They loved him when they were recipients of his money.
Yes, they loved him when they could snooker money out of him.
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No yeses. then scorch their earth.
A world were there are no consequences for unacceptable behaviour is a dangerous one.
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DAILY FOLIOS AND CONSECUTIVE SENTENCES
Why I Am Not Moved by Gazan Deaths
‘Dresden’ them until Hamas releases the hostages and surrenders.
By DOV FISCHER
I get the daily Washington Post. It is important for me to know what the left is saying, too. I avoid the echo chamber. In the past, I got the New York Times daily, but I had to stop because I am Jewish. I could not continue supporting anti-Semitism.
The New York Times is anti-Semitic and has been for a century. They buried Jews by burying the Holocaust. They also collaborated in the murder of millions of Ukrainians, as their Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Walter Duranty, filed glowing reports from the Soviet Union about Stalin while that butcher was starving millions to death during the Holodomor.
Not only could I go on-and-on about New York Times anti-Semitism, but I actually have done so here and elsewhere. You are welcome to read it.
So I now get the Washington Post. They are pretty-much just as bad. Before the 1,200 Israelis who were slaughtered on October 7 even had all their bodies identified, WaPo had moved from mourning the unsuspecting Jewish dead and turned its focus instead to the “poor innocent dead of Gaza.” And that has been its focus these past six weeks.
(By that way, WaPo — Yoo-hoo! There are 240 kidnaped Hamas hostages in Gaza. Give them a few column inches, too, huh?)
I have not been moved by the headlines about Gazans being killed amid Israel’s attacks on Hamas terrorists and their weapons and tunnels. I don’t care. If I get WaPo to avoid the echo chamber, I nevertheless now skip the crying, sobbing, weeping articles about the crying, sobbing, weeping Gazan dead. I just don’t read them. Just don’t care. For my two cents (remember pennies?), Israel can Dresden Gaza into rubble until:
(i) Hamas releases the 240 Jews and non-Jews it kidnaped,
(ii) Hamas unconditionally surrenders to Israel, and
(iii) All remaining Hamas leaders whom Israel has not yet killed submit themselves to a Nuremberg-type War Crimes Trial.
No Hostage release? Then Dresden Gaza.
No unconditional surrender? Then Dresden Gaza.
No submission by Hamas leaders for a War Crimes trial? Then Dresden Gaza
As you may have noticed, I use “Dresden” as a verb. It was good enough for America during World War II. It was good enough for Britain. It works for me. Dresden Gaza.
I know. I know: “But what about the poor innocent people of Gaza? What did they do to deserve this?”
Here’s what they did:
“Palestinians” elected Hamas in 2006 to be their government. Ismail Haniyeh, their leader, became prime minister. “Palestinians” had a free election in 2006. Hamas won. Was the election legitimate? Guess what? A former president of the United States of America went there to observe the election and declared it a legitimate, proper election. Thank you, Jimmy Carter. We know that your intention in legitimizing the Hamas election was to hurt Israel and Jews by legitimizing the rise of Hamas. But G-d is so good, Mr. President. In His mercy, He has kept you alive just long enough to watch your “legitimate” Hamas crushed and destroyed — and so much of Gaza turned to rubble because you legitimized their election.
This time, upon having experienced the terror attacks of Shabbat Shmini Atzeret on October 7, Israel has learned the price of stopping halfway through a war.
So that’s what the civilians of Gaza did in 2006. They elected Hamas. Hamas defeated Fatah, another terror organization, the one that runs the “Palestine Authority” in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”), by winning 74 seats to Fatah’s 45. Abu Mazen (known in the West as “Mahmoud Abbas”) heads Fatah. Another terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, came in a distant third. A parliamentary majority required either 67 seats or an armory of bombs, rifles, grenades, bullets, and such. Hamas had more of both.
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(READ MORE: From the River to the Sea, Palestine Indeed Will Be Free)
In Germany, the civilians freely elected Hitler. They knew what he would do because he wrote it in Mein Kampf, and in time he did it. Moreover, they knew what he was doing when he did it, and they said nothing. They were, to use the German (and Yiddish) term, shtum. They allowed Dachau to happen, and Sobibor, and Treblinka, and Majdanek, and Bergen-Belsen, and Theresienstadt and, yes, Auschwitz. So, in due measure, those “poor innocent German civilians” got Dresdened.
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Good.
And now the time has come for Gaza to be Dresdened. They are lucky. Dresden happened during February 13-15, 1945. Close to 4,000 tons — that is 8 billion pounds — of bombs were dropped on them in those three days. Some 25,000 Germans were killed. Much of the city burned down. All in three days. Got a problem with that? Talk to the hand: Hitler was elected March 5, 1933. The people of Dresden enjoyed 12 years’ respite before the Allies Dresdened them. By contrast, Hamas was elected in 2006, and that population got 17 years until their time to be Dresdened. Five extra years to murder Jews.
Was it Obama who told John McCain that “elections have consequences”? At first, the German public did not align with Adolf. In both 1924 and 1928, he got fewer than a million votes. And then his rise began. In 1930 he got 6,409,000. In July 1932 he got 13,745,000. In November 1932 it dropped a bit to 11,737,000. But then he got 17,277,000 in March 1933, enough to form a Nazi-driven coalition.
Dresden them.
And so it has gone for Hamas.
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Let us be clear: If the Government of Israel were trying to murder civilians wantonly, just to inflict terror and to horrify them into submission, I would condemn that. No Jew can accept or refrain from criticizing organized institutional efforts to harm civilians wantonly. If Israel were deliberately bombing residential structures just to leave a population homeless and bombing hospitals just to inflict suffering on the ill, I would be outspoken in these pages criticizing them. But that is not the Israel I know, nor the Jewish people I know. We have our ethic, and the Arab Muslims have theirs. We have our religious guidelines and theological authorities, and they have theirs.
Israel will not target civilians knowingly. They destroy known military targets: rocket launchers, land mines, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), military drones, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and their launchers, anti-tank missiles, and other military battlefield materiel — and the people storing and launching them. If such terrorists are operating from specific residential buildings — say, running a rocket factory or storing attack drones in an 8th-floor apartment — then Israel may well bomb the entire building. But they won’t bomb the building next door. They attack with whatever precision is humanly possible. And if the day comes that they make a mistake, they will apologize, perhaps even compensate. That is what America does
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By now, we all know that Hamas men and their weapons hide in and behind women, children, residential apartment buildings, hospitals, mosques, schools, and ambulances. When any or all of these are identified positively for their military threat, Israel will destroy them. And if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cannot avoid killing civilians alongside, then Dresden entails collateral casualties, and Israel now must Dresden Gaza
(READ MORE: Arab Muslim Foreigners and Illegals Stoke Campus Anti-Semitism)
Importantly, Israel has had to fight five previous Gaza wars started by Hamas these past 16 years. Each time, Israel stopped its winning responses, forced by international pressure to cease fire. Each time, Hamas used the ceasefire to re-arm, build more tunnels, and militarize more of the population. They now have 40,000 terrorists in 300 miles of those tunnels. This time, upon having experienced the terror attacks of Shabbat Shmini Atzeret on October 7, Israel has learned the price of stopping halfway through a war. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now is political “toast” because he adopted his advisors’ recommendations (known in Israel now as “The Concept”) that Hamas could be controlled with measured responsive wars, and then hoping that new money pouring in would persuade them to stop attacking. But that Concept simply left behind the weeds to grow back and fight an even more destructive next war. This time Israel must uproot even the weeds. Netanyahu will be replaced politically soon after.
When the Washington Post and others present their empathy for the “poor innocent Gaza civilians,” I don’t care. They are poor only because Hamas has used the billions of dollars they have received from Qatar and European — and American — taxpayers to build an underground tunnel system as expansive as the New York City subway system instead of allocating the money to the public by building a beautiful country. Believe it or not, with all that money that has poured in — more than $8 billion — they have not even built a water or electricity infrastructure in their 16 years.
The Gaza civilians are no more “innocent” than were the Germans who elected Hitler.
So I am not moved emotionally — at all — by the news or sight of Gazans trekking now from north to south Gaza, where Israel is not presently attacking. They brought this on themselves. If a country did this to America, we would Dresden them, or we would Hiroshima/Nagasaki them. So let Israel Dresden Gaza. No need to Hiroshima them. Dresden will do.
Rabbi Fischer’s latest deeply moving and informational program on the Hamas Gaza War may be found here on YouTube. Because of some sensitive subject matter and viewing content relating to Hamas terror, YouTube is restricting the program to viewers 18 and up. However, the program primarily includes inspiring video content and American, Jewish, and Israeli music.
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Year's ago the Dean of Emory's Dental School hated his Jewish students and many were forced to leave. He was later fired and one of the students, who became a prominent dentist, wrote a book about the entire episode.
My Alma Mater (U of Penn) decided it did not need a competent president because it wanted one who satisfied DEI boxes so it hired a black woman and Penn has gone to hell and deservedly so.
When incompetents rule the world the world will be a different place.
The trend started with "political correctness" and has morphed into something far more extreme. From lower curbs for the handicapped to anti-Semitism.
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Just as the America seems to be leaning toward adopting failed socialism, Argentineans choose freedom.
Argentina Elects Libertarian, Kat Von D Converts, Happy Thanksgiving
Watch Now
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Watch out! Anti-Semitism is soaring in US medicine.
By Ian Kingsbury
Supporters of Israel exchange insults with supporters of Palestine as they counter protest.
A larger demonstration of New York University students holding a rally to demand a ceasefire in Israel's war in Gaza, in Washington Square Park on November 16, 2023 in New York City.
A new report shows that only 11% of medical associations and 3% of medical schools have issued statements about the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct 7.
Antisemitism is now a full-blown crisis on the college campus, but it doesn’t end there: Similar hatred is increasingly widespread in the medical profession, where it’s even more dangerous.
Doctors, nurses and medical students who are supposed to heal are instead promoting hate — a fact that should terrify Jewish patients and anyone else who expects equal and excellent medical care.
In a new report, we’ve documented many of the anti-Semitic outbursts that have characterized much of medicine since Oct. 7.
Many doctors and medical students have torn down posters of kidnapped Israelis.
That includes a professor of medicine at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania.
Medical professionals have also tried to justify the murder of Jews.
One nurse publicly claimed that allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas must be propaganda, since “ain’t no Muslim Palestinian resistant fighter touching your women.”
While some medical professionals have been fired for blatant antisemitism, including several in New York City, countless others haven’t, raising the specter of Jew-hatred running riot in hospitals and doctor’s offices.
Far from being individual acts, this anti-Semitic wave reflects medical institutions’ deeply engrained bias against Jews.
Our report documents this bias by comparing how medical schools and professional organizations have responded to two different atrocities: Hamas’s attack on Israel and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Both featured mass slaughter, rape and kidnapping, yet medical institutions were far more likely to condemn Russia’s murder of civilians than the Jew-killing terrorists.
All told, 71% of medical associations and 45% of medical schools issued statements on the war in Ukraine, essentially all of them condemning Russia.
By contrast, only 11% of medical associations and 3% of medical schools have issued statements about Oct 7.
What’s more, the few statements on Israel have a markedly different tone than those about Russia and Ukraine.
Where the latter typically featured heartfelt sympathy for those personally connected to Ukraine, the former rarely offer solidarity with Jews or Israelis, focusing far more on the need to prevent further civilian casualties.
Consider the American Medical Association, which is arguably the most important medical organization in the United States.
On Ukraine, it declared: “The AMA is outraged by the senseless injury and death the Russian army has inflicted on the Ukraine people. For those who survive these unprovoked attacks, the [effects] will be felt for years.”
The AMA statement on Israel adopted an agnostic posture, saying it had “heard from many of our physician and medical student members expressing heartbreak and outrage about the human toll afflicting Israelis, Palestinians and others.”
Rather than condemn Hamas’ slaughter of civilians, the AMA statement emphasized how Israel’s response needed to avoid interfering with medical care.
This double standard, which we found over and over, is an essential feature of antisemitism.
How did this evil become so engrained in the medical profession?
Antisemitism has been exacerbated by the near-universal adoption of racial identity politics within health care.
Groups like the AMA and essentially every professional association and medical school have embraced so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” which classifies groups of people as oppressors or oppressed, each deserving of different treatment.
This worldview, which is now practiced by medical providers and taught in medical school, inevitably places Jews in the oppressor category.
There are many reasons for this hateful label.
One is the false belief that Jews are uniformly “white,” which makes them de facto oppressors and, and indeed, colonialists.
Another reason is Jews’ widespread success in the medical field, which under identity politics, is somehow proof of injustice.
According to this perverse logic, Jews ought to have their privilege stripped away, and don’t deserve sympathy when their fellow Jews are kidnapped, raped and slaughtered.
Hence the lack of statements from medical organizations — and the explosion of antisemitic hate from medical professionals and students.
Every Jewish patient has good reason to worry about the antisemitism that’s increasingly engrained in American health care.
And every patient should fear the identity politics that drive Jew-hatred.
This worldview ultimately threatens people of all beliefs and backgrounds by seeing them as members of favored or disfavored groups, with some deserving preferential treatment and others deserving punishment and even pain.
If medical institutions don’t rid themselves of this hateful bias, then policymakers must.
Medicine’s antisemitism problem is only going to get worse, and what’s started with silence toward the murder of Jews won’t stop there.
Ian Kingsbury is director of research at Do No Harm, where Jay Greene is senior fellow.
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Ed Mlavsky z”l – Israel HiTech’s Catalyst for Growth
By Sherwin Pomerantz
Dr. A.I. “Ed” Mlavsky, most recently the founding partner of Gemini Israel Ventures, died earlier this week. Sadly, there has been little recognition of the outsized role that he played in parlaying the cutting edge technologies of Israeli companies into successful joint ventures with American companies for mutual growth.
British by birth, Ed graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London in 1950 with a first class honors B.Sc. degree in chemistry followed in 1953 by a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. He immigrated to the United States in 1956, joined a start-up, Tyco, as a cofounder where he contributed to over 50 refereed scientific articles and counted 24 patents to his name. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Tyco grew and Ed became CTO, a director and later president before transferring as Executive VP to an entity in the creation of which he was the prime mover, namely Mobil Tyco Solar Energy Corporation, later sold to Schott Solar.
In 1979, he accepted an invitation to move to Israel to serve as executive director of the Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD-F). Its mission was, and remains, to promote and support mutually beneficial activities in industrial research between US and Israeli companies. He remained in that position for 13 years until he left BIRD-F to found Gemini Isael Ventures
The BIRD Foundation was established by the U.S. and Israeli governments in 1977 to generate mutually beneficial cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies, including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD-F provides both matchmaking support between U.S. and Israeli companies, as well as funding covering up to 50 percent of project development costs, up to $1M per project (and in rare cases up to $1.5M for exceptional projects). BIRD takes no equity in the companies but is repaid from royalties if the projects are successful. If not, the funds provided simply become a gift.
Since its inception in 1977, BIRD-F has approved over 1000 projects with leading companies in the U.S. The cumulative sales of products developed through BIRD-F projects have exceeded $10 billion.
By the time Ed Mlavsky founded Gemini Israel Ventures in 1993 (essentially the first company in the full-fledged venture capital industry of today’s Israel) through his work at BIRD-F he was already widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of Israeli high-tech and venture capital activities. A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, he was chosen to manage the first venture capital fund to emerge from the Israeli government's Yozma program, which successfully jump started the Israeli venture capital industry.
In addition to these two major professional activities, he served on many boards of directors of Gemini’s portfolio companies and as Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum as well. In 1989, although neither a Pulitzer Prize winner nor a Nobel Lauriat, he was elected to membership in the prestigious Cosmos Club in Washington DC
Over the years he received many awards including some for-lifetime achievements. In April 2003, Ed received the Israel High-Tech Award from the Israel Venture Association in recognition of his unique contribution to the development of the Israel high-tech industry. In 2010, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Management Center (IMC). However, he was proudest of the receipt, in 1994, of an honorary doctorate from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, “in recognition of his exceptional contribution to Israel’s economy through the fostering of investments and projects in research and development.”
His book Milk and Honey and High-tech was published in 2009 and tells the remarkable story of the early days of Israeli High-Tech and Venture Capital.
I, along with many others who have been actively involved for some years in encouraging increased levels of business activity between Israel and the United States, was privileged to know him and work with him on a number of projects. He set high standards for himself and the people with whom he worked acting as a catalyst for the growth of Israeli tech companies. As such, he rightly earned the respect of the entire Israeli high-tech community and his departure from the scene creates a void that will be difficult to fill.
John D. Rockefeller said, “Good leadership consists of showing good people how to do the work of superior people.” Ed Mlavsky was someone who knew how to encourage everyone to become a superior person which then brought great success to Israel’s high tech sector. He will be sorely missed.
May his soul rest in eternal peace and may his memory be for a blessing
And:
Israel’s 51st Day of War
By Sherwin Pomerantz
On this, the 51st day of the war in Israel, the good news is that both Hamas and Hezbollah seem to be observing the four day pause in hostilities. Let’s hope it remains so.
Happily, 13 Israeli hostages were returned back to Israel each day on Friday and shabbat. Today 14 Israelis and three foreign nationals were released as I am sending this. Right now then, there remain 178 hostages in Gaza. To date, just two dual citizens American/Israel have been released. US President Biden said yesterday that he is monitoring this and that the State Department is working on it as well.
Among the Israeli’s released yesterday was the Asher family, a mother and two young daughters. The father Yoni, was in Europe two weeks ago for a meeting of the European Union where he made an impassioned plea, in English, for the release of all the hostages as well as his wife and two young daughters (https://www.instagram.com/p/
Sadly, Hamas did renege on one aspect of the mutual agreement with Israel. They promised not to separate family members as they returned Israeli hostages. Yet, among those returned on Saturday a number of them represented situations where part of the family remains in the hands of Hamas. To date only women and children have been released from captivity.
Earlier today the New York Times published a piece under the title Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace.
The article states that “While wartime death tolls will never be exact, experts say that even a conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century. People are being killed in Gaza more quickly, they say, than in even the deadliest moments of U.S.-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were themselves widely criticized by human rights groups.”
All of us here lament the fact that so many civilians in Gaza have had to pay the price for the massacre which Hamas foisted on Israel on October 7th for no reason other than to kill as many Jews as possible and take hostages to be able to trade them later for Palestinian prisoners in our jails, which is what is happening now.
But comparisons to other wars are neither useful nor relevant. The war in Ukraine which still rages there, was caused by one nation coveting the land of another nation and ordering an attack for the purpose of seizing that land. As the Israel-Gaza war of today, it was unwarranted to be sure and a clear violation of one nation’s sovereignty by another. But it was not designed by Russia to eradicate either Ukraine or its citizens.
The war that the West waged to free Kuwait from the seizure of the country by Iraq was, again, a similar situation to Russia’s advance against Ukraine. But Iraq’s purpose was not to eradicate Kuwaitis. And in neither Ukraine’s situation nor that of Iraq-Kuwait did they defend their countries by placing the tools of war under hospitals, schools and private residences.
In the case of Hamas their leadership basically caused the high level of civilian fatalities because of their wanton disregard of the value of human lives, those of their own citizens and clearly ours as well. For the press to be critical of the (sadly) sizable level of civilian deaths, when those were caused primarily by Hamas’ willingness to sacrifice the lives of all of their citizens to accomplish the genocide of Jews, is beyond belief and incredibly disappointing.
Let us hope that the current pause in hostilities accomplishes it objectives and that our troops will ultimately be victorious
Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Israel for 40 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a international business development consultancy. He is also the Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and a past Chairperson of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.
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The more Hamas tries the more Israeli's will resist and become more determined.
The photo (TY Sharon) illustrates Israel's return to being a united people. The Hebrew message on the (recyclable) cups translates as "Together we will win".
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Most Important Feature of Hostage Deal Is the Four-Day Pause, Which Hamas Will Use To Try To Break the Will of the Jewish State
Israel is celebrating the release of a small number of the 236 hostages held in Gaza for 49 days. Yet can Hamas use the remaining hostages to counter Jerusalem’s strategic goal of dismantling and eradicating the terrorist organization
Thirteen Israeli children and women arrived in the country immediately after sundown, local time. Their release was welcomed by the entire country, even as many hostages were left behind. Ten Thai nationals and one Filipino who were abducted on October 7 were also released as part of a separate deal Bangkok made with Hamas’s benefactors at Tehran
The deal that facilitated the Friday release was negotiated between Israel and Qatar, which hosts the Hamas leadership, and was sponsored by America and Egypt. If completed, the deal would see the release of 50 Israeli children and women over the course of four days. Three times as many Palestinians, convicted of attempted murder and other crimes or incarcerated pending trial, would be released in return. Additional goods and supplies would be delivered to Gaza.
For Hamas, though, the most important component of the deal is the four-day military pause as swaps are conducted. Keen observers of Israeli life, Hamas leaders are well aware that the release of prisoners is etched in the country’s ethos. Abductions were a crucial part of the terrorists’ planning for the October 7 assault.
Yet that day’s massacre has united Israelis behind the need to extirpate the terrorist organization and forever remove the threat it represents. Hamas’s plan is to use the hostages to break Israel’s will, and keep everyone in the dark in respect of its intentions.
As President Biden praised the first phase of the deal he helped broker, he made clear that even he was unsure, as of late afternoon, whether the second phase would be completed. Later, though, Israel received the list of names of hostages to be released Saturday.
Hamas clearly is fully milking the cruelty of the drama it has created. It cynically plans to use the most potent weapon it possesses to play for time, hoping that as long as it keeps dangling the hostages as bait, pressure will grow on Israel to end the war and leave Hamas in charge of Gaza.
“We all hope that this truce will lead to a chance to start a wider work to achieve a permanent truce,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari, told reporters Thursday in a press conference meant to underline Doha’s diplomatic prowess. Ending the war is Hamas’s ultimate goal and also the hope of its closest ally, Doha.
Israeli officials concede that the four-day cessation of military activities could be extended. For each 10 hostages released, another day could be added, they say. At the same time, they vow that the military operation to obliterate Hamas remains their top priority.
Hamas’s military losses were the only reason it started negotiating the release of hostages in the first place, Israelis believe, as they vow to maintain that pressure. “We will continue to fight, and to do everything to release the hostages,” the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said Friday.
“We are determined to bring all abductees back,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said after confirming the release Friday, adding, “we are determined to reach all our war goals” — including the destruction of Hamas.
The longer the Israel Defense Forces were to pause, though, the more difficult it would be to reignite the military campaign. As Hamas seeks to force Israel into a Sophie’s Choice regarding the women, children, elderly, and other hostages to be released, in many world quarters October 7 is already relatively forgotten, with suffering at Gaza capturing headlines.
Two European leaders attempted to hog world cameras Friday at Gaza’s Rafah crossing, where hostages were scheduled to be released. While uninvolved in the hostage negotiations, the two — Prime Ministers De Croo of Belgium and Sánchez of Spain — held a press conference ignoring the release of children and elderly women and crowing instead about aid trucks entering Gaza. Both called for the ceasefire to become permanent.
While several governments on the continent are more Israel-friendly than Madrid and Brussels, an increasing number of Europeans are likely to call for ending the war. Meanwhile, even as Arab streets are boiling, several Mideast countries are quietly urging Israel to finish off Hamas.
Gulf countries have made peace with Israel in part because of its image of power. In praising the hostage deal on Friday, Mr. Biden for the first time acknowledged that his efforts to add Saudi Arabia to the Abraham Accords may have motivated the Hamas attack. Yet, if the IDF fails to finish off Hamas, even Arab countries that already have relations could turn their backs on Israel.
Mr. Biden, in his speech Friday, made clear that Hamas has no room in his vision of “two states for two people.” For now, he seems to maintain full support of Israel’s plan to root out and destroy the group. As Hamas’s hostage strategy drags on, though, even America’s support might weaken.
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Still some good news:
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As some of Israel's hostages, kidnapped by Hamas, are returning to freedom, thousands of Israelis have been returning from overseas to help fight terrorism or to give support to those adversely impacted by the war. Many hundreds are making Aliyah and returning to the land of their ancestors. There are also some amazing stories of Israeli farmers returning time and again on Oct 7 to rescue survivors while under fire from terrorists.
Meanwhile, startups are returning to full operation, despite having many employees in military service. And Israel has allocated over one billion shekels to return devastated communities back to their previous physical condition. Finally, a Torah scroll made a triumphant return to Gaza after an 18-year absence.
In the 26th Nov 23 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
- Israel’s new Iron Beam and Iron Sting defense systems prove themselves in combat.
- Successful human trials of new shapeshifting capsule to reduce appetite.
- Award-winning Manhattan chef flies to Israel to cook for the IDF.
- Israel is building the world's fastest computer in record time.
- Banks give IDF reservists a 3-month break from all repayments.
- After an 18-year absence, a Torah scroll has returned to Gaza.
- My Hebrew translator is currently unavailable as he is a reservist in the IDF. A volunteer has kindly offered to translate a newsletter issue occasionally into Hebrew. If anyone can volunteer to translate the main sections of my newsletter into another language (e.g., Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish etc.,) even as a one-off, please email me at michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.
com. I do have a Google Translate widget on my www.verygoodnewsisrael. blogspot.com blogsite but it doesn't produce consistently accurate translations.
- Please click here, to donate (a small or large amount) to help me publicize VeryGoodNewsIsrael.
- If someone wishes to be added to the free email subscription list, they should either click here or send a request (with their name) to michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.
com
POSITIVE NEWS DURING A WAR
Farmer saves 120 from Hamas. Incredible dashcam footage shows farmer Oz Davidian dodging bullets as he saved 120 lives from the Supernova music festival on Oct 7. He drove his truck on 20 separate journeys from the Re’im site of the open-air party to bring survivors to safety. https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Ofek the heroine. Six-year-old Ofek nearly died from blood loss on Oct 7 after Hamas terrorists shot her in the leg. MDA paramedic Yarin and EMT Gali treated Ofek and were amazed at how calm she was. A month later they brought Ofek a unicorn doll inscribed "To Ofek the heroine, with great love, Gali and Yarin from MDA”.
https://www.
Iron defenses. Israel made the first operational use its “Iron Beam” laser defense system. It successfully intercepted an incoming rocket fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory. Israel also used its high-accuracy “Iron Sting” GPS/laser-guided mortar for the first time in combat.
https://www.jns.org/iron-beam-
Fast track for volunteer doctors. The Jewish Agency, Nefesh b’Nefesh and Israel’s Aliyah Ministry are setting up a database to help global physicians (Jewish and non-Jewish) volunteer in hospitals and medical facilities around the country as quickly and efficiently as possible. 70+ have already arrived and begun work.
https://www.
More volunteering opportunities. This Israel21c article lists dozens of organizations who can provide exciting and rewarding experiences while helping the disadvantaged and the whole of Israel at this time.
https://www.israel21c.org/how-
100 make Aliyah to join the IDF. Some 100 young Jewish men and women from around the world have made Aliyah and are completing a Defense Ministry course to prepare them physically and mentally for IDF service.
https://www.jns.org/100-
Grants for student reservists. Israel’s Technion Institute is awarding NIS 6,000 to all its 2,500 students who were mobilized by an emergency call-up order for ‘Operation Swords of Iron.’ The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has also announced an aid package for its roughly 4,000 students who are serving in the IDF.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/
https://www.bfhu.org/2023/11/
Innovation helps treat traumatized kids. Israeli NGO Machshava Tova is providing innovation workshops to Israel’s evacuated children of the south. It helps them get over the traumatic events of Oct 7 as well as develop new skills. https://video.i24news.tv/en/
Give help, get help. In the very first week of the war, Israel’s Technion Institute set up a “Give Help / Get Help” center to help evacuees, and IDF soldiers. Initiatives include daycare for kids, free secondhand shop, free haircuts, donated goods, computers for kids, toys, books, and crafts, music & dance events, and much more.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Using AI to spot lung disease. Israel’s Medial EarlySign (see here previously) has partnered US-based Geisinger to identify patients at high risk for respiratory or pulmonary diseases such as lung cancer. Their LungFlag AlgoMarker analyzes data from a patient’s electronic health record to enable early screening.
https://nocamels.com/2023/11/
Fast DNA sequencing. (TY OurCrowd) Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine is to using the AML(acute myeloid leukemia) detection kits from Israel’s Sequentify (see here previously) in its leukemia research. Sequentify's Infiniseq technology cuts DNA sequencing time to only 3.5 hours.
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/
Milk extract may help IBD sufferers. Israel’s Exosomm extracts tiny capsules of microRNA called exosommes from cows’ milk. They then add them as a powder to food as a treatment for colitis and Crohn’s. Successful laboratory trials have led to recruitment for clinical trials at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Shapeshifting capsule is a loss leader. Israel’s Epitomee has completed clinical trials of its ingestible pill that opens up in the stomach to produce a feeling of satiety. In 24 weeks the 140 participants who swallowed the pill lost up to 15% of their body weight, with no side effects. Epitomee intends to apply for FDA approval in 2024.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
More funds for medical treatments. An additional NIS 650 million will be added to Israel's health basket as part of the war efforts. https://www.jpost.com/
Medical students in IDF. Some 200 Israeli medical students were studying overseas but returned to join the IDF. Israel’s Ministry of Health has requested the deans of Israeli medicine faculties to help to integrate these students in Israeli hospitals and medical schools at the end of the war.
https://www.gov.il/en/
IFCJ funds new fortified ER. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has funded a 100-patient Emergency Operations Center in a fortified sheltered area of Emek Medical Center in the Galilee. The IFCJ is also funding a 50-patient fortified space in the hospital’s oncology building.
https://www.
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Keeping the peace together. Located just north of Nazareth, Nof HaGalil (population 42,600) prides itself on friendly relations between its Jewish majority and its approximately 30-40 percent Muslim and Christian Arab population. Mixed teams patrol nightly to display the town’s determination to maintain quiet streets.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
CUFI rally in London. Christians United for Israel held a large and peaceful rally outside the UK Prime Minister’s Downing Street residence. They called on all Christians to support Israel as “Righteous Gentiles” and not be silent at this time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
NYC restaurant benefits evacuees. Israeli chef Eyal Shani’s Malka Manhattan restaurant opening on Nov 16 benefited the La’Aretz Foundation which aims to distribute $2,500 each to 100 families who lost their homes on Oct 7. Shani missed the Michelin award ceremony for his Shmoné restaurant – he was cooking for the IDF.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-
https://www.israel21c.org/
Water for Tanzanian village. USA-based Water 4 Mercy has partnered with Israel’s Innovation: Africa to provide water to the Ausia village in Kondoa, Tanzania. They tapped an aquifer to provide fresh water and installed solar panels to operate the pumps. It saves the villagers from making long, risky journeys to get water.
https://www.jns.org/water-4-
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
AI to make websites more accessible. Israel’s User1st is a vital addition to the Israeli startups making the Internet more accessible (see here previously). User1st fits its artificial intelligence-based code into the existing source code of a website or app, to enable it for those with visual, cognitive, motor, and auditory disabilities.
https://nocamels.com/2023/11/
https://user1st.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The world’s highest resolution maps. Immediately after Oct 7 Israel’s Simplex 3D made its 3D high-resolution modelling system available to Israel’s security services. The unique cameras generate aerial images accurate to as much as three centimeters. Other applications include architecture, construction, and engineering.
https://nocamels.com/2023/11/
Award-winning security. Israel’s Seal Security has been named winner and leading provider in the Application Security category at the 2023 CISO Choice Awards. Seal Security’s platform allows developers to simplify and automate the process of fixing open-source vulnerabilities.
https://nocamels.com/2023/11/
https://www.seal.security/
Identifying the “good guys”. Financial services companies waste so much time and upset customers when checking for money laundering by focusing on legitimate transactions instead of dubious ones. Now Israel’s Redefine Intelligence (see here previously) uses AI to analyze sources of funds and avoid false alarms.
https://nocamels.com/2023/11/
Upgrading anti-drone defenses. (TY OurCrowd) Israel’s Airobotics (see here previously) is upgrading its counter-UAS system, the Iron Drone Raider, for the IDF. Iron Drone's unique integrated AI-based interception drone system allows for the elimination of small hostile drones and is effective against any type of small drone.
https://www.accesswire.com/
Israeli supercomputer is so fast. Phase 1 of building Nvidia’s Israel-1 AI supercomputer is complete, two months ahead of schedule. It will be one of the world’s fastest AI supercomputers with 8 exaflops of peak AI performance and 130 petaflops of scientific computing and will help create many new Israeli AI products.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.ynetnews.com/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
We will rebuild them. Israel’s Knesset (Parliament) agreed a 1.15-billion-shekel proposal to fund the recently created Tekuma Authority, which will be responsible for rebuilding, developing, and strengthening the Gaza border communities devastated by Hamas on Oct. 7.
https://www.jns.org/knesset-
Robotic boost for shipping giant. Danish shipping and logistics giant A.P. Moller – Maersk has chosen Israel’s Fabric (see here previously) to establish its fully automated fulfillment center in Dallas, Texas. The advanced floor-to-ceiling system fills orders of single-picked items for same-day or next-day delivery.
https://www.israel21c.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Customers take a break. Israel’s Bank Hapoalim has allowed customers to defer loan and mortgage payments that total NIS 17.8 billion due to the war. It follows Bank of Israel’s order for banks to suspend repayments, fees, and interest for three months for residents living up to seven kilometers from the Gaza border.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Drink more Israeli wine. The Israel Wine Producers Association has been asking supporters of the Jewish state to “take a sip for solidarity.” It plans to donate 10% of sales from U.S. distributors to Israeli relief efforts. Why not order Israeli wine in a restaurant or give a bottle as a present. It all helps Israeli winemakers.
https://www.jns.org/us-trade-
Security in cyber and real space. While Israel’s Lasso Security was raising $6 million in seed funding, one of its co-founders, Ophir Dror, is one of the more than 300,000 reservists who have been called up to the Israeli army. Lasso’s employees have been raising funds to supply Israeli soldiers with essential equipment.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Startups on the borders. (TY OurCrowd) Two Israeli startups, based at the devastated town of Sderot, are back in operation. BionicHIVE (robots in storage facilities) relocated to Beersheba thanks to Israel’s Robotican. Carrar was able to complete a tight deadline to produce a battery pack for a client testing in Germany (see here)
https://www.algemeiner.com/
Legendary success. Israel’s BioCatch (see here previously) has just achieved two milestones. A recent $70 million investment has given the startup a market value of over $1billion and “Unicorn” status. It has also reported recurring annual revenue of $100 million (51% growth) giving it the financial status of a “Centaur”.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
https://www.prnewswire.com/
Exits, takeovers, and mergers – to 26/11/23: UK’s Smith & Nephew is acquiring Israeli implant company CartiHeal for around £350 million.
Investment in Israeli startups – to 26/11/23: BioCatch raised $70 million; AI21 raised $53 million; Lasso Security raised $6 million; Colors AI raised $200k;
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
You’ll never walk alone with Azi. Israeli singer Azi Schwartz is cantor at a synagogue in New York. He was visiting wounded soldiers at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv where his sister is director of the psychiatric division. Azi gave an impromptu concert in a public area within the hospital where he sang some popular songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Magic. (TY UWI) Alan Sakowitz has just completed 26 magic shows in Israel, entertaining displaced children and children of Israeli soldiers. He performed in Efrat, Kiryat Gat, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem and Beitar, from Oct. 26 through Nov. 7. In Efrat, his audience exceeded 960 - nearly 9% of the total city’s population of 10,800.
https://www.jns.org/wartime-
THE JEWISH STATE
Return of the Law. This article describes the journey of a Sefer Torah scroll. Written in Russia over a century ago, it survived the Holocaust, the siege of Leningrad and communist Russia. It made Aliyah to a synagogue in Netzarim, Gaza but had to leave in the 2005 disengagement. It is now being used by IDF soldiers in Gaza.
https://www.
Affixing a mezuzah in Gaza City. Rabbi Daniel Kind, the rabbi of the IDF’s Givati Brigade, hung a mezuzah in Gaza City. He said afterwards, "I wish the entire Brigade to continue in our special work, in the great mission. G-d willing, we will succeed.” More Mezuzot have been placed on other buildings in Gaza.
https://www.
https://www.instagram.com/p/
Fallen soldier saves six lives. The organs of IDF Staff Sergeant Yehonatan Yitzhak Semo, 21, who died from wounds inflicted in Gaza, were donated to six patients including a 10-year-old child and an 8-month-old infant.
https://www.jns.org/israeli-
NEWSRAEL. A welcome addition to the (sadly too few) sites giving continuous unbiased news from Israel. Backed by famous Israeli Middle East expert Prof Mordechai Kedar. Available on the web and mobile app.
https://www.newsrael.com/ https://www.youtube.com/
How to help Israel. Here are some sites where newsletter readers can donate to Israeli organizations that provide vital help to Israelis at this difficult time. Many thanks to those who have already contributed and to those who are helping by donating their own valuable time and resources.
Friends of the IDF (US donors): https://www.fidf.org/
or IDF Soldiers Fund in Israel: https://www.ufis.org.il/en/
American Friends of Magen David Adom (US donors): https://afmda.org/
or Magen David Adom (Israel): https://www.mdais.org/en/
Zaka (US donors): https://donate.zakatelaviv.
or (Canadian donors): https://www.canadahelps.org/
United Hatzalah: https://israelrescue.org/
Leket Food Israel: https://www.leket.org/en/
JNF USA - https://my.jnf.org/gaza-
Orthodox Union - https://www.charidy.com/
Hadassah Hospital Israel: https://www.hadassah.org/
Laniado Hospital (Netanya) https://my.israelgives.org/en/
And many more charities here:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Buy Israel Bonds to support the Jewish State. (TY Larry B)
https://www.
USA - https://www.israelbonds.com/
Europe - https://israelbondsintl.com/
Canada - https://www.israelbonds.ca/
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We are at a crucial point.
Does Biden have what it takes to allow Israel to accomplish their necessary goal - eliminate Hamas? I continue to believe he will cave because urging more time, as Hamas drips out several hostages, could go on and the rest of the world will be increasing their pressure while calling for a cessation of further attacks by Israel.
What Biden should be doing is squeezing Iran but he does not have the courage because it would be going against Obama which he cannot bring himself to do so nothing good will come out of this war in all probability.
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Obama and the Democrats.
By Michael Fenenbock
America, once the place most welcoming to Jews, has become riddled with mainstream anti-Semitism. Many in the place that welcomed my great grandparents running from Russian pogroms now refuse to condemn the most savage pogrom since the Holocaust. The place that allowed Jews to find a safe good life is today no longer very safe. Not for Jews.
The political party historically most welcoming to Jews is sadly today permeated with virulent anti-Semitism. The Democratic Party has morphed into a version of Britain’s Jew hating Labor Party. Talk about historical shifts.
Barack Obama politicized Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror. Not surprising as Obama is, of course, a world class anti-Semite and a leading Louis Farakhan acolyte.
But, even for Obama the moral relativism he spews is simply stunning . . . “It’s complex,”Obama says. Apparently for the former President distinguishing between good and evil is just a matter of perspective.
I’m sorry, but October 7 is complex only if you’ve completely lost your moral compass, only if you’ve so blurred the lines between good and evil you can no longer tell the difference.
Obama’s statement is an obvious sign of the moral decay and rot that’s so infected the party I once called my political home.
And a similar moral decay has infected a feminist movement that refuses to say a word about what happened to women and girls on October 7 . . . to deny that the most brutal series of rapes imaginable even happened to Israeli women and girls is so disgusting and so morally reprehensible that it’s difficult to comprehend.
The surge of anti-Israel vitriol that has coursed through major cities and college campuses and flooded social media not to mention mainstream media outlets since October 7 has found plenty of enablers in the Democratic Party.
On a personal note, old colleagues of mine who actually have a forum, who could publicly condemn and call out Obama’s outrageous statement remain silent. (Well that’s not completely true, several not so silent old friends have called me a “white supremacist.”)
As strident voices condemn Israel for defending itself and accuse the Jewish state of “genocide” much of the Democratic Party is duplicitous. Just like the elite University campuses today’s Democratic Party is infected with Postmodernism and Neo-Marxism and “Intersectionality” . . . In their alternate reality Jews are now “white” and “oppressors” and Palestinians are “oppressed” and “people of color.”
As someone who spent the bulk of his public life in the Democratic Party it’s distressing to watch as friends and former colleagues refuse to publicly condemn the murder of my people, or to hear thousands gleefully chanting the slogans of a genocidal death cult committed to the mass murder of every Jew on the planet.
To quote Batya Ungar-Sargon “It’s unsettling to know that your peers have adopted a worldview that allows them to convince themselves that you are the bad guy, that you are the privileged monster who wants babies to burn—even as they justify and celebrate the burning of Jewish babies.”
My wife and I left for a very real reason. And there’s no way we’d ever go back. Whatever happens here we’ll be part of it.
Addendum . . .
I don’t let the right wing anti-Semites off the hook. Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens are belching up Jew hate under the guise of isolationism.
the author, michael fenenbock, was a democrat political strategist and campaign warrior.
"As someone who spent the bulk of his public life in the Democratic Party it’s distressing to watch as friends and former colleagues refuse to publicly condemn the murder of my people, or to hear thousands gleefully chanting the slogans of a genocidal death cult committed to the mass murder of every Jew on the planet."
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