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24 provedseveral punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority in response to what it described as Ramallah’s ongoing The Jewish Home | JANUARY 12, 2023 “political and legal war” against the Jewish state. The move came a week after the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.” The P.A. pays monthly stipends to Palestinians, and/or their families, for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. In 2021, the P.A. paid out an estimated 512 million shekels ($157 million) as part of this “pay for slay” policy. Asked if the move would strengthen P.A. rival Hamas, Smotrich said, “The group weakening the P.A. is the P.A. itself, which chooses to be involved in and encourage terrorism and the murder of Israeli citizens.” In response to a question regarding the possible economic collapse of the P.A., Smotrich replied, “As long as the Palestinian Authority encourages terrorism and is an enemy, what interest do I have in helping it exist?” (JNS) A Palestinian village elder fabricated a story about Israeli livestock participating in spying activity, which the official Palestinian Authority daily news outlet Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published as reality, according to a report by Palestinian Media Watch.

“On the neck of each cow, they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail” in the village, the elder said. The P.A. daily further claimed that a Palestinian village elder spotted Israeli cows that are actually “recruited and trained” spies. Rushd Morrar, a Khirbet Yanun village elder, told Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on December 27, “These are recruited and trained cattle, as on the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail in Khirbet Yanun large and small.” The Elder added that “settlers release herds of wild boars” to destroy Palestinian crops. (JNS)

U.S. Releases Cuban Spy

A U.S. citizen convicted of spying for Cuba was released from federal prison on Friday after more than 20 years behind bars. Ana Belen Montes, 65, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst, was one of the most senior U.S. officials ever proven to have spied for Cuba. She had begun working for the DIA in 1985 and eventually became the agency’s senior Cuba analyst. Montes was approached by Cuban intelligence recruiters while studying for a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University. By the time Montes joined the DIA the next year she was already a recruited Cuban spy, according to the FBI.

Montes was arrested in 2001 and was charged with spying for Cuba. She pleaded guilty the next year for conspiring to commit espionage and confessed to revealing the identities of four U.S. undercover agents to Cuban authorities. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison. “The most notorious spy for Cuba’s communist regime in American history will now be free. Sadly, the people

26 she used as an excuse to betray her own nation remain anything but,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said. “[H]er treason The Jewish Home | JANUARY 12, 2023 against the U.S. accomplished nothing for the Cuban people. On the contrary, by helping the criminal Castro regime, Montes strengthened the Cuban people’s worst enemy,” he added. First Vaccine for Bees

Hoping to stem the global decline of bee populations, scientists have come up with a vaccine targeting the bacteria that is to blame for the dwindling numbers. The serum should be available late this year. Biotech company Dalan Animal Health, based in Athens, GA, gained approval for its prophylactic vaccine to protect honeybees from American foulbrood disease — an aggressive bacterium that can spread quickly from hive to hive. Honeybees play an essential part in about one-third of the fruit and produce Americans eat. Populations have dramatically declined in recent years due to the increasing pressures of climate change, habitat destruction, pesticide use and disease. The vaccine contains dead Paenibacillus larvae, the bacteria that causes the illness. The approval is an exciting step forward for beekeepers, noted California State Beekeepers Association board member Trevor Tauzer, and paves the way for more vaccines aimed at controlling harmful viruses and pests. “If we can prevent an infection in our hives, we can avoid costly treatments and focus our energy on other important elements of keeping our bees’ health,” Tauzer said. If you think that giving a shot to a bee would be nearly impossible, you would be correct. The company will be incorporating the vaccine into royal jelly, a sugar feed given to queen bees, who then go on to produce worker bees with inherited immunity against that pathogen. Evidence suggests that immunized worker bees could pass immunity to their sisters over time, similar to mothers who transfer immunity to babies while nursing.

Assault Weapons Ban in IL

Illinois lawmakers approved a bill that will ban the sale and manufacturing of certain assault weapons in the state. The state’s Democratic-controlled senate passed the legislation by a margin of 34-20 on Monday after deliberations that started on Sunday. Governor J.B. Pritzker pushed for the ban in his inauguration speech in the afternoon. The bill now returns to the House of Representatives for a final vote. The House had backed a version of the measure last week. The bill comes in response to rising violence, including a mass shooting that killed seven in the suburb of Highland Park on the Fourth of July. “I’m done with the NRA having its way when it comes to mass shootings,” Pritzker, a Democrat, said in his inauguration remarks. “Why do we allow anyone to easily purchase a rapid-fire, high-capacity weapon that can kill dozens of unarmed people in under a minute?” After long deliberations, lawmakers reached a deal that includes an immediate ban on manufacturing, selling, importing, or purchasing a range of assault weapons. The legislation also bans attachments that increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons. “After continued negotiations between the leaders, stakeholders and advocates, we have reached a deal on one of the strongest assault weapons bans in the country,” senate President Don Harmon said. “Gun violence is an epidemic that is plaguing every corner of this state and the people of Illinois are demanding substantive action.”

According to a new study, if you eat more of the right foods, you can reduce your risk of an early death for any reason by nearly 20%. People who more carefully followed any of the healthy eating patterns — which all share a focus on consuming more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes — were also less likely to die from cancer, cardiovascular illness, and respiratory and neurodegenerative disease. The results of the study were published on Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. People often get bored with one way of eating, study coauthor Dr. Frank Hu said, “so this is good news. It means that we have a lot of flexibility in terms of creating our own healthy dietary patterns that can be tailored to individual food preferences, health conditions and cultures. “For example, if you are eating healthy Mediterranean, and after a few months you want to try something different, you can switch to a DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet or you can switch to a semi-vegetarian diet,” said Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology and chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Or you can follow U.S. dietary guidelines and create your own healthy eating plate.” The study followed thousands of men and women over the course of 36 years. Hu and his team scored participants on how closely they followed four healthy eating styles that are in sync with current U.S. dietary guidelines. One is the Mediterranean diet, which stresses eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fish and a high amount of olive oil. The next is called the healthful plantbased diet, which also focuses on eating more plant products but gives negative points for all animal products and any alcohol. The Healthy Eating Index tracks whether people follow basic U.S. nutritional guidelines, which stress healthy, plantbased foods, frown on red and processed meat, and discourage eating added sugar, unhealthy fats and alcohol. The Alternate Healthy Eating Index was developed at Harvard, and uses the “best available evidence” to include foods and nutrients most strongly associated with a lower risk of chronic disease. “We explicitly included nuts, seeds, whole grains and lower consumption of red and processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages,” Hu explained. “A moderate consumption of alcohol is allowed.” Those who adhered to these diets showed an approximate 20% reduction in morbidity. The study also found reductions in risk of death from certain chronic diseases if people improved their diet over time, Hu said. “It’s never too late to adopt healthy eating patterns, and the benefits of eating a healthy diet can be substantial in terms of reducing total premature deaths and different causes of premature death,” he noted. Hu shared, “People also have a lot of flexibility in terms of creating their own healthy dietary pattern. But the common principles — eating more-plant based foods and fewer servings of red meat, processed meats, added sugar and sodium — should be there, no matter what kind of diet that you want to create.”

Biden’s Classified Docs Found in Private Office

Several classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were discovered last fall in a private office, Biden’s attorneys acknowledged on Monday. Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked the U.S. attorney in Chicago to investigate the matter. Biden’s lawyers say they found the government materials in November while closing out a Washington, D.C.-based

office – the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement – that Biden used as part of his relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an honorary professor from 2017 to 2019. Fewer than a dozen classified documents were found at Biden’s office. Federal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends. “The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement. “The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The President periodically used this space from mid2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning.” The classified materials included some top-secret files with the “sensitive compartmented information” designation, also known as SCI, which is used for highly sensitive information obtained from intelligence sources. The discovery of the materials comes as special counsel Jack Smith is investigating former President Donald Trump for potentially mishandling classified records at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Federal investigators have recovered at least 325 classified documents from Trump as part of their inquiry.

McCarthy Wins Speakership – Finally

It took 15 rounds of voting for Kevin McCarthy to clinch the position of House speaker – a major victory for the California Republican that elevates him to a powerful position leading the GOP majority in the chamber. To secure the gavel, McCarthy had to chip away at opposition from a bloc of hardline conservatives in what became the longest contest in 164 years. To win over critics, McCarthy and his allies made a series of concessions to conservatives – a move that frustrated moderates concerned the concessions may make it harder for the new GOP majority to effectively govern. The speaker election unfolded over a series of days – beginning on the first day of the 118th Congress – and highlighted divides between conservatives and moderates. The final hours before McCarthy was elected were punctuated with chaotic and tense moments on the House floor with lawmakers on the edge of their seats waiting to see how a handful of remaining holdouts would vote. McCarthy was forced to implement certain concessions in order to win the speakership. Among the concessions he was forced to implement was that any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair. This is significant because it would make it much easier than it is currently to trigger what is effectively a no-confidence vote in the speaker. Conservatives pushed hard for this; moderates are worried it will weaken McCarthy’s hand.

32 He was also forced to agree that efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts. This The Jewish Home | JANUARY 12, 2023 could become a major issue in the future when it is time to raise the debt limit to avoid a catastrophic default because Democrats in the Senate and the White House would likely oppose demands for spending cuts. He also has to move 12 appropriations bills individually. Instead of passing separate bills to fund government operations, Congress frequently passes a massive year-end spending package known as an “omnibus” that rolls everything into one bill. Conservatives rail against this, arguing that it evades oversight and allows lawmakers to stick in extraneous pet projects. Seventy-two hours will be given to review bills before they come to floor. And members will have the ability to offer more amendments on the House floor.

Storms Saturate California

Heavy storms have been battering California this week, forcing thousands to flee their homes and leaving one person dead. Tens of thousands of people also lost power due to the severe weather. Moderate to heavy rains were expected to continue to hammer much of California on Tuesday as a fresh low-pressure system barreled toward the state as part of a “parade of cyclones” that prompted a string of rescues on Monday. One person waskilled when a vehicle was overtaken by water. A child went missing after floodwaters swamped a vehicle. Moderate to heavy rains were expected across much of California through Tuesday, while several more feet of snow were expected to accumulate along the Sierra Nevada. The heavy rains are expected to worsen the ongoing flooding and prolong the risk of flash flooding and mudslides across the state. The flooding came five years to the day after heavy rains hammered a Montecito “burn scar,” killing nearly two dozen people. The severe weather also forced the Santa Barbara Airport to close due to flooding. California has faced deadly severe weather for days, with at least six people having died since New Year’s weekend, including a toddler who was killed after a redwood tree fell, crushing a mobile home in the north of the state. Nearly all of California has seen higher than average rainfall totals over the past several weeks, with totals 400%600% above average values, according to the weather service. The recent severe weather prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency last week.

Biden Visits Border

President Joe Biden on Sunday made his first visit to the southern border since taking office, arriving at a city swamped by migrants amid a historic surge in illegal immigration and anger from both parties about how he is handling it. In a brief visit to El Paso’s busiest crossing and a migrant services support center, Biden acceded to demands by Republicans that he make the trip he had not taken for two years. But as he arrived in El Paso, he found himself under siege from all sides. Democrats and human rights activists condemned his new enforcement plan as a “humanitarian disgrace.” Republicans blasted his delay in coming to a border they say is “wide open” to illegal immigration. And Mexican officials – who are preparing to welcome him to a summit of North American leaders Monday – warned that his proposals would cross a “red line” for them. The number of migrants apprehended trying to illegally cross the 2,000-mile border with Mexico has hit record highs. In the 12 months leading up to last October, the Border Patrol encountered 1.7 million migrants trying to cross illegally, the highest number since 1960. Officials said overall crossings had dipped some during the holiday season in December, but they said they expected the numbers to rise again quickly in the coming months. The surge in migrants has reached deep into the United States. Cities as far away as New York and Washington are struggling to provide services to the growing numbers who are arriving, some at the behest of Republican governors in Florida and Texas, who have bused or flown the migrants out of their states. In El Paso, a record-breaking swell of

34 migration from across Central and South America has made the city one of the most vivid symbols of the decades-long breakThe Jewish Home | JANUARY 12, 2023 down in America’s immigration system. On Sunday, Biden met with Border Patrol officers, members of Congress and local officials at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry, El Paso’s busiest crossing, which is set to receive $600 million from the president’s infrastructure law. He also made an unannounced stop along the 18-foot border wall that separates El Paso from Juárez, Mexico, talking to Border Patrol agents as he strolled along a dirt road on the U.S. side. (© The New York Times)

NY Nurses Strike

More than 7,000 nurses at two major New York City hospitals walked off the job Monday. The nurses are tired of staffing shortages that they are saying are causing widespread burnout and hindering their ability to properly care for their patients. They say they are working long hours in unsafe conditions without enough pay – a refrain echoed by several other nurses strikes across the country over the past year. The union representing the nurses said an offer of 19% pay hikes isn’t enough to solve staffing shortages. Although tentative deals had been reached in recent days covering nurses at several hospitals, including two new agreements late Sunday evening, talks with Mount Sinai hospital on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and at three locations of the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx failed overnight. “After bargaining late into the night at Montefiore and Mount Sinai Hospital yesterday, no tentative agreements were reached. Today, more than 7,000 nurses at two hospitals are on strike for fair contracts that improve patient care,” the New York State Nurses Association said in a Monday statement. Hundreds of nurses and supporters were out on the picket line in front of Mount Sinai early Monday, filling two city blocks, with the number of pickets continuing to grow throughout the morning. The picket line spilled out onto the street, sometimes blocking traffic. At Montefiore, picketers chanted, “Safe staffing saves lives.” Both hospitals criticized the union for going on strike rather than accept offers they described as similar to those the union accepted over the past 10 days at other hospitals in the city. Although the union has agreed to the same raises at other hospitals, it said its major complaint at Mount Sinai and Montefiore is that nurses were being overworked and facing burnout after three years of working on the frontlines, battling the pandemic. They say the hours and the stress of having too many patients to care for is driving away nurses and creating a worsening crisis in staffing and patient care.

Chicago is Top for Traffic

Think the Van Wyck gives you a headache? Chicago drivers have it worse. The Windy City now has the ignoble honor of being the city with the most hours wasted in traffic, with the average driver losing a precious 155 hours to traffic. The dismal record is up around 50 percent more as compared to 2021, according to INRIX’s global traffic scorecard released Tuesday. Boston and San Diego saw delays per driver increase by about 70 percent in 2022. The tally of wasted time was up 89 percent in the Washington region, including Maryland and Virginia, soaring from 44 hours of delays in 2021 to 83 hours in 2022. During Covid, most cities saw a drop in traffic, as many commuters worked from home. In Seattle, Baltimore, Providence and Washington, average time stuck in traffic is down by one-third or more compared to before the pandemic, according to INRIX. Congestion delays in Chicago are up 7 percent, while Miami’s delays were up 30 percent. The company’s scorecard ranked 295 U.S. urban areas largely on the average delays faced by drivers, with slight adjustments based on population. Data from the Federal Highway Administration showed vehicles in the United States traveled about 39 billion miles in the first three quarters of 2022, representing a 1.6 percent increase compared to a year earlier.