Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply escalated his rhetoric on Monday against the chareidi public and its rabbinic leadership, accusing them of delegitimizing the Israel Defense Forces and demanding what he described as unequal treatment in the wake of the October 7 attacks.
Speaking at the opening of a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid party, Lapid addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding remarks made by Yitzchok Goldknopf, chairman of United Torah Judaism, as well as statements by chareidi rabbinic figures opposing military conscription. Lapid claimed that chareidi leaders are “not asking for an exemption from army service, but for an exemption from bereavement.”
Lapid said Goldknopf appeared before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a day earlier and compared sanctions on draft evaders and deserters to the yellow badge imposed on Jews during the Holocaust. “My father wore a yellow badge,” Lapid said. “A 13-year-old Jewish boy sitting in the Budapest ghetto while the Nazis wanted to kill him. My grandfather was murdered in the cold and snow in a concentration camp. My grandfather never harmed a single person in his life. He was a small, overweight man, not important at all. They put a yellow badge on him and murdered him because he was a Jew.”
He went on to cite a gathering of roshei yeshiva that took place the same day, where Rav Menachem Tzvi Berlin reportedly said that the Israel Defense Forces and those who support enlistment were “no better than Hitler.” Lapid said no senior rabbinic figures present objected to the comparison. “Hitler murdered a million and a half Jewish children,” Lapid said. “And he stood there and compared him to the IDF, and no one stood up and said, ‘Sir, Jews do not speak this way.’”
Lapid delivered some of his harshest words directly at the chareidi leadership. “How dare you?” he said. “How dare you compare the Israel Defense Forces to the Nazis? If there were no IDF, we would all have been dead long ago like my grandfather. What kind of Judaism is this? What happened to ‘Its ways are ways of pleasantness’? Since when do Jews speak to one another like this?”
Addressing the broader national burden of military service, Lapid said, “At some point you’ll have to understand: we’re not trying to fight with you, we’re trying to live with you. But it’s impossible to continue when our children are dying and yours are not.” He added, “You’re not asking for an exemption from enlistment. You’re asking for an exemption from bereavement. You’re asking for an exemption from the knock on the door at four in the morning. We can’t give you that anymore. Not after October 7.”
Lapid also focused on the economic dimension of the dispute, claiming that draft evasion imposes a massive financial burden on the public. “We also can’t continue with a situation where we fund draft evasion to the tune of 60 billion shekels every year,” he said. “Every working family transfers 1,700 shekels a month to draft evaders.”
Concluding his remarks, Lapid said his party was offering an alternative vision. “What we’re proposing instead is shared lives and a shared Israeli story,” he said. “We have no problem with you being chareidi. That is your full right. But it does not exempt you from the obligations that apply to every Israeli citizen — to serve, to study, and to work. It does not exempt you from sharing the fate of this people. And stop talking about the Holocaust. It does you no honor, it does not honor the Torah, it cheapens the Holocaust, and it gives ammunition to antisemites against the Jewish people.”
{Matzav.com}
Israeli officials are increasingly wary that Tehran could misread Israel’s intentions and act first, even if Israel has no plans to strike. In recent days, Israel’s political and security leadership has convened a series of consultations focused on regional threats, with particular attention to Iran, Kan 11 News reported.
As part of efforts to lower the temperature, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin to pass messages to Iran stressing that Israel is not seeking an attack, according to the report, which cited diplomatic sources. The messages were said to have reached Tehran recently, including through direct phone conversations between Netanyahu and Putin, amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
Speaking Monday during a session of the Knesset, Netanyahu said Israel had already made its position clear to Tehran, warning that any aggression would be met forcefully. “If we are attacked, the consequences will be severe,” he said.
During the same session, Netanyahu also addressed Iran’s strategic capabilities, declaring, “[US President Donald] Trump and I will not allow Iran to restore its ballistic missile industry and nuclear program.”
He went on to add, “We identify with the struggle of the Iranian people. We may be standing at a crucial moment. If we are attacked, the consequences for Iran will be very serious.”
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported Sunday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had begun a wide-ranging military drill that included missile launches and air defense system tests. The exercise was said to be taking place in multiple locations across the country, including Tehran and Shiraz.
Concerns about the drills were echoed earlier this month in Western and Israeli reporting. Two weeks ago, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported that Israeli officials had cautioned the Trump administration that an IRGC missile exercise could be a precursor to an attack on Israel.
One day before that, Iran International cited Western intelligence sources who said they had detected “unusual aerial activity” by the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, adding to regional unease over Iran’s military posture.
{Matzav.com}
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said that he sees the U.S. mission that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a success, openly criticizing fellow Democrats for attacking President Donald Trump over the operation.
Appearing on Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Fetterman expressed frustration that Democrats who long demanded Maduro’s removal are now condemning the Trump administration after the goal was achieved.
“I don’t know why we can’t just acknowledge it’s been a good thing what’s happened. I’ve seen the speeches from, whether it’s Leader Schumer or kinds of past tweets from President Biden,” he said, referencing recent remarks by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and earlier statements from Joe Biden when he was out of office.
“We all wanted this man gone, and now he is gone. I think we should really appreciate exactly what happened here,” Fetterman added.
Schumer, however, warned over the weekend that “launching military action without congressional authorization and without a credible plan for what comes next is reckless.”
The criticism echoed earlier attacks from Biden, who in 2020 accused Trump of posturing on Venezuela while praising strongmen abroad. In a social media post that year, Biden charged that Trump talked “tough” on the country but admired “thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro.”
Those past remarks, Fetterman said, only highlight the inconsistency in the current Democratic response. He questioned why the party refuses to acknowledge what he views as a clear achievement.
“I salute our military, what they’ve done,” he said on Fox News. “That was really surgical and precise and very efficient — so why we can’t celebrate these kinds of things?
Fetterman also said Maduro’s removal could mark a turning point for Venezuela itself.
“And now I’m open to the good opportunities, a better future for Venezuela after this happened,” he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced that argument during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, noting that the U.S. government itself had previously placed a multimillion-dollar bounty on Maduro’s capture.
“In the Biden administration, they had a $25 million reward for [Maduro’s] capture,” Rubio told NBC host Kristen Welker.
“So, we have a reward for his capture, but we’re not going to enforce it?” he asked.
Rubio also responded to complaints that Congress was not notified ahead of the mission. He said secrecy was essential because the operation depended on specific conditions and any leak could have put it at risk.
“We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on,” Rubio told reporters during a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida.
“It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met. Night after night, we watched and monitored that for a number of days. So it’s just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, ‘Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days,’” he said.
WATCH:
{Matzav.com}
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is accusing fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina of nudging President Donald Trump into a foreign policy move that Paul says contradicts the president’s long-held views, following the U.S. operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Paul said Graham was a driving force behind the decision to deploy U.S. special operations forces to Caracas, arguing that Graham successfully pushed the president toward an action Trump had historically resisted.
According to Paul, the mission clashes with Trump’s repeated opposition to regime-change efforts and overseas nation-building, positions the president has emphasized throughout his political career.
“This is Lindsey Graham,” Paul said. “Lindsey Graham has gotten to the president.”
Paul said Trump has consistently warned that removing foreign governments rarely ends well, pointing to numerous public statements in which the president criticized such interventions.
“I saw a clip — there’s like 20 clips — of [Trump] saying he’s not for regime change, and how regime change has always gone wrong,” Paul said.
“Somehow, they’ve convinced him it’s different if it’s in our hemisphere.”
Paul warned that the episode reflects the rising sway of more interventionist Republicans within the party, singling out Graham as a leading voice shaping Trump’s approach to Venezuela and foreign policy more broadly.
Graham, meanwhile, has been open for years about his desire to see Maduro ousted from power. His frustration surfaced publicly last month after War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a classified briefing that removing Maduro was not being actively pursued at that time.
“I want to know what’s going to happen next,” Graham said after that briefing.
“Is it the policy to take Maduro down? It should be, if it’s not.
“If he goes, what’s going to happen next?” Graham asked. “I’d like a better answer as to what happens when Maduro goes.”
After Maduro was taken into custody over the weekend, Graham applauded the outcome and framed it as a potential turning point for leftist governments across the region.
“As I have often said, it is in America’s national security interest to deal with the drug caliphate in our backyard, the centerpiece of which is Venezuela. With Maduro’s capture, the drug caliphate is moving toward collapse,” Graham wrote in a post on X.
“Free Cuba,” Graham added.
{Matzav.com}
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President Trump said Monday that American energy companies could be active in Venezuela far sooner than many expect, predicting that operations could begin within a year and a half — and possibly even earlier.
“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
According to the president, the financial burden would initially fall on the private sector. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” he said.
Trump’s comments came in the wake of a U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Following that development, the president said the United States would maintain a role in the country “as it pertains to oil.”
He explained that before any large-scale drilling can resume, American firms would first need to overhaul Venezuela’s deteriorated oil infrastructure, which has suffered years of neglect and mismanagement.
At present, Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company still operating in Venezuela.
Other major players exited long ago. ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil pulled out nearly two decades ago after then-president Hugo Chávez nationalized foreign-owned energy assets.
Trump said the scale of investment required would be massive. “It’ll be a very substantial amount of money,” he said. “But they’ll do very well.”
“And the country will do well,” the president added.
He also argued that restoring Venezuela as a major oil producer would have broader economic benefits for the United States. “Having a Venezuela that’s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down,” Trump said, adding that expanded drilling would “reduce oil prices.”
Trump said that while his administration did not notify U.S. oil companies in advance of the military operation, discussions had been taking place in more general terms. Officials had been “talking to the concept of, ‘what if we did it?’” he said.
“The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something,” Trump said. “But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it.”
Looking ahead, Energy Secretary Chris Wright is expected to meet later this week with executives from Exxon and ConocoPhillips to discuss Venezuelan oil, according to Bloomberg News.
NBC News, citing a White House official, reported that Wright has been assigned to lead the administration’s efforts to restore and rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.
{Matzav.com}
All are asked to be mispallel for Rav Dovid Magid, formerly rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva of Bayonne, NJ, who is in need of rachamei Shomayim after suffering a medical episode on Motzoei Shabbos.
Rav Magid was transported for medical care following the incident, and family members have since asked that his condition be kept in mind during tefillah.
The rosh yeshiva‘s name for Tehillim is Elchonon Dovid Aryeh Leib ben Itta Faiga.
{Matzav.com}
