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Israel’s United Torah Judaism has taken a dramatic step in support of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, announcing that it is removing all previous limitations and reservations it had placed on judicial and legal legislation.

The decision came shortly after a forceful speech by Netanyahu in the Knesset in which he reiterated his determination to advance the draft law. Following the address, UTJ faction chairman Uri Maklev formally informed Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz that, effective immediately and until further notice, the party will support all coalition-backed legal and judicial bills.

Maklev conveyed that the move stems from deep and growing frustration within the chareidi parties over what they view as persistent legal targeting of the Torah world and the chareidi public. According to party officials, recent developments — ranging from the handling of the draft law to delays in funding for daycare centers and yeshivos — have convinced UTJ that the legal establishment and the courts have marked the chareidi community as a central target.

Under the new directive, United Torah Judaism will provide blanket and unconditional backing to every coalition-sponsored judicial bill, legislative initiative, or procedural motion dealing with legal matters. The party stressed that all prior constraints it had imposed in this area have been fully lifted.

Coalition sources say the decision effectively gives the government a green light to revive and advance controversial legal legislation that had been frozen for months, potentially setting the stage for a significant wave of lawmaking during the current Knesset session.

The immediate political impact is a substantial strengthening of the right-wing bloc within the government and a renewed consolidation of the chareidi parties within the coalition framework.

Senior coalition officials welcomed Maklev’s announcement, signaling that any further attempts by the legal system — including High Court of Justice involvement — to intervene in chareidi religious life will now be met with swift and coordinated legislative responses.

“This is a genuine strategic shift in the relationship between the chareidi parties and the legal system,” coalition insiders said. “It is a move that is expected to influence the government’s stability and shape the political battles of the coming weeks.”

{Matzav.com}

One of the Islamic Republic’s most powerful economic and political symbols erupted into open confrontation on Tuesday, as protesters clashed with security forces inside the Tehran Grand Bazaar, prompting authorities to fire tear gas and shutter large swaths of the centuries-old marketplace. Witnesses said demonstrators staged a sit-in inside the bazaar — long regarded as […]

Against the backdrop of the further slump in the Iranian rial, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said this morning: “You are asking us for more money. We have already given everything we have. You want higher salaries? Then tell me from where should I bring the money? Our oil is under sanctions, and we are pushing […]

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited Somaliland today. The visit marks a significant step in the growing ties between Israel and Somaliland.

CNN reports a surge in public support for President Trump’s actions against Maduro, up 25 points nationwide.

AG Pam Bondi: “This was well within the President’s Article II powers. It was a law enforcement function to arrest indicted individuals… America and the Western Hemisphere is safer.”

The IDF carried out strikes yesterday against Hezbollah and Hamas terror infrastructure in several areas of Lebanon, including weapons storage sites and terror facilities.

Mamdani ally and tenants’ rights advocate Cea Weaver argues that homeownership is now so out of reach that people should accept being lifelong renters—and says Democrats must harness that reality as political power to counter the “far-right.”

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu delivered an impassioned speech Monday night in the Knesset, forcefully defending the centrality of the Torah world to Jewish survival while trading sharp barbs with opposition leader Yair Lapid during a heated 40-signature debate.

Speaking after Lapid renewed his attacks, Netanyahu chose to respond directly, combining pointed political criticism with an emotional defense of Torah study. Addressing the draft law, Netanyahu accused the opposition of taking what he called a “narrow, extreme, and divisive” stance, while his government, he said, is pursuing broad national consensus.

“We are advancing a historic framework that will lead to the enlistment of 23,000 chareidim over the next three and a half years,” Netanyahu said. “This is a real revolution, with an enormous number of recruits. The law we formulated includes personal and institutional sanctions, but I believe they won’t be needed, because the chareidi public will meet the enlistment targets we set.”

The prime minister went on to contrast the government’s proposal with what he described as Lapid’s previous legislation. “We quadrupled the number of recruits. Which law is better, your draft-evasion law or our enlistment law? Our law serves the state; your law serves you politically. You’re not interested in chareidi enlistment. You want to throw obstacles in the way of the historic law we are bringing. Your fear is that we will succeed — that the draft law will pass and tens of thousands of chareidim will enlist in the IDF.”

Lapid responded by citing the pain of bereaved families, describing testimony given in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by the widow of fallen IDF officer Emanuel Moreno. “Bereaved families are falling apart when they see attempts to give chareidim exemption from sacrifice,” Lapid said, accusing the government of moral failure. He further claimed that a senior chareidi minister compared calls for chareidi enlistment to forcing Jews to wear a yellow badge.

After Lapid’s remarks, Netanyahu returned to the podium for a second speech, rejecting the opposition’s claims and reaffirming his support for both national security and Torah learning. “We are now passing a real draft law, as opposed to your evasion law,” he said. “I stand behind everything I said about what is in our law and what was not in yours. I understand that there are people who are unhappy about this. You certainly are, because you want it to fail.”

Netanyahu strongly condemned the comparison to the yellow badge. “I denounce with complete force the talk about the yellow patch,” he said. “Enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces is not a yellow patch. It is good that hundreds of young chareidim came yesterday. But at the same time, we will preserve the Torah world, because without the Torah world we would not have survived here and we would not have reached where we are today.”

In one of the most emotional moments of the debate, Netanyahu linked Jewish continuity throughout history to Torah study. “We would not have endured, we would not have reached this time, and we would have no future without it,” he said. “If you follow Jewish history — exile after exile, slaughter, plunder, horrific acts — throughout all of that, Torah learning and the preservation of Jewish heritage remained. Without it, we would not be here. I respect this. I do not scorn it, and I am not trying to eliminate it. I want coexistence: there will be Torah scholars, and there will also be those who enlist. Thank God this is beginning to happen, and soon it will happen on a much larger scale. If you care about the future of the state, this is something you should encourage.”

Netanyahu concluded with a sharp personal jab at Lapid, tying the opposition leader’s political standing to his priorities. “You know why you’re polling at four seats today,” Netanyahu said. “A year and a half ago you told me there wouldn’t be a fountain named after me, there wouldn’t be a square named after me. Do you really think that’s what interests me? I’m here to ensure the existence of the Jewish people. That’s what interests me, not you. And that’s why the polls give you four mandates.”

{Matzav.com}

Jury selection begins today in a Mississippi fraud trial, nearly six years after the $77 million scandal first came to light.

Earlier today, a fire broke out on a bus on Yirmiyahu Street in the Romemah neighborhood in Yerushalayim. Fire crews extinguished the blaze. No injuries were reported.

HaGaon HaRav Ben Zion Mutzafi visited the residence of HaGaon HaRav Moshe Sternbuch ahead of the protest against the Chareidi draft law to request his bracha and described the fears of Sephardi families regarding the draft decree. HaRav Mutzafi said, “They want the Rav to give a bracha that everyone should come to the rally.” […]

Nicolás Maduro and his wife have been returned to a Brooklyn jail after pleading not guilty to narco-terrorism charges. During his court appearance, the ousted dictator claimed he is “a man of God” and “a prisoner of war.”

Five firefighters were injured, including two with serious injuries, while battling a blaze in Ridgewood, Queens, early Tuesday morning.

President Trump announces that the Fraud Investigation of California has begun.

Deaths of on-duty law enforcement officers in the U.S. decreased by nearly 25% in 2025, according to an annual report. The report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, shared with The Associated Press ahead of its release Tuesday, shows a drop in all categories of fatalities, from 148 total deaths in 2024 to […]

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Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply escalated his rhetoric on Monday against the chareidi public and its rabbinic leadership, accusing them of delegitimizing the Israel Defense Forces and demanding what he described as unequal treatment in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

Speaking at the opening of a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid party, Lapid addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding remarks made by Yitzchok Goldknopf, chairman of United Torah Judaism, as well as statements by chareidi rabbinic figures opposing military conscription. Lapid claimed that chareidi leaders are “not asking for an exemption from army service, but for an exemption from bereavement.”

Lapid said Goldknopf appeared before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a day earlier and compared sanctions on draft evaders and deserters to the yellow badge imposed on Jews during the Holocaust. “My father wore a yellow badge,” Lapid said. “A 13-year-old Jewish boy sitting in the Budapest ghetto while the Nazis wanted to kill him. My grandfather was murdered in the cold and snow in a concentration camp. My grandfather never harmed a single person in his life. He was a small, overweight man, not important at all. They put a yellow badge on him and murdered him because he was a Jew.”

He went on to cite a gathering of roshei yeshiva that took place the same day, where Rav Menachem Tzvi Berlin reportedly said that the Israel Defense Forces and those who support enlistment were “no better than Hitler.” Lapid said no senior rabbinic figures present objected to the comparison. “Hitler murdered a million and a half Jewish children,” Lapid said. “And he stood there and compared him to the IDF, and no one stood up and said, ‘Sir, Jews do not speak this way.’”

Lapid delivered some of his harshest words directly at the chareidi leadership. “How dare you?” he said. “How dare you compare the Israel Defense Forces to the Nazis? If there were no IDF, we would all have been dead long ago like my grandfather. What kind of Judaism is this? What happened to ‘Its ways are ways of pleasantness’? Since when do Jews speak to one another like this?”

Addressing the broader national burden of military service, Lapid said, “At some point you’ll have to understand: we’re not trying to fight with you, we’re trying to live with you. But it’s impossible to continue when our children are dying and yours are not.” He added, “You’re not asking for an exemption from enlistment. You’re asking for an exemption from bereavement. You’re asking for an exemption from the knock on the door at four in the morning. We can’t give you that anymore. Not after October 7.”

Lapid also focused on the economic dimension of the dispute, claiming that draft evasion imposes a massive financial burden on the public. “We also can’t continue with a situation where we fund draft evasion to the tune of 60 billion shekels every year,” he said. “Every working family transfers 1,700 shekels a month to draft evaders.”

Concluding his remarks, Lapid said his party was offering an alternative vision. “What we’re proposing instead is shared lives and a shared Israeli story,” he said. “We have no problem with you being chareidi. That is your full right. But it does not exempt you from the obligations that apply to every Israeli citizen — to serve, to study, and to work. It does not exempt you from sharing the fate of this people. And stop talking about the Holocaust. It does you no honor, it does not honor the Torah, it cheapens the Holocaust, and it gives ammunition to antisemites against the Jewish people.”

{Matzav.com}

Israeli officials are increasingly wary that Tehran could misread Israel’s intentions and act first, even if Israel has no plans to strike. In recent days, Israel’s political and security leadership has convened a series of consultations focused on regional threats, with particular attention to Iran, Kan 11 News reported.

As part of efforts to lower the temperature, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin to pass messages to Iran stressing that Israel is not seeking an attack, according to the report, which cited diplomatic sources. The messages were said to have reached Tehran recently, including through direct phone conversations between Netanyahu and Putin, amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

Speaking Monday during a session of the Knesset, Netanyahu said Israel had already made its position clear to Tehran, warning that any aggression would be met forcefully. “If we are attacked, the consequences will be severe,” he said.

During the same session, Netanyahu also addressed Iran’s strategic capabilities, declaring, “[US President Donald] Trump and I will not allow Iran to restore its ballistic missile industry and nuclear program.”

He went on to add, “We identify with the struggle of the Iranian people. We may be standing at a crucial moment. If we are attacked, the consequences for Iran will be very serious.”

Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported Sunday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had begun a wide-ranging military drill that included missile launches and air defense system tests. The exercise was said to be taking place in multiple locations across the country, including Tehran and Shiraz.

Concerns about the drills were echoed earlier this month in Western and Israeli reporting. Two weeks ago, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported that Israeli officials had cautioned the Trump administration that an IRGC missile exercise could be a precursor to an attack on Israel.

One day before that, Iran International cited Western intelligence sources who said they had detected “unusual aerial activity” by the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, adding to regional unease over Iran’s military posture.

{Matzav.com}

In the wake of last weekend’s U.S. military action in Venezuela, the news media got something it has seldom heard from the Trump administration: a “thank you.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio credited news organizations that had learned in advance about Saturday’s strike that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with not putting the […]