Data Scientist (Genomics and cancer) California to Israel transplant. Opinions are my own.
Israel
Joined April 2008
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Ben Berman retweeted
1/4 One DNA sequence, many chromatin states.
Excited to share SMFNet, a diffusion model predicting single-molecule chromatin accessibility. Explainer video below!
With co-first author Till (his thread: bsky.app/profile/tschwammle.…), Yuliya, Roze, @anshulkundaje & Arnaud Krebs.
Ben Berman retweeted
Dear Arab Israelis,
I have a short message for you, and I'm laying it out of love and compassion but, as always, I'm completely sincere and direct.
The problem everyone in Israel is talking about has nothing to do with you being Arabs or Muslims or Christians.
The problem is (forgive my bluntness) that the majority of you still identify as "Palestinians," and that in private gatherings you always talk about the "dream of destroying Israel", something I've personally heard a couple of times.
I have a secret formula that would make every citizen of Israel vote for you and bring you into any coalition:
1. Unequivocally condemn Hamas and radical Islamic movements.
2. Acknowledge that you are Arab Israeli citizens, not Palestinians.
3. Acknowledge that Israel is the Jewish state of the Jewish people, 3,000 years old and 78 years young.
4. Learn more about the history of the land that prophets, kings, and heroes of Islam called "the land of Israel."
Is that too much to ask? Honestly, that's the least expected of any ordinary citizen of a country.
In so many of those private gatherings, you say the Israeli passport is so strong, that you can travel to Europe without a visa and many of you brag about traveling to the US because of the waiver program...
So is giving back to the Jewish state that gave you this good life really too much to ask?
Food for thought. 🌹
Ben Berman retweeted
Happy to see our work on Polycomb repression establishment in human embryos is now out! Heroic efforts from Xiaoyu Hu, Chuanxin Zhang and their fellows Bofeng Liu, Fangnong Lai and Shuiying Ma. Terrific collaboration w/ Zijiang Chen and her team! nature.com/articles/s41588-0…
Ben Berman retweeted
הצבעתי! כערבייה פלסטינית ונבחרת ציבור בישראל - זו זכות אדירה ובלתי מובנת אליו להצביע ולהשפיע. יום טוב להעיף את הפאשיסטים הביתה, ולהמשיך לבנות מקום שבו לכלנו יש זכות לעצמאות, לביטחון, ולצדק.
Ben Berman retweeted
An unforgettable conversation with Captain Smit, filled with pride and emotions.
Ben Berman retweeted
🛫 New pre-flight safety announcement
via @tertman1
Ben Berman retweeted
My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery.
Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster.
He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals.
I wish Captain Machchhar a speedy and full recovery.
He is a true hero.
Ben Berman retweeted
The Board of Peace’s policy as it relates to UNRWA’s involvement in Gaza is unchanged.
We will only work with trusted partners who will deliver for the people of Gaza and contribute to a deradicalized Strip.
UNRWA fails on those litmus tests.
Our approach is the right one to reduce perpetual dependency and lead Gaza towards a self sustained, thriving economy that delivers opportunity and better conditions for Palestinians.
apnews.com/article/lazzarini…
Ben Berman retweeted
Mayor Mamdani, you said war criminals who set foot in New York should be arrested.
Good news. One is in New York city this week.
The president of the Islamic Republic is coming to the United Nations, right here in New York.
He heads the regime that massacre innocent protesters. They gunned down unarmed protesters in the streets, hanged our children, and sent its agents to Brooklyn to kidnap and kill a New Yorker.
That New Yorker is me. The FBI files and federal indictments are public. Look them up.
If you have the courage to talk about arresting those responsible for crimes against humanity, start with the man sleeping five miles from your office.
Are you willing to act, Mayor? Or do Iranian lives not count?
Ben Berman retweeted
Excited to share our newest work in Nature Reviews Cancer, “Viral mimicry escape as a necessary feature of malignant transformation,” in which we propose that escaping viral mimicry is a new hallmark of cancer.
Ben Berman retweeted
Apparently the Middle East agrees on one thing: good TV. 😉📺
Fauda is #1 in Lebanon, #2 in Jordan, the UAE and Bahrain, and top 10 across the region.
This season brings the story of the October 7 massacre to viewers around the world.
ynetnews.com/culture/article…
Ben Berman retweeted
אמרו נחיל חוק, יהיו סנקציות. לא החילו חוק. יש סנקציות:
הסנקציות של הבריטים, הצרפתים והקנדים כמו במקרה של ההכרה שלהם במדינת פלסטין של שרדינגר, הן עוד ביטוי (מעבר לכל השיקולים הפוליטיים הפנימיים מול מפלגת הירוקים) לכך שאנחנו כמדינת ישראל לא אומרים מה אנחנו רוצים ביו״ש (גם לא בעזה כמובן). אנחנו מקיימים שם כבר עשרות שנים עמימות ריבונית ולא אומרים לעצמנו קודם כל, לאזרחים שלנו שם ולעולם מה אנחנו רוצים. זה שלנו? לא שלנו? זמנית? לאן חותרים? בהירות - יוק.
והממשלה הזו במיוחד התמחתה בשילוב קטלני של דיבורי אבו עלי שאינם מגובים במעשים. בונים חוות אבל לא מחילים את החוק הישראלי על עז צולעת. והתירוץ: יהיו סנקציות. אז עכשיו גם יש סנקציות וגם אין חוק ישראלי.
אז מה כן? תקום ממשלה חדשה. תקים ועדה - אנשי ימין ושמאל, מומחי צבא, גיאולוגים וגיאוגרפיים וכל מי שיכול לתרום - עם משימה אחת: תביאו מפה. הכנסת, כגוף המייצג את הריבון, תחיל את החוק הישראלי האזרחי בחלק משטחי יו״ש ותחת החוק הישראלי האזרחי כולם אזרחים שווים. היכן שלא יחול החוק הישראלי האזרחי יתקיים כיבוש צבאי פעיל לטובת שינוי תודעתי ואידיאולוגי (האמריקאים ביפן/בנות הברית בגרמניה הנאצית - אין אונר״א, אין פליטות, אין שיבה). לתהליך הזה תיעשה עבודה מדינית דיפלומטית עם הכנה רצינית. בקיצור, יוזמה ובהירות בנושא מרכזי שכרגע נראה שכולם בורחים ממנו.
הראיון המלא פה:
1045fm.maariv.co.il/programs…
Ben Berman retweeted
AI seems to be doing a better job of precipitating a long overdue destabilization of some of the most self-defeating academic norms (publishing secrecy, unilateral credit, prestige proxies, closed participation, zero-sum mindset etc) than many reform efforts ever did.
While that’s a good thing, if you’ve ever seen first hand the abhorrent behavior, sheer pettiness, and weaponized victimhood sparked by even tiny individual efforts to operate outside those norms, you’ll know that shit is about to get very very weird.
Ben Berman retweeted
To Save Gaza, Resist Hamas: “Gaza has no future as long as Hamas holds two million Palestinians hostage to its nihilistic agenda.”
@afalkhatib
nytimes.com/2026/09/04/opini… via
@NYTOpinion
Ben Berman retweeted
Big paper alert! This project has been years in the making. A comprehensive description of somatic mutation rates and signatures across 53 tissues or cell types using NanoSeq. A large collective effort led by Mimy Pham, Mike Stratton and Raheleh Rahbari. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
Ben Berman retweeted
We’re giving scientists, mathematicians, and engineers free access to our frontier models—starting with 10,000 researchers and expanding to 100,000 through 2027.
ChatGPT for Academic Researchers is built to accelerate discovery across disciplines.
Ben Berman retweeted
An incredible achievement:
Gold for Israel in mathematics! 🥇🧮🇮🇱 Congratulations to Yotam Budnik, a 12th grader from Rehovot, for winning a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Shanghai, China. Competing against over 600 students from 117 countries, Yotam earned one of the competition's highest honors after solving six exceptionally challenging mathematical problems. In addition to his gold medal, the rest of the Israeli team left the competition with one silver and 4 bronze medals.
An incredible achievement. 👏
