Feed aggregator

Tensions over Israel’s controversial draft legislation escalated violently in Yerushalayim this evening when Shas MK Yoav Ben Tzur was assaulted by extremist youths. According to witnesses, Ben Tzur’s vehicle was surrounded and attacked, with rioters smashing his car windows before police forces arrived to restore order. His office described the assault as a “lynch attempt,” while others at the scene said he “was beaten.”

In a statement, the Shas party expressed outrage at the assault, declaring that it “strongly condemns the serious attack on the vehicle of MK Yoav Ben Tzur that was carried out this evening in Yerushalayim by a small group of rioters.” The party emphasized that “acts of violence of this sort, which cause a desecration of God’s name, are not the way of the Torah and do not represent any God-fearing public.”

Political leaders from across the spectrum weighed in. Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman blamed the broader social culture surrounding military exemptions for the incident. “When you accustom a person to idleness and draft-dodging—he becomes violent when you try to take the idleness away from him,” Lieberman said. He continued, “The attack by dozens of charedim on MK Ben Tzur of Shas is yet another example of why we must bring everyone into line immediately. All citizens of the State are subject to one, single, uniform, legal system. Zero tolerance for lawbreakers—from draft-dodgers and refusers to the crime militias and protection rackets. Very soon, we will bring order here!”

MK Boaz Bismuth, who chairs the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, also denounced the assault, calling it “a severe crossing of a line and a blatant attempt to intimidate elected officials.” Bismuth urged that complex national debates like the draft law must be handled “in the appropriate place, in serious dialogue, with proper judgment and through democratic decisions. Not in the street and not under threats by extremists.”

{Matzav.com}

IDF forces have wiped out a major Hamas tunnel network in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza — the same underground route the terror group used to carry out a deadly ambush on Israeli troops nearly one year ago. That 2024 attack claimed the lives of Cpt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22; Sgt. First Class […]

Israel is not opposing a U.S. plan to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia — but only if the deal is tied directly to the kingdom normalizing relations with the Jewish State, according to two senior Israeli officials. The timing is critical: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is expected to meet […]

A Mega Millions player in Georgia won the $980 million jackpot on Friday, overcoming abysmal odds to win the huge prize. The numbers selected were 1, 8, 11, 12 and 57 with the gold Mega Ball 7. The winner overcame Mega Millions’ astronomical odds of 1 in 290.5 million by matching all six numbers. The […]

A spectacular nighttime eruption lit up Japan’s Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima.

Trump on Venezuela: “I sort of have made up my mind… I can’t tell you what it is, but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in. But we have a Mexico problem. We have a Colombia problem.”

Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l needs no introduction. As one of the foremost leaders of German Jewry more than two centuries ago, he guided a nation of Torah-true Jews through an era of profound turmoil and upheaval. Many gedolei Yisroel have credited him with literally saving German Jewry from the jaws of assimilation. His prolific […]

Trump said he had an MRI and the results were “outstanding.” When a reporter asked if it was of his brain, he replied that he wasn’t sure what they examined, but whatever it was, “they analyzed it well.”

A New York woman, Jamie Middleton, is accused of repeatedly disguising herself as a man to take CDL tests for others, allegedly showing up in various outfits—sunglasses, masks, and other disguises—to pose as different applicants between March and September 2023.

A peace deal has been reached in Qatar between the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 rebels, aiming to end the conflict in eastern Congo.

Mayor Eric Adam’s says he is traveling to Israel to meet with governmental officials, tech leaders, and economic development strategists. but also wants to talk about how to come together to end the globalized antisemitism.  

The IDF says it has destroyed a one-kilometer Hamas tunnel in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, which the terror group allegedly used to carry out a deadly attack on Israeli troops nearly a year ago.

“Obamacare is a disaster — far too expensive and lousy health care,” says POTUS. “Instead of giving it to insurance companies — big, fat, bloated insurance companies — we’re giving the money directly to the people to buy their own health care.”

The government shutdown has ended, but the air-traffic-controller shortage remains. Airline leaders are urging lawmakers to guarantee pay for controllers and TSA staff in any future shutdown, warning that the recent record closure made staffing even harder. More than 5 million travelers faced delays and cancellations as conditions deteriorated just hours before the Senate struck […]

US envoy Steve Witkoff is reportedly preparing to meet again with Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, though the timing is still uncertain and could change, the New York Times says. Neither Witkoff’s office, Hamas, nor the White House commented. The two previously met in Sharm el-Sheikh shortly before the ceasefire was signed, alongside Jared Kushner.

Chaos erupted in Yerushalayim on Motzei Shabbos as Shas MK Yoav Ben Tzur was violently attacked by a mob of extremist chareidim while leaving the weekly shiur of Hagaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef. The rioters targeted the lawmaker over his party’s apparent backing of the coalition’s Chareidi conscription bill. According to Galei Tzahal reporter Daniel Grovais, […]

US envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet soon with Hamas leader and the terror group’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, the New York Times reported on Friday. The exact timing of the meeting remains unclear, and two sources told the newspapers that the plan for the meeting could still change. Requests for comment from Witkoff’s […]

Iran confirmed on Saturday that its Revolutionary Guards seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker as it traveled through the narrow Strait of Hormuz after it set sail from the UAE on the way to Singapore. A report by the official IRNA news agency carried a statement by the Revolutionary Guard that said the tanker was […]

IDF spokesperson in Arabic Avichay Adraee embarrassed Hezbollah on Friday by exposing intelligence information showing that the terror organization assassinated a senior Lebanese Christian politician in southern Lebanon. Elias Al-Hasrouni, 70 at the time of his murder, was the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Forces party, Lebanon’s main Christian party, and was known as a fierce […]

A letter of clarification has been issued by Dayan Rav Yisroel Marmarush, following the publication of a recent psak halacha opposing Israel’s proposed draft law. The dayan stressed that anything publicized in his name is subject entirely to the ruling and guidance of the Gedolei Yisroel.

The clarification came hours after a psak signed by several prominent poskimwas published. That psak stated that “even if, by doing so, many yeshiva students who are currently learning will be saved from being drafted, one may not push aside one soul for another.”

Signatories on the ruling included HaRav Moshe Sternbuch, HaRav Nosson Kopshitz, HaRav Yisroel Marmarush, HaRav Avrohom Pozen, and HaRav Moshe Mordechai Karp and HaRav Amram Fried.

In his clarification letter released Thursday evening, Rav Marmarush, who serves as rav of Kehillas Chaneichei HaYeshivos in Bnei Brak’s Shechunas Gimmel, wrote that it is important to state unequivocally that under the current circumstances, “the decision rests solely in the hands of the Gedolei Yisroel shlita.”

Additionally, HaRav Eliezer Cohen, confidant and gabbai of HaRav Amram Fried, also issued a statement Thursday night clarifying that Rav Fried’s signature did not appear on the version of the letter that was circulated publicly, and that the content had been taken out of context.

{Matzav.com}