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TRUMP: “I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is gonna be in great danger.”

President Trump: “The reason we are not talking about tariffs with Russia is because we are not doing business essentially with Russia.”

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: “The Trump tariffs, which are a tax on the American people, are so reckless, so un-strategic, so lacking in any sophistication, that the only conclusion that one can draw is that Donald Trump and Republicans are intentionally tanking the economy.”

Shortly before he was forced to resign, the nation’s top vaccine regulator says he refused to grant Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team unrestricted access to a tightly held vaccine safety database, fearing that the information might be manipulated or even deleted. In an interview with The Associated Press, former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks discussed his efforts to “make nice” with Kennedy and address his longstanding concerns about vaccine safety, including by developing a “vaccine transparency action plan.” Marks agreed to give Kennedy’s associates the ability to read thousands of reports of potential vaccine-related issues sent to the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. But he would not allow them to directly edit the data. “Why wouldn’t we? Because frankly we don’t trust (them),” he said, using a profanity. “They’d write over it or erase the whole database.” Marks spoke to the AP on Sunday, after officials in Texas confirmed the nation’s second measles-related death this year in an unvaccinated child. Marks attributed the death to the tepid response from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which again encouraged the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on Sunday but has also promoted claims about vitamin A supplements. During his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy told lawmakers he is not “antivaccine.” But since taking office, he’s promised to “investigate” children’s shots, and agencies under his watch have terminated vaccine-related research, canceled meetings of vaccine advisers and are poised to reinvestigate ties between vaccines and autism — a link debunked long ago. Since being sworn in, “Mr. Kennedy has increased the pace by which he intends to minimize the use of vaccines in this country,” Marks said. An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy has advocated for vaccination multiple times since becoming health secretary and pointed to a social media post Sunday in which he called the vaccine “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.” The spokesperson added that it would make “perfect sense” for staffers working for Kennedy to seek access to the VAERS database to do their own analysis. Marks is highly regarded by former FDA leaders and biotech industry executives, but his time at the agency has not been without controversy. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was alternately criticized for being too slow — under Trump— and too fast — under Biden— to authorize new vaccines and boosters. Marks says he “tried everything” to work with Kennedy. At the center of that effort was a plan to increase publicly available information about vaccine ingredients, safety and side effects. Marks and his team had hoped to kick off the monthslong initiative with a two-day public “listening session,” followed by an expert report written by an independent organization, such as the National Academies of Sciences. Overhauling the VAERS system The centerpiece of the effort would be a vast overhaul of the VAERS system, maintained by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. FDA and CDC scientists monitor the database for “possible signals” of emerging problems with vaccines. But analyzing the data requires both medical and statistical expertise, because anyone can submit unverified reports of side effects, injuries and death. The public-facing website warns that the data is unverified and may be incomplete or inaccurate. Misinterpretations of VAERS have long been central to anti-vaccine groups and messaging. Marks notes that government scientists spend hours adjudicating each report […]

President Trump describes how Europe’s barriers to trade extend far past tariffs: “They drop a bowling ball on the top of your car from 20 feet up in the earth. There’s a little dent, they say ‘No, I’m sorry, your car doesn’t qualify.'”

Millions of shekels will be distributed by Kupat Ha’ir on Erev Pesach this year, bez”H. Millions of shekels will arrive in different ways to needy families throughout Eretz Yisrael. Millions of shekels that you – you!! – gave, that you participated in; and the money that you gave to tzedakah will be yours forever. These merits can never be taken away from you. Do you know what it means to distribute tens of millions of shekels? Part of them are given as food vouchers. And there are those who receive boxes of chicken and fish straight to their door. Many others receive generous shopping vouchers. And more than all the above – families who receive special support for the Yom Tov. Money, in an envelope. All these branches cost a phenomenal amount. To be more precise, they cost about thirty-two million shekels. This enormous sum bears witness to how many people benefit from it. How many men, women, and children whose eyes it lights up. How many people it enables to stand up straight and celebrate Pesach respectably. This massive, gigantic sum, received from you, from him… money for those who don’t have food. This phenomenal sum is achieved by all of us together, and therefore we are all partners in it, partners in Kupat Ha’ir. Partners! to donate click here

POTUS: “I said, ‘we’re going to try to get groceries down.’ Right? An old fashioned term, but a beautiful term — eggs.”

POTUS: “I said to them (the former hostages), was there any sign of love? Did Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany?… They said – no… they slapped us”

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu is in Washington, D.C. today for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. President Trump welcomed Netanyahu warmly as he arrived at the White House.

The leaders are expected to focus their conversation on several pressing topics, including a potential agreement to free hostages, concerns surrounding Iran, and the new tariffs the United States imposed on Israeli goods last week. Netanyahu flew to the U.S. following his official visit to Hungary, during which he had already spoken with President Trump.

In the hours leading up to Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, President Trump held discussions with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, French President Emmanuel Macron, and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Their conversation centered around efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.

Before heading to the White House, Netanyahu had a meeting with Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. As he began his visit to the U.S., the Prime Minister also sat down with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Trump and Netanyahu are set to meet in the Oval Office now.

WATCH LIVE:

REPORTER: “If you’re gonna negotiate a new deal with Iran, can you elaborate on how it’s gonna be more different than the JCPOA?” POTUS: “Well I can’t really say that”

Some 200 American family members of Oct. 7 victims filed a lawsuit in D.C. federal court on Monday against Bashar Masri, a Palestinian-American billionaire with ties to the Trump administration who, they allege, aided and abetted Hamas in carrying out the attack.

The suit accuses Masri of knowingly working with Hamas in developing business properties in Gaza that concealed and provided electricity to the terror group’s elaborate, militarized tunnel network. It seeks damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Masri has also provided advice and private plane travel to Adam Boehler, formerly U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be special presidential envoy for hostage affairs and a current special envoy at the U.S. State Department, as he conducted unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas in March, per Israeli media reports.

As chairman of the Palestine Development & Investment Company, Masri struck deals to develop and operate hotels, an industrial park and other businesses in Gaza, including directly with Hamas officials, according to the suit and statements from the company’s website.

Those businesses included Al Mashtal Hotel, which the Israel Defense Forces identified in 2014 as a Hamas rocket launch site and which the suit alleges was refurbished by Masri’s company in contract with a Hamas-affiliated construction company. The suit also alleges that Hamas used the hotel in terrorist operations before, on and after Oct. 7.

Gary Osen, one of the lead attorneys representing the families against Masri, told JNS that this cycle of repeatedly re-investing in properties used by Hamas represented a “continuous pattern” of complicity with the terrorist group on the part of Masri and the other defendants.

“When the hotels get damaged by Israeli airstrikes or the Gaza Industrial Estate gets damaged, they not only don’t stop investing, they continue to rebuild infrastructure,” Osen said. “If someone didn’t want to be involved with Hamas or support them, they would presumably say, ‘Okay, well, they’re firing rockets from Al Mashtal hotel tunnels, maybe we should just exit that investment.’”

“But no, according to the complaint, they not only go back and refurbish, invest more money and more of other people’s money, but assist Hamas with its tunnels again,” Osen said. “Nothing changes.”

Masri’s office denied the allegations in a statement to JNS and said he would seek their dismissal in court.

“Bashar Masri is a successful and respected Palestinian American entrepreneur and business leader,” the statement said. “He was shocked to learn through the media that a baseless complaint was filed today referring to false allegations against him and certain businesses he is associated with. Neither he nor those entities have ever engaged in unlawful activity or provided support for violence and militancy.”

“Bashar Masri has been involved in development and humanitarian work for the past decades,” the statement added. “His continued efforts to promote regional peace and stability have been widely recognized by the United States and all concerned parties in the region. He unequivocally opposes violence of any kind.”

Masri was born in Nablus to a prominent and wealthy family of Palestinian businessmen and was educated in Egypt and the United States, graduating from Virginia Tech and eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. In the mid-1990s, he returned to Ramallah and founded a variety of business ventures.

Through his company and investments in or control of other entities, Masri runs or has stakes in some of the largest Palestinian companies, with market caps of hundreds of millions of dollars on the Nablus-based Palestine Exchange stock market.

In 2018, Fortune magazine listed him as no. 38 on its list of the world’s greatest leaders, and he sits on the Dean’s Council of Harvard Kennedy School.

Osen told JNS that Masri’s dealings with Hamas officials in the leadup to Oct. 7 cannot be squared with how he presents himself to the world as a legitimate Palestinian businessman.

“It’s just hard to wrap your mind around the degree to which the owners of the properties were complicit,” Osen said. “The fact that Masri was allegedly in Gaza three weeks before Oct. 7, promoting his green tech at the hotel, presenting himself and his companies as saving the environment and helping Palestinians get regular electricity—meanwhile, some of the solar electricity is going into the Hamas tunnels.”

“In my view, there’s a level of duplicity in all this that can’t be reconciled with that outward persona of moderation,” he said.

Masri’s alleged direct dealings with Hamas include a $60 million solar energy project in Gaza that his company announced in September 2023 and a 2022 agreement with Abdel Fattah Zrai’i, Hamas’s deputy minister of economy.

The IDF killed Zrai’i in 2024 airstrike and said that he had served in Hamas’s weapons manufacturing division and had played a role in seizing humanitarian aid.

It’s not clear how Masri became connected with the Trump envoy Boehler, though Masri has extensive business dealings with Qatar, including a nearly $1 billion Qatari investment in one of Masri’s real estate developments north of Ramallah.

JNS asked the State Department before the lawsuit was filed for details about Masri’s associations with Boehler, including the private jet travel and whether he had advised any other administration officials.

“We work closely with partners and third-party intermediaries in our efforts to free Americans detained overseas,” a spokesperson for the department told JNS. “We don’t have further details to share about special envoy Boehler’s travel.”

U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Boehler to be special presidential envoy for hostage affairs in January, but Boehler’s nomination was withdrawn after the negotiations with Hamas in March. He remains a special envoy at the State Department.

In a social media post in December before he took office, Trump described Boehler as one of the lead negotiators of the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries.

Boehler was also college roommates with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and was chief executive officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a federal agency, in the first Trump administration. In 2020, Boehler announced that Masri would serve on the Development Finance Corporation’s advisory council, a position Masri held until 2023.

JNS sought comment from the State Department about the lawsuit after it was filed on Monday morning.

One of the allegations in the lawsuit is that for decades, Masri used funding from the U.S. government and from U.S.-backed international organizations intended for economic development and diverted the money to support Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.

“The Gaza Industrial Estate, one of the key Masri-controlled sites implicated in this lawsuit, was originally funded as a USAID initiative to promote economic growth in the region,” the plaintiffs stated.

“However, evidence in the complaint suggests that while the GIE housed legitimate businesses, it also became a crucial Hamas operations hub, with its underground attack tunnels burrowed under the border with Israel to allow Hamas to attack a nearby kibbutz and seize hostages,” they state.

One of the plaintiffs, Naomi Feifer-Weiser, the mother of Roey Weiser, an off-duty commander at the Erez Crossing who was killed after drawing fire away from trapped fellow soldiers during Oct. 7, said that she wanted to bring accountability to Hamas’s financial backers.

“I hope this lawsuit exposes the ‘terrorists in suits,’” Feifer-Weiser said. “The ones who smiled for the cameras, shook hands and spoke about tourism and economic growth in Gaza, all while quietly helping Hamas dig terror tunnels beneath the surface.” JNS

{Matzav.com}

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “It has been a bad three weeks for the Houthis. It’s about to get worse”

REPORTER: “Would you be open to a pause on tariffs?” POTUS: “We’re not looking at that… We’re going to have one shot at this. No other President is going to do this… It’s an honor to do it because we have just been destroyed.”

“You’ve been a remarkable friend of the State of Israel”: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu praises President Trump in the Oval Office.

A high-level White House investigation has revealed that The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a confidential group chat about planned U.S. airstrikes on Yemen, after National Security Adviser Mike Waltz accidentally saved the journalist’s phone number under a senior official’s contact, according to a report published Sunday by The Guardian. The mishap occurred last month when Waltz, intending to add National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes to a secure Signal chat discussing strikes on Houthi rebels, instead included Goldberg. The group, named “Houthi PC small group,” included top members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet — among them Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff — as well as over a dozen other senior officials. Goldberg’s inadvertent inclusion granted him access to sensitive discussions, including the timeline and operational details of the Yemen strikes, which he later reported on following the execution of the attacks. According to officials briefed on the White House investigation, the error traces back to October 2024, when Goldberg contacted the Trump campaign for comment on a story about the then-candidate’s views on wounded veterans. His contact information was forwarded internally and eventually sent via text message to Waltz. Although Waltz did not respond to Goldberg, his iPhone recognized the phone number in the message and automatically suggested it as an update to Hughes’ contact entry — a prompt Waltz apparently accepted without realizing. When Waltz later created the secure group chat after Trump’s return to the presidency, the mistaken contact led him to add Goldberg instead of Hughes. Trump, initially furious upon learning that Goldberg had been granted access to classified military planning — especially given his long-standing disdain for The Atlantic — considered firing Waltz. However, he ultimately opted against it, reportedly to avoid the optics of dismissing a senior cabinet member so early in the new term. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News, downplaying the breach and emphasizing that “the slip-up had no impact at all” on U.S. military operations. Waltz, who has not met or spoken to Goldberg, told Fox News the journalist’s number had been “sucked” into his phone through an iPhone feature and used unintentionally. Despite the breach, Trump affirmed his continued confidence in Waltz, calling the incident “the only glitch in two months” and “not a serious one.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Trump: “We’re having direct talks with Iran … everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with … it’s getting to be very dangerous territory.”

PM NETANYAHU: “We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States. We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do and we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers… and I think Israel can serve as a model for other countries who ought to do the same.”

Massive fire erupts at Syctom waste collection site in Paris, sending thick smoke across the city.

In a powerful Shabbos HaGadol drasha to hundreds of his followers in Elad, the noted Chassidishe rov, Rav Naftali Glanz, turned his focus to a growing and deeply troubling phenomenon within the Torah world: what he calls counterfeit kannaus, or zealotry. Rav Glanz, known for his work in shalom bayis and guiding families with children who have strayed from the derech, did not mince words as he decried the violent actions and misguided fervor displayed by some members of the community.

“I don’t enjoy playing the role of a public rebuker,” Rav Glanz began, “but there are times when silence is no longer an option. An alarming extremism has taken hold among us, led by immature young men, completely lacking any sense of responsibility. They storm the streets in unbridled rage, behaving with a brutality that stands in stark contrast to the refined, dignified conduct expected of bnei Torah and yeshivah students dedicated to the path of Torah and ethics.”

The rov described a recent incident in Bnei Brak, saying: “This week, a group of young men confronted a few IDF soldiers who entered the city. They drove them out with loud insults and hateful slogans. This disgraceful display is one of countless similar instances where youths — lacking any spiritual guidance — cloak themselves in ‘kannaus’ and take the law into their own hands. The holy Divrei Yatziv once told his talmidim: If you suddenly hear the sound of the shofar heralding Moshiach or see all the shevatim of Klal Yisroel gathering to greet him — do not leave your Gemara. Chazal teach that even then, we don’t close our sefarim to greet Moshiach.”

He continued, “The halacha is clear: We do not interrupt children’s Torah learning even to build the Beis HaMikdash. This principle is undisputed. And yet, we witness these 13- and 14-year-olds — who should be immersed in learning — parading through the streets, clashing with police, hurling foul language, and acting with appalling violence. In the name of a false kannaus, zealotry, they are losing all sense of truth and direction.”

Rav Glanz connected this breakdown to troubling patterns he sees in his daily work. “In my role, I am frequently involved in restoring peace between husbands and wives. I hear young yungeleit speak to their wives in ways that are horrifying — their language, their tone, it leaves me stunned. Parents are left wondering how things deteriorated to this point. But they fail to see the connection: these attitudes are born in the streets, among those very displays of so-called ‘kannus.’ When vulgarity and aggression are normalized in protests against innocent people — like those who merely ask them to stop blocking traffic — it should surprise no one when that same rage is turned inward, into their homes.”

He warned that once a person adopts such a toxic mode of speech, they no longer differentiate between a stranger and their own spouse or parent. “We invest so much in mussar and spiritual guidance. We drill in shemiras einayim, in kedushah. And in one thoughtless moment, it’s all thrown away — as young men, supposedly pure of sin, find themselves being dragged away by female officers in humiliating and spiritually dangerous situations.”

The rov shared a story: “This week in Yerushalayim, we lost a simple, beautiful Jew named Reb Yitzchok Eizik Weisel z”l. He was beloved for his endless acts of chesed, always offering rides to strangers, somehow always heading exactly where they needed to go — even if it was another city. But what amazed me most: throughout his life, he never once handed something directly to a woman. On one occasion, seeing a blind woman struggling to cross the street, he wanted to help but wouldn’t take her hand. So, he removed his tallis katan, asked her to hold one end, and he held the other, guiding her across.”

“This,” the rov explained, “is how a simple Jew lives with holiness. Not a rosh yeshiva, not a maggid shiur. Yet he upheld boundaries with dignity and integrity. And then we see these supposed guardians of our faith — storming the streets, dragging young men who haven’t even finished Shas into chaos, exposing them to scenes and behaviors that will haunt their futures, and corrode their marriages and their middos. They cannot foresee the long-term destruction they are sowing.”

Citing a Gemara from Sanhedrin, Rav Glanz taught: “When Pinchas acted zealously, he didn’t rush in with his spear. He first approached Moshe Rabbeinu and confirmed the halacha. Only once Moshe agreed that ‘kana’im pog’im bo‘ applies did Pinchas act. That’s true zealotry — not impulse, but clarity, driven by halacha and yiras Shamayim.

He continued: “Why was Yaakov Avinu angry with Shimon and Levi after they killed Shechem? After all, they were defending their sister’s honor! But Yaakov was upset because they didn’t first seek his counsel. They acted rashly. That’s not the Torah way.

“A true kannai,” the rov explained, “acts only after halachic consultation, never from emotion or fury. And certainly, someone who violates the Torah in their so-called ‘fight against evil’ cannot be considered a kannai. The Chofetz Chaim testified that his rebbi, Rav Leib Stavasher zt”l — the leading kannai of his time — would cry bitterly before waging any battle for Torah, begging Hashem not to let him sin in the process. That is what true zealotry looks like.

“Eliyahu Hanovi,” Rav Glanz added, “was a kannai. He said, ‘Kano kineisi laHashem.’ But what did Hashem answer? ‘Mah lecha po, Eliyahu?’ Chazal say that Hashem wanted to guide him from harshness to mercy. Hashem showed him that ‘not in the wind, not in the noise, not in the fire’ does His presence reside. Only in the still, soft voice — the kol demamah dakah — is the glory of Hashem found. Zealotry born from rage is not divine.”

He went on: “And as we stand on the threshold of Pesach, a time centered around the Leil HaSeder, when every father is commanded to teach his children about Yetzias Mitzrayim, we sadly see this ‘kannus’ rear its head in tragic ways. Some parents, consumed by harsh judgment, turn their children away from the table because they didn’t meet expectations. Instead of drawing them close with warmth and love, they send them into exile on the night meant for belonging.

“I personally,” Rav Glanz shared, “received a request from a young man who asked to join my Seder. I told him that my door is open all year round, but on this night, it is his father’s mitzvah to tell him the story of our geulah. I encouraged him to reconnect with his father. Baruch Hashem, it worked out. But the very fact that such pleas are made breaks the heart. We cannot judge — as Chazal say, ‘Do not judge your fellow until you’ve been in his place’ — but we must talk about how far this path is from the healthy middle road.”

He also spoke of the responsibility of mechanchim. “Teachers and melamdim have a sacred task. And it is all too easy to rashly expel a student for not appearing sincere. But who can predict the outcome? The Tiferes Yisrael writes that someone who is angry and impatient is unfit to teach. How can a student absorb anything from someone they fear? Torah must be taught with gentleness — divrei chachamim b’nachas nishma’im.”

He concluded: “Chazal say to be ‘firm’ with students — but that applies when they’re lazy, not when they’re lost. And even then, the rebuke must come from a place of love, not rage. A rebbi must carry his struggling students with empathy, guiding them under the wings of the Shechinah, so they feel his love is sincere and his direction is only for their good.”

Wrapping up his message, Rav Glanz emphasized, “We are commanded to walk in Hashem’s ways. Even in the Torah’s response to the wicked son at the seder, Hashem left room for connection. As the posuk in Shmuel states: ‘He devises ways so that no one is cast away.’ That is our mission.”

{Matzav.com Israel}