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President Donald Trump welcomed a group of Israelis who had endured captivity, bringing them to the White House on Thursday for a private gathering that was both emotional and deeply symbolic.

Throughout the meeting, Trump emphasized their transformation from victims to national role models. “You’re not a hostage anymore, today you’re heroes,” he told them, praising the strength they displayed under unimaginable conditions. He added that their resolve “united all Israelis” and inspired countless supporters internationally.

The president highlighted the ordeal of Matan Angrest, whose story was raised as an example of grit and unbroken morale. Trump described what Angrest had suffered: “Because of service in the IDF, Matan was subjected to severe beatings, even at times losing consciousness. And alone and under a special guard, he went through hell. I guess you really were. I’ve heard stories that were not good. Look at you, how good you look. It just made you tougher, right? It did, made you tougher. But Matan never broke, and today he’s a living testimony to the toughness, heart, and faith of the Jewish people. Great knowing you, you’re great inspiration to everybody, whether you’re Jewish or not.”

With that message of resilience, Trump concluded the gathering by personally presenting each freed hostage with a presidential challenge coin — a gesture often reserved for those who have displayed exceptional courage or service.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intensified his messaging Thursday night regarding the emerging draft-law proposal, using a new interview to sharpen his appeal to the chareidi public and to launch a fierce critique at the opposition.

Speaking to the Telegram channel “Abu Ali Express,” Netanyahu described the legislation as a historic breakthrough that would fundamentally reshape the integration of chareidim into military service.

“I hope to be the first prime minister in the history of Israel who actually passes a draft law,” Netanyahu said. “This law will bring 17,000 chareidim into the Israel Defense Forces within three years.”

He accused the opposition of working to sabotage the effort. “They defame the law, they’re trying to stop it. What have they done? They haven’t done anything. Seventeen thousand people — that’s a division and more.”

Netanyahu also directed part of his message inward, toward the chareidi community and its rabbinic leadership. “I expect the chareidi public to join this. I want the rabbanim to allow supporting it. This will be a major test.”

He dismissed claims circulating in some circles that the proposal is intended to preserve exemptions or prevent chareidim from serving.

“This is not a law to block service. This is a law that will bring thousands into the army in a very short time. How can anyone oppose that?”

{Matzav.com}

The Movement for Quality Government has called on Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to open disciplinary proceedings against Chaya Mashan, the senior official overseeing post-primary chareidi girls’ education in the Yerushalayim municipality, following the exposure of documents containing racist and degrading classifications of students.

In a letter sent today to the attorney general, the organization demanded an immediate investigation into Mashan’s reinstatement as coordinator of upper-secondary education for Yerushalayim’s Education Department, a role that includes responsibility for placement in the city’s chareidi seminaries.

“The subject of this request is the recent publication announcing the return of Ms. Chaya Mashan to her position as coordinator of upper-secondary education in the Yerushalayim municipality,” the group wrote.

The watchdog noted that in July 2024, Haaretz revealed Excel documents from the municipality that included detailed—and unauthorized—notations about students: parents’ marital status, the girl’s physical appearance, disabilities, health conditions of both the student and her family, and even the family’s connections to influential figures within the chareidi community.

Last Thursday, journalist Yoeli Brim exposed additional documents stored on municipal servers that used racial and humiliating labels such as: “kushim,” “large and fat,” “short mother and father,” “heavy Sephardi,” and “complex home, baalei teshuva, unmarried sisters.”

The municipality issued a response at the time, saying: “A clarifying conversation was held with the employee by the head of the department. During the meeting, procedures were reviewed in depth, and the employee was made aware of her mistake. Significant changes were also made in the department’s workflow. The spreadsheet in question, which was prepared in the past, was created privately and without the knowledge of her supervisors.”

In its letter, the Movement for Quality Government stressed that “given the severity of the findings and the sensitive position held by Ms. Chaya Mashan—who is responsible for the placement of thousands of girls into post-primary institutions—there is a heightened obligation to immediately open disciplinary proceedings under the Civil Service Disciplinary Law and fully investigate all circumstances of the affair, including the extent of her personal responsibility for the failures uncovered.”

The group also noted that “although the affair was exposed already in July 2024, the municipality’s stance—according to which Ms. Mashan should be returned to her position—raises questions about the authority’s willingness to conduct a thorough review of the failures, learn lessons, and act accordingly.”

The organization requested that the attorney general act under Section 11 of the Civil Service Disciplinary Law and file a formal complaint with the disciplinary court.

{Matzav.com}

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent disagrees with Elon Musk’s prediction that AI and tech advancements will mean work will become optional.

Eric Trump says if Zohran Mamdani tries to showboat, then Donald Trump wil showboat right back.

WATCH: NASA has launched a sounding rocket from Norway for a mission called GHOST.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced that the cutter USCGC Stone seized over 49,000 pounds of narcotics worth more than $362 million during operations in the Eastern Pacific. This offload marks the most amount of cocaine seized by a single Coast Guard vessel in one patrol.

Watch as Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, recently indicted in connection with the alleged misappropriation of $5 million in FEMA funds, claims the case against her is politically and racially motivated because shes black.

The FAA says more than 10,000 air-traffic controllers worked without pay during the government shutdown, yet only 776 are eligible for the proposed $10,000 “perfect attendance” bonus. Many controllers missed shifts because they couldn’t afford childcare, fuel, or transportation. The staffing strain forced the FAA to reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 major U.S. […]

According to the NYP, senior U.S. officials have confirmed a 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. Kyiv has already met with Washington and signaled agreement to most of the blueprint, which includes territorial freezes, troop limits, Ukraine’s neutrality, and a U.S.-led peace council. In exchange, the U.S. promises security guarantees, coordination of […]

The DOJ has sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom over a state measure giving illegal immigrants access to in-state tuition benefits, arguing it violates federal law by forcing out-of-state U.S. citizens to pay more, calling it “unequal treatment.” The DOJ has filed similar lawsuits in other states, including Minnesota, where the case was delayed during the […]

At least two people are receiving medical treatment after a fire was reported in the underground trolley system connecting the U.S. Capitol buildings and the Rayburn House Office Building.

In a major operation in southern Rafah, IDF forces uncovered the vast underground tunnel network where kidnapped soldier Hadar Goldin Hy”d had been held in recent years. Goldin fell in battle during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and until now, the full scope of the location where his body was concealed had remained unknown.

The discovery was made during a Southern Command mission involving the elite Yahalom engineering unit together with Shayetet 13 naval commandos. According to the army, the tunnel system was one of the most significant and complex underground routes exposed in Gaza to date.

Military footage showed the extensive subterranean passage, stretching more than seven kilometers at a depth of approximately 25 meters below ground. The tunnel ran beneath a densely populated residential neighborhood near the Philadelphi Corridor and extended beneath sensitive civilian areas, including a United Nations Relief and Works Agency compound, several mosques, medical clinics, kindergartens, and schools.

Inside the underground route, soldiers found roughly 80 rooms. These included command centers used by senior Hamas officials to store weapons, operate for extended periods, and plan terror attacks against IDF forces. Among the high-ranking commanders who used the complex was the Rafah Brigade commander, terrorist Muhammad Shabana.

IDF officials emphasized that the tunnel system demonstrated once again how Hamas embedded military infrastructure underneath civilian neighborhoods and humanitarian sites, endangering the local population while using them as shields.

{Matzav.com}

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York took to the Senate floor today to criticize Republicans for what he called a dangerous refusal to condemn antisemitic rhetoric, following white nationalist Nick Fuentes’s interview with Tucker Carlson and Fuentes’s growing public platform. BELOW ARE HIS REMARKS: Jewish Americans are facing threats, harassment, and violence at […]

PHOTOS: Catskills Hatzalah’s Annual Appreciation Dinner took place last night at its Fallsburg headquarters, bringing together Law enforcement, and Emergency Services leadership from Sullivan, Ulster, Orange, and nearby counties, as well as regional hospital executives, and area elected officials. The event underscores Catskills Hatzalah’s ongoing effort to broaden and strengthen its collaboration across the region.

PHOTOS: Rabbi Moshe Margeratten of the Tzedek Association attended the White House meeting where President Trump met with the Israeli hostages and their families.

President Donald Trump gifts his presidential challenge coin to freed Israeli hostages at the White House.

PELOSI: “[Donald Trump] is the worst President that American children have ever had in terms of their health, their education, the clean safe environment in which they can thrive.”

Trump plans huge oil drilling expansion off California and Alaska coasts • The Department of Interior proposed 34 offshore oil lease sales through 2031. • The Trump program would include lease sales in 21 areas off Alaska’s coast, six off the Pacific coast and seven in the Gulf of Mexico. • The Trump program would […]

The cost of a Thanksgiving meal is down 5% this year, but Americans still feel strained by high food prices, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Farm Bureau’s yearly look at the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes 10 servings of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray, and […]