Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sent a firm letter to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday evening, urging him to immediately move forward with enforcement actions targeting young chareidi men who are not reporting for military service, in accordance with a recent ruling by the High Court of Justice.
Baharav-Miara emphasized that the court’s decision—issued unanimously by a panel of five justices—determined that the government is failing to fulfill its obligation to ensure equal military conscription. She noted that the ruling requires the government to formulate effective, proportionate, and uniform enforcement policies that would supplement the military’s existing powers.
The attorney general pointed out that the High Court gave the government 45 days to finalize an enforcement framework and made it clear that benefits connected directly or indirectly to avoiding the draft should no longer be allowed.
Given that timeline, Baharav-Miara wrote that the government must now urgently begin developing a full enforcement plan that applies across all sectors. She stated that her office, working together with relevant professional ministries, has already prepared material and proposals for immediate civil enforcement tools that do not require legislation.
She offered to brief the prime minister or whoever he designates, adding that her office is fully prepared to assist in completing the required work.
{Matzav.com}
Senator John Fetterman used sharp language to call out Iran’s leadership after new reporting exposed the depth of the nation’s drought disaster. Responding to a Washington Post examination of Iran’s chronic water failures, he posted on X, “Iran spent billions to build a nuclear bomb and the proxies to destroy Israel instead of a water infrastructure.”
The senator followed with an even more direct rebuke, writing, “Iran or Gaza: stop attacking Israel and rebuild your own failed nations. Israel isn’t going anywhere.” His comments came as warnings mount that Tehran’s taps could run dry within weeks, with the capital already strained by a half-decade of drought.
The Washington Post report that triggered Fetterman’s reaction outlined how years of reckless water-use policies — particularly draining reserves for agricultural overproduction — have left the country with dangerously diminished supplies of clean water.
Analysts have long pointed out, and Fetterman echoed, that the Iranian regime has poured tens of billions into its nuclear ambitions and its network of terror groups throughout the region. Those funds, critics argue, could instead have been invested in desalination facilities and other lifesaving water-infrastructure projects needed to keep Iran’s population afloat.
{Matzav.com}
United Arab List leader MK Mansour Abbas pushed back forcefully this week when asked why he has not explicitly demanded the elimination of Hamas. Speaking on Channel 12, he responded pointedly, saying, “Maybe I don’t want them to assassinate me?” He reminded viewers that “since October 7th, I was interviewed a lot, I condemned [the attack], and I expressed sorrow and pain,” adding that he answers questions “as much as possible, what I can do, and what I can’t.”
During the broadcast, Abbas also addressed recent statements from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who implied that he intends to take steps toward banning Ra’am altogether. Abbas said the campaign against his party has been unrelenting, explaining, “I haven’t calmed down since yesterday. Since we were part of the previous coalition, there has been a political delegitimization campaign against us. There has also been incitement, accusations that we support terrorism, and they say that we are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The goal is to get us out of politics. Despite its expected loss in the next election, Netanyahu will refrain from forming an alternative government.”
He went on to describe what he sees as a sequence of actions that could threaten his party’s political future. “After the US decides to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, and affiliate us with them, disqualifying the Islamic Movement, the third step is to disqualify Ra’am from running in the next election,” he warned.
Abbas also criticized opposition leaders, arguing that they never accepted him or his faction as genuine partners. Reflecting on his entry into the previous coalition, he noted, “They allowed me to join the coalition in the ‘Government of Change’ (the previous government) only after I went to Netanyahu and he said that I was a legitimate partner. Only then did Lapid reach out to me, and we began to advance the formation of the government. They never gave me legitimacy, they never spoke with sympathy, love, or understanding.” He concluded with a sharp rebuke, saying he wants attention placed on the real challenges in Arab communities: “I don’t want them to talk about Ra’am, but rather about the problems in the Arab sector. Our blood spills in the street daily. Let them form a government without Ra’am.”
{Matzav.com}
A fresh national Gallup survey indicates that the share of American adults who say they have received a cancer diagnosis has climbed to its highest level on record. The poll found that 9.7% of adults reported having been told they had cancer during 2024–2025, a dramatic jump from 7.0% in 2008–2009.
For a number of years beginning in 2010, the percentage hovered only slightly above 7%, showing little movement. But over the last decade, the figure has risen steadily, marking a notable shift in long-term health trends.
Gallup points out that one of the central drivers of this increase is the fact that patients are surviving cancer in greater numbers and therefore remain part of the population reporting a diagnosis.
Data from the American Cancer Society reinforces that explanation. The organization says cancer deaths dropped by 1.7% per year from 2013 to 2022, and five-year survival rates have also strengthened — from 63% among those diagnosed in 1995–1997 to 69% among people diagnosed between 2014 and 2020.
Because more patients now outlive their disease, Gallup notes that the total number of Americans who can say they have ever received a diagnosis naturally continues to grow.
While cancer can affect individuals of all ages, the greatest concentration continues to be among older Americans, and the gap between age groups is expanding. Adults 65 and older saw a 3.4-point increase in reported diagnoses compared with Gallup’s 2008–2009 findings.
The latest poll shows that 21.5% of seniors said a medical professional had diagnosed them with cancer. Among adults aged 45 to 64, almost 9% reported the same.
According to the American Cancer Society, older age remains the single strongest risk factor for developing cancer. And with the U.S. Census Bureau projecting that people 65 and older will outnumber those under 18 by 2034, the upward trend is expected to intensify.
Gender differences also emerged in the latest Gallup numbers. Men now report a slightly higher lifetime diagnosis rate than women — 9.8% for men compared to 9.6% for women. Since 2008–2009, the share of men who say they’ve been diagnosed has climbed 3.6 points.
Gallup says the shift is partly due to major mortality improvements in cancers that historically hit men harder, such as lung and prostate cancer. Better PSA testing and sharp declines in smoking rates have contributed to the gains.
Women’s higher earlier totals stemmed largely from decades of breast cancer survivorship, especially among those diagnosed from roughly 1990 through 2010. Although breast cancer deaths are still declining, the pace of decline has slowed, and progress in reducing lung cancer mortality among women has lagged behind the improvements seen in men.
The broader takeaway from Gallup’s new findings is encouraging: more Americans are living through cancer than ever before. Still, with the nation’s population aging rapidly, the number of people who will report having had cancer at some point in their lives is poised to continue rising.
{Matzav.com}[Video below.] President Trump presided over this year’s White House turkey pardon with a barrage of jokes, needling political opponents, poking fun at his predecessor’s “autopen” signatures, and reviving last year’s birds for a second, “real” reprieve.
He opened by ribbing Joe Biden’s past ceremony, quipping that “Former President Joe Biden used an autopen for last year’s turkey pardons,” branding those signatures “totally invalid.” In Trump’s telling, Biden relied on the device so often that an autopen image now hangs in place of Biden’s portrait in the White House gallery.
The president said last year’s pair of turkeys — Peach and Blossom — had supposedly been routed toward processing until he stepped in. “The turkeys known as Peach and Blossom last year have been located and they were on their way to be processed… but I have stopped that journey and I am officially pardoning them, and they will not be served as Thanksgiving dinner,” he said with a grin.
This year’s stars, two hefty birds named Gobble and Waddle, were officially spared in the Rose Garden. Trump joked that their names almost took a more political turn. “When I first saw their pictures… I was going to call them [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck [Schumer] and [former House Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi], but then I realized I wouldn’t be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people,” he said, adding, “I wouldn’t care what Melania told me.”
The pair joins the long roster of clemency actions he has issued across his second term, with more than 1,700 pardons already granted along with numerous commutations, although updated totals have not yet been released.
Continuing the banter, Trump said staffers tried to pitch an outrageous gag about deporting the birds. “My more enthusiastic staffers were already drafting the paperwork to ship Gobble and Waddle straight through the terrorist confinement center in El Salvador, and even those birds don’t want to be there,” he said, tying it to his immigration enforcement policies.
He also veered into local politics, saying aides prepared a joke about Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker but he was too irritated to deliver it after reading about a Chicago commuter who suffered burns in an attack. Instead, he went off script, declaring, “The mayor is incompetent and the governor is a big fat slob.”
Trump then mocked the very joke his team had drafted about Pritzker. “Some speechwriter wrote some joke about his weight, but I would never want to talk about his weight I don’t talk about people being fat. I refuse to talk about the fact that he’s a fat slob… I’d like to lose a few pounds too, by the way. And I’m not going to lose it on Thanksgiving.”
WATCH:
{Matzav.com}
Israel’s security establishment reported late Tuesday that a Red Cross delegation handed over the coffin of a fallen hostage to IDF and ISA personnel inside Gaza. The remains are now being transported into Israel for a formal military reception attended by an IDF Rabbi.
Once the ceremony concludes, the coffin will be moved to the Health Ministry’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, where specialists will carry out the official identification. Only after the process is complete will the family receive formal notification.
Officials confirmed that the families of all fallen hostages were informed of the developments earlier in the day.
The handover followed an announcement from the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad declaring that they would return a hostage’s body at 4 p.m., saying the remains had been located in the central Gaza Strip and that the transfer would be coordinated with the Red Cross.
As the hour approached, the IDF released an update stating that Red Cross teams were en route to take possession of the body.
“According to information received, the Red Cross is on its way to the meeting point in the central Gaza Strip, where a coffin of a deceased hostage will be transferred into its custody,” the military stated.
The IDF also urged restraint from the public, adding, “The IDF requests that the public act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families. Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages.”
Shortly afterward, the IDF announced new information from the Red Cross: “According to information provided by the Red Cross, a coffin of a deceased hostage has been transferred into its custody and is on the way to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip.”
Well before the transfer took place, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a sharp rebuke to Islamic Jihad over its earlier statement identifying the location of items belonging to a deceased hostage. The PMO emphasized that “Israel views with severity the delay in their immediate transfer into its hands. This constitutes a further violation of the agreement. Israel demands the immediate return of the three deceased hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip.”
Despite Tuesday’s return of one set of remains, three bodies are still being held by terror groups: Israelis Dror Or and Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.
Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, a Negev Yasam officer, fell in combat at Kibbutz Alumim on October 7. Though wounded, he had rushed back into danger after leaving the hospital to assist during the assault. Communication with him ceased soon afterward. On January 31, 2024, he was officially declared fallen in battle and classified as a deceased hostage.
Dror Or, a well-known chef from Be’eri, was kidnapped from his home together with his three children, Alma, Noam, and nephew Liam, while his wife, Yonat, was murdered. Though the children were freed in earlier deals, Kibbutz Be’eri later confirmed on May 2 that Or had been murdered on the day of the attack and that Hamas continues to hold his body. He was 48.
Thai worker Sudthisak Rinthalak was seized while tending orchards in Be’eri. He, too, was murdered on October 7, and Hamas has kept his remains ever since. Rinthalak had been living in Israel since 2017, supporting his family back home in Thailand.
{Matzav.com}