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TRUMP: U.S. TROOPS WILL REMAIN IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR ISRAEL

SARA RUBENSTEIN

TRUMP: U.S. TROOPS WILL REMAIN IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR ISRAEL
“Oil is becoming less and less of a reason to stay in the Middle East because we’re producing more oil now than we’ve ever produced,” Trump said.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on the eve of the U.S. mid-term elections. (photo credit: REUTERS/CARLOS BARRIA)

We have reached a point where we don’t have to stay in the Middle East. One reason to stay is Israel,” US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday evening in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post.

Trump made this comment when he spoke about the possibility of US forces withdrawing from the Middle East. He said that the lower price of oil would be a reason for US troops to withdraw from the Middle East region. “Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because we’re producing more oil now than we’ve ever produced,” he said. “So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you don’t have to stay there. One reason to stay is Israel.”

This isn’t the first time Trump has held Israel as an virtuous example in the Middle East. During a meeting with Putin in Helsinki in July, Trump said, “We’ve worked with Israel long and hard for many years,” adding that the US has never been closer to Israel than it is today. “President Putin also is helping Israel, and we both spoke with ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu and they would like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel.”

Trump said “we,” which apparently indicated that Moscow and Washington are both working with Israel and “Israel working with us.” He continued, “I think their working with Israel is a great thing – and creating safety for Israel is something both President Putin and I would like to see very much.”

The US president also addressed this week’s tension between Ukraine and Russia when three Ukrainian ships near Crimea were immobilized and taken over by Russian forces. Trump said he waiting for a “full report” from his national security team about the incident but is considering canceling his scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, which convenes on Friday and Saturday. 

“That will be very determinative,” Trump told the Post. “Maybe I won’t have the meeting. Maybe I won’t even have the meeting … I don’t like that aggression. I don’t want that aggression at all,” he said. “Absolutely. And by the way, Europe shouldn’t like that aggression. And Germany shouldn’t like that aggression.”

Trump justified his support for Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in light of the CIA assessment that bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to the The Washington Post before his death. Trump questioned the reliability of the CIA assessment, saying that the CIA did not make a definite statement about Bin Salman’s guilt. Additionally, Trump said that the Crown Prince had denied responsibility.

“Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t,” Trump said. “But he denies it. And people around him deny it. And the CIA did not say affirmatively he did it, either, by the way. I’m not saying that they’re saying he didn’t do it, but they didn’t say it affirmatively.”

Seth J. Frantzman contributed to this report.

Israeli companies win 2 of 20 CES 2019 Innovation Awards

Abigail Klein Leichman

Innoviz (vehicle intelligence category) and WaterGen (tech for a better world category) pick up prestigious honors ahead of the CES show in January.

Watergen’s GENNY home and office machine extracts clean water from the air. Photo: courtesy

Israel’s Innoviz Technologies and Watergen received two of the 20  CES 2019 Innovation Awards  presented earlier this month at CES Unveiled New York, the official kickoff party featuring the emerging tech trends expected to dominate the CES show floor in January in Las Vegas.

The CES Innovation Awards is the Consumer Technology Association’s annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products.

Innoviz was recognized by the judges for its automotive-grade InnovizOne automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR and Computer Vision software.

“CES has emerged as the most important automobile technology gathering in the world, so it’s particularly rewarding to be recognized as the highest-rated technology in the Vehicle Intelligence category by industry influencers for our role in overcoming LiDAR’s key weaknesses in an aggressive timeframe and essentially accelerating the mass commercialization of autonomous vehicles,” said Omer Keilaf, CEO and Co-Founder of Innoviz.

“Automakers have been clamoring for a mass-market LiDAR solution. BMW’s selection to integrate Innoviz’s sensing technology and Computer Vision software for serial production demonstrates real commitment for solid-state LiDAR from automotive OEMs,” he said.

.In 2018, Innoviz received CES Innovation Awards Honoree recognition in the same category for its InnovizPro high-definition, solid-state LiDAR

Image courtesy of Innoviz

Watergen won in the Tech for a Better World category for its forthcoming GENNY, a small home and office water generator that can produce 25 to 30 liters of clean drinking water per day from humidity in the air.

The 50-kilogram GENNY also was selected as an honoree in the Home Appliances category.

Watergen’s efforts to make clean water available around the world earned the company a place on the World Economic Forum’s list of the world’s top technology pioneers in 2018. WaterGen is opening a US subsidiary that will consist of three manufacturing facilities.

“We are pleased the CES committee recognized the uniqueness of the GENNY,” said Executive Chairman of Watergen, Maxim Pasik. “The GENNY will revolutionize the way drinking water is delivered around the globe. No longer will you need to carry five gallon water jugs into your home or office.”

Additional Watergen innovations are to be unveiled at the CES show this January

REPORT: RUSSIA COMPLETES SYRIAN AIR DEFENSES, TROUBLES ISRAEL, U.S.

JERUSALEM POST STAFF

The report paints a stark picture of increasing Russian entrenchment in Syria as Putin and the west have squared off in recent days over naval confrontations in Ukraine.

A still image, taken from a video footage and released by Russia’s Defence Ministry on November 19, 2018, shows Sukhoi Su-57 jet fighters during a flight in Syria. (photo credit: RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Russia has completed a comprehensive air defense system in Syria that constrains the United States’ ability to operate in the country and in the eastern Mediterranean, according to a new report published by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.

The report paints a stark picture of increasing Russian entrenchment in Syria as Putin and the west have squared off in recent days over naval confrontations in Ukraine.

The Russian moves include the deployment of S-300 and S-400 missiles and other weapons systems as well as electronic warfare capabilities in Syria. Underlying the Kremlin’s efforts, the report claims, is a wider push to force American troops to withdraw from Syria. 

The Syrian deployments will also severely limit Israel’s ability to launch strikes against Iranian forces in the country. Syrian media claimed that Israel targeted Iranian-backed militias in al-Kiswah south of the capital of Damascus, some 50 kilometers from the border with Israel, on Thursday evening.

“The US and Israel both must be prepared to suppress a larger number of air defense systems and use more expensive stealth aircraft such as the F-35 in Syria,” the ISW’s report said.

However, the Russian strategy also has profound implications for US power projection throughout the region. 

“Russia stands to gain a long-term strategic advantage over NATO through its new capabilities in Syria,” the report’s authors write. “The US and NATO must now account for the risk of a dangerous escalation in the Middle East amidst any confrontation with Russia in Eastern Europe.”

Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.

Israeli scientists develop implanted organs that won’t be rejected

ISRAEL21c Staff

Breakthrough development uses a patient’s own stomach cells, cutting the risk of an immune response to implanted organs.

Regenerative medicine illustration by Valentina Kru via Shutterstock.com

Israeli researchers report that they have invented the first fully personalized tissue implant, engineered from a patient’s own materials and cells. The new technology makes it possible to engineer any kind of tissue implant, for the spinal cord, to the heart, or brain, from one small fatty tissue biopsy.

“We were able to create a personalized hydrogel from the materials of the biopsy, to differentiate fatty tissue cells into different cell types and to engineer cardiac, spinal cord, cortical and other tissue implants to treat different diseases,” said lead researcher Prof. Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University’s Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology.

“Since both the cells and the material used derive from the patient, the implant does not provoke an immune response, ensuring proper regeneration of the defected organ,” Dvir explained.

The research was conducted by Dvir’s postdoctoral researcher, Reuven Edri, and doctoral students Nadav Noor and Idan Gal, in collaboration with Prof. Dan Peer and Prof. Irit Gat Viks of TAU’s Department of Cell Research and Immunology and Prof. Lior Heller of Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center in Israel. It was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Avoiding anti-rejection drugs

Currently, in tissue engineering for regenerative medicine, cells are isolated from the patient and cultured in biomaterials to assemble into a functional tissue. These biomaterials can be synthetic or natural, derived from plants or animals.

After transplantation, they may induce an immune response that leads to rejection of the implanted tissue. Patients receiving engineered tissues or any other implants are treated with immuno-suppressors, which unfortunately can endanger the health of the patient.

The new method solves that problem.

“With our technology, we can engineer any tissue type, and after transplantation we can efficiently regenerate any diseased or injured organ — a heart after a heart attack, a brain after trauma or with Parkinson’s disease, a spinal cord after injury,” said Dvir.

“In addition, we can engineer adipogenic [fatty tissue] implants for reconstructive surgeries or cosmetics. These implants will not be rejected by the body.”

The researchers extracted a small biopsy of fatty tissue from patients, then separated its cellular and a-cellular materials. While the cells were reprogrammed to become induced pluripotent stem cells — able to make cells from all three basic body layers, so they can potentially produce any cell or tissue the body needs to repair itself — the extracellular material was processed to become a personalized hydrogel.

After combining the resulting stem cells and the hydrogel, the scientists successfully engineered the personalized tissue samples and tested the patients’ immune responses to them.

The researchers are currently engaged in regenerating an injured spinal cord and an infarcted heart with spinal-cord and cardiac implants. They have also begun to investigate the potential of human dopaminergic implants to treat Parkinson’s disease in animal models.

The researchers plan to regenerate other organs, including intestines and eyes, using the patients’ own materials and cells.

“We believe that the technology of engineering fully personalized tissue implants of any type will allow us to regenerate any organ with a minimal risk of immune response,” Dvir said.