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Three yeshiva bochurim were turned over overnight Tuesday to Israel’s military police and transferred to a military prison after being detained by Israeli police under a newly announced enforcement policy targeting draft evaders.

The arrests took place as part of a directive issued this week by Police Commissioner Dani Levy ordering officers to detain any individual classified as a draft evader and immediately transfer them to military authorities.

One of the arrests occurred in Beit Shemesh, where a bochur from Yeshivas Kibbutz Givat Zev was detained at the local police station.

The bochur, who had been designated a draft evader for failing to report to the military draft office, was later handed directly to military police for further proceedings.

At the same time, two additional bochurim from Yeshivas Mishkan Dovid were arrested by officers from the Shaar Binyamin police district and likewise transferred to military custody.

All three were reportedly detained because they had ignored draft notices and failed to appear at military induction offices.

Representatives of the organization Nosnim Gav, which assists detained yeshiva bochurim, said emergency alerts regarding the arrests arrived too late for activists to intervene effectively.

“As a result, public activists did not manage to arrive in time and prevent the transfer,” the organization stated.

The group added that the bochurim and their families are receiving legal assistance and full support.

The arrests come amid mounting tension surrounding the new policy announced this week by Commissioner Dani Levy.

According to the directive issued to senior police commanders, “every draft evader encountered will be detained, military police will be notified, and the individual will be transferred to military police for further handling.”

The policy marks a sharp reversal from previous police practice.

Until now, Israeli police had generally refrained from actively arresting draft evaders and in many cases reportedly instructed local districts not to involve themselves in such matters.

The new approach has sparked fierce backlash throughout the Torah world and among chareidi public officials.

MK Michael Malkieli of Shas sharply attacked Commissioner Levy on Tuesday, accusing him of targeting Torah learners for political reasons.

“Instead of dealing with rising crime and murderers roaming freely, you are sending Israel Police officers to harass Torah learners,” Malkieli wrote.

He added: “Commissioner Dani Levy — a hero against the weak! Suddenly before elections you decided to join forces with the attorney general in hopes of flattering her so they won’t remove you after the elections.”

{Matzav.com}

A growing dispute has erupted between the Pentagon and SpaceX after Elon Musk’s satellite company reportedly raised Starlink connection fees fivefold for U.S. military drone operations during the war with Iran, underscoring concerns inside Washington over the company’s expanding control over critical defense systems.

According to a Reuters report, tensions escalated after American kamikaze drones operating against Iran relied heavily on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network for communications and targeting.

As the military campaign intensified, SpaceX informed Pentagon officials that the pricing structure being used for the drone operations no longer reflected the level of service being consumed.

Sources familiar with the negotiations and Pentagon documents said SpaceX executives argued that the military had been paying approximately $5,000 per terminal while effectively utilizing a service tier valued closer to $25,000.

The disagreement centered largely around the use of Starlink aboard LUCAS suicide drones, low-cost American unmanned aircraft designed similarly to Iran’s Shahed drones.

The drones are capable of loitering above target zones before crashing into their targets and detonating.

SpaceX maintained that the drones’ operational profile more closely resembled the company’s aviation-level subscription service rather than its cheaper land-based or mobility plans.

Pentagon officials pushed back, arguing that the $25,000 monthly aviation pricing was intended for traditional aircraft and not kamikaze drones that may only remain connected to the network for short periods of time.

Despite those objections, the Pentagon ultimately accepted the higher pricing arrangement.

The increase reportedly nearly doubled the total cost of each LUCAS drone, which had originally been priced at roughly $30,000 per unit.

The pricing battle is only one part of a broader series of disagreements between the Pentagon and SpaceX.

Defense officials have also reportedly clashed with the company over proposals to provide civilians inside Iran with direct-to-cell Starlink communications access similar to 5G service, allowing users to bypass internet and communications shutdowns imposed by the Iranian regime.

The disputes have highlighted how increasingly dependent the U.S. military has become on SpaceX infrastructure, giving Musk and his company growing leverage over major national security operations.

The issue comes as SpaceX reportedly prepares for a possible initial public offering next month that could become one of the largest IPOs ever.

Unlike consumer-facing Starlink systems, the Pentagon operates a military-specific platform known as Starshield under a 2023 agreement with SpaceX.

Starshield terminals are capable of connecting both to the commercial Starlink network and to a separate secure satellite constellation also known as Starshield.

Clayton Swope, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said SpaceX’s leverage stems partly from the fact that it is not solely dependent on government contracts.

In addition to its military work, the company maintains major commercial operations involving satellite internet, rocket launches, and artificial intelligence technologies.

According to SEC filings, approximately 20 percent of SpaceX’s total revenue comes from the U.S. government.

“SpaceX certainly has the U.S. government over the barrel,” Swope said.

Frictions reportedly surfaced almost immediately after military operations against Iran began on February 28.

On March 1, Elon Musk responded on X to an image showing a LUCAS drone apparently equipped with a Starlink terminal.

“It is a violation of commercial Starlink terms of service to use the terminal for weapon systems. This applies to all users and is shut down when discovered,” Musk posted. “There is a separate network called Starshield, which is operated by the US government.”

{Matzav.com}

A new federal watchdog report has revealed that during the height of the Biden administration’s border policies, nearly 90 percent of migrants encountered at the southern border were released into the United States through the use of parole authority.

The report, issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), details how the Department of Homeland Security under then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas dramatically expanded the use of humanitarian parole between early 2021 and January 20, 2025, as part of what critics described as a sweeping catch-and-release strategy.

According to the GAO findings, parole authority had historically been used only sparingly by previous administrations prior to 2021.

The report states that the Biden administration’s broad interpretation of so-called humanitarian parole fundamentally transformed the scale of migrant releases into the country.

“Specifically, our analysis showed that OFO and Border Patrol granted relatively few paroles during fiscal years 2019 and 2020,” the GAO report states:

“During this time period the proportion of southwest border encounters resulting in parole ranged from about 3 percent to 28 percent. The number of paroles granted increased beginning in the summer of 2021 and peaked in December 2022, when 89 percent of encounters resulted in parole. Paroles granted declined substantially after December 2022 and again after January 2025.”

The GAO report also warned that the massive volume of parole releases strained federal immigration enforcement systems to the point that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are now struggling to properly track many migrants who were released.

“… without readily accessible information about noncitizens’ parole status, ICE does not have the information it needs to identify and monitor these noncitizens, or to take enforcement action, as appropriate,” the GAO report states.

Although the Biden administration is no longer in office, several officials connected to its immigration policies are reportedly lobbying Democrats to revive similar border strategies if the party regains congressional majorities and wins back the White House in 2028.

Among them is Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former DHS official who served under Biden and also worked during the Obama administration as well as briefly during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Trickler-McNulty recently received favorable coverage in The Seattle Times tied to a new podcast project.

During her time at DHS, she reportedly pushed for a system in which millions of illegal immigrants would simply check in annually with ICE, creating what critics described as a European-style border monitoring system.

Many of those check-ins, according to the proposal, would occur electronically rather than through in-person reporting.

In 2023, former acting ICE Director Tom Homan accused Trickler-McNulty of working within DHS to eliminate detention centers and move large numbers of illegal immigrants into Alternatives to Detention programs instead of keeping them in federal custody.

“Trickler-McNulty is the epitome of an ideological, corrupt bureaucrat,” Homan wrote.

The issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants also remains central to Trickler-McNulty’s broader immigration proposals.

“What I’m proposing is what I’m calling ‘immigration probation,” Trickler-McNulty told The Seattle Times. “That is the ability for an adjudicator — like USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) or an immigration judge — to place somebody in a two-year program. If they pay taxes, they comply, they report in, they show they’re basically willing to interface with the government, they can ameliorate their immigration violations. That would allow them to move into a lawful status.”

Senator Lindsey Graham sharply criticized Pakistan on Tuesday after the country’s defense minister rejected normalization with Israel, arguing that recognizing the Jewish state would contradict Pakistan’s “fundamental ideologies.”

In a social media post, Graham questioned Pakistan’s role as a mediator in ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations, pointing to Islamabad’s close ties with Tehran and longstanding hostility toward Israel.

“It has been apparent to me for quite a while that Pakistan as a mediator is more than problematic. Their animosity towards Israel is long standing,” Graham wrote.

He continued by raising concerns about military cooperation between Pakistan and Iran.

“It is undeniable that Iranian military aircraft are being housed on Pakistani air bases and past rhetoric from the highest Pakistani officials against Israel is disturbing.”

Graham also pressed Pakistan to respond publicly to President Donald Trump’s push for additional countries to join the Abraham Accords.

“it is imperative that Pakistan give an answer now to President Trump’s call to join the Abraham Accords.”

The senator’s comments came one day after Trump disclosed on Truth Social that discussions surrounding the Abraham Accords had become part of broader negotiations connected to Iran.

Trump said he had urged several nations to join the diplomatic agreements originally brokered during his first term in office.

According to the report, the countries involved in discussions with the United States include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain.

Pakistan’s defense minister has previously issued harsh attacks against Israel, at one point calling the Jewish state “evil and a curse for humanity” while accusing it of committing genocide in Lebanon.

Pakistan officially supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has maintained for decades that it will not formally recognize Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established.

At the same time, Israel and Pakistan are believed to share several strategic interests behind the scenes, and speculation about a possible diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries has circulated for years.

In 2022, reports surfaced that an unofficial delegation of Pakistani citizens had visited Israel, fueling additional rumors about quiet contacts between the two nations.

A tense radio interview on Kan Reshet Bet turned awkward for Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari after Religious Zionist Party MK Tzvi Sukkot confronted her with evidence that she had previously submitted legislation nearly identical to the very bill she was attacking on air.

The clash broke out during a joint interview focused on political maneuvering ahead of Israel’s upcoming elections.

During the discussion, Ben Ari criticized a proposed law granting tax benefits to residents of Judea and Samaria, arguing that the legislation was simply part of the Religious Zionist Party’s election strategy.

“Why should someone living in Judea and Samaria receive a tax benefit?” Ben Ari asked during the debate.

Sukkot, who is promoting the current bill, then asked whether she would support the legislation.

After Ben Ari repeatedly insisted she opposed the proposal, Sukkot stunned her by revealing live on air that the wording of his bill was virtually identical to legislation she herself had submitted earlier in the current Knesset term.

Sukkot further noted that Ben Ari’s original version had itself been based on legislation initially introduced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Ben Ari attempted to defend herself by arguing that the current bill contained changes and differences from the version she had filed.

As she struggled to explain those distinctions during the interview, Sukkot pressed the issue further and proposed an unusual compromise.

He suggested live on air that he would simply bring Ben Ari’s original version of the bill up for a vote instead — while demanding that Yesh Atid publicly support it.

{Matzav.com}

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A fierce Democratic primary battle in Houston’s 18th Congressional District ended Tuesday with a major generational shakeup, as Congressman Christian Menefee defeated longtime incumbent Al Green in a hard-fought runoff election.

According to projections from Decision Desk HQ, the 37-year-old Menefee emerged victorious over Green, bringing an end to the veteran lawmaker’s decades-long dominance in the district.

Menefee first arrived in Congress earlier this year after winning a January special election to complete the unfinished term of the late Congressman Sylvester Turner.

With Tuesday’s runoff victory, Menefee is now heavily favored to secure a full congressional term in the general election later this year.

Al Green is removed pic.twitter.com/JP4DFfay0P

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 5, 2025

The unusual contest between two sitting Democratic lawmakers became necessary after neither candidate received the outright majority needed during the March 3 primary.

Green, now 78 years old, has served on Capitol Hill for more than two decades but found himself forced into a political collision with Menefee after Texas Republicans approved a dramatically redrawn congressional map.

The redistricting overhaul, crafted by Republicans in hopes of creating additional pickup opportunities ahead of the midterm elections, triggered a nationwide political battle over mid-cycle map changes.

In response, Democrats launched efforts in California aimed at offsetting potential Republican gains in Texas.

Over the course of his lengthy congressional career, Green became one of President Donald Trump’s fiercest and most outspoken critics in Congress.

His confrontational style repeatedly sparked clashes on the House floor, culminating last year in a formal censure after he repeatedly interrupted the president during an address to Congress.

The tensions escalated further this year when Green was escorted out by security personnel during Trump’s State of the Union speech.

Green also repeatedly pursued impeachment efforts against Trump following the president’s return to office.

In February 2025, Green announced plans to seek Trump’s impeachment after the president unveiled a proposal involving the relocation of Gazans and American control over the Gaza Strip.

Several months later, in June 2025, Green introduced another round of impeachment articles accusing Trump of bypassing Congress in military operations involving Iran, which he characterized as an abuse of executive authority.

The House ultimately voted to table the measure.

Throughout the impeachment battles, Green consistently portrayed Trump as a danger to the country, repeatedly describing the president as reckless, ruthless, lawless, and increasingly dictatorial.

{Matzav.com}

A bitter and deeply divisive Democratic primary battle in Texas came to an end Tuesday as party-backed candidate Johnny Garcia defeated controversial challenger Maureen Galindo, whose inflammatory antisemitic rhetoric triggered widespread outrage across the political spectrum.

According to projections from Decision Desk HQ, Garcia emerged victorious in the Democratic runoff election, defeating Galindo after weeks of escalating controversy surrounding her comments about Israel supporters and former ICE agents.

Garcia, a public information officer with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, became the preferred choice of Democratic Party leaders after Galindo faced fierce bipartisan condemnation over a series of incendiary social media remarks.

The backlash centered largely around an Instagram post in which Galindo described what she hoped to do with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Karnes County if elected.

“Into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” Galindo had written while discussing plans for the detention center.

Galindo had originally finished first in the March primary election, but the controversy surrounding her remarks quickly engulfed the race.

In an interview with The New York Times, she attempted to defend herself by arguing that “everything is based off a local journalist twisting words” and insisting that she has “always called for all detention centers to be closed.”

Her explanation failed to calm criticism from within her own party.

According to The Hill, Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico immediately distanced himself from Galindo and refused to appear alongside her at campaign events following the social media controversy.

The backlash soon spread nationally, including among Jewish lawmakers in Congress.

Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Jared Moskowitz warned that if Galindo somehow won election to Congress, they would “force a vote to expel her.”

Opposition to Galindo ultimately united both establishment Democrats and prominent progressive figures.

Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a member of “The Squad” who has frequently faced criticism herself over anti-Israel rhetoric — sharply denounced Galindo’s remarks.

Ocasio-Cortez described the Instagram comments as “bigoted garbage” before publicly endorsing Garcia in the runoff contest.

{Matzav.com}

Newly leaked design documents for the long-awaited reconstruction of New York’s Penn Station reveal a sweeping transformation of the transit hub into a grand, monument-style complex featuring gold accents, towering classical architecture — and even a marble presidential seal bearing President Donald Trump’s name.

Architectural renderings and engineering materials obtained by Gothamist show plans for a dramatic redesign of the nation’s busiest rail station, replacing the cramped and aging facility with expansive halls, soaring ceilings, oversized staircases, brass-colored railings, and massive columns inspired by the grandeur of the original Beaux-Arts Penn Station demolished in the 1960s.

One feature in particular is already expected to trigger political controversy.

Near a proposed Eighth Avenue entrance, the plans include a presidential seal alongside the inscription “President Donald J. Trump” carved into a stone wall inside the station.

The tribute is positioned near escalators leading into a newly designed concourse filled with natural light in the area currently occupied by the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

The federal government took control of the Penn Station redevelopment project away from the MTA last year, handing oversight to Amtrak.

Since then, Trump has pushed aggressively to speed up the overhaul and ordered that construction begin before the end of 2027.

Last week, the administration committed $8 billion toward rebuilding the station, while sidelining the MTA over what federal officials described as years of delays and mismanagement.

The selected development proposal came from Penn Transformation Partners, a consortium made up of Vornado Realty Trust, construction firms Halmar and Skanska, along with multiple architectural and engineering groups.

Vornado is led by Steve Roth, a longtime ally of Trump, while Halmar executive Peter Cipriano previously served as an adviser at the U.S. Department of Transportation during Trump’s first administration.

The consortium was officially chosen last week by Amtrak and the U.S. Department of Transportation following a bidding process that New York officials criticized for lacking transparency.

Internal documents reportedly show that Amtrak specifically requested a “classical look” for the redesigned station, leading architects to significantly revise earlier concepts unveiled in 2023.

Among the revised elements is a giant gold clock hanging from the ceiling of the main train hall, resembling the prominent clock currently displayed inside Moynihan Train Hall.

The redesign also aims to solve one of commuters’ biggest complaints for decades: the lack of natural light inside Penn Station.

According to project documents, only about 3,400 square feet of the current station receives daylight.

The proposed overhaul would expand that figure to more than 55,000 square feet by adding enormous glass entrances, higher ceilings, and new window openings around the Madison Square Garden complex.

One of the most dramatic changes would take place along Eighth Avenue, where the Theater at Madison Square Garden would reportedly be demolished to make room for a massive new entrance hall.

Additional entrances are also planned along West 31st Street, while new windows would be added to the existing taxiway between Madison Square Garden and neighboring structures.

Inside the station, the changes would be equally dramatic.

Some ceilings would rise as much as 50 feet, while the notoriously cramped 32nd Street corridor would gain an additional 20 feet in height.

Long wooden benches modeled after the original Penn Station would replace the limited seating that has frustrated travelers at modern transit centers such as Moynihan Train Hall and Grand Central Madison.

The proposal is also designed to accommodate future rail expansion connected to the Gateway tunnel project beneath the Hudson River, which is expected to open around 2035.

Amtrak said the redesign would permit limited “through-running,” allowing NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road trains to continue traveling through Penn Station instead of terminating there.

Transit critics have long warned that Penn Station’s narrow platforms create dangerous crowding during rush hour, especially because structural support columns from Madison Square Garden reduce passenger space.

However, internal plans reviewed by Gothamist reportedly include removing some columns and adding new access points intended to ease congestion.

The project would also require major property acquisitions from Madison Square Garden and its CEO, James Dolan.

According to the leaked documents, the federal government would need to acquire the Theater at MSG, portions of the arena’s exterior façade, signage, loading areas, and sidewalks along 31st and 33rd Streets.

Trump himself has denied personally proposing the redesign, while Kathy Hochul has publicly rejected the concept outright.

Federal officials have declined to comment publicly on the leaked materials.

Amtrak stated that its current focus is securing permits and finalizing contracts ahead of construction.

{Matzav.com}

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced Monday that the agency will begin laying the foundation for a permanent lunar base later this year through a series of major moon missions, with more than a dozen additional launches expected to follow.

The first wave of missions will be carried out by Blue Origin, Astrobotic, and Intuitive Machines, each delivering critical cargo and equipment designed to support future construction efforts on the moon.

“These represent the first of more than a dozen missions we expect to announce through the balance of this year as we return, build the base, and never give up the moon again,” Isaacman told reporters Tuesday. “And as mentioned, just like in decades past, we are taking the world along with us.”

The opening mission will feature Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar lander, which is scheduled to transport payloads to the moon’s south pole in what NASA described as “the first privately funded lunar lander mission in history.”

The second mission, led by Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One, is expected to deliver what NASA called “the largest commercial payload delivered to the lunar surface ever.”

A third mission will focus on studying the mysterious Reiner Gamma swirl on the moon while also transporting scientific equipment from both the European Space Agency and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.

NASA also unveiled a new Moon Base website Tuesday aimed at providing regular updates to the public as the massive lunar project advances.

According to the agency, construction of the Moon Base will unfold in three major stages: learning, building, and testing; early habitation; and finally establishing a sustained long-term human presence.

NASA hopes to enter the “early habitation” phase by early 2029.

Moon Base Program Executive Carlos Garcia Galan said the finished lunar outpost could eventually span “hundreds of square miles” and may require major infrastructure systems including electrical grids, communication towers, and other technologies necessary to support permanent human life.

“The endeavor of building a moon base is going to be extremely hard, and it dawns on us every day how little we know of the lunar surface,” said Galan.

Isaacman emphasized that NASA intends to avoid relying solely on a small number of highly specialized government-built systems and instead wants to stimulate broader private-sector participation in lunar development.

As part of that effort, Blue Origin — founded by Jeff Bezos — received a $188 million contract to transport Lunar Terrain Vehicles to the moon.

NASA separately awarded contracts worth $219 million and $220 million to AstroLab and Lunar Outpost for development of the vehicles themselves.

Meanwhile, Firefly Aerospace has been selected to transport drones to the moon by 2028. The drones are expected to capture detailed imagery, identify landing zones, and scout potential locations for future Moon Base facilities.

“We will not sit on our hands and wait for industry to deliver,” Isaacman told reporters. “In the time since Artemis II, we have been extremely active.”

“We’ve been reviewing feedback from the ignition events, speaking to industry, addressing supply chain challenges, having the tough conversations with those failing to meet expectations, and offering NASA’s assistance to solve problems.”

The Artemis II lunar flyby mission was completed last month, while NASA is targeting next year for the launch of Artemis III, which will further test the Orion spacecraft.

Artemis IV — the mission expected to place astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972 — is currently scheduled for 2028.