Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed concern on Wednesday that escalating unrest in the West Bank could endanger the fragile truce in Gaza. “Certainly there’s some concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza,” Rubio told reporters. He added that while he hopes the tensions will not disrupt the ceasefire, he does not expect them to do so either.
Rubio commended Israeli leaders who have spoken out against the violence, noting the statements made by President Isaac Herzog and senior IDF officials condemning the latest attacks. Their remarks followed a massive assault by dozens of Israelis who torched Palestinian farmland and factories between Nablus and Tulkarem.
In contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition have remained silent, prompting accusations that the government is quietly tolerating the attacks. The violence has become an almost daily occurrence, raising alarm among international observers.
Rubio’s measured comments marked one of the few times the Trump administration has addressed settler violence directly. Although he stopped short of outright condemnation, his acknowledgment signaled growing unease within Washington over the situation.
When Trump first took office, he reversed a policy imposed a year earlier by then-president Joe Biden, signing an executive order to end sanctions targeting extremist settlers and related organizations. Since then, settler raids — including attacks on Christian villages — have persisted.
In July, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an ordained pastor, visited one of the affected villages and urged Israeli authorities to prosecute those responsible. “Those targeting the village must be brought to justice,” he said. However, despite his call, not a single indictment has been filed.
Accountability within Israel’s law enforcement remains limited. The commander of the police division overseeing the West Bank is under investigation for allegedly ignoring settler crimes to gain favor with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Despite the inquiry, the officer has been allowed to resume his duties.
Authorities detained four suspects linked to Tuesday’s large-scale arson attack, but by the following day, three had already been released. The IDF and police have traded accusations over who bears responsibility for failing to stop the violence, while some security sources quietly blame the government itself, citing ties between extremist settlers and certain ministers.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has moved to reduce international scrutiny of the issue. A G7 statement released Wednesday offered only a vague pledge to “continue to maintain attention on the situation in the West Bank,” a softer tone than that taken under Biden, when a similar communiqué condemned settlement expansion and urged restraint from all sides.
As Rubio’s press briefing ended, new reports emerged of another assault — this one in the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah. Armed settlers allegedly fired at a civilian guard, injuring a young man in the foot. The Sinjil Municipality blamed the attack on “settlers who are supported by the occupation army,” describing it as part of an ongoing wave of aggression.
Meanwhile, a Channel 12 investigation revealed that police probes into Jewish nationalist violence have sharply declined under Ben Gvir’s leadership. The number of investigations has dropped by 73% since 2023, even as settler attacks have hit record highs. Only 60 cases have been opened this year, compared to 150 in 2024 and 235 the previous year — a striking disparity as the violence continues unchecked.
{Matzav.com}
A newly revealed document shows that three months before the Simchas Torah/Oct. 7 massacre, then–Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar sent a written warning to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, urging him to take steps to restore deterrence against Hamas. Despite the stark warning, no discussion on the matter was ever held in the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to a report aired Wednesday night on Channel 12, the classified document — titled Shin Bet Strategic Policy for 2024 — outlined Bar’s concern over a growing erosion of Israeli deterrence and called for proactive measures in Gaza. In the report, Bar defined “rebuilding deterrence in the field to reverse the current trend” as one of the service’s top objectives for the coming year.
Bar’s memorandum, submitted in June 2023, three months before the October 7 massacre, recommended that Israel initiate “preemptive rounds against Hamas, expand targeted killings, maintain constant readiness, and treat preparedness for a large-scale confrontation as the organization’s top priority.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu annotated the document with the remark, “Not a Shin Bet directive,” implying that strategic decisions were his alone to determine. No follow-up meeting or formal review of the recommendations took place.
In response to the revelations, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement downplaying the significance of the memo. “Regarding the document, the Shin Bet director sent a ten-page memorandum on July 3, 2023, summarizing his recommendations for directives and operational directions for 2024,” the statement read. “In the document, the Shin Bet chief presented five key challenges: the Arab sector, internal societal division in Israel, the Shiite-Palestinian axis, the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and ‘Jewish terrorism.’”
The statement continued: “As part of his recommendations on these issues, the Shin Bet director referred to Gaza only in one paragraph, suggesting the need to strengthen and stabilize the Strip by addressing the issue of labor permits, halting incitement from Judea and Samaria, and curbing smuggling. Beyond that, the document contained no reference to any offensive action by Hamas.”
The disclosure raises new questions about the government’s handling of intelligence warnings in the months leading up to the October 7 atrocities — and about whether critical calls for preventive measures were ignored.
{Matzav.com}
Time magazine has named Hostage, the gripping memoir by Israeli survivor Eli Sharabi, as one of the top 100 “must-read” books released in the past year. The book chronicles his harrowing 491-day captivity in Hamas tunnels beneath Gaza and the unimaginable loss he discovered upon returning home.
Sharabi, a resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, was abducted during the October 7, 2023 massacre. His wife, Lianne, and their daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered while hiding in their safe room, a tragedy Sharabi only learned about after his rescue. His brother Yossi was also taken hostage and later died in captivity.
Time’s reviewer, Hamilton Cain, described the memoir as “a searing” and deeply personal account. “In his best-selling memoir, Eli Sharabi… depicts his captivity in searing detail, from the dawn raid in which he was separated from his wife and daughters to his excruciating ordeal in the tunnels beneath Gaza,” Cain wrote.
Cain continued, “He writes of befriending a few fellow hostages and devising a plan to survive on ‘a siniyah between us per meal: a tray with a little rice, meat, or ful beans… a pita and a half to scoop out of the tray.’”
The review observed that “when a negotiated deal led to his freedom, Sharabi emerged into a world forever shattered and learned that his family had been killed in the attack. In this first memoir of captivity in Gaza following October 7, Sharabi offers a raw, intimate perspective on one of the most divisive conflicts in modern history.”
Since its release, Hostage has gained international recognition, reaching the fourth spot on The New York Times bestseller list and even appearing on the cover of Time. It is the first firsthand account of captivity in Gaza to be published after the horrific October 7 events.
Sharabi recently sent an English copy of his book to President Donald Trump, including a deeply personal inscription: “Dear President Trump, Thank you for securing my release. I am forever and eternally grateful. Your actions have given me back my freedom, my life.”
{Matzav.com}
Panic erupted on a sunny afternoon in Miami Beach when a Jewish baby was nearly kidnapped from his mother by an apparently unstable woman, who was later arrested after dropping the child and fleeing into the ocean.
The frightening incident took place Wednesday on Collins Avenue near 36th Street, where a group of Jewish women visiting from New York were relaxing together. Without warning, a woman approached and suddenly snatched a baby from one of the mothers. “She just grabbed him!” an eyewitness shouted as chaos ensued. Members of the group and a bystander immediately gave chase.
Multiple emergency calls flooded police dispatchers as the group ran after the suspect. When Miami Beach police officers arrived at the scene, the woman threw the infant to the ground and bolted toward the water, diving into the waves in an attempt to escape. Miraculously, the baby was unharmed.
Officers quickly apprehended the suspect without further incident. Authorities confirmed that she was taken to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Police have not yet released the woman’s identity but said initial findings suggest she acted alone and that the attempted abduction appeared random. Investigators emphasized that there was no prior connection between the suspect and the victims.
{Matzav.com}
By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
On the 87th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night when the windows of Europe’s Jews were shattered and the illusion of safety collapsed, Jewish residents of New York City once again find themselves in a familiar place: anxious, uncertain, and watchful.
We have a newly-elected mayor, a city whose moral compass feels unsteady, and a public square where anti-Semitism is no longer whispered but shouted. It is enough to make one shudder. The same poisonous ideas that once hid in the shadows now strut in daylight. Their champions sit in city councils, in Congress, in the Senate, and across social media feeds, shaping opinion and policy.
The facts don’t matter. What we say doesn’t matter. Words don’t matter, and debates don’t either. The New York City election reinforced and proved our fears, as a majority of voters supported an avowed anti-American anti-Semite.
A new day has dawned. We cannot look back and speak of what was. We must honestly assess the situation today and strengthen ourselves, for the weak will not survive, but the strong will.
We must remember our history, and if we don’t know it, we must learn it and teach it to our children. Am Yisroel has been under attack since time immemorial, and without fail, those who chased us, tormented us, killed us, and sent us into exile are all gone, while we are standing and thriving.
For generations, America has been different. It has been a malchus shel chesed, a land of kindness where Jews could breathe freely and build deeply. But now, many fear that the tide is turning. The recent election has forced open our eyes to an uncomfortable truth: the system that allowed us to flourish is changing. Groups that despise us are gaining power.
So where do we go from here?
Chazalremindus: “Einlonu al mi lehisho’einela al Avinu shebashomayim.” We are not a people who depend on the whims of rulers or the polls of the moment. We have been here before, and we have outlasted Paroh, Nevuchadnetzar, Titus, Stalin, Hitler, and every would-be destroyer who thought we would fade into history’s footnotes.
We are still here. They are not.
We say it every morning during Shacharis: “Eilehvorechevv’eilehvasoosim, vaanachnub’sheim Hashem Elokeinu nazkir,” Some of our enemies come after us with chariots and some with horses, but we daven to Hashem. They dropped to their knees and fell, but we have risen and stand strong.”
Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the PonovezherRov, embodied this truth. Having watched the flames of Europe consume his world, he arrived in Eretz Yisroel with nothing. Yet, before he even had two shekels in his pocket, he climbed a barren hill in Bnei Brak and declared, “Here I will build a yeshiva,” and bought that property.
The world saw ashes. He saw a future. Those around him saw despair. He saw the potential for Torah to take root.
While Hitler’s legions marched through Lita and Nazi General Rommel’s tanks were ten days away from reaching Eretz Yisroel, Hashem was preparing the rebirth of Torah that would flourish there, a spiritual defiance stronger than any army.
While Jews the world over mourned their terrible losses and cried over the plight of millions locked in Europe as the war machine raged and concentration camps rose, there stood one lonely, penniless man planning for the future of Torah.
Such is Jewish strength. Throughout the centuries, since the destruction of the Botei Mikdosh, the Jewish people have persevered, drawing strength from their devotion to Torah and to their faith.
And Hashem has rewarded them.
We will soon read in ParshasVayeishev the story of Yosef being sold by his brothers. The Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 85) says that when Yosef was sold, Yaakov was mourning, Reuven was grieving, and Yehudah was seeking a wife, and at that very moment, Hakadosh Boruch Hu was creating the light of Moshiach.
At a time when we see destruction, when everywhere we look we find reason to fear for the future, Hashem is laying the groundwork for Moshiach. When it seems that we have no future, that the world is crumbling before us, we must strengthen ourselves. We must know that our strength is not physical. It is spiritual and eternal, stronger than any enemy who has ever risen to destroy us.
The enemies may think themselves invincible, attacking us with missiles and massive armies, but they must know that we have faced the strongest armaments through the centuries, and in every era it appeared we had no chance, yet we endured and our enemies fell. They inflicted pain, and caused great human and financial loss, but we overcame and survive until this day.
Even in our darkest chapters, Heaven was already scripting redemption.
So too in our day. While we see chaos and corruption, Hashem is quietly setting the stage for the light of Moshiach that will soon shine.
The PonovezherRov, after the war, stood before the Arch of Titus in Rome, the monument celebrating the Roman Emperor’s most “glorious” victory: capturing Yerushalayim, destroying the Bais Hamikdosh, and carrying its keilim to Rome.
He raised his finger and pointed toward the arch. “Titus, Titus! Where are you now? You are dust, but I and my people are still here!”
That moment captures the entire saga of our people.
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
The Jewish people have always continued. That is our greatest strength.
Last week’s election may sting. It may fill us with concern for what lies ahead. But our faith does not rise and fall with the political winds. We do what Avrohom Avinu did in last week’s parsha. After pleading with Hashem to spare Sedom, and realizing that his pleas were rejected and the decree would stand, the Torah tells us, “V’Avrohomshovlimkomo — And Avrohom returned to his place.”
He accepted, he realigned, and he moved forward with purpose and faith.
That is our task now: to return to our place — the place of Torah, of chesed, of community, of emunah. To lift our eyes beyond City Hall and toward Heaven.
History’s verdict is already written. Those who draw strength from Hashem, from Torah, and from one another will not only survive, but will prevail.
We have risen before, and we will rise again.
And not only on a historical or national level. On a personal and practical level, the themes of emunah and resilience in daily Jewish life — chesed, dignity, and empathy — must reign supreme.
We read in this week’s parsha how Eliezer, the faithful servant of Avrohom, was sent on a sacred mission to find a wife for Yitzchok. As he neared his destination, he lifted his eyes heavenward and davened to Hashem for success. He devised a simple yet profound test: the young woman who would offer water not only to him but also to his thirsty camels would reveal herself as the one destined to continue Avrohom’s legacy.
And so it was. Before Eliezer could even finish his prayer, Rivka appeared, a young woman radiant in her chesed, eager to serve, overflowing with compassion. Her kindness was not a performance, but an instinct of the heart. It was this middah, this generosity of spirit – that made her worthy to become the mother of Klal Yisroel.
The test for entry into the house of Avrohom — the foundation of our people — was not brilliance, wealth, or power. It was chesed. The truest mark of greatness in our tradition has always been how one treats another human being.
And in our time, as we brace for what may be difficult days ahead and as we long for the final redemption from golus, we must once again prove ourselves worthy of Hashem’s kindness by showing kindness to one another.
For decades, Hashem has shown us mercy, carrying our people to the shores of America, giving us safety and prosperity after the infernos of Europe. We have built communities, schools, shuls, and yeshivos. Yet, sometimes, amid comfort and success, we forget the simple warmth that sustained us when all we had was each other.
We must relearn the art of caring, the sensitivity to see the person in front of us not as a burden or obstacle but as a tzelemElokim.
We must be more thoughtful when we drive, when we speak, when we interact in business, at a simcha, or in moments of sorrow. To feel another’s pain, to share another’s joy — that is Avrohom’s house.
When we attend a simcha, let us not merely drop by with a quick mazel tov and rush away, but linger for a moment, look the baalei simcha in the eye, and let them feel that their happiness is our happiness.
And when we speak to others — young or old, rich or poor, familiar or stranger — let our words be gentle, our tone respectful. Every person yearns to feel valued. To make another Jew feel wanted, seen and cherished is to perform an act of holiness.
Kindness is not weakness. It is the truest expression of strength. It was Rivka’s chesed that built our nation, and it will be ours that sustains it and earns its final redemption.
As Rav Elozor famously taught (Sanhedrin 98b): “Mah yaasehadamveyinatzelmeichevloshel Moshiach? Yaasokb’Torahuv’gemilluschassodim.” What should a person do to be spared from the challenges that precede the coming of Moshiach? Engage in Torah study and acts of kindness.
In uncertain times like ours, when fear and worry cloud the future, the answer remains timeless: Strengthen our connection to Torah, deepen our acts of chesed, and live with faith.
The Chofetz Chaim, in Sefer Ahavas Chesed, takes it a step further and writes that gemilluschassodim is so important and powerful that if the performance of chesedwould spread throughout our people, the world would be filled with chesed, and all the suffering and hardship that confront our people would disappear.
He writes there, in the hakdomah, that “to the degree that a person accustoms himself to doing acts of goodness and kindness his whole life, to that degree he will receive Hashem’s goodness and kindness in this world and the next.”
Let us not become disillusioned. Let us not fret about the future. Let us know that we are an eternal people who have outlived Titus, the Crusades, Stalin, Hitler, and so many others.
From the churbanos of the BoteiMikdosh to the expulsion of 1492, to the Inquisitions, trials, and persecutions of every generation, our story has never been one of defeat, but of renewal, for wherever we appear to fall, Hashem plants the seeds of our rising.
By filling our lives with Torah and chesed, we contribute to building a future of light, hope, and redemption.
By increasing our emunah and bitachon, and our dedication to Torah, kindness, goodness, and gemillus chassodim, we will overcome our enemies of today and merit the coming of Moshiach very soon.
{Matzav.com}
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that Washington is preparing to finalize several “good deals” during next week’s visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is set to meet with President Donald Trump.
Speaking after the G7 foreign ministers’ conference in Canada, Rubio told reporters, as quoted by Reuters, “We’ll have some good agreements to sign with them … I feel good about where it’s at. There’s still a few things that need to be tightened up and finalized, and we’re going to have a good meeting next week.”
Although Rubio stopped short of providing details, recent reports suggest that the discussions between Washington and Riyadh have focused on a potential defense partnership that would significantly deepen the two nations’ strategic ties.
The Crown Prince’s arrival marks another step in Trump’s broader diplomatic vision to expand the Abraham Accords, the historic normalization agreements established in 2020 with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. The administration views Saudi Arabia as a key player in bringing additional Arab states closer to Israel.
However, Saudi leaders have repeatedly made clear that any move toward normalization with Israel would depend on progress toward a Palestinian state. That position has long been a major sticking point in regional diplomacy.
Last week, a senior member of the Saudi royal family told Kan 11 News that while normalization talks are not formally on the agenda, the United States is expected to make a strong push to “lay the groundwork” for renewed dialogue.
“The goal is to thaw the ice between the countries,” the source said, describing the initiative as an American effort to bridge the distance created by the ongoing war in Gaza and revive the atmosphere of quiet cooperation that existed before October 7.
Rubio, meanwhile, addressed concerns about recent unrest in Judea and Samaria, warning that violence there could jeopardize diplomatic progress. When asked if the flare-ups could derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire, he responded, “I hope not. We don’t expect it to. We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
{Matzav.com}
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