Israel

Bennett Heads to Egypt

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Sharm elSheikh, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, on Monday. This was the first public visit of an Israeli prime minister to Egypt in more than a decade. The last time a meeting like this took place was between former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

According to a spokesman for the Egyptian presidency, the two leaders were to “discuss bilateral issues related to bilateral relations, ways and efforts to revive the peace process as well as recent developments in the region and international arenas.”

An El Al flight carrying the prime minister departed from Tel Aviv to Sharm el-Sheikh early Monday afternoon. Bennett was expected to return home to Israel later on Monday.

Bennett was invited to visit Egypt and meet with Sissi last month, during a meeting he held with Egyptian intelligence head Abbas Kamel in Jerusalem. The prime minister said last month that he had accepted the invitation and would soon visit in order “to strengthen and expand relations between the countries in the region.”

The meeting saw a rare smiling photo of the two leaders. Even more surprising, an Israeli flag stood behind Bennett, in contrast to previous meetings between Israeli and Egyptian premiers.

Bennett’s visit to Egypt comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and terror groups in Gaza, with three rocket attacks in as many days drawing retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.

Egypt in recent months has tried to more publicly play the role of responsible, effective broker between Israel and Hamas. Cairo played a central role in negotiating the ceasefire that ended the May Israel-Gaza war after 11 days and has worked since to advance a long-term ceasefire as well as a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

Earlier this month, the London-based Rai al-Youm online newspaper reported that Sissi was also leading a push to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Shortly before news of Bennett’s trip was revealed, Israel announced it was lifting COVID restrictions on the travel of Israelis to the Sinai Peninsula, a popular tourism destination. During Kamel’s visit to Israel last month, the National Security Council announced it had scaled back its security travel advisory for the Sinai for the first time in years.

Meanwhile, EgyptAir, the national airline of Egypt, is scheduled to launch direct Tel Aviv-Cairo flights next month, after years of hiding the flights – mandated by Israel’s 1979 peace treaty with Egypt – through a subsidiary.

Israel and Egypt have bolstered their diplomatic ties in recent years. The two governments share close security interests in the Gaza Strip as well as in Sinai and the eastern Mediterranean.

Additionally, the fact that four countries have recently normalized relations with the Jewish State under the Abraham Accords makes a warmer relationship between Egypt and Israel more palatable to the Arab nation.

Looking for a full-time administrative assistant to work in a Shomer Shabbos office in Pikesville.

Must be a detail oriented, dedicated professional with good written and oral communication skills, and customer service/office experience. Will need to work well in a team environment. Please email your resume to menucha@commercetitleco.com.

Building Collapse in Holon

After a building collapsed in Holon, the city architect urged residents to inspect their buildings and alert the city if there is a problem. The 32-family building had collapsed just hours after it had been evacuated over the weekend. Residents had reported hearing cracking in the walls, which compelled officials to require evacuation, thus saving scores of lives.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Aviad Mor, who is also acting city engineer, said the municipality was not planning to carry out widespread inspections even though other buildings could also be in danger of collapsing, saying it was the responsibility of residents to determine if there was a problem.

Mor said the building collapsed due to the apparent failure of a central support column and noted that the building was built decades ago.

First responders were called to the building on Saturday after residents reported hearing the sound of a blast. Images showed cracks on the walls of the building, and police said residents were unable to open the front doors of their apartments.

The decision to evacuate the building was made in coordination with professional engineers, police said at the time, with officers closing off the street outside the building and police urging people to stay away.

A day later, the building, on Serlin Street in the central Israel city, collapsed, reflecting how close the situation had been to becoming a mass-casualty disaster resembling the collapse in June of a high-rise residential building in Florida, which killed 98 people.

Despite the city’s lack of resources, Mor said Holon would help pay for the plans to rebuild the building.

Mor also responded to complaints by the evacuated residents that the city was not doing enough to help them after they lost all their possessions.

“We are giving the residents all that we can under the law as a first response,” he said. The city announced it was giving each family an immediate initial assistance package of NIS 5,000 ($1,500).

Sugar Levels Linked to Covid Severity

Elevated pre-infection blood sugar levels are correlated with a greater risk of severe COVID-19 cases even in non-diabetics, a new Israeli study showed.

The study, first published in the PLoS ONE journal, uncovered a correlation between sugar levels and the risk of severe COVID-19 morbidity, regardless of a diabetes diagnosis.

The research was conducted by the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Kupat Holim Meuhedet HMO, and Hadassah Medical Center, and included 37,121 subjects who were members of Meuhedet.

It showed that in patients diagnosed with diabetes, the highest risk (1 of 4 patients) of contracting severe

For all your auto, home, life and business needs.

David Flamm

O 410-616-9186 C 718-404-5598 david@flammins.com

www.flammins.com

COVID-19 was found in patients with low sugar values. The lowest risk (1 of 12) was found in patients with high sugar values. For patients with no diagnosis of diabetes, the higher the sugar values, the greater the risk of severe COVID-19.

The researchers recommended paying special attention to low sugar-value diabetics, as well as to patients with no diagnosis of diabetes who show abnormal sugar levels during fasting or who show elevated HbA1C hemoglobin levels.

“The aim of the study was to locate risk factors for COVID-19 severe morbidity which could be handled in advance, so we could raise the awareness of those factors among the general public,” said Dr. Michal Shauly-Aharonov of the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering at JCT and Hebrew University’s School of Public Health. “Locating factors related to severe morbidity and death, G-d forbid, is important principally to shed light on the populations at risk, so they can receive priority in receiving vaccines.”

Dr. Orit Bernholtz-Gulchin, head of the Kupat Holim Meuhedet regional diabetes clinic, said the findings mean that the medical community’s emphasis for those diagnosed with diabetes “should be placed on preventing hypoglycemia (a condition in which blood sugar level drops radically from normative levels) in populations found to be at risk of severe COVID-19 comorbidity.”

Prof. Ora Paltiel of Hebrew University’s School of Public Health noted, “The study shows very strongly how much can be learned from quality and continuous medical recording, such as the one we have in the Israeli health care system.”

Tel Aviv is “Funnest” City

Aviv was ranked as the “funnest” city and the eighth-best overall, out of the 37 “best cities” around the world by the London-based Time Out magazine.

The global culture and events publication sought out the opinions of almost 27,000 city-dwellers on food, culture, nightlife, community, neighborhoods, overall happiness and other factors in their own cities, such as community projects, green spaces, and sustainability.

While ranking Tel Aviv eighth overall, the magazine said that Israel’s second-largest city had scored highest in the “fun” category, second in the food and drink category, and was the city most likely to be described as “good for people like me.”

“When COVID hit tourism, this high-tech hub hit the Reset button,” Time Out wrote. “The pandemic caused the ‘city that never stops’ to take a well-needed pause. Spaces like Dizengoff Square and Park HaMesila played host to picnics, gigs, screenings and talks. After the lockdowns, Israel led the vaccination race and before long locals were back sipping cappuccinos in cafes and doing yoga on the beach.”

A September 2018 Time Out survey ranked Tel Aviv’s Shuk Hapishpeshim (flea market) area as the 16th-coolest neighborhood in the world. This year’s ranking noted the city’s Carmel Market as “the pulsating heart of the city.”

Coastal Tel Aviv, nicknamed the “White City” for its thousands of Bauhaus-style buildings, placed between seventh-place Prague in the Czech Republic and ninth-place Porto in northwest Portugal

It was the highest-ranked city in the Middle East, with Dubai coming in 26th and Abu Dhabi in 30th place.

San Francisco nabbed the top spot on the list, followed by Holland’s Amsterdam and Manchester, in northern England. Bangkok closed the list in 37th place.

Tel Aviv has a population of over 460,000 people.

Lapid: “Israel Will Not Sit Quietly”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met last Thursday

in Moscow for their first professional meeting since Lapid took office in June.

In a joint statement following their meeting, Lapid said, “The people of Russia supported the creation of the State of Israel. We owe you. And we are a people with a long memory.”

“Russia is one of Israel’s most significant and important partners,” Lapid added. “The Foreign Minister and I discussed ways to strengthen and deepen the relations between the new government of Israel and the Russian government. We all aspire to bring security and stability in our region and to the world.”

However, he emphasized, “Unfortunately, there won’t be stability in Syria, or in the wider Middle East, while there is an Iranian presence. Iran is the world’s number one exporter of terror. It threatens us all. Israel will not sit quietly by while Iran builds terror bases on our northern border, or while Iran supplies advanced weapons to terror organizations – weapons intended to be used against us.

“We will maintain our ability to defend ourselves in the face of threats from Syria and elsewhere.”

On the Iranian nuclear program, Lapid warned, “The two IAEA reports are damning: they include serious violations – fraud, deception and outright lies. The picture is clear and very worrying.

“The message to Iran must be loud and it must be clear. Iran’s march towards a nuclear weapon is not only an Israeli problem; it’s a problem for the entire world. A nuclear Iran will lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, and the last thing any of us want is to see nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands.

“The world needs to stop Iran from getting a nuclear capability, no matter the price. If the world doesn’t do it, Israel reserves the right to act. The Iranians have never hidden the fact that they want to destroy Israel. That is an existential threat for us. Israel will not allow Iran to become a nuclear state, or even a nuclear threshold state.”

Can Oxygen Therapy Slow Alzheimer’s?

Oxygen therapy in an animal trial slowed the build-up of plaque in the brain, Israeli scientists wrote in a peer-reviewed research published last Thursday in Aging. Plaque build-up in the brain is a characteristic sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Tel Aviv University researchers concluded in their study that oxygen therapy improves the functioning of the human brain and that in animals it fights the build-up of brain plaque.

The team also monitored six people over the age of 60 who had experienced signs of cognitive decline. For those people, 60 oxygen therapy sessions over 90 days improved blood flow to the brain by an average of 20% and improved memory by an average of 16.5%.

Professor Uri Ashery, the study’s lead author, told The Times of Israel, “I don’t think this can ‘cure’ Alzheimer’s in humans, but it may be able to significantly slow its progression and severity. Further studies are needed, but people could possibly start benefiting from this in just a few years.”

He noted, “We had a control group of similar mice that did not receive the oxygen therapy, and they grew many more amyloid plaques. Among those who received the therapy, only a third of the number of new plaques appeared, and existing large plaques reduced their size, on average, to a half of what they were.

“More research is needed, but there could be tremendous benefits if this can help people who lose cognitive abilities, either before or during the onset of Alzheimer’s.”

Biden Pushed Abbas to Shelve ICC Probe

Senior Biden administration officials had privately pressured Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to backtrack on his efforts to have Israel tried for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in Hague, a Middle Eastern diplomatic official told the Times of Israel.

According to the Thursday report, the Biden administration maintains that the ICC does not have jurisdiction to adjudicate the case, since Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the ICC.

The previous administration under U.S. President Donald Trump held similar views.

Washington maintains that there is no sovereign “Palestinian” state and that the Palestinian Authority should therefore not be granted ICC membership or allowed to delegate jurisdiction to the court.

Although the U.S. has refrained from publicly calling on Abbas to revoke his complaint against Israel, the U.S. has issued statements “firmly” opposing the ICC probe.

Publicly, Abbas has refused the requests, maintaining that he has every right to pursue the probe and that it is one of the few avenues he has to peacefully confront Israel l.

It is not clear whether Abbas has the authority to turn back the clock and prevent the probe.

A “well-placed Palestinian source” confirmed that Biden officials requested earlier this year that the ICC probe be shelved but said that the pressure has mostly subsided.

A U.S. official noted, “The United States firmly opposes the ICC investigation into the Palestinian Situation. We will continue to uphold our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including by opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly.”

Dr. Attempts Stabbing in Old City

Dr. Khazm al-Julani, a doctor from one of Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods, has been identified as the terrorist who attempted to stab a police officer on Friday.

Israel Police footage of the attempted stabbing, which occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City, shows al-Julani attacking one of the police officers with a knife. The footage then shows the officer reacting by protecting himself and running backwards, before opening fire and neutralizing the terrorist.

Border Police who were standing behind the terrorist also drew their weapons.

Al-Julani sustained severe injuries, and a Border Police officer standing near him suffered light injuries to his leg after flying shrapnel hit him.

Al-Julani, who served as director of a college for alternative medicine in Jerusalem, did not manage to stab the police officers. He was evacuated from the area unconscious and in serious condition and was hospitalized at Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center in Jerusalem. He was declared dead a short time later.

Police raided his home and detained his brothers and two sons for questioning after the attack.

2 Stabbed in Jerusalem

Two men were stabbed outside the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem on Monday. The terrorist was then shot by a police officer.

The two victims, who were moderately wounded, were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman said the suspect, whom he identified as a 17-year-old Palestinian from the Hebron area, was in serious condition. The assailant was named in media reports as Basil Shawamra, a resident of the town of Deir al-Asal al-Fauqa, near Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Tourgeman added that police detained two people near the bus station on suspicion of assisting the attacker and were searching for others.

The attacker entered a store outside the bus station and stabbed two shoppers, who are yeshiva students. As he struggled with one of them, he was shot by a policewoman.

“There is no doubt that there is an escalation,” the Jerusalem police chief said, noting a number of other recent attacks.

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev hailed the response of the officers.

“Congratulations to the Border Police patrol that successfully stopped the attack at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem,” Barlev wrote on Twitter. “A heroine who bravely strove for contract with the terrorist and handled the situation with professionalism, speed and sharpness.”

The incident followed an attempted attack in the West Bank earlier Monday, in which a Palestinian man tried to stab two IDF soldiers at a hitchhiking station but was shot before he could inflict harm. The attacker was shot in the hand and transported to Shaare Zedek in moderate to serious condition.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank over the past week following the dramatic escape of six Palestinian prisoners from the high-security Gilboa Prison last Monday. Four of the six prisoners were recaptured by police over the weekend, but two remain at large. Security officials believe they may be hiding out in the West Bank and receiving assistance from Palestinians there.

Overnight on Sunday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at Israel, which were intercepted by the Gaza Strip, marking a third consecutive night of rocket fire from Gaza.

Separately, on Friday afternoon, an assailant was shot as he attempted to stab police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City, and later died of his wounds. The attempted stabbing occurred at the Old City’s Council (Majlis) Gate, on the northern side of the western Temple Mount wall, police said. Video of the incident showed the assailant repeatedly trying to stab a police officer, who backed away and opened fire.

Flare-Up Concerns in Gaza

Israel’s defense establishment is concerned that the security stability in Gaza, as well as in Judea, Samaria, and the rest of Israel, may be disrupted.

Officials are concerned that flareups may be sparked by continued clashes within Judea and Samaria, as well as by the capture of terrorists who escaped the Gilboa Prison last Monday, September 6.

Four of the terrorists were captured between Friday evening and Saturday morning, including Fatah terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, but as of Monday, Israeli security forces were still searching for the remaining two terrorists. Security officials believe that one of the terrorists may have escaped to Palestinian Authority-controlled territory and are focusing on locating the other terrorist, who is believed to still be in Israel, likely in the north of the country.

All relevant bodies were warned before Rosh Hashana that there may be an escalation in tensions, and therefore security was increased. However, it seems that, according to a source, the Israel Prisons Service “fell asleep.”

Meanwhile, last Wednesday night,