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Monday 21 September 2015

Poll: 51% of Palestinians Oppose Two-State Solution; 65% Want Abbas to Resign

(JNS). Fifty-one percent of Palestinians now oppose a two-state solution with Israel, according to the results of a survey conducted among 1,270 people in the West Bank and Gaza from Sept. 17-19 by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 

Though 48 percent do support two states, according to the poll released Monday, that figure is down from from 51 percent support and 48 percent opposition among Palestinians three months ago. In addition, 65 percent of those surveyed said they did not believe a two-state solution was practical given the existence of Israeli villages in Judea and Samaria.

The survey was conducted during a period of tension among Muslims and Jews with regards to the Temple Mount holy site, as well as the ongoing friction between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group. 

“Additionally, the developments indicated in this poll might have also been triggered by anger at the Arab world as the overwhelming majority believes that Arabs no longer care about the fate of the Palestinians,” wrote the director of the poll, Khalil Shikaki, Reuters reported.

Sixty-five percent of respondents reported wanting Abbas to resign. If new elections were held in the Palestinian territories, 35 percent said they would vote for Hamas, and another 35 percent would vote for Fatah. The latter figure is down from 39 percent three months ago. Forty-two percent reported that armed action is the most effective way to establish a Palestinian state—up from 36 percent three months ago. Seventy-eight percent reported believing the chance of seeing a Palestinian state in the next five years as “slim to non-existent.”

“Additionally, the developments indicated in this poll might have also been triggered by anger at the Arab world as the overwhelming majority believes that Arabs no longer care about the fate of the Palestinians,” wrote the director of the poll, Khalil Shikaki, Reuters reported.

Sixty-five percent of respondents reported wanting Abbas to resign. If new elections were held in the Palestinian territories, 35 percent said they would vote for Hamas, and another 35 percent would vote for Fatah. The latter figure is down from 39 percent three months ago. Forty-two percent reported that armed action is the most effective way to establish a Palestinian state—up from 36 percent three months ago. Seventy-eight percent reported believing the chance of seeing a Palestinian state in the next five years as “slim to non-existent.”

Israel plans to hire 20,000 Chinese construction workers

Israel and China appear to be interested in “building” closer relations.
Chinese construction workers build high-rise buildings 50% faster than Israelis, Palestinians or others, Israel’s Finance Ministry said.
Because of this, Israel plans to bring in 20,000 Chinese construction workers to help build new apartments as part of efforts to lower housing costs, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, reported AFP.
Chinese workers are currently brought into Israel under private contracts between Israeli and Chinese companies, the French news agency said.
However, the lack of a formal agreement between the two countries on working conditions for immigrant workers has led Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to oppose the plan.
Despite this, Israel’s cabinet has already approved the plan.
The finance ministry said that even without an agreement it would create a plan to protect the workers’ rights.
“In my view, this is a necessary and important step to lower housing prices,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s construction sector employs 216,000 workers, including 37,000 Palestinians and 6,000 foreigners, with some 3,700 Chinese, reported AFP.
But there are still political sensitivities to take into account. In June, China said it wouldn’t let its citizens work on projects in the occupied West Bank.
Workers’ rights groups in Israel also attacked Sunday’s plan, which they said would take away jobs from working-class Israelis and submit Chinese workers to exploitative conditions which amounted to indentured labor, according to the Financial Times.

Anish Kapoor Forced by French Court to Remove Anti-Semitic Vandalism from Versailles Sculpture




Anish Kapoor's Dirty Corner (2011) was painted with anti-Semitic slogans. Photo: AFP via the Malay Mail Online
Anish Kapoor's Dirty Corner (2011) was painted with anti-Semitic slogans.
Photo: AFP via Malay Mail Online
Anish Kapoor returns to Versailles tomorrow, September 22, to commence his artistic intervention on the sculpture Dirty Corner, which has been vandalized three times since its installation in the gradens of Versailles in June.
But the artist, who initially announced that he would leave the massive steel artwork untouched after it had been smeared with anti-semitic slogans in early September, is not acting of his own accord, but rather obeying a court order.
A Versailles court ruled on Saturday, September 19, that the anti-semitic graffiti must be wiped off "without delay" from the sculptures and surrounding stones after right-leaning politician Fabien Bouglé filed a complaint with the local public prosecutor against the artist andCatherine Pégard, president of Versailles, contesting their decision to keep the graffiti as a sign of disgrace and as a reminder of the "dirty politics" that inspired the vandalism.
The sculpture, which became known as "the queen's vagina," was defaced with anti-semitic phrases such as “SS blood sacrifice," "the second RAPE of the nation by DEVIANT JEWISH activism," and "Christ is king in Versailles."
British artist Kapoor, son of a Jewish Iraki mother and a Hindu father, took to Instagram Sunday morning to express his anger and disappointment with the French court's ruling. He posted a picture of the work covered in black plastic wraps to conceal the vandalism, announcing that the "racists in France have won."
He also compared the judgement to the shaming of rape victims: "It is as if a woman is raped and blamed for her own rape."
In his court complaint, Bouglé twistedly argued that "Catherine Pégard and Mr. Anish Kapoor fully recognize the anti-semitic content of these slogans," and are therefore complicit if they leave the sculpture untouched.
Bouglé's intentions seem especially dubious given that he commented favorably on the very first attack on the work in June, calling it "an artistic expression" and referring to the act as "poetic justice."
However, in an exclusive interview with the French paper Le Figaro on Sunday, Kapoor was defiant. "I will not give in to the attackers. They are vile. I will not withdraw Dirty Corner, even if the idea occurred to me in moments of sadness and discouragement" he said, adding that he didn't regret having accepted the invitation to exhibit in Versailles.
On September 11, "Dirty Corner" was vandalized for the third time, with inscriptions written with pink paint reading "Respect art as you trust god". Photo: AFP Patrick Kovarik.
On September 11, "Dirty Corner" was vandalized for the third time, with inscriptions written with pink paint reading "Respect art as you trust god". 
Photo: AFP Patrick Kovarik.
The artist didn't reveal his plans for his artistic intervention to alter the work in compliance with court orders. However, he did sound excited about it, saying: "I hope this new answer to the aggression will open a different debate on art. Some may find it better than before. Other less so. This is how artists face the real world. This is my royal surprise!" 
via https://news.artnet.com/art-world/anish-kapoor-dirty-corner-antisemitic-vandalism-versailles-334043?

Rams' horns and ritual baths: Why Jews observe Yom Kippur

mark-woods Mark Woods CHRISTIAN TODAY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement, the most important festival of the Jewish year. Even Jews who are not particularly religious will observe it. This year it starts tomorrow evening, September 22, and ends the following evening. 
Here are eight things you might not have known about it. 
1. Yom Kippur was instituted in Leviticus 16 and 23: 26-32, where the people are commanded to do no work on that day on penalty of being "cut off from their people" (verse 29).
2. Aside from not working, the Jewish Talmud prescribes various other forms of observance. It is a fast period, beginning at sunset the previous day and ending after sunset on the day itself. It's also forbidden to anoint the body (with cosmetics), wear leather shoes or engage in sexual relations.
3. Pre-Yom Kippur rituals include eating honey cake as a way of symbolising prayer for a sweet and abundant year, eating a festive meal, immersion in a mikvah or ritual bath and giving to charity.
4. Yom Kippur focuses on the synagogue. Orthodox services start early in the morning and conclude mid-afternoon, with a break before evening services begin. They end at nightfall with a blast on the shofar or ram's horn.
5. Many Jews wear white on the holiday as a symbol of purity.
6. Yom Kippur has the themes of atonement and repentance. It completes the 'Days of Awe' that begin with the festival of Rosh Hashanah and during which Jews engage in soul-searching and confession. At the end of Yom Kippur, the process is complete.
7. In Israel, Yom Kippur is a legal holiday. Public transport stops, shops and businesses are closed and it is regarded as impolite to eat in public or play music, or to drive.
8. Part of the festival is a recitation of the Temple service and a recollection of the sacrifices and other observances made there until its destruction in AD 70.

Think France’s Jews and Muslims Are Natural Enemies? Think Again.

 It was late at night in central Paris. A group of Jews were enjoying themselves in their popular meeting spot, the Gamin de Paris, a café in the longtime Jewish quarter of the Marais. At about 11 PM, between 50 and 100 thugs, many of them Muslims, showed up to make trouble. Carrying Billy clubs, sticks and guns, the attackers threw objects through the café’s open door, ransacked the place and fired shots into the air. With some help from a group of Jews recently organized to watch for such incidents, the Jewish clients in the café managed to hold off the attackers until French police arrived. The incident was contained.
This altercation occurred just this month — 80 years ago, that is, in September 1935. If you assumed that the event was recent, and that it was one more case of the Middle East conflict fueling Muslim-Jewish hostility across much of the world, especially in France, then that’s understandable. Read the American, European and Jewish press these days and you might well conclude that newly arrived Muslims in France are waging war against Jews and that it is a proxy struggle for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yet the reality is very different: Jews and Muslims have been interacting in France for a century now, and their relations have never been based simply on the vagaries of the Middle East conflict.
When we see Jews and Muslims simply as enemies, we not only erase history, but also make conflict harder to overcome. Instead, we should explore the legal, political, economic and cultural contexts that have shaped Jewish-Muslim relations in specific times and places.
As I show in my new book, The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France , Jews and Muslims in France have often interacted as something other than members of mutually hostile ethno-religious communities. They have been citizens and foreigners, political allies and opponents, fellow musicians or athletes, neighbors, friends and even lovers.
At the very moment of the above-mentioned attack, only a few blocks to the south in the same neighborhood of Paris, small numbers of Jewish and Muslim immigrants from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia were creating pockets of North African culture. In 1937, an Algerian Jew named René Moïse Gharbi opened a café named the Petit Marseillais. Many disfigured North African veterans of World War I, Jewish and Muslim, passed their days there, bonding over war stories and enjoying the common cuisine and ambiance of their native lands. On Saturday nights the Petit Marsaillais sometimes hosted musical soirées, where Muslim and Jewish musicians and dancers would regale a mixed audience with Arab music into the wee hours of the morning.
At the same time, darker political currents were coming to the surface. The thugs who showed up to attack Jews at the Gamin de Paris were from a group called the Solidarité française , one of several quasi-fascist leagues that emerged in France in the 1930s. These ultra-nationalists often treated Jews as the enemies of France, and tried to turn Muslims against them. (Efforts to divide the two groups for political gain remain a hallmark of far-right politics in France to this day.)
Meanwhile, growing numbers of Muslim migrant workers from Algeria — the crown jewel of France’s empire — were beginning to demand independence from colonial rule. Since 1870, most Algerian Jews had enjoyed French citizenship but Algeria’s Muslims were, with rare exception, colonized subjects. The struggle over Algeria’s future increasingly drove Jews and Muslims into opposing political camps. Colonialism and its legacies have arguably proven as potent a source of Jewish-Muslim conflict in France as the battle over Israel/Palestine.
In the decades since the 1930s, France’s Jews and Muslims have continued to interact in a rich variety of ways. Still today, there are neighborhoods in France like Sarcelles and groups like the Judeo-Muslim Friendship association that show there is nothing inevitable about Jews and Muslims becoming enemies. Where tension does exist, its causes cannot be mechanically reduced to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Our mistaken assumptions to the contrary are the product of several 20th century developments. These include the Zionist-Arab conflict, but also at least three others: 1) the acceptance of the idea that the world must be organized into nation-states and that these states have the right to define who belongs and who does not; 2) decades of brutal violence by colonial oppressors and anti-colonial resisters; and 3) the resurgence of both religious extremism and militant secularism.
To understand the forces defining the present, we need to transport ourselves back into a series of moments from the past, where Jews and Muslims perceived their allegiances and encounters as more fluid than fixed. Even today, as with the riot at the Gamin de Paris café 80 years ago, both Muslim-Jewish violence and friendly relations can occur in the same spaces. Internalizing that truth will prove vital in determining the future of both peoples.

My Story So Far: Alisa Avigdor fell into a fundraising career she loves

The director of philanthropy at World Jewish Relief says consistency is important in fundraising
Alisa Avigdor
Alisa Avigdor
I fell into fundraising in the late 1980s after seeing a job advert for a trainee fundraiser at the Jewish Blind Society, now part of Jewish Care. I stayed for six years and got a great grounding in all aspects, from events to individual giving and legacies.
I then had a fantastic four years at the National Youth Orchestra. The orchestra was 160-strong, but the staff team was small, which meant lots of responsibility and lots of money to raise. I moved to the Royal College of Music as director of development in 2000 because it was a larger organisation with much bigger fundraising targets. The college had huge ambitions, but was very supportive.
Consistency is important in fundraising if you are to build relationships with donors, but after nine years I'd completed a capital campaign to renovate a concert hall and felt it was a good time to leave.
I took time out and taught English in France for a year, but found that I missed fundraising, so I flew home for an interview for the role of director of development at the Jewish Museum. Having had a Jewish upbringing, I liked the idea of doing something for the community and was thrilled to get the job in 2011.
You must pick jobs carefully - you need to believe in the cause if you are to be good at fundraising. World Jewish Relief's cause appealed, and I become director of philanthropy last year. Seeing its work first-hand in Ukraine proved for me how important our work is. I'm lucky to have fallen into a career I love.
Alisa Avigdor is director of philanthropy at World Jewish Relief, an international humanitarian charity.
via http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/story-so-far-alisa-avigdor-fell-fundraising-career-she-loves/careers/article/1361429?

21-Sep-15: Monday morning rocket attack on southern Israel

Yet another overnight Gazan rocket was fired at southern Israel in the dark of early Monday morning (today), around 4:00 am. Times of Israel reports that Israel's anti-rocket Iron Dome system calculated that it was going to crash into open unoccupied land in the Hof Ashkelon region, and therefore no sirens were heard or countermeasures taken.

This, as we feel needs to be stated each time, is never the intention of the terrorists who do the firing. They place themselves and their communities at mortal risk when they shoot at Israel. In the terrorists' calculus, the risks are justified by the prospect of achieving some meaningful damage or injuries or worse to the Israeli side. These are acts of war. But other than in the Israeli media, there is zero coverage by the news reporting industry which is likely to spring into action if and when an Israeli counter-measure is taken.

The most recent in-coming rocket attacks from Gaza took place all the way back on Friday night. On Thursday, we wrote:
What are the chances that rocket fire directed at anything Israeli in southern Israel is going to happen in the next 24 hours? Your answer will likely depend on how high a price you believe the Palestinian Arabs making the decision to let those rockets blast will be paying. In this neighbourhood, the price is close to zero, which is why an Iron Dome battery is being deployed there at this moment. ["17-Sep-15: Rocks, rockets, riots, religion, risks"]

 from:
http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/21-sep-15-monday-morning-rocket-attack.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/jNPo+(This+Ongoing+War)

Statu Quo in Haram al Sharif : statement from the heads of the churches in Jerusalem

Posted on Sep 21, 2015 in SlideUncategorized
Statu Quo in Haram al Sharif : statement from the heads of the churches

Statu Quo in Haram al Sharif : statement from the heads of the churches

JERUSALEM- Find below a statement from the Heads of churches in Jerusalem, expressing their concern regarding recent violences on Haram al Sharif.
Statement from the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem

We, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, wish to express our serious concern regarding recent violent development on Haram al Sharif.

We condemn all threats of change to historical (Status Quo) situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Haram Asharif) and its courtyard, all buildings, and in the city of Jerusalem. Any threat to its continuity and integrity could easily lead to unpredictable consequences which would be most unwelcome in the present delicate political climate.

Muslims have the right to free access and worship to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
There is a great importance of the custody of the Hashemite kingdom on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy places in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. We believe that all Holy Sites need constant watchful protection so that reasonable access to them can be maintained according to the prevailing Status Quo of all three Abrahamic faiths.

We renew our call that the existing agreed Status Quo governing these sites needs to be fully respected for the sake of the whole community.

The Heads of churches in Jerusalem
+Patriarch Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
+Patriarch Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarchate
+Patriarch Nourhan Manougian, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarchate
+Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, ofm, Custos of the Holy Land
+Archbishop Anba Abraham, Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem
+Archbishop Swerios Malki Murad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate
+Archbishop Aba Embakob, Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarchate
+Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zerey, Greek-Melkite-Catholic Patriarchate
+Archbishop Mosa El-Hage, Maronite Patriarchal Exarchate
+Archbishop Suheil Dawani, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
+Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
+Bishop Pierre Malki, Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate
+Msgr. Georges Dankaye’, Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate

Thursday 17 September 2015

Why London's eruv is sprouting in Jerusalem

By Nathan Jeffay, September 17, 2015
Ruth Schreiber
Ruth Schreiber
Jerusalem is gearing up for one of the largest Jewish art festivals ever held in the city - and one of the most unusual works to be displayed draws on the religious life of the London community.
Organisers of the Second Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art expect to attract thousands of Jewish tourists visiting Israel for the chagim, and well as large numbers of locals.
"The main objective of this is to connect two worlds in Israel that are often very separate - the world of contemporary art, and the world of Jewish tradition and ceremony," said the biennale's initiator, Rami Ozeri.
Mr Ozeri calls biennale "a stage for professional artists who refer in their artwork to Jewish thought, spirit, tradition or experience". And he has some 200 such artists, from Israel and overseas, showing their work.
The eruv is shown on a glass map, which lights up when people approach
He hopes that the art will "add a layer to discussions about Jewish topics".
Several of the seven sites hosting exhibitions are city landmarks. The main exhibition will be in the Tower of David, an ancient citadel near the Jaffa Gate. This exhibition, Jerusalem.Passages, will consist of large projects by five people including Sigalit Landau, an Israeli sculptor, video and installation artist.
Other exhibitions include a "visual commentary" on the Torah, compiled by 54 female artists who span the Jewish spectrum, from secular to strictly-Orthodox. The show will respond to the question, "How do women interpret the core story of the Jewish people?"
During Succot, guided tours of the festival - including commentary on the stories behind the artworks - will be available.
London Jewish life has found its way into the biennale by way of Ruth Schreiber, a former resident of the UK capital who now lives in Israel.
Her work is a tribute to her husband, David, one the key activists who pressured for and eventually succeeded in building Britain's first eruv, a boundary that permits observant Jews to carry items or push buggies on Shabbat.
Mrs Schreiber's artwork consists of a glass map of the area covered by the North West London Eruv, with movement sensors positioned beneath it. When people approach, lights illuminate.
"The metaphorical message is that it delineates the sacred space of the eruv," she said. Explaining the sensors and the lights, she said, "the idea is that it is something that isn't permanently sacred but rather sometimes sacred while sometimes it isn't."
She completed Enter The Eruv in 2011, but it has only ever been displayed once, and never in the UK.
Mrs Schreiber said that she was spurred to make the artwork because of its life changing effect on observant Jews: "People have even said to me that if there had been an eruv when they were younger, they would have had more kids."

Deep fears over Russia's Syria push

By Anshel Pfeffer, September 17, 2015
An anti-regime fighter in Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus
An anti-regime fighter in Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus
Russia's decision to deploy warplanes and military units to Syria could have far-reaching implications beyond the ongoing civil war. It is already driving a wedge between Jerusalem and Moscow.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he would fly to Russia to voice Israel's concerns over the deployment.
President Vladimir Putin has routinely met Israel's prime minister, usually annually, and also held regular meetings with former president Shimon Peres.
Most of the disagreements between the two countries in recent years have been around the supply of Russian arms to Israel's enemies - particularly Iran, Syria and Hizbollah. However, at no point - not even when Israeli experts found evidence that IDF armoured vehicles had been destroyed by the most advanced Russian anti-tank missiles during the Second Lebanon War - did the accusations and counter-accusations come to the surface.
The announcement of a sudden visit by Mr Netanyahu to his Russian counterpart is an unprecedented public admission of a crisis between the two countries.
Of course, there is nothing new about Russia's support for the Assad regime in Syria. Moscow has given the regime diplomatic backing, shielding it from UN resolutions and other international sanctions, and has continued to supply arms and service Russian-supplied weapons systems.
What has changed in recent weeks is both the scope of this military assistance, with entire units reportedly being deployed to the Latakia region on the Mediterranean coast, and the heightened level of co-operation between the Russians and Assad's other backers - Iran and their proxies Hizbollah.
The main Israeli concern is that the Russian involvement will shield both Iranian and Hizbollah fighters, allowing them to further plans to build a terror infrastructure on Israel's Golan border. Israel also fears that the Russian military will provide cover for more advanced weapons to be smuggled from Syrian army bases to Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Russia has portrayed its involvement in Syria as putting "boots on the ground" in the fight against Daesh. Few in the region - or in Russia or Ukraine - buy this version. Many believe that Mr Putin is trying to use the struggle against Daesh as a way to get Russia out of the international isolation caused by its invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian insistence on keeping Assad in power has tainted this effort but Mr Putin has once again outmanoeuvred the West, which has not come up with any solution to the Syrian war. The Obama administration has criticised the latest Russian moves, as have a number of European governments, but so far, Israel is the only nation that is intervening with Mr Putin directly.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Grants Fast Track Designation to Can-Fite's CF102 in the Treatment of Liver Cancer

- Global market for liver cancer drugs is projected to exceed $2 billion in 2015
PETACH TIKVA, IsraelSept. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. (NYSE MKT: CANF) (TASE:CFBI), a biotechnology company with a pipeline of proprietary small molecule drugs that address inflammatory and cancer diseases, today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the Company's drug candidate CF102 Fast Track designation as a second line treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. CF102 had already received the FDA's Orphan Drug designation.
Can-Fite is currently conducting a Phase II study for this indication in the U.S., Europe and Israel. The randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study is expected to complete enrollment by the end of the first half of 2016 in 78 patients with Child-Pugh Class B cirrhosis who failed the only FDA approved drug on the market, Nexavar® (sorafenib). Patients are treated twice daily with 25 mg of oral CF102, which has been found to be the most efficacious dose in Can-Fite's earlier Phase I/II study resulting in the longest overall survival time, with excellent safety results.
Fast Track, aimed at getting important new drugs that meet an unmet need to patients earlier, is expected to expedite the development of CF102. Drugs that receive Fast Track designation benefit from more frequent meetings and communications with the FDA to review the drug's development plan to support approval. It also allows the Company to submit parts of the New Drug Application (NDA) on a rolling basis for review as data becomes available. Since the Fast Track Program started, from March 1998through June 30, 2015 a total of 318 Fast Track applications have been received by the FDA. The FDA has granted 202 of them, and denied 110, with 6 more pending.
"We are very pleased that the FDA recognizes the potential for CF102 to treat HCC patients who have tried, and not been responsive to Nexavar, the only FDA approved drug currently on the market for this indication," stated Can-Fite CEO Dr. Pnina Fishman. "We consider Fast Track designation to be a major catalyst for our CF102 development program and we believe it could shorten our time to market for CF102, thereby making a considerable difference for patients."
According to Global Industry Analysts, the global market for liver cancer drugs is projected to exceed $2 billion in 2015. Nexavar® annual sales, as reported by Bayer, were €773 million in 2014.
About CF102 
CF102 is a small orally bioavailable drug that binds with high affinity and selectivity to the A3 adenosine receptor (A3AR). A3AR is highly expressed in tumor cells whereas low expression is found in normal cells. This differential effect accounts for the excellent safety profile of the drug. In Can-Fite's pre-clinical and clinical studies, CF102 has demonstrated a robust anti-tumor effect via deregulation of the Wnt signaling pathway, resulting in apoptosis of liver cancer cells.
About Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd.
Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. (NYSE MKT: CANF) (TASE: CFBI) is an advanced clinical stage drug development Company with a platform technology that is designed to address multi-billion dollar markets in the treatment of cancer, inflammatory disease and sexual dysfunction. The Company is preparing for a Phase III CF101 trial for rheumatoid arthritis and is preparing its protocol for its next advanced psoriasis clinical trial. Can-Fite's liver cancer drug CF102 is in Phase II trials and has been granted Orphan Drug Designation and Fast Track Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. CF102 has also shown proof of concept to potentially treat other cancers including colon, prostate, and melanoma. The Company's CF602 has shown efficacy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Can-Fite has initiated a full pre-clinical program for CF602 in preparation for filing an IND with the U.S. FDA in this indication. These drugs have an excellent safety profile with experience in over 1,200 patients in clinical studies to date. For more information please visit: www.can-fite.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, about Can-Fite's expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among other things, its product development efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. In addition, from time to time, Can-Fite or its representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "may," "should" or "anticipate" or their negatives or other variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. These forward-looking statements may be included in, but are not limited to, various filings made by Can-Fite with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of Can-Fite's authorized executive officers. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause Can-Fite's actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause Can-Fite's actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors summarized in Can-Fite's filings with the SEC and in its periodic filings with the TASE. In addition, Can-Fite operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. Can-Fite does not undertake any obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact
Can-Fite BioPharma
Motti Farbstein
+972-3-9241114
SOURCE Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd.