Israel News for May 10, 2017

Embassy Staying
According to senior US officials, President Trump has decided to extend the order which prevents the US Embassy in Israel from being transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That means despite his campaign promises, the embassy will not be moved to Jerusalem. PM Netanyahu has reportedly already been informed of the decision.

Apparently both governments came to an agreement that now would not be the right time to move the embassy. Trump will be visiting Israel on May 22. Last week, Ambassador David Friedman was instructed to hold official embassy events at the ambassadors residence in Hertzliya, even though Friedman will be living in Jerusalem.

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Terrorists Stopped
A Palestinian teen carrying two pipe bombs hidden in his clothes tried to enter a military court in the Jenin area today. He was stopped at the court checkpoint and when he didn’t have identification, Border Police searched him and discovered the bombs. The explosives were neutralized.

In an unrelated incident, a 30 year old terrorist was firing a gun towards Highway 60 in the Hebron area and was caught on video by a security camera in the area. An hour later security forces identified and arrested him in his home. No one was injured as a result of the gunshots.

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Pilots Arrested
On Israel Independence Day last week, the Israeli Air Force staged many fly-over exhibitions. During one of them, involving Hercules transport planes flying over the Tel Aviv coastline, the wings of two of the planes touched momentarily. That could have potentially caused a crash. The incident was captured on video and aired by Channel 2 news. As a result the two pilots flying the planes have been arrested and several other crew members have been grounded.

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Alzheimer’s Breakthrough
Researchers at Ben Gurion University have identified a protein called SIRT6 that is almost completely absent in Alzheimer’s disease patients. They claim that the protein deficiency is likely a contributing factor in the onset of the disease.

The researchers determined that SIRT6 is a key component in the DNA repair process, while low levels of SIRT6 enable DNA damage accumulation.
The body’s failure to implement processes to repair accumulated DNA damage is widely thought to be the cause of conditions associated with aging, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Deborah Toiber of the BGU Department of Life Sciences, and the lead author of the research paper, said, “If a decrease in SIRT6 and lack of DNA repair is the beginning of the chain that ends in neurodegenerative diseases in seniors, then we should be focusing our research on how to maintain production of SIRT6 and avoid the DNA damage that leads to these diseases.”

Toiber’s lab is one of only a handful worldwide looking at the effects of SIRT6 in the brain, and its connection to neurodegenerative diseases.

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