Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued Sunday that the administration was unable to brief lawmakers in advance of the Venezuela mission, citing the risk of leaks and the unpredictable conditions surrounding the operation. He said the circumstances were too fluid to permit prior notification, stressing that secrecy was essential.
“You can’t congressionally notify something like this for two reasons. Number one, it will leak. It’s as simple as that. And number two, it’s an exigent circumstance. It’s an emergent thing. You don’t even know if you’re going to be able to do it,” Rubio said, adding, “We didn’t know if all of the things that had to line up were going to line up at the same time in the right conditions.”
“It had to be at the right place at the right time with the right weather, and all things like that. So those are very difficult to notify, but the number one reason is operational security.”
Rubio made the remarks during an appearance on ABC News’s This Week, where he rejected claims that the United States violated the law by acting without congressional authorization.
“It wasn’t necessary because this is not an invasion. We didn’t occupy a country,” Rubio said in response to questions from host George Stephanopoulos.
He emphasized that the mission should be viewed as a criminal arrest rather than a military campaign. “This was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation. He was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights and removed from the country,” Rubio said.
U.S. forces carried out a covert overnight action into Saturday to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, transporting them to New York to face charges tied to drug trafficking, terrorism, and firearms offenses. Maduro is now being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
According to Rubio, the planning for the mission began months ago, following a series of threats and maritime strikes aimed at what U.S. officials described as “narco-terrorists.” He said the arrest could not have been carried out without military support.
“Obviously, this was not a friendly territory,” Rubio said, explaining why the Pentagon was involved.
“So in order to arrest him we had to ask the Department of War to become involved in the operation. The Department of War went in. They hit anything that was a threat to the agents that were going in to arrest him, and they hit anything that was a threat on the way out,” he said.
WATCH:
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[Video below.] House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the administration must face limits on its actions in Venezuela, calling on lawmakers to reassert their authority once Congress reconvenes. He argued that any additional steps involving the South American nation should not move forward without lawmakers’ clear consent.
Speaking Sunday, Jeffries contended that the White House has failed to demonstrate that the dramatic operation against Venezuela was necessary to protect Americans. Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, he said, “There’s been no evidence that the administration has presented to justify the actions that were taken in terms of there being an imminent threat to the health, the safety, the well-being, the national security of the American people.”
The Democratic leader also criticized the decision-making behind the raid that resulted in Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, being taken into custody and flown to a federal detention facility in Brooklyn. Jeffries described the move as “an act of war.”
President Donald Trump defended the operation a day earlier, telling reporters that detaining Maduro was required to curb the flow of narcotics and criminal networks into the United States and to halt shipments of Venezuelan oil sold in violation of sanctions. He also said Maduro had undermined regional stability through ties with China, Russia, and Iran.
Trump further stated that Washington would temporarily take charge of Venezuela, saying the United States would “run [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” He added that American energy firms would “fix” the country’s oil sector, pointing to Venezuela’s vast petroleum reserves.
Jeffries questioned whether that approach would actually improve conditions for Venezuelans, arguing that Trump’s leadership record suggests otherwise. “It remains to be seen whether the people of Venezuela are going to be better off,” he said.
“He’s done a terrible job running the United States of America,” Jeffries added. “Life hasn’t gotten better for the American people over the last year; life has gotten worse.”
The capture of Maduro drew applause from Republican lawmakers, while many Democrats objected to the lack of advance notice to Congress. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio countered that alerting lawmakers beforehand would have risked the success of the mission.
{Matzav.com}
As debate over Chareidi conscription intensifies, Shas has made clear it will not back the 2026 state budget unless the coalition first advances legislation formalizing exemptions and regulation for Chareidi enlistment. Party spokesman Asher Medina issued the warning on Sunday, signaling a move that could topple Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government if carried through.
With the March 31 deadline for passing the budget looming, the 11 Knesset seats held by Shas are pivotal. Failure to approve the budget on time would automatically dissolve the Knesset and send the country to early elections, giving the party significant leverage in coalition negotiations.
Speaking to Radio Kol Barama, Medina framed the proposed law as a defining issue for the Chareidi public. “From the perspective of the Chareidi public, the draft law is as far-reaching as one could possibly imagine. With God’s help, we will support the law because it is the only thing that will save the world of Torah,” he said. He added pointedly that “the only thing that will stop the arrests is not demonstrations, but legislation.”
For roughly a year and a half, Chareidi leaders have pressed for a statutory arrangement keeping full-time yeshiva students out of the Israel Defense Forces, following a High Court ruling that invalidated the longstanding blanket exemptions granted to them. The ruling upended decades of policy and placed immediate pressure on both the government and the Chareidi community.
Estimates suggest that around 80,000 Chareidi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are currently eligible for military service but have not enlisted. At the same time, the IDF has stated that it needs some 12,000 additional recruits urgently, citing the heavy burden on standing and reserve forces amid the war with Hamas in Gaza and other security demands.
Shas lawmakers have consistently backed the proposed legislation, which would preserve exemptions for full-time yeshiva students while ostensibly encouraging greater enlistment among graduates of Chareidi educational frameworks. In recent weeks, they have even voiced support for the bill during visits to Chareidi draft evaders held in military prison.
In a separate Kol Barama interview on Sunday, Shas MK Michael Malkieli stressed that his party is acting in full coordination with United Torah Judaism, despite a very public dispute between the two factions over control of Yerushalayim’s religious council.
Medina’s remarks followed closely on comments from a senior Degel HaTorah figure, part of the UTJ alliance, who told Ynet that “if there is no progress” on the enlistment bill, “we will not vote in favor of the budget…and if that means the government falls, then let the government fall.”
Both Shas and UTJ have previously rejected claims that they were explicitly threatening to bring down the government over the issue. Nonetheless, the pressure campaign appears to have resonated at the top of the coalition.
Addressing a meeting focused on funding for Chareidi education on Sunday, Netanyahu urged lawmakers to move far more quickly on the contentious bill. “We need to accelerate the completion of the conscription law legislation — everything depends on it,” Ynet quoted him as saying.
Under the proposed framework, yeshiva students who ignored draft orders over the past year would effectively have their status reset. Yeshivos would also immediately regain half of the funding that was cut following the High Court’s 2024 decision, a step meant to ease both financial strain and legal exposure within the community.
Those granted deferments would face travel-related sanctions, though critics argue these measures are largely symbolic and would expire once individuals reach age 26. More substantial penalties affecting subsidies would only be imposed if enlistment targets are missed.
The legislation has drawn sharp criticism from the Attorney General’s Office, the IDF, and the Finance Ministry, all of which contend that it is unlikely to produce a meaningful rise in Chareidi enlistment.
In a legal opinion circulated to lawmakers over the weekend, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel Shor faulted the bill’s gradual, multi-year approach to sanctions and urged a reconsideration of the clause that ends penalties at age 26, when repeated deferments become a permanent exemption.
Echoing that concern, a Finance Ministry representative told the committee on Sunday that “setting an expiration date for the sanctions empties most of them of their substance.”
Opposition lawmakers also assailed the sanctions structure, questioning why the bill calls for an exceptions committee that would include a representative from the Yeshiva Committee — an organization that a Times of Israel investigation found actively advises yeshiva students on how to evade the draft.
Also on Sunday, UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf took an uncompromising stance, arguing that instead of penalizing those who choose Torah study over military service, “all sanctions should be abolished.” He told the committee, “I implore the committee: If there are those who study Torah, exempt them from everything. They should not be tied to quotas or targets,” and accused supporters of sanctions of promoting a “yellow star” for Torah scholars.
That remark drew immediate and fierce backlash. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid responded by invoking his own family history, saying, “My father wore a yellow star in the Budapest ghetto simply because there was no Jewish army to protect his life. My grandfather wore a yellow star when he was murdered in a concentration camp,” and labeling Goldknopf’s comparison “the dream of every antisemite.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also condemned Goldknopf, saying there was “no place in our coalition” for individuals “who don’t stop harming the people of Israel, IDF fighters and Torah scholars.” In a post on X, he added, “Our heroic fighters are the ones battling the Nazis of every generation and preventing them from carrying out the Final Solution conceived by the one who devised the yellow star.”
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth sought to strike a measured tone, saying, “The members of the committee know the immense respect I have for Torah scholars and, in general, for the Chareidi world, but a yellow patch is not here — we need to set a limit.”
UTJ MK Meir Porush went even further than Goldknopf, warning that cutting daycare subsidies to families of draft evaders would lead to “starvation” among Chareidim and could violate Israel’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Unlike Degel HaTorah and Shas, the Agudas Yisrael faction led by Goldknopf and Porush has openly opposed the bill, with Goldknopf saying he cannot support any legislation that includes sanctions at all.
Defending the draft, Bismuth, a Likud MK and the author of the revised version, dismissed the criticism as detached from reality. Addressing Yisrael Beytenu MK Sharon Nir, he argued that following her approach would mean “there will be not be 17,000 [Chareidi] soldiers, there will be 17,000 prisoners and 5,000 soldiers forced to guard them.”
As the political battle played out in the Knesset, tensions spilled into the streets. Chareidi protesters attempted to block recruits at the Yerushalayim enlistment office and at the Bakum induction base in central Israel, prompting clashes with police who used water cannons to disperse the crowds.
Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon also weighed in on Sunday, accusing the government of defying a High Court directive by failing to implement tougher sanctions against draft evaders, a lapse he described as a “constitutional crisis.” “The High Court required the formulation of the policy by today. This constitutes a violation of the ruling,” Ynet quoted him as telling a weekly cabinet meeting after a court-imposed deadline expired.
In mid-November, the High Court had granted the government 45 days to craft effective enforcement tools, including criminal proceedings, against Chareidi yeshiva students who refused to comply with conscription orders.
In a unanimous ruling, the justices charged that the government and state authorities had almost “totally shirked” their duty to enforce the law against Chareidi draft dodgers, calling it a case of selective enforcement and a breach of the state’s obligation to uphold its own laws.
The court instructed the government to promptly initiate criminal proceedings against those already deemed draft evaders and to present, by January 4, civil and economic enforcement measures with a strong likelihood of success against all who ignore enlistment orders.
According to reports, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs responded to Limon by saying that “the government’s policy is to approve the conscription law.”
{Matzav.com}
Speaking before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a senior IDF officer reported that a significant number of Chareidi men had entered military service earlier today, marking what could become the largest enlistment of its kind in recent years. Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, who heads the Planning and Personnel Management Division within the IDF Personnel Directorate, told lawmakers that by the afternoon hours, “there were over 210 fighters and over 140 combat support troops and it is likely that in 10 days this will end with the largest enlistment in recent times.”
The recruits, most of whom were slated for combat or combat-support roles, were assigned to frameworks geared toward the Chareidi public, including the Netzach Yehuda battalion, the Chashmonaim brigade, and additional tracks designed to accommodate a Chareidi lifestyle within the army.
The enlistment took place despite efforts by Chareidi demonstrators to block the process. Protests were reported both at the Yerushalayim enlistment office and at the Bakum induction base in central Israel, where clashes erupted between demonstrators and police. Law enforcement ultimately used water cannons to disperse the crowds.
According to Ynet, protesters shouted warnings that the recruits would abandon their religious way of life in the army and hurled harsh accusations at them, calling the enlistees “sinners” and “murderers.”
{Matzav.com}
Following the US military operation that removed Venezuela’s leadership, President Donald Trump said the United States would take control of the country, arguing that the situation on the ground left no better alternative. In a telephone interview with The Atlantic, Trump said that “rebuilding there and regime change — anything you want to call it — is better than what you have right now.”
Trump expanded on that point by delivering a blunt assessment of Venezuela’s condition. “Rebuilding is not a bad thing in Venezuela’s case,” he said. “The country’s gone to —-. It’s a failed country. It’s a totally failed country. It’s a country that’s a disaster in every way.”
His remarks came a day after US forces carried out overnight strikes in Caracas, hitting military targets and taking Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife into custody. The pair were transported to New York City, where Maduro was jailed to face federal narco-trafficking charges.
In the aftermath of the operation, the Trump administration signaled that it was prepared to work with other elements of the Venezuelan government, provided that Washington’s objectives were met. Those goals included opening the country’s vast crude oil reserves to US investment.
Amid the upheaval, Delcy Rodriguez was confirmed as interim president by Venezuela’s Supreme Court and senior military officials. She responded defiantly to the US action, insisting that Maduro remained the nation’s only legitimate leader and declaring that “we’re ready to defend our natural resources.”
Trump, however, issued a direct warning to Rodriguez, saying her future depended on her cooperation with Washington. “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” he told The Atlantic.
{Matzav.com}
Sharp reactions rippled through the Knesset on Sunday night after comments made by MK Yitzchak Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism during a heated session of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee focused on the proposed conscription legislation.
In the committee session, Goldknopf had addressed the sanctions included in the draft law and likened them to “a yellow star for Torah students,” a statement that immediately sparked outrage across party lines.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid responded with a deeply personal rebuke, addressing Goldknopf directly. He said that his father wore a yellow star in the Budapest ghetto because there was no Jewish army to defend him, and that his grandfather was forced to wear one before being murdered in a concentration camp. Lapid charged that the comparison trivialized the Holocaust and demeaned the sacrifice of IDF soldiers, describing the remarks as damaging and profoundly offensive.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also weighed in forcefully, saying there is no place in the coalition for leaders who are “disconnected, insensitive, and who repeatedly harm Israeli society, IDF soldiers, and Torah students.” He stressed that Goldknopf is no longer part of the mainstream coalition and is not expected to return.
Smotrich added that IDF soldiers are those standing on the front lines against antisemitism and its contemporary expressions. He said the Religious Zionist camp believes it is possible to unite Torah learning with military service and is committed to showing that the chareidi public can do so as well.
Committee chairman MK Boaz Bismuth of Likud publicly distanced himself from the analogy. While expressing “great respect for Torah scholars and the chareidi community,” he said the language used “crosses a line” and has no place in such a discussion.
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli issued his own sharp criticism, calling the comparison a sign of extreme political detachment. He said that equating draft-related sanctions with the yellow star reflects a profound disconnect and added that the public deserves more responsible leadership, particularly on matters so sensitive to Jewish history and national unity.
{Matzav.com}
Ukrainian military intelligence has revealed a covert operation in which Russian authorities were manipulated into paying a $500,000 assassination bounty to their own enemies, after being deceived into believing a wanted anti-Kremlin figure had been killed.
According to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, the operation was designed both to protect Denis Kapustin, commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, and to uncover a hostile intelligence network tasked with eliminating him. Officials described the effort as a “complex, multi-stage” mission coordinated with a pro-Ukrainian Russian group.
The ruse hinged on convincing Russian operatives that Kapustin had been successfully assassinated. Ukrainian intelligence officers staged drone footage to simulate his supposed death, creating visual evidence intended to satisfy Moscow’s handlers.
Two strike drones were central to the deception. One drone appeared to strike a vehicle allegedly carrying Kapustin, while a second drone documented the aftermath, showing a burning car that served as “proof” of the purported hit.
Ukrainian officials said the fabricated material was convincing enough that Russian intelligence proceeded to release the promised bounty. The $500,000 payment, intended as a reward for Kapustin’s assassination, was transferred to Ukrainian operatives.
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence said the funds are now being redirected to strengthen its special forces, effectively turning a Russian assassination contract into financial support for Ukraine’s war effort.
The Telegraph reported that Kapustin was falsely declared dead on Dec. 27, with Russia’s own volunteer force initially echoing the claim in a Telegram post that vowed revenge and stated, “Your legacy lives on.”
That report noted that Moscow had pursued Kapustin for years and was prepared to pay a substantial sum for his elimination, underscoring how damaging his group’s activities have been for the Kremlin.
The deception unraveled publicly on New Year’s Day, when Kapustin appeared alive in a video released by Ukraine’s military intelligence. He was shown standing beside Gen. Kyrylo Budanov.
In the video, Budanov congratulated those involved in the operation and openly mocked Russia’s security services for unwittingly financing Ukraine’s military campaign. He said he was pleased that the funds meant for Kapustin’s “liquidation” were instead used to support Ukraine’s fight.
The Guardian reported that Ukrainian intelligence portrayed the operation as both a defensive maneuver and a counterintelligence success, preserving Kapustin’s life while identifying those behind the plot, including alleged planners within Russia’s special services and operatives recruited to carry out the attack.
According to the report, the “Timur Special Unit,” which is linked to Kapustin, also received funds allocated for the assassination.
The episode adds to a growing list of intelligence successes by Ukraine against Moscow’s security apparatus, including the Federal Security Service and the GRU, long considered among the world’s most formidable intelligence agencies.
It also highlights how deception, drone technology, and covert operations are playing an increasingly central role in a conflict that is evolving into a high-tech shadow war fought far beyond traditional battlefields.
{Matzav.com}
Diplomatic contacts between Israel and Syria are set to resume this week, with senior representatives from both countries scheduled to convene in Paris on Monday to reopen discussions toward a new security framework, Axios reported, citing an Israeli official and another individual familiar with the matter.
The planned meetings are expected to span two days and will bring together Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and a newly assembled Israeli negotiating team. According to the report, the talks are intended to focus on a potential security arrangement that would address demilitarization in southern Syria, alongside an Israeli pullback from territories entered following the collapse of the Assad regime.
The renewed effort comes after President Trump personally urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restart the negotiations during their recent meeting in Mar-a-Lago, Axios reported. Netanyahu agreed to move forward with additional talks while underscoring that any agreement must safeguard Israel’s security interests.
This upcoming round will be the first in nearly two months and represents the fifth session overall. Previous negotiations were put on hold amid wide disagreements between the parties and following the resignation of Israel’s earlier lead negotiator, former Minister Ron Dermer.
The initiative is being actively supported by the Trump administration, which has prioritized stabilizing the security situation along the Israel-Syria border. President Trump’s Syria envoy, Tom Barrack, is expected to play a mediating role during the discussions.
In preparation for the Paris meetings, Netanyahu appointed a new Israeli delegation led by Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter. Other members named by Axios include Netanyahu’s military adviser, Gen. Roman Gofman, and acting National Security Adviser Gill Reich.
{Matzav.com}
