‘The dark matter is just sitting there’: What’s standing in the way of AI for life sciences

Charlotte Schubert -

Life scientists have a data problem: information is fragmented, siloed and incomplete. And that gets in the way of taking full advantage of using artificial intelligence technology.


Life sciences panelists at Madrona Venture Group’s Intelligent Application Summit. From left: Cyrus Biotechnology CEO Lucas Nivon, Microsoft researcher Jonathan Carlson, Deepcell CEO Maddison Masaeli, and moderator Chris Picardo, a Madrona venture partner.

 (GeekWire Photo / Charlotte Schubert)© Provided by Geekwire

A panel of researchers discussed challenges to adopting AI tools in life sciences at the Intelligent Application Summit hosted by Madrona Venture Group in Seattle last week.

Artificial intelligence is transforming how tech companies do everything from selling products to routing packages. New AI “foundation” models like GPT-3 and DALL-E that can generate new sentences or images were built using massive training sets pulled from the internet.

But in the life sciences, “the standardization of the data is very challenging,” said panelist Maddison Masaeli, CEO of Deepcell, a startup that visually analyzes and categorizes single cells.

Cell biology information is plagued by differences in sample collection, storage and processing, said Masaeli, hindering comparisons across datasets. “From the point of sample collection until you have the image, there are tens of steps that cause variability in the data,” she said.

Not all life sciences data are messy. Protein structures, for instance, are represented in standardized ways in standardized databases. That enabled the training of DeepMind’s AlphaFold and the University of Washington’s RoseTTAFold, AI tools that recently cracked open the longstanding problem of predicting protein folding. More recently, the UW released ProteinMPPN, an AI-powered protein design tool.

But even for proteins, a lot of information is behind a wall. Lucas Nivon, CEO of Seattle protein design startup Cyrus Biotechnology, said that Cyrus approached big pharma companies about sharing their databases on the structure of antibodies, the basis of many treatments. Tens of thousands of such structures are siloed at various companies.

Related video: What If You Were Made of Dark Matter?

The companies were all interested in pooling data, and discussed mechanisms for sharing proprietary structures, said Nivon. “And then nobody wanted to be the first the lead investor, so to say,” said Nivon.

Cyrus joined with Amazon Web Services and other partners this summer to create an open-source protein design nonprofit, OpenFold, that is now talking with potential partners about sharing such antibody structure data.

“There is that dark matter that is just sitting there on the side. It’s literally just there,” said Nivon. “And everybody admits it.”


Protein rings hallucinated by ProteinMPPN, artificial intelligence-powered software from the UW’s Institute for Protein Design. (IPD Image)© Provided by Geekwire

The issues of reliability and bias that plague AI modeling in tech applications also affect the life sciences, but in different ways, said the panelists.

When AI churns out a nonsense paragraph, users can see that right away. But if it’s spitting out the wrong diagnosis or the wrong protein structure, it’s harder to assess, said Jonathan Carlson, who leads life sciences research and incubation at Microsoft Health Futures, part of the tech giant’s research division.

“Many of the problems we see in life sciences are not unique, but they’re very acute,” added Carlson.

Testing products made through AI and then feeding the data back into the model sounds tidy in principle, but in the life sciences the process can take a long time. Cyrus is testing some of its engineered proteins with collaborators who are generating new transgenic mice, a process that can take well over a year. But Nivon’s team also leverages high throughput in vitro and cellular screening systems.

Efforts to optimize screening systems will enable faster honing of AI models, said Nivon. He points to Capsida Biotherapeutics, which iteratively engineers and screens designs for gene therapy using animal models, harvesting tissue to assess which are effectively getting to the right place in the body.

Researchers would like to better connect biological data to clinical outcomes, but there’s a lot standing in the way, including the need to protect privacy, said Masaeli. “There is no one power of Google that includes all the health data or biological data of the world,” she said.

Carlson envisions a future when more life sciences data are de-identified and funneled into standardized, interconnected formats. Ultimately, data from clinical trials and animal experiments could feed back efficiently into a network to help develop new hypothesis and hone questions for basic research.

How to get there is a major question for the field, said Carlson: “How do we enable collaboration while still respecting not only intellectual property but privacy? What does it actually mean to be able to build large foundation models when we can’t even get the data open?”

END FEMICIDE 

END WITCH HUNTING

Hundreds accused after woman is burned alive ‘for being a witch’ in Indian village

Shweta Sharma - Yesterday 

A search is underway to identify attackers that burnt an oppressed caste woman alive on suspicion of witchcraft in India’s eastern state of Bihar.


gettyimages-130303780-612x612.jpg© AFP via Getty Images

Rita Devi, 45, was attacked by a mob of more than 200 people who broke into her house and beat her up before pouring petrol on her to set her ablaze on Saturday night.

At least 14 people, including nine women, have been arrested and 65 others have so far been named in the complaint for allegedly setting the woman on fire after she was branded a witch, superintendent of police Ashok Prasad told The Independent.

Around 200 unknown people who were involved in the incident have been accused in the complaint, known as a First Information Report, he added.

Supt Prasad said tensions had been boiling in the village from around the last one month after a child in the woman’s neighbourhood died due to an illness.

Devi was being blamed for the death after some people called her a witch, he added.

On Saturday, a huge gathering of hundreds of people was called in the village and a so-called shaman was summoned from neighbouring Jharkhand state.

“The crowd turned violent when the ojha (shaman) was not able to give them definite answers and they went to Devi’s house and attacked her. The mob broke into the house from the windows and set her on fire,” Supt Prasad said.

“We are looking into video clips to identify the culprits and more arrests will be made soon.”

The incident has also raised questions over police response as the family alleged that they had alerted the local police station a month prior to the incident.

“We are looking into the allegations. The police could have acted promptly after the local police station was alerted of the threats,” he agreed.

Supt Prasad said they were investigating to see whether there were any lapses or laxity in police response and action would be taken accordingly.

Attacks, mostly on women or widows, on suspicion of witchcraft are sometimes reported from remote regions of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Assam, despite an act which bans witch hunts. Nine people were handed death penalty in 2018 for murdering three members of a family who were accused of being witches.

India’s National Crime Records Bureau estimates around 2,100 such murders took place nationally between 2001 and 2012. In 2020 alone, 15 women were murdered on allegations of witchcraft.

Supt Prasad said the incidents related to witchcraft are not common and are rarely reported from remote areas where people still believe in superstitions and are vulnerable to believing it due to lack of knowledge and education.

“I have asked my team to sensitise people on the issue and make them aware,” he added.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WITCH 

• Hutton, The Witch: A History of Fear, from  Ancient Times 
• to the Present

• 
  

This “magisterial account” explores the fear of witchcraft across the globe from the ancient world to the notorious witch trials of early modern Europe (The Guardian, UK).

The witch came to prominence—and often a painful death—in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In The Witch, historian Ronald Hutton sets the European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective and traces the major historiographical developments of witchcraft.

Hutton, a renowned expert on ancient, medieval, and modern paganism and witchcraft beliefs, combines Anglo-American and continental scholarly approaches to examine attitudes on witchcraft and the treatment of suspected witches across the world, including in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Australia, and the Americas, and from ancient pagan times to current interpretations. His fresh anthropological and ethnographical approach focuses on cultural inheritance and change while considering shamanism, folk religion, the range of witch trials, and how the fear of witchcraft might be eradicated.

“[A] panoptic, penetrating book.”—Malcolm Gaskill, London Review of Books

Mila Kunis Joins Over 200 Celebrities Calling on Amazon to Remove Antisemitic Film Touted by Kyrie Irving

Michaela Zee - Yesterday 

Mila Kunis Joins Over 200 Celebrities Calling on Amazon to Remove Antisemitic Film Touted by Kyrie Irving© Getty


Mila Kunis, Debra Messing and Mayim Bialik are among more than 200 celebrities and entertainment executives who have signed an open letter calling on Amazon and Barnes & Noble to remove the antisemitic documentary and book, “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” from their respective platforms.

The letter was released by Creative Community for Peace, a non-profit entertainment industry organization. Additional signers of the statement include Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures; Haim Saban, chairman and CEO of Saban Capital Group; Orly Marley, president of Tuff Gong Worldwide; Rick Rosen, Endeavor co-founder; Disturbed frontman David Draiman; Nina Tassler, co-founder of PatMa Productions; songwriter Diane Warren; comedian Iliza Shlesinger; Ben Silverman, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Propagate Content; and actors Tracy-Ann Oberman and Emmanuelle Chriqui.

The letter reads, “After more than a week of private messages and public calls to take the fallacious book and movie ‘Hebrews to Negroes’ from your sites, you have so far refused to act.”

“Hebrews to Negroes” was recently promoted by Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving on Twitter, boosting the title to a bestseller on Amazon. According to a statement from Creative Community for Peace, “both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have refused to remove the title and continue to profit from its bigotry.” After a temporary suspension, $500,000 donation to the Anti-Defamation League and having his Nike shoe line dropped, Irving apologized last week for promoting the film.

“At a time in America where there are more per capita hate crimes against Jews than any other minority, overwhelmingly more religious-based hate crimes against the Jewish people than any other religion, and more hate crimes against the Jewish people in New York than any other minority, where a majority of American Jews live, it is unacceptable to allow this type of hate to foment on your platforms,” the letter continues.

“Respected platforms and companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble have a choice,” said Ari Ingel, director of Creative Community for Peace. “They can either continue to profit off of hatred and antisemitism, while turning a blind eye to the fears of the Jewish community, or they can choose to be an ally, and stand on the right side of history. While free speech is vital, corporations don’t need to help facilitate the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories that threaten the Jewish community. We implore them to take the prudent, responsible steps needed to remove this content.”

Amazon continues to sell other controversial texts, including copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” However, a note in the description reads, “Proceeds donated to Jewish Charities & Organizations.”

IDF to charge 2 commanders in death of elderly Palestinian

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF - Yesterday 

The IDF will file charges against two commanders involved in the death of Palestinian-American Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced on Thursday.


IDF thwarting a a massive Hamas terrorist network in the West Bank, 

November 22, 2021.© (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON

In January, As'ad, 79, was detained along with a number of other Palestinians at a checkpoint near the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah, while the IDF was searching for weapons.

Related video: Clashes across East Jerusalem amid increasing unrest

Duration 3:32   View on Watch

After the operation, As'ad was found lifeless where he had been detained. An investigation was opened by the Defense Ministry to clarify the circumstances of the incident and testimony was collected from the people involved.

The investigation found anomalies in the conduct of the commander of the force inspecting the Palestinians and in the conduct of the commander of the force guarding the detainees, although no causal relationship could be found between the abnormalities and the death.

The military prosecutor's office informed the lawyers of the two commanders that it is considering filing charges against them, subject to a hearing, for the anomalies in their conduct.

Palestinians join huge Fatah rally in Gaza Strip amid rift
Via AP news wire - Yesterday 

APTOPIX Palestinians Arafat© Copyright 2022, The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Turning a huge park in Gaza City into a sea of yellow flags, tens of thousands of Palestinians on Thursday commemorated the anniversary of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat — a rare public show of support for the Fatah faction in the heartland of its Islamist rival Hamas.

The rally passed without incident, though Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have in the past blocked and violently dispersed demonstrations in solidarity with President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. The Palestinian parties have been bitterly divided between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip for 15 years.

Crowds marched to Gaza City's Katiba park, waving the yellow flags of Fatah, which Arafat founded in the 1960s. They also raised photos of Abbas, Arafat’s successor.

Arafat died in 2004 at a hospital in France after two years of an Israeli siege on his West Bank headquarters. Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning him but have offered no proof, adding to the mystery surrounding the death.

For Fatah, the ability to mobilize the masses serves as a referendum on its popularity in Hamas-run Gaza. In 2007, Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized the territory after a bloody week of street fighting.

   FALSE FLAG 

Related video: Hamas colluding with Israel secretly? Two people held in Gaza after rockets target Jewish State  Duration 2:44  View on Watch

The reputation of Hamas, which administers Gaza under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade and the threat of repeated destructive conflicts with Israel, has suffered among Palestinians in recent years. The group has hiked taxes on residents but struggled to provide even basic services. Four wars with Israel and the 15-year blockade have devastated Gaza’s economy.

In a recorded message played at the rally, Abbas called for Palestinian unity to ease the blockade. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from stockpiling arms. Critics view it as a form of collective punishment, confining the territory’s 2 million people to what Palestinians often refer to as the world’s largest open-air prison.

“We feel the suffering of our people under the oppressive siege,” Abbas said. “This pain and agony will not end unless the division, which took our cause backward, ends.”

Hamas does not easily grant permits for such Fatah demonstrations in its territory. In 2007, a few months after taking over Gaza, Hamas attacked Arafat’s anniversary rally and killed six Palestinians. In 2014, authorities prevented Fatah from holding another gathering.

But at the height of Egyptian efforts to reconcile the Palestinian factions and end the enduring political and geographical schism in 2017, Hamas allowed Fatah to hold an Arafat celebration.

Last month, officials from Hamas and Fatah held a new round of reconciliation talks in Algeria and signed an outline for an agreement that would pave the way for elections. But few are optimistic the factions can overcome their differences, as they have failed to implement past deals.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.

SECURITY STATISM
Israel admits that the Shin Bet has collected telephone information from professionals entitled to immunity

The Israeli government has admitted that its national intelligence service, the Shin Bet, has used databases of cell phone companies to monitor the activities of journalists, as well as other professionals trained to protect privileged information, such as doctors or clergy, and in operations sometimes only tangentially related to counter-terrorism.


F Israeli military man. - Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

This was announced by the government in response to a petition filed with the Supreme Court by the NGO Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), in which it asked the court to remove a clause in the law regulating Shin Bet's operations concerning its power to require operators to hand over information on calls or messages.

The law, passed in 2002, has been criticized for its semi-clandestine nature since it is not subject to public scrutiny, although the head of the Shin Bet is obliged to ask permission from the Prime Minister and the Attorney General every three months, and once a year before a committee of the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset).

The Supreme Court is now reviewing the regulation since, in ACRI's view, it commits a number of unconstitutional errors by involving an invasion of privacy and taking away from journalists, for example, their right to protection of their sources.

The government now has three months to inform the Supreme Court whether or not it decides to amend the law, reports the newspaper 'Haaretz', although the Israeli state has already asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition on the grounds that "this data collection is vital to the agency's operations" and "has already provided essential help in dismantling terrorist attacks and saving lives".

However, the Israeli state has admitted that these requests have been applied to professionals who often enjoy immunity or protection, such as lawyers, doctors or even clergymen, although it clarifies that it does not necessarily examine all the information collected.

For example, the Israeli government has admitted that it has collected information from professionals with "immunity" some five or six times a year over the past decade, which ACRI believes, particularly in the case of journalists, poses an enormous danger to the reporters' sources.

This is why ACRI argues that the Shin Bet often acts far from the anti-terrorist sphere, as also happens when it begins to gather information in criminal investigations, which are more typical of the police sphere. In this specific case, the Israeli government guarantees that the Shin Bet dissociates itself from these investigations as soon as it perceives that they do not fall within its competence.

LIKE, WHY BOTHER

It is pointless for Israel to phase out fossil fuels for green energy

By WALTER BINGHAM 
The Jerusalem Post

IDF soldiers walk in front of wind turbines close to the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights.

 (photo credit: NIR ELIAS/REUTERS)

The world is being deceived into believing that fossil fuel can be phased out, and that this would provide a greener environment. Well, I have my doubts, so let us examine the facts.

The best example is California, which has legislated to end the sale of gasoline-driven cars in 2026 so that by 2035 only electric cars will be on the roads. Sounds good, doesn’t it? On the surface, yes; but when one looks at the implications, the hoax soon becomes apparent.

The general idea is that there will be no more mining of expendable minerals that will harm our environment.

But the main constituents of electric car batteries are lithium, cobalt and nickel. They are minerals that are obtained by mining. The battery of a Tesla Model S, for example, uses around 12 kg. of lithium. Not to mention the world’s mobile electronic devices like laptops and telephones.

Today, there are more than 14 million cars registered in California. Even if this number would not increase by 2035 and they were all electric, imagine the number of batteries that would be required. What happens to them at the end of their useful life? Will the residue go back into the ground and pollute the water tables? And where does the power for the mining of the minerals come from? The countries with the major deposits of lithium are Chile, Argentina, Australia and China. Most have struggled with political dysfunction and financial crises, and their regimes are unpredictable and could withhold supplies if they considered it politically expedient.



Leviathan natural gas field. 

It is interesting that the movement for environmental protection is selective in its application. To those who shout loudest for the phasing out of fossil fuels, it does not seem to matter to that electricity production in China relies 65% on coal and is still constructing new mines, Argentina’s energy derives 60% from fossil fuels, and that Chile’s renewable energy amounts to just 11.4%. Here I quote the words of Israel’s Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg: “In order to minimize the percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and prevent the continuation of global warming, we must make sure that we’re not harming nature.... A solution that is meant to solve one problem by creating other problems is not a real solution.”

“In order to minimize the percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and prevent the continuation of global warming, we must make sure that we’re not harming nature.... A solution that is meant to solve one problem by creating other problems is not a real solution.”Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg
So how can we solve this problem?

One renewable source of energy are wind turbines. You’ve seen pictures of them scattered about the landscape. Those tall towers with large propellers. Most onshore wind turbines in the US have a capacity of up to 2,75 MW (mega watt). That sounds good until you realize that according to the US Energy Information Administration, the average household in the United States uses about 9,600 kilowatt-hours per year.

Just imagine how many of these monstrosities are needed to service just one town, and their output depends only on the wind.

Without the wind, it is like a bicycle that nobody rides – it is available but not spinning. Of course, to be realistic, wind turbines are not the only source of renewable energy. There is also solar and nuclear.

A key challenge facing the wind industry is the experience that turbines adversely affect wild animals both directly, via collisions, and indirectly due to noise pollution, habitat loss, and reduced survival or reproduction. Among the most impacted wildlife are birds and bats, which by eating destructive insects provide billions of dollars of economic benefits to the country’s agriculture.

Currently, Israel has about 50 operating wind turbines, mainly in the Golan Heights and the Jezreel Valley area in the North. The National Infrastructure Council has given the green light for the erection of seven new mega wind turbines that will tower over the Golan at the height of around 200 meters, even taller than Tel Aviv’s cylindrical Azrieli Towers. The energy production of these individual solar or wind plants are localized time and weather-dependent. Is their construction in the Golan sensible when, in the current political climate, they would be an easy target for the enemy?

In Israel, the advantages of wind power are relatively negligible compared to the potential for harm to nature, which is high. And here I repeat the words of Tamar Zandberg: “A solution that is meant to solve one problem by creating other problems is not a real solution.”

As part of God’s creation, the sun is the source of all life. The amount of sunlight that strikes the Earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world’s energy consumption for a full year. There are several methods to harness this renewable source of energy.

In Israel, it is usual for most homes to install a solar-heated water system on the roof, consisting of a solar panel and a water tank. As hot water is drawn from the top of the tank, cold water flows in from the bottom. One can also cover the roof of the house with panels that will convert the sunlight into electricity to run the house. Any surplus can be fed into the national grid and produce financial credit.

Very simply explained, to use solar energy commercially, large areas covered with solar panels are needed to cover the landscape. They absorb the sun’s energy and automatically beam it to a central point of a tower, where the conversion process takes place. Here, too, the blight on the landscape to satisfy national demand would far exceed tolerable levels.

Then there is nuclear power, which opponents call an accident waiting to happen or, as its supporters claim, is the solution to clean renewable energy.

And that brings me back to the example of California and its administration’s naïve ideals.

Their last nuclear plant, which was scheduled to fully shut down by 2025, has been given renewed life for another five years after the governor warned that the state could face rolling blackouts if its twin reactors were retired too soon.

So, has California bitten off more than it can chew? How will it satisfy the increased demand for electricity?

Most electric car drivers will want to plug in their batteries at the end of the day, to be ready for the next day’s activities.

That, in addition to the usual domestic and industrial demand on the electricity grid during the evening hours. The load on the grid would be unimaginable, and so would the consequences.

For their largest part of in-state electricity generation, California relies on natural gas. They already import 95% of their requirements via interstate pipelines from the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, and Canada. The increased financial burden of their program would be incalculable. But there’s more! By implementing their carbon-free solution, they are creating a near economic disaster. Just think of the implications. All gas stations would have to close. Many thousands of their employees would be added to the unemployment figures. To compensate for the loss of gas tax revenue, electricity tax would surely have to be increased, an additional burden on the poor and the non-car owners.

Then there are the millions who rely on their older cars and cannot afford to lose them and purchase new electric vehicles, which are far more expensive than gas-fueled cars.

Think of the many owner-drivers of taxi cabs, to mention just some effects of the green revolution. I’m sure you can think of several more.

To what extent should Israel be required to take part in the effort to halt global warming and save the environment?

The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs describes Israel’s discovery of natural gas fields in Israel’s Eastern Mediterranean offshore areas as having “moderated the country’s total dependence on energy imports. Israel’s crude oil production is minuscule, and there are no known coal reserves. Oil demand in Israel, especially in the transportation sector, is met by imports, which makes it vulnerable to the vagaries of global oil supply. Crude oil constitutes about 50 percent of Israel’s total oil imports. Natural gas, however, has provided a potential solution to Israel’s energy security concerns. It has become the “fuel of choice” in electricity generation and has crowded out coal as the dominant energy source.”

The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) builds, owns, maintains, and operates power generation stations and sub-stations, as well as transmission and distribution networks. Currently, it has 15 power stations with 52 generating units:16 are steam-driven, 25 are gas turbines, and 11 are combined-cycle units.

Steam-driven turbines require the burning of a fuel such as coal, petroleum fuel oil, or combustible waste. Gas turbines heat a mixture of air and gas at very high temperatures, causing the turbine blades to spin. The spinning turbine drives a generator that converts the energy into electricity.

There are, of course, several types of gas turbines. The most efficient is the combined-cycle power system, which uses a gas turbine to drive an electrical generator and recovers waste heat from the turbine’s exhaust to generate steam. The steam is then fed into a steam turbine to provide additional electricity. Israel also has three independent power stations, all run on gas.

Apart from providing vital energy security, Israel hopes that its offshore gas resources can serve as a diplomatic tool to improve relations with its Arab neighbors, that shared economic benefits through gas trade will promote cooperation with regional countries and mitigate conflicts that have long informed the political landscape of the region.

I believe that Israel is about to prepare a master plan for 2050, which will serve as a basis for planning the economy. The purpose is to examine, from a broad and long-term perspective, the entire range of considerations and to determine Israel’s energy policy, including the mix of energy sources, in line with its international commitments, in particular the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100.

But in the medium term, there is no need for little Israel to commit to the large investment needed to phase out the use of fossil fuels, to convert the complete transportation sector to electric power, and put a large burden of taxation on the population. Our percentage of air pollution is minuscule compared to that of China, a country that is 437 time larger than Israel and is at this moment constructing new coal mines.

Russia is 779 times the size of Israel and is supplying its satellites with oil. Even Biden’s United States is still mining some coal.

Because Israel’s impact on a “greener” world would be extremely small, our country is justified in waiting for the superpowers to lead the way. ■

Walter Bingham, who is 98, holds two Guinness World Records as the oldest working journalist and radio broadcaster in the world.

ZIONIST FASCIST SCHMUCK

Jerusalem deputy mayor hoping to encourage non-Jews to leave Israel

AFTER ELECTION OF FASCISTS TO KNESSET 

By TZVI JOFFRE - Yesterday 

Jerusalem deputy mayor Aryeh King is helping an anonymous philanthropist build a program to "help" non-Jews emigrate from Israel, the deputy mayor announced on Facebook on Wednesday.

THE FASCISTS EMBARASS OTHER ZIONISTS

Jerusalem City Council member Aryeh King poses for a picture in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, in Jerusalem on October 22, 2014© (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

"A Jewish Zionist philanthropist contacted me, he is looking for a manager with a can-do attitude, for the benefit of a business initiative whose purpose is to encourage the emigration of non-Jews, outside the borders of the Land of Israel. The intention is to encourage non-Jews to relocate outside the borders of our country," wrote King.


"If you are suitable, contact me (in a private Facebook message, Messenger) and we will arrange a meeting with the representative of the philanthropist."

103FM's Ben Caspit and Aryeh Eldad interviewed King about the post, comparing it to a "laundered" version of a proposal by former tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi to transfer Palestinians to Arab nations in the region.



Jerusalem City Council member Aryeh King walks in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, in Jerusalem on October 22, 2014, (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)© Provided by The Jerusalem PostJerusalem City Council member Aryeh King walks in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, in Jerusalem on October 22, 2014, (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Ze'evi's plan was to encourage Arabs and Palestinians to emigrate by either reaching an agreement to transfer populations with other countries or to "encourage" them to leave with incentives and by making their lives more difficult in Israel.

"It's very much not laundered. It is most clear and clean, like our Law of Return. Essentially the idea comes from the Law of Return. The Law of Return is a racist law, it doesn't allow everyone to immigrate to Israel. So we said, anyone to whom the Law of Return doesn't apply and is already in Israel, we'll encourage him - by helping him find work or studies or any other way - to leave the country. Win-win," said King to 103FM.

"During the time of Benny Elon, I was the head of the Moledet branch in Jerusalem and then we founded an organization called 'Hagar,' on the name of Hagar, the Egyptian, the mother of Ishmael, and the whole idea we took from there. Ishmael and Yitzhak didn't get along and there was no other option besides telling Hagar and her son, Ishamel, to leave."

Elon was a leader in the Moledet movement and proposed having Palestinians and Arabs relocated to Arab countries and the establishment of a Palestinian state in Jordan. In the early 2000's, Elon worked with right-wing leader Rabbi Shlomo Aviner to promote a program to pay Palestinian refugees $50,000 to $100,000 each to emigrate to other countries.

King rejected claims that he wanted an "Arab-free" Israel.

"There will always be Arabs here. There will always be Christians here. But do you know how many Israelis with a blue identity card live in the US? Almost a million. This is very substantial because if we have over a million Israelis living in Europe and the US."

King stressed that this was a private initiative unrelated to the government and aims to make money by offering services that non-Jewish residents can pay to help them relocate and find work abroad. The initiative does not intend to pay the residents relocating.

In an interview with Army Radio, the deputy mayor pointed out that "For several years, Jews have been encouraged to 'transfer' - there are companies that target Jews with relocation offers, there are no companies that target Arabs. Those who believe that this is our country have nothing to be ashamed of in encouraging it."

"It is more important to me that the country be Jewish than democratic."Jerusalem deputy mayor Aryeh King

"It is not written in the Declaration of Independence that Israel is a democratic state, it is a Jewish state where the minority has rights. It is more important to me that the country be Jewish than democratic," added King.

While the Israeli Declaration of Independence does not mention the word "democracy," it does state that the State of Israel will "ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex" and to provide "full and equal citizenship and due representation" to Arab citizens.

Despite King's initiatives and other similar initiatives in the past, up to 6,000 Arab and Palestinian households have actually been brought into Israel since 1948 in return for cooperating with Israeli settlers or the Israeli government, according to a 2019 report by Haaretz.

Journalists, social media users express outrage at King's initiative

The post sparked shock from many social media users and journalists.

Israeli Arab journalist Zuhair Bahalul called King's initiative "a distinctly racist, trans-religious call that is fed by messianic ideology," in an interview with 103FM.

Commenters on the post expressed outrage at the initiative, with some even comparing it to Nazi Germany.

"As a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and an olah chadasha - I am appalled by this. How on earth are we supposed to advance Israel when politicians are taking hints from German pre Holocaust policy?!? How are you not entirely embarrassed by this racism!?!" wrote one commenter.

Another commenter expressed outrage that King chose to publish such a post on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

U.S. condemns visit by Israeli right-wing extremist Ben Gvir to Kahane memorial

The United States on Thursday condemned the visit of Israeli right-winger Ben Gvir to a memorial event for extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was assassinated in 1990.


Far-right extremist Itamar Ben Gvir at a memorial ceremony for

 extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane in Jerusalem, Israel. - Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

The State Department has spoken out in this case in the Biden Administration's first criticism of Zionist party leader Otzma Yehudit, who aspires to become Israel's next security minister.

"Celebrating the legacy of a terrorist organization is abhorrent; there is no other word for it. It is abhorrent," said Department spokesman Ned Price.

Related video: Israel's new government to be led by Benjamin Netanyahu
Duration 2:39  View on Watch

Price also said U.S. officials are concerned about the legacy of Kahane Chai, an anti-Arab group founded by Meir Kahane's son, Binyamin Kahane, which advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"We have condemned incitement, we have condemned violence and racism in all its forms," the Department spokesman maintained, after expressing unease at the "continued use of rhetoric by violent right-wing extremists."

In this sense, he considered that "there is a good reason" to continue designating Kahane Chai as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist' (SDGT), despite the fact that he has clarified that he is not included in the list of foreign terrorist organizations, due to the group's inactivity.

"We urge all parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and refrain from actions that only serve to exacerbate tensions, and that includes Jerusalem," Price added.

Gvir has been booed at the rabbi's 32nd birthday ceremony when he indicated that he does not "agree with all of his views." However, he justified his attendance "for the love of Israel" and the "struggle of the Soviet Union and against anti-Semitism," he explained in a message on his Twitter profile.

U.S. elects second openly lesbian governor in history

Democrat Tina Kotek will be the next governor of the U.S. state of Oregon after beating her rivals in the midterm elections, making her the second openly lesbian governor in the country, after Maura Healey, who won her election on Tuesday.

THE MEDIA SAID TINA/ OREGON WAS GOING TO BE A VICTIM OF THE RED WAVE

Tina Kotek, is the new governor of Oregon. - 

@TINAKOTEK© Provided by News 360

The former speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives defeated Republican Christine Drazan, a former state legislator, and Betsy Johnson, a former Democratic state legislator, who left the party and ran as an unaffiliated candidate, 'The Washington Post' reported.

Related video: US Midterm Elections 2022: America's first openly lesbian governor elected in Massachusetts   Duration 4:41   View on Watch

Kotek will replace Oregon Governor Kate Brown in a state that has been governed by Democrats for more than 40 years.

With this victory, the former state Congresswoman has become, along with Democrat Maura Healey in Massachusetts, the first openly lesbian governors in the country.

The Anarchist Nov 11

The Anarchist Nov 11

There is A different reason to commemorate Nov 11 for anarchists, it was the day that the Haymarket Anarchists were hung in 1887. And like Sacco and Vanzetti they too were subject to nativist reactionary anti-immigrant hysteria and the anti-worker/anti-socialist fears of the Chicago ruling class.

Today the same hysteria is used to justify the so called War on Terror.

The labour and socialist movements globally usually commemorate their efforts to win the right to the eight hour day and the right to organize unions, on May Day.

The date of their state sanctioned assassination often gets overlooked. And that day was November 11, 1887.

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