Heroic Female IDF Fighter Fights Off 23 Terrorists After Being Wounded in Ambush
In my previous memo for some reasons the picture of Captain Ben-Yehuda did not print. I referred to her as the real genuine feminist.
After she recovered from her injuries, Captain Ben-Yehuda’s own mother showed up to present the award to her daughter in a special awards ceremony.
Meanwhile FATAH congratulates itself for killing Israelis. (See 1 below.)
Cliff May heads a fabulous organization and sees clearly. (See 1a below.)
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I submit Bob Hope was not only a great comedian but also an amazing human. Generous, patriotic and a fantastic USO trouper. When he died not all hope died. I suspect when Obama leaves The Oval Office, in less than a month, America will still be here and I further believe hope will as well and probably will rise.
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I have received some comments about my previous memo regarding defense costs. There are many reasons why military costs soar.
Three other important ones are as follows:
a) When a military project is started The Pentagon asks for A but as the project continues more bells and whistles are added raising costs.
b) As the costs go up Congress often cuts back on the numbers purchased thus, spreading more costs over less numbers and this also raises per unit costs.
c) We know when Sam Nunn was our Senator we received a disproportionate amount of base funding because he was an expert on military matters and Ga. is endowed with water and a great climate.
Other members of Congress also want bases and military contracts for their states and districts regardless of the impact on cost because it creates jobs etc.
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Our oldest grandson, Elliot, left a great job as head of Jaguar's social media to go to work for LYFT, the competitor to Uber, in The Detroit Area and he is making excellent headway against tough odds.
Elliot and his wife, Elizabeth, are due to become parents for the first time January 14. This will also make us great grandparents for the first time. (See 2 below.)
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When I take my car in to have the tires rotated I ask two questions.
a) Is there enough tread to justify keeping them? and
b) Do they need alignment?
Obviously, Democrats decided Pelosi may be tread worn and they chose not to realign. Worse, they put her back on their vehicle. Personally, from a purely selfish stand point, I applaud them but were I a distraught Democrat, I would have thought they would have sought opportunities for younger, fresher facee, like try Pirelli's
Liberals live in their own safe space, look in mirrors that reveal little and believe everyone is out of step with them and their PC driven agenda.
There are times when you cannot save someone from self-destruction. Hopefully, 2018 will result in their driving another nail into their coffin. Time will tell.
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Israel continues to accomplish amazing things. (See 3 below.)
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Eli is a personal friend. (See 4 below.)
Dick
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1)Fatah celebrates its murdering 116 Israelis
Fatah brags of its "10 most outstanding operations"
and "10 most outstanding operations during the Intifada"
on its official Facebook page
Itamar Marcus
As Fatah continues to promote and celebrate terror on an almost daily basis, one questions why the international community is not categorizing Fatah as a terror organization.
On two consecutive days this month, Fatah celebrated on its Facebook page 10 different "most outstanding" terror attacks - in total 20 attacks that killed 78 adult civilians, 16 soldiers, and 22 children. In the first post, Fatah celebrated "the 10 most outstanding operations" of all times - 10 terror attacks from Fatah's 52 years of existence. In the second post, Fatah took pride in its "10 most outstanding operations in the Al-Aqsa Intifada," - attacks the organization carried out during the PA terror campaign from 2000-2005 (the second Intifada). Some of the attacks were "outstanding" because of the numbers killed, like the bus hijacking that left 37 murdered. Others were "outstanding" even though they failed because they were milestones in Fatah history, such as Fatah's first terrorist attack which targeted the Israeli National Water Carrier ("The Eilabun operation"), and its first attack on civilians ("Kfar Hess operation").
The post celebrating Fatah terror since its founding was quickly removed, but fortunately Palestinian Media Watch had already saved a screenshot. The image shows the PA map of "Palestine" that includes all of Israel together with the PA areas as "Palestine." The Fatah logo with its grenade and rifles appears on the map in the center of the post. On both sides of the map are images representing terror attacks and murders - what Fatah calls its "outstanding operations," in chronological order from right to left (details of the attacks, including numbers killed, appear below):
Posted text: "The most outstanding operations (i.e., terror attacks) of #Fatah_52"
Text at top of image: "The 10 most outstanding Fatah Movement operations"
"The Eilabun operation
Dec. 31, 1964 (sic., Jan. 1, 1965, attempted bombing of Israel's National Water Carrier)
The Beit Jirin (sic., Jibrin) operation
Jan. 8, 1965 (sic., Jan. 7, 1965, attempted bombing of water institute at Moshav Nehusha)
The Kfar Hess operation
Feb. 28, 1965 (i.e., bombing attack, Fatah's first attack on civilians, no injuries)
The Tel Al-Arba'in Battle
April 28, 1966 (i.e., Israeli army operation in response to terror attacks, during which four homes in the Arab village of Qal'at in the Beit Shean area were blown up after being evacuated. The Israeli forces came under fire from Tel Al-Arba'in during the operation)
The Al-Karameh battle
March 12, 1968 (sic., March 21, 1968, Israel attacked Karameh, Jordan, which Fatah was using as a base to launch terror attacks on Israel.)
The Munich airport operation
Sept. 5, 1972 (i.e., Munich Olympics Massacre, 11 Israeli athletes murdered.)
The Savoy Hotel operation
April 7, 1975 (sic., March 1975, terrorists took hostages in a hotel, 11 murdered)
The Martyr (Shahid) Kamal Adwan operation
March 11, 1978 (i.e., Coastal Road Massacre, 37 Israelis murdered, 12 of them children, in terrorist bus hijacking)
The Capture operation
Sept. 3, 1982 (sic., Sept. 4, 1982, 8 Israeli soldiers captured)
The Dimona Nuclear Reactor Bombing
March 7, 1988 (i.e., Mothers' Bus attack, 3 women murdered on bus on the way to work at the reactor)"
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 16, 2016]
The second Fatah post included a similar image and celebrated 10 of Fatah's terror attacks during the PA's terror campaign 2000-2005 (the second Intifada):
Across the map is the repeating text: "Fatah was here."
Posted text: "Fatah's most outstanding operations in the Al-Aqsa Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005)
#Fatah_52"
Text at top of image: "Fatah's 10 most outstanding operations in the Al-Aqsa Intifada"
"The Ministry of Defense headquarters operation
Aug. 5, 2001 (i.e., shooting attack at the Israeli ministry and military headquarters in Tel Aviv, 10 wounded)
The Hadera operation
Jan. 18, 2002 (sic., Jan. 17, 2002, shooting attack on civilians during a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera, 6 murdered and dozens injured)
The Ein Arik operation
Feb. 19, 2002 (i.e., shooting attack at Ein Arik checkpoint west of Ramallah, 6 Israeli soldiers murdered)
The Beit Yisrael neighborhood operation
March 2, 2002 (i.e., suicide bombing, attacking families exiting from a Bar Mitzva celebration. 11 murdered, including 2 babies and 3 children)
The Wadi Al-Haramiya operation
March 3, 2002 (i.e., shooting attack, 7 Israeli soldiers and 3 Israeli civilians murdered)
The operation of female Martyr (Shahid) Ayyat Al-Akhras
March 29, 2002 (i.e., suicide bombing near a Jerusalem supermarket, 2 murdered and 28 injured)
The operation of female Martyr Andalib Takatka
April 12, 2002 (i.e., suicide bombing in the center of Jerusalem, 6 murdered and over 80 injured)
The Itamar settlement operation
May 28, 2002 (i.e., shooting attack at a high school, 3 murdered and 2 injured)
The Hermesh settlement operation
June 30, 2003 (sic., Oct. 29, 2002, 3 murdered, 2 of them children)
The French Hill neighborhood operation
June 19, 2004 (sic., June 19, 2002, suicide bombing at French Hill junction, 7 murdered and 50 injured)"
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 17, 2016]
In all killed 78 adult civilians, 16 soldiers, and 22 children, a total of 116 Israelis were murdered by Fatah terrorists in these 20 terror attacks that they boasted about last week.The following are longer descriptions of the 20 terror attacks Fatah celebrated last week:
Bombing of Israel's National Water Carrier - On Jan. 1, 1965, Palestinian terrorists attempted to bomb Israel's National Water Carrier. This was the first attack against Israel carried out by Fatah. Fatah refers to the attack as the "Intilaqa", meaning "the Launch" of Fatah.
The Karameh battle, or Al-Karameh - On March 21, 1968, Israeli army forces attacked the town of Karameh in Jordan, where Fatah terrorists had been launching attacks on Israel. Although Israel prevailed militarily, Arafat used the event for propaganda purposes, declaring the battle a great victory that erased the disgrace of the 1967 Six Day War defeat.
The Munich Massacre - a terrorist attack perpetrated by the Palestinian terror organization Black September during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, in which they murdered 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team.
Savoy terror attack: In March 1975, eight terrorists traveled by boat from Lebanon to a Tel Aviv beach. They took over the Savoy Hotel and took guests as hostages. The next morning, Israeli forces attacked and killed seven of the terrorists. Eight hostages and three soldiers were killed by the terrorists during the attack.
Kamal Adwan was responsible for Fatah's terrorist operations in Israel and was a senior member of Black September. He was killed by Israeli forces in April 1973.
Coastal Road Massacre - In March 1978, a group of Fatah terrorists from Lebanon led by Dalal Mughrabi hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway. Confronted by the Israeli army, the terrorists killed many of the passengers on the bus, in total 37 civilians,12 of them children, and wounded more than 70. The attack, orchestrated by arch-terrorist Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir), is known in Israel as the Coastal Road Massacre.
The capture of 8 Israeli soldiers in Lebanon - On Sept. 4, 1982, 8 Israeli soldiers were captured by Fatah terrorists in Bhamadoun, Lebanon. Two of them were handed to the PFLP and 6 were held by Fatah. Fatah released the 6 soldiers on Nov. 23, 1983 as part of an exchange deal in which Israel released 4,700 terrorists that were held in Lebanon and 65 terrorists held in Israel.
Mothers' Bus attack - On March 7, 1988, Muhammad Abd Al-Qader Muhammad Issa, Muhammad Khalil Saleh Al-Khanafi, and Abdallah Abd Al-Majid Muhammad Kallab hijacked a bus carrying workers to the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona, and murdered 3 of its passengers - Miriam Ben-Yair, Rina Shiratky and Victor Ram. The attack is referred to as the Mothers' Bus attack because many of the passengers were working mothers. The terrorists were all killed by an Israel Police counter-terrorism unit that stormed the bus.
Attacks during the PA terror campaign, 2000-2005:
Hadera Bat Mitzva Attack - Palestinian terrorists attacked a Bat Mitzva celebration, shooting and murdering 6 Israelis on Jan. 17, 2002, at a hall in Hadera. Terrorists Nasser Awais and Mansour Shreim are each serving 14 life sentences for their involvement in this and other attacks. Abd Al-Salam was shot and killed by Israeli police during the attack. Ziyad Da'as who participated in this attack and others was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli military police in August 2002.
Ein Arik attack - Palestinian terrorists shot and murdered 6 Israeli soldiers - Moshe Eini, Benny Kikis, Mark Podolsky, Erez Turgeman, Tamir Atsmi, and Michael Oxsman - at the Ein Arik military checkpoint, west of Ramallah, on Feb. 19, 2002. Shadi Said Al-Saaideh, one of the participants in the attack, was later apprehended and sentenced to 8 life sentencees for his involvement in this attack and others.
Beit Yisrael Yeshiva suicide bombing - On March 2, 2002, Muhammad Daraghmeh Al-Shou'ani carried out a suicide bombing at the entrance to a yeshiva in the Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem, shortly after a bar-mitzvah celebration had taken place there. 11 people were killed in the attack, among them children and babies, and 50 were injured. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Wadi Al-Haramiya attack - Palestinian terrorist Thaer Hammad shot and murdered 3 Israeli civilians and 7 Israeli soldiers in Wadi Al-Haramiya, between Ramallah and Nablus, on March 3, 2002. Hammad is serving 11 life sentences for these murders.
Ayyat Al-Akhras - The youngest female Palestinian suicide bomber (aged 17). A member of Fatah, Al-Akhras blew herself up near a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002, killing 2 and wounding 28.
Andalib Khalil Muhammad Suleiman or Andalib Takatka - Female suicide bomber from Fatah who blew herself up on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem on April 12, 2002, killing 6 and wounding more than 80.
Itamar attack - Palestinian terrorist and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) member Habash Hanani shot and murdered 3 Israeli students and wounded 2 others in an attack on a high school in the town of Itamar, near Nablus, on May 28, 2002. Hanani was shot and killed during the attack by one of the town's residents. Mansour Shrein, another Palestinian terrorist who was involved in the attack is serving 14 life sentences for this and other attacks.
Hermesh attack - An unknown Palestinian terrorist shot and murdered 3 Israelis, two 14-year-old girls, Linoy Saroussi and Hadas Turgeman, and a woman, Orna Eshel, and injured 2 others in the town of Hermesh, west of Jenin. The terrorist was shot and killed during the attack. Muhammad Naifeh "Abu Rabia", a Palestinian terrorist and Tanzim (Fatah terror faction) member who was involved in the attack, is serving 13 life sentences for this and other attacks.
1a)The sorrow and the pity in Syria
Iran intends to incorporate the brutalized Arab land into its version of a caliphate
Over the last five years, Syria has been descending into a hell on Earth. Over the last four months, the lowest depths of the inferno have been on display in Aleppo, an ancient city, once among the most diverse and dynamic in the Middle East. On Friday, in the final press conference of his presidency, Barack Obama addressed this still unfolding humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.
“So with respect to Syria,” he said, “what I have consistently done is taken the best course that I can to try to end the civil war while having also to take into account the long-term national security interests of the United States.”
An estimated 500,000 dead, 11 million displaced, millions more living in fear, sorrow and pitiful poverty, Iranian forces backed by Russian forces occupying the heart of the Arab world – yet no-drama Mr. Obama remains so casual, so confident that the decisions he’s made were “the best” and, what’s more, that he made them “consistently.” Is refusing to change one’s mind as conditions worsen and policies fail really a virtue?
To bolster his case, the president emphasized that he has spent lots of time – “if you tallied it up, days and weeks” -- attending meetings on Syria. “We went through every option in painful detail with maps,” he said, “and we had our military and we had our aid agencies and we had our diplomatic teams, and sometimes, we'd bring in outsiders who were critics of ours.” Imagine that: painful detail; maps; aid agencies; even critical outsiders.
Count me among those not convinced. In 2011, during that hopeful moment known as the Arab Spring, peaceful protesters took to the streets of Damascus. The dynastic dictator Bashar al-Assad responded brutally. Before long, a civil war was ignited.
Mr. Obama’s top advisors recommended assisting non-Islamist and nationalist rebels -- not with the proverbial boots on the proverbial ground but with secure communications devices, money, weapons and training. Mr. Obama rejected that advice. He had done the math: Mr. Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, hadn’t enough loyal troops to prevail against Syria’s insurgent Sunni majority. So the fall of the Assad regime had to be both inevitable and imminent.
What that failed to take into account: Iran’s theocrats would send in foreign Shia fighters, including those of Hezbollah, their Lebanese proxy, all under the leadership of their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Vladimir Putin also would deploy forces in support of the Assad regime. We can surmise his reasons: to have a Mediterranean port for his navy; to reestablish Russia’s influence in the Middle East; to show the world that, unlike Mr. Obama, he does not abandon his friends; to diminish American credibility and prestige.
Mr. Obama’s response was, as it so often is, mainly rhetorical. He warned Mr. Putin that he was stepping into a quagmire. He proclaimed, as so he often does, that there can be “no military solution.”
The Russian president, a product of the KGB rather than the faculty lounge, knew that was nonsense. In the Middle East, the law of the jungle trumps international law every time.
Having accused President George W. Bush of overreach, Mr. Obama adopted a policy that might be called underreach. He decided not to enforce the “red line” he had declared against Mr. Assad’s use of chemical weapons. He decided not to eliminate Mr. Assad’s air power which would have ended the barrel-bombing of civilians. He wasn’t even willing to help establish “safe zones” where innocent Syrians might stand a chance to defend themselves.
I know: Mr. Obama saw his mission as ending wars and certainly not risking additional American entanglements. And he is among those who believe that the projection of American power generally does more harm than good.
Not mutually exclusive is the theory that he had a specific goal in mind: to bring Iran’s rulers into a strategic partnership with the U.S. To achieve that, he had to demonstrate that he respected what he has called their “equities” in Syria. Were he to take action against Mr. Assad, the Islamic Republic’s envoys might walk away from the table where they were negotiating the nuclear weapons deal Mr. Obama envisioned as his great foreign policy legacy.
The president has been nothing if not “consistent” in his pursuit of détente with Iran’s Islamic revolutionaries. In all likelihood, that is what explains his decision, just after taking office, to turn a blind eye to the clerical regime’s ruthless repression of the Green Movement that took to the streets of Iranian cities following a rigged presidential election in 2009.
History will record that these efforts failed. Nixon went to China. Mr. Obama will not be going to Iran – or to Syria which Iran intends to incorporate into its version of a caliphate (which Shia call an “imamate”).
“Aleppo,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said last week at the U.N., “will join the ranks of those events in world history that define modern evil, that stain our conscience decades later. Halabja, Rwanda, Srebrenica, and, now, Aleppo. To the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran, your forces and proxies are carrying out these crimes.”
She went on to ask: “Are you truly incapable of shame? Is there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no execution of a child that gets under your skin?”
Would it be unfair to suggest that the answers to these questions should have been apparent to her and the president years ago? Had that been the case, perhaps they would have formulated different policies and implemented a different course of action. Or perhaps not.
Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times.
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2) GM, Lyft add 350 Lyft drivers to Express Drive in Detroit+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
General Motors' Maven and ride-hailing service Lyft have signed up 350 drivers in metro Detroit for their Express Drive program that enables Lyft drivers to rent used vehicles by the week rather than use their own vehicles on the job.The program, which launched here in late September, is available in 18 cities now, including Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco, said Elliot Darvick, general manager of Lyft Detroit.GM acquired about 9% of Lyft in January 2016 after investing $500 million in the San Francisco-based company. But Lyft is free to form partnerships with other automakers, and in some cities is using vehicles supplied by Hertz. Similarly, GM and Maven, the brand it created to launch its car-sharing service, can work with other ride-hailing services.sMaven and Uber are offering a program similar to Express Drive, but just in San Francisco.Many of the vehicles GM offers to Lyft drivers had recently been returned at the end of leases. To incentivize drivers to pick up more riders, drivers completing more than 50 rides per week will not have to pay the weekly fee that ranges from $135 for a Chevrolet Cruze to $239 for a Chevrolet Equinox or GMC Terrain. Other models available to metro Detroit drivers are the Chevrolet Trax ($149 per week), Malibu ($149 per week) and Impala ($149).Drivers can stay in the program as long as they like. They can return a rental vehicle anytime after giving Lyft 24 hours notice.Drivers who complete at least 30 rides will only pay the weekly fee. But those with less than 30 rides per week will be charged 25 cents per mile plus the weekly fee. GM spokesman Stefan Cross said about 25% of all Lyft rides in metro Detroit are provided by Express Drive vehicles.Under the new Maven-Uber program in San Francisco, Uber drivers can rent the GM vehicles for $179 per week, plus taxes and fees. There are no extra fees for drivers' personal use of the vehicles.
3)
15 ways Israel amazed and inspired the world in 2016
How did Israel make a remarkable global impact over the past 12 months? Let us count the ways.
Image via Shutterstock.com
Israel ranks about 150 on the scale of countries for size, encompassing only about 10,800 square miles (28,000 square kilometers) and a population under 8.6 million. But its achievements over 68 years of modern statehood have drastically dwarfed its actual size.
Israel is a recognized world leader in many fields, including water and agricultural technology, high-tech, medical devices and humanitarian aid.
ISRAEL21c brings you daily reports of Israeli inventions, innovations, discoveries and altruistic initiatives. Here we’ve chosen 15 of many that made a remarkable impact in the year 2016.
Israeli soldiers establishing a field hospital in Nepal following the earthquake in April 2015.
(Photo by IDF Spokesperson/FLASH90)
(Photo by IDF Spokesperson/FLASH90)
The portable field hospital flown by the IDF Medical Corps to disaster areas around the world was the first field hospital ever to achieve a Type 3 rating, the highest rank on the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) scale.
Run by Medical Corps doctors, soldiers and reservists, the field hospital can accommodate more than 200 patients per day and has 12 emergency medicine stations, three operating rooms, a blood bank, advanced laboratories and imaging equipment. Nepal, Haiti, the Syrian border and the Philippines are among the places it has been deployed.
- AIDING SYRIAN WAR VICTIMS
An injured civilian from the civil war in Syria being transferred to Ziv Medical Center in Israel.
(Photo by Simon Haddad)
(Photo by Simon Haddad)
Syria may officially be an enemy country, but that hasn’t stopped dozens of Israeli individuals, organizations and government bodies – including the Israel Defense Forces – from doing all they can to alleviate human suffering in the country, even though giving this aid is often dangerous.
Israeli aid to the country comes in many forms, much of it under the radar. Nonprofit organization Il4Syrians, which was founded by a private Israeli citizen at the start of the civil war in 2011, sends food, medicine, coats and basic supplies to Syrians in a perilous cross-border mission.
With the help of transports organized by the IDF, some 2,500 Syrian men, women and children have received care in various Israeli hospitals at the expense of Israeli taxpayers and donors. In addition, Israeli-American serial entrepreneur Moti Kahana bought a bus to transport seriously ill or injured Syrian children to Israeli hospitals through his nonprofit foundation, Amaliah, and the Yitzhak Rabin Foundation.
The Israel Trauma Coalition trained clinicians, caregivers and volunteers in Berlin to treat Syrian refugees in that German city. Natan-International Humanitarian Aid, based in Tel Aviv, has provided trauma and post-trauma care to Syrian refugees in Jordan.
The nonprofit IsraAID has been rescuing and providing many forms of assistance to Syrian and other Middle East and African refugees pouring into European countries.
Founder Amit Goffer testing the UPnRIDE prototype. (Image courtesy of UPnRide)
UPnRIDE Robotics of Yokneam Illit introduced UPnRIDE 1.0 at the end of September and expects the revolutionary mobility device – which brings unprecedented mobility to paraplegics and quadriplegics — to be on the market in the second half of 2017.
UPnRIDE’s jointed braces and harnessing straps provide support when transitioning between sitting and standing positions. Cutting-edge motion technology and real-time computing automatically balance and stabilize UPnRIDE on sloped sidewalks, parking lots, ramps and low stairs.
UPnRide was invented by Amit Goffer, a paraplegic who previously invented the ReWalk robotic exoskeleton.
- SMART, CLEAN WASTE MANAGEMENT
It was a great year for Tel Aviv-based Paulee CleanTec. In March, it won $6,000 in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Nutrient Recycling Challenge for its Manure Convertor, which uses chemical processes to turn livestock manure quickly into non-toxic, non-polluting, ash fertilizer.
In October, Ohio-based OurPets entered a strategic partnership with Paulee (named after its founder’s pet pug) to develop and commercialize the Israeli company’s sustainable, eco-friendly portable system that turns dog droppings into pathogen- and odor-free ash fertilizer in seconds.
And most recently, Paulee’s technology is being integrated into a whole-building sustainable waste-management system under development by California-based Epic CleanTec. The first installation, coming sometime next year in San Francisco, will serve as a pilot and model for further expansion in the United States, Brazil, India and China.
- TRAILBLAZING IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA
A pharmacist dispensing medical marijuana at the Tikun Olam store in Tel Aviv.
(Photo by Hadas Parush/FLASH90)
(Photo by Hadas Parush/FLASH90)
This was the year that’s Israel’s lead in the medical marijuana arena really came to worldwide consciousness. In November, Israeli multinational corporation Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Israeli startup Syqe Medical agreed to market medical cannabis for pain management in Israel with Syqe’s revolutionary selective-dose pharmaceutical-grade medicinal plants inhaler.
Israel has long been a world leader in both research and technologies relating to medical cannabis. The country even hosts a startup accelerator, Cann10, where entrepreneurs receive a full range of services to establish businesses offering new technologies in this emerging field.
A groundbreaking study released in June by a Ben-Gurion University professor proved that medical marijuana users experience significant pain relief and improved function.
In March, investors, researchers and high-tech entrepreneurs from around the world gathered in Tel Aviv at CannaTech 2016 for the first International Summit for Accelerating Cannabis Innovation.
iPulse Medical’s Livia wearable device for relieving the pain of menstrual cramps created a buzz worldwide and garnered $1,411,515 from supporters in a crowdfunding campaign launched with a $50,000 goal. Clearly, the drug-free solution will be in high demand when it debuts in 2017, first in Europe and later in the United States, pending regulatory approvals.
- WOMEN’S CANCER SCREENINGS IN KENYA
Women lining up for cervical cancer screenings in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of MobileODT)
On World Cancer Day on February 4 approximately 700 women in Kenya had their first-ever cervical cancer screening thanks to Tel Aviv-based MobileODT.
Piloted successfully in the United States, Haiti, Guatemala, Botswana, Kenya, Nepal and Mexico, EVA’s advanced optical technology captures and securely transmits biomedical images for diagnosis and analysis using only a mobile phone and an Internet connection. This makes cervical cancer screenings possible in places lacking more sophisticated medical infrastructure.
- A TRUE ISRAELI WONDER
Gal Gadot talks superheroes on the Ellen Degeneres Show. (Photo: screenshot)
Israeli actress Gal Gadot may have starred in several Hollywood films before 2016, but this was the year she really emerged as a fabulous role model for women. Her performance as Wonder Woman was considered by many as the best part of this year’s Batman v Superman movie.
In October, the United Nations chose Gadot’s Wonder Woman persona as an honorary ambassador for the empowerment of girls and women. The assignment only lasted two months, but Gadot has taken time from the promotion circuit for her new Wonder Woman film, scheduled for release in June next year, to propose a positive new role model for children to see females as superheroes rather than helpless princesses.
Gadot also lent her star power to a short video celebrating accomplished young Israeli women.
- 3D-PRINTED DRESS WOWS AT PARALYMPICS
Amy Purdy danced in Israeli designer’s 3D-printed dress at Rio Paralympics.
(Photo by Danit Peleg)
(Photo by Danit Peleg)
Israeli designer Danit Peleg’s 3D-printed dress caught the world’s attention when US Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy wore it to dance a samba with a robot at the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Paralympics in Rio. Peleg said her design was inspired by Botticelli’s famous painting “The Birth of Venus” and celebrates the intersection of technology and fashion.
Nano Dimension’s DragonFly 3D printer. (Photo courtesy)
It’s the stuff of science fiction: technology that can print a human organ. Israel’s Nano Dimension, a manufacturer of 3D printers, is collaborating with Israeli biotechnology firm Accellta of Haifa to mix human stem cells into its 3D inkjet printer ink. When expelled through the more than 1,000 tiny nozzles of a Nano Dimension DragonFly 3D printer, the ink can form into human tissue.
While the technology is still at the proof-of-concept stage – and going from simple tissue to a full organ is a daunting and uncharted process – the possibilities for saving lives by “printing” a new liver or lung are staggering.
- CHICKEN MEAT MADE BY MACHINE
Image via Shutterstock.com
Israeli startup SuperMeat made headlines for its announcement that it is creating the first mass-market device to bring cultured chicken meat to restaurants – and eventually to home kitchens.
Cultured meat is grown from stem cells rather than taken from a slaughtered animal. In the past, this was done in a test tube under highly controlled laboratory conditions. SuperMeat proposes to develop and market a small high-tech “oven” that would make non-GMO meat from a serum, powder or capsule containing cell samples.
WoundClot gauze forms a gel membrane with the blood’s own clotting factors.
(Photo: courtesy)
(Photo: courtesy)
Core Scientific Creations’ WoundClot gauze absorbs about 2,500 percent of its own weight in fluids and forms a coagulating gel membrane that can stop a person hemorrhaging blood within minutes.
The product, which naturally dissolves within 24 hours and is already used by European hospitals and American and Israeli first responders, fills a large need in situations when compression is not effective or even counterproductive as in the case of stab wounds and certain other kinds of trauma.
An Israeli and American research team published a high-profile study in September showing that combined genetic therapy and chemotherapy proved extremely effective in preventing breast cancer metastasis — the deadly spread of cancerous cells to vital organs — in lab mice with a primary breast tumor.
Researcher Noam Shomron of Tel Aviv University says there is a strong correlation between the effect on genes in mouse cells and the effect on genes in human cells. The results point to a major advance in the fight against breast cancer.
SoftWheel’s Enduro could change the tire industry dramatically. (Photo: screenshot)
SoftWheel, the Israeli company that literally reinvented the wheel by replacing the traditional spoke-and-rim hub with an innovative automatic suspension system, is entering the automotive sector with its Enduro wheel, aiming to bring the same radical improvements to automobiles that it has already brought to wheelchairs and bicycles.
Because Enduro’s rigid tire is not filled with air, it can never go flat.
“The best way to revolutionize the world is to revolutionize transportation,” SoftWheel CEO Daniel Barel said upon introducing the concept last March. “No more flat tires, 20% more energy efficiency, better maneuverability, higher safety, lighter — better in every way.”
Gett gets into London taxis. (Photo courtesy)
Gett (formerly Get Taxi), the popular Israeli ride-hailing app used in some 50 cities across the globe, amazed the business world with its March acquisition of British black cab company Radio Taxis. Gett now owns a fleet of 11,500 licensed London taxicabs – about half the cabs in the city — in a bid to provide its technology to Radio Taxis’ corporate customers.
In May, Volkswagen invested $300 million in Gett as part of its shifting focus to new technologies and on-demand personal transport solutions.
And in August, Gett began to integrate its ride-hailing app into Google Maps’ automatic navigation options.
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4)
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Islam's Tenuous Connection to Jerusalem
By Eli E. Hertz
Despite 1,300 years of Muslim Arab rule, Jerusalem was never the capital of an Arab entity. Oddly, the PLO's National Covenant, written in 1964, never mentioned Jerusalem. Only after Israel regained control of the entire city did the PLO "update" its Covenant to include Jerusalem.
Overall, the role of Jerusalem in Islam is best understood as the outcome of political pressure impacting on religious belief.
Mohammed, who founded Islam in 622 CE, was born and raised in present-day Saudi Arabia; he never set foot in Jerusalem. His connection to the city came years after his death when the Dome of the Rock shrine and the al-Aqsa mosque were built in 688 and 691, respectively, their construction spurred by political and religious rivalries. In 638 CE, the Caliph (or successor to Mohammed) Omar and his invading armies captured Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire. One reason they wanted to erect a holy structure in Jerusalem was to proclaim Islam's supremacy over Christianity and its most important shrine, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
More important was the power struggle within Islam itself. The Damascus-based Umayyad Caliphs who controlled Jerusalem wanted to establish an alternative holy site if their rivals blocked access to Mecca. That was important because the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca was (and remains today) one of the Five Pillars of Islam. As a result, they built what became known as the Dome of the Rock shrine and the adjacent mosque.
To enhance the prestige of the "substitute Mecca," the Jerusalem mosque was named "al-Aqsa." It means "the furthest mosque" in Arabic, but has far broader implications, since it is the same phrase used in a key passage of the Quran called "The Night Journey." In that passage, Mohammed arrives at "al-Aqsa" on a winged steed accompanied by the Archangel Gabriel; from there they ascend into heaven for a divine meeting with Allah, after which Mohammed returns to Mecca. Naming the Jerusalem mosque "al-Aqsa" was an attempt to say the Dome of the Rock was the very spot from which Mohammed ascended to heaven, thus tying Jerusalem to divine revelation in Islamic belief. The problem however is, that Mohammed died in the year 632, nearly 50 years before the first construction of the "al-Aqsa" Mosque was completed.
Jerusalem never replaced the importance of Mecca in the Islamic world. When the Umayyad dynasty fell in 750, Jerusalem also fell into near obscurity for 350 years, until the Crusades. During those centuries, many Islamic sites in Jerusalem fell into disrepair and in 1016 the Dome of the Rock collapsed.
Still, for 1,300 years, various Islamic dynasties (Syrian, Egyptian, and Turkish) continued to govern Jerusalem as part of their overall control of the Land of Israel, disrupted only by the Crusaders. What is amazing is that over that period, not one Islamic dynasty ever made Jerusalem its capital. By the 19th century, Jerusalem had been so neglected by Islamic rulers that several prominent Western writers who visited Jerusalem were moved to write about it. French writer Gustav Flaubert, for example, found "ruins everywhere" during his visit in 1850 when it was part of the Turkish Empire (1516-1917). Seventeen years later Mark Twain wrote that Jerusalem had "become a pauper village."
Indeed, Jerusalem's importance in the Islamic world only appears evident when non-Muslims (including the Crusaders, the British, and the Jews) control or capture the city. Only at those points in history did Islamic leaders claim Jerusalem as their third most holy city after Mecca and Medina. That was again the case in 1967, when Israel captured Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem (and the Old City) during the 1967 Six-Day War.
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