Feed aggregator

[Videos below.] A late-night attempt by Israeli military police to arrest a yeshiva bochur classified as a draft evader ended with his release after hundreds of chareidim rushed to the scene, blocked the roadway and prevented authorities from taking him into custody.

The dramatic confrontation unfolded at 20 Ya’ar Yerushalayim Street in Modiin-Maccabim-Reut, near Modiin Illit. According to reports from the Tzeva Shachor organization, military police arrived at the young man’s home shortly before midnight. The bochur, Yair, is reportedly scheduled to get married in just several weeks.

His rov, Rav Dor Salti, said the young man’s parents, who were abroad, had learned two days earlier that military police were searching for their son and contacted him about the situation.

“Two minutes before midnight, military police soldiers knocked on the door and his sister opened it. They didn’t let him change his clothes, because he was already in pajamas,” Rav Salti said.

Word of the arrest attempt spread rapidly, and within a short period dozens of protesters began arriving from nearby Modiin Illit and surrounding communities. Their numbers soon swelled into the hundreds as demonstrators sought to prevent the military police from removing the bochur from the building.

Stormy confrontations erupted both inside the building and outside it as the crowd surrounded the area. Demonstrators repeatedly shouted, “Yair, we are with you,” while others moved into the roadway and blocked traffic.

As the standoff continued, protesters sitting and standing in the street began singing “Utzu eitzah vesufar,” as additional people continued arriving at the scene.

Police said during the incident that officers from the Modiin station were responding to a public disturbance that had developed during a military police operation to arrest a draft evader. Large numbers of police officers were dispatched to extract the military personnel from the area and restore order.

As the situation escalated, the Central District Police declared the incident a district-level emergency requiring an intensified response. Large contingents of Israel Police, Yasam riot-control officers and Border Police personnel from the Central District and the Shfela region were summoned to the scene.

At the same time, negotiations reportedly began between police officials and activists from Tzeva Shachor, the organization that mobilizes in response to arrests of bnei yeshivos over military-service issues.

According to reports from the scene, an agreement was ultimately reached under which the bochur would be released and the demonstrators would disperse.

Military police subsequently released Yair, bringing the hours-long confrontation to an end without his being taken into military detention.

Following his release, the bochur traveled to the entrance of Modiin Illit, where supporters gathered around him and celebrated the outcome of the standoff.

{Matzav.com}

An Israeli medical student who helped subdue and handcuff the Omani terrorist who allegedly tried to crash a Flydubai passenger jet into Israel has revealed new details of the extraordinary struggle aboard the aircraft, including a moment when passengers debated whether they needed to kill the attacker because they feared he remained armed with a knife.

Adar Hayot, who was aboard Flydubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was among the passengers who rushed into the cockpit after Captain Smit Machchhar, despite suffering severe injuries, managed to open the cockpit door during the Sept. 30 attack.

Hayot described the enormity of what happened — and how narrowly the passengers escaped death.

“It is very difficult to process, as a passenger who was on the plane, that in the situation where I was lucky, I am alive — and in any other situation, I am dead,” Hayot said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 13.

Inside the cockpit, Hayot found Machchhar badly wounded after being attacked by co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national who investigators say struck the captain repeatedly with the cockpit’s emergency crash axe while attempting to seize control of the Boeing 737 MAX.

“There was a pool of blood around his head, and I turned him over, but it was impossible to do that because the terrorist was still on his feet,” Hayot recalled. “In order to turn Smit over, we had to move the terrorist — and he still had not been neutralized.”

With al-Hammami still posing a potential threat, another passenger produced plastic zip ties. Hayot used them to restrain the attacker tightly enough that he would be unable to break free.

“Then I saw that he didn’t have a knife. I tightened the zip ties so that no matter how much he resisted — he would not be able to free himself,” Hayot said.

But before the passengers were certain that al-Hammami had been disarmed, Hayot said they faced a chilling question: whether they might have to kill him to protect themselves and everyone else aboard the aircraft.

“We were afraid he had a knife. We debated whether we needed to kill him — but we didn’t really have a way to do it,” he said.

Other passengers have described the confusion that erupted after the cockpit was breached, saying they initially did not know whether additional members of the Flydubai crew might be involved in the attack. At one point, a confrontation reportedly broke out when crew members objected to the way passengers were handling the subdued al-Hammami.

“You are not God, you cannot kill him,” flight attendants told the Israeli passengers, according to passenger testimony.

“We just wanted him not to kill us,” one of the passengers responded.

Despite the passengers’ fears, they ultimately took steps to keep al-Hammami alive, including placing an oxygen mask over his face so that he could survive and later be questioned by investigators.

The UAE investigation has since determined that the other foreign pilots aboard the aircraft did not cooperate with al-Hammami at any stage of the attack. Two off-duty pilots who were traveling aboard the flight ultimately took control of the aircraft and safely diverted it to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Investigators now believe al-Hammami’s plot was planned long before he boarded Flight 1073. According to officials familiar with his interrogation, he specifically sought employment with an airline that operated flights to Israel.

“I checked which of them flew to Tel Aviv. That’s why I chose Flydubai. I planned it even before I was hired,” al-Hammami reportedly told investigators.

Investigators have also learned that al-Hammami allegedly contemplated carrying out an attack aboard an earlier flight to Tel Aviv but backed out of that plan. Authorities are examining reports that he abandoned the earlier attempt because someone he knew was aboard that flight.

An Israeli investigative team traveled to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to participate in the interrogation and investigation alongside Emirati authorities and security personnel from other countries. Investigators are examining whether al-Hammami had previously flown into Israel as a crew member and whether he had conducted reconnaissance ahead of the attack.

The current assessment among Israeli investigators is that al-Hammami likely acted alone, although authorities continue examining whether he received assistance, direction or encouragement from another party. No conclusive evidence has been publicly presented tying him to Iran or another foreign government or terrorist organization.

The investigation has simultaneously exposed troubling questions about the procedures that allowed Omani nationals — including aviation personnel — to enter Israel despite Oman having no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Official figures presented in Israel show that at least 10 Omani citizens entered the country in 2022, followed by 29 in 2023, nine in 2024 and 11 in 2025, with additional Omani nationals entering during 2026.

Separate reporting has indicated that dozens of Omani pilots and crew members have landed at Ben Gurion Airport aboard Flydubai flights in recent years, prompting an examination of whether the arrangements governing those flights were properly followed.

Under the aviation arrangements in question, aircrew members from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel were reportedly supposed to possess diplomatic passports issued by a country that does maintain relations with Israel. The repeated arrival of Omani personnel has therefore raised questions about whether that requirement was enforced and which Israeli authority was responsible for verifying compliance.

Israeli officials have acknowledged that they cannot currently state with certainty that the required procedure was followed in every case.

“The working assumption is that it did not happen, but we cannot say that with certainty,” the Transportation Ministry acknowledged.

The controversy has deepened amid revelations that Israel received information about the Flydubai flight’s crew, including names and nationalities, yet al-Hammami was not flagged before the aircraft departed Dubai. Conflicting accounts have emerged over which Israeli government or security body was responsible for checking that information and when the relevant lists were received.

The security questions are particularly serious because al-Hammami had reportedly already been identified as a concern while working for Oman Air. Authorities say he was removed from flying duties for a period after extremist material was discovered in his possession, yet he was subsequently able to obtain employment with Flydubai and fly the route to Israel.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump said that he personally believes Iran was responsible for the attempted terror attack aboard Flydubai Flight 1073, going further than both Israeli investigators and senior U.S. officials, who say they have not yet found conclusive evidence tying Tehran to the plot.

Asked by a reporter outside the White House whether he believes Iran was responsible for the Sept. 30 attack, Trump gave an unequivocal response.

“I do. I personally do,” Trump said.

The president did not elaborate on what information led him to that conclusion. His comments came just hours after Vice President JD Vance said U.S. intelligence officials had yet to establish an Iranian connection.

“That’s something that I defer to (CIA Director) John Ratcliffe and some of the intelligence folks on,” Vance said. “I don’t want to get ahead of any announcements there, but it’s certainly something that we’re looking at. But I wouldn’t say I’ve seen anything conclusively just yet.”

Trump’s assessment also differs from the preliminary conclusion reached by Israeli investigators, who currently believe that 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami likely acted as a lone wolf. Israeli officials have stressed that the investigation remains active and that all possibilities, including potential assistance or direction from Iran or another outside organization, are still being examined.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has likewise repeatedly declined to attribute the attack to Iran, saying investigators need additional evidence before determining whether al-Hammami had accomplices or was operating on behalf of Tehran.

“We will get to the bottom of this. We will investigate whether the pilot had accomplices and whether Iran was behind him. I think we will know very soon,” Netanyahu said last week.

The investigation, led by the United Arab Emirates with participation from Israeli and other international authorities, has expanded considerably as officials reconstruct al-Hammami’s background, travel, employment history and apparent radicalization.

Al-Hammami is accused of attacking Captain Smit Machchhar with an emergency crash axe while the Flydubai aircraft was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with more than 170 passengers and crew aboard, most of them Israelis. Investigators believe his objective was to seize control of the Boeing 737 MAX and deliberately crash it into Israel.

The aircraft plunged thousands of feet during the struggle in the cockpit before the badly wounded Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers and Flydubai personnel rushed inside and overpowered al-Hammami, while two off-duty pilots aboard the flight subsequently took control and made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Investigators now believe al-Hammami had planned the attack well before the Sept. 30 flight. Officials familiar with the investigation say he intended to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport or another major target in the Tel Aviv area.

Authorities are also examining evidence that al-Hammami had contemplated attacking another Israel-bound flight earlier in the year but abandoned that plan, reportedly because someone he knew was aboard the aircraft.

The suspect’s background has raised serious questions about how he was permitted to serve as a Flydubai co-pilot on a flight to Israel. Al-Hammami had previously worked as a trainee pilot for Oman Air, where he was reportedly identified as a security concern after extremist material was discovered in his possession. He was removed from flying duties for approximately a year but was permitted to continue working in an administrative capacity.

Investigators have since uncovered a broader trail of extremist material and online activity, including reported expressions of support for Al Qaeda figures. Authorities in several countries where al-Hammami previously lived, studied or trained are now examining whether he developed extremist contacts during those periods.

Despite those findings, investigators have not publicly produced evidence showing that al-Hammami received orders, money, training or operational assistance from Iran. Israeli investigators’ preliminary assessment remains that he probably acted independently, although officials have cautioned that the probe is far from complete.

Trump had already raised the possibility of Iranian involvement shortly after the attack. Asked on Oct. 1 whether he had been briefed about a possible link between al-Hammami and Iran, the president suggested that information reaching him pointed in that direction.

“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now,” Trump said.

Asked at the time whether al-Hammami might have been trained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Trump replied, “Could have been.”

Trump also warned Tehran that the consequences would be severe if investigators ultimately determine that Iran directed or assisted the attack.

“They’ll be hit very hard. Don’t worry about it, you just ask them.”

The president’s latest comments Monday were more definitive than those earlier remarks. Instead of saying merely that investigators were examining a possible Iranian connection, Trump stated that he personally believes Tehran was responsible, even as the official investigations have yet to establish such a link.

The question of Iranian involvement carries particularly high stakes because the United States and Iran remain at war more than seven months after Trump ordered the opening round of U.S. strikes against Iran as part of an effort to eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program.

Trump has repeatedly said Iran will never be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon and has predicted that Tehran will ultimately agree to terms ending the conflict, possibly following the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections.

For now, however, the Flydubai investigation presents an unusual divergence: Trump says he personally believes Iran was behind the attempted attack, while Israeli investigators currently lean toward the conclusion that al-Hammami acted alone and Vance says U.S. intelligence has not yet shown him anything conclusive.

{Matzav.com}

Americans are virtually certain to turn their clocks back again on Nov. 1, with legislation to make daylight saving time permanent stalled in the Senate despite overwhelming House approval and an increasingly aggressive campaign by President Donald Trump to get the measure passed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has expressed serious doubts that the Sunshine Protection Act can attract the 60 votes necessary to advance through the Senate, leaving the bipartisan measure without a clear path forward before this year’s return to standard time.

The timing alone effectively guarantees another clock change. The Senate adjourned last week ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections and is holding only pro forma sessions during the recess. Senators are not expected to resume their regular legislative schedule until the week of Nov. 9 — more than a week after daylight saving time ends.

Under current federal law, daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1. In most of the country, clocks will move back one hour, giving Americans the familiar extra hour of sleep while bringing sunset an hour earlier.

The House overwhelmingly approved the Sunshine Protection Act in July by a bipartisan 308-117 vote, with 193 Republicans and 114 Democrats supporting the measure. The legislation would end the twice-a-year clock changes and establish daylight saving time as the year-round standard for most of the country.

States that already remain on standard time throughout the year would not be forced to adopt daylight saving time, and the legislation provides a mechanism for states to choose permanent standard time instead.

Trump has thrown his weight behind the effort, repeatedly pressing Senate Republicans to act and portraying the issue as a simple quality-of-life change that enjoys broad public support. He has argued that additional evening daylight would benefit families, businesses, sports and recreation while also improving public safety.

The president’s campaign for permanent daylight saving time has become unusually intense in recent days, particularly because of opposition from Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican who is ordinarily a close Trump ally.

“Everybody in Arkansas, Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill. It’s called, ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ or, ‘We Don’t Want to Change Our Clocks Twice a Year Act,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend.

Trump subsequently urged Arkansas residents to contact Cotton and publicly posted what he identified as the senator’s personal cellphone number.

“To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself,” Trump said.

The pressure campaign quickly attracted widespread attention, and Cotton’s voicemail was reportedly full after Trump posted the number. Cotton, however, has shown no indication that he intends to change his position.

Cotton agrees that changing clocks twice each year is unpopular, but he strongly opposes making daylight saving time permanent. His principal concern is that doing so would push sunrise much later during winter, forcing many children to travel to school before daylight and requiring workers to commute in darkness.

“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter. Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”

The disagreement reflects the larger obstacle that has repeatedly prevented Congress from settling the daylight saving time debate: while there is substantial support for ending the twice-yearly clock changes, lawmakers remain divided over which time should become permanent.

Supporters of permanent daylight saving time favor keeping more sunlight in the afternoon and evening, arguing that later sunsets encourage outdoor activity, recreation and consumer spending. Businesses connected to golf and other outdoor activities have been among the proposal’s supporters.

Opponents argue that standard time more closely follows the body’s natural circadian rhythm and avoids exceptionally late winter sunrises, particularly in northern parts of the country. Parents and school-safety advocates have also raised concerns about children waiting for buses or walking to school in darkness.

Those geographical differences have complicated the politics of the bill. Senators representing southern and coastal states have generally shown greater enthusiasm for permanent daylight saving time, while some lawmakers from northern states have been more skeptical because winter sunrise already comes relatively late in their communities.

Thune, whose home state of South Dakota would experience particularly late winter sunrises under permanent daylight saving time, has acknowledged that concern. He previously voted against the proposal in committee and has questioned whether supporters can assemble the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles.

Other Republican senators have also voiced reservations, while Democrats are divided as well, making the dispute considerably less partisan than many other issues currently before Congress.

Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said Monday that he favors having more daylight later in the day but remains uncertain that Congress can reach an agreement on the legislation. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has also expressed opposition to the permanent daylight saving time approach.

The United States has tried permanent daylight saving time before. Congress enacted year-round daylight saving time during the 1970s energy crisis, but the experiment quickly became unpopular, particularly as Americans encountered dark winter mornings. Congress ultimately reversed course.

Advocates say circumstances have changed considerably since then and argue that Americans increasingly organize work, school, shopping and recreation around evening hours. Critics contend that the basic problem of winter darkness in the morning has not changed at all.

The current legislation has been championed in the House by Florida Republicans Vern Buchanan and Greg Steube and in the Senate by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Florida lawmakers have pursued the change for years; the state approved its own Sunshine Protection Act in 2018, but federal law prevents Florida from implementing permanent daylight saving time without congressional action.

Steube celebrated the House vote in July as the culmination of an effort he began while serving in the Florida Legislature, recalling that frustration over the clock change first caught his attention during a conversation in a barbershop years ago.

Trump has continued to insist that the Senate should finish the job, presenting permanent daylight saving time as a broadly popular accomplishment Congress could deliver before the midterms. The White House has described the proposal as a bipartisan reform that would preserve evening daylight when Americans are most likely to be awake and active.

But barring an unexpected development while the Senate is away, the immediate question has effectively been settled for this year. Most Americans will once again move their clocks back one hour at 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, while the larger battle over whether the country should ever have to do it again remains unresolved.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by U.S. Army firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others in the 2009 terrorist attack at Fort Hood, clearing a major legal hurdle toward what would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 65 years.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision Monday night, saying Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended that Hasan be put to death by firing squad and Trump gave his approval. The secretary of the Army will now determine the date and location of the execution.

“Judgment day for Hasan has finally come,” Parnell wrote.

Hasan, now 56, has been on military death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since being convicted and sentenced to death by a court-martial in 2013. He was found guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

The massacre unfolded on November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, the sprawling Army installation in Texas now known as Fort Cavazos. Hasan, then an Army major and psychiatrist, entered the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, where troops were preparing for deployment, and began firing on the unarmed soldiers and others inside.

Witnesses said Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire. Twelve active-duty soldiers and retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Cahill were killed, while dozens of others were wounded.

Investigators determined that before the attack, Hasan had attended noon prayers at a mosque and then traveled to the processing center armed with a pistol and a .357 revolver. He deliberately went to an area where he knew large numbers of soldiers would be gathered and unarmed.

Hasan later made his intent unmistakable in a sanity board report.

“I shot to kill,” Hasan stated.

The shooting ended when Hasan exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers. He was struck multiple times and left paralyzed from the chest down.

The investigation into Hasan also uncovered contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Islamic cleric who became a senior al-Qaeda figure in Yemen and was later killed in a U.S. drone strike. Hasan had communicated with al-Awlaki before the massacre, and evidence presented in connection with the case documented his increasingly radical views.

During his 2013 court-martial, Hasan represented himself and made little effort to contest that he had carried out the killings. At one point, he said his actions were intended to protect “the Taliban, the leaders of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

His court-appointed standby attorneys became so concerned about his approach to the case that they argued he appeared to be deliberately seeking a death sentence. Hasan called no witnesses during the guilt phase and did not testify in his own defense.

A military jury convicted him in August 2013 and sentenced him to death. Under the military justice system, the sentence automatically triggered an extensive appeals process.

The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Hasan’s conviction and death sentence in 2020, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces upheld the sentence again in 2023.

Hasan subsequently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case, raising procedural objections involving the conduct of his trial, including the handling of disputes between Hasan and the attorneys assigned to assist him. On March 31, 2025, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.

Hegseth later moved to bring the lengthy case to an end. In September 2025, he publicly made clear that he wanted Hasan’s execution carried out.

“I am 100 percent committed to ensuring Nidal Hassan’s execution.”

“This brutal terrorist deserves the harshest legal punishment for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting,” Hegseth said at the time. “The victims and survivors deserve justice without delay.”

Trump’s approval is required under military law before a military death sentence can be carried out. The Pentagon said Monday that Hegseth recommended an Army firing squad as the method of execution and that Trump approved the recommendation.

Hasan is one of only a handful of prisoners currently under military death sentences. No member of the U.S. military has been executed since Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth on April 13, 1961, following his conviction for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl in Austria.

A military execution by firing squad would be even more historically unusual. The U.S. military has not carried out an execution by firing squad since 1945.

President George W. Bush approved another military death sentence during his presidency, but the planned execution was blocked by a federal court in 2008 and never carried out.

Hasan may still attempt additional litigation in federal court challenging the implementation of his death sentence, meaning Trump’s authorization does not necessarily guarantee that the execution will take place immediately.

For now, however, the final scheduling authority shifts to the Army, with the secretary of the Army responsible for setting the time and place of Hasan’s execution.

{Matzav.com}