News Digest — 7/29/19
Arrow 3 Missile Defense System: ‘Execution Was Perfect – All Precise Hits’
Prime Minister/Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (28th) delivered remarks at the start of the cabinet meeting regarding the successful tests of the Arrow 3 defense system in Alaska.
“In recent weeks we have carried out three pioneering secret experiments of the Arrow 3 missile. These experiments were held in the U.S., in Alaska, in full cooperation with our great ally the United States.”
“They were successful beyond any imagination. The Arrow 3 – with complete success – intercepted ballistic missiles beyond the atmosphere at unprecedented altitudes and speeds. The execution was perfect – all precise hits.”
“Today Israel has the ability to act against ballistic missiles that could be launched against us from Iran or anywhere else. This is a great achievement for the security of Israel.”
“All of our enemies should know that we will overcome them in both defense and offense,” he added.
In addition to the Arrow system, Israel’s air defenses currently include the Iron Dome – designed to shoot short-range rockets – and the David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, medium-to long-range rockets, as well as cruise missiles fired at ranges between 25 to 187 miles.
(israelnn.com; jpost.com)
Stop Hezbollah In Latin America, Senator Cruz Says
At a Capitol Hill event on Thursday (25th) commemorating the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Argentina, Senator Ted Cruz warned that the Hezbollah terrorist organization responsible for the attack, which killed 85 people and wounded 200, is still active in Latin America.
“Hezbollah continues to radicalize people in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil through mosques and schools that preach the group’s extremist agenda,” Cruz, the keynote speaker at a policy discussion held by the Center for a Secure Free Society, charged. “It’s time for Latin America to reckon with the significant and the dangerous presence of Hezbollah in the region.”
The pro-Israel Republican senator congratulated Argentina for being the first Latin American country to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on July 18.
As the Lebanese-based Iranian terror proxy’s growth was “unchecked in the tri-border area (TBA) that encompasses the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay,” Cruz urged the other two countries to follow suit.
Hezbollah has long been known to take advantage of the loose border controls in the TBA to move massive amounts of money from one country to another and launder it to help support its terror activities. Last July, with U.S. cooperation, Argentina’s Financial Intelligence Unit froze the assets of 14 Lebanese who live in the TBA and were part of the multi-million dollar scheme.
“It was all part of the world’s duty to keep the Islamic Republic in check,” Cruz said.
He then spoke of the bill he had introduced in the Senate last month, called the Countering Hezbollah in Lebanon’s Military Act of 2019.
Part of the UN Security Council’s resolution 1701 that ended the Second Lebanon War with Israel states that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is the only army that should exist in the country and therefore must disarm Hezbollah.
The proposed law says that unless the president can ascertain that the LAF is doing what is necessary to end Hezbollah’s and Iran’s influence over the army, U.S. military aid to Beirut would be cut by 20 percent.
Both Israeli analysts and politicians have said that it is currently impossible to differentiate between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah.
Last year, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett threatened that in any future military conflict, “the State of Israel… will view Lebanon as responsible for any action from within its territory.”
(worldisraelnews.com)
The Myth Of Hebron’s Shuhada Street – Steve Frank
Shuhada Street in Hebron in the West Bank, once the thriving market center of the city, was largely shut down for security reasons and in the Palestinian narrative has become a symbol of alleged Israeli apartheid. Visitors are not told of the long history of violence by Arabs against Jews in Hebron which resulted in the closure of the street.
They are also not told that the commercial center of Hebron has moved less than a mile from Shuhada Street to Ein Sarah Street and has become a thriving market district, complete with an ultra-modern indoor nine-story mall with American fast-food franchises. It is a place where Jews (not just Israelis, but Jews from any country) are banned. I know because on my recent tour of the area, our group was asked whether there were any Jews before we were allowed to continue into the market district.
While very few visitors are allowed to see more than Shuhada Street, Hebron is the most prosperous city in the PA, with 17,000 factories and woodshops, four hospitals, three universities, and an indoor 4,000-seat basketball stadium.
The real shame of Shuhada Street is not that a small number of Palestinians are prevented from going there but that the Israeli army is needed to prevent the 85 Jewish families who live nearby from being massacred. The real problem in Hebron from a Palestinian point of view is that it is the only city under Palestinian control that allows even a small number of Jews to reside there.
The real apartheid in the West Bank lies with the Palestinians, who insist that any independent Palestinian state be judenrein (Jew-free), in sharp contrast to Israel where two million Arabs reside as full citizens and constitute 20% of the Israeli population.
(The writer, an attorney, retired after 30 years with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington)
(jns.org; israelhayom.com)
Jewish Man Injured Outside Florida Synagogue In Drive-By Shooting
In what police are investigating as a possible hate crime, a Jewish man was shot Sunday (28th) as he waited outside a Florida synagogue for afternoon prayer services to start.
Four bullets hit the man, as six shots were fired from a dark-colored vehicle that drove past the Young Israel of Greater Miami, according to media reports.
A medic from the Jewish nonprofit emergency medical organization Hatzolah was in the synagogue and treated the man, 69, at the scene, the Yeshuva World News reported.
The man was taken to the Aventura Medical Center and was said to be in stable condition.
Yeshuva World News identified the man using his traditional Hebrew name Yosef Noach ben Leah Tzivyah.
North Miami Beach Police arrived at the scene and are examining security footage to glean more details about the vehicle and the shooting. Detectives are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.
The Anti-Defamation League said in a tweet that it is “closely monitoring the situation.”
The attack comes months after shootings at two synagogues: one in Pittsburgh, PA., and another in Poway, CA.
Eleven people were killed and seven injured in the October 27, 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in what was the worst attack against Jewish people in the modern history of the United States.
On April 27, one person was killed and three injured when a gunman opened fire at the Chabad of Poway, as the congregation celebrated the last day of Passover.
(timesofisrael.com)
Israeli Technology Promises To Revolutionize Bone Healing – Eytan Halon
Israeli biotechnology company Bonus BioGroup has developed a unique technology to revolutionize bone healing. It has the world’s first viable human bone graft manufacturing facility, where bone grafts are constructed outside the body from the patient’s own live-tissue. A new bone is grown in a laboratory bioreactor and then implanted back into the patient.
“Because every patient gets his own tissue and own cells back, the safety profile of this kind of therapy is very high,” said Dr. Shai Meretzki, President of Bonus BioGroup. “There is no immune reaction to the implant, never mind rejection….We see a very nice recovery and complete healing of the bone gap.”
For those with osteoporosis which involves large bone cavities instead of gaps, to overcome this, we grow the bone in thousands of tiny particles and then we can just inject those particles into the cavity. The bone is filled with tens of millions of cells that keep growing, and become bigger and solid within 24-hours. Filling the cavity with injectable bone reduces a painful operation of 15 hours into a treatment of 10 minutes, and within two months, the bone is healthy, alive, viable and active again.”
“We take the hardest cases where people have little or no options left. They all end up back on their feet with full use of their limbs. One patient, 13 months after he had a bone implant in his leg, completed the Ironman Triathlon,” Meretzki added.
(jpost.com)
