be invited to emigrate to Jordan. According to this plan, the PA will wither away and Jordan will replace it as administrator of Area A in Israel.
It is fair to ask, "What difference will this make?"
We will wake up to see a new ruler in Jordan who will base all his policies vis-a-vis Israel on co-operation, not confrontation.
Zahran will accept that plan once it is tabled whereas the king won’t. The PA, the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran and the EU will do their utmost to prevent this from happening, but they will be powerless to stop it.
Zahran will grant citizenship to all Palestinians and will invite them to return to Jordan for social security, healthcare and education. As a result, Israel will have no obligation to offer them a path to citizenship, should Israel annex the land on which they live.
President Trump will continue to cut off funds to the PA and United Nations Relief and Works Admininistration (UNWRA) as he has been doing. He will also continue to undermine the antisemitic UN entities such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNESCO. He has already neutered the Inyternational Criminal Court. Trump will also redefine who constitutes a refugee entitled to UNRWA services, thereby greatly reducing their number.
The Palestinians in Judea and Samaria will then have choices: confront or cooperate; and the PA or Jordan. They will openly resist the PA, which is becoming irrelevant. Hamas will try to take over, but they will be roundly defeated. Within about two years, Jordan will replace the PA as the administrator of Area A as defined by the Oslo Accords.
Oslo Accords areas (via Wikimedia)
Throughout this period of time, Israel and Jordan will provide financial inducements to the Palestinians to emigrate to Jordan or elsewhere. Israel will begin extending her sovereignty to the Jordan River and will build like crazy in Area C.
The end result is that we will have two states, Jordan, i.e., the Palestinian State, and Israel, the Jewish State, both of whom have signed a Peace Treaty recognizing the Jordan River as the separating border. It will signal the end of the peace process, not the beginning of a new one.
All this without the Trump Plan being tabled.
With these facts on the ground, there will be no need for the Deal of the Century. I suspect that just as Trump has proceeded over the last 2 years with pro-Israel policies, he will enable the cooperation between Jordan and Israel to succeed and prosper and encourage Palestinian emigration without the necessity of tabling a Plan.
Ultimately, Israel and Jordan will cooperate in defeating Hamas in Gaza. Israel will not have to occupy it, Jordan will. Gaza will become another area A administered by Jordan.
Last October Trump said the plan when tabled will have semi-agreement. I commented on it in The Jordanian Option is the only game in town.
After meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he said “I like the two state solution.” and added, to everyone’s astonishment, “I want a plan that’s solid, understood by both sides, really semi-agreed by both sides before we present. I would say two-three-four months.”
Given the total rejection of his ideas by Abdullah and Abbas, how can he expect to have semi agreement within “two-three-four months”?
The only answer to that question is that he does not expect to have a semi agreement with either of them. He expects that Mudar Zahran will replace Abdullah, and knows, based on my writings and Zahran’s speeches and interviews, that he would have Zahran’s agreement on behalf of all Palestinians to his Plan. Eighty-three year old Abbas is irrelevant.
As a result, I firmly believe that Zahran will take power before the plan is tabled. The plan then will simply endorse the reality and provide for economic assistance to Jordan to facility Arab emigration to Jordan.
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3) Biden: The Democrats’ Flavor of the Week
I think there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 Democrats who have thrown their hats into the ring so far. Frankly, I’ve lost count. Each week, as a new hat comes flying, the contender is the recipient of free, often favorable, press doting, only to be followed within hours by attacks on his or her personality, policies and history.
This week’s person-whose-definitely-going-to beat-the President is Obama’s former vice president, Joe Biden.
He postponed the big announcement several times, and finally, the big day arrived this week.
His party’s theme for some time now has been straight white men bad, and it’s difficult to see how he’ll garner the nomination. But shrewd Joe has a plan: He hired Symone Sanders as his campaign manager just weeks after she’d contributed to another wannabe contender, Pete Buttigieg, the gay mayor of a failing Indiana city. Previously, she was the spokesperson for Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. After leaving that position, she announced on CNN "We Don't Need White People Leading The Democratic Party Right Now."
That was then. Apparently, we need them now, in campaign official-speak.
You can see why viewing the crazy train of Democrat contenders, party people who want to wrest the White House back, have hitched their star to someone who might appeal to straight white men, a still not insignificant voting tranche to political observers outside newsrooms.
It doesn’t seem likely to meet their expectations. In the first place, Biden is still not very fast on his feet. Watch him stumble through even this cloud-soft interview on “The View,” the idiotic show I imagine is watched largely by shut-ins too weak to change the channel on their remotes.
And if you want to know what ill-informed millennial youngsters think, there’s no better source than Vox, which I think may still be hoping for a totally inexperienced person of the right sexual orientation and ethnicity to grab the Golden Apple:
Mainstream Democrats like other mainstream Democrats. But what it means to be a mainstream Democrat has changed significantly since Biden entered the Senate 46 years ago. As Democrats gear up to take on Trump, the party’s best shot is to do anything possible to avoid repeating the 2016 experience of defending decades’ worth of twists and turns on various issues from the Iraq War to LGBTQ rights to banking deregulation.
Vox noted his then-mainstream positions which are out of synch with progressives in today’s party: He was an Iraq war proponent. He was too tied to the banking industry, He voted for the “discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act” and was a “tough on crime’ drug warrior.” He “mishandled” the Clarence Thomas hearings. (This was before (a) all women must be believed; and (b) before Bill Clinton when some women must not be believed; and (c) Kavanaugh hearings where once again all women must be believed or something .)
Much is made of his habitual groping of women and young girls.
Far more serious handicaps in my opinion, are his apparent corrupt acts to benefit his son, Hunter. He steered $1.8 billion dollars to the then-Russian-linked government of the Ukraine and in return his son Hunter received millions of dollars from a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
He pulled a similar stunt with China.
Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and author of the new book Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, joined SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight on Monday to detail the involvement of Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s second son, in a China-backed private equity firm’s investment in a Chinese atomic energy company indicted for “nuclear power conspiracy against the United States.”
In an interview with Breitbart News Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak, Schweizer highlighted the financial relationship between Hunter Biden and the Chinese state -- including a $1.5 billion deal establishing a private equity firm -- as an illustration of what he dubbed “the new corruption.” He further explained how foreign governments purchase political influence through “sweetheart deals” with the children of politicians.
I think after the Clintons, the voters are fed up with such corrupt self-dealings.
While his name has not yet appeared to my knowledge in the now rapidly unraveling coup attempt against President Trump, Biden was vice president during all this, and not coincidentally, the prior Ukraine government plays a prominent role in the scandal. He may still find himself enmeshed in it as a new Ukrainian prosecutor,who replaced the one Biden forced out, reopens the case.
Some hard questions should be answered by Biden as he prepares, potentially, to run for president in 2020: Was it appropriate for your son and his firm to cash in on Ukraine while you served as point man for Ukraine policy? What work was performed for the money Hunter Biden’s firm received? Did you know about the Burisma probe? And when it was publicly announced that your son worked for Burisma, should you have recused yourself from leveraging a U.S. policy to pressure the prosecutor who very publicly pursued Burisma?
The coordination between Obama officials and the Ukrainians began in January 2016:
Donald Trump began his meteoric rise to the presidency, the Obama White House summoned Ukrainian authorities to Washington to coordinate ongoing anti-corruption efforts inside Russia’s most critical neighbor.
The January 2016 gathering, confirmed by multiple participants and contemporaneous memos, brought some of Ukraine’s top corruption prosecutors and investigators face to face with members of former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC), the FBI, State Department and Department of Justice (DOJ).
The agenda suggested the purpose was training and coordination. But Ukrainian participants said it didn’t take long -- during the meetings and afterward -- to realize the Americans’ objectives included two politically hot investigations: one that touched Vice President Joe Biden’s family and one that involved a lobbying firm linked closely to then-candidate Trump.
The end result was to scotch the claims about Biden and tar Trump with Manafort.
More than the seemingly corrupt payoff to the Biden family is involved. The President made this clear a few days ago.
Ukrainian officials said this month they have gathered a heap of evidence of collusion with Democrats and they are trying to share the information with the US Justice Department.
A court in Ukraine ruled recently that the Manafort leak amounted to illegal interference in the 2016 election.
Back in 2017, a report by Politico found that Ukrainian officials had sought to undermine the Trump campaign by questioning his fitness for office.They were also said to have worked to secure Clinton's victory by conducting research on her behalf and going after Manafort for his ties to Russia.
And then there are the lying, divisive comments he made when he announced his candidacy, which has enraged even the very moderate former law professor, Ann Althouse:
How dare Biden rest his campaign on a blatant lie -- a lie that has been used to stir up fear and racial discord?! The hypocrisy of offering to bring us together and embrace lofty values when he is either repulsively ignorant or just plain lying!
I could not finish watching that video. I tried, but I couldn't force myself. It's utterly toxic bilge.
If Biden does not come forward and retract this video and apologize and commit himself to making amends, I consider him disqualified. He does not have the character or brain power to be President.
She was referring to the false claim that Trump endorsed the neo-Nazis In Charlottesville. He did not. His reference to “good people on both sides” as the transcript shows was to those who demonstrating for and against the removal of historic Confederate statues. He specifically condemned the violent protestors.
Indeed, while repeating this slander, Biden endorsed Antifa, the fascist thugs who revel in beating up anyone who opposes their views.
Former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Antifa in a video announcing his presidential bid Thursday, characterizing the group as “courageous” and saying it’s wrong to draw a moral equivalence between white nationalist groups and those opposing themThe violent methods of Antifa are well documented. The nebulous group often uses these violent means against peaceful conservative speakers, benign free speech advocates, and even journalists.In a retelling of the events at a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Biden describes the white nationalists as having “crazed faces, illuminated by torches, veins bulging and baring the fangs of racism,” but describes the Antifa members who engaged violently with them as “a courageous group of Americans.”
Capri Cafaro, a Biden fan, notes how unlikely it is that Biden’s announcement will win over the support he needs:
The insinuation was that another four years of Donald Trump would do irreparable damage to our nation’s core values. The latent message seemed to suggest that if Trump stays in the White House, we are doomed to be a nation that accepts racism and bigotry, doubts our institutions of government and the press, rebukes our historic global allies and attempts to ignore the rule of law if it is politically expedient or personally beneficial. While Biden did not explicitly say these all of these things in his video, the message seemed to permeate the underlying premise.
Herein lies the problem with this bold strategy. This message, by deduction, basically says to Trump supporters, “Hey, since you support Trump you are on the side of evil. You are embracing these bigoted policies. You are just as bad as I am saying Trump is.” Again, Biden did not explicitly say this in the same kind of way Hillary Clinton called Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables.” But, the offensive insinuation is there, leaving me to wonder how Joe Biden in 2020 can win over Americans who voted for Trump in 2016.
The Democrats’ great white (straight male) hope could well prove this year’s hill for them to die on.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++4) Background: IDF Reveals Details of Old Story While Hezbollah May Have
Already Upgraded Thousands of Rockets Into Guided Missiles
Dr. Aaron Lerner
Before the weekend the IDF censor allowed a story on MAKO ostensibly written
by a soldier in an intelligence unit bragging about the successful discovery
of facilities in Beirut where Hezbollah was upgrading rockets into guided
missiles - locations disclosed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu when he
addressed the United Nations last year.
https://www.mako.co.il/pzm-magazine/Article-5ec02b17cb84a61006.htm?
That's extremely old news.
And the "sequel" to this event not mentioned in the item was anything but a
success.
Israel didn't destroy the facilities nor the equipment inside them.
Instead the equipment was trucked away by Hezbollah.
Since then Israeli intelligence has been briefing journalists terribly
disturbing information.
For example, back on 21 February, Neri Zilber of The Daily Beast wrote an
item providing details of the upgrade program revealed to him by Israeli
intelligence sources.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/to-target-israel-irans-suitcase-gps-kits-turn-hezbollah-rockets-into-guided-missiles
According to senior Israeli military officers:
#1 The missile upgrade kits are the size of "small roll-aboard luggage".
#2. The missiles upgrade can be carried out in a small room.
#3 The procedure takes two to three hours a missile.
This year saw President Rivlin rush to Paris to share concerns with Paris
about the upgrade program.
But it is now already the end of April and the only thing that appears to
have happened in that UNIFIL has increased their patrols.
They aren't actually finding anything but they are patrolling more.
Let's be clear about this.
When Iranian cargo planes land in Damascus International Airport with
weapons we attack the facilities in the airport where the weapons are
located.
In sharp contrast, when Iranian cargo planes land in Beirut we apparently
don't do more than record the information.
I know that there are Israeli talking heads who to this day brag about how
we deter Hezbollah from attacking, but we are the ones apparently deterred
from acting in Lebanon.
It would appear that the over a hundred thousand "dumb" rockets Hezbollah
has aimed at Israel today is effectively deterring the Jewish State from
preventing Hezbollah from upgrading these same rockets to guided missiles.
Yes, in the event of war the IAF is determined to decimate Hezbollah's mid
range and long range missiles in the first stage of the conflict.
But no one is claiming that before the IAF completes this task that
Hezbollah won't be able to launch hundreds of rockets.
The question is if these will land in the general area of strategic Israeli
targets or be equipped with guidance systems for accurate hits.
Unless there is some fantastic secret Israeli success in Lebanon being
withheld from the public, it would appear that we are rapidly running out of
time.
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5)
GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN
Posted Ruth King
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
The first 3D printed heart. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed heart using human tissue that contains cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers. Although there are still many challenges ahead, fully working 3D printed hearts will one day be available for transplant into patients.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
First bone transplant using 3D printed implant. Surgeons at Israel’s Hillel Yaffe Medical Center performed the first reconstruction of a bone segment with a custom titanium implant, printed on a 3D printer. http://www.
You’re full, so don’t binge eat. Israel’s Epitomee Medical is developing an orally administered “shape-shifting” capsule that works on the stomach through mechanosensory stimulation. It is intended to prolong the gastric emptying process of prediabetics and moderately obese patients, giving them the sensation of being full.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
http://nocamels.com/2019/04/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
http://nocamels.com/2019/04/
Why Parkinson’s patients are unstable. Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered why Parkinson’s patients have difficulty transitioning from walking through turning around to sitting. It has led to new advice for patients that when turning to sit down, they should first turn, briefly stop, and then sit down.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
A partnership to beat cancer. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Weizmann Institute is partnering Institut Curie in Paris to advance knowledge and discovery in life sciences, physics and chemistry, focusing on cancer research. The new partnership also extends to cellular biology, epigenetics, genetics, immunology, single-cell sequencing.
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/
https://www.weizmann.ac.il/
Blocking cancer-spreading proteins. Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have designed molecules that stop cancer-promoting proteins from accelerating tumor growth. These molecules (called oligonucleotides) bind with the proteins, preventing them from binding with RNA molecules in cancer cells. The tumors then die.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
https://www.nature.com/
http://www.israelnationalnews.
https://www.nature.com/
Certification for cancer radiation treatment. (TY OurCrowd) I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Alpha Tau and its Alpha DaRT radiation therapy for cancer patients. It has just obtained UK certification following an audit by the British Standards Institution – the UK’s independent compliance body.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Early detection of colon cancer. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Medial EarlySign’s and its use of AI to search the data of Israeli health company Maccabi to detect patients with colon cancer. In the last 18 months, Medial’s algorithms have flagged 67 patients with colon cancer and 250 in a pre-colon cancer state.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
The best antidepressant. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Taliaz is partnering with Psychiatry UK to deliver artificial intelligence-driven genetic testing to depression sufferers. Their Predictix service aims to reduce patient suffering by helping psychiatrists better identify the right antidepressant medication earlier.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.psychiatry-uk.com/
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.psychiatry-uk.com/
A factory for gene therapies. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Stem Cell Medicine (SCM) uses gene therapy to develop new treatments for neurological indications and rare diseases. Israel’s Ministry of the Economy is funding SCM’s new gene therapy facility in Jerusalem. SCM’s first product is to treat neuropathic pain.
http://www.stemcell-medicine.
http://www.stemcell-medicine.
Bacteria can “sense” pregnancy. Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have proved that the bacteria Bifidobacterium in a woman’s intestine can “sense” her pregnancy. It then grows quickly, to assist babies in breaking down the sugar in mother’s milk. The bacteria’s growth is triggered by the hormone progesterone.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Tech solutions to overcome disabilities. I’ve reported previously (see here)on Israeli NGO ALYN. At Alyn hospital’s annual make-a-thon, 120 participants created prototypes of products to help children with disabilities. They included a musical organ for a paralyzed boy and a wheelchair controlled by a switch and a joystick.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Interreligious dialog. Israel’s Bar-Ilan University runs a Jewish-Arab interreligious dialogue course, bringing together 30 students of all backgrounds to learn about each other’s religion. Well over 1,000 of Bar-Ilan’s students are Arab – mostly undergraduates studying fields such as economics, English and accounting.
https://www.israel21c.org/a-
https://www.israel21c.org/a-
The first Druze woman member of Knesset. Gadeer Mreeh of the Blue and White party is the first woman of Druze ethnicity to become a Member of Israel’s Parliament. The 34-year-old mother of two from the Israeli Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel was a former news anchor. Likud’s Ayoob Kara was the 3rd Druze male MK.
https://www.jpost.com/
https://www.jpost.com/
Israel helped Sri Lanka prepare for mass-casualty event. I reported previously (14th Jan) that Israeli emergency rescue organization United Hatzalah trained Sri Lankan first responders in mass casualty incidents and disaster management. It was just in time.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Israeli conservation of endangered species. 22nd April 2019 was Earth Day. This video illustrates Israel’s work to increase the numbers of some of the world’s most endangered species. They include the griffin vulture and the Persian (Iranian) fallow deer. The deer have grown into two of the very few herds left in the wild.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The 8th most influential country. In its 2019 list, US News & World Report has ranked Israel as the world’s eighth-most influential country. The report describes Israel as “the only Jewish nation in the world… a small country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea” that has had a large influence on global affairs.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
First overseas trip is to Israel. (TY Algemeiner) Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had previously promised that the first international trip in office would be to the State of Israel. He has just announced that will lead his first delegation to Israel in May, bringing business, academic and political leaders to strengthen Florida-Israel bonds.
https://www.jns.org/florida-
https://www.jns.org/florida-
Fighting fires in Ethiopia. (TY UWI & Hazel) On 14th Apr, 11 Israeli experts landed in Ethiopia to assist local firefighters fighting a complex forest fire in Simien Mountains National Park for the past two weeks. The UNESCO World Heritage site is home to several rare animal species. By Apr 17 the fire was under control.
https://www.jpost.com/
https://www.africanews.com/
https://ethio.news/2019/04/17/
https://www.jpost.com/
https://www.africanews.com/
https://ethio.news/2019/04/17/
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
US-Israel scientific alliance. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the American National Academy of Sciences and Humanities have signed a cooperation agreement. It includes provision for two annual scientific conferences one in Israel and one in the US for eminent scientists in various fields from both countries.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Driverless cars can “feel” the road. Israel’s Tactile Mobility uses artificially intelligent algorithms to analyze big data from sensors on multiple vehicles. The results are downloaded to autonomous cars, which contain software to help them to “sense” the road grip level. The car then can feel the road like a human driver.
Three Israeli Edison awards. The annual International Edison Awards promote technological innovation with over 3,000 judges. This year’s Israeli winners were Foresight (see here), Temi Global (see here) and SolarEdge (see here). https://www.
An app to help breed protein-rich foods. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Equinom which is developing non-GMO seeds that produce high-yielding, protein-rich crops. Equinom has just launched its new Product Profiler app to help food companies select plant protein sources from a bank of available traits.
https://equi-nom.com/zero-in-
https://equi-nom.com/smarter-
https://equi-nom.com/zero-in-
https://equi-nom.com/smarter-
Energy from the depths to the heights. I’ve reported previously (see here) on Israeli-founded geothermal company Ormat Technologies. Ormat has just won a tender to build a geothermal plant pilot in Potosi, Bolivia. At nearly 5000 meters above sea level, it will be the highest geothermal plant in the world.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
World’s tallest solar tower is operational. (TY Arthur and Hazel) I’ve reported previously (see here) on the 240 meter-high Megalim solar power plant at Ashalim in Israel’s Negev Desert. The world’s tallest solar tower is now up and running, producing up to 300MW – enough to power up to 150,000 homes.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/
https://www.reuters.com/
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/
https://www.reuters.com/
An Israeli electric road in Sweden. I reported previously (19th Jan) on the wireless vehicle road charging technology developed by Israel-based Electreon Wireless. Sweden has just selected Electreon’s technology for the construction of the world’s first dynamic electric road system – a 1.6km section near Visby, Gotland.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Economy still gets an A+. (TY Atid-EDI) Fitch Ratings has affirmed Israel’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A+’ with a Stable Outlook. It highlights robust macroeconomic performance, solid institutional strength, low external debt, high financing flexibility and low government deficit.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.fitchratings.com/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.fitchratings.com/
More natural gas discovered. Greek energy producer Energean has discovered a new significant natural gas reserve off Israel’s coast. Preliminary estimates of the latest discovery in the Karish North exploration field is 28 to 42 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Israeli company part-owns US oilfield. Israeli energy company Delek Group has signed an agreement to acquire 22.45% interest in the Caesar Tonga oil field, one of the ten largest deep-water resources in the Gulf of Mexico. It gives Delek exploration, development, and production rights for oil and gas.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
https://worldisraelnews.com/
An even taller skyscraper. I reported previously (Apr 2017) that plans had been approved for Israel’s tallest building – a 100-story skyscraper near Tel Aviv’s central railway station. It has already been superseded by the 120-storey (520 meter) high-rise Tower 120, just approved for construction in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan suburb.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
Cisco partners Carbyne. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s Carbyne and its emergency services apps. Now, Cisco Systems is partnering with Carbyne to deliver cloud-based technology for emergency dispatch centers. Carbyne’s technology will be offered as an integrated part of Cisco’s IoT data platform.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
An all-Israeli IT takeover. It’s good to see two Israeli IT companies getting together. Nasdaq and TASE-listed cybersecurity company Safe-T is to acquire Tel Aviv-based IP proxy network startup NetNut. The aim of the takeover is to “introduce opportunities in new markets and industries while increasing revenue and cash flow”.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.safe-t.com/news/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.safe-t.com/news/
Israeli companies have secure IT backup. Israel’s Global Data Center has just doubled the capacity of its Herzliya facility. It is the computer backup site for many of Israel’s top companies, which can relocate quickly to the Herzliya data center in the (unlikely) event of a disaster affecting their own IT systems.
https://www.capacitymedia.com/
https://www.capacitymedia.com/
Samanage exits for $350 million. Israeli IT cloud services and software company Samanage has been acquired by US IT management company SolarWinds Worldwide – service providers to more than 300,000 companies and organization. It is SolarWinds first Israeli acquisition. Samanage’s 2,000 customers include IKEA and 3M.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Blockchain for sports technology. I reported previously (May 2016) when Israel’s Hype Sports Foundation encouraged new apps for the 2016 Olympics. With 40,000 members, HYPE Sports Innovation is the largest, global ecosystem in sports innovation. HYPE has just launched an accelerator for Blockchain tech startups.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.prnewswire.com/
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Skoda accelerates Israeli startup relations. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (see here) on Skoda’s love affair with Israel including (in December) that it was working with five Israeli startups. Now Skoda’s Digilab has teamed up with 13 Israeli startups focusing on big data, AI, cybersecurity and vehicle sensors.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
Share a Tel Aviv van ride in a Bubble. Via, in partnership with Israeli public transportation company Dan, has launched “Bubble”, its new on-demand 10-seater shuttle van service in Tel Aviv. Passengers order rides through a designated app that automatically devises a route to best suit the needs of all passengers.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Nissan Chemical partners Israeli battery startup StoreDot. I’ve reported previously (many times) on Israel’s StoreDot which develops fast-charging batteries for phones, computers and vehicles. It is now partnering with Japan’s Nissan Chemical Industries to improve the technology and bring it to mass production
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.calcalistech.com/
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
Tel Aviv candy festival. Tel Aviv’s Namal (port) farmers’ market hosted the first ever Candy Festival. The exotic delicacies comprised mostly hand-crafted treats made with local ingredients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Talented Israeli hands it to them. When an Israeli appeared on Britain’s got talent, his unique musical performance impressed all four judges and got a big hand (or two) from the delighted audience.
https://jewishnews.
https://youtu.be/R3GAKlmvgko
https://jewishnews.
https://youtu.be/R3GAKlmvgko
J.Lo to perform in Israel. There have been many rumors in the past, but it is now quite likely that pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez will make her Israeli debut at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park on August 1. J.Lo’s show is part of her “It’s My Party” world tour, a 25-show engagement beginning on June 7.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
http://www.israelnationalnews.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Celebrating 50 years after Woodstock. Israel’s annual “Almost Cut My Hair” festival commemorates the Woodstock festival at Bethel New York in 1969, known as the greatest musical event ever. Hundreds of Israelis pitched tents in the Arava desert to hear original Woodstock tributes plus new Israeli talented artists.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-
Israeli star helps win vital soccer game. Israeli striker Tomer Hemed as he scored twice to help his UK soccer team QPR thrash rivals Swansea City 4-0 and move them up the Championship league table.
https://jewishnews.
https://jewishnews.
Linoy Ashram wins 2 gold and 2 bronze. (TY Hazel) At this year’s second Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Sofia, Israel’s Linoy Ashram won gold medals with the hoops and the clubs. She also won bronze medals in the ball and the ribbon events. http://www.ueg.org/
THE JEWISH STATE
Senior UK Muslim leaders visit Israel. Seven senior British Muslim scholars have just visited Israel. They laid wreaths at Yad Vashem, visited the Kotel, Al-Aqsa and villages on the Gaza border. The clergymen met senior Jewish and Christian religious leaders, as well as imams whose salaries are paid by the Jewish State.
https://jewishnews.
https://jewishnews.
Australia opens trade office in Jerusalem. Following Australia’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Australia has opened a Trade and Defense office in downtown Jerusalem. It will strengthen Australia’s business ties with Israel in defense, education, high-tech and other areas.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Two tons of matzah from Jerusalem to Poland. Israeli charity Shavei Israel has sponsored the purchase and shipment of nearly 2,000 boxes of matzah for the 4,000 Jews living openly in Poland. The matzah was used at communal Passover sederim across Poland and given out for free to needy, elderly and home-bound Jews.
https://www.jns.org/jerusalem-
https://www.jns.org/jerusalem-
The answer to the big chicken-egg question. Bar-Ilan University researchers have used 3D virtual modelling to piece back together the broken shell of an egg laid 2,600 years ago. It has resolved a Rabbinic dispute over the size of Temple-era eggs, providing evidence that they were similar in size to those laid by hens today.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
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