Knesset Member Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, issued a sharply worded response on Wednesday to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara after she released a statement voicing her opposition to the government’s proposed draft law.
Bismuth accused the attorney general of attempting to divert public attention, writing on X: “Nice attempt, Adv. Miara, to deflect the discussion with your legal opinion, precisely on the day when dark questions are being raised regarding your involvement in the Sde Teiman affair. Nice try, but not this time.”
His comments came amid renewed controversy surrounding the investigation into the alleged leak in the Sde Teiman case. According to a report published yesterday by journalist Avishai Greenzweig on the i24NEWS website, Deputy Military Advocate for Operational Matters Gal Asael—appointed by Baharav-Miara to examine the leak—told police investigators that he acted with full coordination with senior officials in the State Prosecutor’s Office.
During his interrogation, when police accused him of conducting a negligent review, Asael reacted sharply and directed blame squarely at the attorney general.
“Not only am I not negligent, but there is no action I took for which I did not receive praise from the attorney general’s office,” Asael reportedly said. He added that senior prosecutors had described his review as “thorough and serious,” noting that the attorney general’s office had used that description in subsequent filings to the High Court. “So what do you want from me?” he asked.
Asael further insisted that every step he took was guided and supervised by the attorney general’s office. “All my actions were accompanied and directed by the attorney general’s bureau, which is well-versed in leak investigations and has far more experience than I do in this field. There is nothing criminal here on my part,” he said.
{Matzav.com}
A ruling from the Supreme Court has set off a political earthquake in Texas, clearing the legal obstacles for the state to overhaul its congressional map. According to Rep. Keith Self, the decision could translate into a significant windfall of House seats for Republicans in 2026 and dramatically alter the national electoral landscape.
Speaking with Newsmax, Self said the outcome was long expected and entirely logical. “Well, frankly, we knew it was going to happen. It makes sense,” he remarked on Wake Up America Early, projecting a substantial jump in GOP representation. “We will go from 25 to 30 Republicans. We will add to our largest Republican delegation in Congress, and we will have 30 seats.”
Even with several senior lawmakers preparing to retire, Self noted that the incoming seats would keep the Texas GOP delegation heavily fortified. “We’re going to lose some tremendous voices. Chairman [Michael] McCaul, Chairman [Jodey] Arrington, in the next term. But we’re going to add five seats. I think we will continue to be a major force.”
The conversation turned next to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Dallas Democrat now attempting to unseat longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Her rising national presence, fueled by persistent media visibility, was characterized by Self as emblematic of a Democratic Party he views as led by its most ideological flank. “Look, the Progressive left controls the Democrat Party today. You look at AOC, you look at Jasmine Crockett. [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders is now the patron saint of the Democrat Party,” he said. “I will tell you, I think that they are making waves across the Democrat Party.”
Self said the party’s centrists have been pushed to near extinction. “The moderate Democrat is almost a dinosaur today,” he argued, adding that he would be “delighted” to see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Crockett leading the Democratic ticket in 2028. “They now rule the Democrat Party, the Progressive left,” he declared.
As immigration and cultural debates continue to dominate Texas politics, Self reiterated his long-standing warnings about ideological clashes with Western values. “It’s absolutely anathema, incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, with the ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence, with our rule of law, we are built on the freedom of the individual,” he said, referring to Islam and Sharia law.
He urged Americans to draw lessons from global history. “I mean, this is what they do,” he said. “History tells us we need to be very cautious about this, and we need to take the steps to defend our Western culture, our Western civilization, built on the freedom of the individual, consistent with civil society. They do not believe that.”
The discussion concluded with the economy, where Self credited President Donald Trump and GOP-led tax policy for early signs of improvement. “Well, I will tell you, the economy is starting to, we’re starting to see life in the economy,” he said. The Working Families Tax Cuts Act, approved less than half a year ago, is beginning to show results, he argued.
He predicted that the impact would soon become unmistakable. “I think the big change will come when they see their federal income tax returns,” he said. “So let’s just give it a few more months. We’re starting to see the green shoots of it. It’s going to explode soon.”
{Matzav.com}
Internal debate inside the Trump administration has intensified as senior officials explore imposing terrorism-related penalties on UNRWA, a move that has sparked fierce legal and humanitarian objections from within the State Department. Two individuals directly familiar with the conversations said the discussions have advanced far enough to alarm diplomats overseeing the U.N. portfolio.
UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, serves as a critical provider of education, food distribution, medical care, and emergency shelter. U.N. leaders and members of the Security Council have repeatedly described the agency as the backbone of humanitarian operations in Gaza, where the two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas has produced catastrophic suffering.
The administration has taken a sharply different view, insisting the agency is compromised by Hamas ties—an accusation UNRWA has forcefully rejected. Washington, once the agency’s principal funder, halted all support in January 2024 after Israel alleged that several UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas assault that set off the war in Gaza.
The confrontation escalated further when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged in October that UNRWA had become “a subsidiary of Hamas,” a statement that sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles. Despite this rhetoric, insiders say administrators have not settled on whether they are considering sanctions against the entire organization or targeting only specific personnel or operations.
Among the ideas circulating is an FTO designation—labeling UNRWA a “foreign terrorist organization.” The sources said this has been debated at various points, though it remains unclear if it is still under active consideration. Such a label would financially suffocate the agency and sever it from support networks worldwide.
Officials warning against the move caution that disrupting UNRWA outright could devastate relief efforts for millions of displaced Palestinians already struggling amid a severe funding shortfall. The consequences, they argue, could be swift and dangerously destabilizing for the region.
Sanctioning a U.N. agency on terrorism grounds would be a dramatic departure from precedent, particularly given that the United States serves both as a founding member of the United Nations and its host nation. UNRWA was established in 1949 through a U.N. mandate designed to address post-war displacement.
William Deere, who oversees UNRWA’s Washington office, said the agency would be “disappointed” if speculation about an FTO designation proves accurate. He stressed that such a step would be “both unprecedented and unwarranted.” Deere added, “Since January 2024, four independent entities have investigated UNRWA’s neutrality including the U.S. National Intelligence Council. While occurring at different times and from different perspectives, they have all come to the same conclusion: UNRWA is an indispensable, neutral, humanitarian actor.”
A State Department official, responding to a request for comment, took the opposite tack, describing UNRWA as a “corrupt organization with a proven track record of aiding and abetting terrorists.” The official added, “Everything is on the table. No final decisions have yet been made.” The White House declined to comment.
While Washington has a broad menu of sanctions tools—including targeted asset freezes and travel bans—an FTO designation ranks among the severest, typically used only for entities known for intentional attacks on civilians, such as branches of al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.
The possibility of labeling any part of UNRWA as terrorist-linked also raises thorny diplomatic questions about whether foreign governments that fund the agency could themselves be exposed to secondary sanctions. Many of America’s closest allies finance UNRWA’s operations.
The U.N. has acknowledged that nine employees may have been involved in the Oct. 7 attack and were dismissed. Additionally, intelligence later revealed that a Hamas commander killed in Lebanon held a job with the agency. The U.N. has pledged to investigate every allegation thoroughly and continues to request documentation from Israel, which it says has not supplied the evidence it asserts exists.
Those who have followed the internal deliberations say career diplomats and legal experts have repeatedly raised alarms over both humanitarian implications and the legal defensibility of such sanctions. They noted that political appointees have largely driven the push to penalize the agency, while seasoned State Department personnel have urged caution.
One source said the issue has recently been taken up by the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism and by members of the Policy Planning Staff, emphasizing how seriously some within the administration view the matter. Gregory LoGerfo, nominated to lead the counterterrorism bureau, has recused himself from all UNRWA-related deliberations pending Senate confirmation.
Israel has long advocated dismantling the agency, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branding UNRWA as an institution that fuels anti-Israeli hostility. As of Jan. 30, Israel formally barred UNRWA from operating on Israeli-controlled land—including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed unilaterally—and suspended all coordination with its personnel. Despite a U.S.-mediated peace agreement between Israel and Hamas in October, ceasefire breaches remain frequent, and substantive advancements toward the agreement’s broader objectives have been slow.
The U.N. continues to report alarming casualty figures among its field staff, noting that more than 370 UNRWA employees have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began.
{Matzav.com}
As lawmakers continue struggling to push through a new draft law, a behind-the-scenes uproar erupted Tuesday over an attempt to slash funding for bnei yeshiva. United Torah Judaism announced early on that it would fight the move, while today, Shas rushed to release its own statement claiming the issue had already been resolved — sparking an embarrassing tussle over who deserved credit. Questions also resurfaced about a long-standing promise to anchor yeshiva funding in the state budget, a commitment that has never been fulfilled.
Although chareidi MKs are formally not part of the coalition, they are expected to support the state budget — reportedly in exchange for passage of a draft law, as pledged by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Meanwhile, efforts to chip away at support for the Olam HaTorah have not subsided.
This time, the budget for yeshiva students was at risk. Treasury officials, together with legal advisers, attempted to reduce funding by lowering the “point value,” the mechanism through which yeshivas receive state support per student.
The first to detect the move was Degel HaTorah chairman MK Moshe Gafni, who issued a statement Tuesday warning:
“The yeshiva budget is expected to drop sharply this month in the point value compared to previous months. This does not concern students who are obligated to enlist according to law, but rather avreichim and foreign students who are fully entitled to this support.”
Gafni added: “It is absurd that the legal advisers are preventing use of funds approved by the government and the Knesset for those eligible. I have contacted all relevant officials to address this immediately. We will not allow this to pass quietly!”
Later, UTJ released an official statement announcing that MK Uri Maklev would convene the faction before the Knesset plenary to address what they called “harassment by the bureaucracy and the Attorney General’s Office against the yeshiva budget.” Shas, at that time, remained silent.
Today, after chareidi lawmakers managed to settle the dispute with the prime minister, Shas rushed to issue the first announcement claiming the matter had been resolved — positioning themselves as the ones who delivered the solution.
The Shas statement read: “Good news for the Olam HaTorah: Through the efforts of Shas chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri, the funds cut from the yeshiva world have been restored, and the point value will once again stand at approximately 400, as it did at the start of the year. As is known, due to the intervention of the legal advisers, the point value was cut this year to 320. This issue has now been settled.”
The party added: “Shas will continue fighting within the 2026 budget to raise the point value to the highest level it has ever been.”
UTJ published its own statement more than 50 minutes later, saying: “The UTJ faction convened this morning for an urgent session following the harassment by the bureaucracy and Attorney General’s Office against the yeshiva budget. Through the efforts of MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, funds were reallocated so the point value will not be reduced this month and will be paid at the same rate as in previous months.”
But their release also included a familiar — and embarrassing — pledge: “We will continue working to ensure that the yeshiva budget is included in the base budget for the coming academic year.”
The statement concluded by noting that funding for foreign students and welfare-related institutions “has still not been resolved,” and that the faction would continue working to address the issue.
What Is the “Point Value”?
The “point value” is the fixed amount the government pays a yeshiva per student, with each student type assigned a specific number of points. The total points determine how much state support the institution receives.
A yeshiva student typically counts as one point (around NIS 476–480), while a full-day kollel student is weighted at about 1.8 points (roughly NIS 846).
Nearly two years ago, the High Court ruled on aspects of this system, affecting how support is calculated. The government nevertheless found ways to continue funding yeshivas within the basic framework.
The Elusive Goal: Embedding Yeshiva Funding in the Base Budget
UTJ once again pledged — as it has many times in the past — to anchor the yeshiva budget directly into the state’s base budget rather than relying on coalition allocations. Despite repeated promises before and after elections, this goal has never been achieved.
During the Bennett–Lapid government, when chareidi parties sat in the opposition, the issue took on renewed urgency, and chareidi politicians declared that the next coalition would surely resolve it. That did not happen.
The central question remains: Why did chareidi lawmakers repeatedly agree to rely on temporary coalition funds for something so essential to their constituency, instead of legislating permanent funding in Knesset law?
One insider said: “Maybe we were complacent, thinking we’d be in power for 200 years and would never be thrown out. Bennett, Lapid, and Lieberman taught us a lesson. If we do even half of what they’re doing now, we’ll break records.”
MK Uri Maklev, who headed multiple coalition negotiations for UTJ, described the dilemma as a cost-benefit analysis: “The natural growth of the yeshiva world is ‘unnatural,’ so for every three million shekels we wanted to add, there were days of arguments. We exhausted every negotiation. We fought every time, but you have to know what’s worth fighting for and what isn’t.”
According to Maklev, the Treasury often offered a large one-time sum versus a much smaller permanent increase in the base budget. With many other community needs on the table, the chareidi parties opted for the one-time boosts.
Not everyone accepts that explanation. Some political insiders — including chareidi figures — argued that electoral considerations played a part:
“The truth is it served our political interest. It ensured people would keep voting for us.”
Others within Shas and UTJ rejected that claim: “This is not the only reason we’re in the Knesset. We have many other responsibilities. The yeshiva budget is not the centerpiece of our campaign messaging. Anyone saying otherwise just wants to provoke.”
Some critics pointed at former Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni: “He was the father and mother of the Finance Committee. How did he not insist this be included every budget cycle? Look at how Koushner is operating now — without brakes.”
Gafni responded sharply: “It’s ingratitude. I didn’t travel abroad; I worked day and night to approve every shekel — battling legal advisers and the media. I added 840 million shekels to the base budget when previously there were only 200 million. To claim I stopped incorporation of the yeshiva budget into the base budget, as if I’m in some internal election — it’s nonsense. It doesn’t interest me.”
Former Shas minister Meshulam Nahari added: “The entire chareidi funding framework is flawed. During the 2009 coalition talks, we had a genuine chance to legislate this and activate the automatic-growth mechanism, but it was lost due to political mistakes. This must be fixed through legislation. We cannot remain beggars.”
{Matzav.com}
