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[Audio below.] An extraordinary recording of a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and a Gerer chossid has become one of the most talked-about moments of Israel’s election, after the chossid calmly confronted the prime minister over four years of unfulfilled promises to the chareidi community, even as Netanyahu raised his voice and desperately sought help getting chareidi voters to the polls.

The conversation took place Tuesday evening, approximately 90 minutes before voting stations closed, when Netanyahu personally contacted Itche Dzalovsky, a Gerer chossid and well-known chareidi broadcaster who operates a popular telephone news hotline. The prime minister was deeply concerned about reports that significant numbers of chareidi voters, particularly within Ger, were staying home rather than supporting the parties aligned with his government.

What followed was a remarkable exchange in which Netanyahu repeatedly demanded to know whether chareidim would vote, while Dzalovsky refused to abandon the central issue: the government’s failure to deliver on its commitments concerning the military draft and the protection of the yeshiva world.

“Itche, what’s happening with the chareidim?” Netanyahu asked at the beginning of the conversation.

LISTEN:

Dzalovsky began explaining that the community was furious over the government’s handling of the draft issue and the promises that had gone unfulfilled.

Before he could finish, Netanyahu interrupted angrily, demanding to know whether chareidi voters understood the consequences of refusing to participate in the election.

“Tell me, are they crazy? Do they want a left-wing government?” Netanyahu exclaimed.

Dzalovsky remained composed.

“They want a government that will deliver on what it has repeatedly promised,” he responded.

Netanyahu’s agitation intensified. At one point, his wife, Sara Netanyahu, could be heard shouting in the background that everyone would die if the election went the wrong way.

The prime minister continued pressing Dzalovsky, warning that a government supported by Arab political parties would threaten the future of the Torah world.

“Do they want to die? They want to destroy the Torah world, and they’re not coming out? That’s what I want to know,” Netanyahu demanded.

Dzalovsky responded that the community’s objective was precisely to preserve its religious way of life.

“They want ultra-Orthodox Jews to be able to observe the Torah and its commandments to the depths of their souls, without having their religion trampled,” he explained.

Netanyahu repeatedly tried to steer the conversation back to the immediate electoral question, asking whether chareidim were actually heading to the polls.

But Dzalovsky insisted that the prime minister was overlooking the reason for their reluctance.

“But they’ve had four years of promises being broken consistently,” he said.

Netanyahu brushed aside the complaint, insisting that there was no time to revisit past commitments when the election was about to end.

“Fine, but that’s not the question right now. Are they going out to vote or not? That’s what I’m asking,” Netanyahu replied.

Dzalovsky delivered perhaps the most pointed assessment of the entire conversation.

“They’re not convinced there’s anyone who will keep his word.”

When Netanyahu asked him to repeat himself, Dzalovsky did so, making clear that the problem was a fundamental loss of confidence in the government’s assurances.

The Gerer chossid explained that after years of commitments that had not been fulfilled, it was extremely difficult to persuade people that another promise would be meaningful.

With the clock running down, Netanyahu asked whether anything could still be done to change the situation.

Dzalovsky suggested that the prime minister contact the Gedolei Yisroel, including members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and the Moetzes Chachmei HaTorah, and provide concrete guarantees that his commitments would be honored.

Netanyahu responded incredulously.

“I’m going to give them guarantees now, with an hour and a half left, tell me?”

Dzalovsky replied that accomplishing in 90 minutes what had not been accomplished over four years would indeed be extremely difficult.

As the conversation drew to a close, Netanyahu appeared to acknowledge that Dzalovsky was offering him little hope of a last-minute turnaround.

“So, in short, you’re telling me there’s nothing to be done, right?” the prime minister asked.

“That’s what I think. I think it’s really, really impossible,” Dzalovsky answered.

“Thank you, Itche. Goodbye,” Netanyahu said, ending the conversation.

The recording quickly circulated across Israeli media and social networks, attracting considerable attention because of the unusual spectacle of an ordinary chareidi broadcaster confronting the prime minister so directly.

The exchange also drew praise from Israeli television personality Guy Lerer of Channel 13, who said he was astonished by Dzalovsky’s willingness to challenge Netanyahu without becoming intimidated by the prime minister’s increasingly forceful tone.

Lerer wrote that he initially suspected the recording was artificially generated because the conversation seemed so extraordinary. After confirming its authenticity, he praised Dzalovsky for repeatedly returning to the government’s broken promises despite Netanyahu’s attempts to redirect the discussion.

According to Lerer’s account, Netanyahu had initially sought to deliver an election appeal through Dzalovsky’s chareidi news hotline. Dzalovsky declined to broadcast the requested statement, and the subsequent telephone conversation became the recording that spread throughout the country.

The incident occurred against the backdrop of deep frustration within Ger over the Netanyahu government’s handling of the military draft issue.

In the weeks preceding the election, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu’s political allies feared tens of thousands of Gerer chassidim might refrain from voting for United Torah Judaism, the party they had traditionally supported.

The dissatisfaction followed the government’s failure to enact legislation addressing the draft status of yeshiva bochurim, despite commitments made to the chareidi parties during the previous coalition negotiations.

Former Housing Minister Yitzchok Goldknopf, a senior Gerer representative, had already resigned from the government amid the dispute, reflecting the deterioration in relations between the chassidus and Netanyahu’s coalition.

Reports before Election Day indicated that Ger’s usual election mobilization efforts were largely absent, fueling concerns within Likud and United Torah Judaism that a significant bloc of dependable voters would remain at home.

{Matzav.com}

A California woman has taken the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to federal court after officials revoked her personalized license plate displaying a reference to the controversial anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea,” arguing that the decision violates her constitutional right to free speech.

Iasmine Abdennabi, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay region, filed the lawsuit Monday after losing an administrative appeal challenging the DMV’s order to surrender her plate, which bears the letters “RVRTSEA.”

The phrase has become a fixture at anti-Israel demonstrations and is widely understood by critics as advocating the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. Supporters of the slogan, however, contend that it represents a demand for Palestinian rights and freedom throughout the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Abdennabi obtained approval for the plate after submitting her application on December 15, 2023, approximately two months after Hamas terrorists carried out their October 7 massacre in Israel. The DMV subsequently issued the plates in May 2024.

In her federal complaint, Abdennabi maintains that the message was intended to advocate equal rights “for all persons living between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.”

The plate eventually drew objections from other California motorists, who complained that the state had authorized a message they viewed as promoting hatred and violence.

“I was shocked that (the DMV) would have issued this,” one driver wrote in a complaint, citing California’s restrictions on offensive personalized license plates. “It supports terrorism and encourages violence.”

The complaints prompted the DMV to reconsider its approval and begin proceedings to cancel the plate.

In October 2025, state officials directed Abdennabi to return the plates “on the ground that the plate configuration carried connotations offensive to good taste and decency in that the configuration can be read as ‘river to sea’ and interpreted as racially or ethnically degrading and negative to a specific group.”

Abdennabi contested the determination, but an administrative law judge sided with the DMV in May. The decision became effective September 16.

In upholding the revocation, the judge concluded that “the plate configuration can and does connote and/or refer to ‘genocide or creates a risk of inciting violence,'” making it impermissible under California’s personalized license plate regulations.

The administrative ruling also noted that the woman could continue expressing her political views through other forms of vehicle messaging, including bumper stickers and license plate frames.

Her new lawsuit challenges the state’s ability to prohibit the wording on a government-issued license plate, raising First Amendment questions about the distinction between private political expression and messages displayed on state property.

The DMV has declined to discuss the pending litigation and had not filed its response to the federal complaint as of the latest report.

The dispute comes against the backdrop of another controversy involving a California vanity plate that appeared to mock the October 7 Hamas massacre. The DMV previously apologized for authorizing a plate reading “LOLOCT7,” which drew criticism from people who believed it celebrated the terrorist attack.

The vehicle owner’s relatives disputed that interpretation, explaining that the combination referred to a Filipino grandfather and his Tesla Cybertruck. They said “Lolo” is the Tagalog word for grandfather, “CT” represented the vehicle, and the numeral “7” referred to his seven children.

In the latest case, Abdennabi’s attorney is preparing to request a court order preventing the DMV from taking possession of the disputed plates while the lawsuit proceeds. As of Tuesday, they remained on her vehicle.

The federal complaint, filed October 26 in the Northern District of California, names DMV Director Steve Gordon as the defendant. Abdennabi is seeking an order overturning the revocation and a declaration that the state violated her First Amendment rights.

Her attorney has pointed to a 2020 federal ruling that found California’s restriction on personalized plates deemed offensive to good taste and decency unconstitutional. That earlier decision could become a central issue in the new legal challenge.

The Lawfare Project, a Jewish civil rights organization, raised concerns about the implications of the slogan. Its communications director, Jayne Zirkle, told JNS that Hamas has used the phrase in its own messaging.

“Free speech matters. So does the right of Jewish Americans to live without intimidation,” Zirkle said. “When terrorist organizations use rhetoric calling for Israel’s elimination, the implications for public safety cannot be dismissed.”

{Matzav.com}

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem declared Wednesday that Israel’s election results would have no impact on the Iran-backed terrorist group’s confrontation with the Jewish state, insisting that Hezbollah would maintain its armed campaign regardless of which political coalition assumes power in Yerushalayim.

In a written statement carried by AFP, Qassem said Hezbollah had no interest in the identity of Israel’s next government and would continue demanding the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territory Lebanon claims as its own.

“We do not concern ourselves with who governs Israel, but let it be perfectly clear that it cannot continue its occupation and must leave our land,” Qassem said.

The Hezbollah chief also rejected demands that his organization surrender its weapons, maintaining that its armed operations would continue as long as Israeli forces remained in the disputed areas.

“The resistance will continue… and will stand up to the aggression directed against it and against Lebanon, and there is no room to discuss the disarmament” of Hezbollah “as long as the occupation persists and its aggression continues,” he added.

The statements come as Israeli and Lebanese authorities struggle to implement a security agreement reached in June that calls for Hezbollah to relinquish its weapons, Israeli troops to withdraw in stages from areas covered by the arrangement, and the Lebanese military to assume responsibility for security in those locations.

Hezbollah did not participate in the negotiations that produced the agreement and has repeatedly refused to enter direct diplomatic talks with Israel.

The organization has also resisted efforts to disarm it, despite the agreement’s provisions and continued international pressure for the Lebanese government to establish exclusive control over weapons and military activity within its territory.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of repeatedly violating ceasefire arrangements, including through military activity and efforts to maintain its armed infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces have continued targeting Hezbollah positions in the region, with Israeli officials describing the operations as responses to violations and threats posed by the terrorist organization.

Qassem’s latest declaration signals that Hezbollah intends to maintain its opposition to disarmament despite Israel’s political transition and the continuing diplomatic effort to implement the Israeli-Lebanese security agreement.

Recent reports indicate that Hezbollah has also been working to replenish its weapons stockpiles and rebuild military capabilities damaged during its conflicts with Israel. Lebanese security sources told Reuters this week that the organization has received additional Iranian funding and has been preparing for the possibility of renewed fighting.

Qassem went further in his latest statement, reportedly describing the Israeli-Lebanese framework agreement as invalid and arguing that it conflicts with Lebanese law and constitutional arrangements. He also characterized Israel’s inconclusive election outcome as a sign of weakness.

{Matzav.com}

A warning issued by frum community members about the potentially devastating consequences of voting illegally is now generating an unexpected backlash, as videos of the warning circulate beyond the Jewish community and are being seized upon by outside commentators as purported evidence of voter fraud within the Orthodox Jewish population.

The controversy stems from videos released last week by askanim and even a frum politican, who urged green card holders and other noncitizens not to vote, warning that several members of the community had reportedly been detained by immigration authorities after casting ballots despite being ineligible to participate in American elections.

The messages were intended to alert community members to the serious legal and immigration consequences of voting without U.S. citizenship. However, the supposed acknowledgment that individuals from the community had allegedly been detained following unlawful voting has now attracted attention from commentators outside the frum community, who are interpreting the statement as evidence that illegal voting has occurred among Orthodox Jews.

In one video circulating online, an outside commentator points to the fact that a Jewish elected official publicly acknowledged that people from “our community” had voted and subsequently been sent to immigration detention centers.

The commentator argues that the statement should prompt an investigation into possible voter fraud within the community. He also invokes President Donald Trump’s newly announced $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of individuals responsible for voter fraud, suggesting that the politician’s remarks could provide grounds for pursuing such a reward.

The video represents a striking reversal of the original message’s purpose. What began as an effort to prevent community members from inadvertently jeopardizing their immigration status is now being circulated by critics as a reason to scrutinize voting activity within the community itself.

The original warnings came last week as federal authorities intensified enforcement against noncitizens accused of unlawfully registering to vote or participating in elections.

The warnings said that several individuals from the frum community had been stopped at airports and placed in detention centers after authorities discovered that they had voted despite lacking American citizenship.

Askanim urged residents to circulate the warnings through family and neighborhood messaging groups so that others would understand the potential consequences before Election Day.

The issue received additional attention last Wednesday when Agudath Israel of America and the Aleph Institute issued a warning reminding noncitizens that receiving voter registration materials or even a ballot does not establish legal eligibility to vote.

The organizations explained that individuals can sometimes become registered through administrative processes, including motor vehicle transactions, despite not being legally qualified to participate in elections.

Rabbi Yossi Grossbaum, the Aleph Institute’s director of immigration affairs, also warned that immigration consequences can arise even when an individual did not intend to violate the law.

“Even an unintentional mistake can have serious consequences for a person’s immigration status,” Grossbaum said. “We urge anyone with concerns to seek qualified legal guidance. For those already facing detention or immigration proceedings, Aleph is available to provide support and help pursue possible avenues for resolution.”

The statements were directed toward preventing further incidents and assisting individuals facing immigration difficulties. Nevertheless, their circulation outside the community has created an entirely different discussion, with critics focusing on the reported incidents themselves rather than the warnings intended to prevent them.

The timing has added another dimension to the controversy.

On Monday, October 26, Trump announced that he would offer $1 million to individuals who provide information about voter fraud that results in an arrest and conviction.

“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud!” Trump wrote.

The president reiterated the offer while speaking to reporters, although the administration has not publicly detailed the procedures for submitting information or how the proposed payments would be funded.

The commentator circulating the frum community video has now connected the frum community’s warnings to that announcement, calling for scrutiny of the reported incidents and raising the possibility of obtaining the reward.

There is an important distinction, however, between reports that individual noncitizens may have voted unlawfully and allegations of a broader or organized effort to influence elections.

The warnings did not allege that community organizations or political campaigns had directed noncitizens to vote, nor did it establish how many individuals were involved, in which elections they may have voted, or whether their actions were intentional.

No evidence presented in the circulating commentary establishes a coordinated voter fraud operation within the frum community.

The broader issue of noncitizen voting has nevertheless become a major focus of federal law enforcement ahead of next week’s midterm elections.

Federal prosecutors recently announced charges against dozens of lawful permanent residents in California accused of illegally registering to vote or casting ballots. The Justice Department has described the enforcement campaign as part of an effort to protect election integrity, while some voting-rights advocates have questioned the handling of cases involving individuals who say they misunderstood registration procedures or their eligibility.

For green card holders, the stakes can extend well beyond criminal prosecution. Unlawful voting can create serious obstacles to naturalization and, depending on the circumstances, expose individuals to immigration proceedings and possible removal from the United States.

The controversy surrounding last week’s warnings illustrates how quickly a community-specific warning can take on a different meaning once it reaches a broader audience.

For the frum organizations that issued the warnings, the immediate concern was ensuring that individuals who are not American citizens do not mistakenly vote and place their legal status in jeopardy.

For outside commentators now circulating the footage, the focus has shifted to whether the reported cases warrant investigation and prosecution.

{Matzav.com}

Sen. Ted Cruz is raising serious national security concerns about Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, alleging that his family and political connections to the Muslim Brotherhood could put American intelligence personnel and military operations at risk if he is elected to the U.S. Senate next week.

The Texas Republican delivered his warning Wednesday on his podcast, “Verdict With Ted Cruz,” while campaigning in Michigan for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers. Cruz argued that El-Sayed’s background warrants heightened scrutiny because senators can be entrusted with some of the nation’s most sensitive classified information.

“If [El-Sayed] wins, I believe that poses an unprecedented national security risk,” Cruz said.

Cruz expressed particular concern about the possibility of El-Sayed receiving a position on the Senate Intelligence Committee or Armed Services Committee, where members regularly review classified intelligence and information about American military activities.

“I believe if Abdul El-Sayed has access to that, classified materials, that it will endanger the lives of service men and women,” Cruz warned. He also suggested that American intelligence operatives working abroad could face increased risks.

El-Sayed has categorically denied any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator Kristen Welker asked whether he or his relatives maintained connections to the organization. El-Sayed responded, “No”.

Cruz challenged that response, accusing NBC of failing to confront the Democratic candidate with information that the senator believes raises questions about his denial.

Among the material Cruz highlighted were social media statements attributed to El-Sayed’s sister. One post, reportedly published in June 2012, declared, “My family has long been MB Muslim Brotherhood,” while another, from July 2013, reportedly expressed concern about relatives who supported the organization in Egypt.

The senator also pointed to a 2011 Huffington Post article by El-Sayed discussing Egypt’s political future following the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak. In that piece, El-Sayed argued that a Muslim Brotherhood-led government “would look nothing like Iran.”

Cruz presented the writings as indications of sympathy toward the Brotherhood, although political commentary about the organization does not, by itself, demonstrate membership or an operational relationship.

Other issues cited by Cruz included a 2012 letter supporting Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood figure who won Egypt’s presidential election, along with allegations concerning El-Sayed’s father-in-law and his involvement with American Islamic organizations.

According to Cruz, El-Sayed’s father-in-law donated $300,000 to a super PAC supporting the Democratic candidate and previously held leadership roles connected to the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Both organizations were identified as unindicted co-conspirators during the federal Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case. Neither organization was convicted of a crime as a result of that designation, and the designation does not establish that El-Sayed has connections to terrorism.

El-Sayed has repeatedly rejected the accusations and has publicly distanced himself from the Muslim Brotherhood. In an October interview with Fox News, he stated, “I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. I never will be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Cruz nevertheless maintains that the combination of family associations, political writings and campaign-related connections deserves serious attention from Michigan voters.

The dispute has intensified in the final days before the November 3 election, with Rogers and other Republicans seeking to make El-Sayed’s alleged Brotherhood connections a central issue in the Senate contest.

At a campaign appearance outside Detroit on Wednesday, Cruz escalated his criticism by referring to El-Sayed as a “jihadist leprechaun.” He again warned that the Democrat’s election could jeopardize American lives if he gained access to sensitive intelligence.

However, independent examinations of the allegations have not established that El-Sayed belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood or has maintained an organizational relationship with it. El-Sayed has also explained that he was raised apart from his biological mother, whose alleged involvement in the organization decades ago has become a focus of Republican criticism.

The Muslim Brotherhood originated in Egypt in 1928 and subsequently developed branches and affiliated movements across the Middle East. Hamas emerged from the Palestinian branch, and American authorities have moved to designate certain Brotherhood chapters as terrorist organizations.

Cruz pointed to a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum describing a goal of “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within,” and praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to designate specific Brotherhood branches as foreign terrorist organizations.

“The evidence is overwhelming,” Cruz declared, insisting that Michigan voters should weigh his allegations before deciding whether to send El-Sayed to Washington.

{Matzav.com}

The Arab Ra’am party, led by Mansour Abbas, has gained an eighth Knesset seat at the expense of the Joint List, according to updated Israeli election results released Thursday morning, bringing the combined strength of the Arab parties to 19 seats as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition remains short of a parliamentary majority.

With approximately 91% of the ballots counted as of 5:49 a.m., Ra’am climbed from seven to eight seats, while the Joint List dropped to 11. The latest figures left Netanyahu’s current coalition with 53 seats and the opposition bloc with 48, with neither side holding the 61 seats necessary to establish a government.

Likud continued to lead the individual party standings with 26 seats, followed by Yashar with 21 and Together with 12. The Joint List stood at 11 seats, while the Democrats and Ra’am were each projected to win eight.

Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit, and Shas were each credited with seven seats, while the joint Religious Zionist Party-Zehut slate was projected to receive six.

The two chareidi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, therefore remained at a combined 14 seats, while the Arab parties’ representation increased to 19 seats, divided between the Joint List’s 11 and Ra’am’s eight.

The latest shift came as the Central Elections Committee continued processing results from polling stations across the country and began counting special ballots submitted in double envelopes.

Election officials announced that the counting of double-envelope ballots commenced at 1 a.m. Thursday, following the completion of the necessary intake, scanning, and verification procedures.

These ballots are used by voters who cannot cast their votes at their designated polling stations, including IDF soldiers, hospitalized patients, prisoners, diplomats serving overseas, and individuals voting at specially accessible polling locations.

To safeguard the integrity and secrecy of the election, each ballot is placed inside a regular envelope, which is then inserted into an outer envelope containing the voter’s identifying information. Officials verify that the individual has not already voted before separating the envelopes and mixing the anonymous ballots together.

The verified envelopes are then transferred to the designated counting facility in the Knesset parking lot.

By 1 a.m., the committee had received results from 11,712 of Israel’s 12,018 regular polling stations, accounting for 5,126,759 voters. The remaining polling locations were undergoing routine checks before their results could be finalized.

The growing representation of the Arab parties has complicated the coalition arithmetic. Their combined 19 seats could become decisive in determining whether an alternative government can be established, although several opposition parties have expressed opposition to relying on Arab political factions.

President Isaac Herzog is expected to begin consultations with the newly elected parties after the official results are published, before selecting a Knesset member to attempt to form the next government.

Election officials cautioned that the figures remain provisional and that additional ballots, verification procedures, and final calculations could alter the number of seats allocated to individual parties.

Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of Israel’s Yashar party, announced Wednesday night that he intends to establish a new government committed to military conscription, launching a sharp attack on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his Chareidi coalition partners following Tuesday’s Knesset elections.

In his first extensive public remarks since election night, the former IDF chief of staff described the results as a rejection of the current government and pledged to work toward establishing an alternative coalition that would take a fundamentally different approach to military service and the drafting of yeshiva bochurim.

Eisenkot issued his statement after spending Wednesday holding political meetings, consulting with party officials, and exploring possible coalition arrangements in the aftermath of the election.

“I am concluding a long day of meetings, conversations, and preparations aimed at implementing the will of the voters,” Eisenkot said.

He acknowledged that substantial political negotiations lay ahead but insisted that his party remained committed to its objectives.

“We still have many long days of work ahead of us, but we are focused on the enormous responsibility placed upon us: bringing change to Israel and establishing a Zionist conscription government,” he declared.

Eisenkot’s emphasis on creating a government committed to military enlistment places the controversial draft issue at the center of his political agenda, raising the prospect of a direct confrontation with the Chareidi parties over the continued exemption of full-time yeshiva students from compulsory military service.

He also accused Netanyahu’s political alliance of suffering a major electoral setback, arguing that voters had delivered a clear message of dissatisfaction with the current leadership.

“This is the will of the people, who expressed a vote of no confidence in the government of October 7 and draft evasion, and in the entire bloc of draft dodgers. A bloc that has reached its lowest point in two decades,” Eisenkot said.

His remarks were directed at Netanyahu’s right-wing and Chareidi allies, whom Eisenkot has repeatedly criticized over their positions on military conscription and responsibility for the failures surrounding the October 7 attacks.

The draft controversy has become one of the most divisive issues in Israeli politics, with Chareidi representatives insisting that legislation protecting the status of yeshiva bochurim and preserving full-time Torah study must be a central condition of their participation in any governing coalition.

Eisenkot’s declaration comes as Israel faces a difficult political situation following an election that has not produced a clear parliamentary majority for either major camp. Any effort to form a government will require complicated negotiations among parties with competing political priorities.

Despite those challenges, Eisenkot expressed confidence that his newly established party had emerged as a serious alternative to Netanyahu’s leadership.

“I feel the weight of the responsibility and the trust placed in me by hundreds of thousands of citizens who believe in the State of Israel and Zionism. Thank you for your trust! Thanks to you, we made history. In just one year, we established a new nationwide party in Israel that represents a worthy and responsible alternative government,” he said.

Eisenkot credited his party’s activists and supporters for its rapid rise, describing the election results as an important achievement for a political movement that had existed for only a year.

He concluded by thanking those who had worked on the campaign and promising to pursue the political changes he had advocated throughout the election.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the voters, all the supporters, and all the activists who spread out across the country yesterday. For your sake and on your behalf, we will fulfill the great mission before us. We will act and succeed. I promise,” Eisenkot said.

His latest remarks indicate that the future of military conscription legislation, particularly the status of yeshiva bochurim, will remain a major issue as Israeli political leaders begin negotiations over the formation of the next government.

{Matzav.com}

The Township of Lakewood, NJ will discontinue municipal garbage collection for private schools and houses of worship beginning January 1, 2027, a significant change that will force hundreds of local yeshivos, schools, shuls, and other religious institutions to make alternative arrangements for disposing of their trash.

The decision, which is expected to save the township approximately $2 million annually, comes as Lakewood struggles with a substantial municipal budget shortfall and faces pressure to reduce spending as part of efforts to secure financial assistance from the State of New Jersey.

According to information obtained from the township, the elimination of garbage collection for private educational and religious institutions is not a voluntary policy change, but rather a condition imposed by state officials in connection with financial assistance intended to stabilize Lakewood’s finances.

The Lakewood Township Committee stated that “the change is being required by the state as a condition for the Township to receive financial assistance to help stabilize its budget. As a result, Township officials have little choice but to implement the policy.”

The new arrangement means that private schools and shuls that have relied on township sanitation trucks will have to secure their own garbage collection services, presumably through private waste disposal companies, beginning with the new calendar year.

For Lakewood’s extensive network of yeshivos, Bais Yaakov schools, shuls, and other religious institutions, the change could create a substantial new operating expense. Many of these institutions serve hundreds of residents and generate considerable amounts of waste through daily activities and communal functions.

The costs of private sanitation services will vary depending on the size of each institution, the volume of waste generated, and the frequency of collection required. Larger schools and institutions with extensive food service operations could face particularly significant expenses.

The announcement comes amid growing concerns over Lakewood’s financial condition, which has already prompted cuts to other municipal services and subsidies.

Earlier this year, township officials eliminated a $2.75 million municipal subsidy for courtesy busing provided through the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority, citing the municipality’s worsening financial position.

Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles recently described the mounting financial pressures facing the township, including rising fuel costs, increased expenses for police and sanitation vehicles, higher health insurance premiums, and escalating utility costs.

“Our expenses have gone through the roof,” Coles said.

The township also faced an exceptionally expensive winter, with snow removal costs reportedly reaching approximately $8 million. Its financial difficulties were compounded when the state rejected a request to increase property taxes by approximately $12.9 million.

The possibility of eliminating municipal garbage collection for shuls and yeshivos had already been raised in recent discussions about Lakewood’s budget crisis. The newly announced January 1 implementation date now gives affected institutions just over two months to prepare for the transition.

New Jersey’s Transitional Aid to Localities program provides financial assistance to municipalities experiencing severe structural budget problems, but recipients are subject to extensive state oversight and may be required to implement additional fiscal controls.

State guidelines provide for oversight of municipal hiring, purchasing, and other financial decisions, as well as further measures directed by the Division of Local Government Services.

Lakewood officials have attributed the new sanitation policy to the requirements associated with obtaining state financial assistance.

The township’s existing municipal code already provides that commercial and institutional properties must arrange for private waste collection when municipal service is not available. The new policy would therefore shift affected schools and religious institutions into a system in which they are responsible for obtaining and paying for their own service.

Unlike a typical municipality, Lakewood has an exceptionally extensive network of nonpublic educational institutions serving tens of thousands of children. The township is also home to numerous shuls, kollelim, and other communal facilities, many of which operate on limited budgets supported by tuition, donations, and fundraising.

The elimination of township-funded sanitation service will effectively transfer an expense previously borne by the municipality directly to these institutions.

Although the township expects to save approximately $2 million, the overall financial burden will not disappear. Instead, the affected schools and religious organizations will have to absorb the costs themselves or pass the costs on to already-overburdened parents and taxpayers.

{Matzav.com}

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Avrohom was sitting at the entrance of his tent, in the heat of the day, recovering from a painful procedure at an advanced age. He could have been forgiven for remaining inside, resting and tending to himself. Instead, the Torah tells us, “Vayisa einov vayar.” Avrohom sat outside, lifted his eyes, and looked outward. When he saw three strangers approaching, he ran toward them, welcomed them, offered them food and drink, and concerned himself with their needs.

The image that the Torah uses to depict Avrohom Avinu is that of a person who is always looking beyond himself.

Chazal tell us that Avrohom’s home had openings on all four sides to make it easier for guests to feel welcome and to enter. Avrohom’s tent was not a fortress into which he sought retreat from the world. Avrohom understood that the service of Hashem does not mean withdrawing from responsibility for the people around him.

That message becomes even more powerful later in the parsha, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Avrohom what is about to happen to Sedom.

Avrohom could have responded with silence. Sedom was the antithesis of everything he represented. It was a society built on cruelty and corruption, a place whose very name became synonymous with moral depravity. Avrohom had no personal responsibility for its inhabitants, and he certainly had no reason to defend their way of life.

Yet, when he hears that Sedom is destined for destruction, he immediately begins to plead with Hashem not to destroy the city.

Avrohom cannot stand quietly when other human beings are at risk. He pleads. He bargains. He asks whether fifty tzadikim can save the city, then forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten.

Avrohom did not know the people he was advocating for, and it is very likely that he knew they were totally unlike him. He was advocating for human beings simply because they were human beings.

Avrohom’s greatness was not simply that he was a righteous tzaddik. His greatness was that he understood that righteousness carries responsibility. A person who knows the derech Hashem cannot live only within the boundaries of his own private life. He must look outward and ask what kind of world he is helping to create.

The work of refining middos requires a person to accustom himself to caring about others, so that the needs of another person become as important to him as his own needs.

Rav Moshe Braverman of Yerushalayim was invited to attend a gathering in a nearby neighborhood to raise funds for a young almanah who needed financial assistance.

Rav Braverman stood up and said, “Whoever wishes to help this young almanah should leave.”

The people who had gathered to raise funds for the young woman looked at him in amazement and didn’t understand what he wanted from them.

When the hubbub calmed down, he continued. He said, “Those who should remain here are those who feel the pain of the young woman and her children as if it were their own pain and their own problem. I don’t want you here if you think that how this almanah should go on is her problem, but I’ll help her. You should only be here if you feel her problem as if it were your own, if you feel the children’s pain as if it were your pain.”

Rav Yisroel Salanter would say that, in our generation, a person cannot be a tzaddik nistar, a hidden tzaddik. There is simply too much to do, too much to accomplish, too many people who need help, and too many opportunities to bring Torah and kedusha into a world that desperately needs them. How can a person close himself within his own daled amos, devote himself exclusively to his private avodah, and still consider himself a complete tzaddik when there is so much good left undone?

Rav Yisroel did not merely preach this idea. He lived it. He left the familiar confines of Lita and traveled through Germany, Prussia, and Paris to reach Jews who needed guidance, strengthen their connection to Torah, and spread kedusha wherever he could. He understood that the responsibility of a Yid requires him to be concerned about the world around him and to reach out to others to make them and the world a better place.

This is one of the great differences between Avrohom Avinu and Noach, and why there are opinions in Chazal that if Noach had been in Avrohom’s generation, he would not have been considered a tzaddik.

Noach was a tzaddik who survived a corrupt generation. When the world around him descended into depravity, he was able to preserve himself and his family, to maintain his integrity amid a society that had abandoned its moral foundations. He remained a tzaddik tomim in a world of rishus and tumah. Hashem commanded him to build a teivah, enter it with his family and every type of creature, and remain inside it while the Mabul destroyed the world outside.

Avrohom was the av hamon goyim, the father of a multitude of nations. He did not only seek to protect his holiness from the world. He sought to bring holiness to the world, to teach humanity about Hashem, and to demonstrate through his own life what it means to live with chesed, righteousness, and moral responsibility.

Noach built a teivah. Avrohom built a tent.

The teivah had to be closed off from the world outside. Its walls were necessary for survival; they protected those inside from the destruction raging beyond them. Avrohom’s tent, by contrast, was open on all four sides. It was designed to welcome the stranger, to offer shelter to the traveler, and to create opportunities for people to encounter the goodness and truth that Avrohom embodied.

Noach’s greatness was that he remained a tzaddik despite the corruption surrounding him. Avrohom’s greatness was that he could not be satisfied with his own tzidkus while the world around him remained in darkness. It wasn’t enough for him that he discovered Hashem. He wanted to share that knowledge with as many people as he could. He dedicated his life to bringing others closer to Hashem.

The lesson is not that we should abandon the walls that protect our families, our communities, and our mesorah. Those walls are vital. The lesson is that they must not become the limits of our concern. We build strong Jewish homes and institutions so that Torah can flourish, but we need to care about the wellbeing of the world. We should have something to contribute to it, something to teach, something to share, and something to offer those who might otherwise never encounter the light of Torah.

A person can spend a lifetime perfecting his own daled amos and his home. But Avrohom Avinu teaches us that the ultimate test is what happens when someone approaches the entrance. Do we turn inward, satisfied with the spiritual world we have constructed for ourselves, or do we lift our eyes, recognize the needs of another human being, and make room for him in our lives?

The teivah saved Noach and his family from the Mabul and was necessary for that time. But following the Mabul, Avrohom’s tent became a model for a life devoted to bringing brocha to others.

Torah Jews know that we must guard our values, our homes, and our children. We cannot allow the culture outside our doors to dictate who we are. There is also a danger in believing that because we have built strong Jewish homes, nothing outside those homes matters. In fact, it does matter. The society in which we live affects our children. It affects our communities. It affects the safety and security of our families. It affects the ability of Torah institutions to function and of Jewish life to flourish. We may not control everything that happens around us, but we are not exempt from caring about it simply because we have our own private world.

Obviously, we are not responsible for everything that goes on, and we are not obligated to involve ourselves in every argument, but when we are given the ability to participate in helping the society in which Hashem has placed us, we must take advantage of the opportunity.

Avrohom’s tent had an entrance in every direction because wherever he looked, he saw another opportunity to do chesed, another person whose needs mattered, another responsibility that could not simply be pushed aside.

We, too, have our tents. We have our families, our shuls, our yeshivos, our schools, and our communities. We work hard to build walls that protect the values we hold dear.

But while we build those walls, we must have doors, because there are times we have to look out, reach out, and go out.

The society in which our children will grow up makes a difference, and to the degree that we can impact it, we should. The culture in which we live makes a difference, and if we can influence it and help improve it, then we should.

Avrohom Avinu teaches us that a life devoted to Hashem cannot be confined to our own spiritual growth and the welfare of our own families. We must do what we can to uphold the values of morality, decency, and responsibility that make a society better.

We have been blessed to live in a country where we can build shuls and yeshivos, educate our children in Torah as we choose, and practice our faith openly. These are extraordinary blessings, and we must never assume that they will always be taken for granted or that the conditions that have allowed Jewish life to flourish will continue without the efforts of those who cherish them. The future of our communities depends not only on what we accomplish within our own walls, but also on whether we take seriously our responsibility for the world beyond them.

We are already witnessing cracks in the very fabric of the freedom we have long cherished. The rising tide of antisemitism, the open hostility directed at Jewish communities, and the increasingly strident public condemnation of Israel are warning signs that we cannot afford to dismiss.

When hatred of Jews is normalized, when Israel is singled out for condemnation and the threats and violence directed against it are minimized or ignored, and when Jewish students and families must question whether they can live openly and safely as Jews, we must recognize that something fundamental is being eroded.

The flag of freedom still flies, but we cannot assume that the freedoms we have enjoyed will endure on their own. Preserving them requires vigilance, courage, and a willingness to stand up before the cracks grow into something far more difficult to repair.

That responsibility requires us to act. On Election Day, we must go out and vote, supporting candidates and policies that uphold the moral foundations of society, respect religious freedom, and help preserve an America in which Torah Jews can continue to live, learn, raise families, and transmit our mesorah to the next generation.

We cannot control every outcome, and we certainly cannot determine the course of history. But we are responsible for doing our part, using the opportunities available to us to protect what is precious and strengthen the society in which we have been privileged to live.

When we see one party stray and become home to antisemites, and welcoming to socialists and communists who despise us and what we stand for, we should seriously consider whether supporting its candidates is prudent.

When a party nominates and supports candidates who are hostile to the Jewish state and advances policies that conflict with our most deeply held values, we must be prepared to withhold our support. When a party opposes efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring the nuclear weapons it seeks to use against Israel, we must have the courage and conviction to vote accordingly. And when candidates promote positions that undermine traditional family values and the moral principles upon which a healthy society depends, they should not expect to receive our votes.

Avrohom Avinu did not regard the condition of the world as someone else’s concern. Neither can we. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to Torah and avodas Hashem, while recognizing that this commitment carries with it an obligation to help shape the world around us. We must educate our children, strengthen our communities, stand up for our values, and exercise the civic responsibilities that are ours.

We must carry on perfecting our homes, yeshivos, schools, and shuls, and doing what we can to make the world a safer and better place, doing what we can to enhance the kochos of kedusha and preparing the world for Moshiach Tzidkeinu.

Vice President JD Vance has reportedly established contact with a powerful Iranian hardliner in an attempt to reopen negotiations between Washington and Tehran, even as President Donald Trump considers launching another round of military attacks against Iran after next week’s midterm elections.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a former longtime commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The communication was part of an effort to determine whether a diplomatic agreement could be reached before the United States undertakes another military operation.

American officials and other individuals familiar with the exchanges told the newspaper that the administration is exploring whether direct engagement with Iran’s hardline leadership could produce a breakthrough after previous diplomatic efforts failed to resolve the confrontation.

One individual familiar with the initiative said Vance had written to Rezaei at Trump’s direction and that the president knew about the outreach. Trump, however, offered a different explanation when questioned about the matter Wednesday, denying that he had instructed the vice president to initiate peace negotiations.

“No. They need help with medical supplies and various things. He asked me what I thought. I said, ‘If you want to do that, that’s okay’. Basically, it’s getting supplies in to help people that are not well.”

The reported contacts come amid mounting speculation about another American offensive against Iran. According to an earlier Wall Street Journal report, the administration has been considering a concentrated military campaign that could begin in the weeks following the November 3 midterm elections.

Officials involved in the diplomatic discussions are reportedly trying to establish whether sufficient common ground exists to avert further fighting. Some in Washington believe that negotiating with figures closely connected to Iran’s security establishment could prove more effective than dealing exclusively with the country’s conventional diplomatic representatives.

The initiative remains preliminary, however. A person familiar with the communications said Vance’s letter and subsequent exchanges have focused on identifying a possible structure for future talks, with neither side yet advancing a comprehensive agreement.

Rezaei indicated last week that Tehran would refuse to resume negotiations unless Washington first accepted certain Iranian conditions. His position reflects the significant obstacles facing any attempt to restart discussions while the threat of renewed military action remains.

Neither government has officially acknowledged the reported diplomatic channel. A representative for Vance declined to discuss the matter, while the White House referred inquiries to the vice president’s office. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it had no information concerning the alleged contacts, and Rezaei’s office did not provide a response.

A major obstacle remains Iran’s nuclear program, particularly its production of uranium enriched to levels far beyond those required for ordinary civilian nuclear power generation.

In an interview with Reuters earlier this month, Vance made clear that the administration expects Tehran to take measurable steps to curtail its enrichment activities before Washington would agree to a settlement.

“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear ⁠weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.

“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity.”

Vance also rejected the possibility of accepting Iranian promises about future nuclear conduct without corresponding changes on the ground.

“We’re not going to trade words for actions,” Vance told Reuters.

The vice president nevertheless left open the possibility of a diplomatic resolution if Iran agreed to concrete and verifiable restrictions on its nuclear activities.

The latest reporting adds another detail: According to Axios, Vance’s message specifically emphasized that any renewed negotiations would have to address Iran’s nuclear program. An American official said Vance had proposed sending the letter to Trump, who supported the initiative.

Iran, meanwhile, is also reportedly considering a separate proposal conveyed through Qatari intermediaries. Tehran has insisted that its own demands must be addressed before formal negotiations can resume, leaving considerable uncertainty over whether the latest American overture will lead to substantive talks.

The diplomatic effort follows the collapse of earlier negotiations over Iran’s nuclear activities and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Washington has continued pressing Tehran to accept restrictions on uranium enrichment, while Iranian officials have sought economic concessions and guarantees against further attacks.

For now, the administration is pursuing diplomatic contacts while keeping military options available. Trump has not publicly committed to a new attack, but the possibility of renewed strikes after the November 3 elections remains under consideration.

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Central Elections Committee began tallying special double-envelope ballots early Thursday morning, with the country’s parliamentary election still leaving the current governing coalition well short of the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority.

With approximately 91% of votes counted as of 5:49 a.m., the latest official figures showed the current coalition holding 53 seats, the opposition bloc 48, and the Arab parties 19. The allocation remained unchanged from the previous update, although the outstanding ballots could still affect the final distribution of seats.

The counting of double-envelope votes began at 1 a.m. Thursday, following the completion of preliminary procedures to receive, scan, and verify the ballots, according to the Central Elections Committee.

These special ballots are cast by Israelis who cannot vote at their assigned polling places, including soldiers serving in the IDF, hospitalized patients, inmates, diplomats posted overseas, and people with mobility limitations who vote at specially accessible locations.

Unlike ordinary ballots, which are deposited anonymously at polling stations, double-envelope votes undergo an additional identification process designed to prevent duplicate voting while preserving ballot secrecy.

Each voter seals the ballot inside a standard voting envelope, which is then placed inside a second envelope containing identifying details. Election officials check the information to confirm that the individual has not already cast a ballot elsewhere.

After the verification process, the outer envelopes are separated from the inner envelopes, which are mixed together before counting. This prevents individual votes from being traced back to the people who cast them.

The verified ballots are subsequently transported to the counting facility located in the Knesset parking area.

Meanwhile, election officials continued processing returns from regular polling stations across Israel. By 1 a.m., results had arrived from 11,712 of the country’s 12,018 ordinary polling locations, representing 5,126,759 voters. The remaining stations were still undergoing standard verification procedures.

Under the partial results, Likud remained the largest party with 26 seats, followed by Yashar with 21 and Together with 12. The Joint List was projected to receive 11 seats, while the Democrats and Ra’am each stood at eight.

Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit, and Shas were each projected to win seven seats, while the combined Religious Zionist Party-Zehut slate held six.

The figures placed the two major chareidi parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas, at a combined 14 seats.

Two smaller parties remained below the electoral threshold required to enter the Knesset. The Reservists-Economic Party had received 2.63% of the vote, while Amcha Yisrael stood at 1.6%.

The Central Elections Committee has estimated that between 430,000 and 480,000 double-envelope ballots were cast, although officials cautioned that the figure remains preliminary. With roughly 40,000 votes corresponding to a Knesset seat, the outstanding ballots could influence several parties’ final seat totals.

Voter participation reached approximately 77.7%, Israel’s highest turnout since 1999. The IDF reported that nearly 80% of eligible soldiers voted, an increase over the previous election.

Election officials expect the counting process to be substantially completed today, while the final certified results are scheduled for publication on November 4

{Matzav.com}

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A wave of internal criticism is sweeping through Shas following the party’s disappointing performance in Israel’s Knesset elections, with some figures within the Sephardic chareidi party calling for chairman Aryeh Deri to be replaced after Shas lost four of its 11 parliamentary seats.

With election results indicating that Shas will hold just seven seats in the next Knesset, the party is facing growing questions about its campaign strategy, leadership decisions, and failure to retain voters who previously supported it.

According to a report by Kan News, the electoral setback has prompted criticism from party insiders who believe that Deri and his campaign team fundamentally misjudged where Shas was most vulnerable and devoted their efforts to the wrong political battles.

Throughout the campaign, Shas officials reportedly viewed National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party as their principal competitors for votes. However, following the election, some within Shas are arguing that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party posed the greater danger and that Shas failed to recognize the extent to which its traditional supporters were shifting toward Netanyahu.

The criticism also extends to how the party distributed its campaign resources. According to Shas officials cited in the report, the party invested considerable attention in attracting voters from peripheral communities and among traditionally observant Israelis, while giving insufficient attention to its established chareidi voter base.

Those critics contend that the decision weakened the party’s connection with the constituency that has historically formed the foundation of its political strength.

The disappointing results have now triggered calls for a change at the top of Shas, although even those advocating Deri’s removal reportedly acknowledge that the likelihood of such a leadership shakeup remains extremely small.

One party figure described the concentration of authority within Shas in blunt terms, saying, “Deri is the sole ruler.”

The criticism has also reached the party’s senior rabbinic leadership, with questions being raised about the circumstances surrounding the loss of nearly 40 percent of Shas’s parliamentary representation.

Harav Moshe Maya, a senior member of the Shas Moetzes Chachmei HaTorah, reportedly sought to speak with Deri on Wednesday to discuss the election results and determine what went wrong.

According to Kan News, Deri declined to hold the requested conversation with Rav Maya.

The turmoil reportedly extends beyond the party’s political leadership. Channel 13 reported that associates of Rav Yitzchak Yosef are seeking to convene the Moetzes Chachmei HaTorah to examine the election failure and reconsider the distribution of authority within Shas. They are also reportedly pushing for Rav Yosef to be formally appointed president of the council, following his earlier designation as the party’s spiritual leader.

Those associates reportedly contend that Deri’s strategy of appealing simultaneously to chareidi and traditional voters has failed, and that the rabbinic leadership should exercise greater influence over the party’s direction.

The magnitude of the setback was also evident on election night, when Deri refrained from delivering a planned address to supporters after exit polls projected a steep decline. Shas subsequently postponed its planned election celebration while awaiting the official results.

Separate analyses of the partial vote count suggest that Shas suffered particularly severe losses in outlying communities, where its support reportedly fell by approximately 42%, compared with a decline of roughly 25% in chareidi population centers.

The party’s difficulties have been compounded by United Torah Judaism’s unexpectedly strong showing, with partial results placing the Ashkenazic chareidi party ahead of Shas in the popular vote, a potentially significant reversal of the traditional balance between the two parties.

The final allocation of Knesset seats remains subject to the completion of the ballot count, but the political fallout within Shas has already begun, placing Deri under unusually intense scrutiny from within his own party.

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Joint List of Arab parties announced Wednesday that it is prepared to cooperate with opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to establish an alternative government and remove Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from power, potentially opening a new path toward breaking the political deadlock following Tuesday’s Knesset elections.

The announcement comes as updated election results show that neither Netanyahu’s right-wing and chareidi bloc nor the opposition parties have secured the 61 seats required to form a majority government. With 88.6% of the votes counted, Netanyahu’s bloc stood at 53 seats, the opposition bloc at 48, and the Arab parties at 19.

Those figures leave the Arab factions holding considerable parliamentary influence, with their support potentially allowing Eisenkot to establish a temporary minority government or pursue other parliamentary measures against Netanyahu.

In a statement Wednesday, the Joint List said the strong turnout among Arab voters demonstrated widespread opposition to Netanyahu’s government and created an opportunity for political change.

The party declared that Arab voters had turned out in large numbers across the Galilee, the Triangle region, and the Negev, despite what it characterized as intimidation, incitement, and discrimination during the election campaign.

According to the statement, the Joint List intends to use its parliamentary strength to bring Netanyahu’s leadership to an end and is willing to cooperate with other parties to establish a replacement government.

The party said it would support an alternative administration committed to fundamentally changing what it described as the current government’s discriminatory policies, recognizing the rights of Arab citizens, and ending the exclusion of Arab political representatives from government decision-making.

The Joint List also pledged to continue pursuing full equality and political cooperation on behalf of its constituents, presenting its electoral performance as a mandate to seek a greater role in Israel’s political leadership.

The Joint List’s offer presents Eisenkot with a difficult political decision. During the election campaign, he did not entirely rule out cooperation with Arab parties, particularly Ra’am, but two major figures in the opposition bloc, Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman, have opposed forming a government dependent on their support.

Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said Wednesday that his party’s parliamentary representation could help bring about a change in government. Meanwhile, MK Ahmad Tibi confirmed in a radio interview that contacts were already taking place with parties in the opposition bloc.

Tibi indicated that the Joint List was not necessarily demanding cabinet positions in exchange for its support and was prepared to consider arrangements that would allow an alternative government to take office without the Arab parties formally joining the coalition.

Even if the opposition cannot agree on a new government, cooperation with the Arab factions could enable it to pursue significant parliamentary changes. One proposal under discussion involves replacing Likud’s Amir Ohana as Knesset speaker and advancing legislation to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre.

Tibi has indicated that Joint List lawmakers would support an opposition candidate for Knesset speaker, potentially giving the anti-Netanyahu parties sufficient votes to challenge Likud’s control of the position.

Another possibility being discussed is the establishment of a temporary government supported from outside by Arab lawmakers, followed by another election. No agreement has been announced on such an arrangement.

The latest count reported by Israeli media showed Netanyahu’s bloc holding 53 seats, the opposition bloc 48, and the Arab parties 19, with hundreds of thousands of special ballots still awaiting inclusion in the final results.

For Eisenkot, the immediate question is whether the opposition parties can agree to accept Arab parliamentary support despite their differences over such cooperation. Without an agreement, neither political camp currently has a clear path to a 61-seat majority.

{Matzav.com}

Republicans have poured an estimated $183 million into television advertisements targeting Democrats over transgender-related policies, launching an enormous advertising offensive in the closing days of the 2026 midterm elections as President Donald Trump and his party seek to maintain control of Congress.

The campaign has produced approximately 217,000 television ad airings nationwide through October 25, according to figures compiled by advertising research firm AdImpact. The spending exceeds the $151 million Republicans devoted to similar advertisements during the comparable period of the 2024 presidential election.

The unprecedented investment reflects a calculated Republican strategy to make transgender policies a defining issue in competitive congressional races, particularly in states where GOP candidates are attempting to overcome voter dissatisfaction over inflation and the cost of living.

Republican advertisements have focused heavily on biological males competing in women’s sports, gender-transition medical procedures for minors, and Democratic candidates’ positions on those issues.

The largest concentration of spending has occurred in Texas, where Republican organizations have invested approximately $58 million in transgender-related television advertising in the closely watched Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico.

Those advertisements have aired more than 50,000 times, accounting for roughly one-fifth of the television advertising in the state’s Senate contest.

A Republican super PAC called Texas PAC, which receives substantial financial backing from billionaire Elon Musk, has produced several advertisements portraying Talarico as holding extreme positions on transgender policies.

One advertisement borrows a message from Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign, contrasting Democratic support for transgender policies with the Republican argument that the party represents ordinary Americans.

Another advertisement accuses Talarico of supporting taxpayer-funded gender-transition surgery for minors, while a separate commercial alleges that he favors criminal penalties against parents who refuse to support their children’s gender transitions.

“If you care about your children, do not vote for James Talarico,” the narrator declares in one advertisement.

That particular commercial has aired nearly 17,000 times at a cost exceeding $23 million.

Talarico has publicly stated that he opposes gender-reassignment surgery for minors, raising questions about the accuracy of some of the accusations being circulated against him.

Ohio has emerged as another major battleground for the Republican advertising strategy.

Republican groups, including the Senate Leadership Fund, have spent nearly $26 million on transgender-related advertisements attacking Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown.

Several of those commercials feature an individual who underwent gender-transition surgery as a minor and later reversed the transition, expressing regret over the medical procedures.

The advertisements accuse Brown of supporting such procedures for children and permitting biological males to participate in women’s athletic competitions.

Brown’s campaign has rejected the allegations, describing the advertisements as a “total lie” and accusing Republicans of attempting to divert attention from economic issues.

The independent fact-checking organization PolitiFact also rated one of the advertisements false.

The criticism stems partly from a 2023 interview in which Brown said medical decisions involving children should be made by families and doctors rather than politicians. Republican advertisements have used those remarks to portray him as supporting specific medical procedures for minors.

Beyond Texas and Ohio, Republicans have invested substantial sums in similar advertising campaigns in Kansas, South Carolina, Iowa, and Mississippi.

In Kansas, transgender-related Republican advertisements have aired approximately 7,000 times at an estimated cost of nearly $7 million.

South Carolina, which has become an unexpectedly competitive Senate battleground, has seen more than $5 million spent on such advertisements.

The Republican advertising campaign has been accompanied by repeated statements from Trump, who has made transgender policies a prominent theme of his final campaign appearances before Election Day.

During a rally Monday in Corinth, Mississippi, Trump accused Democrats of promoting what he called the “transgender mutilization of your children.”

At a rally in Florida on Sunday, the president repeatedly criticized the participation of biological males in women’s sports and gender-transition medical procedures.

The emphasis reflects the Republican Party’s belief that transgender issues can motivate conservative voters and persuade undecided Americans who are concerned about parental rights, education, and the direction of American culture.

Republican pollster Chris Wilson said the strategy is intended to communicate broader concerns about Democratic values rather than simply appeal to voters who consider transgender policy their most important issue.

“Republicans clearly believe these issues expose a cultural disconnect between Democratic candidates and a significant portion of the electorate,” Wilson said.

“It’s not necessarily that transgender policy is a top voting priority, it’s that voters can use a candidate’s position on it as a proxy for their broader values and judgment.”

The spending figures reveal a striking disparity between the two political parties.

While Republican organizations have devoted approximately $183 million to transgender-related television advertising, Democratic groups have spent roughly $11 million on the subject, much of it responding to Republican accusations.

Nevertheless, public opinion surveys suggest that transgender policies rank considerably below economic concerns for most Americans.

An October Associated Press-NORC poll found that approximately one in ten registered voters considered transgender issues among the most important questions facing the country in this election.

By comparison, roughly eight in ten identified the economy or cost of living as a major priority.

That disparity has raised questions about whether the Republican advertising campaign will succeed in persuading voters whose primary concerns involve household expenses, gasoline prices, and financial security.

Republican strategists argue that voters may regard a candidate’s position on transgender issues as an indication of broader political judgment, even if the issue does not directly affect their daily lives.

The strategy also builds on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, when Republican advertisements attacking Democratic transgender policies became a prominent feature of the election.

This year’s campaign, however, has surpassed the previous presidential election’s spending levels despite being a midterm contest.

With Election Day scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, Republicans are betting that the advertising offensive will help protect vulnerable Senate seats and energize conservative voters in competitive races.

Whether the enormous expenditure changes the outcome remains uncertain.

“The interesting question isn’t why Republicans are running these ads, it’s whether they’re still persuading anyone or simply reinforcing attitudes voters already hold,” Wilson said.

“Those are two very different things, and $100 million in spending doesn’t tell us which is happening.”

“We’ll find that out on Election Day.”

[Video below.] Former President Barack Hussein Obama launched a blistering personal attack on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio, mocking the Pentagon chief for his emphasis on military personnel’s physical appearance, testosterone levels, and a controversial proposal to livestream the execution of the convicted Fort Hood terrorist.

Speaking at an event supporting Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, Obama accused Hegseth of concentrating on superficial displays of military toughness while the United States continues to confront serious challenges stemming from its war with Iran.

“The defense secretary is laser-focused on very important matters like the jawline and testosterone levels of our troops and live-streaming executions, because that’s how he thinks you cultivate that manly, warrior spirit,” Obama said sarcastically, drawing laughter from the audience.

The former president then turned his criticism toward Hegseth personally, suggesting that the defense secretary spends an excessive amount of time worrying about his own appearance.

“How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking at himself in the mirror in the morning?” Obama asked. “You know he’s working his hair, because that’s how ‘warriors’ look.”

Obama went on to question the competence of the Trump administration, accusing senior officials of failing to approach their responsibilities seriously.

“These are not serious people, they’re not serious people. And the problem is you end up having to pay the price for their lack of seriousness,” he declared.

The remarks were part of a broader attack on President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran war, which Obama blamed for American military casualties, depleted weapons stockpiles, and higher energy prices.

Obama argued that the administration’s military campaign had failed to produce the results Trump initially promised, pointing to Iran’s continued ability to influence shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting impact on global oil markets.

His criticism of Hegseth drew on several Pentagon initiatives that have attracted considerable attention in recent months.

Hegseth has made physical fitness, grooming standards, and what he calls a renewed “warrior ethos” central priorities of his leadership. During a September 2025 address to senior military commanders at Quantico, Virginia, he announced stricter standards concerning physical appearance, weight, haircuts, and facial hair.

The defense secretary has argued that restoring discipline and maintaining demanding physical standards are essential to military readiness, rejecting suggestions that such requirements are merely cosmetic.

More recently, the Pentagon introduced testosterone screening for male service members aged 30 and older as part of their annual health assessments. The initiative is intended to identify hormone deficiencies that could affect physical performance and overall health.

Hegseth has defended the screening program as a medical readiness measure rather than an effort to artificially enhance troops’ physical capabilities.

Obama also referenced the controversy surrounding Hegseth’s proposal to publicly broadcast the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist convicted of murdering 13 people and wounding dozens more in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.

Hasan, who was sentenced to death in 2013, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3. Hegseth had indicated that the execution would be livestreamed, prompting criticism from lawmakers in both political parties.

Republican Congressman Austin Scott and Democratic Congressman Adam Smith were among those who objected to turning the execution into a public broadcast, despite differing political positions.

President Trump subsequently announced on October 15 that the execution would proceed as scheduled but would not be livestreamed, effectively reversing the controversial proposal.

Obama’s comments came as he returned to the campaign trail ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, seeking to rally Democratic voters and criticize the administration’s record on foreign policy and the economy.

The former president also campaigned in Michigan for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, where he continued attacking Trump’s leadership and the administration’s approach to the Iran conflict.

Hegseth and the Pentagon have previously defended the administration’s military reforms, maintaining that stronger physical standards, improved readiness, and a renewed emphasis on combat effectiveness are necessary to strengthen the armed forces.

The defense secretary has also defended his handling of military operations against Iran, while administration officials have argued that the conflict’s economic effects will ease as the military situation stabilizes.

{Matzav.com}

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan is calling on Israel’s opposition leaders to reconsider their refusal to cooperate with Arab political parties, arguing that such an arrangement may be necessary to prevent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from remaining in power following Tuesday’s Knesset elections.

Golan’s appeal comes as the election results point toward a deeply divided Knesset, with neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the parties seeking to replace him holding the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority.

According to the partial results available Wednesday, after approximately 85.6 percent of the votes had been counted, Netanyahu’s political bloc held an estimated 53 seats, the opposition parties aligned against him controlled approximately 48, and the Arab parties accounted for another 19.

Those figures have placed the Arab factions at the center of discussions about the next government, despite campaign commitments by several opposition leaders that they would not rely on Arab parliamentary support.

Golan argued that the parties seeking to replace Netanyahu must consider cooperation across the political divide rather than allow their pre-election pledges to prevent the establishment of an alternative government.

The proposal presents a particular challenge for Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party has emerged as a major force in the opposition, as well as Naftali Bennett, who has sought to position himself as a candidate capable of forming a government without Netanyahu.

Both leaders face the difficulty of assembling a majority from parties whose positions on security, religion and state, and relations with Arab political factions differ considerably.

One possibility being discussed involves establishing a minority government supported from outside the coalition by Arab Knesset members.

Under such an arrangement, Arab parties would not necessarily receive ministerial positions or formally join the government, but their parliamentary votes or abstentions could enable the government to take office and survive confidence votes.

The proposal faces substantial resistance, particularly from Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman, who has opposed forming a government dependent on Arab parties.

Lieberman’s position could prove decisive because the opposition cannot readily assemble a majority without either Arab parliamentary support or cooperation from parties traditionally aligned with Netanyahu.

The debate has also drawn attention to the possibility of negotiations with Shas and United Torah Judaism, which could provide an alternative route to a coalition that excludes the Arab parties.

However, any arrangement involving the chareidi factions would require agreements on the military draft status of yeshiva bochurim, educational funding, and other matters that have divided the parties.

Golan wrote on X that the opposition should not accept Netanyahu’s distinction between Jewish and Arab votes, saying that Arab citizens must be treated as legitimate participants in determining Israel’s political future.

“We have a majority. We have responsibility. And we have an opportunity to form a government of change in partnership with Israel’s Arab citizens. A government that will serve all Israeli citizens,” Golan wrote.

Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen also indicated that his party was prepared to cooperate with efforts to replace Netanyahu.

“We are ready and prepared to pave the way for ousting the Netanyahu government,” Jabareen said.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, rejected the possibility of establishing a government dependent on the Arab factions.

“We must not endanger Israel by forming a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties,” the prime minister said.

The election results have given the Arab parties an unusually influential position. The Joint List was projected to win 12 seats and Ra’am seven, bringing their combined representation to 19 seats, compared with 10 in the outgoing Knesset.

The opposition bloc’s projected 48 seats, combined with the Arab parties’ 19, would amount to 67 mandates. However, that numerical majority does not translate automatically into a governing coalition, given the objections expressed by several opposition leaders to cooperation with the Arab factions.

President Isaac Herzog urged political leaders Wednesday to remain open to compromise and avoid another election, as the Central Elections Committee continued processing outstanding ballots.

Approximately 430,000 to 480,000 special double-envelope ballots, including votes cast by soldiers and other eligible voters away from their regular polling stations, were still awaiting counting. The final official election results are expected on November 4.

Golan’s proposal has not been adopted by Eisenkot, Bennett, or Lieberman, and no agreement to establish a government with Arab-party support has been announced.

{Matzav.com}

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman could hold the key to determining whether Israel’s next government is a broad unity coalition, a minority government supported by Arab parties, or whether the country returns to the polls for another election, according to veteran political commentator Yaakov Rivlin. In a wide-ranging analysis of Tuesday’s election results, Rivlin suggested that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s weakened parliamentary position could create an opening for a unity government that might exclude the chareidi parties.

Speaking with journalist Avi Blum on Kol Chai’s main evening news broadcast Wednesday, Rivlin examined the complicated political situation emerging from the elections to the 26th Knesset. Although Netanyahu’s Likud performed considerably better than many pre-election polls had predicted, Rivlin argued that the prime minister had nevertheless suffered a substantial loss of coalition strength.

“Who holds the keys to all the governments? Avigdor Lieberman,” Rivlin declared, identifying the Yisrael Beiteinu leader as a potentially decisive figure in the negotiations over the next coalition.

Rivlin rejected the suggestion that Netanyahu’s electoral performance should be viewed as a victory simply because Likud exceeded expectations.

“We expected a defeat and got half a defeat,” he said, pointing to the decline in the prime minister’s parliamentary support.

The outgoing coalition controlled 68 seats in the Knesset, while the election results available at the time of the interview indicated that Netanyahu’s bloc had fallen to approximately 54 or 55 mandates. Rivlin maintained that the opposition’s failure to achieve a decisive majority did not erase the significance of that decline.

The loss of more than a dozen seats from the outgoing coalition’s strength means that Netanyahu can no longer rely on his traditional political partners to provide an automatic parliamentary majority.

Blum, however, suggested that the absence of a 61-seat majority could paradoxically give Netanyahu greater flexibility in coalition negotiations.

Under that scenario, the prime minister could argue that the election results require him to pursue a broad unity government rather than remain exclusively dependent on his longstanding right-wing and chareidi allies.

Such an arrangement might allow Netanyahu to negotiate with opposition leaders without being bound by all the demands of the parties that participated in his previous coalition.

Rivlin expressed reservations about that interpretation, pointing out that Netanyahu would still have to consider his relationship with Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Even if the prime minister succeeded in establishing a unity government without the chareidi parties, Rivlin argued, he would have an interest in preserving those relationships in case the new coalition eventually collapsed.

Abandoning his traditional allies could leave Netanyahu without a political safety net if a unity arrangement proved unsustainable.

The discussion then turned to the possibility that security developments, particularly a renewed confrontation with Iran, could dramatically alter the political calculations.

Rivlin raised the possibility that another major military escalation would intensify pressure on the political leadership to establish a national unity government.

“Everyone will demand a unity government. In that government, everyone will have to compromise. The chareidim will have to compromise on the draft law, if they are not left outside. Netanyahu will have to compromise, Eisenkot will have to compromise,” Rivlin said.

He emphasized that this was a hypothetical scenario dependent on future security developments, rather than information indicating that such a decision had already been reached.

A national emergency could potentially change the priorities of political leaders who currently oppose serving together, particularly if the country faced an extended military confrontation.

At the same time, Rivlin suggested that the military draft issue could become a decisive factor in determining whether Shas and United Torah Judaism would participate in such a coalition.

The parties have made the status of yeshiva bochurim a central political demand, while several potential unity partners have insisted on changes to existing military service arrangements.

If a compromise could not be reached, a unity government might be established without chareidi representation.

The alternative possibility of a minority government headed by Gadi Eisenkot also received considerable attention during the interview.

Eisenkot’s opposition bloc, together with the Arab parties, could potentially command enough parliamentary support to challenge Netanyahu’s continued leadership. However, Rivlin questioned whether such an arrangement could be translated into a functioning government.

He identified Lieberman as a major obstacle to a government dependent on Arab parliamentary support.

The Yisrael Beiteinu chairman has long opposed relying on Arab parties to establish a coalition, and his position could complicate efforts to form an Eisenkot-led minority government.

According to Rivlin’s analysis, if Lieberman refuses to support such an arrangement, the remaining political leaders may have to choose between negotiating a unity government and preparing for another election.

Lieberman’s position is particularly significant because the opposition contains parties with sharply different views on security, religion and state, and cooperation with Arab political factions.

Those differences could make it difficult to transform a shared desire to replace Netanyahu into a workable governing agreement.

The conversation also focused extensively on the disappointing election results for Shas, which appears to have suffered a considerable decline in voter support.

Rivlin estimated that the party had lost nearly 100,000 votes compared with the previous election, with the decline evident not only in development towns and peripheral communities but also in established chareidi population centers.

He attributed part of the decline to changes in the voting behavior of traditional Sephardic voters who had previously supported Shas.

In earlier elections, Rivlin explained, Shas had successfully appealed to voters who identified with Jewish tradition but were not necessarily part of the chareidi community.

The party presented itself as an alternative to Likud that combined a traditional Jewish identity with political representation for Sephardic communities.

This time, however, the military draft controversy and Likud’s aggressive campaign emphasizing the importance of voting for a large party appeared to influence some of those voters to return to Netanyahu’s party.

Rivlin suggested that Shas had struggled to communicate a message capable of satisfying both its chareidi base and its broader traditional electorate.

The ongoing controversy over the conscription of yeshiva students, together with the arrests of bochurim, created tensions within the Sephardic community and complicated the party’s electoral messaging.

Attempts to present Torah study and military service as compatible national priorities did not necessarily resonate with all segments of the party’s electorate, Rivlin argued.

He also pointed to shortcomings in the party’s local election operations.

Although Shas maintained an organized campaign infrastructure, some local representatives failed to produce the number of votes expected of them.

Rivlin suggested that the results could lead to an internal review of those representatives’ performance and potentially affect their positions within the party.

The contrast with United Torah Judaism was particularly striking.

While Shas experienced a substantial decline, United Torah Judaism maintained its projected parliamentary representation and increased its overall vote total.

Rivlin attributed the party’s performance partly to changes within Degel HaTorah that were carried out under the direction of its rabbinic leadership.

He also credited MK Yaakov Asher with helping to bring together competing elements within a party that had experienced significant internal disagreements.

“Yaakov Asher succeeded in creating a consensus,” Rivlin said, describing the efforts to preserve unity within United Torah Judaism.

The ability to maintain internal cooperation despite disagreements was an important factor in the party’s electoral performance, according to his assessment.

Blum suggested that the clarity of United Torah Judaism’s rabbinic leadership may also have contributed to its ability to mobilize voters.

He contrasted that situation with the challenges facing Shas, whose leadership had struggled to present a message that appealed equally to its different constituencies.

Rivlin cautioned, however, that a definitive assessment would require a detailed examination of the final results from individual cities and polling stations.

Such an analysis would help establish where Shas lost support, where United Torah Judaism gained votes, and whether the changes reflected broader political trends or specific local circumstances.

Rivlin also recalled the 2015 Knesset election, when Shas won seven seats while facing a challenge from Eli Yishai, who had broken away from the party to establish a competing political movement.

At the time, securing seven mandates was considered a significant achievement because Shas had been forced to contend with a rival party seeking support from the same electoral base.

The present election, Rivlin argued, presents a very different picture.

Rather than defending its position against a major internal challenger, Shas entered the election as an established coalition party with an extensive political organization.

Its decline to approximately seven seats therefore carries different implications than the same numerical result did in 2015.

Nevertheless, both Rivlin and Blum emphasized that the ultimate political significance of the election would depend not only on how many seats the chareidi parties received but also on whether they would participate in the next government.

A party with fewer mandates could still wield considerable influence if its support were essential to establishing a coalition.

Conversely, even a party that maintained its parliamentary representation could find itself excluded from power if other factions succeeded in forming a government without it.

That possibility has become increasingly relevant as political figures examine combinations that could include Netanyahu and opposition parties while leaving Shas and United Torah Judaism outside the coalition.

For the chareidi parties, the outcome of the coalition negotiations could have far-reaching consequences for the military draft issue, educational funding, religious institutions, and other matters central to their constituencies.

The election results have also placed Netanyahu in an unfamiliar position, requiring him to consider arrangements beyond the political bloc that has supported his government.

Although his parliamentary strength has declined, the divisions among his opponents have prevented the emergence of a straightforward alternative.

Rivlin’s assessment was that Lieberman’s decisions could become critical in determining which of the competing political scenarios ultimately takes shape.

If Lieberman refuses to support a minority government dependent on Arab parties, the opposition’s options could narrow considerably. At the same time, Netanyahu would still need to persuade political rivals to join a coalition under his leadership.

The result is a political deadlock in which both camps face significant obstacles, and negotiations over the next government could prove as consequential as the election itself.

The final allocation of Knesset seats remains subject to the counting of outstanding ballots, and the coalition possibilities discussed by Rivlin are political scenarios rather than confirmed agreements. His analysis nevertheless highlights a central question emerging from the election: whether Netanyahu’s loss of parliamentary strength will lead to a change in government, another election, or a broader coalition that could fundamentally alter the political position of the chareidi parties.

{Matzav.com}