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Following the debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris earlier this week, accusations have emerged claiming ABC News exhibited extreme bias, with some alleging that Harris had prior access to the debate questions.

The debate, held on Tuesday night and moderated by ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis, has come under fire from Trump and his supporters. They argue that the moderators disproportionately targeted Trump while displaying favoritism towards Harris.

The situation intensified online when an individual claiming to be a whistleblower used the X account @DocNetyoutube to announce the forthcoming release of an affidavit, which purportedly proves the debate was manipulated.

“I will be releasing an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower regarding the debate. I have just signed a non-disclosure agreement with the attorney of the whistleblower,” the X account shared.

Several conservative influencers, including @MilaLovesJoe, @ChuckCallesto, and @RealBenGeller—collectively amassing over a million followers—quickly spread the whistleblower’s claims. They argued that the Democratic candidate was provided with questions that were “essentially the same” as those asked during the debate, and that there was a commitment to fact-check Trump.

Building on the success of her debate performance, Harris’ campaign swiftly proposed another debate, with Fox News offering to host it. However, Trump rejected the idea. In a post on Truth Social on Thursday afternoon, Trump alleged that Harris was pushing for another debate because he had “clearly” won the first one.

Earlier in the week, when asked whether he would consider a second debate with Harris, Trump responded, “I just don’t know.” Some within the Republican Party, including Senate GOP leader John Thune, have been encouraging Trump to engage Harris again in another debate.

Though Trump may change his stance, his current refusal suggests that Tuesday’s debate could be the only direct exchange between the two candidates before the November election. The event drew an audience of over 67 million viewers.

At a rally in North Carolina on Thursday, Harris expressed that she and Trump “owe it to voters” to participate in another debate.

This week’s debate marked the first encounter between Trump and Harris, with the vice president largely steering the conversation. She successfully provoked Trump into making emotional responses, some of which included exaggerations and inaccuracies. The debate occurred two months after Trump’s previous face-off with Joe Biden, where Biden’s shaky performance and unclear responses resulted in him ending his reelection bid and endorsing Harris as his successor.

The meeting on Tuesday was the inaugural confrontation between Trump and Harris, with Harris mostly dictating the flow of the debate. Her strategy of provoking Trump led to heated replies filled with exaggerations and false claims.

This clash came two months after Trump’s debate with Biden, whose faltering performance prompted pressure from Democratic leaders to drop out of the race. Following his withdrawal, Biden threw his support behind Harris as the new candidate.

{Matzav.com}

When the mother of Bar Kupershtein, who is currently being held hostage by Hamas, appealed to the public asking for people to put on her son’s Tefillin until he returned home, Tzvika Graiver answered the call.

Graiver set up a stand in major Israeli cities, asking people passing by to put on the pair of Tefillin and Daven for the hostages. After finding success in Israel, the Tefillin are now on the road traveling around the US, where crowds have lined up for the Zechus to wear this special pair of Tefillin.

According to Graiver, it all started when his sister in law saw that Bar’s mother had posted online about the Tefillin. Graiver said: “This heroic mother wrote that she was looking for someone to take her son’s beloved Tefillin and help others put them on until he returns from Gaza. I wasn’t sure if I could take on such a heavy responsibility. But I messaged her, saying I love my own Tefillin dearly, but I’d be honored to take Bar’s Tefillin, set up a stand, and encourage others to wear them. I thought it could inspire even more people to put on Tefillin.”

Bar’s mother accepted the offer, and Graiver set up a stand with the Tefillin, a picture of Bar, and asked for Tefillos for Bar-Avraham ben Julia, along with all the other hostages.

Graiver says: “I believe that while the Israel Defense Forces are strong, the spiritual strength of Tefillin has immense power to bring miracles and, God willing, return the hostages soon.”

It took a business trip and the help of fellow Jews to get Bar’s Tefillin on the road. Graiver explains: “I had to travel over the summer for work and to visit my mother-in-law in Montreal. I called Bar’s mother and asked if I should leave the Tefillin behind. She said, ‘No, please take them with you and continue the work abroad.’ And that’s when Chabad communities really stepped in. Everywhere I went, people were eager to use Bar’s Tefillin. The fact that they belonged to a hostage encouraged many Jews to put them on.”

When I arrived in Los Angeles, I spoke with Rabbi Rapoport and gave him the Tefillin. All day long, people were coming to wear them. I think Bar’s Tefillin have been through at least 12 different Chabad centers, moving from one place to another every day.”

“In Florida, they traveled through Miami and Boca, reaching many Chabad emissaries,” Graiver said. “I look at the calendar and can hardly believe that it’s been almost three months of Jews putting on Bar’s Tefillin and praying for his return. I believe this will help bring him and all the hostages back safe and sound.”

Over 1,000 Jews have now worn Bar’s Tefillin, but one story stands out to Graiver the most: “I think it was on the very first day I took Bar’s Tefillin out. A young man came by, looked at the stand, and seemed hesitant. I asked if he wanted to put on Tefillin, and he asked me about the stand after noticing Bar’s picture,” Graiver recalled.

“I told him Bar’s story, and he agreed to put them on. He wore them for half an hour, praying not from a prayer book but from his heart, speaking directly to God. It turned out he was a survivor from Nova. Tefillin wasn’t part of his life, but in that moment, through Bar, he felt a deep connection. It was incredibly moving.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

By Miranda Devine, NY Post

The smart analysis of the first — and maybe only — debate of the Trump-Harris presidential cycle is that Don­ald Trump blew it.

The former president, winging it as usual, missed numerous “kill shots,” was frustratingly imprecise and allowed himself to be baited by Kamala Harris.

But on the optics, Harris committed far worse self-harm.

If you switched off the sound for the ABC debate Tuesday night and just watched the images, you would come away feeling deep distaste for the haughty flibbertigibbet who kept making faces while Trump was speaking.

Harris’ split-screen pantomime made her seem unserious and unlikable and was clearly designed for the sort of viral “Brat Girl” moments on social media her juvenile campaign staff imagines are vote winners. Kween!

In reality, the novelty value is short-lived and even the Taylor Swift demographic will come to see it as unbecoming.

Cool aunt, sure, but president?

Nope.

Margaret Thatcher she is not.

Far from being a masterstroke, Harris’ many faces only reinforced the fatal inauthenticity of the rest of her debate performance, which was a string of memorized set pieces with little relevance to the question being asked, and delivered in an odd staccato.

Another Sybil

While Trump was speaking and Harris knew her face was alongside his on the split screen, she would flash through a dozen different personas in 60 seconds, like an overmedicated Sybil.

Her expression would switch between narrowed-eye incredulity, smug contempt, pursed-lip amusement, a condescending smirk, a tilted head, a disapproving eyebrow, a thrusting chin, eye-rolling, head-shaking, a little macho shoulder swagger, and even a ridiculous chin-holding pose.

Of course, the media pundits were delighted with the contrived body language.

“She turned to him with an arched brow. A quiet sigh. A hand on her chin. A laugh. A pitiful glance. A dismissive shake of her head,” the New York Times gushed.

But to any normal viewer, her Marcel Marceau shtick was puerile, distracting and very fake.

Harris looked as if she had been practicing her multiple faces in the bathroom mirror for hours during the week she was holed up in a hotel doing debate prep.

Political consultant and focus-group maestro Frank Luntz didn’t seem to realize it was deliberate and tweeted that Harris needs to “train her face not to respond [because it] feeds into a female stereotype and, more importantly, risks offending undecided voters.”

He was attacked as a misogynist, but he’s right about how repellent the face-making was to the average viewer.

Harris’ pantomime was also disrespectful to her opponent, taking liberties that no man would get away with.

Her wordless contempt was jarring beside her aggressive faux ­civility before the debate, when she strode past her miniature podium, custom-made for her 5-foot-4 frame, and thrust her hand out at the towering Trump.

“Kamala Harris,” she said in a deep girl-boss voice, as if he didn’t know who she was.

The workshopped ploy was aimed at the “You go, girl” crowd online, who predictably praised it as a “power move.”

But Trump, not exactly a stranger to power moves, was unfazed. “Good to see you, have fun,” he said, politely shaking her hand without crushing it like he did to Vladimir Putin and Mitt Romney.

For a candidate whose true self remains undisclosed, Harris’ thousand fake faces only added to the confusion voters feel about her.

“Kamala Kameleon” just further cemented the mystery about who she really is.

As the campaign grinds on, her identity is fast solidifying into an amorphous void.

She is so afraid of alienating one group or another that she has emerged as a shape-shifting, hollow woman with as many fake accents as she has fake personas.

Her personal backstory is replete with dubious anecdotes designed to offset her privileged upbringing in Canada, such as a job she supposedly had at McDonald’s as a student for which there is zero evidence, no photo, employment record or confirmation from a friend or family member.

“I did fries,” she told a very impressed Drew Barrymore.

Phony job listing

The job is not listed on any ­résumé and her advisers refuse to discuss it.

Fact-checking website Snopes failed to verify the Golden Arches employment and declared the tale “unproven.”

Other embellishments of her history seem equally phony, such as her claim that her parents took her to a civil rights protest as a toddler and when asked what she wanted, she exclaimed, “Fweedom.”

She never mentioned the story again after being accused of plagiarizing it from an identical anecdote Martin Luther King told Playboy in 1965.

Since Tuesday night’s debate was held in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden had a home-state advantage due to his mythical blue-collar roots in Scranton, Harris repeatedly described herself as a “middle-class kid,” repudiating her upbringing in the wealthiest and most privileged neighborhood of Montreal.

Even the pronunciation of her name is contrived: “Comm-ala” (like “Comm-unist”).

She and her supporters have made a big deal out of the pronunciation, accusing anyone who doesn’t say it exactly right of being racist.

But a video doing the rounds online has Harris in Cleveland in 2020 mispronouncing her own name as “Camel-a.”

People who have known for years, like Biden, pronounce it that way, too.

It’s all part of her identity crisis, and it’s why accusing her of being a flip-flopper is so potent.

Trump, on the other hand, never changes. What you see is what you get.

As he said during the debate: “Everybody knows I’m an open book. Everybody knows what I’m going to do.”

On optics, he came across as serious and resolute, which is what voters want in a president as they struggle in the Biden-Harris economy and worry about unchecked illegal migration, crime and the global drumbeat of war.

Smiles and frivolity are not on the menu.

Trump’s cut-through line was describing her economic plans as “Run, Spot, run.”

He also took every chance to point out that she is vacuous and manufactured.

“That’s just a sound bite. They gave her that to say,” he growled.

The times don’t suit a TikTok Kween, regardless of what talking heads on CNN and MSNBC tell you.

That’s the message from a group of 10 undecided voters in a Reuters focus group, six of whom turned toward Trump after the debate.

Just three said they would back Harris and one remained unsure.

It was the same story with several undecided voters interviewed by the Times.

“Trump’s pitch was a little more convincing than hers,” said Keilah Miller, 34, from Milwaukee, after the debate.

“I guess I’m leaning more on his facts than her vision …

“When Trump was in office — not going to lie — I was living way better,” she said.

“I’ve never been so down as in the past four years. It’s been so hard for me.”

Finally, it goes without saying that the ABC debate moderators were a disgrace, but complaining about their bias is pointless.

Republicans just should resolve to never appear on the network again.

{Matzav.com}

Donald Trump’s trial in Washington on charges of federal election obstruction may not begin until 2026 or later because of complex legal and factual issues that may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court, according to legal experts.

Even that schedule is largely dependent on a particular outcome in the presidential election two months from now; if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats Trump, the cases against him are likely to proceed. But if Trump wins the election, he is expected to push his Justice Department to dismiss or at least shelve the charges against him.

At a hearing last week, the trial judge in the D.C. case signaled she planned to try to resolve key and complicated questions about presidential immunity in a matter of months. At the same time, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan cautioned it would be “an exercise in futility” to set a new trial date, given the likely appeals.

That’s because whatever she decides will almost certainly be re-examined by the federal appeals court above her. The combination of Chutkan’s work, and that appeals court process, could take a year. And that would happen before any Supreme Court review, which is also expected, given that the high court signaled in its July immunity ruling that it is likely to re-examine the case.

The opinion by the conservative majority remanded the case back to Chutkan to make determinations “in the first instance,” suggesting the Supreme Court still plans to have the last word. And given the high court’s calendar, even if the justices allow enough evidence for prosecutors to proceed, it’s possible a trial wouldn’t happen until 2026 or 2027.

In ruling that presidents are immune from prosecution for their official acts, the Supreme Court specifically instructed Chutkan to review whether Trump’s pressure campaign in 2020 on Vice President Mike Pence was protected by the justices’ newly stated principle of presidential immunity. Chutkan must also examine whether Trump is immune from prosecution for his efforts to convince state officials, private parties and the general public to change the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost.

Those novel questions of law, which could further redefine presidential power for generations to come, will not be decided quickly. The high court has already admonished both the prosecution team led by special counsel Jack Smith and the lower courts for what the justices considered rushed and botched decisions the first time around.

“This is going to take quite some time, in my view,” said Amy Levin Weil, an appellate lawyer and former chief of appeals in the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta. “Not only does the judge need to figure out what evidence she should look at, she needs to figure out what she should do with that evidence. There are no clear guideposts for what is official conduct.”

“I think the district court judge has a very heavy row to hoe. I would look at this and wonder if she can get it done in a year,” Weil continued. “I have had district court cases pending for years that were easier than this, because it’s all uncharted territory.”

At the moment, the Washington case is the most active of Trump’s four criminal cases. He is charged in the nation’s capital with four separate crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding for his efforts to block the formal ceremonial confirmation of the winner of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump separately was convicted in May in New York state court of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment; he is appealing the verdict, and sentencing is scheduled for a few weeks after the election. In Florida, Smith has appealed a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon to toss out an indictment accusing Trump of mishandling classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago home after he stopped being president, and of obstructing government efforts to retrieve those documents.

In Georgia, Trump’s lawyers are waiting for a state appeals court to hear arguments in December on whether to dismiss a state court indictment for his allegedly obstructing the election results in that state.

At the presidential debate Tuesday between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump insisted he would ultimately be vindicated in each case.

“I’m winning most of them, and I will win the rest on appeal, and you saw that with the decision that came down recently from the Supreme Court,” Trump said. “They’re fake cases.”

There is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the legal fights to come over the precise consequences of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.

How soon a Trump trial may happen in Washington depends greatly on whether Smith is successful in his efforts to bundle all the decisions into a court judgment that can be reviewed by the Supreme Court all at once. If the case goes up in piecemeal fashion, meaning the justices have to weigh multiple parts of it, that could add a year or more to what will already be a lengthy process.

Lawyers believe a somewhat quicker path is at least possible based on Chutkan’s preliminary schedule, which calls for prosecutors to submit one far-reaching filing at the end of this month.

Matthew Seligman, a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, said Chutkan may be able to move relatively quickly, and the Supreme Court could decide it doesn’t need to spend many months tinkering with the decisions made by her and the federal appeals court. “If, however, the Supreme Court wants to review the application of its immunity ruling to the indictment and facts of Mr. Trump’s case, then that ruling would come down no earlier than June 2025 and possibly even June 2026, thus pushing off a trial for years,” he said.

Seligman said he still believes the majority of the Trump conduct described in the revised indictment amounts to nonofficial acts that can be prosecuted, including Trump’s efforts at the end of 2020 to submit replacement slates of electors who would vote for him in key states that Democrat Joe Biden won.

“I think the expectation should be that Trump ultimately will not be found to be immune for the electors scheme or the pressure campaign on Mike Pence,” Seligman said. If Trump loses in November, he added, “sooner or later, he will be put on trial.”

(c) Washington Post

Navient, one of the nation’s largest student loan companies, will pay $120 million to resolve allegations that it misallocated payments, steered people into costly repayment plans, supplied the wrong information and ignored borrowers’ pleas for help, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday.

Most of the settlement, $100 million, will be used to make payments to affected customers as determined by the CFPB. The bureau will mail checks to eligible consumers, who do not need to take any action. The CFPB said the recipients could number in the thousands, but information wasn’t available yet about how much each would receive. The remaining $20 million will go into the bureau’s civil penalty fund.

“It was a hard-fought battle to really make sure that this wasn’t just about a fine, but that this would actually end Navient’s years of abuses,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in an interview.

The settlement stems from a 2017 lawsuit brought by the bureau that casts Navient as a company that was far more concerned with its financial interests than the needs of vulnerable student loan borrowers. Among the most serious charges is that Navient encouraged borrowers to postpone their payments through forbearance, rather than enroll them in an income-driven repayment plan to save on administrative expenses.

Navient, which split from Sallie Mae in 2014, has long disputed the claims as a gross mischaracterization of its business practices.

The bureau said many borrowers who simply couldn’t afford their payments would have benefited from an income-driven plan instead of forbearance, which is intended as a short-term fix and leaves interest continuing to accrue. Navient allegedly enrolled some 1.5 million people in two or more consecutive forbearances, including 520,000 in at least four back-to-back forbearances, from January 2010 to March 2015. Those borrowers with multiple forbearances ended up owing an additional $4 billion in interest, according to the complaint.

In court filings, the company said the borrowers the CFPB identified received information about income-based plans through frequent phone calls and emails, but some were ineligible or chose forbearance because they could not afford their payments under IDR. Over the years, the company tried to get the case dismissed, arguing the bureau lacked the evidence to support its claims. Navient chief executive David Yowan, who took over in May 2023, signaled in an earnings call last year that the company was open to a settlement despite confidence in its case.

“This agreement puts these decade-old issues behind us,” said Paul Hartwick, a spokesman for Navient. “While we do not agree with the CFPB’s allegations, this resolution … is an important positive milestone in our transformation of the company.”

For decades, Navient was one of the most widely recognized servicing companies in the federal student loan apparatus. Elected officials, consumer groups and borrowers frequently accused the company of mishandling student loan accounts, claims that led to a number of lawsuits from state and federal authorities. Throughout that time, Navient remained vigilant in defending itself and became a vocal critic of the federal repayment system before exiting federal student loan servicing in 2021.

As part of the CFPB settlement, Navient has agreed to never return to federal student loan servicing and to no longer purchase debt originated through the defunct Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. In instances where the company still services loans from that old bank-based federal program, the consent order instructs Navient to ensure those borrowers are made aware of their right to enroll in affordable repayment plans.

Chopra said the ban is critical because “the public gets tired of large, powerful corporations cheating consumers, repeatedly breaking the law, and then when they get caught, they just pay a fine.”

Navient said it has not bought any loans from the defunct federal program since 2017 and began outsourcing the servicing of its FFEL program portfolio in July.

“The bureau knows full well its specific accusations are without merit, which is probably why they agreed to settle and move on for what may be just little more than the wasted costs of litigation for both sides since 2017,” said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for loan servicers. “They failed to produce a single harmed borrower in depositions over seven years of litigation. It’s a shame the goal isn’t to work collaboratively on ways to improve actual borrower outcomes – but hopefully that can now change.”

Chopra said that he stands behind the charges in the Navient case and that the company has long had a “culture of lies and deceit” when it comes to how it communicates with borrowers, law enforcement and the public.

“They can say what they want,” Chopra said. “But with this court order, it won’t matter because they will be banned from ever directly servicing federal student loans.”

In January 2022, Navient entered into a $1.85 billion settlement with 39 states over similar claims that it steered borrowers into costly repayment plans and predatory loans. The agreement put to rest multiple state probes into the company’s loan servicing and lending practices dating back to when it was known as Sallie Mae. At the time, Navient said it would cost less to resolve the cases, some of which were more than eight years old, than to fight each individual lawsuit.

The CFPB credits its investigation with kicking off efforts by state and federal agencies to examine forbearance steering and other breakdowns in the income-driven repayment program. Those efforts have resulted in billions of dollars in student debt relief for borrowers who were harmed by forbearance or who had payments miscounted toward forgiveness, said Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal.

“I applaud the CFPB for obtaining concrete relief for borrowers and deterring similar failures in the future,” Kvaal said in a statement. “Today’s action builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to hold loan servicers accountable and protect borrowers.”

(c) Washington Post

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Dannon slammed UN General Secretary António Guterres for once again condemning Israel for striking Hamas terrorists who hide behind human shields. IDF forces carried out an airstrike on a Hamas command center in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday. As per Hamas’s customary behavior of using civilians as human shields, the terror center was located in a school that was turned into a shelter after the war began. The UNWRA claimed that six of its “employees’ were killed in the strike, prompting Guterres to state: “What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable. A school turned shelter for around 12,000 people was hit by Israeli airstrikes again today. Six of our UNRWA colleagues are among those killed. These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.” Danon responded: “What is ‘unacceptable,’ Antonia Guterres, is the fact that you refuse to recognize reality and continue to distort it. Terrorists operating out of civilian buildings previously used by the UNWRA are not ‘innocent.’ It is unconscionable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its just war against terrorists while Hamas continues to use women and children as human shields. “I suggest you carefully investigate who these terrorists were, what they were doing in the past and what atrocities they were committing when they were eliminated before making statements. “I’ll reiterate: Israel will continue its just war against terrorism. The solution is not a ceasefire, but the release of all hostages still held in Gaza and the elimination of Hamas.” Later on Thursday, the IDF published a list of nine Hamas terrorists killed in the strike, three of whom were also UNWRA employees. The IDF also stated that following the UNWRA’s allegations that its employees were killed in the strike, they made repeated requests for the identities of the employees but the “aid organization” refused to provide the names. It’s very telling that Guterres refers to Hamas terrorists as his “UNWRA colleagues.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

I would like to express my concern regarding the current approach to chinuch in Bais Yaakov schools. It seems that the focus has shifted from cultivating a genuine love and passion for Yiddishkeit to transforming these subjects into academic exercises. For many students, this learning feels like just another subject, burdened with challenging tests and heavy memorization. Unfortunately, once they graduate high school, many girls lose interest in continuing to cultivate their connection to Torah and mitzvos. In contrast, yeshiva high schools for boys take a very different approach. The emphasis is on fostering a love for Torah, encouraging students to internalize the teachings. This often leads to a deep, lasting connection, as evidence by the many boys who choose to spend years learning in Israel before and after marriage. It raises the question: Why aren’t Bais Yaakov schools inspiring the same passion in girls? The issue seems to lie in prioritizing academic achievement over spiritual growth. While academic success is certainly important, the pressure to excel in tests often overshadows the true goal—building a personal and lasting connection to Torah and mitzvos. I believe it’s time to consider a shift in focus. Can we explore ways to reduce the pressure of exams and instead emphasize personal growth? Experiential learning, mentorship programs, and promoting post-high school Torah study opportunities could help create a more meaningful experience for students. This is an important conversation for the future of Jewish education, and I would appreciate people’s thoughts on how we can foster positive change. Sincerely, C.P. The views expressed in this letter do not necessarily reflect those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review. 

What was Vivek Doing at the DNC? Introduction By Rabbi Yitzchok Ehrman COO, Agudath Israel Headlines were ablaze with news of a disturbing incident at an Agudath Israel of America event held on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Anti-Israel protestors forcibly interrupted our gathering, which was intended to raise awareness about the growing menace of antisemitism faced by Jews in America, particularly Orthodox Jews. Watch: The irony of mindless slogan-chanters targeting Orthodox Jews while trying to disrupt a gathering about antisemitism cannot be overstated. It demonstrates the societal evil better than any speech or chart.  While the world is captivated by political drama, the Agudah staff is engaged in a different kind of vigilance, intently observing to fulfill our chovas hishtadlus—our duty to engage in proactive efforts on behalf of Klal Yisroel. We are not merely observers, but active participants, ensuring that our shtadlanus serves the greater good of Klal Yisroel and is mekadeish Sheim Shamayim. Let us stay focused on this essential narrative and continue to support our shared mission with unwavering resolve.  www.charidy.com/WeDo Did I belong at the DNC? By Rabbi A.D. Motzen National Director of Government Affairs “What’s he doing here?” That was my reaction when Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate, passed me at the Democratic National Convention, followed by a gaggle of reporters. I assume he didn’t agree with much of what he heard at this convention. Then I stopped to reflect on my own presence at the DNC. As a registered Republican (who occasionally votes for Democrats) representing the Torah values of Agudath Israel — did I belong here? The simple answer is that I work for Agudath Israel of America, which, as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, can’t endorse or oppose any candidate or party for office. But our gedolim have mandated that we be effective shtadlanim, or advocates, for the Orthodox Jewish community. That means showing up on Capitol Hill and in statehouses and city halls across the country. You can’t be effective if you aren’t at the table, engaging with elected officials and influential people in both parties. While the focus of these conventions is on the presidential candidates, there are tens of thousands of local, state, and federal officials and party activists in attendance. At an Agudah event on the sidelines of the convention more than 150 elected officials and party activists mingled with Jewish leaders from across the country. The event was not an endorsement of the Democratic Party or its platform, but rather an opportunity to help educate public officials and activists about our community and engage them in important conversations. Democratic officials stood in silence as the Neutra family spoke about their son Omer, who has been held hostage by Hamas since October 7. In addition, there were banners posted around the room highlighting the need to condemn anti-Semitism by name, and not simply lump it together with ritual denunciations of “all other forms of hate,” and pointing out that a majority of anti-Semitic assaults around the country involve those who are identifiably Jewish — the Orthodox community. The elected officials who spoke at this event condemned this abhorrent trend and explained how they plan to combat it with concrete action. At a time when both major parties are accused of harboring anti-Semites […]

It might seem like the presidential election is far off, but it’s actually approaching quickly. With Election Day set for November 5, which is less than two months away, the time will pass rapidly due to upcoming key dates, events, and political changes.

The initial mail-in ballots for the general election were dispatched on Wednesday, just one day after the inaugural debate between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Some states will begin early in-person voting as early as September 20.

Here’s a snapshot of why the days will rush by from now until Election Day.

The initial set of ballots generally goes to military and overseas voters. Federal regulations require these ballots to be sent out at least 45 days before the election, which this year means by September 21.

In some states, this process starts even earlier.

For instance, election officials in North Carolina were set to begin mailing ballots to all requested voters on September 6. However, this was postponed due to a successful lawsuit by presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who managed to have his name removed from the state’s ballot after he ended his campaign and supported Trump. Consequently, Alabama became the first state to distribute absentee ballots for this presidential election cycle.

Voter registration deadlines differ by state, with most falling between eight and 30 days before the election, as reported by the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Georgia, a key battleground state this year, the registration deadline is October 7.

Most states provide some form of in-person voting, though the specifics and timings vary significantly.

The first presidential debate between Harris and Trump has concluded, prompting discussions about the possibility of a second debate.

Harris’ vice presidential choice, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Trump’s, Ohio Senator JD Vance, have agreed to an October 1 debate organized by CBS News in New York City. Vance has proposed an additional vice presidential debate on September 18, although the details for this have yet to be finalized.

{Matzav.com}

Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel, commander of the IDF Unit 8200, has announced his resignation nearly a year after the intelligence failure that failed to prevent Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack. Unit 8200, the IDF’s primary signals intelligence unit, is one of the entities identified as responsible for missing key warnings leading up to the assault. In a letter to his subordinates on Thursday, Sariel acknowledged his role in the failure, stating, “On October 7 at 6:29 a.m., I did not fulfill my mission as I expected of myself, as my commanders and subordinates expected of me, and as the citizens of the nation I love so much expected of me.” He added that in light of these failures, he was taking personal responsibility by stepping down as the commander of Unit 8200 and allowing new leadership to take over. Sariel, who took command of Unit 8200 in February 2021, is expected to be replaced “in the coming period,” according to the IDF. His resignation comes after months of internal and public scrutiny regarding intelligence lapses that failed to detect and prevent the massive attack by Hamas, which left around 1,200 Israelis dead and 251 taken hostage. In his letter, Sariel acknowledged that Unit 8200 had produced detailed reports about Hamas’s operational attack plans in the months leading up to the assault. Despite the intelligence gathered, he admitted, “the detailed information… did not succeed in shattering the intelligence and military foundations either within the unit or among our partners.” He noted that the unit had been unable to translate the warnings into actionable intelligence that could prevent the October 7 attack. Reports over the past year revealed that Unit 8200 had issued several warnings about Hamas’s intentions, including a detailed document in April 2022 outlining plans for a large-scale invasion of Israel. Additionally, in late September 2023, just weeks before the attack, the unit compiled a dossier warning that Hamas was training for a major offensive. Despite these warnings, they were largely dismissed by senior intelligence officials. Sariel’s resignation follows the departure of several other senior security officials in the aftermath of the October 7 attack. In recent months, the head of the Shin Bet security agency’s Southern District, the chief of the Military Intelligence Directorate, and the head of the Gaza Division have all stepped down. Sariel’s name, typically kept private due to the sensitive nature of his role, became public in April when it was leaked following the publication of a book he had written under an alias. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

For the second time this month, the Tel Aviv District Court postponed ruling on a petition asking it to order the municipality to allow gender-separated davening on Yom Kippur on public grounds.

In the hearing on Thursday, Judge Erez Yakuel instructed the municipality to obtain by Sept. 19 a position paper from the Tel Aviv Religious Council, which is subordinate to the Chief Rabbinate, on the municipality’s claim that halacha does not require a mechitza when the minyan is outside.

The municipality claimed this at a preliminary hearing last week on a petition by 14 residents and the Rosh Yehudi group, whose mission statement is strengthening Jewish identity. The petitioners went to court following the municipality’s refusal last month to issue a permit for the annual Yom Kippur minyan that Rosh Yehudi has been organizing at Dizengoff Square in recent years. Yom Kippur begins this year on Oct. 11.

The events of last year’s Yom Kippur davening at Dizengoff Square, which Rosh Yehudi held with a permit, shocked Jews and others across the world. Secular activists interrupted the event, tearing down Rosh Yehudi’s dividers—frames made of flexible materials to symbolically separate the genders while respecting the municipality’s ban on physical barriers. Some activists threw siddurim into the square’s fountain as they harassed and chased away Jews trying to daven on the holy day.

At last week’s hearing, the judge postponed ruling because he wanted the parties to compromise. Rosh Yehudi told the court it would move the event to anywhere in the city. The municipality insisted that it could not allow gender-separated prayer because this would discriminate against women. (JNS)

{Matzav.com Israel}

A barrage of approximately 20 projectiles was fired towards Tzfas, with most being intercepted or falling in open areas, according to the IDF. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported, and there was no immediate damage apparent. Sirens were activated in surrounding communities due to concerns of falling debris from interceptors. Firefighters are currently battling a blaze near Birya, sparked by a rocket impact. The IDF says is monitoring the situation, and further updates will be provided as necessary. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

In the months before his attackers tracked him down, the exiled Iranian journalist had been moved in and out of safe houses by London’s Metropolitan Police, given a secret way to signal rescue units and had monitoring devices installed in his home.

British authorities had done even more to protect Iran International, the London-based satellite news channel that airs the weekly program of the journalist, Pouria Zeraati, and has built an audience of millions in Iran despite being outlawed by the Islamic republic.

Police assigned a team of undercover officers to safeguard the channel’s employees, arrested a suspect caught surveilling the station’s entrances, put armored cars outside its headquarters and, for one seven-month stretch last year, convinced the network to move temporarily to Washington.

None of these measures managed to protect Zeraati from the plot that Iran is suspected of setting in motion this year. On March 29, he was stabbed four times and left bleeding on the sidewalk outside his home in the London suburb of Wimbledon by assailants who were not from Iran and had no discernible connection to its security services, according to British investigators.

Instead, officials said, Iran hired criminals in Eastern Europe who encountered few obstacles as they cleared security checks at Heathrow Airport, spent days tracking Zeraati and then caught departing flights just hours after carrying out an ambush that their victim survived – perhaps intentionally, investigators said, to serve as a warning but not trigger the fallout that would come with the murder of a British citizen.

Iran’s alleged reliance on criminals rather than covert operatives underscored an alarming evolution in tactics by a nation that U.S. and Western security officials consider one of the world’s most determined and dangerous practitioners of “transnational repression,” a term for governments’ use of violence and intimidation in others’ sovereign territory to silence dissidents, journalists and others deemed disloyal.

Senior security officials said that the use of criminal proxies by governments has compounded the difficulty of protecting those who have sought refuge in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Security services formerly focused on tracking operatives from Russia’s GRU spy agency or Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) now confront plots handed off – often through encrypted channels – to criminal networks deeply embedded in Western society.

In recent years, Iran has outsourced lethal operations and abductions to Hells Angels biker gangs, a notorious Russian mob network known as “Thieves in Law,” a heroin distribution syndicate led by an Iranian narco-trafficker and violent criminal groups from Scandinavia to South America.

This story reveals new details about how Iran has cultivated and exploited connections to criminal networks that are behind a recent wave of violent plots secretly orchestrated by elite units in the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). It is based on interviews with senior officials in more than a dozen countries, hundreds of pages of criminal court records in the United States and Europe, as well as additional investigative documents obtained by The Washington Post from security services.

With hit men it has hired in the criminal underworld, Iran has commissioned plots against a former Iranian military officer living under an assumed identity in Maryland, an exiled Iranian American journalist in Brooklyn, a women’s rights activist in Switzerland, activists in Germany and at least five journalists at Iran International, as well as dissidents and regime critics in a half dozen other countries, according to interviews and records.

Other nations have begun to embrace this strategy. India’s security services enlisted criminal groups to kill a Sikh activist in Canada last year and target another in New York, according to U.S. and Canadian officials. Russia, which has traditionally relied on its own agents for lethal operations, turned last year to mob elements in Spain to kill a military helicopter pilot who had defected to Ukraine and then resettled in the Mediterranean.

Iran’s turn to criminal proxies has in part been driven by necessity, officials said, reflecting the intense scrutiny that Iran’s own operatives face from Western governments. The attack on Zeraati avoided these Iran-focused defenses.

“We’re not dealing with the usual suspects,” said Matt Jukes, the head of counterterrorism policing in the United Kingdom and assistant commissioner for special operations with Scotland Yard. He acknowledged that Zeraati’s assailants remain at large more than five months after his stabbing. They have been identified and their travels traced to countries in Eastern Europe but have so far not been detained. Officials said the suspects remain in Eastern Europe and that other security services are cooperating with British authorities, but they declined to explain why the suspects have not been taken into custody.

“What we’ve got is a hostile state actor that sees the battlefield as being without border and individuals in London every bit as legitimate as targets as if [they were] in Iran,” said Jukes. Along with Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, the Metropolitan Police have tracked more than 16 plots from the Islamic republic over the past two years, according to British intelligence and security officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and ongoing investigations.

The United States has faced a wave of similar threats, including several that have been detailed in criminal indictments connecting biker gangs in Canada and mob elements in Eastern Europe to planned assassinations commissioned by Iran.

Matthew G. Olsen, who heads the national security division at the Justice Department, said that “Iran is clearly at the top of the list” of states that year after year seek to kill or abduct dissidents and journalists outside their borders. Other nations, particularly China, seek to intimidate or repress diaspora populations, Olsen said, but Iran is consistently “focused on actions at the extreme end of [transnational repression] because of their lethal targeting.”

Iran dismissed the accusations as Western disinformation. “The Islamic Republic of Iran harbors neither the intent nor the plan to engage in assassination or abduction operations, whether in the West or any other country,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement. “These fabrications are concoctions of the Zionist regime, the Albania-based Mujahedin-e Khalq terrorist cult, and certain Western intelligence services-including those of the United States-to divert attention from the atrocities committed by the Israeli regime.”

– – –

A surge in attacks

Iran’s overseas operations have intensified in response to a period of political upheaval driven by mass protests over economic conditions and the regime’s treatment of women.

The security services in Tehran are targeting those outside the country whom they accuse of stoking these internal divisions, Western officials and analysts said.

Amid worries that the conflict in Gaza might break out into a regional war, Tehran has also been linked to plots against U.S. and Israeli officials and members of Jewish communities in France and Germany.

The Justice Department filed charges last month against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran who was accused of seeking to hire a hit man to assassinate political figures in the United States, possibly including former president Donald Trump. It was the latest in a series of plots against members of his administration, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton, in response to a 2020 U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed IRGC leader Qasem Soleimani.

Security officials and experts said the pace of operations emanating from Iran is unprecedented. Data published by the Washington Institute in August listed 88 assassination, abduction and other violent plots linked to Iran over the past five years – exceeding the total for the preceding four decades following the 1979 revolution. At least 14 of those recent cases involved criminal organizations.

“We’re seeing a major escalation in lethal plotting from a government that has used this tactic from the outset,” said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert at the Washington Institute.

The results have been mixed.

For every plot that has succeeded, others have failed, often because of blunders committed by those hired. Iran appears to accept the downsides of the outsourcing model because of offsetting advantages. These include making it more difficult for authorities to attribute attacks to Tehran, an abundance of criminals willing to commit violence for relatively modest sums of money and a negligible price of failure.

Rather than putting Iran’s own agents at risk, a U.S. intelligence analyst said, “two guys they barely know will spend 20 years in jail.”

Zeraati, 36, had faced threats since starting his program in 2022 at Iran International, a Saudi-funded satellite and online news platform that bypasses Iran’s censors and beams news and commentary to millions of viewers.

In November 2022, Zeraati’s wife, a real estate agent, was approached by two men on a motorcycle outside a London health club. “We know where you live,” one said, according to Zeraati. “We will kill your husband.”

Zeraati was one of five Iranian journalists whose pictures appeared on “Wanted, Dead or Alive” posters hung from signposts in Iran and circulated widely on social media outlets tied to the government.

Yet the stabbing took place at a time when the threat level facing Iran International was perceived to have declined. The channel had returned from its Washington relocation to new London studios ringed by blast walls, guard stations and surveillance cameras. After multiple stays at safe houses, Zeraati had returned to his residence, a flat in a four-story apartment building so close to the famed Wimbledon tennis complex that you can hear the thwack of balls being struck on practice courts.

The assailants appear to have taken advantage of security vulnerabilities. His home address could be found in online property records. His broadcast schedule – one weekly show airing Friday nights – pointed to a predictable commute pattern.

As Zeraati crossed the street to his car around 3 p.m. to head to work, he caught sight of a disheveled man approaching him. “Brother, can I have three pounds change,” the man said, Zeraati recalled in an interview.

While Zeraati continued toward his car, a second man emerged from a driveway obscured by foliage. The second seized Zeraati’s arms while the first, smiling broadly, plunged a blade into his leg repeatedly. The decision to stab his thigh rather than his heart or other vital organs led police to believe the attack was intended as a warning.

The assailants then raced up the street to meet an accomplice with a car. Zeraati’s first thought was that he had been mugged. But as he reached for his phone to call an ambulance, he realized that the attackers had not taken any of his belongings, including a wallet, a watch and a Montblanc pen.

“At that moment it clicked,” Zeraati said. “It had been related to my job.”

If the stabbing was meant to silence Zeraati and sow fear among the regime’s Western critics, it was only partially successful.

Zeraati returned to the airwaves after a brief hospital stay. “I wanted to send a message that the flow of information in the 21st century can’t be stopped,” he said.

Other journalists, dissidents and regime critics acknowledge that they remain deeply shaken.

“It sent a chill through my spine,” said Alireza Nader, an independent Iran analyst based in Washington. “I look over my shoulder now,” he said. “Everybody who is active against the regime, speaks publicly against the regime, felt that attack.”

British officials have not publicly accused Iran of responsibility. Security officials said they see no alternative explanation but are still gathering evidence.

Iranian officials have said the country was not involved in the stabbing. “We deny any link to this story of this so-called journalist,” the country’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said in a post on X the day after the attack.

– – –

Iran has outsourced assassinations and abductions to at least five criminal syndicates, officials said. At the center of this web is an alleged heroin trafficking kingpin based in Iran, Naji Sharifi Zindashti.

U.S. criminal charges made public earlier this year outline an alleged scheme in which Zindashti negotiated a $350,000 contract with two Hells Angels members in Canada to kill an Iranian defector and his wife living under false identities in Maryland.

In exchanges over encrypted texts, the would-be assassins discussed their client’s insistence that the slaying be symbolically vicious. One assured the other that he would “make sure I hit this guy in the head with ATLEAST half the clip,” according to the U.S. indictment, adding, “we gotta erase his head from his torso.”

The name of the targeted defector has not been disclosed, but U.S. officials said the individual had served as an officer in the IRGC, a powerful wing of Iran’s military created after the 1979 revolution, and become an informant for the CIA.

The incongruous partnership between an Islamic theocracy and a notorious biker gang was driven in part by necessity, officials said, given the resources U.S. security agencies devote to preventing Iran from deploying operatives to the United States.

The Hells Angels, however, has chapters across the country as well as a powerful grip on narcotics trafficking in Canadian provinces, officials said. And there were previous connections between Iran and Hells Angels. In another plot, Iran used a German member of the gang, Ramin Yektaparast, who had fled to Tehran to escape murder charges, to orchestrate the bombing of a synagogue in Essen. An alleged associate balked at bombing the synagogue but fired shots into its windows.

The point man in the Maryland plot was a “full patch” member named Damion Ryan, who has a string of convictions in Canada for crimes including drug trafficking, assault, robbery and home invasion, according to court records. Those documents list aliases for him including “Berserker” and “Mr. Wolf.”

Ryan, 43, in turn enlisted a younger Hells Angels affiliate, Adam R. Pearson, 29, who was in hiding in Minneapolis to escape arrest on murder charges in Canada, according to U.S. and Canadian officials and court records.

An attorney representing Ryan declined to comment. Attorneys who have previously represented Pearson did not respond to requests for comment.

By March 2021, the Hells Angels pair had agreed on the six-figure price tag and Zindashti had sent photos and maps as well as an initial $20,000 payment to cover travel expenses, according to the U.S. indictment. It is unclear how Iran identified the location of the defector.

Then, just as it entered its final stage, the plot stalled. The indictment provides no explanation for why Pearson never made the trip to Maryland, but that same month security services in Europe achieved a breakthrough that rippled through criminal networks around the world.

Zindashti and the two Hells Angels members had been corresponding through an encrypted messaging service known as Sky ECC. Launched by a Vancouver-based company in 2008, the system became a mainstay among criminal syndicates by turning ordinary cellphones into seemingly impenetrable devices, disabling their cameras, microphones and GPS trackers while adding a “kill switch” to delete incriminating data.

By early 2021, however, Belgian and Dutch security services found a way to breach the network’s security. On March 9, Belgian police carried out hundreds of raids, arrested dozens of alleged traffickers and seized 17 tons of cocaine. Among those taken into custody in Belgium and the Netherlands were members of Hells Angels.

U.S. officials said the Maryland plot came to their attention as investigators sifted through the Sky ECC trove. Pearson was arrested by the FBI in Minnesota and extradited to Canada. In February 2022, Ryan was arrested following a raid on his house in Ottawa, where authorities found a cache of weapons, body armor and roughly $95,000 in cash.

– – –

Zindashti has emerged as a linchpin in Iran’s operations.

A hulking figure who stands over 6 feet tall and weighs 250 pounds, Zindashti was described by one U.S. intelligence analyst as a “Pablo Escobar-type narco-trafficker.”

Now in his early 50s, Zindashti acquired that status after emerging triumphant from a bloody regional drug war touched off by one of the largest busts in European history. It involved a cargo ship named the Noor One that arrived at a Greek port in June 2014 carrying more than two tons of heroin.

Zindashti was accused by some of tipping off authorities to undercut rivals. He has survived several attempts on his life, but his daughter and a nephew were killed in 2014 by gunmen who pulled up alongside their Porsche Cayenne in Istanbul, mistakenly believing Zindashti was in the vehicle, according to Turkish court records obtained by The Post.

A brutal campaign of score-settling ensued in which more than a dozen people linked to the Noor One deal were killed. One of the murders had striking parallels to the Hells Angels plot that Zindashti is alleged to have later orchestrated on behalf of Iran’s MOIS.

In May 2016, a Turkish drug trafficker identified as Cetin Koc was gunned down in Dubai by two hit men who had traveled from Canada where they had links to local narcotics networks. The gunmen became targets themselves upon returning to Vancouver. The bullet-riddled body of one was found in a blueberry field and the remains of the other were recovered from a burned car, Canadian officials said.

In statements to Turkish investigators, Zindashti acknowledged that he had motive to kill Koc, saying that “he wrote me threatening messages about ten days before my daughter’s murder.” Still, Zindashti claimed to “have nothing to do with the murder” and dismissed the accusations as “a conspiracy.”

As the killings continued, the target list expanded to include dissidents and journalists branded disloyal by Tehran.

In 2017, Saeed Karimian, the founder of a Persian language television network, GEM TV, was killed in Istanbul by suspects including a man that Zindashti acknowledged had worked as his family’s driver, according to the Turkish court records.

In 2019, Masoud Molavi, a dissident who had created a popular Telegram channel that campaigned against corruption in Iran, was killed in Istanbul by an assailant who then hid in one of Zindashti’s apartments, according to the Turkish files, which refer to the drug lord as the “instigator” of multiple attacks.

In 2020, Habib Chaab, a political activist living in Sweden, was abducted during a visit to Turkey and smuggled by Zindashti operatives to Iran where he was tortured and, in 2023, executed, U.S., Western and Turkish security officials said.

Zindashti’s ruthless effectiveness appears to have reignited Iran’s enthusiasm for working with criminal syndicates after experiments years earlier ended in failure, officials said. An attempt in 2011 to assassinate the Saudi ambassador at Café Milano, a Georgetown restaurant, unraveled when Iran enlisted a hapless used-car salesman from Texas – the cousin of an official in Tehran – to manage the plot.

Taking on these assignments may also have paved the way for Zindashti’s return several years ago to his native country after an arrest and other legal problems prompted him to abandon Istanbul. The apparent sanctuary provided Zindashti and Yektaparast suggests that Iran’s religious hard-liners are willing to accommodate criminals who are useful against their enemies, officials said. Yektaparast, who posted photos of his Lamborghini and other luxury trappings on an Instagram account, was killed by unknown assailants in Iran earlier this year.

“Café Milano was, in hindsight, a signifier of things to come,” said a U.S. intelligence analyst. But it was Zindashti, the analyst said, who brought a “significant shift in terms of realizing this is a lucrative tactic.”

Iran’s security services have poured additional resources into supporting such operations, officials said. The Quds Force, an elite paramilitary wing of the IRGC, established a special unit, Department 840, dedicated to assassination operations outside Iran, U.S. and other officials said.

Zindashti has been more closely aligned with the MOIS, which functions as Iran’s main domestic security service but also has its own assassination branch, U.S. officials said. Iranian nationals who oppose the government are considered “internal” adversaries, officials said, even when residing in others’ sovereign territory.

The U.S. Treasury Department and its U.K. equivalent imposed financial sanctions on Zindashti earlier this year, saying that he had conducted “assassinations and kidnappings under the direction of the MOIS across multiple continents.”

Even while taking advantage of Zindashti’s international reach, Iran has diversified.

A gunman who showed up at the Brooklyn doorstep of Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad in July 2022 was a member of a sprawling criminal organization known as Thieves in Law. The phrase refers to a mafia-style honor code that sworn members are bound to follow.

The assailant, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested after being pulled over for a traffic violation near Alinejad’s residence. Police found an AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition and a ski mask in his vehicle, according to a U.S. indictment.

Charges have also been filed against two other suspected Thieves in Law members alleged to have given Mehdiyev his orders. One was based in Iran but apprehended in Uzbekistan and turned over to the United States in 2023, officials said. The other was also extradited earlier this year after being arrested in the Czech Republic.

The assassination attempt marked at least the third plot targeting Alinejad, a prominent advocate for women’s rights in Iran. One centered on an elaborate scheme to abduct her, escape New York by boat and board a flight to Iran from Venezuela, according to details released by the U.S. Treasury Department when it imposed sanctions on security operatives in Iran.

Alinejad said she has spent time in more than a dozen safe houses and that Iran’s use of criminals has deepened her concern for her safety. “There are a lot of people in Eastern Europe and other places and it’s very easy for them to get a visa and come here to do the job,” she said.

– – –

Iran has used that template repeatedly against Iran International, the satellite station whose journalists have been targets of at least five lethal plots.

Launched in 2017, the network has built gleaming studios in a London business park and hired hundreds of employees, including prominent broadcasters from BBC Persian and other platforms.

Despite negligible advertising revenue, the station spends lavishly on facilities and salaries, reporting losses totaling $569 million between 2017 and 2022, the latest year for which figures are available. Executives declined to provide details on the station’s funding except to acknowledge that much of it comes from sources in Saudi Arabia – one of Iran’s primary adversaries.

Viewership has surged, fueled by around-the-clock coverage of internal protests. During the 2022 uprisings that followed the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman beaten by police for alleged violations of the country’s religious dress code, the network aired coverage of the violent internal crackdown, showing videos of police beatings and other abuses submitted by activists and ordinary citizens.

As protests grew, IRGC commander Hossein Salami issued a thinly veiled threat to the network. “We warn those who manage these systems of spreading news and spreading lies for chaos inside our country to stop these behaviors,” he said. “You’ve tried us before. Watch out because we’re coming for you.”

A month later, in November 2022, the station issued a news release saying it had been warned of bomb and death threats against two of its senior managers. Other plots followed, aimed at on-air broadcasters Fardad Farahzad and Sima Sabet.

In February 2023, police arrested a suspected associate of the Thieves in Law who had arrived in London on a flight from Vienna, went straight to Iran International’s headquarters and begun taking videos of its perimeter security. That same month, the channel moved its production operations to an existing Iran International studio in Washington, considered safer because of the distance from Tehran and the capabilities of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The Thieves in Law suspect, Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, a 31-year-old native of Chechnya, was convicted in December of conducting surveillance for an act of terrorism and given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Three months later, a trio of alleged assailants arrived in London much as Dovtaev had – on flights from European countries that allow easy entry to Britain.

Zeraati considers himself more partisan commentator than impartial journalist, and the editorial tone of his weekly “Last Word” program may have made him a priority target.

Several weeks before the stabbing, he had aired an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who used the appearance to denounce the IRGC as a “self-designated” terrorist organization.

Iran’s Fars News Agency responded by applying the same label to Iran International, calling it a “terrorist” channel that had “offered its antenna to the prime minister, murderer of children in Gaza.”

Despite efforts to protect Zeraati, the attack exposed security lapses. Police had removed monitoring devices from his home a year earlier and though London is saturated with police surveillance cameras, none had been installed on Zeraati’s street.

Alicia Kearns, a member of British Parliament who was chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the time of the stabbing, said in an interview that she was troubled that police had failed to stop the assailants before they could flee the country.

“There are unfortunately going to be an increase in hostile states seeking to silence those who speak against them,” she said. “The U.K. can’t be a beacon of freedom and democracy if we can’t stop hostile states conducting acts of terrorism on our soil.”

Zeraati has pressed on with his program but his life has been altered. After additional stays in safe houses, he and his wife decided this summer to move away from England. They now reside in Yerushalayim, a city where they believed they would be safer, close to the regional stories he covers and where the station also has a studio.

He no longer walks with a noticeable limp, he said, but bears scars that “will stay for a lifetime.”

(c) Washington Post

– – –

Lawyers for Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi of the Hadash-Ta’al Party accused Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of “racist policies” during a court hearing on Wednesday due to his opposition to Tibi meeting with jailed Palestinian terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti.

The accusations were made in a petition filed with Jerusalem’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, by Adalah-The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, whose lawyers acted on Tibi’s behalf.

Adalah filed the petition after Ben-Gvir’s office stonewalled a request by Tibi to meet with convicted terrorists Walid Deka—who has since died of cancer—and Barghouti, who commanded Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades during the Second Intifada and is serving five life terms.

Deka was serving a life sentence for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Israel Defense Forces soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.

The petition requests an injunction prohibiting Ben-Gvir from preventing meetings between Knesset lawmakers and security prisoners. According to Adalah, coalition lawmakers and members of Ben-Gvir’s party have been allowed to visit Jewish prisoners without restrictions.

The petition also claimed that Tibi’s ability to meet with terrorists is “essential” and accuses Ben-Gvir of obstructing “effective parliamentary oversight of the conditions of confinement of Palestinian prisoners.”

During the hearing on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir reiterated his opposition to the meeting with Barghouti, noting that his position is supported by the Israel Prison Service, which falls under the authority of his ministry.

“It is sad that on the day we bury soldiers, we have to deal with a petition from a member of the Israeli Knesset, who receives money from our salaries, and he wants to meet and talk with his accomplice—Marwan Barghouti, a murderer, who has the blood of Jews on his hands,” said Ben-Gvir. “I decided that they couldn’t meet, and I stand behind this decision.”

Outside the courtroom, bereaved Israeli families assailed Adalah general director Hassan Jabareen with shouts of, “Shame! Terror supporters, go to Gaza and Syria!” Israel’s Arutz 7 reported.

In 2023, Ben-Gvir announced the cancelation of rules implemented by the previous government that allowed any MK to meet with imprisoned terrorists. Ben-Gvir said he had taken the step after “concluding that these visits resulted in incitement and the promotion of terrorist actions.”

The prison visitation policy then reverted to what it had previously been, with only a single legislator from each political party being permitted to meet with jailed terrorists, and only under “appropriate supervision.”

Hamas has reportedly demanded the release of Barghouti in the first phase of a proposed ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Since the terror group started its latest war against the Jewish state on Oct. 7, thousands of terrorists have been arrested. In March, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu instructed government bodies to prepare prisons for an influx of thousands more. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

Israel will revoke the press passes of Al Jazeera reporters working in the Jewish state, it was announced on Thursday, some four months after the Cabinet voted unanimously to close down operations of the broadcaster, which Yerushalayim has accused of aiding the Hamas terrorist organization.

The Cabinet acted in accordance with a law the Knesset passed in April.

“The Government Press Office is revoking the GPO cards of Al Jazeera journalists working in Israel, following the unanimous government decision in May to shut down the channel in Israel and prohibit its broadcasts,” the government body announced in a statement.

The action “will be subject to a hearing and will include Al Jazeera journalists and broadcasters in Hebrew and Arabic, but will not include the channel’s producers and photographers,” according to the GPO.

Reporters for the channel will be barred from reapplying for press passes as long as the Knesset ban on Al Jazeera remains in force, the GPO said.

Qatar’s Al Jazeera “is a media outlet that disseminates false content, which includes incitement against Israelis and Jews and constitutes a threat to IDF soldiers,” GPO Director Nitzan Chen noted.

“The use of GPO cards in the course of the journalists’ work could in itself jeopardize state security at this time of military emergency,” Chen added.

The GPO press pass, much like those in other countries, facilitates journalists’ entry to press conferences, courts and other official institutions.

In April, the Knesset voted 71-10 for the law that gave Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu the authority to shut down the Qatari broadcaster.

The legislation states that the communications minister may act against a foreign channel that harms the state’s security, with the consent of the prime minister and approval of the Cabinet.

The measures enable authorities to order television providers to stop broadcasting the outlet; close its offices in Israel; seize its equipment; shut down its website; and revoke press credentials for staff.

(JNS)

Slightly more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historically low levels despite two years of elevated interest rates. Jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 230,000 for the week of Sept. 7, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That number matches the number of new filings that economists projected. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out some of week-to-week volatility, ticked up by 500, to 230,750. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits rose by a modest 5,000, remaining in the neighborhood of 1.85 million for the week of Aug. 31. Weekly filings for unemployment benefits, considered a proxy for layoffs, remain low by historic standards, though they are up from earlier this year. During the first four months of 2024, claims averaged a just 213,000 a week, but they started rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, adding to evidence that high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot U.S. job market. Employers added a modest 142,000 jobs in August, up from a paltry 89,000 in July, but well below the January-June monthly average of nearly 218,000. Last month, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total supports evidence that the job market has been slowing steadily and reinforces the Fed’s plan to start cutting interest rates later this month. The Fed, in an attempt to stifle inflation that hit a four-decade high just over two years ago, raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. That pushed it to a 23-year high, where it has stayed for more than a year. Inflation has retreated steadily, approaching the Fed’s 2% target and leading Chair Jerome Powell to declare recently that it was largely under control. Most analysts are expecting the Fed to cut its benchmark rate by only a traditional-sized quarter of a percentage point at its meeting next week, not the more severe half-point that some had been forecasting. (AP)

The commander of Israel’s elite intelligence Unit 8200, Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel, has announced he will resign his position over the intelligence failures leading to the Simchas Torah massacre by Hamas.

Sariel now becomes Israel’s second major intelligence official to step down over the massacre, following former Intelligence Directorate Chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva.

Sariel had commanded the prestigious unit for 3 years. Unlike the previous commander of the unit, Sariel’s identity was known publicly following an article in a British newspaper. The unit is well known to feature some of Israel’s brightest minds, who go on to lead successful startups. However, the unit has been criticized by the defense establishment over the October 7th failures, claiming it was too eager to rely on technology at the expense of human intelligence.

In his resignation letter, Sariel wrote: “On October 7th, at 06:29, we did not perform as I expected of myself, as my subordinates and commanders expected, and as the citizens of the country that I so love expected of me.

Personally, I failed by not adequately understanding the need, and therefore I didn’t adequately reflect the need, that in the special reality on the Gaza border, we as a system are held to a different risk management which stems from the small margin of error that in the region.

I did not point out that there are, in fact, two Nukhba commando divisions on the Gaza border, minutes away from Israeli communities. And with enemies that constantly meet the might of the Israeli intelligence and internalize it, you can not rely on SIGINT deterrence for operational preparedness, and certainly not build on the fact that at the H-Hour we would manage to get the ‘golden intelligence’ report. 8200’s responsibility for its part in the intelligence and operational failure is all on me.

I know that I worked with the utmost awe and despite this, I am deeply sorry. Sorry that I did not perform the task as you expected of me and as I demanded of myself. I know and pain that I can’t fix what was done. I bow my head.”

{Matzav.com}

A Gazan man named Amro Abu Rida, who had previously claimed to be a journalist, was arrested for his involvement in the October 7 massacre and later exposed as a terrorist during an interrogation by the IDF, KAN news reported on Wednesday night. According to the report, Rida confessed to being an operative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a recognized terror organization. During his interrogation, Rida admitted to kicking the body of one of the hostages. Until his arrest, social media campaigns had been advocating for Rida’s release, with media outlets such as Al Jazeera accusing Israel of kidnapping the so-called journalist. However, Rida disclosed to the IDF that his true role was that of a military operative within the PFLP, where he documented and edited videos of terror activities. Rida also reportedly confessed to participating in ambushes against IDF soldiers in Gaza and was directly involved in the October 7 attack near Kibbutz Nir Oz. The IDF has footage of him shooting in an incident where soldiers were killed and others taken hostage. Further investigation revealed that Rida’s brother was involved in the kidnapping of the Bibas family, including 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel. Rida was initially arrested in February near the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where he attempted to flee, posing as an innocent civilian. The IDF captured him after besieging the hospital. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)