Subject: FW: I Can't Believe We Made It
Amazing----we ALL survived---
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Israel has no choice but to fight the U.N.’s new permanent inquisition against it, and any business, government or judge that uses its reality-free reports.
By Caroline Glick
At the U.N. General Assembly last month, a large majority of member nations voted to lavishly fund a permanent inquisition against the Jewish state. The member states funded the operation of an “ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry” against Israel.
The commission, run by outspoken haters of Israel with long records of demonizing it and its people, was formed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in a special session in May. Its purpose is to deny and reject Israel’s right to exist, its right to self-defense, its right to enforce its laws and its citizens’ rights to their properties and to their very lives.
The Council’s decision to form its new permanent inquisition constitutes an unprecedented escalation of the political war the United Nations has been waging against Israel for the past 50 years. To grasp the danger, it is necessary to understand how Israel’s foes operate at the United Nations and how their partners in Europe and Israel itself operate.
Read more...And:
The New Years Begins where it ended:
Gaza – Hamas Celebrates Firing ‘Sam 7’ Missiles at IDF Helicopters
Abu Ali Express
Hamas-affiliated sources in Gaza report that during the IDF’s attack in the Gaza Strip, at 00:26 (local time – Abu Ali), the “resistance” fired two “Sam 7” missiles at the Israeli helicopters.
Even Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem referred to this incident in his official post-attack statement, congratulating the members of the “resistance” for firing at the enemy’s aircraft with machine guns and missiles.
Commentators affiliated with Hamas are trying to elevate the firing of the “Sam 7” missiles as a “game-changer” which Israel did not anticipate when it decided to respond to the rocket fire towards Tel Aviv.
Hamas loves having “the last word”. Their reports of them launching missiles at IDF aircraft if for them having the “last word” in this round. Hamas brought a new element into the game (mostly psychological), the true nature of which will be determined in the next rounds to come.
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While Eilat’s remote location has traditionally afforded it protection from the security threats that have plagued the Jewish State, Houthis in Yemen may change that.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
As the ongoing shadow war between Israel and Iran continues to heat up on the heels of stalled nuclear talks in Vienna, there may be a new front for Iranian-backed proxies determined to strike the Jewish State – the Red Sea city of Eilat.
Israel’s southernmost city, the coastal enclave has traditionally been free of the security threats that have plagued the rest of the Jewish State over the years.
During various conflicts, Hezbollah and other terror groups in Lebanon have struck cities in northern Israel, such as the major port city Haifa.
On the southwestern front, Gaza-based terror group Hamas has successfully launched deadly and destructive barrages at Ashkelon and Ashdod (and more recently Tel Aviv).
Eilat’s remote location, some 233 km (144 miles) south of Israel’s largest desert city, Beersheba, has given it a natural barrier from aerial attacks, placing it far out of reach for rockets fired from Lebanon or the Strip.
But as the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen strengthen their foothold in the region and obtain more advanced weaponry, some analysts fear that Eilat could become a target.
Channel 12 News reported last week that British intelligence services determined a UAV attack on the Israeli-owned vessel Mercer Street in the Gulf of Oman, which killed British and Romanian crew members, was launched by Houthi rebels in southern Yemen.
The Islamist rebel group, which similarly to Hezbollah is mostly Shia Muslims, enjoys generous Iranian material and financial support.
According to Channel 12, Israeli intelligence agencies are increasingly concerned about the Houthis leveraging their de facto autonomy in Yemen’s southern peninsula to launch attacks on the Jewish State via the Red Sea or aerial attacks on Eilat.
An unnamed security official told the Hebrew language news agency that the Houthis already possess ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers, which puts Eilat easily within striking distance.
Beyond an aerial attack, the Houthis could potentially disrupt global supply chains by targeting Egypt’s Suez Canal.
They could also target Israeli ships traveling through the Red Sea, causing major economic damage by disrupting routes to the Jewish State’s major trading partner, India.
In response to the threat, the Israeli navy has reportedly stepped up its monitoring and intelligence activities in the Red Sea.
The question that remains unanswered is if and when Israel will decide that the threat posed by the Houthis requires a preemptive strike.
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Many city neighborhoods still possess that rural sensibility that everyone is part of a community
By Salena Zito
PITTSBURGH-Whether a small town is doing well or struggling to stay afloat, one of the most consistent reminders that a sense of civic pride and hope is flourishing or remains part of the town’s DNA is that cheerful welcome sign that greets visitors when they enter.
It works as an ambassador of sorts to let the visitor know — and to remind the resident — they’ve now entered someplace special, with the hope that they will shop in the local businesses, stop at the local coffee shop or diner and sit a spell … the concomitant hope that they take part of their experience back home with them when they leave.
Yet that cheerful welcome sign is often absent in many towns and city neighborhoods in the country — because the community’s identity has been absorbed into a larger, nearby city’s identity. Therefore, a visitor’s first impression is often determined by the first person they interact with.
Raieleesa Ptomey takes that responsibility very seriously in Pittsburgh’s Strip District neighborhood. The 54-year-old is directing cars off busy Penn Avenue into the parking lot at 20th and Penn where she works. On the street, cars are all over the place, cyclists are weaving around the traffic, and tempers start to rise as folks jockey to find a place to park.
Ms. Ptomey immediately diffuses any tensions with a broad smile, a warm welcome and a flurry of suggestions as passengers pile out of their cars to either experience the Strip for the first time or to do their regular shopping. Dressed in a dark navy uniform complete with a cap, Ms. Ptomey — along with Jules Troiani, the proprietor, and his nephew, Josh Troiani — deftly valet each car in the open lot that has served Strip District patrons for over 50 years.
Keys change hands, walkie-talkie instructions come from the booth as to where to park the SUV that just pulled up — as well as the three cars they need to navigate out of the perfect grid for the three patrons who are ready to leave. Everyone new to the Strip asks where to eat. Regulars ask about how the families are doing.
It works as an ambassador of sorts to let the visitor know — and to remind the resident — they’ve now entered someplace special, with the hope that they will shop in the local businesses, stop at the local coffee shop or diner and sit a spell … the concomitant hope that they take part of their experience back home with them when they leave.
Yet that cheerful welcome sign is often absent in many towns and city neighborhoods in the country — because the community’s identity has been absorbed into a larger, nearby city’s identity. Therefore, a visitor’s first impression is often determined by the first person they interact with.
Raieleesa Ptomey takes that responsibility very seriously in Pittsburgh’s Strip District neighborhood. The 54-year-old is directing cars off busy Penn Avenue into the parking lot at 20th and Penn where she works. On the street, cars are all over the place, cyclists are weaving around the traffic, and tempers start to rise as folks jockey to find a place to park.
Ms. Ptomey immediately diffuses any tensions with a broad smile, a warm welcome and a flurry of suggestions as passengers pile out of their cars to either experience the Strip for the first time or to do their regular shopping. Dressed in a dark navy uniform complete with a cap, Ms. Ptomey — along with Jules Troiani, the proprietor, and his nephew, Josh Troiani — deftly valet each car in the open lot that has served Strip District patrons for over 50 years.
Keys change hands, walkie-talkie instructions come from the booth as to where to park the SUV that just pulled up — as well as the three cars they need to navigate out of the perfect grid for the three patrons who are ready to leave. Everyone new to the Strip asks where to eat. Regulars ask about how the families are doing.
The interactions are a reminder that many city neighborhoods all across this country still possess that “rural” sensibility that everyone in their town — or in this case, neighborhood — is part of a community.
“We are the heart of this neighborhood; we are like our own small town here,” explains Ms. Ptomey. “There are no franchises here. Everyone is their own unique small business — it is the kind of authenticity you only find in a small town.”
Parking lot owner Jules Troiani says his roots in the restaurant business taught him the fundamentals of the guest experience: “Whatever happens here — from the moment our valet touches your car door — impacts every business on the street. We want people to know we are so thankful you are here, and I have to make sure your experience is pleasant, or you’ll blame Bella Notte or you’ll blame Penn Mac.”
For nearly 100 years, the Strip District has operated as marketplace to the larger city, with many of the iconic businesses — like Pennsylvania Macaroni, Wholey’s fish market, Stamoolis market, Mancini’s Breads and Schorin catering supplies — having operated here during most of that time. Newcomers like Café Raymond and Enrico Biscotti started as vendors selling their specialties on the street or in coffee houses.
“Most of the deals made on this street to go from having a table on the sidewalk to owning a brick-and-mortar shop all started with a handshake,” explains Mr. Troiani.
Pat Lee has spent much of his career as a butcher at Wholey’s. Two days before Christmas, he was carving fresh-caught salmon on a butcher block to an audience of the curious watching him prepare the fillets. “I worked at Benkowitz fish market for several years before they closed,” he said of the other iconic fish market that served the Strip for nearly 100 years before closing in 2013. “I have been here ever since. I love my job. I love the small town feel of people coming to watch the butcher ready their food. I have been able to put three kids through college doing what I love, where I love,” Mr. Lee said.
Neighborhoods like the Strip are like small towns in more ways than just their sense of community. They also often find themselves struggling with government leaders who want to rearrange or — worse yet — tear apart the fabric of the community to fit their vision of how it should function, much the way rural small towns have fought decisions that have decimated them for generations.
Ask anyone who lived in Pittsburgh’s “East Street Valley” 40 years ago what it was like to have their neighborhood completely erased so that suburbanites could have speedier access to Downtown for work and play; the neighborhoods of East Liberty, the Hill District and Chateau were all chopped up or leveled for the urban renewal projects of the Great Society era.
The shattering of a city neighborhood for big government projects is no different an emotional experience than the strangulation of small towns with the erosion of manufacturing jobs.
Walk along what once was East Street, a bustling hub of small enterprise, and there’s an eeriness in the remnants of weed-choked coal cellars and old foundations as cars whiz past along Interstate 279. The tight-knit sense of community and belonging that once filled the small businesses that made up the heart of the Hill District are mostly gone as well, as are the homes and businesses.
The people who lived and worked and prayed in these once-special places fought hard to save them — no different than Youngstown, Ohio, did when it tried to recover from Black Monday, Sept. 19, 1977, when 5,000 workers were laid off and the Campbell Works steel mill shut its doors.
Mr. Troiani says there exists in all of those who work to preserve a neighborhood that rural, small-town determination to not let the big guys upend it all.
He points to the newly renovated Terminal building on Smallman Street, a fancy new development pushed by the administration of outgoing Mayor Bill Peduto. While the building is a beautiful rehab of the old produce terminal, Mr. Troiani says it lacks the most important element needed to make a small town flourish: “A sense of community and the characters that make a place special. That’s why that is not thriving over there; the planners and city government think it is just retail dollars and big box stores that will make it successful, and it won’t.”
A car pulls in and keys exchange hands. Mr. Troiani greets the two women with familiarity, helps them out of their car as they ask him where to go to breakfast.
“Try Café Raymond’s right over there,” he says, pointing out the restaurant a few doors away: “The ricotta pancakes will make your heart sing.”
Click here for the full story.
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Good News Israel (edited.)
At the start of a new calendar year, Israelis continue to bring new innovations into the world to benefit humanity. A new heart implant, a new treatment for Parkinson's, a new sleep quality analyzer, and a successful Israeli cancer treatment is launched. New social initiatives include for the disabled, Arab-Israeli coexistence and public diplomacy. New technology for solar cells, renewable energy storage, smart mobility, cyber security, animal-free meat, healthy soil and optical lenses. New programs and deals to generate and expand Israeli businesses. New cultural, entertainment and sporting successes. There are so many new reasons to look forward to a Very Good 2022.
Please click here, to donate a small or large amount to help me publicize VeryGoodNewsIsrael.
In the 2nd Jan 22 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Implant for congestive heart failure patients. Israel's Restore Medical develops the ContraBand implant that uses the patient’s Left Ventrical to assist a failing Right Ventrical for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF). It has just announced promising preliminary results of its First-in-Human clinical trials.
https://www.israelhayom.com/
Boost for Parkinson’s treatment. Back in 2013 (see here previously) Tel Aviv University researchers found that the sugar substitute mannitol could protect the brain against Parkinson’s disease. But a trial could not get funding. So, entrepreneur and Parkinson’s sufferer Dan Vesely co-founded and crowdfunded CliniCrowd.
https://www.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Israel starts trial of 4th vaccination. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has begun the first study in the world of the efficacy of administering a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The 6,000 participants include 150 medical personnel who had a 3rd dose in August. They will receive the Pfizer vaccine.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
How plants fight infections. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have identified the complex way that plant bacteria fight off infections from viruses known as phages. A protein in the bacteria calls another protein to destroy a molecule inside itself that the phage needs to replicate. The cell dies but it stops the infection.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.
Monitor your sleep at home. (TY Hazel) No need to go to a sleep lab to analyze your sleep problems. The electrophysiological measurement solution from Israel’s X-trodes (see here previously) is ideal for home use. Its smart skin electrodes measure brainwaves, eye movement, skeletal muscles, cardiac activity and more.
https://www.israel21c.org/
9 top digital health companies. (TY Hazel) CB Insights has named nine Israeli-based health-tech startups in its 2021 Top 150 Digital Health Companies transforming healthcare. They include Vocalis, Sweetch, DiA Imaging, B.Well, C2I Genomics, Lumen, Nym Health, Theator and Empathy.
https://www.israel21c.org/8-
Israeli startups transforming telehealth. Some more innovative Israeli healthcare startups. Those not previously reported in this newsletter are medFlyt (caregiver management) and Sivan Innovation (Moovcare patient / physician communications) https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.medflyt.com/ https://vimeo.com/469424965 https://www.sivan-innovation.
$17 million for digital health. Israel has budgeted NIS 55 million for hospitals and health organizations etc., to build the digital infrastructure required for anonymized medical data sharing. It will spearhead major advances in groundbreaking research and innovative development by Israeli healthcare startups and research scientists.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Cancer treatment goes into space. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off for the International Space Station carrying a smart laboratory developed by Israel’s SpacePharma. It will test Doxil from Israel’s Ayana to see its effect on cells in zero gravity. Doxil is the first nanotechnology cancer treatment approved by the US FDA.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
More actors with disabilities. Four of Israel’s biggest TV companies KAN, RESHET, HOT, and YES have pledged that they will audition actors with disabilities with each new studio production. They have also committed to a more inclusive selection process for all jobs across the film industry.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
Soccer for disabled children. A new Israeli soccer team, Hapoel Special Olympics, coaches youths with special needs, including autism and mental disabilities, with the participation of professional soccer players.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Ethiopian Israeli, female, pianist and IDF soldier. (TY UWI) Elisabeth has been playing piano since the age of nine and has even played at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. This prodigy pianist from Jerusalem has continued playing all the way through her service in the IDF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Together. Arab Israeli Yoseph Haddad has founded Together – Vouch for Each Other which bridges gaps between Jews and Arabs, connecting Israeli Arab society to Israeli society. Arabs can be proud Arabs and proud Israelis. The Arab Israeli NGO also works outside of Israel to combat antisemitism and the BDS movement.
https://www.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Israel puts Christian manuscripts online. Israel’s National Library has added 1,600 ancient Christian manuscripts to its online archive. The collection originates from Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, includes items from the 12th century and is said to be priceless for scholars of Greek Orthodoxy.
https://www.jns.org/israels-
Israeli & UAE students solve problems together. (TY UWI) Jerusalem-based PICO Kids Ambassadors program flew 16 Jerusalemite students to a “Makeathon” at the Dubai Future Foundation. With UAE students they built prototypes for desalination facilities, vertical farms, and portable bottle caps with integrated filters.
https://www.jns.org/academic-
UN Ambassadors see the real Israel. A delegation of 12 ambassadors to the United Nations recently visited Israel. On a tour of the Entrepreneurship Center of the Unistream Association in Be’er Sheva, the students (from all social and geographical fringes of Israel) presented the startup companies that they developed.
https://www.jns.org/12-un-
https://www.calcalistech.com/
European lawmakers see the real Israel. Israel hosted a group of 16 young lawmakers from Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Sweden. Their itinerary included the Gaza periphery (Sderot & Iron Dome), Jerusalem (Old City, Knesset & Yad Vashem) and Tel Aviv’s startups.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
An EU scholarship to Israeli university. A consortium of ten universities - nine in Europe and Bar-Ilan University in Israel - has won the EU’s prestigious Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree (EMJMD) grant, valued at more than €4.5m. It will help students study for a MSc in Chemoinformatics (Chemistry and AI).
https://www.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Next Gen solar cells. Israel’s SOLRA is developing solar cells based on thin film materials derived from perovskite, a crystalline substance that efficiently absorbs light. Perovskite-based solar cells have higher cell power conversion efficiencies, cheaper to manufacture and have far more uses than existing PV solar cells.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/
http://www.yissum.co.il/
Wave power for Israel. (TY UWI) At Jaffa Port, Israel’s Eco Wave Power (see here previously) is installing its system to produce clean energy from ocean and sea waves. It will be the first time in Israeli history that wave energy will officially connect to the national electrical grid. Israel’s government is funding 50% of the project.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Storing renewable energy. (TY WIN) Israel’s Augwind (see here previously) has signed an $8 million agreement with the Israel Electricity Corporation to build a 40-megawatt hours AirBattery (the world’s first) to store solar or wind energy as compressed air (see here also). See videos for details of the technology.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Mobileye takes to Parisian streets. (TY WIN) Employees of the Galeries Lafayette store on Paris’ Haussmann Boulevard will be able to ride to work in an autonomous car controlled by Israel’s Mobileye. The trial service will also feature a Mobileye safety driver and a “co-pilot” from French transportation operator RATP Group.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Two awards for Cognata. Israeli autonomous car simulator Cognata (see here previously) won two CES 2022 Innovation Awards recently. First, for its Smart City Digital Twin product (see video). Also, for helping accelerate the global program for ADAS validation to meet global regulatory requirements.
https://www.cognata.com/press-
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
How Israel is changing the way we travel. The Smart Mobility summit in Tel Aviv was a global event with 5,000 attendees, including automakers and government leaders. The speakers discussed vehicle electrification, artificial intelligence, big data and their influence on transportation, Mobility as a Service (MAAS), and more.
https://gulfbusiness.com/
On the fast track. Israel has approved a project to build a high-speed rail connection between Haifa and Tel Aviv for a travel time of 30 minutes. Also, Nahariya to Tel Aviv would be shortened to 54 minutes instead of more than hour-and-a-half. The trains will travel at up to 155 mph and the project will cost NIS 12 billion.
https://www.jpost.com/
https://www.jns.org/israel-
The largest cultivated steak to date. Israel’s MeaTech 3D (see here previously) has successfully bio-printed the largest cultivated steak to date, producing a 3.67 oz (104-gram) product made with real muscle and fat cells.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://meatech3d.com/3-67oz-
Accidental breakthrough in cultivating meat. (TY UWI) Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute stumbled onto a fast process for growing lab-grown meat. They found that cultivated meat grows much faster when the enzyme ERK is blocked. They have formed the Israeli startup ProFuse to take this further.
https://www.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.cell.com/
Filtering the air in the classroom. (TY Hazel) Israel’s health and education ministries have selected Israel’s Aura Smart Air (see here previously) to pilot its filtration systems in 700 classrooms across Jerusalem to stop the spread of coronavirus. 150+ global educational institutions use Aura Smart Air filters in their classrooms.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Maintaining healthy soil. Scientists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have founded DOTS (Data of the Soil), which has developed an electro-optical nitrate sensor based on absorption spectroscopy, for continuous monitoring of nitrate levels in the soil. It prevents over-fertilization and reduces water resource pollution.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/
Zero waste optical lenses. Researchers from Israel’s Technion Institute have discovered an innovative and comparably cheap, way to make optical lenses. It avoids the 80% waste of grinding and shaping glass slabs. A polymer is injected into a ring-shaped frame under water. Its benefits range from spectacles to telescopes.
https://israelbetweenthelines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Economy grew 7% in 2021. Dun & Bradstreet reported that Israel’s economy grew by seven percent in 2021, beating a global average of 5.9%. 17,000 more businesses opened or re-opened than closed during the year.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
University innovation grants. Israel’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology has launched a new "Knowledge Accelerator" program to promote research for industry. It awarded NIS 10.8 million to Ben Gurion University to create “The Lab Pre-acceleration Program” within its Yazamut 360° Oazis accelerator (see here).
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/
https://innovationisrael.org.
New Unicorn knows its salt. Israel’s Salt Security (see here previously) has just raised $120 – 150 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, becoming Israel’s latest startup with the investment status of a Unicorn.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Drone delivery expands. (TY WIN) Since February, Israel’s Flytrex (see here previously) has increased its drone delivery business in North Carolina, USA more than tenfold. Its three drone stations at the Holly Springs Town Center make dozens of food orders deliveries a day for restaurants and retail chains.
https://www.algemeiner.com/
Boost for sugar-reduced juices. Israel’s Better Juice (see here previously) has sealed its first commercial deal. GEA Group, AG, Germany, a major US fruit juice manufacturer will help to bring Better Juice’s reduced-sugar juices one step closer to supermarket beverage aisles. Better Juice was also granted a new European patent.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Broadcasting in the UAE. Israel’s Pixellot (see here previously) has signed a deal with Dubai-based sports broadcast system integrator Cam Plus Sport to “enable sports clubs and schools across the United Arab Emirates to create high-quality livestreams and on-demand recordings of sports matches.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Israeli exits: US Gilbarco Veeder-Root is acquiring Israel’s Driivz for $200 million;
Investment in Israeli startups: Salt Security raised $120+ million; Torq raised $50 million;
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`
85th Anniversary of the IPO. The Israel Philharmonic celebrates 85 years with this unique virtual event. It includes never-before seen archive material with musical legends Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, and Isaac Stern and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
What’s on at Center Stage. January events at Israel’s only dedicated theater for English speakers include 8th Jan Broadway with a Twist; 12th Jan Fun Innovation; 31st Jan Sorcerer’s Night.
https://www.centerstageisrael.
Listen to Israel. (TY JR) Jacob Richman has created a website with links to dozens of regularly updated podcasts of Israeli news, technology, culture, entertainment and more. Visit https://jr.co.il/links/#
The ski slopes are open. With the recent heavy precipitation from the Carmel Storm, sufficient snow (25cm) landed on Mount Hermon to enable the resort to be opened to Israeli skiers and sledding. In the first four hours of the site’s opening on Thursday, some 2,000 visitors arrived. And this week is the resort’s 50th anniversary.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Israeli gold medal in Oman. 18-year-old Gal Zuckerman won a gold medal in kiteboarding event at the Youth Sailing World Championships in Oman. She came first in every one of the competition’s 18 rounds. The Omani organizers treated the Israelis very well, but failed to play the Israeli anthem or raise its flag.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
THE JEWISH STATE
No longer a village. Petah Tikva has come a long way since it was founded in 1878 as the first Jewish agricultural village following the resettlement of the Land of Israel. The municipality has approved an outline plan that will increase the city's population from 266,000 to 460,000.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
Maps of Israel. (TY JR) Jacob Richman has added many links to his Maps of Israel site. Worth a visit.
https://jr.co.il/links/#maps
Praying at the Kotel in 1928. Some rare colored video footage of Jews in Jerusalem in 1928 during the British Mandate period that preceded the State of Israel, between 1918 – 1948.
https://www.israelunwired.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
48 ways. (TY Sharon) This year’s Jerusalem Biennale (see here previously) included the works of 48 Jewish artists. Each was based on one of the 48 ways that Torah is acquired, as listed in the sixth chapter of Pirkei Avot. http://rjstreets.com/2021/12/
Israel’s success is no accident. Anyone searching for a deeper reason for Israel’s modern economic miracle should read this blog article. https://www.
Please click here, to donate a small or large amount to help me publicize VeryGoodNewsIsrael.
In the 2nd Jan 22 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
- An Israeli implant will transform the lives of heart failure patients.
- Analyze your sleep with an Israeli wireless home monitor.
- Israel’s National Library publishes 1,600 ancient Christian manuscripts.
- Israel is installing wave power systems and compressed air energy storage.
- Israeli soil sensors reduce pollution from overuse of nitrate fertilizers.
- Unique video to celebrate 85th birthday of Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Two extra-ordinary but typical examples of Israeli life-saving.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Implant for congestive heart failure patients. Israel's Restore Medical develops the ContraBand implant that uses the patient’s Left Ventrical to assist a failing Right Ventrical for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF). It has just announced promising preliminary results of its First-in-Human clinical trials.
https://www.israelhayom.com/
Boost for Parkinson’s treatment. Back in 2013 (see here previously) Tel Aviv University researchers found that the sugar substitute mannitol could protect the brain against Parkinson’s disease. But a trial could not get funding. So, entrepreneur and Parkinson’s sufferer Dan Vesely co-founded and crowdfunded CliniCrowd.
https://www.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Israel starts trial of 4th vaccination. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has begun the first study in the world of the efficacy of administering a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The 6,000 participants include 150 medical personnel who had a 3rd dose in August. They will receive the Pfizer vaccine.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
How plants fight infections. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have identified the complex way that plant bacteria fight off infections from viruses known as phages. A protein in the bacteria calls another protein to destroy a molecule inside itself that the phage needs to replicate. The cell dies but it stops the infection.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.
Monitor your sleep at home. (TY Hazel) No need to go to a sleep lab to analyze your sleep problems. The electrophysiological measurement solution from Israel’s X-trodes (see here previously) is ideal for home use. Its smart skin electrodes measure brainwaves, eye movement, skeletal muscles, cardiac activity and more.
https://www.israel21c.org/
9 top digital health companies. (TY Hazel) CB Insights has named nine Israeli-based health-tech startups in its 2021 Top 150 Digital Health Companies transforming healthcare. They include Vocalis, Sweetch, DiA Imaging, B.Well, C2I Genomics, Lumen, Nym Health, Theator and Empathy.
https://www.israel21c.org/8-
Israeli startups transforming telehealth. Some more innovative Israeli healthcare startups. Those not previously reported in this newsletter are medFlyt (caregiver management) and Sivan Innovation (Moovcare patient / physician communications) https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.medflyt.com/ https://vimeo.com/469424965 https://www.sivan-innovation.
$17 million for digital health. Israel has budgeted NIS 55 million for hospitals and health organizations etc., to build the digital infrastructure required for anonymized medical data sharing. It will spearhead major advances in groundbreaking research and innovative development by Israeli healthcare startups and research scientists.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Cancer treatment goes into space. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off for the International Space Station carrying a smart laboratory developed by Israel’s SpacePharma. It will test Doxil from Israel’s Ayana to see its effect on cells in zero gravity. Doxil is the first nanotechnology cancer treatment approved by the US FDA.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
More actors with disabilities. Four of Israel’s biggest TV companies KAN, RESHET, HOT, and YES have pledged that they will audition actors with disabilities with each new studio production. They have also committed to a more inclusive selection process for all jobs across the film industry.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
Soccer for disabled children. A new Israeli soccer team, Hapoel Special Olympics, coaches youths with special needs, including autism and mental disabilities, with the participation of professional soccer players.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Ethiopian Israeli, female, pianist and IDF soldier. (TY UWI) Elisabeth has been playing piano since the age of nine and has even played at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. This prodigy pianist from Jerusalem has continued playing all the way through her service in the IDF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Together. Arab Israeli Yoseph Haddad has founded Together – Vouch for Each Other which bridges gaps between Jews and Arabs, connecting Israeli Arab society to Israeli society. Arabs can be proud Arabs and proud Israelis. The Arab Israeli NGO also works outside of Israel to combat antisemitism and the BDS movement.
https://www.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
Israel puts Christian manuscripts online. Israel’s National Library has added 1,600 ancient Christian manuscripts to its online archive. The collection originates from Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula, includes items from the 12th century and is said to be priceless for scholars of Greek Orthodoxy.
https://www.jns.org/israels-
Israeli & UAE students solve problems together. (TY UWI) Jerusalem-based PICO Kids Ambassadors program flew 16 Jerusalemite students to a “Makeathon” at the Dubai Future Foundation. With UAE students they built prototypes for desalination facilities, vertical farms, and portable bottle caps with integrated filters.
https://www.jns.org/academic-
UN Ambassadors see the real Israel. A delegation of 12 ambassadors to the United Nations recently visited Israel. On a tour of the Entrepreneurship Center of the Unistream Association in Be’er Sheva, the students (from all social and geographical fringes of Israel) presented the startup companies that they developed.
https://www.jns.org/12-un-
https://www.calcalistech.com/
European lawmakers see the real Israel. Israel hosted a group of 16 young lawmakers from Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Sweden. Their itinerary included the Gaza periphery (Sderot & Iron Dome), Jerusalem (Old City, Knesset & Yad Vashem) and Tel Aviv’s startups.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
An EU scholarship to Israeli university. A consortium of ten universities - nine in Europe and Bar-Ilan University in Israel - has won the EU’s prestigious Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree (EMJMD) grant, valued at more than €4.5m. It will help students study for a MSc in Chemoinformatics (Chemistry and AI).
https://www.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Next Gen solar cells. Israel’s SOLRA is developing solar cells based on thin film materials derived from perovskite, a crystalline substance that efficiently absorbs light. Perovskite-based solar cells have higher cell power conversion efficiencies, cheaper to manufacture and have far more uses than existing PV solar cells.
https://nocamels.com/2021/11/
http://www.yissum.co.il/
Wave power for Israel. (TY UWI) At Jaffa Port, Israel’s Eco Wave Power (see here previously) is installing its system to produce clean energy from ocean and sea waves. It will be the first time in Israeli history that wave energy will officially connect to the national electrical grid. Israel’s government is funding 50% of the project.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Storing renewable energy. (TY WIN) Israel’s Augwind (see here previously) has signed an $8 million agreement with the Israel Electricity Corporation to build a 40-megawatt hours AirBattery (the world’s first) to store solar or wind energy as compressed air (see here also). See videos for details of the technology.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Mobileye takes to Parisian streets. (TY WIN) Employees of the Galeries Lafayette store on Paris’ Haussmann Boulevard will be able to ride to work in an autonomous car controlled by Israel’s Mobileye. The trial service will also feature a Mobileye safety driver and a “co-pilot” from French transportation operator RATP Group.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Two awards for Cognata. Israeli autonomous car simulator Cognata (see here previously) won two CES 2022 Innovation Awards recently. First, for its Smart City Digital Twin product (see video). Also, for helping accelerate the global program for ADAS validation to meet global regulatory requirements.
https://www.cognata.com/press-
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
How Israel is changing the way we travel. The Smart Mobility summit in Tel Aviv was a global event with 5,000 attendees, including automakers and government leaders. The speakers discussed vehicle electrification, artificial intelligence, big data and their influence on transportation, Mobility as a Service (MAAS), and more.
https://gulfbusiness.com/
On the fast track. Israel has approved a project to build a high-speed rail connection between Haifa and Tel Aviv for a travel time of 30 minutes. Also, Nahariya to Tel Aviv would be shortened to 54 minutes instead of more than hour-and-a-half. The trains will travel at up to 155 mph and the project will cost NIS 12 billion.
https://www.jpost.com/
https://www.jns.org/israel-
The largest cultivated steak to date. Israel’s MeaTech 3D (see here previously) has successfully bio-printed the largest cultivated steak to date, producing a 3.67 oz (104-gram) product made with real muscle and fat cells.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://meatech3d.com/3-67oz-
Accidental breakthrough in cultivating meat. (TY UWI) Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute stumbled onto a fast process for growing lab-grown meat. They found that cultivated meat grows much faster when the enzyme ERK is blocked. They have formed the Israeli startup ProFuse to take this further.
https://www.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.cell.com/
Filtering the air in the classroom. (TY Hazel) Israel’s health and education ministries have selected Israel’s Aura Smart Air (see here previously) to pilot its filtration systems in 700 classrooms across Jerusalem to stop the spread of coronavirus. 150+ global educational institutions use Aura Smart Air filters in their classrooms.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Maintaining healthy soil. Scientists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University have founded DOTS (Data of the Soil), which has developed an electro-optical nitrate sensor based on absorption spectroscopy, for continuous monitoring of nitrate levels in the soil. It prevents over-fertilization and reduces water resource pollution.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/
Zero waste optical lenses. Researchers from Israel’s Technion Institute have discovered an innovative and comparably cheap, way to make optical lenses. It avoids the 80% waste of grinding and shaping glass slabs. A polymer is injected into a ring-shaped frame under water. Its benefits range from spectacles to telescopes.
https://israelbetweenthelines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Economy grew 7% in 2021. Dun & Bradstreet reported that Israel’s economy grew by seven percent in 2021, beating a global average of 5.9%. 17,000 more businesses opened or re-opened than closed during the year.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
University innovation grants. Israel’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology has launched a new "Knowledge Accelerator" program to promote research for industry. It awarded NIS 10.8 million to Ben Gurion University to create “The Lab Pre-acceleration Program” within its Yazamut 360° Oazis accelerator (see here).
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/
https://innovationisrael.org.
New Unicorn knows its salt. Israel’s Salt Security (see here previously) has just raised $120 – 150 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, becoming Israel’s latest startup with the investment status of a Unicorn.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Drone delivery expands. (TY WIN) Since February, Israel’s Flytrex (see here previously) has increased its drone delivery business in North Carolina, USA more than tenfold. Its three drone stations at the Holly Springs Town Center make dozens of food orders deliveries a day for restaurants and retail chains.
https://www.algemeiner.com/
Boost for sugar-reduced juices. Israel’s Better Juice (see here previously) has sealed its first commercial deal. GEA Group, AG, Germany, a major US fruit juice manufacturer will help to bring Better Juice’s reduced-sugar juices one step closer to supermarket beverage aisles. Better Juice was also granted a new European patent.
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Broadcasting in the UAE. Israel’s Pixellot (see here previously) has signed a deal with Dubai-based sports broadcast system integrator Cam Plus Sport to “enable sports clubs and schools across the United Arab Emirates to create high-quality livestreams and on-demand recordings of sports matches.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Israeli exits: US Gilbarco Veeder-Root is acquiring Israel’s Driivz for $200 million;
Investment in Israeli startups: Salt Security raised $120+ million; Torq raised $50 million;
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`
85th Anniversary of the IPO. The Israel Philharmonic celebrates 85 years with this unique virtual event. It includes never-before seen archive material with musical legends Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, and Isaac Stern and much more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
What’s on at Center Stage. January events at Israel’s only dedicated theater for English speakers include 8th Jan Broadway with a Twist; 12th Jan Fun Innovation; 31st Jan Sorcerer’s Night.
https://www.centerstageisrael.
Listen to Israel. (TY JR) Jacob Richman has created a website with links to dozens of regularly updated podcasts of Israeli news, technology, culture, entertainment and more. Visit https://jr.co.il/links/#
The ski slopes are open. With the recent heavy precipitation from the Carmel Storm, sufficient snow (25cm) landed on Mount Hermon to enable the resort to be opened to Israeli skiers and sledding. In the first four hours of the site’s opening on Thursday, some 2,000 visitors arrived. And this week is the resort’s 50th anniversary.
https://nocamels.com/2021/12/
Israeli gold medal in Oman. 18-year-old Gal Zuckerman won a gold medal in kiteboarding event at the Youth Sailing World Championships in Oman. She came first in every one of the competition’s 18 rounds. The Omani organizers treated the Israelis very well, but failed to play the Israeli anthem or raise its flag.
https://worldisraelnews.com/
THE JEWISH STATE
No longer a village. Petah Tikva has come a long way since it was founded in 1878 as the first Jewish agricultural village following the resettlement of the Land of Israel. The municipality has approved an outline plan that will increase the city's population from 266,000 to 460,000.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
Maps of Israel. (TY JR) Jacob Richman has added many links to his Maps of Israel site. Worth a visit.
https://jr.co.il/links/#maps
Praying at the Kotel in 1928. Some rare colored video footage of Jews in Jerusalem in 1928 during the British Mandate period that preceded the State of Israel, between 1918 – 1948.
https://www.israelunwired.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
48 ways. (TY Sharon) This year’s Jerusalem Biennale (see here previously) included the works of 48 Jewish artists. Each was based on one of the 48 ways that Torah is acquired, as listed in the sixth chapter of Pirkei Avot. http://rjstreets.com/2021/12/
Israel’s success is no accident. Anyone searching for a deeper reason for Israel’s modern economic miracle should read this blog article. https://www.
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I still believe Pompeo would make a great president. Not because Biden is so pathetic but because Pompeo has a solid personal record and achievements.
Pompeo to ZOA: Biden reversing Trump’s historic support for Israel
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo drew comparisons between the pro-Israel actions of the Trump administration and what he considers backpedaling by the Biden administration during a pre-recorded video address on Sunday at the Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) 2021 virtual gala.
Pompeo, who received the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Defender of Israel Award, was introduced by Miriam Adelson. She spoke of how her late husband, the philanthropist and casino magnate, would have loved to be at the gala.
“The ZOA and he were a natural match,” she said. “Like Sheldon, the ZOA is proudly American and proud to promote the founding principles and spirit of that most deserving of U.S. allies, the State of Israel.”
“Like Sheldon, the ZOA stands up for what it believes in, even if it means standing alone,” she continued. “And the exact same thing is true of our honored guest, Mike Pompeo.”
Dr. Miriam Adelson addressing the 2021 ZOA virtual gala.
Pompeo said that when many people ask him whether he is glad to be out of the “pressure cooker” of public office, he answers that he would still like to be secretary of state since there was much work remaining to do. He said he was proud of the Trump administration’s record on Israel.
“We were told in the administration, ‘You can’t end the terrible Iran deal because it will make it more likely that there’d be war and that Iran would obtain a nuclear weapon.’ But we ended our participation in that terrible deal,” Pompeo said. “We applied maximum economic pressure to Iran and to its leadership. We brought Iran to its knees. We were told, ‘You can’t move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, there’ll be war.’ Well, we did. And there wasn’t. We were told too, that you can’t secure peace between Arab nations and Israel without buying off Palestinian kleptocrats and starting World War III. Well, we did forge real peace and there was no war. The Abraham Accords rewrote decades of failed shuttle negotiations because we were willing to go against the elites of the foreign policy establishment to secure American freedom and to champion American values.”
Pompeo also listed the recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel, Israel’s right to Judea and Samaria and the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
Israel, he said, is alone among the nations in the region that defends the rights of citizens of all backgrounds.
“U.S. support for Israel is a perfect expression of American patriotism, because it demonstrates our ability to recognize and defend our own democratic interests and our values with absolute moral clarity,” Pompeo said. “Israel teaches us that we cannot long remain the land of the free if we don’t proactively make sure to be a home of those who are patriots.”
Pompeo said that today, he sees the Biden administration reversing this progress and support for Israel.
He said that despite more than 80 percent of Judeo-Christian historical sites being located in Judea and Samaria and Arabs controlling 23 countries in the Middle East, and the fact that the people of the Arab bloc officially took the name Palestinians in 1964, Israel is still called the occupier.
“You know often, when an international leader talks about Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, we hear them accuse our ally Israel of occupation and of illegal settlement. President [Barack] Obama, Secretary [of State Hilary] Clinton did this repeatedly. And so has the new Biden administration. Even though these legal terms are just a casual way of calling the Jewish state of Israel a thief in essence, they use it,” Pompeo said. “In turn we see at the United Nations, institutions, and in the media and political circles how these accusations are used to launch all manner of hostile misrepresentations and condemnations. They do this to encourage anti-Semitic boycotts against the Jewish state to suppress religious freedom for Jews and Christians and ancestral heritage sites. And they do it to justify acts of terrorism and mass murder. But is there really any legal truth to the accusation that Israel is occupying Palestinian land? You all know, the answer is absolutely not.”
During his administration, he said he created what was called the Pompeo Doctrine, which made it the official position of the U.S. State Department to not call Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria an occupation and make clear that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel.
“The bottom line is that Israel is not an occupier and the hundreds of thousands of Jews and Christians who call Judea, Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem home, have a perfectly legitimate right to live there in safety under Israeli sovereignty,” Pompeo said. “But you can see this today, the Biden administration is now preparing to reverse the Pompeo Doctrine to once again suggest somehow that the Jewish state of Israel is an illegal occupier. The Jewish and Christian heritage there is illegitimate and to pressure Israel into territorial concessions that threaten the free access and freedom of worship of many faithful pilgrims. We can’t allow that to happen. We can’t allow the current administration to reverse the historic change, the historic progress we brought to the Middle East.”
The post Pompeo to ZOA: Biden reversing Trump’s historic support for Israel appeared first on JNS.org.
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If one were to read "Atlas Shrugged" or saw the movie one could not avoid the facts that Ayn Rand nailed it in her momentous epic.
Men, like nations, think they’re eternal. What man in his 20s or 30s doesn’t believe, at least subconsciously, that he’ll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it’s harder to hide from reality.
Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever, Forever was about 500 years, give or take. France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in perpetual twilight. Its 95-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.
In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population is aging so rapidly, that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.
I was born in 1947, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century – the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the “Greatest Generation”, we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed.
It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity. We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA, the blueprint of life.
But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism – which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. We’ve gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We’ve traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.
The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, his wife had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency.
We can’t defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.
The president of the United States can’t even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago.
Crime rates soar and evil enemies blame the 2nd Amendment and slash police budgets.
Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about “unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.” We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year.
Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It’s a $28-trillion monument to Congress' improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our “entertainment” is sadistic, nihilistic, and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.
Patriotism is called insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leadership no longer believes in. How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spiri?
How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?
· Fighting endless wars they can’t or won’t win
· Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay
· Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde
· Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule
· Allowing indoctrination of the young
· Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy
· Losing national identity
· Indulging indolence
· Abandoning faith and family – the bulwarks of social order.
In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease. Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had?
I’m surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected.
This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don’t want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.
During Britain’s darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen, “Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.” The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us?
While the prognosis is far from good, only God knows if America’s day in the sun is over.
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How to avert a nuclear crisis with Iran
By Caroline Glick
There are growing indications that the Biden administration is slowly recognizing its Iran policy has failed. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden and his team have no idea what to do now. This is the message of a recent article by Robin Wright in The New Yorker. Titled “The Looming Threat of a Nuclear Crisis with Iran,” Wright’s 5,000-word treatise includes interviews with Iran negotiations envoy Robert Malley, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, nuclear proliferation experts, Iranian officials and others. And what they all said, effectively, is that they don’t know what to do.
As Wright’s reporting showed, the nuclear negotiations in Vienna are going nowhere, as Iran marches across the nuclear threshold. And on the off chance Iran agrees to make some sort of deal with the administration, the deal will give Iran a lot of money, but it won’t significantly stop its path to a nuclear arsenal. So the entire exercise is futile.
Moreover, according to McKenzie, Iran’s nuclear weapons program is not even the most acute threat Iran poses to the U.S. and its allies. Iran’s missile arsenal, which is the largest and the most diverse in the region, can overwhelm most missile defense systems. Its ballistic missiles are precise, powerful and capable of reaching targets as far away as India and southern Europe, not to mention all countries in the Middle East. Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen are fully integrated into Iran’s war machine. They are well-armed and they operate at Iran’s command.
McKenzie told Wright that Iran’s nuclear sites are so well fortified, and its missile arsenal and proxy forces are so formidable, that were the U.S. to find itself in a war with Iran, it would take at least a year and massive losses—”We would be hurt badly”—before the U.S. would prevail.
So a nuclear deal is out, at least as a non-proliferation tool. War is a terrible option. And, according to a senior State Department official, the option of sanctions has “exhausted” itself.
The stakes for the U.S. are exceedingly high. While a hegemonic, nuclear-armed Iran is an existential danger to Israel, it also poses a massive threat to the U.S. The Iranian regime makes no effort to hide the fact that it hates and wishes to destroy the U.S., which it refers to as the “Great Satan” (Israel is the regime’s “Little Satan”). A nuclear-armed Iran would pose a mortal threat to all U.S. military forces in the Middle East and Africa. And Iranian terror forces in Latin America pose threats to the U.S. mainland.
As Wright and her interlocutors noted, a nuclear-armed Iran would end all gains the U.S. has made over the past 75 years in preventing nuclear proliferation and arms races. Not only would Russia and China massively increase their nuclear arsenals. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and other regional states would follow Iran in developing or purchasing nuclear arsenals of their own. And, following hot on the heels of America’s humiliating retreat from Afghanistan, a nuclear-armed Iran would destroy the vestiges of U.S. superpower credibility in the region and the world.
Given the danger a nuclear-armed Iran represents for U.S. national security and America’s global position and interests, it behooves the administration to consider new policy options now that its nuclear diplomacy has failed. Two, in particular, deserve serious consideration. One has the advantage of a track record of success, and the other has no track record because no one has ever tried it.
Option one is sabotage of Iran’s nuclear sites. A frequent comment from Americans tired of the Middle East is that since they have been reading the same doomsday predictions about Iran’s imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons for nearly 20 years, the danger must be fabricated. These commentors fail to recognize that there is a reason Iran hasn’t become a nuclear power yet despite the doomsday predictions.
All the mysterious explosions in centrifuge assembly lines, enrichment sites and research facilities, and all the nuclear scientists killed in car accidents, were not coincidental. They were part of a deliberate strategy led by Israel to slow Iran’s nuclear advances. And that strategy has been successful.
Over the past month, reports have emerged—including Wright’s article—that the Biden administration has demanded Israel stop its sabotage operations inside Iran, claiming the operations undermine the negotiations in Vienna. But now that even the U.S. acknowledges Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his team are uninterested in a deal, Biden and his team ought to reconsider their opposition to Israel’s independent actions.
This brings us to the second option, which no U.S. administration has ever tried. It’s called Iranian freedom. Iranians have been protesting by the tens, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions, demanding the overthrow of the regime since the student protests in the late 1990s (at the latest).
Since the failed so-called “Green Revolution” of 2009, sparked by the regime’s illegitimate 2009 election, mass anti-regime protests have become a constant feature on the streets of Iran.
As Cameron Khansarinia, policy director of the National Union for Democracy in Iran, explained in a recent conversation with Newsweek, protests begin over specific grievances such as non-payment of wages, water shortages, food shortages, housing shortages, government corruption, religious freedom and women’s rights. But within a day or so, the crowds inevitably begin to call for the overthrow of the regime.
“There is always an initial spark or excuse that gets people into the streets, but very quickly, the protests become political,” Khansarinia told this publication.
The mass demonstrations in Isfahan against water shortages, which went on for several weeks in November and early December, are a case in point. Khansarinia explained, “The farmers were angry at the regime’s water policies. The regime has a long history of siphoning off water from farmers to different regime projects. There’s an immense amount of corruption and mismanagement in all of these affairs, and Iran is drying up. Most of the remaining working aqueducts date back to the shah’s regime.”
“The protests were strictly about water during their first week,” Khansarinia continued. “People came holding old deeds to water rights. But by the second week, they became much bigger protests, as other Iranians from all walks of life joined the farmers. The chants moved from demands for water to ‘death to the dictator’ and ‘those who wear turbans have sh*t on the country.’ They expanded from Isfahan to a neighboring province.”
One of the notable aspects of the protests in Iran is their ethnic diversity. Iran is a mosaic of faiths, nationalities and ethnicities, and Khansarinia notes that the anti-regime protests are ethnically diverse. “These are nationalist, rather than ethnic, protests. Persians, Azeris and Bakhtiaris are all protesting together against the regime.”
For decades, Iranian calls to the West for help in bringing down the regime have fallen on deaf ears. According to a November report in Yahoo! News, in 2018, then-President Donald Trump‘s National Security Council composed a detailed plan to destabilize regime. But the plan, which was handed over to the Pentagon and the CIA for execution, was slow-walked and ultimately blocked by then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and their colleagues.
Since the 2009 “Green Revolution,” the protesters’ message to the U.S. has always been the same: “We want regime change. But we don’t want America to do it. It’s our job.”
The same Iranian regime that threatens to annihilate Israel and destroy the U.S., the regime that pursues a nuclear arsenal while fielding a massive missile arsenal and proxy armies throughout the Middle East, turned their once-prosperous country into a corruption-ridden, impoverished wasteland. Food, water, medicine, shelter, money and work are all in short supply. Seventy percent of Iranians are destitute.
These Iranians ask for the U.S. to stop giving legitimacy to the regime by ending the farce of the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna. They ask that the U.S. issue clear and unequivocal condemnations of the regime for its human rights abuses of the Iranian people, and implore the U.S. to support the goals of the protesters to replace the regime with an open, participatory, representative democracy. They ask the U.S. to sanction Iranian human rights violators. And finally, since the regime undermines the protests and the dissidents at home and abroad by blocking Internet access, regime opponents ask that the U.S. provide secure Internet service to the Iranian public.
The Raisi government is clearly not impressed by the Biden administration’s genuflections in Vienna. The Iranians are playing to win. And for them, winning means achieving military nuclear capabilities, destroying Israel, bringing the U.S. to its knees and exerting hegemonic power over the broader Islamic world.
As Wright noted, seven presidents have failed to successfully contend with the threat Iran poses to America. For Biden to have any chance of breaking that long-running record of failure, of averting a terrible war and blocking Iran’s march to regional hegemony and a nuclear arsenal, he must adopt the only concerted strategy that has not yet failed: Sabotage, combined with the one option that has never been seriously tried—supporting the Iranian people’s quest for freedom.
Originally published at Newsweek.
And:
Saxo Predicted Hypersonic Cold War for 2022
(TargetLiberty.org) – 1946 was an unusual year for the United States. World War II was officially over; soldiers were finally coming home. Hitler’s Nazi army could no longer threaten the world or engage in widespread genocide. Unfortunately, the rise of the Cold War between the US and Soviet Russia was just around the corner and tensions between the two regions didn’t officially end until December 3, 1989. A recent prediction from Saxo Bank suggests Americans may witness yet another cold war in 2022.
Saxo Bank Predicts Hypersonic Cold War
A December 12 article published by Saxo Bank suggests the next major global conflict will likely occur among the US, China and Russia. Unlike the messy withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the war in Yemen, or ongoing conflicts in Sudan, this fight will be far quieter and much more subdued.
But that doesn’t make it any less frightening.
Saxo Bank is predicting that the US, China and Russia will this time engage in a cold-war-style race to be the first to develop and control working hypersonic technology. Analysts suggest this will deepen the current rivalry between the US and both of the other countries, which could theoretically prompt future attacks.
Saxo’s writers also suggest other countries with advanced military tech, including Israel, the EU, India, will join the race in a much bigger way in 2022.
What Exactly Is Hypersonic Tech?
The term “hypersonic technology” refers to any device or object capable of traveling at speeds equal to or higher than Mach 5 (around 60 miles per minute). While researchers do believe the human race will eventually use this kind of tech for travel, most countries are currently focused on developing hypersonic weapons.
Hypersonic weapons can hypothetically travel at speeds of up to Mach 10, or around 7,672 miles per hour. A hypersonic missile fired from China would enter Earth’s upper atmosphere, travel across the globe, and then descend to strike a US target in a matter of minutes.
That short timeframe is deeply concerning. Having only minutes to react to a potential attack leaves many targets totally defenseless. Furthermore, hypersonic missiles are very nimble, making them extremely difficult to intercept en route to their target.
Who Has Hypersonic Tech?
While China, Russia and the US are all currently working on projects related to hypersonic weapons, the sheer rate at which China is advancing has some military analysts concerned. It successfully tested a hypersonic-capable Long March 7 rocket back in August of 2021.
Russia also successfully tested a Zircon cruise missile in late November. At the time, Vladimir Putin claimed the device was capable of traveling up to 1,000 kilometers (over 620 miles) at 9 times the speed of sound.
The US military is also heavily engaged in researching and exploring both hypersonic tech and directed energy weapons. The Department of Defense (DOD) conducted tests of a new glide body flight system in March of 2020, while DARPA announced its Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) achieved flight in September 2021.
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