Newly revealed transcripts from closed-door meetings of Israel’s security cabinet offer a rare window into the country’s calculus ahead of its June strikes on Iran, exposing deliberations that ranged from appeals for U.S. military support to attempts to destabilize Tehran’s regime and even kill Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Channel 13 reported Sunday that it had obtained extensive quotes from Israeli leaders and defense officials before and during the 12-day war, which began with surprise overnight strikes on June 13. The network will broadcast a full feature Tuesday, including an interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It did not say how it acquired the classified material. In a June 12 bunker meeting near Jerusalem, Netanyahu told ministers Israel faced an existential threat. “If we don’t act, we simply won’t be here,” he said, warning that Iran had already enriched uranium sufficient for up to nine bombs. He urged striking nuclear scientists and command centers, adding, “May God help us.” Senior military officials laid out objectives: destroy the Natanz nuclear facility, target figures tied to weaponization, and disrupt Tehran with mass strikes. But they acknowledged Israel lacked the capacity to penetrate the fortified Fordo site without U.S. bunker-buster munitions. “Fordo will be destroyed only if the U.S. attacks it,” one official said. Transcripts show Israeli leaders worked aggressively to secure American assistance. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer described Netanyahu pressing President Donald Trump to provide aerial refueling planes and to consider a direct strike on Fordo. Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured him support was being arranged. By June 13, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir reported “extraordinary achievements” from the opening wave, but added that American cooperation could accelerate the campaign: “If the U.S. cooperates with us, we can make the hit within 48 hours.” While publicly Israel framed the operation around nuclear facilities, the transcripts indicate broader ambitions. Ministers debated striking Iran’s oil refineries and infrastructure to force civilian evacuations. Katz argued relocation would “destabilize the leader.” Netanyahu pushed to eliminate senior replacements after initial assassinations and to “keep searching for the leader” — meaning Khamenei. “We’ll destroy dozens of buildings after evacuating civilians if Iran continues to target our civilians,” Katz said. Smotrich was blunter: Israel needed to “work on eliminating Khamenei.” Officials anticipated massive retaliation. The Shin Bet warned of potential unrest in Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab cities. Military assessments projected hundreds of rockets landing on Israeli targets, with dozens of accurate strikes on civilian areas. Iran eventually launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and 1,100 drones at Israel, killing 31 people and wounding over 3,000. More than 13,000 were displaced. By mid-June, defense officials began floating exit strategies. Netanyahu rejected the notion outright. “Stop talking about ending the war,” he told ministers. “We’re on the brink of victory. The public here is very strong.” Channel 13 said its full report will detail further exchanges, including Israeli appeals to Trump to authorize a Fordo strike and Iran’s direct hit on Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
CRIME CRACKDOWN: President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order sending the National Guard into Memphis to combat crime, constituting his latest test of the limits of presidential power by using military force in American cities. “We’re going to be doing Chicago probably next.”
POTUS: “I didn’t say it’s on one side, but I did say the Radical Left causes tremendous violence — and they seem to do it in a bigger way… I really think they hate our country.”
Stephen Miller: “There are these nonprofit entities that organize attacks on ICE officers, attacks on Border Patrol agents, organized doxxing campaigns… under the Presidents direction, the attorney General is going to find out WHO is paying for it — and they will now be criminally liable for paying for violence.”
Palestinian sources report that Israeli helicopters and armored vehicles are firing at targets in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northwestern Gaza City.
PHOTOS: NYC Mayor Eric Adams visited Boro Park today, meeting with various kehilos, organizations, and community members. His visit began at the new Bobov45 shul on 14th Avenue and 49th Street, where he met with the Bobov45 Rebbe.
Rav Kolodetsky shlit”a and his Rebbetzin reveal that a Gadol b’Yisrael is in urgent need of rachamei Shamayim. In response, the Rebbetzin — blessed by her father Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l with the power of bracha — has declared that all who give $375, the gematria of “Shanah Tovah”, will merit a year filled with health, parnassah, shalom bayis, nachas, and Torah growth. She will personally mention each donor by name at candle lighting on Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur, and Rav Kolodetsky will keep their names at his machzor, storming the heavens for their yeshuos. ADD YOUR NAME HERE – CLICK HERE!
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to once again federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force, in what he suggested could come in response to the city’s mayor’s stated refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement. Trump’s emergency order, which took over the local police force, expired last week. Hours before it elapsed, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the city would not cooperate with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement in their continued operations in the nation’s capital. Earlier, she had said the city would work with other federal agencies even after the emergency order expired. In an early-morning social media post on Monday, Trump said his intervention into the D.C.’s law enforcement had improved crime in the city, a claim Bowser has backed up, though, data shows crime was already falling in Washington before the law enforcement surge began. Trump said crime could increase if cooperation on immigration enforcement ceases, in which case he would “call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!” The mayor’s office declined to comment. The White House did not say if Trump would follow through on his threat. It also did not say whether the president had considered trying to extend his previous order that placed the city’s police force under federal control. The order was not renewed by Congress and lapsed September 11. Bowser issued an order September 2, setting up how the local police will continue working with the federal law enforcement agencies that continue working in the city. The order listed a number of federal agencies she anticipated working cooperatively with the MPD, the local police, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service, among other agencies. Absent was ICE. Speaking September 10 at a ribbon cutting ceremony, the mayor said “immigration enforcement is not what MPD does,” referring to the local police department. She added that when the emergency order ends, “it won’t be what MPD does in the future.” Data analyzed by the Associated Press during the emergency period showed that more than 40% of arrests were immigration related, highlighting that the Trump administration continued to advance its hardline immigration policies as it sought to fight crime in the nation’s capital. Federal law enforcement agencies and National Guard units from D.C. and seven states are continuing operations in the city. Trump’s threat comes the same day that the House Committee on Rules is taking up several D.C.-related bills, including a proposal to lower the age at which juveniles can be tried to 14 from 16 for certain serious crimes, as well as restricting the district’s authority over its sentencing laws and its role in selecting judges. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a similar hearing last week. The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973, but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C council. (AP)
PRES. TRUMP: “In 2024, Memphis had the highest violent crime rate, the highest property crime rate, & the third highest murder rate of any city in the nation… Other than that, they’re doing quite well.”
PRES. TRUMP: “I’m signing a Presidential Memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force, & it’s very important because of the crime that’s going on…We’re sending in the BIG FORCE now.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has blocked the release of a highly sensitive report detailing military failures during Hamas’ October 7 massacre, fearing its conclusions could destabilize senior ranks on the eve of a major offensive in Gaza City. The document, compiled by a panel led by retired Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman, was meant to review the IDF’s internal probes into the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. According to senior military officials, the Turgeman panel found that the IDF’s Operations Division—responsible for overseeing force deployment in war and peace—was the most glaring weak spot. The report concluded that the division’s internal self-investigation was “flawed and incomplete,” and recommended reopening the probe. Particular scrutiny fell on Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, who led the division at the time. Binder’s staff, previous IDF reviews found, failed to deliver clear assessments to the General Staff during the crucial early hours of the assault. Binder was nonetheless promoted earlier this year to head of Military Intelligence by then-Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who insisted there was no evidence of personal negligence that should derail his advancement. The Turgeman report, sources say, “marked red” the division’s performance, signaling the urgent need for further inquiry. Still, Zamir has stood by Binder—for now—delaying any reckoning until after the anticipated Gaza City campaign. The report is now locked inside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, described by insiders as a “ticking time bomb.” Since Zamir succeeded Halevi in March, unease has grown within the military’s top brass, fueled by suspicions that political considerations are shaping how the findings are handled. Critics charge that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies have sought to pin blame squarely on the military, while resisting calls for a state commission of inquiry that could also implicate civilian leaders. Netanyahu’s government has faced mounting accusations of emboldening Hamas in the years prior to the attack by allowing millions in Qatari funds to flow into Gaza. The fallout has already spilled into senior officer appointments. Defense Minister Yisrael Katz recently blocked two promotions authorized by Zamir, citing the officers’ indirect roles in the October 7 disaster—even as others with more direct involvement advanced. In a statement, the IDF said Zamir has not yet reviewed the Turgeman report, stressing that the committee was established to identify systemic lessons rather than assign personal blame. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
President Donald Trump said the U.S. military again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel. “The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.,” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the strike. “These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests.” Trump said the strike was carried out Monday, nearly two weeks after another military strike on what the Trump administration says was a drug-carrying speedboat from Venezuela that killed 11. The Trump administration justified the earlier strike as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But several senators, Democrats and some Republicans, have indicated their dissatisfaction with the administration’s rationale and questioned the legality of the action. They view it as a potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes. The Trump administration has claimed self-defense as a legal justification for the first strike, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing the drug cartels “pose an immediate threat” to the nation. U.S. officials said the strike early this month targeted Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. And they indicated more military strikes on drug targets would be coming as the U.S. looks to “wage war” on cartels. Trump did not specify whether Tren de Aragua was also the target of Monday’s strike. The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported strike. The Trump administration has railed specifically against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for the scourge of illegal drugs in U.S. communities. Maduro during a press conference earlier on Monday lashed out at the U.S. government, accusing the Trump administration of using drug trafficking accusations as an excuse for a military operation whose intentions are “to intimidate and seek regime change” in the South American country. Maduro also repudiated what he described as a weekend operation in which 18 Marines raided a Venezuelan fishing boat in the Caribbean. “What were they looking for? Tuna? What were they looking for? A kilo of snapper? Who gave the order in Washington for a missile destroyer to send 18 armed Marines to raid a tuna fishing vessel?” he said. “They were looking for a military incident. If the tuna fishing boys had any kind of weapons and used weapons while in Venezuelan jurisdiction, it would have been the military incident that the warmongers, extremists who want a war in the Caribbean, are seeking.” Speaking to Fox News earlier Monday, Rubio reiterated that the U.S. doesn’t see Maduro as the rightful leader of Venezuela but as head of a drug cartel. Rubio has consistently depicted Venezuela as a vestige of communist ideology in the Western Hemisphere. “We’re not going to have a cartel, operating or masquerading as a government, operating in our own hemisphere,” Rubio said. Following the first military strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, America’s chief diplomat said Trump was “going to use the U.S. military and all the elements of American power to target cartels who are targeting America.” AP and others have reported that […]
The military police raided the home of a 20-year-old yeshivah bochur in Netivot on Sunday evening. The bochur, who was at home at the time for a family simcha, jumped from the porch and fled the area to escape arrest. The bochur is a talmid of the Shaarei Shalom yeshivah in Jerusalem. Media outlets reported on Monday evening that over 30 Chareidim have been detained at the airport since the morning on their way to Uman. They were transferred to the Tel Hashomer base and will face trial or disciplinary action in the coming hours. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order sending the National Guard into Memphis to combat crime, constituting his latest test of the limits of presidential power by using military force in American cities. Trump made the announcement with Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee visiting the Oval Office, calling what’s coming a “replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts” in Washington. That was a reference to last month, when the president deployed National Guard troops to the nation’s capital and federalized the city’s police force in a crackdown he has since argued reduced crime. Trump said that, in addition to troops, the push in Memphis would involve officials from various federal agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshall’s service: “We’re sending in the big force now.” Shortly before Trump’s announcement, the White House said on social media that the Memphis total crime rate was higher than the national average and suggested that the rate had increased since last year, bucking national trends. That’s despite Memphis police recently reporting decreases across every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in previous years. Overall crime hit a 25-year low, while murder hit a six-year low, police said. Despite the overall decrease, Memphis has dealt with stubborn gun violence problems for years. In 2023, the city set a record with more than 390 homicides. Tennessee’s governor embraced the troop deployment as part of a broader law enforcement surge in Memphis. “Lee said Monday that he was “tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back.” Trump first suggested he’d be deploying the National Guard to Memphis on Friday, draying pushback from the Democratic leader of Memphis, which is majority Black. “I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.” Speculation had centered on Chicago as Trump’s next city to send in the National Guard and other federal authorities. But the administration has faced fierce resistance from Democratic Illinois J.B. Pritzker and other local authorities. Trump said Monday, “We’re going to be doing Chicago probably next” but also suggested that authorities would wait and not act immediately there. “We want to save these places,” Trump said. He singled out St. Louis and Baltimore, but didn’t say either place would be getting federal forces or the National Guard. (AP)
Hamas’s propaganda war in the United States didn’t begin on October 7, 2023. Lara Burns, a former FBI agent who spent decades tracking the group, the terror organization quietly built its American infrastructure years ago — laying the groundwork for today’s battles on college campuses and online. Burns, who led the Justice Department’s largest terrorism financing case against Hamas in the early 2000s, told a group of journalists in Tel Aviv earlier this month that the group’s strategy has always been about more than weapons. It was about winning minds — especially young ones. “Hamas plans hundreds of years in advance,” she said. “When they’re quiet, that’s when they’re the most lethal.” She traced much of that early groundwork to Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader who was among the targets of Israel’s recent strike in Qatar. Marzouk first arrived in the United States in 1982 on a student visa, later gaining permanent residency in 1990. Seven years after that, Washington formally designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, banning fundraising and political activity. But by then, Burns said, Marzouk had already established three organizations in America that would serve as the movement’s propaganda, financial, and academic arms. In 2008, the Holy Land Foundation, one of the groups linked to Marzouk, and several of its top officials were convicted of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. Burns called the case a “major victory” — one she helped build — but said momentum quickly evaporated. “After the conviction, FBI priorities shifted,” she said. “We stopped looking at Hamas.” The consequences, she argued, are now painfully clear. Burns pointed to recent polling showing that 60 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 support Hamas over Israel in the current conflict. For her, it’s proof that the group’s long-term information strategy succeeded where its military reach could not. “When I woke up on Oct. 7 and saw the attack, I was devastated. But what struck me most was seeing individuals who were part of that U.S.-based infrastructure — people we had tracked — praising the attacks and pushing false narratives online.” Burns likened Hamas’s influence to the threat of a shark beneath the water’s surface. “Everyone sees the danger above the surface. But the real threat is underneath — in the radicalization model, the propaganda machine, the ability to shape hearts and minds.” She argued that the U.S. government consistently underestimated Hamas because it was not staging mass-casualty attacks on American soil. “Because they weren’t conducting overt military operations in the U.S., they were deemed less of a threat than ISIS or Iran,” she said. “But Hamas never stopped. They just operated quietly, building support.” Burns’s own career offers a cautionary tale. She joined the FBI in 1999, just months before the 9/11 attacks, and spent more than two decades teaching counterterrorism, tracking financing networks, and interviewing Hamas officials. She insists the lesson of her years in government is clear: Hamas’s presence in the United States is not an abstraction. It is the product of decades of careful planning, the creation of front organizations, and the exploitation of America’s freedoms to embed sympathetic voices in academia and politics. “That’s Hamas’s propaganda model,” she said. “Co-opt groups, magnify their numbers, and make false narratives resonate until the world questions whether […]
This Sunday in Lakewood, Yeshiva Tiferes Yaakov Yitzchok celebrated the dedication of a new Sefer Torah, donated by 175 alumni. The event was filled with joy, singing, and dancing. The Nasi of the yeshiva, Hagaon HaRav Elya Brundy, was present to witness this special milestone.
