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Members of ZAKA’s International Unit completed their difficult and emotionally taxing work in recent hours at the scene of the horrific massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, following days of continuous activity at the site.

The ZAKA delegation was dispatched to Australia immediately after the terror attack and entered the scene once all required approvals were secured. Working under strict conditions, the volunteers carried out their mission in full coordination with local authorities and representatives of the Jewish community.

Over the past several days, ZAKA volunteers worked with profound reverence inside the sealed crime scene, meticulously collecting every remnant and every trace of blood to ensure they could be brought to burial in accordance with Jewish law.

Yossi Landau, ZAKA’s regional security officer for Lachish and head of the delegation, described the emotional toll of the operation. “We worked here for days with a deep sense of mission,” Landau said. “The sights at the shooting scenes are extremely difficult and take us back to the painful events of October 7. We did everything required to complete the mission fully, so that not a single drop of blood would remain.”

During the course of the day, members of the delegation, together with local ZAKA volunteer Reb Mendy Amzaleg, held a special meeting with Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, Av Beis Din of Sydney and Chabad’s emissary to Australia. Rabbi Ulman, whose father-in-law was murdered in the attack, expressed deep gratitude to the volunteers for their efforts.

Speaking emotionally, Rabbi Ulman described the magnitude of the tragedy. “Our community has endured a devastating catastrophe. Seventeen members of our community were brutally murdered, among them my righteous father-in-law, who was taken in the prime of his life,” he said.

He concluded by praising the ZAKA volunteers for their work under unimaginable conditions. “The ZAKA volunteers, angels of G-d, came here, and I personally witnessed the sacred work they carried out at the massacre site. This is work that requires extraordinary inner strength,” Rabbi Ulman said. “A tremendous thank-you for what you have done here, and for ZAKA’s unwavering presence at scenes of tragedy everywhere.”

{Matzav.com}

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator on Wednesday, placing him atop the agency after a monthslong saga where President Donald Trump revoked his nomination as part of a feud with tech billionaire Elon Musk. Isaacman, who has promised to bring a business-minded approach to the space agency, was confirmed in a bipartisan […]

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says a newly launched nationwide recruitment effort has already generated an overwhelming response, with the agency reporting hundreds of thousands of applications as it works to significantly expand its workforce before year’s end, Breitbart reports.

According to an ICE spokesperson, the campaign has produced immediate results. “We’ve had over 200,000 American patriots apply for positions at ICE and a goal of hiring 10,000 new ICE officers and agents before the New Year,” the agency told Breitbart News.

The initiative, branded Defend the Homeland, is designed to bring in thousands of new officers and agents across the country and bolster the agency’s enforcement and national security operations.

As part of the rollout, ICE released a video advertisement that emphasizes both its origins and its current priorities. The video opens by linking the agency’s creation to the September 11 terror attacks, stating: “September 11, 2001: Nearly 3000 Americans lost because terrorists were here illegally. From that day, ICE was born — America’s first unified immigration, counterterrorism and homeland security effort.”

The advertisement then shifts to present-day enforcement efforts, asserting progress on multiple fronts. “Today, ICE is refocused on its mission and making America safer. Crime and gang violence is falling. Fentanyl deaths are at a five-year low, and the worst of the worst are being sent back.”

The video concludes with a direct appeal to viewers to join the agency, ending with the message: “America needs you. Join ICE. Apply today at join.ice.gov.”

ICE officials say the campaign reflects a renewed focus on recruitment as the agency seeks to strengthen its operational capacity nationwide by adding thousands of new personnel in the coming months.

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] President Trump used a nationally televised address Wednesday night to argue that his administration has reversed what he described as deep economic and policy failures left behind by the previous administration, pointing to falling prices, rising wages, and what he called a dramatic shift in Washington’s direction.

At one point during the speech, members of the President’s team displayed a chart highlighting economic trends they said showed improvements under his leadership, including declines in certain prices alongside wage growth.

Turning to consumer costs, Trump cited data comparing prices before and after he took office. “Let’s look at the facts. Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22% and in many states 30% or more,” Trump said, as he walked through the figures.

He went on to accuse Democrats of driving up the cost of everyday necessities, including food. “Democrat politicians also set the cost of groceries. Sorry, but we are solving that too.”

Trump devoted a significant portion of his remarks to health care affordability, placing responsibility for rising insurance premiums squarely on Democrats and existing health care law. “The current Unaffordable Care Act was created to make insurance companies rich,” Trump chided. “You see that now in the steep increase in premiums being demanded by the Democrats and they are demanding those increases and it’s their fault.

“It is not the Republicans’ fault, it’s the Democrats’ fault, it’s the Unaffordable Care Act.”

He argued that government assistance should bypass insurance companies entirely and be delivered straight to consumers, a change he said would reduce costs and restore fairness to the system.

Earlier in the address, Trump framed his presidency as a recovery effort following what he characterized as severe mismanagement. “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump declared. “…We had the worst trade deals ever made, and our country was laughed at from all over the world, but they’re not laughing anymore.”

He repeated the point moments later for emphasis. “But they’re not laughing anymore,” he added. “Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history.”

WATCH:

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President Donald Trump delivered a rare primetime televised address to the nation Wednesday evening, outlining what he described as major economic, immigration and foreign policy achievements during the first year of his second term, while previewing priorities for 2026. The approximately 18-minute speech was broadcast live at 9 p.m. ET from the Diplomatic Reception Room […]

The Senate gave final passage Wednesday to an annual military policy bill that will authorize $901 billion in defense programs while pressuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide lawmakers with video of strikes on alleged drug boats in international water near Venezuela. The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which raises troop pay by 3.8%, gained bipartisan backing as it […]

In a major real estate transaction, the Jackson, NJ Township Board of Education has approved the sale of the former Christa McAuliffe Middle School to Beth Medrash Govoha for $40 million.

While the purchaser has finalized the deal, BMG has not disclosed any details about how it intends to use the site, and no official plans for the property’s future have been made public.

The agreement follows a series of price adjustments by the district as it sought a buyer for the expansive, vacant campus. The property was originally offered earlier this year with a minimum bid of $54.4 million. After reevaluating market conditions and buyer interest, the board lowered the threshold to $44.4 million toward the end of November, describing the move at the time as a necessary step to move the property off the district’s books.

Situated on South Hope Chapel Road, the campus features a main school structure spanning more than 126,000 square feet, along with five modular classroom units adding roughly 3,500 additional square feet. The grounds also include athletic facilities, office space, and a cafetorium outfitted with a full-service kitchen. Because of its scale and amenities, the site had long been considered one of the district’s most valuable surplus assets.

Christa McAuliffe Middle School was shuttered over the summer amid ongoing financial pressures facing the district. Officials cited sustained declines in enrollment, reductions in state funding, and recurring budget deficits as key factors leading to the closure.

{Matzav.com}

Testifying before a Senate aviation subcommittee on Wednesday, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford outlined the toll the 43-day government shutdown took on the agency’s workforce pipeline, saying hundreds of prospective air traffic controllers walked away during the lapse in funding.

According to Bedford, trainees were particularly hard hit by the uncertainty created by the shutdown, even though the FAA managed to keep its training academy operating. “Even though we kept the school open, I think the thought of not being paid was enough to frighten them away,” Bedford told lawmakers.

He estimated that the agency lost a significant number of recruits during that period. “We lost, I don’t know, four-to-five hundred of our trainees that just sort of gave up during the lapse,” Bedford said during the hearing.

The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, also affected active controllers working in towers and other air traffic facilities, many of whom continued reporting to work without pay for more than six weeks.

Despite those losses, Bedford said the FAA has made progress in strengthening its workforce overall. While acknowledging that training has a high attrition rate, he said the agency now has more personnel moving through the system. He noted that there are currently 1,000 more trainees than at the same time last year and that the number of certified controllers has increased.

Still, Bedford cautioned lawmakers that improvements take time. “But as you point out, it’s a two-to-three-year full training cycle,” he said, underscoring that the impact of trainee losses cannot be reversed quickly.

Beyond staffing, Bedford also updated senators on the FAA’s modernization efforts, saying the agency remains on track to complete its transition from copper-based systems to fiber communications for air traffic control by the third quarter of 2027. “We’re 35% of the way through,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a “blockade” against oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country that face American sanctions. Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a monthslong pressure […]

Jonathan Pollard on Wednesday issued a special public appeal to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisroel Katz, urging them to approve the raising of the Israeli flag at the site of the former community of Nisanit in northern Gaza.

The request was made ahead of Chanukah and in advance of a flag-raising event scheduled for Thursday, being organized by the Nachala movement. In a letter addressed to Netanyahu and Katz, Pollard — who spent 30 years in an American prison for espionage — asked that the ceremony be permitted at the location where Nisanit once stood.

Pollard described himself as someone who “paid a heavy personal price out of deep loyalty to the State of Israel, its security, and its future,” and called for what he termed a “deep soul-searching” regarding the future of the Jewish people in Israel.

“From the heavy price paid in blood, body, and spirit, one clear truth emerges,” Pollard wrote. “We cannot accept a reality in which the Gaza Strip remains devoid of Jewish presence while continuing to pose an existential threat to Israeli citizens and to the communities of the south.”

According to Pollard, both historical experience and present-day security realities have repeatedly demonstrated that only a stable, sovereign Jewish civilian presence — alongside a security presence — can create real deterrence, strategic depth, and a secure future for Israel. “This is not merely an ideological question,” he wrote, “but one of national responsibility, security, and preventing the next catastrophe.”

Pollard stressed that the proposed flag-raising is not merely symbolic, but an act of profound national significance — an expression of connection to the land, continuity, and a refusal to surrender to violence and terror.

“On Chanukah — a holiday of light, steadfastness, and spiritual resolve — raising the Israeli flag in Nisanit will send the people of Israel a message of resilience and hope,” Pollard concluded. “It will also deliver a clear and sharp message to our enemies: the State of Israel does not retreat from those who seek its destruction.”

He ended his appeal by asking the prime minister and defense minister to approve the event, saying he believes it would be “a correct, values-driven, and unifying step — one that honors the memory of the fallen, the wounded of war, and the future of generations to come.”

{Matzav.com}

We speak often, and rightly so, about the importance of paying vendors on time. We remind ourselves that withholding payment is wrong, that it causes hardship, and that it reflects poorly on our communal values. Yet there is a painful contradiction playing out quietly in our own mosdos. I am a mechanech in a Lakewood […]

Efforts by Democrats in the House of Representatives to force President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval for military actions tied to Venezuela failed Wednesday, with two closely contested resolutions falling short after near party-line votes.

Lawmakers have repeatedly argued that the Constitution reserves the power to authorize anything beyond short-term military action to Congress, not the president. Those concerns intensified after the administration began a military campaign earlier this fall targeting what it describes as drug trafficking linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Since early September, U.S. forces have conducted more than 20 strikes on suspected drug-running vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, operations that have resulted in the deaths of more than 80 people. The administration says the actions are aimed at countering the flow of illegal narcotics that have taken American lives, an accusation Maduro has firmly denied.

One of the defeated measures, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sought to require the removal of U.S. armed forces from hostilities involving “any presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere” unless Congress explicitly authorized the deployment. That resolution failed by a vote of 216 to 210.

A second proposal, introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, would have directed the president to withdraw U.S. forces from any military engagement with or against Venezuela that lacked congressional approval. That measure was rejected 213 to 211.

The votes split largely along partisan lines. Two Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the first resolution, while three crossed party lines on the second. Meanwhile, two Democrats opposed the first measure and one voted against the second.

Republican leaders defended the administration’s approach. Speaking against the resolutions, Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that the measures were designed “to block President Trump from defending the U.S. from designated cartel terrorists.”

Still, some Republicans broke ranks. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a frequent critic of Trump, supported both measures, arguing that the authority to wage war should not rest with a single individual. “If the president believes military action against Venezuela is justified and needed, he should make the case and Congress should vote,” Massie said in a House speech.

The votes came just hours before Trump was scheduled to deliver an unusual evening address from the White House. While the speech was expected to highlight what he views as major accomplishments, it also followed his recent order imposing a “blockade” on sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, fueling speculation about possible further military escalation.

Democratic critics also contend that the administration’s goals extend beyond counternarcotics operations, suggesting that Trump ultimately seeks to force regime change in Caracas. Despite repeated attempts since September to require explicit congressional authorization for the campaign, Democrats have been unable to overcome opposition from Republicans, who hold narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress.

{Matzav.com}

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will resign from the bureau next month, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with provocative claims he made […]

President Donald Trump has affixed partisan plaques to the portraits of all U.S. commanders in chief, himself included, on his Presidential Walk of Fame at the White House, describing Joe Biden as “sleepy,” Barack Obama as “divisive” and Ronald Reagan as a fan of a young Trump. The additions, first seen publicly Wednesday, mark Trump’s […]

The Jackson Township Board of Education has accepted a $40 million bid from Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG) to purchase the former Christa McAuliffe Middle School. BMG has not publicly stated what it plans to do with the campus, and no formal proposal regarding future use of the property has been announced. The acceptance of the […]

When Israeli aircraft began striking targets across Iran in the early hours of June 13, the operation marked a turning point not only in the scope of Israel’s military campaign, but in how openly it chose to conduct it, a new Washington Post report reveals. For the first time, Israel publicly acknowledged a coordinated effort […]

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said Wednesday evening that Israeli security authorities are examining claims by an Iranian-linked hacker group that it infiltrated his mobile phone, stressing that initial findings show the device itself was not breached.

According to Bennett, security reviews determined that while his phone was not hacked, access was gained to his Telegram account through other means.

In a statement released by his office, Bennett said that unlawfully obtained materials have been circulated online, including contact lists, photographs, and message exchanges. Some of the content, he said, is authentic, while other materials are fabricated. Among the items shared was a manipulated image depicting Bennett alongside David Ben-Gurion. Bennett emphasized that the dissemination of such materials constitutes a criminal offense.

Earlier, the hacker group calling itself “Handala,” which is identified with Iranian intelligence elements, claimed responsibility for what it described as a “historic breach,” dubbing the alleged operation “Operation Octopus” — a reference to Bennett’s past public statements about Iran.

The group subsequently released documents, images, and correspondence it claimed were extracted from Bennett’s device, along with a list containing hundreds of phone numbers, including those of journalists, spokespersons, and senior figures in Israel and abroad.

Bennett’s office initially said the device in question was no longer in use. A later update clarified that examinations found no evidence of a breach into the phone itself. Shortly after that announcement, however, the hacker group published 141 pages of phone numbers it claimed belonged to senior Israeli and international figures, including foreign leaders.

Israeli security agencies, including the Shin Bet, are now investigating the incident and the source of the published materials. Among the possibilities being examined is that some of the information originated from a different device belonging to someone close to Bennett.

Bennett also addressed the personal and political implications of the affair, saying that “Israel’s enemies will do everything they can to prevent my return to serving the country — it won’t help them.”

{Matzav.com}

Six Sifrei Torah were miraculously rescued without damage from a fire that broke out Wednesday evening at a Shul on Mavo HaSaifan Street in Ashdod. Following reports of the blaze, multiple firefighting teams from the Ashdod regional station were dispatched to the scene. Firefighters worked under extremely difficult conditions, facing intense heat and heavy smoke, […]

New York is poised to become the latest state to legalize physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that she plans to sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act next year, following a deal with legislative leaders to add additional safeguards to the bill. The announcement marks a decisive and […]

Kamala Harris offered a blunt assessment of the Democratic Party’s current direction while stopping short of signaling whether she plans to seek the presidency again, saying she has not yet decided on her political future.

Speaking on the “At Our Table” podcast hosted by former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, Harris was asked directly whether she was considering a run in 2028 and whether she felt there was unfinished work ahead of her. “I have not made any decisions about that,” Harris replied.

During the conversation, Harris also reflected on what she sees as deeper issues facing her party, telling Harrison that Democrats are struggling to adapt. She said she believes the party is “stuck in the past.”

Harrison, for his part, made clear that Harris would not lack backing if she chooses to move forward. “If you do make a decision, and whatever the decision that you make, there are going to be millions of people who will support you with whatever you want to do. There’s so much love for you, you’re seeing it on your book tour, you’re selling out,” he said.

Speculation about Harris’s intentions has intensified following a report by Axios, which said she was “stepping toward” a 2028 campaign. The outlet pointed to her recent appearance before the Democratic National Committee and the continuation of her nationwide book tour as signs of renewed political activity.

At the DNC gathering last week, Harris delivered remarks that took aim at both major parties while urging Democrats to think beyond the next election cycle. “Obviously, we must focus on the midterms,” Harris said in her Friday speech. “But Democrats, we must also have a clear vision for what comes after the midterms — and then after Trump. We need to answer the question. We need to answer the question: what comes next for our party and our democracy?”

She went on to argue that voter frustration runs deep, saying that “both parties have failed to hold the public’s trust” and that “people are done with the status quo, and they’re ready to break things to force change.”

The Democratic National Committee’s annual winter meeting, held in Los Angeles, drew several high-profile figures, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, adding to the sense that early maneuvering for the party’s future leadership is already underway.

{Matzav.com}