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Friday, August 13, 2021

08/13 Links Pt2: The Abraham Accords: For the generations to come; Melanie Phillips: When the Jew-bashers are Jews; How CUNY’s Faculty Union Bet on Israel Hatred, and Lost

From Ian:

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum: In praise of the Abraham Accords, one year on
Two weeks ago, at the end of a fairly standard meeting in City Hall with a group of East Jerusalem businessmen, Mahmoud, a local entrepreneur, pulled me aside.

He told me that as the result of his attendance at one of the webinars organized by the UAE-Israel Business Council, an organization I co-founded over one year ago, he now has a promising new business with an Emirati investor which utilizes Israeli technology and Moroccan raw materials.

At that very moment I truly understood the power of people-to-people peace. This is the new model of peace and co-existence we are building every day.

Up until now, Israel was a lone player in the region and we were not part of any regional cultural, sporting or business alliances. Our network faced west rather than to our own neighborhood, where we share much in common.

This past year has changed everything. In June 2020, my co-founder Dorian Barak and I saw that a shift was taking place, but we did not know just how quickly it would boom.

The minute the Abraham Accords normalization agreement was announced, we created an online platform for people to connect, the first of its kind for the accords.

Within weeks thousands of Israelis and Emiratis had joined in order to interact with each other, to talk, to do business and to become friends.




Houda Nonoo: The Abraham Accords: For the generations to come
The signing of the Abraham Accords will no doubt be one of the biggest Middle East milestones in our lifetime and as we celebrate its first anniversary, it is an opportunity to reflect on this auspicious time for the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the region more broadly. It is also the time to look forward to the limitless opportunities ahead of us.

As one of the few indigenous Jews in the Arabian Gulf, it is particularly meaningful to me. As a citizen of this region, I am filled with excitement to see the construction of a new Middle East, one focused on coexistence and prosperity.

I would like to thank His Majesty, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness, Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their leadership, vision, and courage to lead our nation proudly and boldly into the future through the signing of the Abraham Accords.

These Accords represent a promise that the leaders in the region have made to build a better life with security and opportunity for all of us and for future generations still to come.


Seth Frantzman: The Abraham Accords a year later: Challenges and hope
Asked about the expectations, she says that the peace deal has not met expectations in the UAE. “There have been so many missed opportunities on both sides. However, the UAE has repeatedly demonstrated good faith and that it delivers on its promises. Israel, on the other hand, hasn’t been meeting the UAE with the same amount of dedication and risk-taking. In fact, Israel has so far over promised and under-delivered. While normalization between Israel and the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan was a calculated risk and took into consideration potential political and economic gains, it also took tremendous courage to pull it off. This courage is often overlooked and under-appreciated by Israelis. Economic benefits will take a long time to show.”

She points out that while the agreement can benefit trade and innovation, “its real value and incentive lies in a political and ideological agenda. The Arab Spring exposed the danger of Islamist groups.” This means that many countries in the Gulf and officials in Egypt realized the threat of the Brotherhood. “We are already starting to witness the largest effects of the normalization deals and to witness Islamist delegitimization and the dismantling of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist ideology in the region.” I also asked Dan Feferman, communications director for the organization Sharaka, which has been helping advance person-to-person connections in the wake of the peace deals. “Looking back one year, I could not have imagined that the relationships would have moved this quickly across all issues. I am so impressed and surprised by the scope and pace of normalization… I don’t know what the expectations were. I can only imagine they exceeded them. There are still many challenges ahead... There were and will be again policy disagreements.” He pointed to major trade implications. He says the new path with the Gulf will “reshape the Middle East as we know it. I believe this is the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. A path to taking extremism head on, a path to diplomatic engagement and cooperation in the region. The regional implications in fighting extremism are the most important here.”

These contrasting views share some commonalities but also point to some major conceptual differences between the Gulf and Israel. In Washington the change in administration has created a mixed bag of results. While there is hope the new administration will continue to stick with the Abraham Accords, and build on them, there are some who wonder if the administration will indeed do that, or will it put an emphasis on a new Iran deal and other agendas.

David Weinberg, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, points out that the “real shadow hanging over the future of Abraham Accord-type peace treaties in the region comes from the incipient reconciliation between Washington and Tehran in the form of a renewed nuclear deal.” He pointed out that while the Gulf states could seek closer ties if they see instability in the region, they could also “hedge their bets by minimizing open ties to Israel and their full alignment with the United States. To a certain extent, this process may already be underway. For the first time in many years, the Saudis and Emiratis recently held direct and public talks with Iranian leaders.”

This leaves many questions about the challenges and hurdles that lie ahead for the Abraham Accords. While much has been accomplished, and the current Israeli government is hosting delegations and taking positive steps, there are complex hurdles. For instance, the pandemic has papered over questions about when Emiratis will get visas easily. If and when Israel opens to tourists, people from the Gulf will want the same ability to travel to Israel as Israelis enjoy going to the Gulf.


Melanie Phillips: When the Jew-bashers are Jews
In his book The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People under Siege, the psychiatrist Kenneth Levin provides a magisterial analysis of the psycho-pathology of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish Jew.

Much of this pathology is deeply defensive. Blaming Israel for the murderous war waged against it, writes Levin, provokes an illusion of control over a situation that otherwise would be unbearably terrifying. It’s easier for certain Israelis and diaspora Jews to believe they can stop the violence by getting Israeli policy changed than it is to cope with the reality that millions of fanatics are bent on Israel’s extermination.

Similarly, such diaspora Jews believe they can fend off anti-Jewish attacks by ingratiating themselves with the enemies of the Jewish people. Identifying with fashionable social causes appears to offer protection against the charge that the Jews are concerned only with their own interests. Which is why so many subscribe to the “social justice” agenda, equate antisemitism with Islamophobia and relativise the Holocaust.

As Levin observes, however: “Yet the path they advocate is no less delusional than that of abused children who blame themselves for the abuse they experience. All too often such children doom themselves psychologically to lives of self-abnegation and misery. In the case of Jews indicting Israel for the hatred directed against it, the misery they cultivate goes far beyond themselves and ultimately, undermines Israel’s very survival.”

Perhaps the most savage analysis of the anti-Jewish Jew was written by Uzi Silber in Ha’aretz more than a decade ago. Jewish antisemitism, he wrote, was a condition in which being “more sensitive to pain suffered by members of a group other than (one’s) own metastasises into a malignant emotional and moral identification with people committed to (one’s) annihilation”.

No other people does this to itself. Attitudes expressed by the likes of Kleinbaum, Beinart, Roth and a myriad others constitute a particular and devastating Jewish tragedy.
The BDS ice-cream war creates political taste test
Though something of an intellectual lightweight, Beinart embodies the drift of some Jewish liberals from traditional, if often lukewarm, backing for the Jewish state to the sort of universalism that allows no room for Zionism. The rise of advocacy for critical race theory teachings in which Jews and Israel are viewed as possessors of "white privilege" has helped bring hatred for Israel and intolerance for Jewish self-determination into mainstream public discourse from the fever swamps of the far-left. Similarly, Beinart's journey shows how elements of American Jewry who regard keeping in tune with whatever is in fashion in academic circles as more important than Jewish security have been co-opted by forces determined to wipe Israel off the map, regardless of the enormity of the suggestion or the human cost for 7 million Jewish souls.

So when the Ben & Jerry's board – an independent entity that governs the ice-cream company despite its being owned by Unilever, a large international corporation – brought in Beinart to try to convince franchise holders to go along with their Israel boycott scheme, it was telling. The veil was lifted from their effort to depict their decision as merely constituting criticism of specific Israeli policies, rather than an endorsement of a movement that is, at its heart, fundamentally intolerant of Jewish rights and equally unconcerned about the welfare of Palestinian Arabs who stand to lose jobs and are far more oppressed by their own tyrants who govern them in both Ramallah and Gaza than by Israel.

That not only clarifies what is at issue in the ice-cream company's decision. It also demonstrates the importance of activism to support anti-BDS laws that, contrary to their liberal critics, ban illegal and discriminatory commercial conduct not advocacy for the Palestinians or criticism of Israel.

Indeed, it must be made clear to both Ben & Jerry's and their corporate partners at Unilever that Americans who not only care about Israel but who oppose the anti-Semitic goal of the boycotters, will punish them for their participation in any sort of boycott that impacts the Jewish state.

There's no way of knowing what the outcome of this struggle will be, especially as it concerns a business that has traditionally appealed to the left rather than to centrist opinion. But by putting Ben & Jerry's on notice that their new policy is both unacceptable and something that will cost them sales and public support, pro-Israel activists will be sending a message to other CEOs that the price of participation in this war on the Jews will not come without a cost.
How CUNY’s Faculty Union Bet on Israel Hatred, and Lost
The PSC probably could end this crisis by rescinding the resolution, but recent discussions among delegates suggest that this outcome is unlikely. One delegate proclaimed that “imperialism never ceased to be the core of the Zionist message”; another termed the Israel Defense Forces “the only threat to the children” who attended schools where Hamas had concealed nearby rocket launchers. A delegate from Borough of Manhattan Community College criticized the focus on “a very narrow issue” before telling a colleague, “If you were a Palestinian child you would want to throw a few rocks yourself.” A Kingsborough Community College delegate expressed pride that “we are defending Palestine now, for the first time, as a union.”

All of this ensures that the resolution’s impact will linger as CUNY begins its fall term later this month. Indeed, it seems likely that the controversy will intensify. Beyond condemning Israeli security policies, the resolution also called for campus-level discussions to “consider PSC support of the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).” During the June meeting, one PSC official welcomed “structured conversations” with individual CUNY professors “that have a specific guide to them.”

Baruch professor Marc Edelman was one of the few CUNY faculty to explicitly address this issue in his resignation letter. He observed “that the State of New York has not only rightfully described [the concept] as ‘hateful’ and ‘intolerant,’” but also had forbidden, through an executive order, any New York state agency or department from promoting BDS. Unlike most of his departing colleagues, Edelman has not received a call from a union leader asking him to stay in the PSC.

In normal circumstances, a powerful faculty entity planning BDS-related “structured conversations” with, among others, untenured and contingent faculty might generate pushback. Perhaps the administration would step in to uphold the academic freedom of those subjected to the effort. Or maybe the campus union would intervene to protect the interests of vulnerable professors who oppose BDS.

But in this instance, CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodríguez has washed his hands of the affair, and the union has, at the very least, a conflict of interest. As a result, it seems likely that the wave of resignations will continue until the PSC concludes that it costs too much in lost dues to indulge the anti-Zionist sentiments of its delegates.


Holocaust Survivors Urge California Legislators to Oppose Ethnic Studies Bill
Hundreds of Holocaust survivors and their descendants on Thursday urged members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to vote against AB 101, a bill mandating an ethnic studies high school graduation requirement, stating:
“We are Holocaust survivors and the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, who are deeply alarmed by AB 101, the ethnic studies graduation requirement bill, and the likelihood that it will lead to overtly antisemitic curricula making their way into every high school in the state and inciting hatred and hostility towards Jewish students and the Jewish community in California and well beyond.”

The signatories point out that AB 101 would allow local school districts to use any curriculum, including the highly controversial and overtly antisemitic first draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC). That draft was roundly rejected by all Jewish communal organizations, Governor Newsom, the State Board of Education, and California’s Jewish Legislative Caucus. They stated further:
“Disturbingly, although you worked hard to ensure that the final State Board of Education-approved curriculum was free from antisemitic content, the rejected first draft—including its anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist lessons—was enthusiastically supported by the state’s two largest teachers unions – the California Teachers Association (CTA) and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) – as well as dozens of ethnic studies departments on California State University and University of California campuses. Even more alarming is that the CTA, UTLA and influential ethnic studies professors on several CSU and UC campuses have warmly endorsed the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Institute (LESMC), a for-profit organization launched by the original ESMC drafters to market a ‘liberated’ curriculum that incorporates the main elements of the rejected first draft.”

While LESMC has yet to publish its final curriculum, several web pages published under the heading “Preparing to Teach Palestine: A Toolkit” suggest the LESMC curriculum will be even more politicized, divisive, and antisemitic than its predecessor. One webpage smears Israel with false charges of “settler colonialism” and “apartheid,” and uses classic antisemitic tropes of Jewish wealth and power to vilify Jewish organizations speaking out about antisemitism; another encourages teachers to “create a space within your school” to engage in anti-Zionist activism and to fight the “Zionist backlash,” identified as “white supremacy”; and a third offers “a few resources” that vilify Jewish organizations, promote anti-Zionist groups calling for Israel’s destruction, and provide “skill-building” and “training” on “how to start your own BDS campaigns.”


CAA applauds Moorlands College for adding ground-breaking explanatory note to Kittel’s Theological Dictionary following discussions, and calls on other institutions to follow suit
Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds Moorlands Collegefor adding a ground-breaking explanatory note to its editions of Kittel.

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited in part by Gerhard Kittel and known colloquially as “Kittel”, is a reference book openly available in Christian seminaries. While we recognise that it is a useful resource, we are also acutely aware that its editor and some early contributors, for example K.G. Kuhn, were supporters and propagators of Nazi ideology. Mr Kittel and Mr Kuhn were particularly engaged with the “Jewish Question” and actively developed and encouraged antisemitic ideology and conduct. The former claimed that Christianity should act “not as a protector of the Jew but as an effective anti-Jewish force”, while the latter, who supported Hitler’s SS, was a member of the Committee for Jewish Atrocity Propaganda, which arranged the 1933 boycott of Jews. There is no shortage of evidence of their worldview.

The particular issue with Kittel is not merely the views of its editors and contributors, but that their views subtly but significantly impact its content, and therefore it behoves educational institutions to make their students aware of this influence when they consult the resource.

As Prof. Maurice Casey warns in his article, Some Antisemitic Assumptions in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1999): “The frames of reference never lie on the surface of the articles: they are buried in apparently historical statements. It follows that this dictionary should be used only with the utmost care. Students should be warned of this hidden menace, and all readers should consult it only with their critical wits sharpened to the highest degree.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has accordingly written to numerous seminaries to inquire as to whether they make Kittel available to their students and, if so, urge them to include an explanatory note, which will assist both their students’ wider awareness of the historical influences on the resources that they use and also contribute to positive communal relations between Christians and Jews in the next generation.
Bristol University Professor Under Antisemitism Probe Still Scheduled to Teach Next Year, Say Jewish Students
Jewish student groups have called on the University of Bristol to address two planned courses they said are scheduled to be taught during the coming semester by David Miller, a sociology professor facing an ongoing investigation for accusations of antisemitism.

A review of Miller’s conduct began in March, after university officials learned he had advocated the “end of Zionism” in a lecture and accused Jewish students of waging a campaign of censorship at Israel’s direction.

In a Thursday letter addressed to Professor Esther Dermot, Head of the Bristol School of Policy Studies, the Bristol Jewish Society said it had learned that Miller is currently scheduled to teach two modules in the coming academic year, including “Understanding Terrorism.”

“By allowing Miller to continue teaching, you have publicly and inadvertently made your own judgement on this case. Your inaction legitimizes his views and assumes his innocence in a very serious case of antisemitic conduct,” it said. “This assumption sends the message that academics are free to harass and target Jewish students without any consequences or repercussions for their actions.”

Also signed by the head of the UK’s Union of Jewish Students, the letter argued that one of the courses Miller will teach this fall, “Harms of the Powerful,” contains material the Jewish community had specifically flagged for “containing offensive material.”
Top European Rabbi Condemns Violently Antisemitic Facebook Posts by ‘Interfaith’ Imam in Norway
A leading European rabbi has expressed dismay at revelations that a Norwegian imam who engaged in interfaith dialogue with Jews and Christians had repeatedly posted antisemitic statements on his Facebook account.

Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt of the Conference of European Rabbis said that the posts by Imam Noor Ahmed Noor “were issued by someone who claims to represent the movement for enhancing inter-religious understanding and promoting the rights of people of different faiths to live without fear of harassment or violence.”

“These expressions are wholly contradictory to the values that define us as Europeans and as people of faith,” continued Rabbi Goldschmidt, who is also an executive member of the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC).

Goldschmidt said that “Jewish communities are keenly aware of the dangerous link between hate speech and real-world violence, and Europe’s Jewish and Muslim communities are united in rejecting this antisemitism in the strongest terms.”

According to an investigation in the Norwegian press, Noor had been making antisemitic remarks on Facebook for years, including exhortations to “kill Jews.”

The imam’s sponsoring organization — the Pakistan-based Minhaj ul-Quran — said that it had suspended Noor as director of its branch in Norway. Noor himself also apologized for the posts after they were exposed, but presented them as a consequence of his legitimate opposition to the State of Israel.

“My posts were published in frustration over attacks in Gaza,” Noor stated. “Innocent children and women were killed. My criticism and frustration should have been directed at the regime. And not against a group of people. I apologize.”
Exposed: conspiracy posts of Unite's hard left
Unite members backing Steve Turner, who is standing to be elected general secretary of Britain’s largest trade union, have shared hundreds of Facebook posts riddled with conspiracy theories and inflammatory language about Israel and Zionism.

The posts, passed to the JC by the Twitter activist Gnasher Jew, include cartoons likening Israel to the Nazis.

Many feature conspiracy theories while others brand Israel a “terrorist state”, “evil” or “genocidal maniacs”.

In one post, Unite Branch Secretary Joanne Harris accused Jews of seeking to “play the victim” whilst being the “oppressor”. Ms Harris is the vice chair of United Left, the group supporting Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner’s bid for the top job.

In 2016, she defended Palestinian suicide bombers, saying their murderous acts were “born out of desperation and a will to reclaim the land which was stolen from them”.

She also praised a colleague who railed against “antisemitic nonsense” and likened Israel to the Nazis.

The colleague said that “Israel’s leaders do the same to the Palestinians as what Hitler did to the Jewish. Today Israel is the same with what Hitler did, he was a fascist … Israel does a fascist work”.

In response, Ms Harris declared: “Very well said.”
John Ware prevails in first stage of libel case against JVL members
Journalist John Ware has prevailed in the first round of his proceedings for libel against two senior members of Jewish Voice for Labour.

He claims JVL defamed his reputation as a professional journalist over the BBC Panorama programme that investigated anti-Semitism within Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

The day after transmission JVL’s media officer Naomi Wimborne-Idrissii told the Jeremy Vine show’s 1.4 million listeners on BBC Radio 2 that Ware had “ a terrible record of Islamophobia, far right politics, he’s been disciplined at – BBC has had to apologise.”

At a hearing to decide the ordinary meaning of her words, Wimborne- Idrissi argued they were just “honest opinion.”

However, Mrs Justice Steyn has ruled that reasonable listeners would have understood they were assertions of fact that Ware had “engaged in Islamophobia and extreme, far right politics, as a consequence of which the BBC has had to apologise for his conduct.” Listeners would also have understood that Wimborne-Idrissi was saying there were “reasonable grounds to suspect” that Ware “has an extensive record of Islamophobia and of involvement in extreme, far right politics.”

Ware says he has never been disciplined for anything by the BBC, is not an Islamophobe and has never engaged in “far right politics.”

The case will now proceed to trial, and Wimborne-Idrissi will have to try to prove that what she said was true. Ware is adamant that it is not.


Labour Party reportedly investigating JVL's Co-chair over comments on Newsnight
It was reported this week that the Labour Party is investigating Jenny Manson over comments she had made in an interview on BBC2’s Newsnight in November.

Ms Manson is the Co-Chair of Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), the antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.

The interview began by discussing the antisemitic former Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction to the report into Labour antisemitism by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), remarks that saw him get suspended from the Labour Party. Mr Corbyn had said: “Anyone claiming there is no antisemitism in the Labour Party is wrong. Of course there is, as there is throughout society, and sometimes it is voiced by people who think of themselves as on the left. Jewish members of our party and the wider community were right to expect us to deal with it, and I regret that it took longer to deliver that change than it should. One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated.”

When asked on Newsnight immediately after the suspension why Mr Corbyn did not apologise, Ms Manson responded by saying: “Because, many of us know that these claims have been exaggerated.” Later in the interview she reiterated the sentiment, stating: “A lot of us would say, like he said, that the allegations were over-exaggerated, partly by the media.”

This week, Ms Manson reportedly confirmed that she has been issued a “notice of investigation” in an e-mail owing to her comments made during the programme.
Swastikas daubed on French vaccination centers, in apparent Nazi comparison
The French health ministry has said at least 22 health sites were vandalized in recent weeks, some with graffiti comparing the COVID-19 vaccination drive to the Holocaust.

Five coronavirus testing sites, 15 vaccination centers, a medical laboratory, and a health center were defaced since July 12, The Guardian reported on Thursday, citing the ministry.

A number of the sites were graffitied with swastikas, yellow stars, and the words “collaborators,” “Nazi” and “genocide.”

Anti-vaccine demonstrators in France, and around the world, have repeatedly compared the coronavirus vaccine to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Last Saturday, some 237,000 people across France demonstrated against a health document that is used to access a number of public places.

The French health pass is required at museums, movie theaters, tourist sites, and was expanded to restaurants and trains on August 9. To get it, people must be fully vaccinated, have a recent negative test, or proof they recently recovered from COVID-19.
Authorities in Austrian town plan to remove SS memorial
Austrian media reported on Friday that a town in the west of the country is planning to remove a memorial to three soldiers who were members of the Waffen SS during World War II.

Public broadcaster ORF reported that the mayor of Imst, Stefan Weirather, confirmed that the municipal workers will dismantle the site.

The memorial was built in the 1970s for three men who were portrayed as having been executed by American troops on May 19, 1945 — more than a week after Nazi Germany had capitulated to the Allies.

Residents concerned about the frequent visits by far-right supporters later researched the men’s military records and found they had in fact been members of the feared Waffen SS.

The military wing of the Nazi party committed countless war crimes and was actively involved in running concentration and death camps during the Holocaust.

Town officials now want to conduct further research into the circumstances of the men’s deaths and the history of Nazi activity and their victims in the region.
Dozens of Nazi items up for auction on Australian site
An auction of Nazi memorabilia, including clothing, patches, pins and more will take place on auction site Danielle Elizabeth in Queensland, Australia on Saturday.

Among the dozens of items offered for auction is a World War II "Jewish Star of David" armband listed as rare. The white armband features a blue Star of David with the word ghetto written across it in black lettering. Also up for auction is a Waffen SS Cap insignia, an "incredible" hand embroidered retired Nazi officer shoulder patch and an SS officers tunic.

Danielle Elizabeth is an Australian antique dealer and auctioneer. One of the first antique businesses in Stanley St Brisbane was founded by the family that owns the company, according to the company's website. Pieces sold by Danielle Elizabeth have been featured in films including Thor and Pirate of the Caribbean, according to the site.

"This profiteering from the proceeds of history’s darkest crime is beyond sickening," said Dr. Dvir Abramovich, Anti-Defamation Commission chairman. Abramovitch has been pushing to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia in a national campaign.

"If Danielle Elizabeth took the time to think about the 1.5 million children murdered by the Nazis, perhaps they would twice about trafficking in these instruments of death. If Hitler were alive today, he would be applauding Danielle Elizabeth for celebrating and glorifying his regime’s monstrous deeds.
Freezing tumor instead of cutting, Israelis pioneer new bladder cancer approach
Claiming a world first, Israeli doctors have removed cancer tumors from the bladder by freezing them instead of cutting them out.

Doctors at the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa say that the method has great potential to reduce bleeding, infection risk and pain.

They have conducted the operation four times, and all patients were discharged without side effects. Over the coming weeks, they will be monitored to see how effectively the operations banished cancer, and several more patients will receive the surgery.

“Here we are actually spraying liquid Co2 instead of cutting out the tumor, a process that causes scarring of healthy tissue,” said Dr. Isaac Hoffman, who operated with his colleague Prof. Gilad Amiel. “We are very happy that we succeeded in freezing the tumor, after which the cancerous cells die off without them needing us to cut them out.”

With current methods, bladder cancer patients are often prone to recurrence, but Hoffman said he expects freeze therapy to more effectively remove cancer cells and reduce the chance of recurrence.

He noted that cryotherapy, the use of extreme cold to freeze and remove abnormal tissue, isn’t new and is used on various cancers. But until now doctors haven’t been able to use it on bladder cancer, which affects more than 2 million people worldwide, because of the nature of the tumors.
Israel to expand use of COVID drug that gets 88% of patients out of hospital
The Health Ministry has approved the expanded use of an innovative COVID-19 treatment that helped 15 out of 17 severe patients who took it to be released from the hospital one day after receiving their final dose.

The drug, MesenCure, has been tested by Rambam Medical Center as part of a Phase I/II trial. The ministry has approved allowing any interested Israeli hospital to take part in the Phase II trial and to use the drug for additional approved patients.

The goal of the expanded trial, which will include a minimum of 50 patients, is to confirm the safety and efficacy of the drug, which was developed by Bonus BioGroup.

MesenCure, which consists of activated Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) that are isolated from the adipose tissue of healthy donors, was found to reduce inflammation and alleviate respiratory and other symptoms in patients suffering from life-threatening respiratory distress brought on by COVID-19.

Back in May, the company reported on 10 COVID patients between the ages of 45 to 75, all with severe symptoms. Ninety percent of them also had comorbidities.

The data showed a 40% decrease in lung inflammation from treatment – from 55% to 15%, as seen in chest X-rays, in the first five days after treatment. One month later, lung inflammation reached 1%.

Additionally, patients showed significantly improved respiratory function, with blood oxygen saturation increasing to 95% and lung functioning returning to almost entirely normal levels after only one month.
WWII veteran, Warsaw Uprising fighter Julian Kulski dies at 92
Julian Eugeniusz Kulski, a hero of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and one of the most eminent members of the Polish diaspora, has died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 92.

Born in Warsaw in 1929, Julian Eugeniusz Kulski was the son of Julian Spitoslaw Kulski, who served as deputy mayor of Warsaw during the Nazi German occupation.

Julian Eugeniusz Kulski fought in the Warsaw Uprising, the largest underground military operation in German-occupied Europe, under the pseudonym Goliath in the "Zywiciel" platoon.

In August 2020, he told PAP that the Warsaw Uprising was the most important part of his life, and his participation in the resistance movement resulted from the knowledge he drew from history and his patriotic upbringing.

After the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising, he was sent to a POW camp in Altengrabow, Saxony. Five days before its liberation by the Red Army, he escaped in a US Red Cross vehicle, and was smuggled into England posing as a returning British POW.

He studied architecture in England, and then continued his studies at Yale University in the United States, where he settled in 1949.


Last known surviving fighter of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising dies at age 97
Leon Kopelman, possibly the last surviving man to have fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, died on Friday at age 97.

Kopelman was born in Poland in 1924 to a well-to-do family. When the Nazis took over the country and formed the Warsaw Ghetto, his family was forced into a tiny home there.

During his time in the ghetto, he began to be active in the Jewish resistance movement, the Jewish Combat Organization, or ZOB, which was committed to armed resistance against the Nazis.

He told Ynet in 2018: “I fought in the Warsaw Ghetto after the Aktions began, as Germans began taking Jews to annihiliation. In 1942, when I was 18 and my mother was 40, she was taken to Treblinka. One day I came back from work for the Germans and she was gone.”

He and his fellow fighters began killing German soldiers in the Ghetto, leading to battles and the final confrontation in April 1943, when the Germans entered the Ghetto in full force.

“When the big Aktion started, me and my friends were in a bunker,” he recounted. “The Germans began moving from home to home and declaring on a loudspeaker that they’re going to burn the houses and the rebels hiding in bunkers should surrender. We had no choice. We didn’t want to be burned alive so we came out and surrendered.”

Thousands of Jews died in Europe’s first urban anti-Nazi revolt, most of them burned alive, and nearly all the rest were then sent to Treblinka.







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