Matzav

Israel announced early Thursday that the remains of Thai hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak have been brought back to the country, concluding a painstaking identification process that involved multiple national agencies. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, “After the identification process was completed by the National Center of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Coordinator for Prisoners and Missing Persons, representatives of the IDF, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the family of deceased hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak, that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification finalized.”

Officials notified the family that preparations for Rinthalak’s return to Thailand will be handled jointly with Bangkok’s representatives. The PMO added, “The Coordinator for Prisoners and Missing Persons, Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, informed Sudthisak’s family that arrangements for his return for burial in his homeland will be carried out in coordination with the Embassy of Thailand in Israel, and that the Government of Israel shares in the deep grief of the Rinthalak family, of the Thai people, and of all the families of the deceased hostages.”

Rinthalak, a 42-year-old agricultural worker, was among the many foreign laborers attacked on October 7, 2023. He was seized while working in Kibbutz Be’eri’s orchards and murdered by Islamic Jihad operatives, who then transported his body into Gaza. His parents and his brother now grieve his loss.

Even as his remains were identified, Israel continues to pursue the recovery of others. Gaza terror groups are still in possession of the body of Yassam officer Ran Gvili.

The latest developments come after Israeli forces received the body of another murdered hostage on Wednesday evening, following a transfer from the Red Cross. Once the remains entered Israel, they were immediately sent to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for examination.

Earlier Wednesday, Islamic Jihad claimed its operatives had come across the corpse of a hostage in Beit Lahiya during activities in the northern part of the Strip. The group asserted that its members had discovered the body while operating in the area.

This followed Tuesday’s handover of remains by Hamas, which Israel later determined were not connected to any of the hostages taken on October 7.

Just days ago, Israel recovered the body of Dror Or, another victim abducted from Be’eri during the October 7 massacre and held in Gaza until his remains were returned.

{Matzav.com}

A wave of anguish and frustration swept through advocates and supporters today after Mordy Berkowitz was handed a six-year prison sentence, prompting the leadership of Tzedek to issue a sharply worded statement condemning what they described as a deeply unjust outcome.

The ruling came despite the judge openly acknowledging how impressed he was by the sweeping accountability campaign that Berkowitz launched over the past three years with Tzedek’s guidance.

In the Tzedek statement, Rabbi Moshe Margaretten expressed “great pain” at the sentencing, emphasizing that Berkowitz had already spent the past three years in strict home confinement while devoting himself to public education, outreach, and a national campaign urging people never to drink and drive. According to the organization, nearly 50,000 individuals signed pledges committing to change their behavior, a response Tzedek has described as unprecedented and a powerful kiddush Hashem. Yet prosecutors insisted on seeking a decade behind bars, a decision that Rabbi Margaretten said ignored the sincere repentance, the tangible impact of the campaign, and the pleas of those directly affected by the tragedy.

Tzedek noted with particular distress that the victims and their families had personally asked the court for mercy, urging leniency and expressing that additional prison time would not bring healing. The statement also pointed out that in a neighboring county, cases with similar circumstances have resulted in little to no incarceration, underscoring what they see as stark inconsistency and disproportionate punishment. “This sentence is extraordinarily harsh and deeply unfair,” Rabbi Margaretten wrote, adding that the outcome stands in sharp contrast to the transformative work Berkowitz has undertaken.

According to Tzedek, the judge repeatedly praised the accountability initiative, recognizing the sincerity and the scope of the public-safety effort. Nevertheless, the final sentence left the organization stunned. “Mordy has shown more responsibility, remorse, and dedication to protecting others than anyone could have demanded,” a Tzedek representative said. “What more could he possibly have done?” Their statement emphasized that Berkowitz’s campaign did not seek to excuse what happened, but to prevent other families from ever enduring similar heartbreak.

Rabbi Margaretten vowed that the fight is not over. “Tzedek will not stop until justice is done,” he wrote, assuring the community that all avenues will be pursued to challenge what the group sees as a miscarriage of justice. He urged the public to continue their tefillos, stating that with Hashem’s help, “we will succeed.” The organization maintains that this case is about more than one sentence—it is about whether sincere accountability, genuine change, and overwhelming communal support are recognized by the justice system or disregarded.

Rabbi Margaretten closed his message with a promise that this effort will continue until fairness is restored and justice is truly served.

{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu used his appearance at the New York Times’ Dealbook forum on Wednesday to deliver a forceful message about Israel’s direction, the dangers posed by Iran and its allies, and his refusal to waver on core national positions.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Netanyahu portrayed this moment as a pivotal one, insisting that “history beckons” and that Israel must act with clarity and strength. He brushed aside the legal proceedings against him, characterizing them as irrelevant noise compared to the country’s overarching challenges.

Netanyahu tied recent battlefield gains in Gaza directly to Israel’s broader security outlook. He pointed to the UN Security Council’s vote on President Donald Trump’s peace plan as part of a larger diplomatic framework, but stressed that military pressure is the true engine behind stability and hostage recoveries. He credited the operational campaign together with American backing for shifting the reality on the ground.

“The battering that the Iran axis received opens up many possibilities,” Netanyahu told Sorkin, explaining that Israeli forces reached deep into Hamas’s strongholds. “We went into the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza City. They didn’t believe we’d do it… And the combination of those two pressures brought Hamas to its senses.”

He reaffirmed his long-held belief that deterrence is the cornerstone of peace in the region. “In our neighborhood, and I venture to say now in all the areas of the world, the way you achieve peace is peace through strength,” Netanyahu said. “If you’re weak, you invite aggression, and nobody makes peace with the weak. You make peace with the strong.”

Sorkin pressed him on the Saudi position that ties normalization with Israel to a pathway toward Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu flatly rejected this linkage, pointing to Gaza as evidence of what he views as the failure of territorial concessions. “There was a Palestinian state. It’s called Gaza. That’s exactly what it was,” he said. “We didn’t get peace. What we got was the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

He emphasized that the Israeli political system overwhelmingly agrees with him. According to Netanyahu, nearly the entire Knesset—99 members—opposes any arrangement that leaves Israel vulnerable. He faulted Palestinian leadership and educational systems for perpetuating incitement. “People say, look, there has to be a solution with the Palestinians. But it’s not one in which they don’t recognize the Jewish state… They indoctrinate their children with textbooks that are calling for children to become suicide bombers.”

Turning to the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu dismissed the idea of granting it power in Gaza, arguing that the PA is “very corrupt” and unable to maintain democratic norms. “They cannot pay terrorists to kill more Jews,” he added.

Netanyahu then addressed the global climate surrounding Israel, delivering a fierce denunciation of the International Criminal Court while tying antisemitic rhetoric today to anti-Jewish myths of centuries past. “The same lies that were leveled at the Jewish people are now being leveled at the Jewish state,” he said, refuting accusations against the IDF’s conduct. “We don’t carpet bomb. We don’t do Dresden… We send our soldiers, some of whom die, trying to clear out these booby traps.”

The interview touched on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s warning that Netanyahu could face arrest if he visits New York under the ICC’s warrant. Netanyahu brushed it aside with characteristic defiance. “Yes, of course I will [come to New York],” he said.

He also spoke openly about seeking a pardon from President Herzog, describing his corruption case as a “witch hunt” rooted in trivialities. “I received a Bugs Bunny doll 29 years ago, and I received some cigars and champagne bottles. That’s what this trial is about,” Netanyahu remarked, calling the proceedings a massive waste of time. “I think history beckons… The needs of Israel are such that to spend another two, three years in this nonsense where this trial has just collapsed, it’s become a joke.”

Even with the turmoil abroad and at home, Netanyahu conveyed deep confidence about where Israel is headed—especially in areas like AI, innovation, and national development. For him, the prerequisite for all of it is security, and on that front he vowed to continue leading the nation.

“When history is within reach, you don’t step aside. You step forward. And that’s what I’m doing,” Netanyahu said, ending the conversation with a pledge. “We will change the face of the Middle East. We will win this war.”

{Matzav.com}

Hillary Clinton used her appearance at the Yisroel Hayom conference in New York to issue a pointed warning about how young Americans are forming their opinions about Israel and the war in Gaza. She argued that a powerful wave of online distortion is shaping perceptions in profoundly damaging ways, driven largely by short-form video platforms.

Clinton said she was stunned to learn how many “smart, well-educated” young people rely almost exclusively on TikTok and other social media apps to understand Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 assault and the ensuing conflict. According to her, “That is where they were learning about what happened on Oct. 7, what happened in the days, weeks, and months to follow,” a trend she described as “a serious problem” for both Israel and “for democracy” in America.

She said the speed with which misinformation spread after the massacre left many young viewers with a completely inverted sense of events, noting that the story was flipped “upside down” by the rush of deceptive content that flooded social platforms.

Clinton emphasized that this is not simply a partisan battle, but a generational one. She warned that the “battle for the historical narrative” is being lost in the whirlwind of viral videos and algorithm-curated feeds.

The distortion, she said, is particularly potent among young Americans who never learned the basic history of the region. As a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, she pointed out that students with no foundation in Middle East history are especially susceptible to manipulation.

She added that the confusion extends far beyond activist circles, explaining that even young Jewish Americans have been caught up in the digital fog because they “don’t know the history and don’t understand.”

Clinton called the period following the release of Israeli hostages an important moment to reassess, saying it is time to “take stock of where we are, both in Israel and in this country, learn the lessons that perhaps can help us determine a more productive future.”

She warned that concerns about Israel’s reputation and the “significant increase in antisemitism in real life and online” are very real, saying, “There is a great deal of valid concern about how Israel is viewed, not just around the world, but from the United States, how Jewish Americans are viewed.”

Her comments also lined up with arguments long made by conservatives, who have insisted that social media platforms act not as neutral “platforms” but as powerful gatekeepers that shape what millions accept as reality.

Clinton stressed that the crisis is bigger than the current war. With more than half of young Americans consuming news primarily through social media, she argued, core democratic functions are weakened because the public no longer shares a common factual baseline.

Her speech reflected bipartisan anxieties about foreign propaganda, coordinated disinformation campaigns, and adversarial states exploiting open platforms to sow discord.

At the Yisroel Hayom summit, she distilled the problem sharply: if Americans cannot distinguish truth from fiction online — or lack the historical grounding to evaluate what they are shown — then those pushing falsehoods win by default.

In Clinton’s view, that is exactly what is happening now, carried forward “one viral clip at a time.”

{Matzav.com}

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has escalated his efforts to scrutinize special counsel Jack Smith’s work, issuing a formal subpoena that orders him to sit for a deposition and turn over documents connected to his investigations of President Trump.

In the letter sent with the subpoena, Jordan wrote, “Due to your service as Special Counsel, the Committee believes that you possess information that is vital to its oversight of this matter,” making clear that Smith’s firsthand knowledge is now central to the committee’s probe.

Jordan first sought Smith’s voluntary cooperation back in October, requesting both an interview and access to internal records. Those overtures followed months of criticism from the Ohio Republican, who has repeatedly accused Smith and his team of overreach.

Smith, for his part, has vigorously defended the federal cases he brought, maintaining that a jury would have convicted the 45th and 47th president for allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and for retaining national security documents at Mar-a-Lago — “had Trump not won a second non-consecutive term last year.”

Under the terms of the subpoena, Smith must hand over the requested documents by Dec. 12 and appear for a deposition on Dec. 17, setting up a high-stakes confrontation between the special counsel and House Republicans.

Jordan’s inquiry has expanded in recent months, with former top aides to Smith also coming under scrutiny. In November, the chairman referred Thomas Windom, Smith’s onetime senior assistant, to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

Smith has previously signaled a willingness to address lawmakers publicly. He offered to testify before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, an offer that was not accepted.

Jordan’s investigators typically insist on private depositions before allowing public appearances, prompting pushback from Smith’s legal team. In response to the subpoena, Smith’s attorney Peter Koski said, “We are disappointed that offer was rejected, and that the American people will be denied the opportunity to hear directly from Jack on these topics.”

Koski added that “Jack looks forward to meeting with the committee later this month to discuss his work and clarify the various misconceptions about his investigation.”

Beyond testimony, Jordan’s subpoena requires Smith to submit communications and records related to his tenure as special counsel, ensuring the committee gains access to a broad array of internal material.

The demand comes as fresh disclosures about Smith’s probe continue to surface, including details that the FBI’s Arctic Frost investigation — which Smith assumed — had obtained phone records belonging to 10 Republican lawmakers.

{Matzav.com}

Last month, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) sounded the alarm to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about one of his constituents being held in an Iranian prison. The congressman wrote to Rubio again this month, but this time, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) joined him in the letter.

The two asked Rubio to use “all available tools” to get Iran to release Kamran Hekmati, imprisoned for “attending his son’s bar mitzvah in Israel 13 years ago.” The lawmakers said Hekmati has aggressive bladder cancer and should be released “immediately on humanitarian grounds.”

Hekmati, 70, who holds both U.S. and Iranian citizenship and is a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals of the village of Great Neck Estates, was imprisoned earlier this year while visiting relatives in Iran. The lawmakers said that Hekmati had made that trip several times “without issue” until now.

In a letter to Rubio released on Monday, Suozzi and Tenney said Hekmati’s “alleged crime was attending his son’s bar mitzvah in Israel 13 years ago,” and the United States should use “all available tools to secure his safe and immediate return.”

The lawmakers also requested that the U.S. State Department and White House update them on efforts to obtain Hekmati’s release.

“This case has deeply alarmed residents across New York, particularly within the large Persian Jewish community on Long Island,” they wrote. JNS

{Matzav.com}

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations advanced the nomination of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to be the Trump administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism in a bipartisan vote on Wednesday.

If confirmed by the full Senate, the Chabad rabbi would become the second Chassid to be approved by the Senate for a senior administration position after Mitchell Silk was confirmed as assistant secretary of the treasury for international markets during the first Trump administration in 2020.

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) voted with every Republican to confirm Kaploun, who faced opposition from some Democrats over his partisan commentary about their responses to Oct. 7 and antisemitism.

“Democrats are afraid to even say the words ‘radical Islamic terror’ while Trump says it openly,” Kaploun told Mishpacha magazine in 2024. “Democrats refuse to even recognize the butchers of women and kidnappers of children as terrorists. How can you go along with that?”

Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) all voted to oppose Kaploun’s nomination.

The Anti-Defamation League and Orthodox Union Advocacy Center welcomed the committee’s vote to advance Kaploun and recommended his Senate confirmation.

A Miami-based businessman who was born in Israel and raised in Connecticut, Kaploun has a lower profile than his predecessor, Deborah Lipstadt, who had a decades-long career as an academic expert on Holocaust denial before assuming the antisemitism envoy role.

At his confirmation hearing in November, Kaploun said that he would focus on education as a means to combat Jew-hatred.

“We must educate, educate, educate about the history of the Jewish community in America and the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on,” the rabbi said. “Antisemitism is anti-American. Those who chant ‘death to the Jews’ all too often chant ‘death to America.’”

The U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism is a position within the State Department and has a mandate to fight antisemitism overseas.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Relations Committee also advanced the nomination of former Fox Nation host and current State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce to be the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations on a party-line vote. JNS

{Matzav.com}

In a dramatic escalation of the year-long battle over control of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Trump administration has officially rebranded the institution with the president’s name and placed new signage on the headquarters, even as the courts continue to wrestle with who actually runs the organization.

The renaming marks the latest chapter in a tug-of-war that began after the Department of Government Efficiency targeted the institute early this year. What had once been a largely academic, congressionally funded think tank devoted to conflict resolution has turned into the center of a fierce constitutional dispute.

The State Department announced on Wednesday that the facility will now operate as the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, saying the title was chosen to “reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.” Fresh signage bearing the new name went up at the building located near the State Department.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly offered a blistering assessment of the institute’s past performance, declaring: “The United States Institute of Peace was once a bloated, useless entity that blew $50 million per year while delivering no peace.” She continued, “Now, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which is both beautifully and aptly named after a president who ended eight wars in less than a year, will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.” She closed her statement with, “Congratulations, world!”

The legal fight over who controls the headquarters has seesawed since March, with the building shifting hands multiple times through court orders following the DOGE takeover. A final ruling from the federal appeals court remains unresolved.

The institute insists it is an independent body created by Congress and therefore not subject to executive authority. Washington’s stance, however, is that the organization falls squarely within the executive branch.

When Trump dismissed the institute’s board earlier this year, the entire staff was removed as well and the building was transferred to the General Services Administration. A federal district judge later overturned that move, returning control to the institute’s leadership, but the appeals court reversed the ruling only weeks later.

As a result, employees have been terminated twice, and the GSA currently holds the keys to the building.

Despite the institutional turbulence, the headquarters is slated to host a major diplomatic signing ceremony on Thursday. Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame are expected to sign a peace accord there, with senior figures from the African Union, Qatar, Uganda, the UAE, Angola, Burundi, Kenya and Togo in attendance, according to Kagame adviser Yolande Makolo.

Online, the institute’s website had not been updated with the new name as of Wednesday night, but its main headline read, “President Donald J. Trump to Sign Historic Peace Agreement at USIP Headquarters,” highlighting the Congo-Rwanda deal set to take place at the site.

The U.S. Institute of Peace traces its origins to the mid-1980s, when Congress founded it as an independent, federally funded nonprofit aimed at conflict prevention and resolution outside the purview of the State Department. President Ronald Reagan signed the enabling legislation in 1985. Before DOGE shut down its operations, the institute had an active presence in 26 conflict areas, including Afghanistan, Mali, Burkina Faso and Pakistan.

Adding to the swirl of attention around the rebranding, speculation is mounting that Trump will be honored with a new peace prize from FIFA during events surrounding the World Cup draw in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

{Matzav.com}

The White House unveiled a sweeping proposal on Wednesday aimed at dramatically softening the fuel economy benchmarks that Joe Biden locked into place last year, marking another effort by the administration to ease the pathway for selling gasoline-powered cars.

Under the plan released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the required fleetwide average for model year 2031 would drop to 34.5 miles per gallon—far below the 50.4 mpg level set under Biden. The agency also wants to reset the standards for earlier years and then raise them incrementally between 0.25% and 0.5% each year through 2031.

NHTSA noted that the Biden-era policy had demanded much steeper annual increases: 8% for models built in 2024 and 2025, and 10% for 2026. By contrast, the new plan represents a significant rollback that the administration argues will reduce the cost of purchasing a new vehicle by an estimated $900 on average, even though it would lead to substantially higher fuel consumption nationwide.

The agency is also seeking to overhaul the program itself. A key element of the proposal would scrap credit trading between automakers beginning in 2028 and discontinue certain credits tied to efficiency-enhancing features. In its explanation, NHTSA said the current system has become a “windfall for EV-exclusive manufacturers that sell credits to other non-EV manufacturers.”

President Donald Trump is expected to present the proposal alongside the chief executives of Ford Motor and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler.

Earlier this year, Trump signed a measure eliminating fuel economy penalties for the auto industry, and according to NHTSA, companies will not face any fines retroactive to the 2022 model-year period.

The effort to eliminate credit trading has major implications for companies like Tesla and Rivian, which have generated sizable revenue streams by selling credits to manufacturers still producing gas-powered vehicles.

Ford’s CEO Jim Farley applauded the move ahead of Wednesday’s event, saying Trump was “aligning fuel economy standards with market realities. We can make real progress on carbon emissions and energy efficiency while still giving customers choice and affordability.”

GM’s Mary Barra, speaking at an event on Tuesday, underscored the pressures the industry faced under California’s now-blocked zero-emission rules. Before Congress intervened in June, states following California’s model were preparing to require that “35% of new vehicles sold in 2026 must be EVs,” she said. “We were going to have to start shutting down plants because we weren’t going to be able to build and sell those vehicles.”

NHTSA had previously projected that the 2022 standards for passenger cars and trucks would cut fuel use by 64 billion gallons and eliminate 659 million metric tons of emissions, delivering a net financial benefit of roughly $35.2 billion to American drivers.

Long-range projections from the same 2022 rule estimated more than 200 billion gallons of gasoline saved through 2050.

Environmental groups immediately blasted the new proposal. Kathy Harris of the Natural Resources Defense Council argued that “The Trump administration is sticking drivers with higher costs at the pump, all to benefit the oil industry. Drivers will be paying hundreds of dollars more at the pump every year if these rules are put in place.”

Trump has repeatedly advanced policies to ease the sale of gasoline vehicles and slow the shift toward electric models, including revoking EV tax credits and preventing California from imposing a 2035 phase-out of gas-powered car sales.

{Matzav.com}

A recently completed Pentagon inspector general review concluded that War Secretary Pete Hegseth did not follow certain internal protocols earlier this year when he relayed sensitive operational information through the Signal messaging platform.

According to a source who reviewed the findings and spoke with Newsmax’s Carla Babb, the technical breach does not appear to cross legal lines because Hegseth possesses the authority to declassify Pentagon material himself. This, the source said, indicates that “he did not break federal law.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, after examining the report on Wednesday, brushed off the uproar around the episode—mockingly dubbed “Signalgate”—as yet another politically motivated strike against Hegseth. “The arc of the story is that it’s just a never-ending stream of efforts to undermine Pete Hegseth, right? The whole controversy,” Schmitt told The Wall Street Journal.

“So, they didn’t get him in the confirmation process? Make a big deal out of this. … So, it’s just an ongoing effort. I wouldn’t expect it to end with this, but I think again, the president has faith in Secretary Hegseth. I think he’s doing a great job.”

The inspector general’s conclusions were released as Hegseth remains at the center of criticism from both parties over a deadly September 2 operation targeting a suspected narcotics vessel in the Caribbean. The mission resulted in 11 fatalities, including two individuals who died following a second strike. Members of Congress have openly rebuked Hegseth for permitting Navy Vice Adm. Frank Bradley to carry out that follow-up attack.

Although Hegseth chose not to meet in person with IG investigators, he provided a written account maintaining that he deliberately downgraded the information in question and insisted that its disclosure would not—and did not—jeopardize troops or compromise active missions.

Yet Babb’s source said the IG determined that the details Hegseth posted in Signal conversations—threads that included senior national security personnel and, mistakenly, a journalist—might have created risks had any of the material been intercepted.

A public, unclassified version of the inspector general’s report is set to be released Thursday.

The inquiry stems from an April episode in which Hegseth circulated specifics about U.S. airstrikes in Yemen to a Signal chat shared with high-level national security aides and Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. He also forwarded the same material to another Signal group that included his wife.

The information he passed along came from a SECRET//NOFORN message sent by Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, via the Pentagon’s secure Secret Internet Protocol Router Network.

Multiple sources familiar with the exchange say Hegseth sent the strike details through a private Signal channel, omitting the original classification labels.

Although the watchdog completed its review in September, the document did not reach Capitol Hill until this week—delayed partly due to the government shutdown.

{Matzav.com}

Israel announced on Wednesday that the remains transferred a day earlier by Hamas were not those of the two hostages whose bodies are still being held in Gaza.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, forensic specialists at the Abu Kabir institute in Tel Aviv completed their examinations and notified the families of the two missing victims — Israeli police officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili and Thai citizen Sudthisak Rinthalak — that the material handed over did not match either man. “The efforts to bring them home will not stop until the mission is complete — returning them for a proper burial in their country,” the PMO said.

Kan News reported that both Hamas and the Red Cross were continuing efforts to locate the bodies of Gvili and Rinthalak and were expected to keep searching over the coming days.

Separately on Wednesday, the Al Quds Brigades — the military arm of Palestinian Islamic Jihad — said it was working with a Red Cross team in northern Gaza in an attempt to locate the remains of a hostage. A senior Red Cross official told The Times of Israel the previous day that the items delivered to the IDF consisted of “small remains, pieces” of a body.

Unlike past instances in which Hamas announced in advance that it intended to hand over remains, the terror group did not issue any such statement this time. After receiving the material from the Red Cross, IDF personnel carried out an initial inspection and held a brief ceremony led by a military rabbi before police escorted the remains to the Abu Kabir institute for identification.

Palestinian media outlets claimed the remains had been found in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

Throughout the week, conflicting reports circulated suggesting that Hamas had located a hostage’s remains but was delaying their return. Defense officials initially said they anticipated that some remains might be transferred on Monday, only to later clarify that none would be.

Gvili and Rinthalak were among the 251 people abducted during the October 7, 2023 massacre, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed communities across southern Israel and murdered roughly 1,200 individuals, most of them civilians.

{Matzav.com}

During an appearance at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, age 76, sidestepped the question of when he planned to retire from political life.

“I don’t measure it by time,” he says. “I measure it by missions, by tasks.”

Netanyahu, already the longest-serving premier in Israel’s history, has contended with several health issues over the past few years. Even so, he insisted that his political base remained strong, pushing back against polling that shows his bloc facing headwinds ahead of next year’s elections.

“I’m supported by a great majority of the people in the country,” he says. “You’d never know that by the foreign reporting, but that’s it. That’s why I keep winning these elections.”

Looking ahead, Netanyahu said he intended to focus on advancing technological breakthroughs — especially artificial intelligence — as well as expanding regional diplomacy toward what he described as a “broader peace.”

“I think there’s another revolution coming,” he says regarding technology. “I intend to steer it, along with the achievement of a broader peace. These are two enormous tasks that I’d like to take on. And you know, when history is within reach, you don’t step aside. You step forward, and that’s what I’m doing.”

{Matzav.com}

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Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu used a New York Times–hosted forum to launch a fierce attack on the corruption case against him, dismissing the allegations as “bogus” and accusing prosecutors of attempting to force him from power through the courts.

His comments came shortly after he formally submitted a request for a presidential pardon from President Isaac Herzog. Netanyahu has been on trial for years on charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust.

Addressing the DealBook Summit by video, Netanyahu argued that the legal proceedings were never about justice. Instead, he claimed they were engineered to end his political career. “So they kept on going because they don’t want justice, they want me out of office,” he said, later declaring, “This trial is just collapsed, it’s become a joke.”

Netanyahu also asserted that a pardon would not require him to acknowledge wrongdoing. “In our system, when you ask for a pardon, you’re not admitting to any guilt, you don’t have to, and I don’t,” he said — a position that legal experts have challenged and that critics say is inaccurate, insisting an admission of guilt is mandatory.

When asked about his recent conversation with President Donald Trump and whether the subject of his trial came up, Netanyahu refused to share specifics. Trump has repeatedly urged that Netanyahu be pardoned.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump maintained that Vladimir Putin appeared open to stopping the fighting in Ukraine, even though marathon discussions in Moscow failed to produce a concrete agreement and U.S. officials now prepared for follow-up talks with Ukraine’s chief negotiator.

Trump had dispatched envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to the Kremlin, where the pair met with Putin late into the night. Despite the lengthy session, the delegation did not secure a breakthrough to halt what has become Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II.

After the meeting, the Kremlin announced that several elements of Washington’s proposal were deemed unacceptable. The U.S. plan, as described, included Ukraine surrendering portions of the eastern Donbas region—territory Kyiv continued to hold nearly four years after Russia’s invasion.

Reflecting on the discussions, Trump said, “I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin,” and added that the talks were “very good.”

Still, Trump cautioned that no outcome was guaranteed, noting that diplomacy requires cooperation from both sides. He said it remained too early to predict the next steps “because it does take two to tango.”

When asked whether Witkoff and Kushner sensed that Putin truly wished to wind down the nearly four-year-old war, Trump said their takeaway was clear: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump signaled on Wednesday that the second stage of his Gaza initiative remains on schedule, even after an explosion in Rafah left five IDF soldiers wounded, including one in serious condition.

During an exchange with reporters, Trump was asked when the next phase of the peace plan would roll out. He responded with optimism, brushing aside the day’s violence. “Well, it’s going along well. You know, they had a problem today, I understand, with a bomb that went off. Hurt some people pretty badly…but it’s going on very well. We have peace in the Middle East. People don’t realize it. We have tremendous support.”

Earlier in the day, the IDF announced that its forces had carried out a strike in southern Gaza following what it called Hamas’ “blatant violation” of the ceasefire terms.

In its statement, the military stressed that its personnel stationed in the Southern Command remain positioned in accordance with the truce. “IDF troops in the Southern Command remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat,” the IDF stated.

A new report from Kan News indicates that the terrorists entrenched inside Rafah’s tunnel network are not acting on their own, but are maintaining steady contact with Hamas’ top military leadership, contradicting the group’s public claims.

According to a Palestinian Arab source cited in the report, the messaging coming from Hamas since the IDF positioned itself along the so-called “yellow line” has been misleading. Hamas has repeatedly insisted that the gunmen in Rafah are running their own operations without direction from the organization’s central command.

Kan News, however, emphasized that the opposite is true: every one of the terror squads bunkered in Rafah’s underground passages remains tied into Hamas’ senior chain of command. The outlet reported that this link was enabled after Hamas’ military brigades shifted their layout in response to the IDF’s establishment of a permanent line in the area.

With these adjustments, the Northern Gaza Brigade continues to operate out of Gaza City, while oversight of Rafah’s terrorist network now comes from Khan Yunis. The Rafah cells, the report explained, are receiving direct instructions from the brigade based in Khan Yunis, which in turn answers to the overarching leadership of Hamas’ military wing.

Even as this command structure remains intact, violence in Rafah persists. On Wednesday, three terrorists surfaced from a tunnel entrance and ambushed an IDF force, leaving one soldier in serious condition and injuring four more lightly or moderately. The unit fired back, killing two of the attackers. A helicopter later struck compounds nearby where the third terrorist, who escaped during the clash, was believed to be hiding.

{Matzav.com}

[COMMUNICATED]

It’s midnight in the holy city of Yerushalayim, and a group of exalted and illustrious mekubalim stream in, one by one, into the Beis Medrash overlooking the Makom HaMikdash—the site of our destroyed Beis HaMikdash—where they will spend the night immersed in holiness.  

Each and every one of these carefully selected Yidden has already spent years in the study of the Zohar and the writings of the Arizal and his talmidim. Their faces radiate holiness and holy purpose, and they exude humility and piety.  

They are the Avreichim of Kollel Kabbalah B’Chatzos—a project of Torah-24 which is founded and led by HaGaon Rav Avrohom Eisen, shlit”a, Pozna Rov, a confidant of gedolei Yisroel.  

The night begins at midnight, when the avreichim tearfully and mournfully recite Tikkun Chatzos, along with other tefillos, lamenting what has been lost, and storming the Heavens for its restoration.  

Following this, they will delve into the deepest secrets of the hidden Torah—until the sun comes up over Yerushalayim. For the entire night, hour after hour, they chase sleep away, and remain immersed into the Kabbalah that has been handed down to us by the most exalted tzaddikim that Klal Yisroel possessed.  

Gedolei Yisroel who have become aware of the Kollel Kabbalah B’Chatzos phenomenon have expressed awe and admiration for these illustrious men.  

Hagaon HaMekubal Rav Abish Zenwirth, who has attested that he knows these men up close, has attested that “they are humble tzaddikim who prepare themselves for their holy nights by immersing in the mikveh, and study the secrets of Torah all night amid ahavas Hashem and deep fear of Heaven.”   

In his letter of endorsement for Kollel Kabbalah B’Chatzos, Rav Zenwirth writes: “Fortunate are all those who take part in this great and holy endeavor. They will surely merit all the Heavenly blessings and illuminations. They will be pursued by goodness and kindness all their lives, and in their merit we will soon hear the great blast of the shofar of Mashiach. Amen.”  

Partner in this incredible and holy endeavor today, and be joined with these holy mekubalim of Yerushalayim who will daven for you and your family to indeed merit the many Heavenly blessings that come to those who spend their nights immersed in Torah.

President Donald Trump’s latest comments on health-care affordability set off a sharp rebuttal from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who denounced Trump’s entire record during an appearance on MS NOW’s “All In.”

Before the exchange, host Chris Hayes introduced a clip from the White House Cabinet meeting, noting that since the topic of affordability had come up, he wanted Jeffries to address Trump’s view of the term itself.

During that meeting, Trump dismissed the concept outright, declaring, “This is a fake narrative that the Democrats talk about affordability. They just say the word. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody. It’s just say it. The word affordability is a scam.”

Hayes then circled back to Jeffries, saying he assumed the New York lawmaker took issue with Trump’s framing, and asked him to define what he means when he talks about affordability.

Jeffries did not hold back. “Well, listen, Donald Trump’s whole life is a scam. The Trump administration is a scam. And certainly, the so-called House Republican majority is a scam,” he said, launching into a critique of Republican promises. He added that GOP leaders pledged immediate cost relief, gave themselves a clear benchmark, and then failed to deliver. “These people promised that they were going to lower costs on day one, right? They provided the measuring stick. They made that promise to the American people. And of course, costs aren’t going down, costs are going up,” he said.

Pointing specifically to Trump’s trade policies, Jeffries argued that everyday families are now paying the price. “The Trump tariffs are creating a crisis in affordability, thousands of dollars in additional expense for everyday Americans in terms of goods and groceries,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump used a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to unleash a blistering critique of Somali migrants living in the United States, insisting that those who complain about America should return to their homeland instead of complaining about the country. “They come from —- and they complain and do nothing but [complain],” he said, arguing, “We don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

His remarks are expected to spark a fierce counterattack from Democrats, who have routinely defended the community.

The comments come at a time when mounting investigations have revealed widespread criminal schemes involving individuals within the nearly 100,000-strong Somali migrant population settled in Minnesota. Even the New York Times has acknowledged that “Somali refugees who came to the United States after their country’s civil war were raised in a culture in which stealing from the country’s dysfunctional and corrupt government was widespread.”

During the same meeting, Trump doubled down on his position, saying, “I don’t want them in our country,” before launching into a searing assessment of Somalia’s conditions. “Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks … I can say it about other countries too. We got to, we have to rebuild our country … [Rep.] Ilhan Omar [D-MN] is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place [Somalia] great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain.”

Trump’s focus on the community comes against the backdrop of several massive fraud cases linked to Somali networks that allegedly siphoned off more than $1 billion in government funds earmarked for vulnerable populations — including autistic children, underprivileged families, coronavirus aid recipients, homebuyers, and the medically needy. Critics argue that the problems stem not only from weak vetting processes but also from cultural clashes between a deeply clan-based society and the individualistic fabric of American life.

Minnesotans themselves have been increasingly aware of the scope of the misconduct, even as Democratic officials in the state have been accused of ignoring or suppressing evidence presented by state investigators. Meanwhile, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has intensified enforcement efforts in Minnesota, arresting migrants following extensive probes into systemic migration fraud.

Democrats’ continued efforts to shield political and community figures tied to the scandals risk becoming a political liability, strategists warn. With voters already uneasy about corruption and mismanagement, party leaders may face a backlash heading into the 2026 elections.

{Matzav.com}