Iceland's Foreign Minister on 3-day visit to Israel

JERUSALEM (Press Release)—Iceland's Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, Mrs. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, leader of the Social Democratic Alliance, began a three-day visit today (16 July) as the guest of Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni.

This is the first time that Mrs. Gísladóttir is visiting Israel, after assuming office less than two months ago following the general elections that were held in May. The last visit to Israel of a foreign minister from Iceland was in 2002.

During her visit, the minister plans to have a working dinner with her Israeli counterpart, meet with the Deputy Minister of Defense and with a number of Knesset members, tour Israel's northern border (adjoining Lebanon and Syria) as well as Sderot and its environs, and visit Yad Vashem.

Relations between Israel and Iceland, despite the distance and the lack of resident ambassadors, are warm, with a long tradition of friendship that goes back to the establishment of the state. The present visit is intended to familiarize the new minister with regional issues in general and Israeli problems in particular. Iceland's interest in the area derives from the fact that it is a candidate for membership in the Security Council for 2009-2010. This visit gives the Icelandic minister the opportunity to study the various political, security and regional challenges that Israel faces daily.

The preceding article was provided by Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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U.N. official appeals to Arab League for Gaza aid

 CAIRO, Egypt (Press Release)—The head of the United Nations agency tasked with aiding Palestinian refugees has called for urgent international assistance to the Gaza Strip, amid mounting fears of a humanitarian crisis there.

“The violence in Gaza, coupled with the tight closures imposed by Israel has led to a desperate humanitarian situation,” Karen AbuZayd, Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said during a meeting yesterday in Cairo with Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa.

Ms. AbuZayd said the economic deterioration manifests itself amongst the population in Gaza in the form of unemployment, which is running at around 36 per cent, and poverty, which is already affecting an estimated two-thirds of households.

“We have identified nearly $30 million worth of emergency projects for which we need urgent funding and I make a special appeal to Arab donors to contribute,” she said. Nearly half the funds will be spent on job creation schemes while the remainder will be used for cash assistance programmes and shelter repair and reconstruction.

UNRWA also appealed for nearly $8 million for emergency cash assistance to help refugees meet basic needs and as a complement to food aid. In addition, the agency called on donors to fund nearly $9 million for shelter repair and reconstruction.

“People are living in dire conditions,” stated Ms. AbuZayd. “The recent violence has damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings and there is an urgent need to have these repaired.”

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), almost no raw materials were imported into Gaza in the week ending last Monday, halting $370 million worth of construction. Due to the lack of supplies, only one-fifth of the Gaza companies that were open two years ago are still operating, and some 65,000 workers have been laid off.

  The preceding story was provided by the United Nations
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Germany investigating companies that may have exported parts for Iran's nuclear program

BERLIN (Press Release)—More than 50 German companies are reportedly under investigation for exporting parts to a nuclear power station in Iran.

The online news service ‘Deutsche Welle’ quoted German prosecutors as saying that the investigation launched in 2004 had recently been extended. According to a spokesman of the prosecutor’s office it is believed that only 12 of the 50 firms had been aware of the scheme to smuggle the parts to Iran's Bushehr reactor via a bogus Russian front company.

Experts say that the Bushehr reactor could produce a quarter of a ton of plutonium per year, which would be enough for at least 30 atomic bombs. The prosecution office in Potsdam near Berlin has been looking into illegal exports to Iran since September 2004. The value of illegal German exports is estimated at more than US$ 200 million.

The preceding story was provided by the World Jewish Congress, which has been conducting a “Stop the Iranian Threat” campaign

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Israeli researchers find way to hype up immune system with new drug to fight off cancers


By Nicky Blackburn  
Israel 21C

JERUSALEM—An Israeli biopharmaceutical start-up is developing a treatment for cancer patients designed to harness the power of the patient's immune system in order to destroy cancer cells in the body.

The potentially revolutionary immunotherapy drug, developed by Shoham-based company Immunovative Therapies, incorporates living immune cells as the active ingredient in the treatment, stimulating the body's own immune system to fight the tumor. The drug, AlloStim, has already been successfully tested in animal trials, and Phase I/II clinical trials on patients with advanced blood cancer will begin at the end of this year, or the start of 2008.

Cancer is a growing problem worldwide. Over recent decades, the incidence of cancer has escalated dramatically, now striking nearly one in two men, and more than one in three women. In the US alone, 1.2 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year, and half of them die as a result of the disease. The National Cancer Institute estimates that the number of cancer cases will increase further as the population ages.

"The battle against cancer is a battle we are losing," admits Michael Har-Noy, founder and CEO of Immunovative Therapies. But he hopes to be part of the change in the battle techniques being employed by doctors.

Despite dramatic advances in medicine, conventional cancer therapies - surgery, radiation and chemotherapy - remain much the same today as they have for decades. All three are drastic treatments, and both radiation and chemotherapy affect normal cells causing severe side effects. The major limitation of these therapies is their inability to eliminate the last tumor cell. Any remaining cells proliferate and cause a relapse. These new cells are often resistant to chemotherapy/radiation treatments, leaving the patient with what can be an untreatable disease.

Immunotherapy is a new form of treatment that researchers have been investigating for the last two decades. It uses the human immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells wherever they reside in the body. Initially this field of medicine was considered one of the most promising potential treatments for cancer because it seemed to offer up the hope of getting rid of every single tumor cell. Animal trials went well, but when the new treatments reached human trials they inevitably failed.

"The problem was that it was easier to train a mouse's immune system to fight a tumor, than to train the human immune system," Har-Noy told ISRAEL21c. "Tumors in humans seem to have evolved a very sophisticated mechanism to avoid an immune attack." 

With this in mind Har-Noy, who had been working in the field of immunotherapy in California for over 20 years, decided to try an alternative approach. He began researching bone marrow transplants (BMT), the one area of medicine where it has been proven that the immune system can cure patients of cancer. (Jump to continuation)

Europe

Survivors commemorate Buchenwald's 70th anniversary

WEIMAR, Germany (Press Release)—Holocaust survivors have marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp, near the city of Weimar. More than 38,000 victims whose identities had previously been unknown were honored in a ceremony. Researchers spent the past decade scouring archives from the United States, Israel and Germany in an attempt to identify tens of thousands of the estimated 56,000 prisoners who lost their lives at Buchenwald between 1937 and 1945, but had been known only by their camp-assigned numbers. Archivists were able to identify 38,049 victims and enter their names into a memorial book.

"The Nazis tried to reduce humans to numbers, to rob them of their identity," said Jens Göbel, culture minister of the state of Thuringia, upon handing copies of the book to representatives of survivor groups. "That should not be the last word." About 8,000 Soviet prisoners of war, as well as some 9,000 who died in death marches as the Nazis tried to evacuate the camp late in World War II, remain unknown.

Most of the early inmates at Buchenwald were political prisoners. But following the “Kristallnacht” in 1938, some 10,000 Jews were sent to the camp. Over the course of World War II, criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Romany Gypsies and German military deserters were also interned at the main camp and its many satellite camps.

The preceding story was provided by World Jewish Service

United States of America

Little old synagogue of Madison, Wisconsin
Editor's Note: The following essay on the history of Share Shamayim in Madison, Wisconsin,
may strike Southern Californians as remarkably similar to the tale of old Temple Beth Israel, which  sits today in Heritage Park in the Old Town area of San Diego.  David Epstein, publisher of Western States Jewish History, a quarterly, says such striking similarities were characteristic of the old west, where many patterns of Jewish life seemed to be replicated in community after community.  We thank Western States Jewish History for according us reprint rights
 

By David Bitner

MADISON, WISCONSIN—For a half century after it ceased being a house of worship, one business establishment after another occupied the curious little "Old Synagogue" of Madison, Wisconsin, built during the Civil War by a short-lived congregation of German Reform Jews.

Then, in 1970, the coal and oil company which owned the building announced plans to demolish it in order to make way for a new office building. The threat of destruction turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to the old shell of a shul. Led by Dr. and Mrs. Norman Stoler, friends of the city’s historic buildings, organized a non-profit group called "Gates of Heaven, Inc."—a translation of the synagogue’s Hebrew name Share Shamayim— to collect funds for the moving and restoration of the temple, fourth oldest surviving synagogue building in the nation. (Only the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, Temple Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina, and the former home of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation are older.)

With the help of interested governmental groups, the group succeeded in saving the building. Today the Old Synagogue stands in an honored spot in James Madison Park on the shores of Madison’s Lake Mendota. It is used almost daily as a multipurpose building by civic groups of all kinds and occasionally still as a synagogue, depending on the fervor of local Jews.

It helped at the time the Stolers organized that the National Register of Historic Places had just acted on a recommendation of the Wisconsin State Historical Society to declare the synagogue a national landmark. It also helped that the City of Madison’s important Department of Housing and Development happened to be headed by a Jewish individual who took a deep personal interest in the project, Sol Levin. Levin convinced the Madison City Council of the worthwhileness of the project, and the Council authorized his department to take over supervision of the entire project from then on. Levin interviewed many moving firms, but could find none willing to do the difficult job. Finally he dared Belding Engineering of Chicago to do the job. "I told them they’d never be able to manage it," he said. Levin’s negative psychology did the trick, and the firm made a remarkably low bid, too.

As moving day for the Old Synagogue dawned, the city engineering department raised overhead wires along the route and the parks department trimmed overhead tree branches. At 10 a.m., as hundreds of persons gathered along the route to watch, the synagogue, borne by 96 airplane wheels, began the mile-long journey to its new home.

"There were moments when I thought we weren’t going to make it," said Levin. "The building pitched so at times that I was sure it was just going to crumble on the street. Of course there was considerable damage done as a result of the move, but that the synagogue survived as well as it did is remarkable. We estimate that the four chimneys were being held together with only about two percent of the original mortar."

At 7:30 p.m. — after ten hours on the streets — the Old Synagogue was lowered onto its new foundation in James Madison Park. It was the first and to date only time in the city’s history that an historic building had been moved to a new site.

The synagogue is a small building — only 28 by 54 feet — made of Wisconsin sandstone and buff brick. Working from photographs, New York Times Art editor Ada Louise Hustable identified its architecture as "Rundbogenstil," a type of German Romanesque design characterized by rounded arches. The facade, however, is pure Spanish Mission, and it is hard to help noticing that little markings above the windows resemble crosses.

Because knowledge of the synagogue’s original decor was so limited, the restoration of the interior had to be approached from a standpoint of restoring the period, said head restorationist Richard Byrne, whose local firm, Historical Mineral Point, Inc., was responsible for the restoration of Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii. "But actually," he said, "that’s a more realistic way of going about this job, anyway, because even if we did know what the ark and eternal light and pews all looked like, it would be extremely expensive to have replicas made."   (Jump to continuation)

 

Latin America & Caribbean

 

Dear Readers, Along with my husband Don, I co-publish San Diego Jewish World. As a couple we have gone to many places.  Cruising ranks at the top of our list of favorite ways to travel. Watch this ad for a different cruising photo each day. A similar adventure can be yours! Anderson Travel, with which I'm affiliated, is a multi-branched travel agency that is able to provide you both good prices and good service.  Before you book anywhere else, please ask me for a price comparison. Please call me at (619) 265-0808 for information about booking a cruise from San Diego or anywhere. Or email me at sdheritage@cox.net Thank you!   Nancy Harrison

Adventures in Cruising Aboard Holland America Ryndam San Diego  to Mexico cruising Debarking from tender at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Thanks to Abe & Bea Goldberg of San Diego and Ruth Kropveld of Cincinnati for sharing their family cruise photos!

                             
   

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Features

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The Jewish Grapevine

BUSINESS—The Africa-Israel Corporation has purchased San Francisco's Rialto Building for $21 million and plans on spending another $16 million converting the office complex into luxury condos.  Erez Wolberg reports the story on Globes Online, a news service focusing on Israeli businesses.
 

CYBER REFERRALS—Bruce Kesler spotted the recent story on Israel's Y-Net News about the New Orleans Jewish community offering financial incentives to Jews who are willing to settle in the Crescent City, which had lost a large percentage of its Jewish population after Hurricane Katrina.

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Greater San Diego Region

 

 

Sports

The Jewish Sports Fan

Unless otherwise indicated, source for these stories is today's edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune, to which we gratefully provide the links below. We do not apply halacha to determine if a player is Jewish; rather, if he or she has a Jewish parent or has converted to the faith, we count him or her as a member of our community.

In Chicago, is the answer—as Bob Dylan said—blowin' in the wind?

BASEBALL—Chuck Wasserstrom, manager for baseball information of the Chicago Cubs, knows as well as any of us that baseball is a game of statistics.  In fact, he even keeps statistics on "wind trends."  This year, the wind blows in toward home plate 43 percent of the time, out towards the outfield 23 percent of the time, and across the field 34 percent of the time.  All of which goes to show why it should be tougher to hit a home run at Wrigley Field than most places.  However, given the high scoring game yesterday (Cubs 7, Astros 6) by that reckoning the wind should have been blowing out.  However it was blowing in. Jason Marquis pitched the first four innings, giving up 6 runs on 8 hits, and striking out only 2.  That brought his ERA up to 4.03.... Things were not much better for Houston Astro catcher Brad Ausmus, who was charged with his second error in as many games. ... In the Atlanta Braves 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, reliever John Grabow got to pitch one inning for the losing squad, giving up three hits and one run.  His ERA is now 6.17... In the American League, Kevin Youkilis couldn't buy a hit in his team's 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.  He did get a base-on-balls, but was left stranded on the base path.  The frustrating day dropped his batting average to .320 and his standing among American League batting leaders to a tie for tenth.

TENNIS—In Linz, Israel bested host Austria 4 matches to 1 on Sunday, according to results posted on the Fed Cup's official website.  Israeli winners were Shahar Peer and Tzipi Opziler in both singles and doubles play.





                                            

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{Marc Kligman, who combines being a sports agent with his life as an observant Jew, invites you to listen. Click on the ad above for more information}
                                                                                                    ______________________________
 

News from the       Israel Baseball League

IBL's Bet Shemesh hangs onto first place;
Tel Aviv and Modi'in both 1 1/2 games out

GEZER, Israel (Press Release)—The Tel Aviv Lightning failed to capitalize on a chance to overtake the first-place Bet Shemesh Blue Sox Monday night, losing 5-2.  Bet Shemesh pitching ace Juan Feliciano of the Dominican Republic gave up his first earned run of the season, but still managed to earn his fourth win, tossing a complete game and allowing six hits while striking out nine and walking just one.

On the offensive end second baseman Jim Pierce provided the Blue Sox with four RBI by hitting his first two homers of the season.  Pierce knocked a two-run shot in the second inning to put the Sox up by one and then slammed another two-run homer in the sixth to put Bet Shemesh 1.5 games ahead of the Lightning.

The Modi'in Miracle also are 1.5 games behind the Blue Sox and tied with the Lighting for second place after crushing the Netanya Tigers 15-1 at Sportek.  The game got off to a bad start for the Tigers when Columbian starting pitcher Rafael Rojano suffered a back injury and was forced to leave after recording just two outs in the first inning.

Modi'in capitalized on Netanya's pitching woes with the usual leadership of Dominican Eladio Rodriguez.  Rodriguez had another monster game going 4-for-5 with five RBI, three runs scored, and his eighth homerun of the season to raise his batting average to .540.

Eight of nine starting batters had at least one hit on the night for Miracle manager Art Shamsky, whose club won its fifth consecutive game.

The night's final game at Yarkon Field at the Baptist Village saw the last-place Petach Tikva Pioneers beat the second-to-last-place Ra'anana Express 9-0.  Petach Tikva's Alper Ulutas of Brooklyn, New York, kept the Express offense in check by hurling a complete game, scattering three hits and allowing no runs while striking out nine batters and walking four.

Petach Tikva third baseman Andrew Morales of Ontario, Canada went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs.  Pioneers shortstop Adam Goldman also pitched in offensively with a 2-for-2 night along with two RBI and two runs scored.  The win gives manager Ken Holtzman's club its third victory of the season.

Summaries:
                      1   2   3   4   5   6   7   R  H   E
Tel Aviv         0    1   0   0   0   0   1   2   6   0
Bet Shemesh   0   2   0   0   1   2   x   5    8   1
W: Juan Feliciano (4-0); L: Adam Crabb (3-2); HR: Jim Pierce (2)

                       1   2   3   4   5   6   7     R   H   E
Modi'in             3   1   1   0   6   4   x    15  14  1
Netanya           0    1   0   0   0   0   x     1    3   2
W: Audy Alcantara (1-0); L: Rafael Rojano (2-2); HR: Eladio Rodriguez
(8)

                        1   2   3   4   5   6   7     R   H   E
Petach Tikva     0   2   0   2   2   2   1     9   10   0
Ra'anana           0   0   0   0   0   0   0     0    3    3
W: Alper Ulutas (1-1); L: Travis Zier (1-2); HR: None

Standings:
Team                             W    L     %     GB
Bet Shemesh Blue Sox   12   4    .750      –
Tel Aviv Lightning         10     5    .667    1.5
Modi'in Miracle              10     5    .667    1.5
Netanya Tigers                 5      8    .385    5.5
Ra'anana Express             6    11    .353    6.5
Petach Tikva Pioneers      3    13    .188    9.0

Tuesday the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox and the Netanya Tigers play a doubleheader at Gezer Field with the first game starting at 1:00 pm and the second game at 5:00 pm.  Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv Lightning and the Ra'anana Express play at 5:00 pm at Sportek and the Petach TikvaPioneers host the Modi'in Miracle at 7:00 pm at Yarkon Field at the Baptist Village.

The preceding article was provided by the Israel Baseball League
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Getting acquainted: Israeli tells what he has learned about his neighbors, the baseball players, and their fans from the United States

By Yoni Peres, DVM

KFAR HAYAROK, Israel— My dear friend, Donald Harrison, had asked me to write about the new Israel Baseball League. I was preparing myself for trips and interviews up and down the country, when one morning, driving out of the gate of the agricultural college here, I noticed a young girl standing there, wearing a T shirt saying "Baseball is Life.”

Later on I saw some handsome men practicing baseball, so I figured that one of the teams is staying at a boarding school at "Kfar Hayarok" ( "The Green Village") just outside of Tel Aviv, which is where I have my veterinary clinic. I did not realize at that point that all of the 120 some players, as  well as part of the IBL administration are actually staying here, making my reportage job much easier.

Andrew Wilson, 23, from Teaneck, New Jersey, is the IBL communication and website manager. On his first visit to Israel in 1998, he wondered if there was baseball in Israel.

Wilson played and has been active in American baseball from a very young age. When he was a student at the University of Massachusetts, he started a baseball club. Since many of the baseball players are from Hispanic origin, he spent a few months in Spain, learning and practicing the language.

He applied for a job with the Texas Rangers but did not hear back from them.  While applying for an internship with the New York Yankees, he read an article about Larry Baras , a businessman from Boston,   Massachusetts, who dreamed about starting the IBL. He contacted Baras and offered his help.

"One day I was standing in a bus stop when I got a call on my cell phone from Ben (Ben Tuliebitz, assistant director for media relations of the Yankees) , inviting me for an interview,” he related

Wilson was accepted for an internship, beginning in January 2007. At the same time he heard back from  Baras and was hired by the IBL, with the blessing of the Yankees administration.  (Jump to continuation)

 

Arts & Entertainment

 

 

Story Continuations

Bush on Mideast...
(Continued from above)

Third, we're strengthening our commitment to helping build the institutions of a Palestinian state. Last month, former Prime Minister -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to take on a new role as Quartet representative. In this post, he will coordinate international efforts to help the Palestinians establish the institutions of a strong and lasting free society -- including effective governing structures, a sound financial system, and the rule of law. He will encourage young Palestinians to participate in the political process. And America will strongly support his work to help Palestinian leaders answer their people's desire to live in peace.

All the steps I've outlined are designed to lay the foundation for a successful Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza -- a nation with functioning political institutions and capable security forces, and leaders who reject terror and violence. With the proper foundation, we can soon begin serious negotiations toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

These negotiations must resolve difficult questions and uphold clear principles. They must ensure that Israel is secure. They must guarantee that a Palestinian state is viable and contiguous. And they must lead to a territorial settlement, with mutually agreed borders reflecting previous lines and current realities, and mutually agreed adjustments. America is prepared to lead discussions to address these issues, but they must be resolved by Palestinians and Israelis, themselves. Resolving these issues would help show Palestinians a clear way forward. And ultimately, it could lead to a final peace in the Middle East -- a permanent end to the conflict, and an agreement on all the issues, including refugees and Jerusalem.

To make this prospect a reality, the Palestinian people must decide that they want a future of decency and hope -- not a future of terror and death. They must match their words denouncing terror with action to combat terror. The Palestinian government must arrest terrorists, dismantle their infrastructure, and confiscate illegal weapons -- as the road map requires. They must work to stop attacks on Israel, and to free the Israeli soldier held hostage by extremists. And they must enforce the law without corruption, so they can earn the trust of their people, and of the world. Taking these steps will enable the Palestinians to have a state of their own. And there's only way to end the conflict, and nothing less is acceptable.

Israel has a clear path. Prime Minister Olmert must continue to release Palestinian tax revenues to the government of Prime Minster Fayyad. Prime Minister Olmert has also made clear that Israel's future lies in developing areas like the Negev and Galilee -- not in continuing occupation of the West Bank. This is a reality that Prime Minister Sharon recognized, as well. So unauthorized outposts should be removed and settlement expansion ended. At the same time, Israelis should find other practical ways to reduce their footprint without reducing their security -- so they can help President Abbas improve economic and humanitarian conditions. They should be confident that the United States will never abandon its commitment to the security of Israel as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people.

The international community must rise to the moment, and provide decisive support to responsible Palestinian leaders working for peace. One forum to deliver that support is the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee -- a group chaired by Norway that includes the United States and Japan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. Today I call for a session of this committee to gather soon, so that the world can back its words in real support for the new Palestinian government.

The world can do more to build the conditions for peace. So I will call together an international meeting this fall of representatives from nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. The key participants in this meeting will be the Israelis, the Palestinians, and their neighbors in the region. Secretary Rice will chair the meeting. She and her counterparts will review the progress that has been made toward building Palestinian institutions. They will look for innovative and effective ways to support further reform. And they will provide diplomatic support for the parties in their bilateral discussions and negotiations, so that we can move forward on a successful path to a Palestinian state.

Arab states have a pivotal role to play, as well. They should show strong support for President Abbas's government and reject the violent extremism of Hamas. They should use their resources to provide much-needed assistance to the Palestinian people. Nations like Jordan and Egypt, which are natural gateways for Palestinian exports, should open up trade to create opportunities on both sides of the border.

Arab nations should also take an active part in promoting peace negotiations. Re-launching the Arab League initiative was a welcome first step. Now Arab nations should build on this initiative -- by ending the fiction that Israel does not exist, stopping the incitement of hatred in their official media, and sending cabinet-level visitors to Israel. With all these steps, today's Arab leaders can show themselves to be the equals of peacemakers like Anwar Sadat and King Hussein of Jordan.

The conflict in Gaza and the West Bank today is a struggle between extremists and moderates. And these are not the only places where the forces of radicalism and violence threaten freedom and peace. The struggle between extremists and moderates is also playing out in Lebanon -- where Hezbollah and Syria and Iran are trying to destabilize the popularly elected government. The struggle is playing out in Afghanistan -- where the Taliban and al Qaeda are trying to roll back democratic gains. And the struggle is playing out in Iraq -- where al Qaeda, insurgents, and militia are trying to defy the will of nearly 12 million Iraqis who voted for a free future.

Ceding any of these struggles to extremists would have deadly consequences for the region and the world. So in Gaza and the West Bank and beyond, the international community must stand with the brave men and women who are working for peace.

Recent days have brought a chapter of upheaval and uncertainty in the Middle East. But the story does not have to end that way. After the wave of killing by Hamas last month, a 16-year-old girl in Gaza City told a reporter, "The gunmen want to destroy the culture of our fathers and grandfathers. We will not allow them to do it." She went on, "I'm saying it's enough killing. Enough."

That young woman speaks for millions -- in Gaza, the West Bank, in Israel, in Arab nations, and in every nation. And now the world must answer her call. We must show that in the face of extremism and violence, we stand on the side of tolerance and decency. In the face of chaos and murder, we stand on the side of law and justice. And in the face of terror and cynicism and anger, we stand on the side of peace in the Holy Land.

Thank you.

The preceding transcript was provided by the White House.

State Department Briefing...
(Continued from above)
 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, first, I would say that -- and I think you've heard this from me before -- we're trying to put together in synergy and in parallel three types of efforts here. One is a bilateral effort. There is no effort out there, conference meeting or otherwise, that can supplant Israeli-Palestinian direct face-to-face dialogue and ideally negotiations. So we have to support that and we are devoted to building that. Second, there is promise, based on the reiteration of the Arab Peace Initiative earlier this year, that there could be a regional component to this. And third, there is a great international interest in trying to advance on this part of the agenda for the region.

And an international meeting can serve to intersect these in a number of ways. As you see from what the President said, we're not trying to be too prescriptive about this right now. We just think that at some point it might be appropriate to sit there and take stock of where we are, having there people who agree on the foundational principles for peace. Those are pretty straightforward; folks that will support a two-state outcome, who reject violence and terror, who recognize that each side has a right to exist -- there should be a Palestinian state and of course there will be an Israeli state -- there is an Israeli state -- and that they commit to all the body of work that is the peace process.

You can't have such a meeting without Israelis and Palestinians, obviously, but we'd also hope to bring in others from the region. The Secretary would chair that. Now we have a lot of work to do to build toward that and I think that I wouldn't see that as the only focus of our effort. It would obviously be a great help and of great importance when it comes, but that means we have to do all these other things as well: work on the bilateral track, work with our Arab friends so that the regional support for moving forward in the bilateral track will be robust, and organize the international community to help build the institutions of Palestinian statehood.

QUESTION: How significant is it that you would have states that don't formally recognize Israel in the same room with Israel?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, it's very significant if we get to that point. It's been a long time since that happened. Some of the fora in which they were participating before in a reasonably public way, haven't met for some time. For example, the President mentioned the idea of a meeting of donor nations in the past. Those have happened, but they have fallen into a bit of disuse recently.

Again, I -- we believe that this is a moment for everybody to push the go button and try and make this work.

QUESTION: Do you have a breakdown of the 190 million? Is this new money, old money, reprogrammed money?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: I can give you some more data on all of the figures. I presume you have the fact sheet from the White House, but if not, let's go into it. There's -- you know, we're the largest donors to UNRWA and our commitment to UNRWA is very substantial this year. By this year, I mean the '07 fiscal year, which is still running. We're providing around $145 million to UNRWA and that's divided, roughly speaking -- by the way, that benefits only Palestinians, though, in several different places. That's divided roughly into 90 million for the regular UNRWA budget, 50 for part of an emergency appeal they've made, and as you recall, we also want to give a special amount to support Palestinians affected by the fighting in Nahar al Bared, about $3.5 million there, so it's about 145 million of it.

There is another amount, 50 million, which is for Palestinian basic human needs, democracy, civil society, institution-building, private sector development. This is our traditional aid program and it does include some food commodities and others where there is special needs for Palestinian -- well, Palestinian population. Also, some support to infrastructure, especially water and sanitation. There is a considerable amount of assistance money in prior year pipeline, so what this is in reference to is the current fiscal year -- not money out of the gate yet, but it's money that we haven't actually delivered. And it is in addition to the pipeline, which is very considerable.

The President also directed that there be a private sector component to this. And so we've announced an OPIC financing facility that could potentially generate over $200 million in lending to small and medium enterprises. Then there is a smaller amount of food assistance. I've seen the figure as 190. I think that's, broadly speaking, accurate, but if you aggregated all these things, it might come to more than that. This is not including the 80 or so million the President referred to to support security reform. As you recall, we redirected that last year and part of it was to be used to support General Dayton's program. I think at one point, I briefed you on the 59 million of that. This time what we're going to do is put it together with the remainder that was sequestered from the holdover last year and devote all of it to security reform. We have to conclude an agreement with the Palestinians for this, which we expect to do shortly. It makes our job a lot easier that they have a new government, so the chain of command is a little bit more clear and the uses will be specified and we'll notify Congress in that respect. I believe that this can unfold very, very quickly.

Robin.

QUESTION: David, can I do a little bit of a reality check here? Do you have any indication from any Arab Government, besides Jordan and Egypt, that they are prepared to attend a meeting with Israel? Is there any -- given the tensions with several of our Arab allies over Iraq, key players like Saudi Arabia, have they indicated that they are prepared to take that important step? That's my first question.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, I think at the heart of the Arab initiative is a willingness to sit down and discuss comprehensive peace. And the question is how do you get to that point where you're actually sitting and talking about it. When the Arab themselves articulated how they would unfold their initiative, they built into it the idea of an international meeting.

Now, what we've said here today, the President has said, he's made a very important commitment to the United States to try and construct that in a way that will invite international and particularly regional support. Robin, that doesn't mean we have to answer every single one of these questions today. It will take work to get there. But that's our job and that's what he has directed the Secretary to do. And we wouldn't be launching ourselves on this enterprise if we didn't feel some confidence that there is a willingness in the region to embrace the path to peace. Again, that's at the heart of the Arab initiative and we take them at their word.

QUESTION: So to follow up --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Charlie.

QUESTION: -- to follow up, David, you have or you have not sounded out these governments and signaled them that this is what the President's going to do and ask them for their support, whether they've given you a response or not?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, we have done quite a bit of work, been in touch with them before about what the ideas they might have are, for how to make an advance, we talked to them about our own ideas. And you can be sure that there are robust consultations behind this. Now, I don't know that there have been any Arab Government reactions yet. We'll just have to wait and see what they have to say. And again, let's remember that what we have here is a commitment by the United States that is -- the President went out and described what he would like to do. And our job is to try and put that together in a way that can invite the maximum of responsible participation and get at the goal he seeks, which is building toward two states.

QUESTION: And you -- is your intention to invite Syria to this meeting?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: We haven't made any decision about who's in the fold and who's out of the fold. Just look at the way it's articulated in the speech. This requires people that embrace a two-state solution, reject violence and terror, recognize that an outcome is going to be there, that means that they would have to accept Israel exists and that there are agreements between the parties that are the foundational building blocks for peace. So that's the sort of principles that lie behind it. We'll have to see who comes forward to accept these.

QUESTION: Is the idea to have another Madrid?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Let's go --

QUESTION: Just one more.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: I'm sure we'll come back to you, Robin. There's lots of hands in the back.

QUESTION: The President, in his remarks, used the word occupation to describe the Israeli presence in the West Bank. And while most people would say it is just a statement of fact, it is not a word that this Administration or, certainly, the President has used very often. I'm curious if that was a deliberate choice of words and whether it was meant as sort of a signal to the Palestinians of empathy or a signal to the Israelis, for that matter.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: He's said it in the past and every word in these remarks is deliberately chosen.

QUESTION: And also, just to follow up on that, that -- you know, the U.S. -- like you said, the U.S. is obviously not going to mandate what -- the outcome of bilateral talks, but was looking forward to an agreement reflecting previous lines, new realities, and mutually agreed readjustments.

That mutually agreed readjustment seems to modify the tone of the April 14th, 2004 letter that -- there was no topic of mutually agreed readjustments in that letter. And so the Israelis understood that letter as reflecting a recognition of Ma’ale Adumim and various other areas near Jerusalem as being part of a permanent Israeli state. Mutually agreed readjustments sounds as if it's taking that a little bit further and saying that that'll come as part of an agreement in which there is an exchange of land.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: I wouldn't read it any more than what it says. In the April 14 letter, there was also a statement that this would have to be mutually agreed. And the President's words are not designed to change any of the commitments the United States has made previously, but to talk about the responsibilities people have and looking at how they arrive at that agreement.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Could you say whether, in your discussions and negotiations, you've had any talk about expanding or broadening the role and mandate that Tony Blair will play in this process --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Sure.

QUESTION: -- and what role he might play in this regional meeting in the fall?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: As some of you know, we've worked a little bit on getting this mandate constructed and started that conversation in -- within the Quartet and continued it with Mr. Blair himself. There is an easy understanding on what might be necessary and the idea is pretty straightforward. It's to give a focus and an energy to the idea that the international community should drive towards support for building the institutions Palestinians need, to have a responsible state in which people can have confidence. The big problem here on the Israeli side is that they're very unsure, for security reasons, what would lie on the other side. For Palestinians, they want to know if they have some hope and aspiration that will be realized.

Mr. Blair is, as you know, a man of great energy and vision and has a lot of experience in working in the area. He's quite excited about this new job and the mandate. He fully accepts that mandate. He participated in helping to shape it. It was agreed within the Quartet and I don't think there's any tension, frankly, in how it will be interpreted. He'll have a chance to talk about some of his ideas when we meet in Lisbon and he'll report regularly to the Quartet membership about how he's going forward in that regard. In Lisbon, we may have more to say about how -- the calendar for that, based upon what we hear from him.

QUESTION: What role do you expect him to play in the meeting in the fall and is there any talk of expanding or broadening that mandate?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: There hasn't -- I've seen speculation in the press about, you know, expanding the mandate and will it have a political character, will he become the supra negotiator. I -- this -- I'm surprised by this commentary. It hasn't been a feature of our discussions about the mandate or within the Quartet so far. As to who will come in the fall, as I said, I mean, that's not predetermined. But I can imagine that he would be a welcome participant. And I don't know what his own plans are, to be honest with you. We've had some discussion of that, but he's been thinking it through and I would guess he'd have a more organized presentation for his first meeting with the Quartet this week and then thereafter -- probably in September.

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: There are two robust groups. One is Search for Common Ground, led by John and Susan Marks; the other group is the allianceforpeacebuilding.org. One of the groups just recently had Rabbi Dr. Mark Gopin of George Mason University and Dr. Nusseibeh who is the President of Al Quds University. Following that discussion, Dr. Nusseibeh went over to Carnegie and announced for the first time that the Palestinians should give up the right of return. Now, they're looking more for the business interests and what could these groups do and what should these groups do. Can they work in league with you to come to a full peace resolution of these conflicts?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, you were happy to have the input from citizens all the time, whether they're organized or not and particularly from Israelis and Palestinians, especially those who support peace and I know Dr. Nusseibeh does and I'm sure he's looking for ways in which he might make a contribution. But look, we deal with the positions of governments and our view here is with respect to issues like Palestinian refugees that should as an outcome of the negotiations process, be a Palestinian state, which would be a homeland for Palestinians. And we think of Israel as a homeland for Jews, as a Jewish state. That said, you know, I'm sure there'll be plenty of ideas out there and Lord knows, in my job, I'm bombarded with even news ones every day.

QUESTION: David, in the eyes of the United States Government, is the Israeli Government presently engaged in any activities that tend to impinge on final status negotiations?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, we always have a concern about settlement activity and illegal outposts. I think, you know, partly it is a concern that might prejudice the negotiations themselves, but also make more difficult getting to negotiations.

QUESTION: You’ve expressed those concerns to Israel for some time. Is it your observation that they are ignoring those expressions of concern?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: No, I don't -- I wouldn't describe our dialogue in that manner. We do have a continuing concern about settlement activity and the illegal outposts and I think there’s some reflection of that concern within the remarks the President made. We have a way of approaching the conversation with the Israelis, which we think makes -- increases the chances that our efforts will be productive. But these are important obligations. And just as we repeat for the Palestinian side its obligations under the roadmap, so it is important also to repeat those that are for Israel.

QUESTION: So is it fair to say that both sides are in continual ongoing default of those obligations?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, I like to be more positive and diplomatic about it. I would say they both have work to do.

QUESTION: Regarding the assistance for the security forces, the new pledge for 80 million will be added to the last pledge which was $86 million or --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Not exactly. The pledge here is for over 80 million. Previously we had talked about 59; and that 59 is within the 80, so there's -- this is all still the same 80 million or so. But things have changed. It's not appropriate to spend money on certain security improvements in Gaza. So these will be redirected toward the West Bank. Also, there was a residual amount of about 27 million which we had not decided how to use.

So now we will go forward with the full -- I think it's 86 -- total, all devoted to security reform; expedite it as quickly as we possibly can, according to an agreement with the Palestinian Authority government; and we'll be able to use it for some things that honestly we had not been able to use it for before because of our concern about the recipients, the dangers in Gaza and the fact that under the previous government the Ministry of Interior was controlled by Hamas.

QUESTION: But no weapons (inaudible).

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: The United States does not provide lethal assistance; has not, and to the extent that it's needed, it will be done by others.

In the back.

QUESTION: Yes, sir. Sir, this issue has been going on too long and too many people have been killed, both sides, and terrorism is still going on. Hamas and Iranians are supporting terrorism against Israel and Iranian President called for wipe Israel off the map. What I'm asking is that, all those issues you think had been settled, as far as stopping the killings of innocent people there and do we see peace in the Middle East during our lifetime?

QUESTION: Assuming actuarial tables -- (Laughter.)

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Of course. And will we wish it yesterday? Absolutely. But we're practical people and we're looking for every way we can build more urgently to having it as soon as possible.

QUESTION: And as far as this -- to follow on, I'm sorry -- as for this Iranian issue, you had been working with the Iranians diplomatically and behind the doors and all that. Have you reached anywhere, as far as the issues are concerned?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, I think most of your colleagues in this room probably would describe any effort with the Iranians a little less generously than that. Look, we wish that the Iranian Government would take a different approach to regional issues. They have every opportunity to do so. We're not unreasonable in what we're asking for. There's great support for it internationally and, you know, if they want to see their way clear to doing that, then we'll talk to them about it.

Janine, did you have a question?

QUESTION: Yes, I did. It strikes me that the President gave a speech and announced money that we already know about and a possible peace summit some time in the fall. We don't know who's going to it. Can you talk about -- first of all, is there anything new in the speech because I didn't see anything? And secondly, how this whole layout relates to Condi's and Secretary Gate's trip on Iraq

-- I mean, in trying to win support of Arab states for help in Iraq?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Let me start at the end there and work backwards. When we were thinking about what are the contributions that we can make to putting this foundation in place, one idea we had was, let's articulate the American position more clearly. We thought about it on the anniversary of the President's speech where he laid out the idea of two states, as you know, becoming the first American President -- the President to make that an object of policy. Because of events, that just wasn't the appropriate time to do it. There was a crisis within the Palestinian government, difficulties in Israel. The timing was not perfect. What we -- we picked the substance rather than the time and we fitted this substance in here.

You do not make a peace by a speech. This is a contribution to getting there. But you know it's not designed to answer all your questions to be quite candid with you. It's designed to signal the energy and focus of the United States. And yes, the Secretary is headed back to the region, this time with Secretary Gates, who will accompany -- they'll be together on part of the trip not necessarily all of it.

We had planned to be out there already. Again though, because of our workload here is pretty considerable and other issues intervened a little more quickly than some had expected, we postponed that a few days. This in my judgment and the judgment of other advisors of the President and the Secretary is what is going to be needed. American leadership is key. The President has put his stamp on this and signaled where he would like to go. And could it help in other regional developments? I'm not sure. Some of those have a dynamic of their own, but if it does that would be a good thing. It's not designed because of those other regional issues. It's designed to fit into our approach to the region as a whole.

Syvlie.

QUESTION: Yes, you told earlier --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Oh, excuse me, I forgot to mention one thing. In terms of financial commitment, you know, I know that there's a certain cynicism from the press when you look at are we just moving the money around. What for me is important is does it get out the gate and get to its destination and is the destination something important. We have not done a security reform program. The money is not out of the gate yet. But we are going to put a considerable sum behind that and get it out fast.

Second, there's been a great concern about the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people especially in Gaza. We are going to address that. And in here, I think, if I'm correct, there is a sentence "We will work with Congress and partners around the world to provide additional resources once a plan to build Palestinian institutions is in place." That's a sentence that's redolent with promise in terms of new resources.

QUESTION: Meaning that you're forecasting future aid obviously?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: I would like to see that happen. We’d like to see what Mr. Blair puts together and then we will organize ourselves here to support it.

QUESTION: What is new (inaudible), David. None of it (inaudible).

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, no, that's not true. We have money in the pipeline which has not been spent, we have '07 money which ought to be spent, but has not yet been, and we are requesting '08 money. So there is a funding stream here and we're describing what we have in hand. We don't have an '08 budget bill yet, but you can see that it would likely go to the same sorts of purposes.

QUESTION: But was there any money that was announced today that wasn't also already allocated yesterday?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: We are going to redirect substantial amounts of that. I don't know what you mean by allocated. None of it has actually arrived with the Palestinians yet.

QUESTION: Well, I mean, was it earmarked? Was there money -- you know, was there a pot of money yet -- is there any new money in the pot that wasn't in the pot yesterday?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, when we worked through this decision last year, we didn't have the '08 -- '07 budget yet. Now we have it, but we haven't spent it, so it's 50 million that's just sitting there. What you've looked at before are the amounts like the 86 million which were redirected after the Hamas election victory.

QUESTION: But that doesn't answer my question because I'm still confused. Is there any -- is there one dollar more that wasn't in a pot -- maybe it wasn't allocated --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: There's no new appropriation, no, because we haven't received any.

QUESTION: No new appropriation.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: We haven't received it.

QUESTION: What about --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: We are seeking money in the '08 budget and we could conceivably seek additional resources as suggested in the speech.

Sylvie.

QUESTION: Yes, you said that when the President asked the Arab countries that didn't make peace with Israel yet, to send ministries -- ministers to Israel, why shouldn't -- should they do that today? What do you offer them in exchange?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Well, it's -- first of all, I think -- look, they themselves are interested in this issue and there are different opinions within the Arab world on it. There are some Arab countries that are willing to hold open meetings with Israeli officials right now, even though they are not in a relationship of peace. There are some who are not willing to have open meetings, but do have them anyways, and there are some that don't have any at all.

When the Arab League took its peace initiative decision, it signaled that there is a willingness for peace on the Arab side. And in Cairo, in following up that decision, they offered some ideas about how that might unfold. They asked for a team to meet with Israel and gave that job to Egypt and Jordan which, granted, had peace treaties with Israel, but they were mandated to pursue it and I would expect you will see them continue to do that, including in the very, very near future.

They also signaled that if there were certain confidence-building steps by Israel, that the Arab side would be willing to change the participation in those discussions. I mean, that's a decision up to them. What we feel is that regardless, it would support the move to peace if they were to undertake those steps now. And if one of the things that would help get there is the idea that there would be an international meeting to discuss how we all get together and help this process, then that -- what the President has put on the table, I think, is a very important and positive step in that regard and we hope they greet it that way.

QUESTION: Going back to the issue of finances, how much of that money is going to be routed through Abu Mazen and through -- direct? Even before Hamas election, most of our aid went through group; it was not directly funding the Palestinian --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: That's a very good question, you're absolutely right. Traditionally --

QUESTION: Can you talk about the significance of that?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Traditionally, we have not provided direct support or assistance to the Palestinian Authority Government. There have been a couple of very limited exceptions in the distant past to that. In this case, the President has given two significant changes of course. One is he announced today that this will be a direct contribution. As I said, we --

QUESTION: How much?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: He said $80 million.

QUESTION: The whole thing?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Yes, exactly. And what we'll do is we will conclude an agreement with the Palestinian Authority Government under Prime Minister Fayyad as to how that is to how that is to be used. It's going to be devoted to security reform, but we still are going to be specific in how it's -- it is apportioned and used.

The second thing that's significant about that is -- as I said earlier, we haven't been in the business of funding security reform. Until the decision was made a few weeks ago to help in this regard, the United States had -- was basically a coordinator for the assistance of others. So this, in my judgment, is a very considerable sum. And if you take a look at the program of the new government under Prime Minister Fayyad, since it has such a heavy security component up front and that's so important to the roadmap obligations of the Palestinians, I think this is a really fundamental policy decision.

MS. RESIDE: Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Can I just follow-up on one last thing on --

QUESTION: Take down your hand. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: I know you said -- sorry.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Sure.

QUESTION: You said you haven't made any decisions about who's in the fold and who's not in the fold for this conference, but --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: And it is not our decision entirely to make.

QUESTION: Well, I wonder if you expect or will be encouraging the attendance of the other two U.S.-backed democracies of Iraq and Lebanon.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: I don't think the door is closed to any responsible country in the region.

QUESTION: Do you want this to be like Madrid all over again? Do you want another Madrid that was designed --

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: Look at what we said very carefully.

QUESTION: It sounds like it's another Madrid.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY WELCH: But it is -- it's written as it is. As one of your colleagues asked, was this a deliberate choice of words? Yes, it's a deliberate choice of words. Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you, David

The preceding transcript was provided by the U.S. State Department

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Cancer treatment....  
(Continued from above)

With BMT, which is used to treat blood cancer, immune T-cells from a tissue-matched donor are transplanted into the patient. These transplanted immune cells kill the tumor cells, overcoming the tumor's immunoavoidance mechanisms, in what is known as the 'graft vs. tumor' effect. The result is the complete eradication of cancer, even in cases where patients had large tumors that were unresponsive to other cancer treatments.

While this can cure the patient, in 50% of cases, the new immune cells cause a serious and sometimes fatal side effect known as graft vs. host disease (GVHD), when the transplanted immune cells recognize both normal and tumor cells as foreign and mount attacks against both indiscriminately.

Har-Noy began looking for a treatment that would create the same anti-tumor effect of the BMT, without any of the toxic side effects. After three years of development, this is exactly what Immunovative believes it has achieved.

The company's new treatment, which can be used for virtually any type of cancer, works in two ways, firstly - like BMT - it disables the ability of the tumor to fight the immune response, and secondly it trains the patient's immune system to kill the cancer cells wherever it finds them.

The company takes T-cells from a normal donor and produces them ex-vivo in a nine-day proprietary culture process in a bioreactor. There is no need to match the donor to the recipient as required in BMT procedures. The AlloStim product is an intentional mismatch to the recipient. In the bioreactor the cells are activated with monoclonal antibody-coated particles that are removed before they are given to the patient.

"We provoke these cells, so that they become very 'angry' immune cells that are highly stimulated," explains Har-Noy. "Then we infuse them into the patient. The patient's immune system sees these new 'angry' cells as a great danger to the body, and rallies to the defense to eliminate the threat, releasing an array of inflammatory cytokines, in what is a bit like the fight or flight response of adrenaline."

These inflammatory cytokines, which remain in the body for between 24-36 hours, shut down the ability of the tumor to avoid an immune attack and at the same time enable immune-mediated killing of tumors spread throughout the body.

In the wake of this treatment, even if cancer cells recur in the body, the immune system can destroy them and does so automatically in much the same way that vaccines work. If a patient is treated for breast cancer, for example, and breast cancer cells begin to grow again after a few years, the immune system destroys them immediately. If the patient develops an alternative type of cancer, such as lung cancer, however, the AlloStim treatment will have to be repeated for that new type of cancer.

Patients who undergo the AlloStim treatment are not expected to suffer any side effects due to what the company calls the 'Mirror Effect'. The T-cells infused into a patient do not attack the patient's immune system, but stimulate it to attack the tumor. This is known as the host vs tumor (HVT) effect, and is the mirror image of the GVT effect. Unlike the GVH effect, it is not toxic, representing a new concept in the treatment of cancer.

"We'll know for sure when we treat patients, but we aren't anticipating any kind of toxic response," says Har-Noy.

The three-year-old company, which works from labs at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center and Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, has already carried out successful animal trials on mice. "We were able to show that we could cure many types of tumors located throughout the bodies of the mice. A high percentage of the mice were cured without the GVHD side effect," says Har-Noy.

While animal trials were also successful in immunotherapy treatments that later proved unsuccessful in humans, Har-Noy believes this is different. "We reverse engineered a new response that works in humans and just tested the principle on mice," he explains.

The next stage is clinical trials on humans. Phase I/II clinical trials at Hadassah are expected to begin at the end of this year and will test both toxicity and efficacy at the same time. "We will be dealing with patients who suffer from incurable cancers and will be monitoring the response of the tumors to see what response the drug has," says Har-Noy.

Initially the company plans to focus on patients with advanced blood cancer - diseases like Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma. Additional studies for advanced cancers that have metastasized to the liver, lungs, or bone, and advanced prostrate cancer are also planned for mid-2008.

The company has focused on CLL because currently there is only one approved drug to treat this disease, Campath by Ilex, and the FDA will fast-track any promising drug in this field, bringing it through testing and out to market in just 18 months.

Immunovative, which is just a small start-up with five members of staff, needs this quick approval. It will enable the company to reduce the size of its clinical studies, and cut down the length of approval time it needs to test the drug on other types of cancer. Fast track approval also brings other benefits. When Campath was approved in 2005, Ilex was acquired by Gensyme for $1 billion.

In the first trial, the company plans to test 25 patients over a period of about six months. If the clinical trials go well, they will be expanded to the US.

"We can't wait to see how it really works in patients," says Har-Noy enthusiastically. "It has such huge potential. Our collaborators at Hadassah also want to bring it to patients as soon as possible."

Har-Noy founded Immunovative at the Misgav incubator in May 2004 when he emigrated from San Diego specifically to set up the company. Har-Noy had previously set up two other companies specializing in developing cell-based immunotherapies, Medcell and Biovest International, which is still operating.

"I was involved in a lot of things that didn't work," Har-Noy admits. "It was this history of failure that helped me come up with this idea. We know that immunotherapy can work. In 4-5% of patients it works dramatically. I realized that the problem in the past was that scientists were developing elegant solutions to the wrong problems. They assumed the immune system is weak, and worked to boost it, while in most cancer patients it is strong, and the problem lies with the tumor instead."

Because of the lack of credibility in this field, it was difficult for Har-Noy to get funding in the US for what was then just a theoretical idea. When he was offered a grant of $300,000 by the Office of the Chief Scientist he jumped at the opportunity.

Immunovative left the incubator in May 2006 and raised $1.2 million from angel investors. The company is now in the midst of another fundraising round of $1m., which it plans to use to support the clinical trial program and set up a manufacturing facility in Israel.

If the clinical trials go well, Immunovative will be in from the cold, and so potentially will the field of immunotherapy. "The real launch for us will after our trials in Hadassah," says Har-Noy. "The VCs and pharmaceutical companies have been so burned in the past that they won't even talk to us until we bring them human data."

Har-Noy is optimistic. "Our approach is unique. This is potentially a major breakthrough that could change the paradigm of how we treat cancer. In the early stages, we might well compete with chemotherapy. In addition, this treatment could also work in other diseases as well. In animal models we were able to show that our drug protected mice from malaria, infections in the brain, and Lupus, so it may well have implications even broader than cancer."

A seasoned veteran, however, Har-Noy is not about to get carried away. "Every scientist believes their treatment is going to bring a Eureka moment, but I've had enough failures to be a little more humble. At Immunovative we have set in place a system to monitor patients at every step of the treatment. If it doesn't work, we will know where it gets stuck, and this data will be vital to understanding what interventions are necessary to make it work. If we know what the problem is we can develop a solution. Hopefully, however, we won't need to." 

The preceding story, courtesy of Israel21C, was provided by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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                                                          __________________
Little old synagogue...
(Continued from above)

Fortunately, Byrne and his team were at least able to accurately reconstruct the synagogue’s choir loft. The loft had been gutted years earlier, but Byrne was able to follow the pattern of beam-holes in the wall and thus restore that very important feature of the synagogue. From B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue in Milwaukee came the gift of an old hand-carved ark that the congregation had put to pasture in a second-floor chapel of its new temple. Byrne rebuilt it to fit the apse of The Gates of Heaven.

Money was a problem, though, as Byrne said, and there just was not enough to restore the original rich floral pattern that he discovered under layers of paint on the ceiling or the original marbleized polychrome paint that he found on the walls. Besides, the exterior of the building was crying for attention, including weatherization before the winter came.

Restoring the facade of the synagogue also involved a major philosophical problem, Byrne explained. Some of the sandstone facade was in such bad shape — partly due to weathering, partly due to the move — that it had been proposed just to tear it all down and have new stones cut. "But then," said Byrne, "the synagogue becomes like Abraham Lincoln’s ax. You know — it’s his ax, but the handle’s been replaced twice and the blade’s been changed three times." Byrne finally made the decision to go the opposite route, to weather-proof the stone "as is" and do a lot of patch-up work with sandstone colored stucco. Though the results may have been less attractive that way, the more important integrity of the stone was preserved.

And if, as they say, the walls could talk! Basically, the little synagogue in James Madison Park is the legacy of a congregation that failed. Most of the 17 German immigrant families who built the temple in 1863 deserted Madison during the 1870s for larger cities, and no Jews of liberal leaning came soon to take their place. To be sure, many Jews started coming to Madison from Russia in the 1880s, but any idea of coalition with these Orthodox "Ostjuden" was out of question for the remnants of The Gates of Heaven. They preferred oblivion.

The congregation was founded in 1856, five years after its first president, Samuel Klauber, became the first Jew to arrive in Madison. Its members were mostly local merchants who took an active part in the life of the community. They were Elks, Masons, Odd Fellows, and belonged to all the German clubs. Samuel Klauber’s two daughters were charter members of the Madison Women’s Club.

In 1862, the congregation tired of meeting for services in the homes of members and hired August Kutzbock, architect of the Second State Capitol and City Hall, to draw up plans for a synagogue. In raising the $4,000 projected cost of the building, the congregation had the help of two Madison banks and many well-wishers outside the community, including B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue, the same Milwaukee congregation whose vintage 1850 ark has ended up as a gift in the Gates of Heaven Synagogue a century later.

Construction of the temple began in May 1863 and was completed in time for the High Holy Days in September. Over that summer the members of the congregation met a number of times to decide what sort of service would be held in the synagogue. This was not a simple matter, because the congregation was split between those who favored "Minhag Amerika," the ultra-Reform ritual, and those who favored the less radical Reform of the old country. Compromise between the two parties led to the hammering out of a hybrid ritual. At the same time the congregation decided on mixed seating of men and women, uncovered heads, and melodeon music, it also agreed to continue the practice of having seven men recite blessings over the Torah, to celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, and to have the cantor face the ark instead of the congregation.

Just a few days before Rosh Hashanah, the synagogue was consecrated by a Milwaukee rabbi. The ceremony, as reported in the Wisconsin State Journal, was the perfect picture of a 19th century Reform Judaism whose goal was to the show the Christian community that Jews were not "different."

Invitations had been sent to the governor, the mayor, the justices of the state supreme court, and the city’s clergy, so that "quite a number of Gentiles were present curious spectators." The services began as Samuel Klauber opened the doors of the temple for a procession of the members. As they filed in, ladies preceding gentlemen, a Gentile choir under the direction of "Prof. A Pickarts" sang Hebrew chants. The "Rev. Mr. Falk" then entered the sanctuary, and after "uttering some prayers in the Hebrew tongue," acquainted the State Journal reporter and all the other curious Gentiles "with some facts in regard to Judaism with which they were wholly unfamiliar."

"It seems," the reporter said, "that the spirit of the age has entered the Jewish church and modified its rituals and its ideas ... Mr. Falk explained that Judaism, in its modern phase, does not look for the literal restoration of the Jews to Palestine, this prophecy being regarded by the Reform Jewish Church as figurative and only to be fulfilled in some mystical sense ... Prayers for the restoration are now omitted from their ritual and the ritual itself greatly shortened." The service took its calculated effect: the reporter could not help observing in the next to last paragraph of his story that "with the exception that the speaker made no references to Christ, and that all his Biblical quotations were from the Old Testament, it was not unlike a service which might have been held on a similar occasion in a Christian church." Madison must, in fact, have come quickly to consider the little synagogue as quite like any other house of worship in the city, because two years later, when the state legislature needed a house of God to meet in for a service in memory of the martyred President Abraham Lincoln, it chose the Gates of Heaven.

In 1866 the congregation succeeded in finding a full-time spiritual leader. His name was Joseph Thuringer, and to minister to Madison’s little flock of Israelites he came all the way from Germany. He was not an ordained rabbi, but the brother of a member of the congregation whose idea it was to have Thuringer come to be service leader and Hebrew teacher in the Gates of Heaven Sunday school. In the city directory he was listed as the Rev. J.M. Thuringer — Pastor of the Hebrew Church."

But it was the last coup for the congregation. The next decade saw the congregation collapse as the Jews, just as quickly as they had flocked to Madison in the 1850s and ’60s, now left the city.

"They left for the same reason people today desert small towns for big cities, " said Madison Rabbi Manfred Swarsensky, an authority on the history of the Jews in the Wisconsin capital. "It is doubtful that most of the German immigrant Jews came to Madison with the idea of living out their lives in the community. The depression during the 1870s merely accelerated the process of departure."

By 1879 the congregation was down to five families, and in that year the Gates of Heaven rented the synagogue to the Unitarian Society. From that point on, Rabbi Thuringer, whose original salary of $900 already had been cut to $250, was hired only to perform High Holiday services in private homes.

For those who remained, assimilation was the inevitable result of increasing isolation in a friendly Christian community. Indeed, the Reform Israelites accepted their fate cheerfully, Samuel Klauber urging his children to attend the synagogue even after it had been turned into a Unitarian church. "Father said it didn’t make any difference who we got the word of God from," recalled Klauber’s daughter Lena in 1931, when she was interviewed by a U.W. student writing his B.A. thesis on the history of the Jews in Madison. "I myself enjoyed the Unitarian sermons and my sister played the organ."

Mrs. Nathan Moody, wife of an Anglo-Jewish dentist who was the only non-Teutonic member of the congregation, turned to the Episcopalian church after the closing of the synagogue and raised the couple’s children as Anglicans.

"It was the usual story of the assimilation that 19th century Reform led to," said Swarsensky, himself a Reform rabbi and a refugee from Nazi Germany. "They regarded the preservation of their historic religious identity as a sin against the spirit of the age of Universal Brotherhood which they thought was dawning."

Meanwhile, though, the dying congregation, even as its sons and daughters left the Jewish fold, remained conscious enough of its identity to be concerned about keeping up its image in the community. "It became a policy that the synagogue should never be turned over to any group of a non-religious nature, and hence the Unitarians were succeeded by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the First Church of Christian Science, and the English Lutheran Church. The Spirit of Universal Brotherhood evaporated only once: before a request by Madison’s first Russian-Jewish congregation to rent the synagogue. The Gates of Heaven was sorry, but worship in the building must be done by bare-headed persons only. "Having anything to do with these people who insisted on sticking to their old country ways was out of the question," explained Lena Klabuer.

In 1916, the congregation finally sold its synagogue for $7,000 — to a funeral home, somewhat inconsistently — and proceeded to go out of existence in one last burst of good will. After paying the city $1,500 to take over permanent care of its cemetery, the congregation — which now consisted of three elderly men — left amounts of $1,000 or more to a Milwaukee orphanage, a Madison hospital, and the Chinese famine fund. Amounts half that size or less went to a fund for the Relief of Starving Co-Religionists in Russia and to the Palestine Foundation Fund. In 1922 the congregation was officially dissolved.

After the funeral home was done with the Old Synagogue, the building served successively as a tearoom, a government record storage center during World War II, a dental office, a veterinarian’s clinic, and a political campaign headquarters.

Then, on June 23, 1972, two years after the rescue of the Old Synagogue and its removal to James Madison Park, the Gates of Heaven saw its first Jewish service in almost a century as David and Cindy Siker "roughed" their wedding in the gutted sanctuary. Hopefully, the members of Madison’s first Jewish congregation, if they chanced to witness the ceremony through their peepholes in heaven, were not too put off by the fact that the groom wore a yarmulka.

Reprinted from the current issue (Summer 2007/5767) of Western States Jewish History.  Other articles in the current issue include Rabbi Harold F. Reinhart's "The Beginnings: The Diamond Jubilee Anniversary of the First Synagogue Building in the West, Temple B'nai Israel, Sacramento, California, 1852-1927"; Norton Stern & William M. Kramer: "Emil Harris: Los Angeles Jewish Police Chief, 1830-1921;" J.C. Bates & Gladys Sturman, "Jewish Lawyers of California in the Early Twentieth Century," and Abraham Hoffman, "Book Reviews."

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Israeli learns about baseball...
(Continued from above)

Baras, from Brookline, Massachusetts, is the founder of the Israel Baseball League and is its managing director. An ardent Zionist as well as being an ardent baseball fan, he is uniting two of his passions into a mission to bring his favorite sport to a country for which he has great affection. He has a long background of involvement in Jewish causes and entrepreneurial enterprises.

There are six teams with a total of 120 players from nine different countries in the league.  Their ages ranged from 17 to 51 years old on the day that the league started: June 24, 2007.

The first season will be only two months long, with the goal to make the following seasons much longer.

"Since the Israeli crowd seems to be less patient, we decided to start with seven instead of nine innings per game,” Wilson said.  “In case of a draw, there is a " home run derby" to determine the  winner.

Currently three fields are used – "Gezer field" in Kibbutz Gezer;  the "Sportek field" in Tel Aviv and the "Yarkon field" near Petah Tikvah, all within fairly easy commuting distance from Kfar Hayarok.

The attendance of the games ranges between hundreds to thousands of fans per game. Wilson said that Israelis seem to be becoming more and more interested in the game, with the sport media has been providing pretty good coverage.

As Israelis have much to learn about baseball, so too do some of the players have much to learn about Israel.

For example, on June 28, Jeremy Trubnick and his family from Skokie, Illinois, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the wailing wall in old town of Jerusalem.

I have seen kippas (yarmulkes) of various shapes and colors, however it was the first time I realized that they can come with sports team logos such as the Chicago Cubs, but indeed that what was what Daniel, Jeremy's 11-year-old brother, was wearing on his head.

Over a plate of pita and hummus, Daniel told his story – "Definitely, my favorite sport is baseball" he said enthusiastically, "I have played the sport for years, and as a pitcher, I was on a team, the Cubs, that won the last Skokie championship, out of  19 teams in the Little League".

Just before his family left the US to visit Israel, Daniel's neighbor told him that his nephew, Gregg Raymundo of Clovis, California,  was in Israel, playing baseball for the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox. Upon arriving here, Daniel contacted Raymundo, who invited him and the family to watch the Blue Sox play against the Netanya Tigers just two days before the Bar Mitzvah.

Answering my question about the differences between Israeli and American baseball, Daniel said he thinks that the players here are not as good.  Also, he noted,  many of them talk to each other in Hebrew, and depending at what time the game is played, some pause for the mincha or maariv prayer. You don't see that in American baseball!

At the end of the Bet Shemesh-Netanya game, Jeremy received  a ball signed by the players that he keeps together with the game program as " a collectors item.”

Joey, a 9-year-old brother of Daniel and Jeremy,  is a baseball player as well.

"My coach called me" he said proudly, "and told me that as a result of my absence, they lost the game.”

At the end of the Bet Shemesh game, Jeremy invited Raymundo, a right handed pitcher, to join him for his Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem.

"Where is it going to take place?" inquired Raymundo.

 "At the Kotel " answered Jeremy.

"Where?"

"At the Kotel!"

" Yes , I got that" replied the American baseball player, " but what is the name of that hotel?... 

Peres is one of his country's most avid sports fans, especially when it comes to soccer.


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