Will you be a Watchman on the walls of Jerusalem?

“Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.”

The rebirth of Israel in 1948 and the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 are two of the most significant events in world history, both of which were foreseen in Bible prophecy. This year God’s chosen nation and His holy city are celebrating important milestones. 

It is 50 years since the reunification of Jerusalem and 100 years since the signing of the Balfour Declaration, which helped lead to the creation of the modern State of Israel. We believe these events have spiritual significance for the world.

When Jerusalem was reunified in June 1967, it brought an end to more than 1,800 years of Jerusalem being occupied by invading forces. Even though Jews dwelt in Jerusalem throughout this time, the city was now rightfully returned to the Jewish people, fulfilling Bible prophecy and God’s promises that have been spoken by Christians and Jews throughout the ages.

There is so much truth and revelation to be found about Israel and Jerusalem in the Bible, but on this Jubilee let us focus on how Jerusalem is God’s beloved city.

One of the greatest kings of Israel was David. He did great things in his time, from slaying Goliath to building Jerusalem. Second Samuel 5:9-10 explains that as King David built the city, he became more powerful, “because the Lord God Almighty was with him”.

Jerusalem became known as “the City of David”, being called this 45 times in Scripture and is still known as such today. The name David means “beloved”, and David was God’s beloved, just as the City of David, Jerusalem, is God’s beloved city.

We also know from Scripture that God Himself described David as “a man after my own heart”. This means that David and God were in harmony. So it is no surprise that the Psalms of King David abound with revelation on Israel, Jerusalem and Zion, just as God’s heart abounds with love for His land, His city and His people.

The Psalms are the basis for a multitude of hymns and songs that millions of Christians around the world sing in worship each week. These timeless songs are filled with praise to God with many verses proclaiming His promises over Israel and Jerusalem.

If we want to have a passion after God’s own heart, then we will want to see Jerusalem as David saw it. Psalm 122:6 says: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces.”

We encourage you to read the whole of Psalm 122. It is one of many Psalms that reveal God’s heart for Jerusalem.

When we “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”, we are praying for God’s peace in His city, the capital of Israel and epicentre of present and future global events. The root of the word Jerusalem is “Shalem”, which is the same as the Hebrew word for peace, “Shalom”. Jerusalem’s name literally means “the City of Peace”.

It is only when we seek God that we find true peace. And the Bible says that those who love Jerusalem will prosper. Why? Because God loves Jerusalem. We prosper when we follow God’s heart.

Just as the Bible says to pray for Jerusalem, we are also called to watch over Jerusalem.

Isaiah 62:6-7 says:

“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

This command is clear, Christians must watch over Jerusalem, raise our voices for Jerusalem and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We believe that CUFI and our supporters are called to take up this cause. We must be vigilant in our watching and never cease to speak out. And the Scripture shows it is God’s heart for Jerusalem to be “a praise in the earth”.

Israeli system id’s the gene mutations driving your cancer

NovellusDx analyzes each patient’s genome sequence to deliver actionable intelligence to oncologists, helping them choose the right cancer therapy.

Inside the NovellusDx lab in the Jerusalem Bio-Park, a team of 35 biologists, engineers, mathematicians and physicians recreates the genetic maps of real human individuals with cancer.

It’s not a research project but a personalized medical tool.

The NovellusDx team analyzes the cancer-driving mutations in each patient’s DNA to deliver actionable intelligence to oncologists, helping them choose the right cancer therapy for each and every one.

NovellusDx CEO Haim Gil-Ad explains that although genomic sequencing already is starting to be performed for cancer patients and is likely to become standard, sequencing can reveal tens or even hundreds of mutations but cannot annotate the exact eight to 12 driver mutations that are actually enabling the tumor to grow.

The Israeli company is filling this gap in knowledge.

“Every patient is different,” Gil-Ad tells ISRAEL21c. “Two 35-year-old women with breast cancer, living in the same place and having similar physical features, will have totally different oncogenic maps.”

NovellusDx uses genomic data sent to its lab by email – no actual patient samples are needed – to recreate the individual’s genetic map on a unique biochip.

The company’s proprietary technology measures the activity of signaling pathways to assess the oncogenic action of known and unknown mutations and their response to cancer drugs. It also provides a hierarchy of driver mutations and mutation “cross-talk.”

Projects with major cancer centers

Founded in 2011 and in operation since May 2012, NovellusDx is working with oncologists in about 20 prominent cancer medical centers, mainly in the United States, including MD Anderson in Texas, Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and Massachusetts General.

“If the oncologist has a dilemma of which mutation to target first, NovellusDx can find the right target and you can try different types of drugs on a single mutation to see which gives the best results,” says Dr. Nir Peled, medical adviser for NovellusDx and head of the Thoracic Cancer Unit and the Center for Precision Cancer Care at the Davidoff Cancer Center of Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

“The platform annotates known and unknown mutations, prioritizes between different genes and classifies the effect of different drugs for the same target. I’m not aware of any other specific platform with the ability to do this in one place in a certified lab within a week,” says Peled, who also heads the Thoracic Oncology Assembly of the European Respiratory Society.

“I am using the platform under a clinical study, and it may support some decisions,” he tells ISRAEL21c.

Sample web page that is part of a dynamic physician report of his patient’s oncogenic map. Image courtesy of NovellusDx

The company also has several projects ongoing with diagnostics and biopharma companies. The NovellusDx solution helps them identify expanded subgroups of cancer patients who are likely to respond to existing therapies, stratify patients to enable more focused and efficient trials and isolate new mutations to target.

“We have also established an exciting collaboration with the Institute Curie’s SHIVA trial, where we demonstrated our ability to clinically predict response,” says Gil-Ad, referring to the French research institute’s groundbreaking personalized medicine project to genetically map hundreds of patients’ malignant tumors.

A paper on this collaboration is soon to be published in a scientific journal.

Scaling up

In its current facility on the campus of Hadassah Ein-Kerem Medical Center, NovellusDx can perform 6,000 tests per year, each taking less than two weeks.

The company is starting a new financing round to boost its commercialization and build facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia. Its previous $16.5 million funding round in 2015 was led by OrbiMed, Pontifax, Intercure and several institutional investors.

“Our major issue now is scaling up,” says Gil-Ad, who retired from the Ministry of Defense 12 years ago.

Gil-Ad tells ISRAEL21c that his defense background was unexpectedly relevant to his current work.

“Both the life-sciences and defense industries demand a ‘system of systems’ approach and are highly regulated, which gives some advantages over competitors. And in both areas you save lives,” he points out.

The scientist who had the idea behind NovellusDx’s core technology first approached Gil-Ad because he thought it would be useful for the air force.

Instead, Gil-Ad saw a more global potential. “I saw there was an unmet need in cancer and I built the company around the technology

ISRAELI START-UP EXTRACTING WATER FROM AIR, AROUND THE WORLD

From the remote corners of India to the palm-lined streets of Miami-Dade County, one Israeli company is aiming to do the unthinkable – extract safe, inexpensive potable water from the air we breathe.

Water Gen made headlines at the AIPA C Policy Conference in Washington two weeks ago, when Prof. Alan Dershowitz presented the company’s GENius device, generating water out of thin air on stage.

Just days earlier, the company had signed a memorandum of understanding to install its technology in Vietnam’s capital city, while days later, the firm inked another memorandum with India’s Vikram Solar Pvt. Ltd., to deploy solar powered Water Gen units in remote parts of the subcontinent.


“All these countries that have the water shortages have a humid and hot climate,” Pasik told the Post. “We take all the humidity from the air and extract the water.”

The memorandum of understanding signed with the Hanoi Department of Construction calls for the construction of a Water Gen factory, to produce industrial-scale water generators for the municipality, with a total capacity of up to 10,000 liters of water per day, Vietnamese news sites reported.

“Our solution is 20 times cheaper than the solution for drinking water that they have,” Pasik said. “[And] what they drink is not healthy.”

In India, the memorandum inked between Water Gen and Vikram Solar enables the latter to manufacture and distribute the Israeli company’s products, incorporating solar power to fuel the water generation process in remote locations.

Yet Water Gen’s reach is by no means limited to the developing world. The products have recently generated interested in several Gulf countries, in Egypt, in Mexico and across the United States, Pasik said. In the US, Water Gen is operating a pilot study in Miami-Dade County and is in talks with various entities in California, Chicago and Michigan, he added.

While most of these places do have access to clean water, many are beginning to experience strain on their aging pipes, requiring shipments of bottled water to residential neighborhoods, Pasik explained.

“We can solve this problem,” he said. “They can put our home devices inside people’s houses and they will have water.”

Water Gen’s technology aims to provide clean, drinkable water to consumers regardless of the infrastructure leading to their homes, according to Pasik.

“This is really the next source of water,” he said. “Desalination plants are good when you have good pipes. If you have bad pipes it doesn’t matter how much good water you put in the pipes.”

The GENius technology works on-demand by trapping the humid air inside the device, then cleaning and drying the air and extracting the now clean water, Pasik said.

Because the heat exchanger is made from plastic rather than aluminum, as has been typical in other such mechanisms to extract water from air, the system is much more affordable, he said. Generating 1 gallon (3.785 liters) of water requires only 1 kilowatt of energy, he added.

The system is available as a large-scale industrial water generator, a medium-scale model and the “GENNY” home appliance for household use.

Pasik said seeing his company’s technology generate a potable resource around the globe is critical, as “water is the next oil for the world.” About 1.7 million children under the age of five die every year due to water scarcity issues, he said.

“There’s nothing more important in the world than water,” he said. “People cannot live without water.”

Pasik said that in the future, technologies like Water Gen’s devices will have the capacity to prevent wars and foster peace, in regions where people are fighting for access to clean water.

“It’s very important that this kind of solution comes from Israel,” he said. “This is kiddush Hashem [sanctification of God’s name] and tikkun olam [repairing the world].”

As an investor in sustainable technology solutions, Pasik also serves as executive chairman at a variety of other Israeli and international companies, including the Ramot Hashavim-based Vertical Field and partner Green Wall Israel, which focus on building natural gardens on vertical surfaces.

“The biggest problem in the world is drinking water and the second is pollution,” he said, “We don’t have a place in the city to put trees.”

A 1,000-meter vertical field is equivalent to 50 trees, each 15 meters tall, which would take many years to grow, Pasik explained. Today, Green Wall is carry out several municipal pilots around the world, in Israel, India, China, the US, Mexico and Europe, he said.

While Vertical Field and Green Wall can provide critical solutions to dense urban communities plagued by air pollution, Pasik stressed that solving the world’s water scarcity problem is still his top priority.

“Two-thirds of the world has drinking-water problems,” Pasik said. “This is a humanitarian issue. We would like to maintain peace between people and save people’s lives. The project itself is priceless and is huge.”