Feed aggregator

Jeanine Pirro’s office has shelved efforts to pursue charges against six Democratic lawmakers over a social media video urging military and intelligence personnel not to follow unlawful orders. •⁠ ⁠A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. unanimously rejected the indictment attempt, indicating jurors did not find sufficient basis to bring charges. •⁠ ⁠The case centered […]

Tensions between United Torah Judaism and Shas have spilled into the open, after Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni sharply criticized Shas leader MK Aryeh Deri for unilaterally reclaiming the chairmanship of the Knesset Health Committee.

Speaking during a United Torah Judaism faction meeting on Monday, Gafni accused Deri of breaking a coordinated agreement among the chareidi parties. According to Gafni, the factions had reached a clear understanding to withdraw together from coalition roles and to maintain a unified legislative boycott, including joint decisions on “what goes up and what does not.”

Gafni said the purpose of the agreement was to preserve a united front in negotiations with the government on issues central to the chareidi public, foremost among them the draft law.

However, he charged that Deri deviated from that consensus. “Suddenly he decides unilaterally to return to the chairmanship of the Health Committee. He decides on his own,” Gafni told fellow faction members.

Gafni further revealed that in a prior meeting with the prime minister, Deri had emphasized to him, “I do what Gafni says.” In light of that statement, Gafni asked pointedly: “Suddenly when it comes to jobs he decides on his own. Now it no longer matters what Gafni says?”

Within chareidi political circles, Shas’s move is being interpreted as an effort to retain key parliamentary positions during a period of political strain and to avoid losing influence over sensitive areas such as the health system. By contrast, Degel HaTorah officials argue that unilateral steps weaken the bargaining position of the chareidi factions vis-à-vis the coalition and signal internal division.

The dispute comes at a particularly delicate moment, as the draft law controversy and ongoing tensions with the High Court continue to cast uncertainty over coalition stability.

{Matzav.com}

Does anything exist? That is one of philosophy’s most enduring questions. Consider a table: to determine whether it exists, we must first define what a table actually is. One might begin by describing it as an object comprised of a flat surface supported by legs — but this definition immediately invites further scrutiny. If a […]

New York City, still reeling from a historic blizzard, is bracing for additional snowfall in the coming days after a storm that has already secured a place among the 10 largest winter events ever recorded in the city.

By this afternoon, snowfall in Central Park had reached 19.7 inches, surpassing the 19 inches recorded during the January 2011 blizzard, which previously stood as the ninth-largest snowstorm in city history.

The powerful system, driven by a bomb cyclone that struck from Sunday into Monday, delivered the most significant snowfall the city has experienced in over a decade.

Within the five boroughs, Staten Island reported the single highest total so far, with 24.1 inches measured in the Grasmere neighborhood, according to the National Weather Service.

Brooklyn also saw substantial accumulation. Sheepshead Bay recorded 22.5 inches, while Williamsburg and Crown Heights followed closely behind with 21.1 and 21 inches, respectively.

In Manhattan, Washington Heights led the borough with 22.1 inches of snow measured to date.

Queens’ highest total was logged at LaGuardia Airport, where 22.2 inches were recorded.

The Bronx saw the least accumulation among the boroughs, with 14.8 inches measured in Co-Op City.

Beyond city limits, snowfall totals were even higher in some areas. Lynbrook in Nassau County on Long Island reported 24 inches, while Babylon in Suffolk County tallied 29.5 inches as of the latest reports.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said public schools will reopen Tuesday after students were granted a three-day weekend due to the storm.

The mayor added that some neighborhoods could receive an additional 2.5 inches of snow by tonight as the system continues to move through the region.

{Matzav.com}

For 38 years, Yad Batya L’Kallah has helped 28,000+  brides begin their marriages with dignity and calm.  We knead you. Through our annual auction and your community gatherings, compassion is turned into action.  Let’s rise together.  Every ticket and contribution helps a kallah walk down to her chuppah with confidence — not worry. Participants are […]

Police raided an apartment in Bnei Brak that had been converted into a drug laboratory, seizing large quantities of narcotics and arresting two suspects, authorities said.

The operation took place yesterday on Dangur Street, where detectives discovered what they believe was a facility used for the cultivation and production of illegal drugs. Inside the apartment, officers found 156 cannabis plants with a total gross weight of 31 kilograms. In addition, a substance suspected to be cocaine, weighing 10 grams gross, was located in a vehicle connected to the case.

Two suspects — a 25-year-old resident of Bnei Brak and a 24-year-old from Rehovot — were arrested and taken in for questioning at the local police station. Following their interrogation, both were remanded in custody. A court has extended their detention until February 26, 2026.

Meanwhile, Tel Aviv District Commander Chief Superintendent Chaim Sargarof signed an order yesterday to shut down the apartment for 30 days, through March 23, 2026.

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Sunday that the United States is expected to issue an ultimatum to Hamas in the coming days, demanding that the terror group disarm and fully demilitarize Gaza. Speaking to Kan News, Smotrich said the move would come from Washington and would give Hamas a final opportunity to avoid a […]

Mexico mobilized its army, air force and elite security units — backed by intelligence assistance from the United States — to eliminate Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the powerful head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a sweeping weekend operation that officials described as unprecedented in scale.

The coordinated assault brought together ground troops, aircraft and a specially trained National Guard force focused on combating cartel violence. Oseguera, a former police officer who had a $15 million US bounty placed on him, had long led what authorities consider the most formidable criminal organization in the country.

Over the years, Oseguera built a heavily armed force around him. At his luxury compound in the state of Jalisco, security personnel reportedly maintained rocket launchers and other advanced weaponry to defend the property.

After dominating Mexico’s criminal underworld for years, Oseguera’s organization had amassed military-grade firepower, making a conventional law enforcement operation unfeasible.

In a prior raid on a CJNG stronghold, authorities discovered a cache that included numerous automatic machine guns, grenade launchers and rocket-propelled grenades — weapons similar to those used in 2015 to bring down a military helicopter.

Investigators also determined that Oseguera’s estate contained armored vehicles and heavy weapons more commonly associated with an organized military force than a criminal syndicate.

In advance of Sunday’s operation, Mexican officials received assistance from the US Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel (JITF-CC), a unit established last month to analyze and map cartel networks operating along the border.

President Trump has made dismantling Mexico’s drug cartels — which serve as a primary source of fentanyl and other narcotics entering the United States — a central focus of his administration.

Brigadier Gen. Maurizio Calabrese, who leads the task force, explained that the unit applied experience gained from counterterrorism campaigns against groups such as al Qaeda and Islamic State to track cartel infrastructure.

“The cartels operate differently than al Qaeda or ISIS, different motivations, which makes it even more important for us to identify entire networks so that we can disrupt and dismantle (them),” Calabrese told Reuters.

After Trump formally classified Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations last year, the task force gained authority to deploy military tools and surveillance resources in monitoring trafficking networks.

Ultimately, US analysts assembled a comprehensive targeting dossier on Oseguera, identifying his presence in the rural community of Tapalpa.

Although specific intelligence contributions from JITF-CC have not been publicly detailed, the agency’s website outlines its mission as seeking to “identify, disrupt, and dismantle cartel operations posing a threat to the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Mexico’s Security Ministry confirmed that US officials supplied “supplementary information” to support the mission, though planning and execution were directed by Mexico’s central military intelligence command.

According to Mexico’s Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla, part of the intelligence effort involved tracing an associate connected to one of Oseguera’s romantic partners, ultimately leading authorities to the cartel leader’s secluded compound in the mountains.

Trevilla said that when the woman departed the property, Oseguera and his armed entourage stayed behind inside the complex.

Once preparations were complete, Mexican special forces advanced on the compound Sunday. As security personnel attempted to escape into the surrounding forest, they opened fire on the approaching troops.

The Mexican troops “returned fire,” killing four cartel members in the shoot out, with Oseguera and three other gangsters dying from their wounds during an air transport, according to the security ministry.

Air Force aircraft and rapid-response National Guard teams provided additional support, enabling federal forces to swiftly subdue the gunmen and secure the property.

News of El Mencho’s death triggered violent retaliation by cartel factions across Mexico, with roadblocks erected on key highways and vehicles set ablaze.

Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order in Puerto Vallarta, a resort city west of Tapalpa, as unrest spread throughout the state.

Mexico Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch reported that at least 25 National Guard members were killed during the wave of violence in Jalisco, along with a prison guard and a state prosecutor’s office agent.

{Matzav.com}

Knesset Poised for Showdown Over Kosel Authority

A new dispute has erupted within the World Zionist Organization, as members of the religious-Orthodox bloc issued a sharp protest after a public statement was released in the name of the entire executive without their consent and contrary to their position.

The internal clash comes as the Knesset prepares to debate a bill that would grant the Chief Rabbinate full authority over all sections of the Kosel.

The controversy within the WZO follows last week’s incident at the Kosel, when police detained Women of the Wall activist Tami Gottlieb and issued her a restraining order barring her from the plaza after disturbances during Rosh Chodesh davening. The order was later shortened by a court ruling.

In the wake of that episode, several members of the WZO executive sought to publish a statement expressing support for Gottlieb, who also serves as a member of the organization’s executive. Representatives of the religious bloc objected strongly and refused to sign onto the statement. They have now released a counter-declaration, expressing what they describe as pain and protest over the original announcement, which they say was issued without their approval and does not reflect their position.

According to the Orthodox representatives, the statement fails to represent the will of the majority of voters in the most recent Zionist Congress elections. They argue that the results demonstrated a clear Orthodox majority across most major Jewish communities worldwide.

“Except for one or two countries,” Rabbi Pesach Lerner of the Eretz HaKodesh slate told Kikar HaShabbat, “in all the major countries around the world, in the United States and throughout Europe, there is a strong and clear majority of religious Orthodox voters who supported religious slates over the Reform slates. Despite this, representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements have the audacity to demand and publish statements as if they speak on behalf of world Jewry, when it has been demonstrated in the clearest possible way that the majority is Orthodox.

“It is time that we stand firm and state clearly: The majority of world Jewry supports the Orthodox position and seeks to preserve the voice of Torah and halachah in Eretz Yisroel. The Reform movement has no right to speak in the name of world Jewry.”

The WZO storm is unfolding against the backdrop of renewed legislative efforts in the Knesset. Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced Sunday that he intends to vote in favor of a bill that would place all parts of the Kosel, including the Ezras Yisroel section, under the full authority of Israel’s two chief rabbis.

“A few minutes ago, I received the announcement from the Government Secretariat that the meeting of the ministerial committee [for legislation] had been canceled. Since there is no government stance on this matter, I plan to vote for the bill. I urge all MKs, especially those in the coalition, to join me and send a clear message to the High Court: Enough is enough,” Levin said after Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu canceled a scheduled meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.

The prime minister reportedly acted amid concerns over potential backlash from Diaspora organizations. Coalition whip Ofir Katz later stated that members of the coalition would be free to vote according to their conscience, and a spokesman for Netanyahu said he had “allowed freedom of voting.”

The bill, sponsored by MK Avi Maoz, is intended to counter a recent High Court ruling requiring the state to move forward with upgrading the egalitarian prayer plaza, a step rooted in the Kosel compromise approved nearly a decade ago. Maoz’s proposal would grant the Chief Rabbinate ultimate authority over all activity at the site and define any action contrary to its directives, including non-Orthodox prayer services, as a “desecration.”

Maoz declared that he would bring the bill for a preliminary reading and called “upon all members of the Knesset to stand up and vote for the integrity of the Kosel and against the High Court.”

Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Otzma Yehudit issued a joint statement that they “will support the Kosel law that will be put to a vote on Wednesday. It was so in the past, and it will be so now.” The Religious Zionism party similarly announced that it would back the legislation, stating that it would “ensure the integrity of the Kosel and preserve its sanctity.”

Within the WZO, members of the Orthodox bloc insist that their stance reflects the authentic voice of the majority. In their formal protest, they stated that they were pained by what they called an unnecessary provocation that harmed the sanctity of the Kosel, while reiterating that every Jew has the right to daven at the holiest site of the Jewish people, provided that it is done in accordance with halachah and the longstanding status quo under the guidance of the Chief Rabbinate.

“We, members of the Zionist Executive on behalf of the religious-Orthodox factions, hereby express protest and pain over the statement that was published, contrary to our position, and purportedly in the name of all members of the executive following the provocation carried out at the Kosel plaza by executive member Tami Gottlieb,” the statement reads.

“The Western Wall is a most significant Jewish symbol. We respect the right of every Jew to pray there in accordance with halachah and Jewish tradition, while maintaining the status quo that has been in place for decades and the directives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which was founded by Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Hakohein Kook. This is the position of millions of Jews in Israel and throughout the world, and we seek to express it clearly.

“We express our pain over the unnecessary provocation that harmed the sanctity of the site, which bears no connection to the compromise outline proposed by Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky and then-Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. We strengthen the hands of the Israel Police and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, who are entrusted with preserving the sanctity of the site and maintaining law and order in accordance with the directives of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate.”

{Matzav.com}

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri on Monday sharply condemned the arrest of a 28-year-old yungerman from Be’er Sheva, accusing authorities of persecuting Torah students under the enforcement of Israel’s military draft laws.

Speaking during his party’s weekly faction meeting, Deri criticized the detention of the married kollel member, who is the father of a child with special needs and whose wife is currently pregnant. The man was reportedly arrested for failing to report for service under the Security Service Law, a move that Shas officials described as a “persecution of Torah learners.”

“What cruelty and wickedness to arrest a 28-year-old avreich, with a pregnant wife and a child with special needs, and throw him into prison for the crime of studying Torah,” Deri told fellow party members. “The world should be shocked by the persecution of Torah learners. We must not become accustomed to this.”

Deri also linked the arrest to what he described as a spiritually sensitive period for the nation, arguing that such actions carry broader consequences. “How much accusation and judgment this brings upon the people of Israel precisely during the difficult period we are in,” he said.

His remarks come amid heightened political tensions surrounding efforts to regulate the status of yeshiva students and their exemption from military service. Chareidi parties have warned against stricter enforcement measures and have placed responsibility on both political and defense officials for the current situation.

{Matzav.com}

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on how the Supreme Court ruling against President Trump’s tariffs could affect Fed decisions: It’s too soon to know…This ruling is unlikely to have a significant impact on my view of the appropriate stance on policy.

Rep. Raskin on President Trump: As aspiring presidential dictators go, he is simply in a class by himself…Trump makes no pretense of respecting any part of the First Amendment.

UPDATE: The Levaya of Rebbetzin Shprintza Landau a”h will take place Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. at the Veretzky Shul, 1202 East 9th Street (corner of Avenue L) in Flatbush. The Kevurah will follow at Wellwood Cemetery, 1400 Wellwood Avenue, West Babylon, NY 11704. Besuros Tovois!

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party suffered losses in the 2024 presidential race in part because of the party’s approach to Israel’s war in Gaza, according to internal research cited by Axios. The report, based on confidential Democratic Party reviews, suggests that U.S. policy toward Israel under then-President Joe Biden alienated key […]

BDE: YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rebbetzin Shprintza Landau a”h, wife of the previous Veretzkier Rosh Yeshiva zt”l, and mother of the current Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Sholom Noach Landau, as well as the Veretzky Rav. She was niftar this morning at the age of 89 in her home. Notably, she attended […]

BREAKING: President Trump denies the reports in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Axios on the Pentagon’s concerns about a prolonged war against Iran.

Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Hachayal neighborhood has launched a new underground medical facility designed to hold roughly 200 patients, aiming to guarantee uninterrupted treatment during times of heavy missile fire.

The subterranean complex is intended to serve as a receiving center for patients transferred from public hospitals that lack sufficient fortification, allowing medical services to continue even under serious security threats.

Alongside the underground expansion, Assuta Medical Center Ramat HaHayal continues to operate reinforced above-ground operating rooms. During Operation Rising Lion, patients were moved to these protected surgical suites to undergo extended and complicated procedures.

Until now, the Ministry of Health’s standard policy during emergencies has been to shut down private medical institutions. However, insights gained from the Swords of Iron War and Operation Rising Lion prompted a reassessment of that approach.

Over the past two months, teams have worked intensively to equip the underground levels with the necessary infrastructure, including systems for medical gases, electricity, and communications, enabling a rapid shift to full inpatient hospitalization if required.

Dr. Shani Brosh, Head of the Medical Division at Assuta Medical Centers, emphasized: “In the past month or two, there has been very intensive activity. An agreement was signed, a contracting company was appointed, and infrastructure for medical gases, electricity, and communications was built to allow a move to underground complexes on the day of an order. Today, the infrastructure is in place and can accommodate about 200 hospitalized patients on behalf of other hospitals that do not have fortification.”

Assuta Medical Centers CEO Gidi Leshet said the project reflects a broader effort to strengthen Israel’s emergency preparedness. “Maintaining continuity of care as part of the health system’s emergency framework is a national mission, and part of our purpose – and we are proud to take part in its implementation.”

{Matzav.com}

A controversial door-to-door boycott campaign by pro-Palestinian activists in the UK is drawing fierce backlash after Jewish residents reported feeling intimidated in their own neighborhoods. According to a report by The Telegraph, activists linked to the “Apartheid-Free Zone” (AFZ) movement have been canvassing homes in Hackney, Bristol, Sheffield, and Brighton, urging residents to boycott Israeli […]