From Ian:
What Martin Luther King Really Said about the Six-Day War
Supporters of Israel have marshaled two pieces of evidence to demonstrate that the great civil-rights leader shared their commitment to the Jewish state: first, that he was among a number of prominent Christian theologians who signed a strongly worded pro-Israel statement that was published in the New York Times on the eve of the 1967 Arab-Israel war; and, second, that he once rebuked someone in a private conversation, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!” Critics of these positions have found sufficient reason to question whether the New York Times statement accurately reflects King’s views, and whether he ever made the second remark at all. Having thoroughly investigated the matter, Martin Kramer concludes that King did in fact equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism (although it is unclear whether he had in mind anti-Zionism in general or specific anti-Zionists) but also had regrets about signing the public declaration in support of Israel. From here Kramer offers some general thoughts about King’s positions:
King’s careful maneuvering before, during, and after the Six-Day War demonstrated a much deeper understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict than critics credit him with possessing. . . . Palestinian-Americans who sought to dismiss the [anti-Zionism] quote suggested that the conflict “was probably not a subject he was well-versed on,” and that his public statements in praise of Israel “surely do not sound like the words of someone familiar with both sides of the story.”
Not so. King had been to the Arab world, had a full grasp of the positions of the sides, and was wary of the possible pitfalls of favoring one over the other. He struck a delicate balance, speaking out or staying silent after careful assessments made in consultation with advisers who had their ears to the ground. .
MLK on Israel - Ari Lesser
A new song from Ari Lesser in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day today and celebrating MLK's embrace of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people:
How Zionists Helped Destroy Segregation in Baltimore
After a year when Jewish and African-American relations were strained by the Black Lives Matter’s denunciation of Israel and other uncomfortable incidents, it’s worth recalling a little-known episode that points to the kind of intergroup relations that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worked so hard to foster.
In the autumn of 1946, Zionist activists known as the Bergson Group sponsored a Broadway play called “A Flag is Born,” which was authored by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Ben Hecht. Starring a young Marlon Brando and Yiddish theater luminaries Paul Muni and Celia Adler, “Flag” depicted the plight of Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe, and the fight for Jewish independence in British Mandatory Palestine.
The London Evening Standard expressed horror that large audiences were flocking to what it called “the most virulent anti-British play ever staged in the United States.” American publications took a different view: Time called the play “colorful theater and biting propaganda,” while Life complimented its “wit and wisdom.”
After a successful 10-week run on Broadway, “Flag” was scheduled to be performed in various cities around the country, including the National Theater in Washington, DC. When the Bergson Group realized that the National barred African-Americans from attending, they quickly looked for an alternative venue.
Prof. Daniel Pipes: Is there a Palestinian people? Can it be defeated?
"The Way to Peace: Israeli Victory, Palestinian Defeat," my article in the current issue of Commentary, has provoked criticism mainly with regard to two points: my accepting the existence of a Palestinian people and my belief that it can be defeated. My arguments:
(1) There is no such thing as a Palestinian people: Indeed, as readers note, no such people existed through the centuries. Palestine (Arabic: "Filastin") as a political unit only came into use as a Zionist triumph when imposed by the British occupiers following the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. Palestinians (Arabic: "Filastiniyun") also came into use only in the twentieth century. Jerusalem never served as capital of a sovereign Muslim state. All true.
But, starting in 1920, with the imposition of a geographical unit later to be called the British Mandate for Palestine, the Arabic-speaking Muslims of that territory understood they had to adopt the Palestinian identity. In 1948, when Jews abandoned the term Palestine in favor of Israel, the word Palestinian became exclusively Arab. With the foundation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, this identity acquired political expression. The Palestinian Authority in 1994 gave it official status. At this point, it is futile, even silly, to deny the existence of a distinct Palestinian Arab people.
That said, the Palestinian Arab identity that emerged so quickly from political necessity may not last forever; as I noted back in 1989, "the primacy of Palestinian nationalism could eventually come to an end, perhaps as quickly as it got started."
Why Is ‘Doctors Without Borders’ Prescribing Anti-Israel Propaganda in Dubai?
The latest example of this egregious misuse of its humanitarian mandate is the “In Between Wars” exhibition that the NGO presented in Dubai last November. Following installments in France and Jordan, the piece purported to provide visitors with a view into the lives of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, “In Between Wars” served as a mouthpiece for incitement and radicalization.
The exhibition – also available online – refers to the founding of the state of Israel as a catastrophe — the “Nakba” — delegitimizing the very existence of the Jewish state. It goes further and asserts, “The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in the history of colonization in this part of the world, entwined with the world zionist [sic] movement,” presenting Jewish Israelis as unwelcome and illegitimate foreigners who belong elsewhere.
MSF does not limit itself to attacking the legitimacy of Israel and Zionism. It also romanticizes deadly Palestinian violence by referring to images of “armed soldiers face[ing] young stone throwers or Molotov cocktails” as “icons symbolizing the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation.” Similarly, one of the exhibits displays the living rooms of Palestinian homes, identifying them as a place to pay tribute to “martyrs” – a term that whitewashes the murderous terror attacks carried out against innocent civilians.
David Collier: Al Jazeera brings Middle Eastern antisemitism to the UK
Today was the fourth and final installment of the Al Jazeera ‘documentary’ called ‘The Lobby’. The “undercover report exposing how the Israel lobby influences British politics”.
For those that haven’t seen it. The show came in four, 25 minute videos (1, 2, 3, 4). Highly repetitive, extremely drawn out, with about 5-8 minutes of content in each one. The sinister music and hidden footage feel, create the atmosphere you are watching something illicit. After a while you realise that despite the eerie music, the accusation itself is empty.
Viewing figures tend to agree with me. Whilst the first show on YouTube has already reached nearly 100,000 views. The Second sits at 24,000, the third 16,000 and currently the last show has only been viewed 3,000 times. Everyone soon realised there was no meat on this bone.
The antisemitic premise
Far too often, as I watched, I simply couldn’t understand what was wrong with what I was seeing. This difference, between my recognition of everyday political actions, and the attempt to suggest that we were witnessing the inside actions of a powerful conspiratorial story, highlights exactly what was wrong with the show itself.
IsraellyCool: An Israeli Children’s Book
Very Israeli, very sad:
This is a kid’s book entitled: Ticking Bomb.
The sub title is: The kid from the central bus station.When I first saw it, I was shocked there would be a kids book with that title, what with the fact that sometimes bombs go off here during terrorist attacks.
I read the back of the book for a short description: There’s a terrorist attack and one of the men stabbed by a terrorist in an attack lays unconscious in the hospital. Because he had no ID on him, police and the kids in the book search frantically for the injured person’s family.
A kid’s book in Israel. Sigh.
This is indeed very sad. And so is what many palestinian children are reading.
Israelis, Palestinians sign deal to jointly improve West Bank water supply
Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement Sunday to renew cooperation in water development after a six-year hiatus.
Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) office, and the Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh signed an agreement to restart the Israeli–Palestinian Joint Water Committee.
The committee is tasked with developing and modernizing the water infrastructure in the West Bank, allowing better water access to Palestinian towns and villages, maintaining existing infrastructure and approving new projects. It hasn’t met in six years.
Created in 1995 as part of the Oslo II interim peace deal, the committee was originally intended to be a temporary mechanism lasting five years.
Key topics under discussion include increasing water supplies to the West Bank and Gaza, as well as approving drilling new wells and updating water rates.
Soldiers, not tour guide, killed Jerusalem terrorist
An East Jerusalem man who killed four soldiers in a truck-ramming terror attack last week in southern Jerusalem was killed by soldiers, not by a tour guide as he had claimed, a senior military official said.
Speaking to Israeli television immediately after the attack, tour guide Eitan Rund — who shot at the terrorist — asked why soldiers had apparently hesitated before turning their weapons on Fadi al-Qunbar, the truck’s driver.
“I have to ask why it took a 30-year-old civilian to fire first,” he said, “when there were well-armed officers” present.
Rund also insisted the January 4 manslaughter verdict for Sgt. Elor Azaria, who killed a disarmed, injured Palestinian assailant, was “definitely” a factor in the ostensible hesitation, leading many to lament that an “Azaria effect” caused the soldiers’ alleged failure to act.
Following the attack, Qunbar’s body was brought to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for examination, where an initial autopsy showed that he had both 5.56 millimeter bullets fired from an army-issued M16 and nine millimeter bullets fired from Rund’s pistol in his body, the senior military official revealed to Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday.
Interior minister slaps travel ban on controversial sheikh
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said Monday he signed a ban preventing Sheikh Raed Salah from leaving the country, a day before the controversial Islamic leader’s release from prison.
Salah, head of the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, will be released Tuesday after serving a nine-month sentence for incitement to violence.
“His exit [from Israel] is likely to endanger the country and I will use all my power against anyone who tries to harm it,” Deri said in a statement.
The ban keeps Salah from leaving the country for six months.
Police last week recommended indicting Salah on a further suspicion of incitement to terrorism and violence, as well as supporting an illegal organization.
Bill to expel terrorists' families pushed back 3 months
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday postponed by three months the discussion of a bill that would enable the expulsion of terrorists' families, citing legal reasons.
The bill is sponsored by Coalition Chairman David Bitan (Likud), Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud). It was also signed by two former Shin Bet security agency chiefs: Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Avi Dichter (Likud) and MK Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), along with other Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi Knesset members.
It is designed to serve as an effective deterrent for so-called "lone-wolf" terrorism.
The bill makes possible to expel terrorists' family members who knew about, encouraged or in any way assisted in carrying out their relatives' plans to attack.
'Terrorists' wives will be able to collect welfare benefits'
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation moved to postpone discussion of a bill which would enable the government to deport residents of Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria from Israel who support or aid terror attacks against Israelis.
Dubbed the “Terrorist Family Expulsion Law”, the bill is intended to pressure relatives of potential terrorists who are aware of their plans to notify the authorities.
The proposal, sponsored by coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud) has found support from both coalition members and some opposition MKs, including members of Yesh Atid.
But on Sunday the committee voted to delay their decision on the bill by three months, angering supporters of the measure both coalition and opposition MKs.
“This is yet another wretched decision [caused by] the government’s weak, inconsistent policymaking over the past year and a half while confronting the ‘lone-wolf’ wave of terror attacks we’ve been suffering from,” said MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid). “In this government they say one thing but do another.”
“The ministers of this government use such strong rhetoric, but then refuse to give security forces effective tools to create an effective deterrence.”
Hamas headquarters uncovered north of Jerusalem
Thirteen Hamas terrorists, including a member of the Palestinian Authority’s Legislative Council, were arrested overnight in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet internal security agency.
The operation comes on the heels of the discovery of a regional headquarters of the Hamas terror group in the Ramallah district, north of Jerusalem.
The base is believed to have served as the center of operations for dozens of Hamas terrorists in Samaria, and may be part of a broader effort by Hamas to expand its influence in the Ramallah area. Payments to jailed terrorists and their families, outreach efforts to local Palestinian Authority residents, public demonstrations, and the operation of a Hamas student group were all managed from the headquarters.
During the raid of the facility overnight, IDF soldiers and Shin Bet agents confiscated cash, vehicles, and propaganda material used by Hamas for recruitment purposes.
Hamas, Islamic State resume close cooperation despite pressure from Cairo
Cooperation between Gaza’s Hamas rulers and Islamic State’s affiliate in Sinai has decreased noticeably in recent weeks, but documents seen by The Times of Israel show the two organizations continue to coordinate and help each other in many key areas.
Despite pressure from Egypt, which is battling an ongoing insurgency led by the so-called “Sinai Province” of IS, Hamas has refused to crack down on smuggling by IS through tunnels run by its members under the Gaza-Sinai border. Instead, the Palestinian terror group has looked to this activity as a source of income, and recently raised its taxes on goods brought into the Strip by IS smugglers.
This marks a shift in policy from recent months, during which Hamas arrested IS members in the Strip in a bid to curb the group’s activities. The crackdown led to the shuttering of the IS-operated smuggling tunnels. These tunnels, sources say, were recently reopened.
Hamas is now permitting IS members to run a media production operation inside Gaza, out of the reach of the Egyptian military, The Times of Israel has learned. This operation has produced propaganda materials that include messages claiming responsibility for terror attack in Sinai, Cairo and other sites within Egypt.
Egypt is aware of these activities, including the media office, but has apparently chosen to turn a blind eye to this cooperation.
Qatar pledges $12m. to assist Gaza in electricity crisis
Qatar pledged Sunday to send $12 million to the Palestinian Authority to pay for fuel for the Gaza power plant in an effort to mitigate the ongoing electricity crisis in the Strip.
“The Qatari emir ordered immediate action to implement practical steps to resolve the electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip,” a statement published on Hamas’s official website said, summarizing a meeting between the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani and Hamas Politburo Deputy Chairman Ismail Haniyeh in Doha.
Gazans have suffered from an electricity shortage in recent weeks, with most households receiving three to four hours of electricity a day rather than the average of seven to eight hours they had received in recent years.
A shortage of fuel for the Gaza power plant and technical difficulties with the electrical lines coming from Egypt are the main causes of the dramatic decrease, according to PA Labor Minister Mamoun Abu Shahla.
Gaza youth sets self ablaze to protest Hamas
A 20-year-old Gazan man set himself ablaze on Monday, to protest the current electricity shortage in Gaza.
Currently in severe condition, the youth is being treated in a Gaza hospital.
Additional protests against Hamas and the electricity shortage are expected take place on Tuesday night. According to Gazan sources, Hamas has warned hundreds of activists that the protests may become violent.
Hamas has used a variety of tactics, including shootings, to disperse the protests against them.
Outrage over German institute’s hosting of pro-Hamas, Hezbollah speaker
The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in the city of Halle sparked international criticism because the pro-Hezbollah and allegedly antisemitic activist Norman Finkelstein is slated to hold talks on academia and Gaza on Monday and later in January.
“Finkelstein is not a scholar or academic. He is a polemicist who misuses sources and violates accepted standards of academic integrity," Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "That is why he was fired ( or not renewed) at universities at which he taught. It would be scandalous for the Planck Institute to lend its academic imprimatur to so non-academic a person,” he argued.
Dershowitz added:”Let me add that the Planck Institute would never seriously consider inviting an anti-Palestinian polemicist with a comparable lack of academic standing. He is invited because of his anti-Israel and borderline antisemitic polemics, not despite them."
Finkestlein told the Post that "DePaul University and I reached a private settlement of my tenure case. The joint statement issued after the settlement said that I was 'an excellent teacher and prolific scholar.'"
Max Privorozki, head of the small Jewish community in Halle, called on the MPI to cancel the lectures. He told the Post it is a "disgrace" that MPI is hosting the controversial activist.
IsraellyCool: Mosman Mayor Peter Abelson Boycotts Jews…But Denies Being Antisemitic
Spoiler alert: he most certainly is antisemitic.
Writing in response to Dr Abelson, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said: “We are appalled that you would refuse to represent the Jewish constituents of your ward because of your views on the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
Mr Alhadeff’s letter accused the mayor of anti-Semitism, citing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, a section of which defines the term as “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel”.
He also rejected Dr Abelson’s characterisation of Israel’s actions.
Dr Elton, who has invited nearby mayors and all NSW federal and state parliamentarians to the event, was shocked by Dr Abelson’s response: “Sometimes people decline with thanks, but to receive a reply with a stark message that attacked Israel’s policies … I’m astonished, really.
“The policies of the state of Israel is another discussion. To boycott a Jewish event in Sydney because of the actions of Israel, that’s a form of anti-Semitism.”
By the way, imagine the uproar if he boycotted a mosque because of Islamic terror attacks.
Member of Parliament for Jew-Hating Labour Party Accuses Breitbart of 'Anti-Semitism'
A British Member of Parliament has used Parliamentary privilege to accuse the Breitbart News Network of anti-Semitism, homophobia, racism, and misogyny.
At Foreign Secretary’s questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday 10th Liz McInnes, the Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton, quizzed Boris Johnson on his recent meetings with members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team.
She asked Johnson: “On Sunday, the Foreign Secretary met Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s chief strategist, a man whose website is synonymous with anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, the hero worship of Vladimir Putin and the promotion of extremist far-right movements across the world.”
Mr. Johnson did not address Ms. McInnes’s accusations, merely describing the conversation he had with Mr. Bannon as “genuinely extremely productive”.
Breitbart London’s Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam has dismissed Ms. McInnes’s comments as “grotesque, out of step with reality, and supremely hypocritical”.
Kassam said of the claims: “Liz McInnes seems to be blissfully unaware of the overwhelming Jew-hatred in her own political party, including that of her boss Jeremy Corbyn.
UK's Corbyn calls for investigation into Israeli meddling after embassy row
The "improper interference into this country's democratic process" by an Israeli official should be investigated at once, UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Theresa May Sunday, according to The Jewish Chronicle.
The complaint came as accusations of foreign meddling reached a nadir this week following the revelation that an Israeli embassy employee was heard discussing the "take down" of a number of UK senior officials, including Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan
Shai Masot, who was secretly recorded last October as part of a four part documentary produced by Al-Jazeera, later resigned from his post.
The footage shows Masot describing UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson as an "idiot," and commented that Duncan was "doing [sic] a lot of problems" for Israel.
Duncan has previously criticized Israeli settlement construction and has compared the situation in at least one West Bank city to "apartheid," according to The Independent.
Corbyn also urged that the UK prime minister treat the matter with the highest severity.
(Israel apologises over embassy worker's vow to 'take down' UK minister)
"This is clearly a national security issue," the Labour leader wrote. “It is only on [the basis of an investigation] that Parliament and the public will be reassured that such activities will not be tolerated by your government."
UKMW prompts correction to SKY News claim on US view of settlements
Earlier today, we heard back from Sky producers, informing us that they upheld our complaint and thanked us for bringing the information to their attention – particularly the AP correction. Sky deleted the video in question, and re-published it without the false information on the US view of settlements. Sky also revised the accompanying online article, and deleted the Tweets and Facebook posts linking to the original video.
Though we would have preferred an on-air correction or some other public admission of error, we’re nonetheless glad that the record regarding the US position on settlements has been set straight.
Newsweek: Israelis Ram Palestinians With Cars
Since September 2015, Israelis have been the victims of 2,732 Palestinian terror attacks, including 51 car rammings.
Astonishingly, Newsweek’s Jack Moore attempted to justify this wave of terror in his latest article by repeating the false claim that Israelis do it too.
Quoting Yousef Munayyer of “The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights,” Jack Moore raises the following claim:
This is a question of utility and opportunity and tactics more than it is about ideologies. Israeli settlers have used their cars to run over Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. It’s a tactic that can be used by lots of different people.
The problem with this article is not that Moore quoted an untrue statement from a biased source who has an anti-Israel agenda, but rather that he did so without providing any balance, context or research, all while hiding Munayyer’s agenda from Newsweek readers.
In effect, Moore made Munayyer’s personal opinion appear to be an unbiased, expert analysis. This is a disservice to news readers, and breaches a number of journalistic ethics. We’ll come back to this below.
Pendant of teen, possibly linked to Anne Frank, found at death camp
An archaeological dig at site of the Sobibor death camp in what was once Nazi-occupied Poland has uncovered several personal items from victims that were apparently dropped as their owners were forced to undress before being sent to the gas chambers.
Among the articles found in foundations where a building once stood was a pendant bearing the date of birth and hometown of a girl who would have been a teenager at the time, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum said in a statement Sunday.
The piece of jewelry bears a close resemblance to a pendant owned by Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, who was murdered by the Germans at the Bergen-Belsen concentration in Germany, some time in early 1945, when she was 15 years old.
In another link tying the girls together, they were both born in Frankfurt, Germany.
The dig was carried out at the site where victims were made to undress and their heads were shaved before being forced to walk along the so-called “Road to Heaven” — the grim name given to the path that led to the gas chambers where they were murdered.
The ‘Light-Up Nation’ as world leader in medical marijuana technologies
The publication The Economist recently reported that the ‘Light-Up Nation’ is poised to become the global leader in medical marijuana technologies, with 36 companies doing medical research on the health benefits of cannabis.
Israeli innovation website NoCamels reports that Israeli farmers look forward to exporting hundreds of millions of dollars in medical marijuana every year. According to the report, Israel is some 60 year’s ahead of the United States as a result of Washington’s repressive anti-drug policies.
The War on Drugs has been so repressive that a black man arrested three times for selling marijuana in Missouri received a lifelong sentence without parole in 1993. He is only one of the many hundreds of thousands of victims of pointless laws.
Media coverage of drugs today little better than in the days of Reefer Madness
While many laugh at anti-drug propaganda, such as the 1930s movie Reefer Madness, today’s media coverage of other ‘dangerous drugs’ is no less preposterous.
Oracle sets up Tel Aviv startup accelerator for cloud edge
Big data company Oracle said Monday it would open a Startup Cloud Accelerator program in Israel, the second of several it plans to open soon in a multimillion dollar global program. The center, based in Tel Aviv, will help promote local innovation in cloud technology, the company said.
“The next five to ten years promise innovations and growth that will drive new business ideas enabled by cloud,” said Oracle senior vice president of Product Development Reggie Bradford at a press conference at Oracle’s offices in Petah Tikva. “Oracle understands that startups are at the heart of innovation, and through this program we aim to give startups access to extensive resources and support when they need it most.”
The accelerator will help the company keep tabs on new developing technologies and at the same time get startups to use Oracle’s software and services early on for their platforms, he said, as Israel “is the second most important market for startups after Silicon Valley.”
Oracle, one of the world’s largest software developers, is vying for a lead position in the enterprise software segment, competing with the likes of Microsoft and SAP and Salesforce. All of these see the huge potential of “the cloud,” or the delivery of computing resources, from applications to data centers, on demand over the internet on a pay-for-use basis. Oracle is seeking to position itself as a global leader in this field, said Bradford.
TED to hold major Tel Aviv Destination: Unknown event
One of the largest TED events in the Middle East, TEDxWhiteCity, will be held on January 25 in Tel Aviv, focusing on innovation with Destination: Unknown as a theme.
The event is expected to include about 1,500 participants who will juggle issues relating to the future of technology, education and arts through lectures and mingling with entrepreneurs, organizations, students and soldiers from technology units.
This is the second TEDxWhiteCity event. Among the speakers will be the judoka Ori Sasson, a Rio Olympics Olympic medalist; Yaron Schwartz, CEO and founder Tridom, which develops robots for construction of houses and buildings using three dimensional printing; Eran Katz, an Israeli writer, moderator and editor of workshops on the development of memory and intelligence; Galia Ben-Artzi, one of the founders of Mytopia, a social gaming company; Roy Deutsch, considered an expert in new media; Zaki Djemal, co-founder and managing partner of fresh.fund, the first student-run venture capital fund in Israel; and Rim Yunis, founder of the first high-tech company in the Arab sector, Alpha Omega, which develops and researches equipment for brain surgery.
P-Cure says it can beam tumors away at half the cost
As approximately 24 million people worldwide are expected to get cancer each year by 2030, according to Cancer Research UK, the race to find more effective and cheaper therapies has led to proton therapy, a type of radiation that uses protons rather than X-rays to treat cancer.
Like standard X-ray radiation, proton therapy is radiation therapy that is based on an external beam that painlessly delivers radiation through the skin from a machine to the cancer. The advantage over a standard X-ray treatment is that the therapy focuses the ray directly onto the tumor without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. The treatment uses 60 percent less radiation that normal X-rays, allowing for higher doses to be directed to the tumor and increasing the chances that all the tumor cells can be targeted, Cancer UK says.
However, this therapy requires highly specialized, expensive equipment: an accelerator to create the proton beams; a centrifugal machine, called a gantry, that is needed to treat the tumor from a variety of angles as the patient lies on a bed; and the room hosting the gantry, which has to be three stories high with walls that are two to three meters thick. Because of its high costs, just a few medical centers in the world can afford the equipment, and just one percent of eligible cancer patients globally have access to this therapy.
Enter Israeli startup P-Cure, which says it has devised a way to halve the costs of proton therapy by doing away with the expensive gantry.
Christian Students Write, Perform Pro-Israel Rap Song to Encourage Advocacy for Jewish State
A student at Alabama’s historically black christian Miles College told The Algemeiner on Friday about how she came to participate in a pro-Israel rap video that has been widely circulating on social media.
Keila Lawrence, among the writers and performers in the clip, created at a recent Christians United for Israel Student Advocacy Leadership Training (CUFI SALT) conference, said that her eyes had been opened to the need to advocate for the Jewish state.
“I never knew there was anything to support until I attended it,” she said. “And it makes me think of how many other people are unaware of Israel’s situation. I want to see Miles educate them.”
Lawrence said she discovered at the conference that Israel was a cause her religion encourages her to embrace, so she now wants to bring an official CUFI chapter to her school, which she described as neither “pro- nor anti-Israel, per se,” given its small Jewish population.
She also recounted the experience of bonding with fellow Christians during a conference scavenger hunt, one of whose challenges was writing a rap song about Israel advocacy, which resulted in the video in question, performed by Lawrence and her friends.
Its lyrics are:
In the middle of my campus university
SJP get that BDS away from me
They hate it ‘cuz I got that moral clarity
Now they mad ‘cuz they can’t put no fear in me
C.U.F.I. We CUFI…yeah…We CUFI
An we bout this
Shalom
IsraellyCool: Kathleen Kennedy, Robert’s Daughter, Gushes Over Israel
A remarkable interview.
Besides her gushing over Israel, note her response regarding her reaction to the recent US elections, as well as her views on the conflict.
If only most world leaders had her modesty and wisdom.
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