CNN slams ‘nearly invisible’ Kamala Harris: ‘She has had a free ride’

 

CNN host Michael Smerconish threw cold water on Democrats’ enthusiasm for their “nearly invisible” nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, warning that she isn’t “indestructible” and will eventually be “held accountable” for her record and policy positions.

Smerconish took aim at Harris on Saturday for refusing to subject herself to tough questioning from reporters about what she would do as president since she was handed the nomination last month.

“Kamala Harris is not indestructible,” the former Republican and talk radio host said on his weekend CNN program Saturday, adding that the vice president was getting a “free ride.”

“She has served as an undistinguished, nearly invisible vice president.”

Smerconish noted that “there appears no accomplishment she can point to for her most important responsibility, addressing the origin of the border crisis.”

His comments were reported by the news site Mediaite.

“Thus far, Harris has had a free ride,” Smerconish said. “She hasn’t given any media interviews, hasn’t faced voter questioning.”

The host noted that Harris pledged to give an interview with the press by the end of the month, adding: “She said that on August the 8th!”

Smerconish called out Harris for reversing her positions on several issues, including “health care, fracking, weed and the death penalty.”

He also said Harris would soon need to answer for an economic agenda that has so far been met with “mixed reviews.”

“Sooner or later, she’s going to be held accountable and face pressure that she has thus far largely avoided,” Smerconish said.

Smerconish also called for greater scrutiny of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who may turn out “to have as many warts as [Ohio Sen.] JD Vance.”

He cited a recent CNN report that found that Walz’s 2006 campaign for a congressional seat made false statements about details of his 1995 arrest for drunk and reckless driving.

The Post has sought comment from the Harris-Walz campaign.

CNN’s Smerconish: Kamala Harris Has Had a ‘Free Ride’ from the Media; ‘She Has Served as an Undistinguished, Nearly Invisible Vice President’ pic.twitter.com/CSoB9AlSI9

— Alexandra Datig | Front Page Index 🇺🇸 (@alexdatig) August 17, 2024

Monsey Area Pro-Hamas imam calls on Allah to ‘destroy the Zionist Jews’ in hate-filled sermon

 

A Rockland County mosque has apologized for hateful statements made by a pro-Hamas imam earlier this month — including calling for the destruction of “Zionist Jews.”

The guest imam delivered the sermon on Aug. 9 at the Islamic Center of Rockland County, in Valley Cottage, touting that Hamas was winning the war in Gaza.

“Oh Allah, destroy the Zionist Jews,” said the imam, who was not identified, according to a translation by Memri TV.

“Oh Allah, seize them with a crushing grip,” he added, saying Hamas will win because of their faith.

With video spreading of the imam’s hateful rhetoric, local Jewish groups and elected officials called on the Islamic center to respond to the statements made in their mosque.

“On August 9, during a sermon at our masjid, a guest imam (prayer leader) delivered several hurtful statements that included a prayer to God for the destruction of Zionist Jews as part of the conflict in Gaza,” the group said in a statement.

“We unequivocally condemn these statements,” they added. “We sincerely apologize for any pain caused by these remarks and will ensure that our platform is not used to promote these types of harmful messages going forward.”

The Jewish Federation and Foundation of Rockland County said it was shocked by the message at their neighbor’s mosque, calling on the community to unite against the “inflammatory and threatening ideas.”

“There is no room for hateful, violent speech like this,” Jewish Federation CEO Ari Rosenblum said.

“It is more than alarming; it is threatening to the overwhelming majority of our community who identify with the self-determination of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland.”

Rosenblum said the situation was especially heartbreaking given that the mosque has often been a partner with local synagogues in the past.

US Rep. Mike Lawler (NY-R) also called on the mosque to condemn the “disturbing, violent, and antisemitic rhetoric” made by the imam.

“That is totally unacceptable anywhere, but especially so in Rockland County,” he said, referencing the county’s large Jewish community.

Scott Richman, the regional director of the New York and New Jersey Anti-Defamation League, warned that such hateful speeches in the tri-state area and around the world “only fuels hatred and divides neighbors but can lead to harmful real world consequences.”

Candace Owens’ father-in-law defends Israel

 

Candace Owens’ father-in-law sought to distance himself from her controversial comments about Jews that have sparked an uproar, prompting social media users to accuse her of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Lord Michael Farmer, the British aristocrat who made his fortune in metal trading, began a lengthy X thread on Monday by writing: “In view of public comments from a high-profile member of my family, I want to put my own views on antisemitism and Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza on public record.”

Farmer, a big-money donor to Conservative Party politicians in the UK, wrote that he was “very aware of the cruelty meted out” against Jews both before and during the World War II period when he came of age.

“The best man at my wedding and life-long friend was Jewish,” Farmer wrote, adding that he valued the “kindness and thoughtfulness from Jewish friends … at a time when I had few close relationships.”

Dems bury an angry, shouting Joe Biden pushing his speech to 11:30 pm in final disgrace Biden threw a lifeline to terror supporters during DNC speech

 

The Joe Biden show is officially in reruns. Biden even got bumped out of prime time. His speech started at 11:28 p.m., in the hour when old sitcoms run in syndication.

That wasn’t an accident. The first night of the Democratic convention was losers night, featuring Biden and Hillary Clinton along with duds like Kathy Hochul and zealots like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Democrats lined up an endless list of speakers ahead of Biden to push his speech back as far as they could, so as few people as possible would hear it.

The speech itself was written as a celebration of Biden’s accomplishments – some real, many imagined – as president. The actual nominee was an afterthought. Biden spoke of Kamala Harris only as someone who helped him – not for anything she ever did on her own.

If the Harris campaign had any hopes that Joe would let them get distance from his record, they were dashed. “When I say we I mean Kamala and me,” he emphasized, reminding voters that there’s no turning the page by voting for Harris.

Biden tried to play the old hits, but they ring hollow now. He talked about Charlottesville and how he claims Trump as president “emboldened” and praised anti-Semites. “Hate has no safe harbor” in America, he says. But we saw how anti-Semites have safe harbors – literal encampments on college campuses, immune from the law – in Joe Biden’s America. Biden even said of the pro-Hamas protestors, “Those protesters out in the street. They’ve got a point.”

No, they don’t, Joe.

Just days after Tim Walz pledged that Democrats wouldn’t call their opponents names, Biden called Trump a “loser,” a “liar,” a “felon,” and a “sucker.”

Amid the usual rants about January 6, there were the usual bald-faced lies, such as the claim that the Biden-Harris administration “helped schools get back open” after COVID when in fact they ignored the recommendations of scientists to side with the teachers unions in protracting school closures. They expect us to nod along, knowing it’s not true.

Of course, the pretense of one big happy family had to be maintained. Biden denied that he was angry at the Democrats who forced him off the ticket. Nancy Pelosi stood in the front row holding a “We Love Joe” sign, just weeks after wielding the knife. She came to bury Joe, not to praise him.

Biden stayed mostly on script, leaning on the prepared text to keep him from wandering off. But he was shouty and glowering as a result. By the end, nobody would wonder why Democrats decided they needed to dump this guy.

The amazing thing is that they made it as far as July pretending he was up to the job.

So Far DNC anti-Israel protests half as large as organizers predicted

 

The anti-Israel protest outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday drew less than half as many participants as organizers predicted, the New York Post reported.

Protest organizers had predicted that as many as 40,000 people would attend the rally. However, so far, less than 20,000 appear to have turned out, and thousands of anti-Israel signs are lying on the grass with no one to carry them.

There is still time for the demonstration to grow in size before the protesters are expected to march from Union Park to the site of the convention in the hopes of creating a disruption that the Democratic officials and delegates would hear.

270 organizations are gathering this week at the Coalition to March on the DNC in protest against Israel's retaliation for the Hamas massacre of October 7 and other causes.

One speaker at the protest attacked feminists who do not oppose Israel, saying "You struggle to be included in the US imperial war machine. We struggle to destroy it." The speaker also led the crowd in chants of "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free."

On Sunday night, the Chicago Sun Times reported that a group of anti-Israel protesters targeted a delegate party held at Navy Pier, where a protestor rushed onto the stage and grabbed a microphone, the paper reported. The protester shouted, “You are funding a genocide."

A protester who identified herself as Jinan also stated ominously, “Welcome to hell week."

Fetterman's Communications Director Carrie Adams Openly Contradicts her Boss in reference to his loyalty to Israel

 Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) harbors views on Israel that are so unusual in his own party that “there are even people on his current staff who think he is wrong,” Peter Savodnik wrote in The Free Press on Sunday.

After Savodnik concluded his interview with the pro-Israel senator, Carrie Adams, Fetterman’s communications director, called him to say, “‘I don’t agree with him’ about Israel and Gaza,” Savodnik wrote.

Adams added, “I have a sense that his international views are a lot less nuanced than my generation, because when he was growing up, it was might makes right, and for my generation and younger who, of course, are the ones protesting this, they have a much more nuanced view of the region,” per the Free Press.

“I’ve been a reporter since the summer of 1998, when I covered Bill Clinton’s trip to Martha’s Vineyard for the Vineyard Gazette,” Savodnik wrote. “This was the first time I’d ever encountered anyone—on Capitol Hill or anywhere else, on the record, off the record, on background, whatever—criticizing ‘the principal.’”

Fetterman told Savodnik that he was skipping the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week because his kids are off school, and he wants to spend time with them.

In a Shocking Psak the Kabbalist Harav Dov Kook "It is a Mitzvah to Go Up to the Har Habayis"

 

Ger Issues New Prohibitions for Girls "A Bar Code Scanner is Asur"

 Crazed Gerer Prohibitions on the Girls

In the attached audio file (I didn't down load it) you can listen to a list of delusional regulations on guarding against the hazards of technology set by the rabbis of the Gur Hasidic community so that the girls will not be exposed, God forbid, to unacceptable and dangerous content.

A partial list of prohibited and permitted things:

It is forbidden to use a barcode scanner when purchasing products in large chains.

It is forbidden to use the device for Rav-Kav charging.

It is forbidden to develop images in personal positions in photo development stores.

It is forbidden to bring computer-made work such as greeting cards, etc. to school.

You are allowed to look at security camera screens but you should not watch much. (It is necessary to find out why this was allowed.)

And more and more different and strange prohibitions.

Candice Owens Says that if anything should happen to her... it was the Zionists!

 

Haniyeh’s elimination in Iran was a spectacular victory for Israel

 

Ismail Haniyeh, a prominent leader of the terrorist Palestinian group Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran the night after he attended the inauguration of the new Iranian president. The day before, Haniyeh had been welcomed by Iran’s Supreme Leader, who promised him continued support for Hamas’ war on Israel. Although Israeli authorities did not officially take responsibility for Haniyeh’s elimination, both Iranian authorities and international experts strongly suspect that Israel orchestrated the audacious operation.

Whatever the circumstances of the event, Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran was a significant tactical and propaganda victory for Israel. This operation not only removed the head of a terrorist organization closely aligned with the Iranian regime, but also showcased Israel’s ability to infiltrate Iranian territory during a major international political event when security control is naturally much tighter. The message was clear: Israel can strike any Iranian leader at will.

According to the Associated Press Kamala’s Campaign Has Been Engaging With Anti-Israel Movements

 

According to a new report, top Democrat officials, including Kamala Harris’ campaign officials and even Harris herself, have been engaging with and courting the radical anti-Israel “uncommitted movement”.

The Associated Press revealed that top Democrats have spent weeks meeting with “uncommitted” voters and their allies, including a previously unreported secret meeting between Kamala Harris and the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan.

The meeting between Harris and the activists was part of an effort to respond to criticism in key swing states like Michigan, which has a significant Arab American population.

According to the AP, weeks of communication between pro-Palestinian Arab activists and the Harris campaign have resulted in progress, but their core demands remain unmet. The activists want Harris to endorse an arms embargo against Israel and a permanent ceasefire. Harris has supported a ceasefire but rejected an arms embargo.

During a campaign trip to Michigan, Harris herself met with Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, the city with the largest number of Arab Americans in the U.S.

Kamala’s coronation is a blow for US democracy

 

This week, the Democratic Party will nominate for president a woman who hasn’t won a single primary. I’ve elected not to attend the convention in Chicago. Since Joe Biden pulled out, it’s become a toothless coronation – and if there are protests, I can’t report on them. To do that, one needs pre-approved press credentials from the terrifying Chicago Police Department, which seems to regard half a dozen kids with placards and a camera as a nascent riot.

The diminution of American democracy continues. Three months ago, we were told Joe was fit and well: anyone who said otherwise was a liar. Then he bombed at the debate. The elite realised Trump might win, so now we were told Biden was gravely ill – and horribly selfish for refusing to stand aside. A coalition of hacks and politicians humiliated the poor man off the ticket, a surrender they quickly labelled “historic” and “brave.”

It was Kamala Harris’ turn for a makeover. Yesterday, she was an idiot; today she is the second coming of Lincoln, with quirks that once made her absurd – that crazy laugh, her random use of unrelated words – rebranded as a breath of fresh air. And it seems to be working. She’s climbing fast through the polls. If Trump was crafted by Twitter, Harris has been remade by TikTok – a living meme whose every slap-down and side-eye is greeted by the press with “oh no, she didn’t!”

Of course, one thing she absolutely will not do is talk to reporters. There’s been no formal press conference since she stole Joe’s mantle, not a single sit-down interview. She declined even to speak with Time magazine, despite it comparing the candidate to Obama and putting a pencil portrait of Kamala on the cover that Trump admitted made her look “beautiful”.

The message is that Kamala is “normal” while her opponents are “weird”, an impression reinforced by tapping Governor Tim Walz for her vice president. He served in the military. He taught in a school. Tim – a name that evokes decency and trust – has been crowned “America’s dad”, albeit a dad who takes a weirdo position on trans rights, abortion and illegal immigration.

The one interesting task Biden gave Kamala was reducing people-flow to the border via Central America. Today, the border is a mess; conservatives call her a failed “border czar”. Democrats insist that the term never applied to her because it doesn’t exist, and by implication is a Right-wing smear. Yet contributors to CNN, CBS and ABC called her a “border czar” in the past, and Lester Holt famously put it to her that “You haven’t been to the border”, as if it were part of her job. She replied with characteristic absurdity: “And I haven’t been to Europe.”

It’s rumoured that Harris worried that her brief was being mischaracterised; some speculated at the time that she was being set up by Biden’s staff to take the wrap for an impossible task. The “border czar” controversy is a reminder that until very recently, she was regarded by the people now promoting her as the weak link in a frail administration.

At least her name was familiar. With Biden apparently so sick he can’t run for re-election, the US media ought to be asking: “who is running this country?” – and the list of potential answers is very short.

A fun game to play in the car is, “name a member of the Biden cabinet”. I bet you can get Harris, maybe Antony Blinken, but that’s it. Yet, think back to George W Bush and the names trip off the tongue – Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice – because US politics used to be dominated by substantial, accomplished people (a few of them, contra the myth about Republicans, female and black).

Today, if the Republicans are held hostage by their base, the Democrats are run by a dwindling, ageing elite – and Kamala, who at 59 is older than you think, was granted her party’s nomination not because she’s a “diversity hire” but because they didn’t want an open contest and she happened to be next in line.

America, after years of messing about, has reverted to monarchy. Welcome home, cousins.

Story by Tim Stanley

Smotrich Sets AG Straight: I’m the Finance Minister and I Keep Haredi Daycare

 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last Thursday sent Deputy AG Gil Limon, and the legal counsel of the finance ministry Assi Messing, a detailed letter explaining why, in his opinion, the decision to cancel daycare seriously harms working Haredi women and the integration of the Haredi sector in the job market, sentencing Haredim to poverty. 

Also, Smotrich stressed the entire issue is outside their purview.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara last week ruled that the state must stop funding daycare centers for the toddlers of Haredi families where the father has failed to enlist in the IDF (Collective Punishment: AG Terminates Daycare for Haredi Families with Draft Dodgers). The decision to make life miserable for Haredi families who depend on the state subsidies for childcare, especially when the wife is working full-time too, follows a High Court ruling from July 2023, which canceled the blanket exemption from enlistment for Haredi Israelis.

According to estimates, about 6,700 families will be affected by the decision to stop subsidizing daycare for children of Haredi men aged 18 to 26, just 3 weeks before the school year begins. This means some 10,000 children whose parents will be left without appropriate daycare, some of whom are listed by the Welfare Ministry as economically needy.

Smotrich is furious that the decision was made in a collaboration between the AG and the finance ministry’s legal counsel without consulting the decision-making echelon, the finance minister. “It’s amazing that you conduct discussions, exchange correspondence and make decisions with far-reaching implications on budgetary and economic issues among yourselves, without even thinking of someone who deserves to at least be included in the process, namely the finance minister,” Smotrich wrote. “Yours is a country within a country,” he noted.

Let's See What The Chazon Ish and Harav Eliyashiv REALLY Said About Joining the IDF

לא תעמוד על דם רעיך

Let's begin with the Chazon Ish! 

ליקוטי החזון איש

( קי"ד..ו')או"ח מועד, הלכות עירובין, ליקוטין, סימן) 

  דזה פשיטא,דבשביל פיקוח נפש והצלת העם כולם חייבין. אלא אפילו בזמן שאין צורך אלא למספר מסוים, היה רשות ליקח חתן מחדרו, שאין להחוזרים שום זכות במלחמות מצוה, וכן במלחמת רשות, אינן פטורין אלא בזמן שאין נצחון ישראל תלוי בהם שמספר הצבא שצורך בהן יש בלעדן, אבל אם יש צורך בהן חייבין לבוא לעזרת אחיהם

Loose translation!

There is no question that for the sake of Pikuach Nefesh and the salvation of the people, everyone must join [the army] But even at a time when there is no need but just a certain amount of soldiers, one can draft   a groom even from his marital room,  they have no exemption in wars of mitzvah ,but even in wars that  not for a mitzva, they are not exempt except when there is sufficient people in the army and they are not needed, but if it is necessary, they must come to the aid of their brethren‎

הגרי"ש אלישיב

(חשוקי חמד, בבא מציעא, ק"ח א')

דכל מה שת"ח פטורים, היינו כשעדיין לא באה מכת הגניבות, שאז תורתם תגן שלא יפגעו, אבל כשהמכה החלה, והגנבים השתלטו על המקום ומכירים כל מבואותיו, אין סומכין על הנס וחייבים להשתתף

Loose translation!

A Talmud Chacham is only exempt from the army when the thieves (in our case, murderers) have not yet arrived, in that case, their Torah Learning will protect them that they shouldn't get hurt, but when the thieves (in our case, murderers and rapists) have already managed to dominate and all know that they are already here and for what purpose, then one can no longer rely on a miracle and one is required to join! 

Last week, during the 9 days, Rav Mordechai Neugroschrel, a well-known Chareidie speaker, a clean-shaven "rabbi," addressed a well-attended gathering in Ramat Beit Shemesh and lectured the crowd on why Chareidim should NOT serve in the army! 

I walked in a bit late and walking in I thought I was in the wrong place as the entire crowd burst out in laughter, mind you, this was during the 9 days! Before I had a chance to find a place and sit down, the crowd burst out laughing again and I started thinking this guy must be doing Stand-Up comedy! 

The clean-shaven rabbi continued with his "jokes" in rapid-fire! I found it inappropriate, for a rabbi to joke about a serious topic while Jewish children were dying just a few miles away! 

I need to point out that Beit Shemesh itself lost quite of few of our children in Gaza and in the North and in fact one Beit Shemesh family had just gotten up from Shiva. 

Which genius invited this guy to speak in a city that was mourning its finest? 

 One guy who was army-age, and turned out to be a Hesder soldier, challenged him, and asked him how can he lecture that Charedim should not share in the burden of their neighbors? He pointed out that he loves to learn, actually learns and is a Shomer Torah Umitzvois and so are his buddies and so what is wrong of being in the army like him and learning? 

He continued, asking why is it that there are practically no Chareidim at the funerals of the fallen soldiers? Why is it that you never find Chareidim visiting the wounded soldiers?

The clean-shaven rabbi started pandering to him and said that "he feels for them bla bla bla! 

I keep reminding you guys that he is "Clean-Shaven" because normally someone who considers himself "Chareidie" would never take a "rabbi" like this seriously! But since he is taking up their cause, suddenly he is a celebrity and their hero! 

To support his position that Chareidim even if they "batel" and don't learn should not enlist he brings a Zohar! 

The Zohar is talking about a "Yissacher/Zevulin" relationship where they agree that one learns and the other one supports him! But this whole premise is totally flawed because this "Yissacher/Zevulin" relationship is an "agreement" between the parties. Note: "AN AGREEMENT" not that Yissachar imposes his will on Zevulin. Besides this has nothing to do with a war where even Yissacher, the learner, has to fight just like everyone else!  Even a chassan under the chuppah is dragged to fight! 

This challenge from the soldier was only at the end of the lecture that was peppered with continued jokes and hysterical laughter from the crowd! Clean-Shaven Neugroschel quoted all HIS gedoilim but conveniently left out the  Chazon Ish , Rav Eliyshiv's Pask seen above, and Rav Shach's psak below! 

See a letter from Harav Shach, where he writes only someone whose "Torahorah is Umnosah" should get a "patur" everyone else goes to the army! In other words only someone whose intention is make Torah, his profession gets an exemption! 

Forget eating salmon, eat like a salmon.

 To get essential nutrients, a new study suggests that people should be eating as if they were salmon.

The study, published in the journal Nature Food, found that consuming the sort of wild fish on which salmon prey, such as mackerel, herring and anchovies, could be healthier than salmon itself.

“Making a few small changes to our diet around the type of fish that we eat can go a long way to changing some of these deficiencies and increasing the health of both our population and planet,” lead author, Dr. David Willer, Zoology Department, University of Cambridge, said in a statement.

Research shows that there’s an overall loss of essential dietary nutrients in the production of farmed salmon, so eating the individual fish that are fed to salmon is a healthier alternative.

“Whilst still enjoying eating salmon and supporting sustainable growth in the sector, people should consider eating a greater and wider variety of wild fish species like sardines, mackerel and anchovies, to get more essential nutrients straight to their plate,” Willer advised.

Directly eating more wild “feed” species could ultimately benefit our health while also reducing the demand for finite marine resources.

Scientists analyzed the flow of nutrients from the edible species of the wild feed fish compared to the farmed salmon they were fed to, focusing on nine nutrients that are concentrated in seafood and essential to human diets — iodine, calcium, iron, vitamin B12, vitamin A, omega-3, vitamin D, zinc and selenium.

The wild fish that were studied included Pacific and Peruvian anchoveta, and Atlantic herring, mackerel, sprat and blue whiting – all of which are marketed and consumed as seafood.

These six wild fish contained a greater — or similar — concentration of nutrients as farmed salmon fillets.

Most wild-feed fish met dietary nutrient recommendations at smaller portion sizes than the farmed Atlantic Salmon — including omega-3 fatty acids which are known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Compared to the salmon fillets, quantities of calcium were over five times higher in wild-feed fish fillets, iodine was four times higher, and iron, omega-3, vitamin B12, and vitamin A were all over 1.5 times higher.

“It was interesting to see that we’re effectively wasting around 80% of the calcium and iodine from the feed fish – especially when we consider that women and teenage girls are often not getting enough of these nutrients,” Dr. Richard Newton of the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, said.

“What we’re seeing is that most species of wild fish used as feed have a similar or greater density and range of micronutrients than farmed salmon fillets,” Willer added.

However, despite the clear health benefits, the scientists noted that 24% of adults eat salmon weekly, but only 5.4% eat mackerel, 1% eat anchovies and 0.4% eat herring.

“Farmed salmon is an excellent source of nutrition, and is one of the best converters of feed of any farmed animal, but for the industry to grow it needs to become better at retaining key nutrients that it is fed,” Newton explained. “This can be done through more strategic use of feed ingredients, including from fishery by-products and sustainably sourced, industrial-grade fish such as sand eels.”

The researchers hope the study’s findings will push the fishing and aquaculture industries to become more efficient and reduce the burden on fish stocks that also provide seafood.

“We’d like to see the industry expand but not at a cost to our oceans,” Willer said.

“We’d also like to see a greater variety of affordable, convenient and appealing products made of wild ‘feed’ fish and fish and salmon by-products for direct human consumption.”

Study finds eating Israeli Bamba drastically cuts peanut allergy risk in young kids

 

ating Bamba, Israel’s quintessential peanut-butter-flavored snack, is proven to reduce peanut allergies in children by 75 percent, according to a recent study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, bearing out what many Israelis already know.

The longitudinal study began in 2008 when a group of British and Israeli researchers were intrigued by how peanut allergy in Israeli children was significantly less common compared to Jewish children in the UK with similar genetic backgrounds.

They hypothesized that the low level of peanut allergy in Israeli children resulted from their high level of peanut-flavored snacks from an early age. They set out to test it, eventually proving right their hypothesis.

The research created a buzz in the Hebrew media after Dr. Elee Shimshoni and Dr. Sagie Brodsky, two scientists who volunteer at Little, Big Science, wrote about the landmark study. According to its website, this organization is made up of volunteer scientists who explain science in simple Hebrew to the general public.

In their article, the authors explained the researchers’ Bamba study in easy-to-understand language with a bit of humor.

“Slackers, give yourselves a pat on the back for giving your children Bamba” instead of a “fresh and nutritious zucchini quiche,” Shimshoni and Brodsky begin. “You may have prevented your children from developing a peanut allergy.”

In their article, The New England Journal of Medicine researchers said that peanuts are a common culinary ingredient, and “hard to avoid.”

Treatments to protect children against reactions from peanut exposure “would improve the children’s socialization and the quality of life of the children and their families,” the researchers wrote.

Peanut allergy is a common cause of pediatric anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can cause a range of symptoms, including difficulty breathing, swelling, hives, and a sudden drop in blood pressure that requires immediate medical attention.

Although treatment strategies are emerging,  therapies for children under 4 years of age do not exist.

Unlike many other food allergies that develop in childhood, peanut allergy can persist into adulthood.

Meet Morgan Overton the Harris Delegate Pushing a BDS Resolution That Would Cripple Pittsburgh’s Jewish Orgs and Punish Local Hospitals

 Morgan Overton is a Pennsylvania delegate for Kamala Harris at next week’s Democratic National Convention, a member of Democratic governor Josh Shapiro’s advisory council for women, and a Planned Parenthood Western Pennsylvania board member. She’s also a quiet supporter of a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) ballot initiative that would cripple the city’s Jewish organizations and punish its largest hospital system.

Overton, who said she is “so energized” to back Harris in Chicago, signed a petition that would trigger a BDS ballot measure come November, documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. If passed, the measure would force the city of Pittsburgh—and all of its nonprofit entities—to cut ties with Israel or lose tax-exempt status and all public funding. Overton, who has been described as “besties” with Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, signed the petition on July 27, though she has not voiced public support for the measure.

Rabbi "Paskens" That ‘Sacred Texts’ Require Jews To Vote for Harris

An influential Washington, D.C., synagogue is facing backlash from furious congregants after its rabbi claimed Jews “need to elect Vice President Kamala Harris” in order to comply with “sacred texts.”

Adas Israel, whose membership has included Supreme Court justice Elena Kagan and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is one of the oldest and largest synagogues in Washington, D.C. But members have become increasingly frustrated with the leadership’s “insulting” left-wing advocacy that has left congregants “dreading the upcoming high holidays,” the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The controversy came to a head at a Jewish Democratic Council of America event earlier this month, when Adas Israel Co-Senior Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt cited Jewish scripture as a basis for why Jews must vote for Harris.

“I could tell you that we need to elect Vice President Kamala Harris because as Jews our sacred texts tell us we need to build a world where we feed the hungry, where we care for the sick, where we love the stranger, where we guard and nurture this planet,” said Holtzblatt on the JDCA Zoom call with Harris supporters. “Those are her values. That is what her policies seek to achieve.”

Holtzblatt, who officiated Ginsburg’s funeral and has appeared on The Forward’s “Forward 50” list, is a vocal supporter of Harris and led a Passover seder at the vice president’s home last spring. She did not respond to a request for comment regarding which Jewish texts support her assertion that Jews “need to elect” Harris

Holtzblatt’s comments drew criticism from some Adas Israel congregants, who said the synagogue’s political bias has become “insufferable.”

“[T]o be lectured that as Jews we are compelled to vote a certain way is frankly insulting,” wrote a longtime congregant in an email to Adas Israel’s rabbinical leaders. Two other Adas Israel congregants independently shared the exchange with the Free Beacon.

“[T]ying ‘our sacred texts’ to a political candidate in this way is, at best, simplistic. And easily rebutted with myriad other examples from scripture,” wrote the members. “The reality is that Adas has become borderline insufferable for anyone who doesn’t share what is assumed by leadership to be the universal point of view. It’s politics all day everyday; politics always from the same direction—no balance.”

Members are also reportedly irked by Adas Israel’s decision to have Hamilton director Lin-Manuel Miranda, a non-Jewish Democratic activist, headline the synagogue’s Yom Kippur programming in October.

“[T]here are many more Adas members than you might realize, who are put off as well (some of whom are BCC’d here),” wrote the congregants. “I have spoken with a number who are dreading the upcoming high holidays, headlined bizarrely by father and son Miranda (hawking his book no less!).”