Sunday, May 31, 2015
Barack Obama's MidEast fantasy world
Regarding Israel, Obama seems to believe U.S. – Israel relations during the past six years have basically been fine and that the recent drama and public acrimony between himself and Prime Minister Netanyahu has been overblown.Rivlin: Ironic that killers of Israeli athletes seek to oust Israel from FIFA
Obama also says, “I have maintained, and I think I can show that no U.S. president has been more forceful in making sure we help Israel protect itself, and even some of my critics in Israel have acknowledged as much.”
The interview sticks to Middle East affairs, though is likely to be of interest to anyone who follows international politics or current debates surrounding U.S. foreign policy. It provides insights into how Obama views both past decisions he has made and the current challenges in front of him.
January 20, 2017 feels so far away. No matter what happens between now and then, we’re going to remember Obama for a very long time.
There is a certain irony in the fact that what took place in Zurich last Friday was the outcome of an attempt by those who murdered Israelis in Munich in 1972 to oust Israel from FIFA, President Reuven Rivlin told German Foreign Minister Sr. Frank Walter Steinmeier on Sunday.More diplomatic challenges await Israel after FIFA victory
The two men previously met in Berlin just over two weeks ago. Rivlin welcomed Steinmeier as “a friends of Israel” and said that Israel appreciates what Steinmeier has done for Israel in the interim.
He was referring to pressures that were being put on Israel by the United Nations and the Palestinians. Israel does not need to be pressured in sport or academically he said, alluding also to BDS.
Israel realizes the importance of rebuilding Gaza, said Rivlin, and was willing to cooperate. Aware that Steinmeier’s next stop during his current visit was to Ramallah, Rivlin asked him to tell Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the only way to bring the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to an end was through direct negotiations.
The Prime Minister's Office is sending out a message loud and clear: Force won't work. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fourth government has kicked off amid massive challenges in the international arena. In the last ten days alone there have been at least four fronts that the Prime Minister's Office has had to tend to: 1. The Egyptian demand to impose nuclear supervision and demilitarization on Israel at the 2015 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference; 2. The Palestinian demand to have Israel removed from the world soccer governing body FIFA; 3. The nuclear negotiations between Western powers and Iran; 4. The French initiative to advance unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at the U.N. Security Council.
On the first two fronts, the NPT review conference and the FIFA congress, Netanyahu (who currently holds the foreign affairs portfolio as well) worked diligently to thwart the initiatives. Both ended in Israeli victories and a defeat for the initiators.
Fieldwork conduced by Israel's National Security Council, under the direction of former Mossad deputy chief Yossi Cohen, has yielded success. There were attempts to corner Israel into nuclear supervision by way of legal means at the NPT review conference, but those attempts failed. At the FIFA congress, in addition to trying to oust Israel from the federation, there were attempts to transfer the debate over Israel's alleged crimes to the U.N., but those attempts failed as well.
When the beautiful game turned ugly
Sport and politics don't mix, as the saying goes. But when they do, they can have deadly consequences.Next 'Sportsfare': Campaign Against Israel in 2016 Olympics?
A football match in 1917 between Tunisian Muslims and Jews almost caused civil war.
Just after the 1917 armistice was signed and in honour of Tunisian soldiers returning from the front, the Stade Tunisois all-Jewish team were due to play the Franco-Arab Stade Africain in the Franco-Arab Cup.
Tunisia was then a French protectorate: Tunisian Muslims were recruited into the French colonial army, but Jews were given dispensation from military service, thus causing great resentment among the Arabs. Matters were not helped by the recent announcement of the Balfour Declaration in favour of a Jewish home in Palestine.
The atmosphere during the match was electric. The Jewish team won 2 -1. Resentment boiled over: scuffles broke out between supporters of the opposing teams. Some were professional boxers: Hassen Karroche, Tunisian heavyweight champion, together with Abderrahmane Gamane, exchanged blows with Judas Cohen, a Stade Tunisois player and career boxer.
The Palestinian Authority (PA)'s soccer chief Jibril Rajoub may have failed miserably to get Israel booted from world soccer organization FIFA, but the Foreign Ministry predicts a greater challenge ahead - the fight to keep Israel in the Olympics.All Activists Agree: Jibril Rajoub must go.
Rajoub is expected to attempt to oust Israel from the 2016 Rio Olympics, officials told Army Radio Sunday, and the Foreign Ministry has already delved into the International Olympic Committee (IOC) bylaws ahead of the potential threat.
Israel is unlikely to be banned from the event, officials notes, as the IOC's rules are far more complex than FIFA's due to its unique regulations.
Yaakov Finkelstein, from the Foreign Ministry delegation to the FIFA Congress on Friday, spoke on the station's "Good Morning Israel" program, about the next steps.
"We are not afraid and we are prepared," Finkelstein noted. "Every time there's a new [boycott] attempt, so I do not say after FIFA that this is an achievement that we can sit and rest on our laurels over."
"I'm sure there will be another round [of sportsfare and] we will come ready."
These are days of miracles and wonder. Israel advocacy group StandWithUs has a petition online at change.org, Petitioning Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to "Kick Extremism Out of Football: Show Jibril Rajoub the Red Card".Rajoub: Israel Suspension from FIFA Still on the Table
Be sure to sign it at Change.org.
Sports are a unique way to bring diverse peoples together through shared passion. International sporting events like the World Cup are wonderful examples of this. Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority has used sports to indoctrinate children with hatred for the state of Israel, instead of allowing football, and other sports, to peacefully bring together Israelis and Palestinians of all ages.
A day after withdrawing his request to have Israel suspended from FIFA, the head of the Palestine Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, on Saturday clarified he intends to try to have Israel suspended again in the future.PFLP Terrorists Condemn Rajoub for ‘Wasting Blood of Martyrs’
"I hope that the Israelis understand that the suspension has not been removed from the agenda of FIFA but the sanctions were postponed until the committee that was established completes its work,” Rajoub told Kol Yisrael radio.
"Soccer players and fans in Israel should pressure their racist government. We will assess the situation and see if Israel changed its tune and if not - we will move forward," he threatened.
In the interview, Rajoub also responded to a comment made on Facebook by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Friday. Katz, responding to Rajoub’s withdrawing the suspension bid at FIFA, wrote that Rajoub should be “jailed in the Muqata” in Ramallah.
“Let him bark as much as he wants,” said Rajoub.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) accused the Palestinian Authority’s soccer league director Jibril Rajoub of “outrageous deviation from our values, principles and efforts to expose the Israeli occupation’s crimes and to oust Israel from international organizations.”Hamas condemns dropped FIFA bid as missed opportunity
Rajoub on Friday backed down from trying to oust Israel from FIFA and settled for an amendment adopted by FIFA to discuss his complaints.
Rajoub previously had insisted there would be “no compromise” on his demand that Israel kick out five teams from Judea and Samaria. The new committee will discuss the issue as well as complaints of Israel delaying Palestinian Authority soccer players, more than one of whom previously having been caught running errands for Hamas.
But that is racism, in Rajoub’s book.
Hamas lashed out at Palestinian soccer chief Jibril Rajoub over the weekend for abandoning the bid to expel Israel from FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football, calling it a squandered opportunity that went against mainstream Palestinian opinion.Netanyahu: Israel need not engage in self-flagellation over delegitimization efforts
The terror group maintained that the retraction raised questions about whether the PA would follow through on its promises to lodge war crimes charges against Israel with the International Criminal Court, and end its security cooperation with the Jewish state.
Rajoub was also vilified as a “traitor,” a “loser” and an “Israeli collaborator” on Palestinian social media, with users calling on the soccer chief to be fired from his post, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, and various mocking political cartoons surfacing online.
Hamas criticized both Rajoub and the Palestinian Authority, dubbing the non-event a missed opportunity, with spokesman Husam Badran telling followers on Twitter Friday that the move was “contrary to the general trend of the Palestinian people.”
“After this retreat, how can the Palestinians trust the Palestinian Authority to take Israel to the International Criminal Court or to end security cooperation?” a Hamas statement said.
“Some seize opportunities, some squander them,” the statement said, adding that “there’s a malfunction in the leadership that addresses the world on our [the Palestinians] behalf.”
The international delegitimization campaign of Israel need not cause Israel to “bow it's head,” ask where it erred and justify itself, but rather continue to tell the truth, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.Jeb Bush supports moving US embassy to Jerusalem
Netanyahu's comments came at the start of the weekly cabinet session, and two days after the Palestinians failed in their attempt to get Israel kicked out of the international football association, FIFA.
It doesn't matter what we do, but rather what we represent," Netanyahu said. "What hasn't been said about the Jewish people?” he asked. “They said we were the source of all evil in the world, that we poisoned their wells, that we drink the blood of small children. They are saying the same thing about us today. It was not true then, and it is not true now. There is no truth in it. “
Netanyahu said there was no justification in the delegitimization campaign against Israel, and “the last thing we have to do is bow our head, and ask where to we erred. We did not err. We are not a perfect state, and don't claim to be. But they they are putting distorted standards for us, higher than for any other country, any other democracy.”
Potential Republican US presidential candidate in 2016, Jeb Bush told reporters on Saturday that he believes the US embassy in Tel Aviv should be moved to Jerusalem, according to CNN.Ted Cruz Calls for Financial Boycott of Universities Backing BDS Israel
When asked whether Jerusalem should be Israel's capital forever, Bush said he "supported that absolutely."
"I also support moving the embassy to Jerusalem as well -- our embassy. Not just as a symbol but a show of solidarity," he added.
"Clearly, the number one ally we have in the Middle East is Israel," Bush said. "And we should show our support consistently because if not us, who?"
Ted Cruz has revved up his campaign to win the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential elections with a speech calling for the government to cut off funds from universities supporting the Boycott Israel (BDS) movement.Netanyahu: Germany Must Stop PA Campaign of Delegitimization
He said at an event, attended by casino magnate and Republican party backer Sheldon Adelson and where he received the Defender of Israel Award at the Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala.
In 2017, we need a president who will stand up directly and confront the [Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions] movement. BDS is premised on a lie and it is anti-Semitism plain and simple. And we need a president of the United States who will stand up and say if a university in this country boycotts the nation of Israel than that university will forfeit federal taxpayer dollars.
Cruz’s tough talk may have jingled Adelson’s pockets, but it also is likely to scare moderate Republicans and drive down the drain any possible support from conservative-oriented Democrats.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Sunday with German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, one of six international foreign ministers visiting Israel in the coming weeks with plans to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.Hotovely urges German FM to prevent labeling of West Bank products
Netanyahu called on Steinmeier to exert pressure on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to halt all unilateral actions against Israel and to reignite peace talks with the Jewish state.
"We have to send a clear message to the Palestinians and I hope you will use your meetings with them to do it," Netanyahu told Steinmeier during an announcement to the press after their meeting.
Specifically addressing the PA's recent move to have Israel booted from international soccer, Netanyahu stressed to Steinmeier: "Tell the Palestinians to stop their campaign to delegitimize Israel and get back to the negotiating table without preconditions."
Despite the Palestinians' unilateral actions, Netanyahu noted, he was still interested in renewing negotiations, emphasizing that he was committed to "two states for two peoples."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely urged German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday to lead efforts to prevent the labeling of Israeli products manufactured in the West Bank, saying the initiative would harm both Israelis and Palestinians.PreOccupied Territory: It’s Racist To Point Out Our Racism By Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator (satire)
“The State of Israel stands against a tough onslaught of boycotts coming from Europe,” she said, adding Israel anticipated “that Germany would lead the struggle against the phenomenon of labeling products from Judea and Samaria (West Bank).”
“The boycott of products hurts the quality of life in Judea and Samaria both for the Palestinian side and for the Israeli side,” Hotovely said.
In 2015, one should not have to point out racist behavior that should have disappeared long ago. I should not need to call people’s attention to racism, since they should, by now, have grown sensitive to it o their own. That is why I feel both regret and frustration that I must remind you all that it is racist to point out that Palestinian society is racist.World powers said to agree on ‘snapback’ sanctions mechanism
We take for granted that Israel is a racist Apartheid state; that any and all negative generalizations about Israelis – and, if necessary, Jews – are fair game in the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. That is because we have firmly established our status as victims, who enjoy a certain level of immunity from accusations of discrimination. As such, anyone who documents, publishes, or otherwise produces evidence that Palestinians – especially Palestinian leadership – are racist may be freely labeled a racist.
All enlightened individuals and societies have internalized the fact that we cannot expect individuals or societies to act according to all of the same norms. So much variety in societal mores prevails that selecting one set of norms as universally binding necessarily discriminates against those societies to which such norms are foreign. In other words, applying the same standard, not accounting for local sensibilities, is racist. Therefore, exposing Palestinian society and leadership as racist is itself a racist act, since it feeds the negative stereotype of Palestinians as backward, violent bigots. It is not too far a stretch to say no one wants that characterization to serve as the default for relating to any ethnic group. Do not be racist.
The global powers in negotiations with Iran have established a mechanism of “snapping back” sanctions against Tehran in the event the Islamic Republic violates a nuclear deal, but are awaiting Iranian approval, Reuters reported Sunday.Iranian official slams France over military site inspections
“We pretty much have a solid agreement between the six on the snapback mechanism, Russians and Chinese included,” a Western official told Reuters. “But now the Iranians need to agree.”
Meanwhile, an anonymous Iranian official told Reuters there were several suggestions on the table with regard to sanctions, warning that Tehran reserves the right to resume its activities if the world powers “do not fulfill their obligations.”
“At least three or four different suggestions have been put on the table, which are being reviewed,” the official said. “Iran also can immediately resume its activities if the other parties involved do not fulfill their obligations under the deal.”
The timeline for sanctions relief has been one of the key sticking points to achieving a final agreement.
Tehran on Saturday rejected a key Western demand for military site inspections and slammed the French foreign minister for refusing to back down on this issue, with the supreme leader’s senior aide maintaining Paris has little influence on the nuclear negotiations.The Guardian: Palestine's abandoned parliament
“France does not play any determining role on the international scene other than the harsh statements it makes through some individuals who do not feel responsible,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister, said Saturday, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
With a deadline a month away, both sides appeared unwilling to back down on the issue, with France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius saying Wednesday that any deal without access to military sites “will not be accepted.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also lashed out Thursday, calling on Paris “to refrain from making excessive demands.”
Just beyond an 8-metre-high grey concrete wall – in some places decorated with graffiti and in some places burnt black by demonstrators – lies the building that was slated to become the Palestinian parliament. Today, it is a white behemoth of a building that sits hollow and unfinished, locked behind towering gates on a road that leads from Jerusalem into Abu Dis, a West Bank village just outside the Israeli-declared municipal boundaries of its capital.Despite Amnesty Report ICC 'Stonewalling' Hamas War Crime Trial
A nearby guard provides the key to a building that seems to embody the dashed hopes of a failed peace process, and in particular, of a people who were told that the Oslo Peace Accords signed by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1993 would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Soon after, Israel began to withdraw its army from major cities in the West Bank, and the two sides agreed on a plan to divide the West Bank into three temporary territorial categories: A, B and C. Among the other creative ideas bandied about in those heady days was to base the Palestinian capital on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
The building is a hulking skeleton on the scarred landscape of the city’s outskirts, a city whose boundaries may yet be redefined and redrawn in peace negotiations. Other cities around the world have their own white elephants – large empty buildings that have failed for a variety of reasons – often due to poor planning or a financial shortfall. Sometimes, such buildings can bring down a whole neighbourhood and contribute to urban blight. But here, the story is further complicated by political realities, and stands as an architectural reminder of the dysfunction that reins in this part of the world.
Amnesty International made waves last Tuesday with its report detailing how Hamas executed citizens in Gaza last summer in war crimes at the close of Operation Protective Edge, but just what impact will the development have on the legal struggle to bring the terrorist organization to justice?Terrorist Gives Gaza Interview from Prison
To find out Arutz Sheva spoke with attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Director of the legal NGO Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center) which is currently in the midst of a lawsuit against Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal and other terrorist leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Darshan-Leitner said that last September her organization filed a criminal complaint on all the cases of Hamas executing citizens in Gaza. The new report "bolsters the allegations that we made concerning Mashaal and other Hamas officials over the extra judicial executions of their fellow Palestinians last summer."
She noted that Amnesty International submitted their report to the ICC meaning the court will be hard pressed to ignore the war crimes, and that her group is pressuring the ICC and UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) "to actually open the investigation" on the case, calling the court's clerk frequently.
Terrorist Abdullah Barghouti was interviewed on a Gaza radio station Sunday, despite being currently interred in an Israeli prison for his crimes.Anti-Israel activity on US campuses sees ‘marked increase’
During the interview, Barghouti turned to Hamas and urged them not to rush to reach a deal on the issue of releasing terrorists, which the terror organization has vowed to do numerous times over the past year and a half and in various contexts.
"We are patient," he said, "and will continue to be so even if we'd be released in a thousand years."
Barghouti was arrested in March 2003 and sentenced in 2004 to 67 life sentences for his role in the murders of Israelis in a string of suicide bombings - including the suicide attack at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001, the Ben Yehuda street bombings in 2001, the Cafe Moment bombing in 2002, the Hebrew University bombing in 2002, and the 2002 Rishon Letzion club bombing, among others.
The past academic year has seen a significant increase in anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic activities across US college campuses, the Anti-Defamation League warned on Friday.Terrorists Blow Up Gas Pipeline in Sinai.
The anti-Semitism watchdog said it had recorded 520 anti-Israel events on campuses during the 2014-2015 year, an increase of 38 percent over the previous year. It also counted 29 campaigns related to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, noting this was almost double the instances seen in the previous year.
The ADL also listed various cases of anti-Semitism on campuses, many of which involved vandalism, graffiti and hateful epithets targeting Jewish students.
“These incidents are troubling and are generating heightened concern in the Jewish community about the atmosphere on campus for Jewish students,” ADL Director Abraham Foxman said. “While the vast majority of Jewish students report feeling safe on their campuses, the incidents reported at certain schools are disturbing and must be proactively addressed.
Unidentified terrorists blew up the natural gas pipeline in the Sinai once again on Sunday morning, cutting off supplies to factories.Turkish Jews not leaving yet, but eyeing exit amid Erdogan’s hostile rhetoric
The Islamic State ISIS) and ISIS-linked terrorists have made inroads in the Sinai, where the Egyptian regime has lost hundreds of soldiers and policemen in failed attempts to maintain stability in the region.
Egyptian media have reported that the ISIS branch in the Sinai “threatened to strike the Eilat Port, following coordination with Islamic State’s wing in Gaza,” where Hamas is trying to retain control.
The Islamic State also has made inroads in Asia as its threat to expand its radical Islamic terrorist empire becomes more real.
Sinai Bedouin and the Egyptian government never have been on good terms with each other, but since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, accelerated with President Barack Obama’s support of the Arab Spring rebellion in 2012, terrorists have staked out most of the peninsula.
Arslan, a real estate developer, says the tight security “neither poses a real obstacle for communal life nor differs greatly from other at-risk communities — say in France or Britain.”US paid $20 million in benefits to ex Nazis, state watchdog finds
Turkey’s government, he said, “protects its Jews.” His view reflects the party line of Turkey’s small Jewish community, whose estimated 15,000-20,000 members generally have been careful not to appear ungrateful to a government they believe protects them from growing radicalism in a predominantly Muslim society.
But that long tradition of self-censorship is fading as Turkish Jews grow increasingly uneasy with the hostile rhetoric emanating from the mouths of officials in Turkey’s ruling Islamist AKP party — especially President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Erdogan and AKP use blatant anti-Israel rhetoric for votes, and this comes back to us as anti-Semitic hatred,” said Denis Ojalvo, a Jewish expert on international relations living in Istanbul. “Ordinary Turks are unable to make the distinction between Israeli and Jew.”
More than 130 suspected Nazi war criminals, SS guards and others who may have participated in the Third Reich’s atrocities during World War II collected $20.2 million in retirement benefits, according to the Social Security Administration’s inspector general.ADL Praises Pacino for Backing Out of Nazi Supporter's Play
In a report scheduled for public release next week and obtained by The Associated Press, the inspector general said nearly a quarter of the total, $5.7 million, went to individuals who were found to have played a role in the Nazi persecution and had been deported. More than $14 million was paid to people who weren’t deported but were alleged or found to have assisted the Nazis during a period in which millions of Jews perished in the Holocaust.
The report comes seven months after an AP investigation revealed benefits were paid to former Nazis after they were forced out of the United States. AP found that the Justice Department used a legal loophole to persuade Nazi suspects to leave the US in exchange for Social Security benefits. If they agreed to go voluntarily, or simply fled the country before being deported, they could keep their benefits.
Congress reacted swiftly by passing legislation to close the loophole and bar Nazi suspects from receiving benefits. President Barack Obama signed the measure into law late last year.
Acclaimed American actor Al Pacino has received staunch support from the Anti-Defamation League over his decision to bow out of a play adapted from the novel of a well-known supporter of Nazism and its leader Adolf Hitler.ADL Thanks Pope for 'Defending Israel's Legitimacy'
Knut Hamsun, a Norwegian author known for pioneering psychological literature, turned to Nazism later in life, advocating for the Nazi occupation of Norway and keeping correspondence with a number of high-ranking Nazi officials.
After Hitler's death, the aged author wrote a glowing eulogy for him, saying: "He was a warrior, a warrior for mankind, and a prophet of the gospel of justice for all nations."
Pacino pulled out of an Aveny-T stage adaptation of "Hunger" by Hamsun "because he couldn’t come to terms with Knut Hamsun's support for the German occupation and Nazism," the Copenhagen theater company's manager, Joh Stephensen, said.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed Sunday deep gratitude to Pope Francis following remarks he made to Israeli journalist Henrique Cymerman in which the Pope made clear that those who do not accept Israel’s right to exist are “guilty of anti-Semitism.”Clinical Trial Brings Revolutionary Israeli-Developed Insulin Pill Closer to Market
Pope Francis told Cymerman that, “…we must distinguish between the Jewish people and the state of Israel – and their right to exist – and the current governments of each state. Whoever does not accept the first two is guilty of anti-Semitism.”
In a letter to the Pope, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman, and ADL Director of Interfaith Affairs Rabbi David Sandmel said his words “send an unequivocal message to those who reject the legitimacy of the state of Israel as well as to those who question or distort the Holy See’s stand on the issue.”
“Not only has Pope Francis placed a tremendous importance on Catholic-Jewish relations throughout his life, he has also always understood and respected the religious significance of Israel to the Jewish people,” Mr. Foxman and Rabbi Sandmel said. “His comments remind us that the Church, the Jewish people and the state of Israel share an unshakable friendship.”
The Israeli drug company Oramed Pharmaceuticals has taken another step closer to the world’s first insulin pill when it announced this week that it has submitted the study protocol for the company’s Phase IIb trial of ORMD-0801 to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.India to Test Barak 8 Missile Jointly Developed With Israel (VIDEO)
ORMD-0801 is the company’s proprietary flagship product, an orally ingestible insulin capsule. Upon FDA approval, it will revolutionize the treatment of diabetes.
The Phase IIb study of ORMD-0801 for type 2 diabetics is designed to generate ample data for both efficacy and safety endpoints.
The double-blind, randomized study will recruit approximately 180 patients and has a 28-day treatment period.
The study has already received Institutional Review Board approval, and patient enrollment is expected to start in the short term, the company says in a statement.
Oramed Pharmaceuticals’ technology is based on over 30 years of research by top scientists at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. The company is considered a technology pioneer in the field of oral delivery solutions for drugs currently delivered via injection.
About six years after Israel signed a $1.1 billion deal to upgrade the Barak 8 surface-to-air missile system with India, India was gearing up to conduct its own test-fire of the projectile, Indian NDTV reported on Friday.
If successful, the test would pave the way for the Barak 8 system to become a fully operational and incorporated defense system in the Indian navy.
Defense sources in India told NDTV that the country’s navy would test the missile during the upcoming monsoon season so that “operational challenge is created.”
The Barak 8, based on Israel’s Barak 1 shipborne point-defense missile system, can intercept an incoming missile from as little as 500 meters away, as well as other aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Barak 8 missile is 4.5 meters long and has a 0.225 meter diameter. The system includes the missile, a fire control system and 360-degree track-and-guidance radar and a vertical launch unit, which can accommodate up to eight missiles.
According to the report, the radar and launch unit are already in place on Indian destroyers, awaiting the upcoming test.
A year on, father of slain teen seeks to ‘translate pain into something positive’
As the first anniversary of his son’s death approaches, Shaer reflected on what it has been like to mourn in the spotlight.
“It’s been complicated to be in the public eye. It’s been a challenge to find a balance between the public and the private,” he said.
He has felt a sense of responsibility to give back to those who have supported him and his family and to take the unity agenda forward. At the same time, he has an equally urgent responsibility to take care of his family, especially his five daughters, aged 5 to 19, as they grieve.
“We and the other two families are each trying to carry on with our private lives, to try to return to a pre-murder normalcy. But at the same time, the connection among us is very intense,” he said.
The families use a WhatsApp social media group they have created (it’s called GAON – an acronym of the boys’ first initials in Hebrew) to keep in touch and coordinate plans. According to Shaer, some of the boys’ siblings have become close with one another.
Shaer does not have control over the pain he feels from having lost his son Gil-ad. However, there is one thing about which he is absolutely resolute: “We have five wonderful daughters who are living, and who want to live happily. We need to go forward for them,” he said.
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