SA JEWISH REPORT STAFF

Broadcast tweet compares Israel to ISIS

SYDNEY – A tweet drawing parallels between Israel and ISIS that appeared on-screen during Monday’s edition of Q&A on Australian national television (ABC) has caused communal outrage and has drawn an apology from the national broadcaster.

The post in question stated, “Any young radical who joins ISIS or Israel should not be allowed into Australia.”

Meanwhile, two tweets objecting to the comment were not screened by the programme makers.

Noting it had received complaints from both Jewish and non-Jewish viewers, Peter Wertheim, executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, wrote to the ABC’s managing director Michelle Guthrie and director of corporate affairs Michael Millett, stating that, “The comparison with ISIS is utterly false, and viciously defamatory of Israelis, including Australian-Israeli dual nationals.

“For Q&A’s Twitter selection team to allow the … tweet to go on-screen during the programme betrays an appalling ignorance, flawed values and a lack of judgment, for which the ABC should apologise immediately and without reservation.”

The sentiment was echoed by chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission Dvir Abramovich, who urged the ABC “to put in place effective mechanisms to ensure that such abhorrent sentiments are not posted”.

Apologising for the offensive tweet, Q&A producers issued a statement which read, “An audience tweet was broadcast on Q&A which implied false equivalence between ‘radicals joining ISIS’ and Israel. It was a moderator error. Q&A apologies for any offence and removed the tweet from future broadcasts.” – The Australian Jewish News

Early detection of melanoma spreading to the brain

TEL AVIV – When malignant melanoma – the most dangerous kind of skin cancer – spreads to the brain, it is almost always a death sentence. But now, Tel Aviv University researchers have found a way to detect micro-metastases – tiny bunches of spreading cancer cells – months before they reach the brain and develop into fatal tumours.

The mechanisms that govern early metastatic growth and interactions of metastatic cells with the brain micro-environment have long remained shrouded in mystery.

According to the research led by Dr Neta Erez of TAU’s pathology department and just published in Cancer Research, micro-tumour cells hijack astrogliosis, the brain’s natural response to damage or injury, to support metastatic growth.

This breakthrough could lead to the detection of brain cancer in its first stages and permit early intervention.

Erez and her team used mice to study and follow the spontaneous metastasis of melanoma in the brain. They recapitulated all the stages of metastasis – the initial discovery of melanoma in the skin, the removal of the primary tumour, the micro-metastatic dissemination of cancer cells across the body, the discovery of a tumour and death.

The detection of metastasis depends on imaging techniques that still can’t detect micro-metastases.

Melanoma patients whose initial melanoma was excised believe that everything is fine for months or years following the initial procedure. But after the primary tumour is removed, micro-metastatic cells learn to communicate with cells in their new micro-environment in the brain. These cells are at first hostile to them, but eventually, a tumour appears.

The cells travel across the body to the brain or other organs but are undetectable at the micro level. When they become detectable, it is already too late for treatment. – Jerusalem Post

Israel’s largest-ever Olympic delegation heads to Rio

TEL AVIV – Fifty-one Israeli athletes in 17 sports will compete for the blue-and-white at the 2016 Olympics this month.

Rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin will hold Israel’s blue-and-white flag aloft at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, to be held August 5 to 21.

The Olympic delegation that will be led into the stadium by Rivkin is Israel’s largest since the country’s first Olympic Games in 1952. The qualifiers include Israel’s first Olympic competitors in golf, triathlon and mountain biking.

Rivkin, who finished seventh in her category at the 2012 London Games, is one of 11 repeat Olympic athletes from Israel who are hoping for a spot on the medalists’ podium.

At the Baku World Cup in Azerbaijan in July, she won a bronze medal.

The 2016 delegation also includes 34 coaches and about 25 support staff.

In 16 Olympic Games, Israelis have won seven medals – in judo, sailing and canoeing. The only gold medallist was windsurfer Gal Fridman (Athens, 2004) and he also won a bronze medal in Atlanta in 1996. – Israel 21c

Revolutionary artificial material fits body like a glove

TEL AVIV – A new material not found in nature that has unique properties and potential applications that require exact fitting on the human body and soft robots has been engineered by scientists at Tel Aviv University and in the Netherlands.
The great advantage of the meta-material is that it can be produced to fit any format. In the future, the innovative material could be used to build custom-made prostheses for amputees as well as other wearable technologies that can mould to the body exactly; soft robots could also be manufactured from the new material.

“Meta-materials are smart materials engineered by man and not found in nature,” said Dr Yair Shokef, head of the research group at TAU’s School of Mechanical Engineering. “In contrast to the materials currently being used whose characteristics are determined by their chemical composition (atoms and molecules), the physical properties of meta-materials result from their spatial structure.
“Thus,” said Shokef, “the special building blocks and how they fit together determine the characteristics of the meta-material. In the new study, the meta-material we have developed are ground-breaking and three-dimensional rather than cyclical, in which the patterns keep repeating themselves.
“All meta-materials developed so far have been homogeneous and crafted according to one pattern. But we and our colleagues in the Netherlands have developed cubical building blocks that are hollow, allowing flexibility.”

The new meta-material especially interfaces with biological surfaces, especially the human body, which is not uniform by nature. For example, it will be possible in future to build prostheses that most accurately suit an amputee’s stump like a glove, and improve their feeling and functioning. – Jerusalem Post

Police probe Arabic newspaper for article blaming Jews for the Holocaust

LONDON, Ontario – In the days after a Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic article ran in a London, Ontario-based Arabic-language newspaper, police are investigating whether it qualifies as a crime, while politicians who had advertised in the paper are vowing never to do business with the publication again.

According to a statement by B’nai Brith Canada, an article titled “The Question Which Everyone Ignores: Why Did Hitler Kill the Jews?” ran in the June-July issue of the Al-Saraha newspaper, which B’nai Brith says can be found “in every Middle Eastern restaurant and every Middle Eastern grocery in Southwestern Ontario.”

The article by Egyptian writer Salah Montasser originally published in Al-Masry Al-Youm, an Egyptian daily newspaper, asserts that the figure of six million Jewish Holocaust victims is based on “Jewish propaganda” that “managed to spread [this number] and establish it.”

It accuses Jews of causing “most of the economic collapses that occurred in the banks in the period between 1870 and 1920”.

Montasser also said “the first theatres of homosexuality appeared in Berlin in the 1920s, and the first presentations of pornography appeared in 1880 and 1890 by the hands of Jewish authors”.

In a statement, B’nai B’rith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn said the article “constitutes an obscene form of hate propaganda aimed at Canada’s Jewish community. Its appearance in a community newspaper which hosts advertisements from local businesses and mainstream political parties is extremely worrying.”- Canadian Jewish News

Is Ivan Lewis the man to unite Manchester?

MANCHESTER – Ivan Lewis is on a mission. The veteran Jewish MP is fighting to be Labour’s candidate in next year’s Manchester mayoral election.

He has a mountain to climb – his rivals for the nomination are Tony Lloyd, who is currently interim mayor, and Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham.

But Lewis told the Jewish Chronicle that he is confident.

The former chief executive of The Fed, Manchester’s Jewish social welfare charity, said: “Unlike some politicians, I wasn’t a special advisor fast-tracked into a safe seat and then into a big ministerial job.

“I started off in my local community. I set up a charity supporting people with learning disabilities and mental health problems at the age of 19. And I served for eight years in local government.”

He believes an elected mayor could benefit not only the city as a whole but its Jews as well.

“Look at the history of Greater Manchester – the contribution of the Jewish community in culture, commerce, politics, is extraordinary, and I think it’s incredibly important that that is celebrated and sustained.

“Today the contribution of the Jewish community to the wider community in Manchester is very substantial indeed.

Lewis, an MP since 1987, was sacked from Jeremy Corbyn’s first shadow cabinet last September and he is now a leading critic of Corbyn. – Jewish Chronicle, London