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Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN), issued a letter to his personnel marking the conclusion of Operation Rising Lion.

“At the end of twelve historic days of combat against Iran, a ceasefire took effect yesterday, though it is too early to assess its stability,” Binder wrote. “Operation Rising Lion fully achieved its objectives, and even exceeded some, focusing on: striking multiple key components of Iran’s nuclear program, damaging the value chain of Iran’s precision missile industry, and preventing the emergence of an existential threat from Iran. These achievements will be discussed at length, and you—the men and women of Military Intelligence—played a central role in them.”

Binder emphasized that despite the operation’s accomplishments, the broader conflict remains far from over. “Alongside this important recognition of our achievements,” he continued, “we in Intelligence must always remember that on the other side stands a determined and extremist enemy, with a deeply rooted and persistent belief-based concept of victory. AMAN will likely continue to be at the forefront of this struggle in the coming years—through early warning, intelligence gathering, situational analysis, and developing means to strike this enemy.”

Reflecting on the contrast between recent success and past failure, he wrote, “It is precisely at such moments of exceptional success that the memory of AMAN’s failure on October 7th resonates. The same organization experienced both failure and success, carried out by individuals who gave their utmost to fulfill their mission. This memory obligates all Intelligence personnel to genuine humility—acknowledging the complexity of the profession and the fragility of our understanding of our various enemies. Those in this field bear a continuous responsibility for skepticism, self-critique, and constant review and improvement—both in times of success and in times of failure.”

Binder noted that Israel now finds itself in an improved, yet still difficult, strategic environment. “Following the operation, Israel faces a better security reality, though one no less complex. Across the various fronts, there remain many operational and intelligence challenges, which AMAN remains committed to addressing with responsibility and reverence. At the forefront remains the effort to achieve the war’s primary goals in the Gaza Strip: the urgent return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”

He praised the dedication and spirit of his team, writing, “Throughout the operation, as in the long months of war that preceded it, I had the great privilege to meet so many of you across the country—commanders and soldiers, in regular service and reserves, in research and collection, in headquarters and operations, in AMAN formations and operational units, shoulder to shoulder with our partners in the IDF and the intelligence community. What unites you all is a deep belief in the justness of our path—extraordinary human strength, initiative, creativity, and a drive to act—that form the foundation of AMAN and the IDF’s achievements in this operation.”

Binder concluded with a call for ongoing engagement and reflection: “These qualities will continue to be necessary as we face the many challenges ahead,” Binder concluded, “and we will approach them alongside a comprehensive review of our actions in this campaign and the battle procedures that preceded it. I expect each of you to take an active and meaningful role in this process. I am proud of you and love you.”

He closed the message with a quote from Mishlei: “Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”

{Matzav.com}

Iran has officially disconnected all UN surveillance cameras from its nuclear sites, prompting an IAEA warning that the move could drastically hinder oversight of its nuclear activities.

Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, appeared on Iranian state television to speak publicly about a failed Israeli assassination attempt that left him with serious injuries.

Throughout the broadcast, Shamkhani could be seen using a medical breathing device, which he explained was necessary due to lingering lung issues caused by the attack.

Recalling the incident, Shamkhani described being trapped beneath the wreckage of his home for several hours. “I was mainly injured internally; my ribs were broken,” he said.

“I woke up the moment the projectile hit me. At first, I thought I was trapped under rubble and debris had fallen. I started digging with my legs as much as I could. I did that because of the damage to my lungs, because my rib cage was broken. I saw other internal injuries. I prayed and heard the sound of a car. I took steady breaths.”

Despite the close call, Shamkhani said he harbors no fear of Israel. “I’ve never been afraid, not even for a moment, of the Zionist attack. The Zionists know why they tried to eliminate me — and so do I. I can’t say the reason, but I made their lives purgatory,” he said during the interview.

He also took the opportunity to voice frustration over Iran’s diplomatic efforts with Western powers, alleging that their true goal was never to find common ground. “The negotiations weren’t meant to reach an agreement, but to deceive us. We knew they wanted to create internal conditions to spark protests,” he asserted.

{Matzav.com}

IRGC Quds Force Commander Esmail Qaani said a few words at the funeral of Iran’s top slain generals and commanders:

The Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center released an update on Saturday night regarding the teenage boy who was wounded during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers in the Binyamin area. The hospital stated that the youth is conscious and in stable condition, though he remains in the intensive care unit. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on Sunday. After conducting examinations, doctors determined that the boy was struck by a live round, contradicting earlier reports which claimed he had been hit by a rubber bullet.

In the wake of the incident, the IDF battalion commander who says he was assaulted during the confrontation has offered his account of what transpired. “I have been operating in this area for two decades – and the reality we face is that 90% of our efforts here are spent stopping Hilltop Youth from committing acts of arson,” he stated.

He went on to describe the escalation of tensions with the same group of individuals previously seen setting fires in the Arab village of Al Mughayir, allegedly carrying weapons. “We witnessed them choking a soldier. I was physically attacked, rocks were thrown at one of our vehicles, another vehicle was rammed, and tires were slashed,” he recounted during an interview with Galei Tzahal.

“They told us outright that we wouldn’t leave there alive. Just a day earlier, I was verbally assaulted – they called me a Nazi, cursed at me, and spat in my direction. The Binyamin region means more to me than anything – we show up again and again for reserve duty because we believe in what we’re doing, and now we find ourselves forced to confront these kinds of situations,” he added.

The civilians who were present during the altercation have rejected the commander’s account, insisting that it was actually he who issued a threat to kill them.

{Matzav.com Israel}

TRAGEDY IN CROWN HEIGHTS: A heartbreaking tragedy occurred in Crown Heights on Shabbos afternoon, when 8-year-old Mordica (Mordechai) Keller Z”L, a young Lubavitcher boy, was struck and killed while crossing Eastern Parkway at Albany Avenue around 5:30 PM. According to NYPD, the child was hit by a black Honda Pilot driven by a 69-year-old man. The driver remained at the scene and has not been arrested, though an investigation is underway. Hatzalah rushed to the scene and transported the child to Kings County Hospital, where he was tragically pronounced dead on arrival. Chessed Shel Emes is working to ensure proper Kovod Hames.

A short time ago, Vice President Vance entered the Capitol as he prepares to break a potential tie on the first procedural hurdle on Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”

FOX NEWS: Do you think that the Iranian regime hid some of the enriched uranium before the strikes? POTUS: “I don’t think they did, no. First of all, it’s very hard to do; it’s very dangerous to do… they didn’t know we were coming until just then.”

More new drone footage shows the scenes of the Iranian ballistic missile impact at Soroka Hospital last week.

New drone footage shows the scenes of the Iranian ballistic missile impacts at an apartment building in Be’er Sheva, last week.

ELIMINATED: IDF forces on Friday carried out an airstrike on Friday and eliminated the terrorist Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa in Gaza City. Issa Al-Issa was a founder of Hamas and a senior figure in the terror group’s military wing. Most recently, he served as the head of the Combat Support and Administrative Headquarters of Hamas.

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President Trump on Friday claimed he saved Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from an “ugly” and “ignominious” death after the U.S. bombed three Iranian nuclear sites last Saturday. “Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on Truth Social. “His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” he continued. “I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’” Trump said he “demanded” Israel call back planes that were headed to Tehran, “looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout,” and that the move averted “tremendous damage.” “During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery — The sanctions are BITING!” the president wrote Friday. “But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.” He also warned things “will only get worse” for Iran if they don’t “get back into the World Order flow” and urged Tehran leaders to “realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR. PEACE!!!” The president’s comments come after Khamenei, in his first remarks since the U.S. strikes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities, declared victory in the conflict and argued the U.S. “achieved nothing” through the strikes. “My congratulations on our dear Iran’s victory over the US regime,” Khamenei wrote early Thursday on social platform X. “The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed.” “It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing,” he added. The ayatollah noted in a second post that Iran “delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face” with its counterattack on the U.S. air base in Qatar. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

ChatGPT said:

At a press briefing held at the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump made it clear that he would be open to launching additional airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities if intelligence pointed to a growing threat.

“Sure, without question, absolutely – it has to be unbelievable,” Trump said in response to a reporter who asked whether he might consider ordering strikes on Iran again if new intelligence raised red flags regarding uranium enrichment activities.

Trump also expressed confidence that Iran was currently incapable of quickly reviving its nuclear ambitions following the damage inflicted by U.S. attacks on its nuclear infrastructure.

When pressed on whether he was concerned about undisclosed nuclear sites possibly still operating within Iran, Trump shrugged off the idea, indicating he believed Iran was in no position to prioritize nuclear ambitions at this stage.

“Can I tell you – they’re exhausted. And Israel’s exhausted too. And I dealt with both of them, and they both wanted it settled – both of them – and we did a great job. But they’re exhausted. The last thing they’re thinking about right now is nuclear. You know what they’re thinking of? They’re thinking about tomorrow, trying to live,” stated Trump.

Trump also claimed that Tehran was eager to enter negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program. His remarks echoed those of Steve Witkoff, the administration’s Middle East envoy, who recently stated that preliminary steps toward dialogue with Iran were already underway.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have publicly denied any plans to engage in renewed nuclear talks. On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected reports suggesting otherwise.

“Some speculations about the resumption of negotiations should not be taken seriously,” Araghchi declared, adding, “I would like to state clearly that no agreement, arrangement or conversation has been made to start new negotiations. No plan has been set yet to start negotiations.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

Donald Trump launched a fierce attack on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday, reacting to Khamenei’s declaration that Iran had triumphed in its conflict with Israel. Using his Truth Social platform, Trump accused Khamenei of fabricating a narrative of victory and disclosed that he had been exploring lifting sanctions on Iran—an effort he abandoned in light of the Ayatollah’s remarks.

“Why would the so-called ‘Supreme Leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war torn Country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the War with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so,” Trump wrote.

Trump didn’t hold back, expressing outrage over what he saw as a complete distortion of the facts. He reminded followers that Iran had suffered massive devastation and suggested he personally intervened to stop Israel or the U.S. from killing Khamenei. “As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life. I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, ‘THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'”

He went on to reveal that he had instructed Israel to abort what he described as a massive military operation targeting the Iranian capital. “In fact, in the final act of the War, I demanded that Israel bring back a very large group of planes, which were heading directly to Tehran, looking for a big day, perhaps the final knockout! Tremendous damage would have ensued, and many Iranians would have been killed. It was going to be the biggest attack of the War, by far.”

Trump then turned to his diplomatic efforts in the conflict’s aftermath. He noted that he had been making headway toward easing sanctions to help Iran recover—but the Ayatollah’s inflammatory rhetoric caused him to reverse course. “During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery – The sanctions are BITING! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.”

In closing, Trump painted a bleak picture of Iran’s condition and warned of further deterioration unless its leaders embraced a different approach. “Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them. They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them – A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them. They have no hope, and it will only get worse! I wish the leadership of Iran would realize that you often get more with HONEY than you do with VINEGAR. PEACE!!!”

{Matzav.com}

U.S. stocks closed at an all-time high Friday, another milestone in the market’s remarkable recovery from a springtime plunge caused by fears that the Trump administration’s trade policies could harm the economy. The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, finishing above its previous record set in February. The key measure of Wall Street’s health fell nearly 20% from February 19 through April 8. The market’s complete turnaround from its deep swoon happened in about half the time that it normally takes, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. “Investors will breathe a sigh of relief,” he said. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.5% and set its own all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%. President Donald Trump’s decision Friday to halt trade talks with Canada threatened to derail Wall Street’s run to a record, but the market steadied. The gains on Friday were broad, with nearly every sector within the S&P 500 rising. Nike soared 15.2% for the biggest gain on the market, despite warning of a steep hit from tariffs. The broader market has seemingly shaken off fears about the Israel-Iran war disrupting the global supply of crude oil and sending prices higher. A ceasefire between the two nations is still in place. The price of crude oil in the U.S. is mostly unchanged on Friday. Prices have fallen back to pre-conflict levels. Investors are also monitoring potential progress on trade conflicts between the U.S. and the world, specifically with China. The U.S. and China have signed a trade deal that will make it easier for American firms to obtain magnets and rare earth minerals from China that are critical to manufacturing and microchip production, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday. China’s Commerce Ministry also said that the two sides had “further confirmed the details of the framework” for their trade talks. But its statement did not explicitly mention an agreement to ensure U.S. access to rare earths, and instead said it will review and approve “eligible export applications for controlled items.” An update on inflation Friday showed prices ticked higher in May, though the rate mostly matched economists’ projections. Inflation remains a big concern for businesses and consumers. Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff policy has made it difficult for companies to make forecasts. It has also put more pressure on consumers worried about already stubborn inflation. A long list of businesses from carmakers to retailers have warned that higher import taxes will likely hurt their revenues and profits. The U.S. has 10% baseline tariffs on all imported goods, along with higher rates for Chinese goods and other import taxes on steel and autos. The economy and consumers have remained somewhat resilient under those tariffs, though analysts and economists expect to see the impact grow as import taxes continue to work their way through businesses to consumers. “While we also would have expected to already to be seeing a bit more pass through into the inflation statistics, we still expect these impacts to show up in a more meaningful way in the next few months,” said Greg Wilensky, head of U.S. fixed income and portfolio manager at Janus Henderson. The threat of more severe tariffs continues to hang over the economy. The current pause on a round of retaliatory tariffs against a long list of nations is set to expire […]

President Trump delivered an unexpected blow to trade relations with Canada on Friday, declaring that he would be halting all negotiations in response to Canada’s decision to implement a tax targeting American tech giants.

“We have just been informed that Canada … has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

He accused Canada of mimicking policies from across the Atlantic: “They are obviously copying the European Union, which has done the same thing, and is currently under discussion with us, also. Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately.”

Trump also warned that economic repercussions were on the way. “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The Canadian government has committed to instituting a 3% tax on digital revenues earned by large-scale platforms such as Facebook and Google. The proposed levy would be retroactively applied to earnings going back to 2022 and would only affect companies that generate over $14.6 million annually.

It remains unclear how Trump’s order will immediately impact existing trade structures, since the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) continues to govern the overall commercial relationship between the two nations.

Still, the announcement rippled through financial markets, prompting a decline in tech-related stocks on Wall Street. However, despite the dip, broader indices remained on track for a positive weekly close.

Trump has previously warned the European Union of facing a steep 50% tariff in retaliation for its own digital tax plans, though he postponed enforcement until July 9 to allow room for dialogue.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.” Trump, in a post on his social media network, said Canada had just informed the U.S. that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada. The tax is set to go into effect Monday. “Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period,” Trump said in his post. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country would “continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interests of Canadians. It’s a negotiation.” Trump’s announcement was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the U.S. president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a U.S. state. Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm with Trump. Trump last week traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the U.S. had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks. The digital services tax will hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It will apply retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2 billion U.S. bill due at the end of the month. Canada and the U.S. have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor. The Republican president earlier told reporters that the U.S. was soon preparing to send letters to different countries, informing them of the new tariff rate his administration would impose on them. Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period set by him would expire. Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term. (AP)

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered a striking and sharply worded dismissal of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent in a major case on birthright citizenship, surprising many who closely follow the court’s inner dynamics. In the ruling, which curtailed the ability of lower courts to issue sweeping injunctions, Barrett offered a blunt critique of Jackson’s reasoning.

“We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,” Barrett wrote, forcefully rejecting the basis of Jackson’s stance. “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”

Barrett, who wrote the majority opinion in the decision seen as a significant win for President Trump, limited the authority of federal district courts to halt presidential actions with universal injunctions—a judicial practice that has become increasingly common in recent years.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the primary dissenting opinion on behalf of the liberal justices, joined by Jackson. However, Jackson also issued her own dissent, expanding on the concerns she felt were being overlooked by the court’s conservative majority.

Jackson’s separate opinion focused less on statutory interpretation and more on what she described as dangerous consequences of the ruling. “It is not difficult to predict how this all ends. Eventually, executive power will become completely uncontainable, and our beloved constitutional Republic will be no more,” she warned in stark language.

Elsewhere, Jackson argued that the case wasn’t just about technicalities but raised core questions about checks and balances: “Quite unlike a rule-of-kings governing system, in a rule of law regime, nearly ‘[e]very act of government may be challenged by an appeal to law,’” she wrote. “At the very least, I lament that the majority is so caught up in minutiae of the Government’s self-serving, finger-pointing arguments that it misses the plot.”

She further dismissed legal debates surrounding the Judiciary Act of 1789 as obfuscating the essential issue. “Legalese” is how she referred to it, adding that it “obscures a far more basic question of enormous legal and practical significance: May a federal court in the United States of America order the Executive to follow the law?”

Barrett responded with a tone that verged on sarcastic: “Because analyzing the governing statute involves boring ‘legalese,’ [Jackson] seeks to answer ‘a far more basic question of enormous practical significance: May a federal court in the United States of America order the Executive to follow the law?’”

She continued: “In other words, it is unnecessary to consider whether Congress has constrained the Judiciary; what matters is how the Judiciary may constrain the Executive. Justice Jackson would do well to heed her own admonition: ‘[E]veryone, from the President on down, is bound by law.’ That goes for judges too.”

Though Barrett acknowledged that Sotomayor stayed within the boundaries of traditional legal reasoning, she had far less patience for Jackson’s approach. “While Justice Sotomayor focuses her dissent on conventional legal terrain, like the Judiciary Act of 1789 and our cases on equity,” Barrett noted, Jackson veered off in a completely different direction. Barrett described her colleague’s argument as “a startling line of attack that is tethered neither to these sources nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever.”

Barrett was especially critical of Jackson’s dismissal of legal limitations on judicial power. “Waving away attention to the limits on judicial power as a ‘mind-numbingly technical query’ … she offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush,” she wrote.

Adding to the tension, Jackson did not close her opinion with the customary “I dissent” or “Respectfully, I dissent,” an omission that court observers interpreted as a sign of deep discontent.

“It’s not something that we see every day,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in an interview with The Post, referring to Barrett’s unusually direct criticism. Bird noted, however, that Barrett’s comments remained focused on legal arguments rather than descending into personal attacks.

Reactions on social media were swift and intense. “Holy …, this is about as brutal as I’ve ever seen SCOTUS be on one of their own,” attorney Kostas Moros posted on X, quoting Barrett’s “imperial Judiciary” line. “Translated: ‘you are so stupid that you aren’t even worth responding to.’”

Others suggested Barrett’s harsh tone might reflect growing frustration within the court. “The FACT that six Justices were OK with signing onto an opinion where Justice Barrett took a personal shot at Justice Jackson is a VERY STRONG indication that Jackson has alienated her colleagues and there is a growing lack of respect for her work,” wrote X user Shipwreckedcrew, who identifies as a former federal prosecutor.

He added that Jackson’s dissent likely followed heated exchanges behind the scenes. “Justices circulate Memos among with their legal views on certain cases in order to bring others around to their thinking. Given what she has written in her dissent, imagine the memos that Jackson must have sent around in this case.”

The legal backdrop to the dispute involved three lower courts that had blocked President Trump’s January 20 executive order, which aimed to redefine birthright citizenship. Those courts determined the order likely violated constitutional protections under the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all individuals born on U.S. soil.

The Supreme Court’s decision did not take a position on the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order itself. Instead, it focused solely on the scope of judicial authority to issue nationwide injunctions.

{Matzav.com}