Listen: The Daily “Bitachon 4 Life” Burst of Inspiration on Matzav.com: Can We Have a Neis?
LISTEN:
https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Bitachon4Life-Shiur-1518-Tocheles-Part-38-Nes-1.mp3For more info, email bitachon4life@gmail.com.
LISTEN:
https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Bitachon4Life-Shiur-1518-Tocheles-Part-38-Nes-1.mp3For more info, email bitachon4life@gmail.com.
Just before 4:00 a.m. on Monday, a wave of missile fire from Iran hit central Israel, resulting in the deaths of three people.
Magen David Adom medics responded to multiple scenes across central Israel, transporting 67 people to various hospitals. Among the injured were a 30-year-old woman in critical condition, six individuals in moderate condition, and dozens more suffering from either minor wounds or emotional trauma.
In the north, around Haifa, two people sustained minor injuries at separate impact locations. Rescue crews are working to access three individuals believed to be trapped beneath debris.
According to a statement from Israel Fire and Rescue Services, two tall residential buildings in the greater Tel Aviv area were directly hit by Iranian missiles. Eight emergency units were dispatched to these scenes to assist those trapped under the wreckage.
Efforts to locate additional victims are ongoing at all known strike zones. Concurrently, Israeli defense systems intercepted drones near Eilat and Rosh Hanikra, preventing further damage.
The Home Front Command has now updated its safety instructions, allowing residents in some regions to leave their shelters. Emergency teams continue to operate at various locations where missiles landed.
“You are urged to continue following the instructions of the Home Front Command and all official updates issued to you.”
The Israel Defense Forces reminded citizens not to share videos or photos of impact sites. “The enemy monitors this footage to improve its impact capabilities. Be responsible – Do not share locations online!”
Earlier, the IDF confirmed that it had launched attacks on Iranian missile-launching infrastructure inside central Iran.
On Sunday night, a separate missile landed in Haifa between two buildings, leaving one woman moderately hurt and six others with minor injuries. Additionally, two people were lightly injured in a strike on a moshav in the Lachish area.
{Matzav.com Israel}
President Trump pushed back against recent remarks by Tucker Carlson, who accused him of betraying the America First doctrine by siding with Israel during its military actions targeting Iran.
Carlson, typically a staunch Trump supporter, criticized Israel’s offensive, suggesting that the United States had a role in it. He wrote that the country was “complicit in the act of war” and added, “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.”
Trump responded by emphasizing that he was the originator of the America First platform and therefore determines what the phrase truly means.
“Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” Trump told The Atlantic when asked for his reaction.
He also addressed the broader debate around diplomacy and security, saying: “For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”
Earlier on, Trump had indicated his reluctance about Israel launching any military operation against Iran. Before the assault took place, he told reporters that “I don’t want them going in because I think it [an attack] would blow” the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran.
After Israel executed a series of attacks that targeted Iranian nuclear sites, eliminated key scientists, and killed top commanders, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear in a public statement that, “We are not involved in strikes against Iran.”
Following the strikes, Trump posted on Truth Social to remind Iran of the 60-day deadline he had set for reaching a new nuclear agreement and encouraged the regime to reengage in talks.
Carlson, who has long spoken out against interventionist foreign policy, reaffirmed his opposition to any involvement with Iran and blamed the U.S. for enabling Israel’s strike through military aid.
“While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s events,” Carlson said in a newsletter he released afterward.
He continued his critique by saying, “Washington knew these attacks would happen. They aided Israel in carrying them out. Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. has assisted Israel in defending itself from Iranian retaliation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the strikes were “just the beginning.”
Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responded with a stark warning of his own: “Life will be dark for them.”
“They started it. They started a war.”
Israel’s offensive came at a moment when Iran was already weakened. Its regional allies and proxies had suffered extensive losses: the Assad regime collapsed in Syria, a major Israeli cyberattack took out senior Hezbollah figures, and much of Hamas’s command was eliminated in the recent Gaza war.
Talks that were planned between the U.S. and Iran regarding the nuclear issue—originally scheduled to take place in Oman—were scrapped after the Israeli strikes.
Trump has reiterated that America played no direct role in the attack on Iran, but at the same time, he warned Tehran of the consequences should they target the United States.
“The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight on Sunday.
“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
{Matzav.com}A select group of seven senior officials from Israel’s National Security Cabinet met regularly over the past year to plan the military operation against Iran that was launched on Friday, according to a source who requested anonymity, the Jerusalem Post reports.
This inner circle included Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yisroel Katz, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Shas leader MK Arye Deri.
These seven officials were the only members of the government who were briefed in advance about the pending assault prior to the full cabinet convening late Thursday. Internally referred to as the “small ministers’ forum,” the group functioned similarly to the limited war cabinet that was established during the early stages of the current conflict, the source explained.
In addition to these cabinet members, a few other figures in Israel’s political leadership were informed about the strike shortly before it was carried out. These included MK Yuli Edelstein, who chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and opposition leader MK Yair Lapid.
Due to the extreme sensitivity surrounding the timing of the operation, several reports indicated that ministers were told to remain in place for several hours after granting final approval to the attack late Thursday night, waiting until the operation officially commenced. During the meeting, cabinet members were required to sign confidentiality agreements.
Netanyahu had initially authorized the operation as far back as November, and it was originally slated to be executed in late April. However, it was postponed due to “a number of reasons,” Netanyahu later said.
Speaking to Channel 12 on Sunday night, National Security Council chief Tzachi Hanegbi added that many commercial flights left Israel ahead of the operation’s launch to minimize the risk of civilian airliners being affected by potential Iranian counterstrikes.
{Matzav.com Israel}Vance Luther Boelter, the man suspected of executing a politically motivated double murder and attempted assassination of a sitting Minnesota state senator, was taken into custody Sunday night following a high-intensity manhunt across the state.
Boelter, 57, had previously been appointed to a government position by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Authorities had been searching for him since he allegedly shot State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and fatally gunned down former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.
According to sources who spoke with Fox 9, Boelter was apprehended in an open field in Sibley County late Sunday.
Investigators say Boelter was dressed as a law enforcement officer, complete with a full uniform, bulletproof vest, and a disturbing Halloween mask, when he began his violent rampage in a suburb in northern Minnesota.
The incident began early Shabbos morning around 2 a.m., when Boelter arrived at Senator Hoffman’s residence in Champlin.
Boelter allegedly opened fire inside the home, hitting both Hoffman, 60, and his wife multiple times and leaving them with critical injuries.
In a dramatic act of protection, Yvette reportedly threw herself over their daughter, Hope, to shield her from the bullets, according to a statement made by the couple’s nephew.
Both John and Yvette Hoffman were rushed to surgery and are now reported to be in stable condition.
After fleeing the first crime scene, Boelter — still dressed in his fake police outfit — drove to the home of Melissa Hortman, the former Speaker of the Minnesota House, in Brooklyn Park.
Once there, he is accused of shooting both Hortman and her husband Mark several times, killing them.
Hortman, 55, was declared dead at the scene. Her husband succumbed to his wounds shortly after arriving at the hospital.
Police officers, who had gone to check on Hortman’s well-being after receiving word about the earlier shooting at the Hoffmans’ home, encountered the suspect as he exited her property in disguise.
During the confrontation, officers fired at Boelter and temporarily had him trapped inside the home. However, the suspect managed to flee the scene before being captured later that evening.
After carrying out the attacks, Boelter allegedly sent a chilling text message to two close friends, confessing to the crimes and indicating he may not survive.
“David and Ron, I love you guys. I made some choices, and you guys don’t know anything about this, but I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly, so I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish it hadn’t gone this way,” Boelter told David Carlson, according to KARE.
On Shabbos morning, law enforcement stopped Boelter’s wife, Jenny Boelter, who was traveling by car with family members. She was detained and questioned in connection to the attacks. Authorities discovered a firearm and several passports inside the vehicle.
{Matzav.com}
A heavy missile assault launched by Iran early Monday morning left 25 individuals wounded. Two people suffered moderate injuries, while the remainder were lightly hurt in the attack that began just before 4:00 a.m. and involved dozens of projectiles fired at Israel.
The missiles hit at least four separate locations across northern and central parts of the country. One of the rockets directly struck a structure in central Israel, according to reports.
Medical teams from Magen David Adom responded to the scene in the central region, treating approximately 20 victims who sustained moderate or minor wounds. Several others were attended to for symptoms of emotional trauma.
Emergency personnel are actively conducting searches at the affected sites to determine whether additional people may be trapped or injured. Separately, reports confirmed that a drone was intercepted near Eilat.
The Home Front Command has updated its instructions, allowing residents in specific areas to exit their shelters. First responders and military units remain deployed at numerous scenes across the country where impacts were recorded.
“You are urged to continue following the instructions of the Home Front Command and all official updates issued to you.”
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces urged the public not to disseminate images or videos of impact locations. “The enemy monitors this footage to improve its impact capabilities. Be responsible – Do not share locations online!”
Earlier on Monday, the IDF confirmed it had initiated airstrikes against missile launch platforms in central Iran that had been used to target Israel.
The previous evening, a missile landed between two residential buildings in Haifa, leaving a woman moderately injured and lightly wounding six others. In a separate incident in the Lachish area, two more people sustained light injuries.
During this latest offensive, Iran fired a total of 30 missiles at Israeli territory.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Early Monday morning, ZAKA reported that two more bodies had been located and recovered from the debris left by an Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam.
With this discovery, the total number of fatalities in Bat Yam resulting from the recent missile attacks has increased to nine, according to ZAKA’s latest update.
KAN reported that one individual is still unaccounted for in the city in connection with the strikes.
Nationwide, the death toll since the start of Operation Rising Lion has climbed to 16.
A senior official from the IDF’s Home Front Command stated the previous day that Bat Yam experienced the most devastating civilian attack thus far in the conflict with Iran. The official added, “they know who they are looking for and which apartments they were in when the Iranian strike hit.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
On Sunday, remnants from Iran’s latest wave of ballistic missile attacks landed in two different areas of the West Bank, with one piece of debris igniting a fire near the home of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and another injuring three young children near Sa’ir, according to The Jerusalem Post, citing local sources and eyewitnesses.
The first incident occurred in al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, around 11:20 a.m. Residents described hearing “a huge boom.” Video circulated by media outlets in Ramallah showed metal shrapnel lodged in a rooftop water tank, which security officials later identified as part of an Iranian Shahab-class missile. Firefighters from the Civil Defence unit responded quickly and extinguished the flames.
There were no injuries reported in that location, though the site of the impact was dangerously close to Abbas’s residence. One user on X, writing in Arabic, claimed the missile fragments had fallen “right behind Abu Mazen’s house,” adding, “intensify your prayers so that next time it lands exactly [on target].”
Roughly an hour and a half later, another set of missile fragments believed to be from an Iranian projectile intercepted over central Israel fell near the Palestinian village of Sa’ir, located northeast of Hebron. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that three children—ages six, seven, and twelve—sustained injuries from broken glass when the missile impact shattered nearby windows. All three were taken to Hebron’s al-Ahli Hospital, where they were listed in light-to-moderate condition.
Both sites were cordoned off by police, and bomb squads were deployed to recover and examine the wreckage. Initial assessments suggest the debris came from a Shahab-3 missile that was destroyed mid-air by Israel’s Arrow-3 missile defense system as part of Operation Rising Lion (Am Kelavi). That campaign began after Iran launched a massive retaliation against Israel’s earlier strikes on Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure.
The IDF has yet to release an official statement about Sunday’s events. However, defense experts have acknowledged that missile fragments falling to the ground are a natural consequence of the ongoing interception efforts, which have now extended into a third day. Iran’s retaliatory attacks have so far resulted in 13 Israeli fatalities and nearly 400 wounded. Missile debris has also been reported in Jordan, the Negev, and now the West Bank—highlighting the growing reach of this conflict.
Civil Defense agencies in the West Bank issued public warnings, urging residents to avoid contact with any unknown or suspicious metal fragments and to report them to emergency services. Meanwhile, rocket sirens continued to wail across multiple regions of Israel late into the night.
{Matzav.com Israel}
After years of watching Iran’s terror proxies export violence to democracies worldwide, Israel has now turned those tactics back on Tehran. According to The Wall Street Journal, Mossad agents covertly smuggled drone components into Iran, which were later used to strike at the regime’s covert nuclear weapons program and the scientists behind it.
Before Israeli fighter jets launched their aerial assault this week, the groundwork had already been laid by Israel’s intelligence community. Drones were used to disable critical Iranian air defense systems and missile platforms in advance of the main strikes, the Journal reported.
The long-planned operation, involving preparations stretching back months—and in some cases years—enabled Israeli forces to go deeper into Iranian territory than ever before. According to IDF spokesman Effie Defrin, these missions specifically targeted Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and defense systems. “This is the deepest distance that we have operated so far in Iran,” Defrin stated. “We created aerial freedom of action.”
The Israeli campaign bore similarities to Ukraine’s bold drone attacks on Russian air bases deep inside Russia, showing how distant targets can still be vulnerable when modern warfare tactics are deployed.
Sources told the Journal that Mossad operatives were active inside Iran throughout the operation, orchestrating the groundwork for Israel’s military to carry out its objectives.
Amid growing alarm, Iran’s intelligence services have reportedly issued warnings to civilians and media outlets, urging vigilance over pickup trucks and cargo vehicles believed to be used in drone launches aimed at military sites, according to the Journal.
This week’s attack wasn’t the first signal of Mossad’s reach inside Iranian territory. Last summer, Israel eliminated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh at a facility belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Over several years, Israeli intelligence has built a detailed understanding of both Hamas and Iranian leadership, insiders told the Journal.
“No one in Iran in the high echelons can be sure he isn’t known to Israeli intelligence and won’t be the target,” said Sima Shine, a former senior Mossad official and now researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “It’s not just the damage caused but the nervousness it brings.”
{Matzav.com Israel}Mayor Eric Adams is under fire after welcoming controversial internet personality Sneako — who has publicly made antisemitic remarks — to Gracie Mansion for a relaxed interview, the NY Post reports.
Sneako, whose legal name is Nicolas “Nico” Kenn De Balinthazy, 26, was previously removed from Twitch for what the platform labeled “extreme hateful conduct.”
During the meeting at the mayor’s Upper East Side residence, Sneako and Adams shared cigars alongside fellow social media figure Amber Rose.
The backlash was swift, with Bronx Congressman Richie Torres taking to social media to voice his outrage.
“The Mayor is smoking cigars at Gracie Mansion with Sneako—yet another antisemite, who once declared: ‘Down with the Jews,’” Torres wrote on X.
“Who’s next on the guest list — David Duke?”
Sneako later posted a video boasting about his cigar session with Adams before heading off to a high-profile dinner with celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Tobey Maguire.
Criticism of Sneako has mounted due to his public praise of Andrew and Tristan Tate — influencers facing serious criminal allegations in Europe — as well as his frequent antisemitic rhetoric.
Among the most egregious of his past comments are: “Down with the Jews! Free Palestine,” and “Every ‘conspiracy theory’ from the last century is just Israel,” both of which he said during a livestream last year, according to watchdog group Stop Antisemitism.
Just before meeting Adams, Sneako wrote on X, “Israel is not compatible with Western civilization.”
Beyond his antisemitism, Sneako has been accused of spreading misogynistic content and associating with figures such as white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, both of whom have expressed admiration for Hitler. Sneako has even spoken at one of Fuentes’ rallies.
In the past, he has also made disturbing comments about Nazi symbolism, stating “the Nazis had drip,” and referring to the swastika as “aesthetically pleasing.”
Despite the outrage, Adams’ office stood by his decision to appear with Sneako. “Mayor Adams has always stood strongly with the Jewish community and will continue to do so without compromise. He has a long and proud record of fighting antisemitism, supporting Jewish causes, and building lasting relationships with Jewish leaders across the city and state,” a spokesperson told The Post.
“The Mayor is frequently interviewed by a wide range of streamers, podcasters, and media figures from many backgrounds. While he does not share the views of all who interview him, his values remain unwavering.
“Antisemitism has no place in New York City, and no one can question Mayor Adams’ deep and ongoing commitment to combating hate in all its forms.”
This controversy comes on the heels of Adams signing an executive order formalizing the city’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
That decision has itself sparked criticism from anti-Israel organizations, who argue the IHRA’s language is meant to shield Israel from legitimate scrutiny by equating criticism of the state with antisemitic hate.
{Matzav.com}