The IDF and Shin Bet confirmed on Wednesday morning that the new leader of Hamas’s military wing in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Odeh, was eliminated in a strike on Gaza City on Tuesday night.

The Hamas terror group confirmed the elimination earlier Wednesday morning.

According to the joint statement, after months of intelligence monitoring, strikes were carried out on several buildings in Gaza City that served as Odeh’s hideouts, killing Odeh and his family members. In addition, another nearby apartment was struck, killing a Hamas terrorist who worked under Odeh and took part in the October 7 massacre.

Odeh was one of the last senior Hamas military commanders who took part in the planning and execution of the October 7 massacre and the subsequent battle against IDF troops.

According to a report from Gaza, Odeh was killed along with his wife, two sons, and daughter.

During the war, Odeh served as the head of Hamas’s intelligence headquarters and as a member of Hamas’s supreme military council. More recently, he served as the deputy head of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza until Izz ad-Din was eliminated by the IDF 10 days ago, after which he was appointed in his place.

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz issued a statement praising the IDF and the Shin Bet for the precise elimination, saying, “The fourth commander of Hamas’s military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza was eliminated yesterday and sent to meet his partners in the depths of hell. On behalf of the Prime Minister and myself, congratulations to the IDF and the Shin Bet on the brilliant execution.”

“We committed to eliminating everyone who led the October 7 massacre, and that is what we will do: all of them are marked for death wherever they are. We vowed that Hamas would not rule Gaza, civilly or militarily, and so it will be. The voluntary emigration plan from Gaza will also be implemented—everything at the right time and in the right way.”

Earlier, three Hamas sources in Gaza told the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Odeh’s family members were the ones who identified his body. According to a source quoted by the newspaper, at least three missiles were fired from fighter jets at the building where Odeh was staying in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, causing major damage to the building and the surrounding area.

According to the report, 20 minutes after Odeh’s elimination, a helicopter carried out another strike on a second apartment hundreds of meters from the first one, leading to the injury of several people, including a Hamas intelligence commander who worked under Odeh and took part in the October 7 massacre.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Maureen Galindo, the Texas Democratic congressional candidate who pledged to convert an immigration detention center into a prison for “American Zionists” and former ICE officers, lost her party’s primary runoff Tuesday night, ending a campaign that drew national condemnation and exposed deep divisions inside the Democratic Party.

Johnny Garcia, a former Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, defeated Galindo in the runoff for Texas’ 35th Congressional District, CBS News projected. He will face the winner of the Republican runoff between state Rep. John Lujan and Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz in November.

Galindo, a San Antonio therapist and housing activist, had finished first in the March primary with 29.2 percent of the vote, ahead of Garcia’s 27 percent in a four-way field. But her standing collapsed in the final weeks of the runoff after a series of social media posts and interviews in which she vowed to jail “billionaire Zionists,” accused a “cabal” of Jewish Zionists of controlling Hollywood, the media and local politics, and proposed turning the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center into a prison for Zionists and former ICE officers.

In one Instagram post, Galindo wrote that the facility would also serve as a “castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.” In a Texas Public Radio interview, she pledged to put Garcia on trial for treason, accusing him of participating in a human trafficking operation she said was run by Jewish billionaires.

Galindo denied the comments were antisemitic, insisting in social media videos that her objection was to Zionists, not Jews. “When I say that I want billionaire Zionists in prison, that does not mean I want Jews in internment camps,” she said in one video. “If you are a Zionist, meaning that you believe that you are just entitled to land … then yeah, I think you’re a danger to humanity and belong in prison.”

The remarks drew swift rebukes from Democratic leaders. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called Galindo’s language “vile” and “disqualifying.” Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Moskowitz of Florida said they would move to expel her from Congress every day she served if she were elected. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, also condemned the comments, as did Garcia.

ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s main fundraising platform, suspended donations to Galindo’s campaign in the final stretch of the race. The Jewish Federation of San Antonio condemned what it described as antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories. Garcia, who had earlier received Galindo’s endorsement after she eliminated him in a previous race, said he could no longer support her.

The runoff was complicated by a six-figure advertising campaign from a group called Lead Left PAC, which spent roughly $600,000 on broadcast and cable advertising and additional money on mailers boosting Galindo and attacking Garcia. The PAC’s funding sources have not been disclosed, and DCCC officials and other Democrats accused Republicans of propping up Galindo’s candidacy in hopes of facing a weaker general-election opponent in a district redrawn last year to favor the GOP. Galindo said she had no contact with the PAC and did not believe its support was offered in bad faith.

The 35th District was reshaped during Texas Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting push in 2025, shifting it away from its previous Austin-to-San Antonio configuration into a new map covering parts of San Antonio and stretching into Guadalupe, Wilson and Karnes counties. The redrawn district would have voted for President Donald Trump by roughly 10 points in 2024, even as it remains majority Hispanic. Rep. Greg Casar, the Democrat who currently represents the district, is seeking reelection in the Austin-based 37th.

Garcia, who campaigned as a moderate, law-and-order Democrat, leaned on nearly two decades of experience with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, including stints as a SWAT hostage negotiator and as the agency’s public information officer. He will enter the general election as the underdog in a district drawn to favor Republicans.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The IDF carried out a strike in Gaza City on Tuesday targeting Mohammed Odeh, the newly appointed leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and commander of the terror group’s military wing, just 11 days after Israel killed his predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that the strike targeted Odeh, who they described as the new commander of Hamas’s military wing and “one of the architects” of the October 7, 2023 massacre. Israeli officials said Odeh had served as the head of Hamas intelligence during the October 7 attacks and was appointed approximately a week ago to replace al-Haddad, who was killed in an IDF strike in Gaza City on May 15.

According to Israeli officials, Odeh was responsible for the murder, abduction and injury of numerous Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.

Palestinian officials said the strike hit an apartment building in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, killing at least three people, including a woman, and injuring more than 20 others.

There was no immediate official confirmation from Israel that Odeh had been killed. However, Israeli media reported that initial assessments indicated he was successfully eliminated in the strike, with one Israeli source telling Kan that Odeh was killed. Hamas had not immediately commented on the strike or confirmed Odeh’s status.

Odeh’s rapid rise to the top of Hamas’s military hierarchy came after the killing of al-Haddad, who had led Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza. Israeli reporting has described Odeh as a senior member of Hamas’s military council and a longtime intelligence figure within the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Reuters reported that Odeh had served as Hamas’s intelligence chief before being elevated to lead the group’s armed wing following al-Haddad’s death.

The strike underscores Israel’s effort to prevent Hamas from reconstituting its leadership in Gaza, where a series of senior commanders have been killed over the course of the war. Israeli officials have repeatedly said they will continue pursuing those involved in the October 7 massacre.

The operation also comes amid a fragile ceasefire framework between Israel and Hamas. Indirect negotiations have continued over a possible second phase of the arrangement, even as Israeli strikes and Hamas activity have kept tensions high.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Talks between the United States and Iran on extending a fragile ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz are expected to take several more days, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, Rubio said discussions were still underway over the wording of an initial agreement, with negotiators continuing to work through unresolved details. “There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress,” Rubio said. “I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days.”

The negotiations are aimed at extending the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran and restoring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy corridors. Rubio said the waterway “has to be open, one way or the other,” underscoring the Trump administration’s position that commercial shipping through the strait cannot remain blocked or severely restricted.

The comments came after the U.S. military launched new strikes on Iranian targets in southern Iran, saying the attacks were defensive and targeted missile sites and boats that were allegedly attempting to lay mines near the strait. Iran accused Washington of violating the ceasefire and warned that the strikes could undermine diplomatic progress.

Despite the escalation, talks have continued. The negotiations under discussion reportedly include a preliminary framework that would create a 30-day window to end hostilities and resume shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while pushing more complicated issues — including Iran’s nuclear program — into a second phase of talks.

The Strait of Hormuz has become a central point in the conflict, with shipping through the narrow waterway sharply disrupted by the fighting. The strait carries roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade, making any prolonged closure or threat to shipping a major concern for energy markets and the global economy.

Oil prices surged following the latest U.S. strikes, with crude climbing about 3.5 percent to around $100 a barrel as markets reacted to renewed fears of a wider confrontation and continued disruption in the Gulf.

The proposed deal remains politically and diplomatically fragile. Iran has sought economic concessions, including access to frozen assets, while U.S. officials have insisted that Iran must allow the safe reopening of maritime traffic through the strait. The Guardian reported that the talks, mediated in part by Qatar and Pakistan, have remained technically alive despite Tehran’s condemnation of the latest American strikes as a “bad faith” violation of the ceasefire.

President Donald Trump has also signaled that an agreement is not yet complete. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the United States and Iran were working toward a deal to extend the ceasefire and reopen the strait, but Trump cautioned that the agreement “isn’t even fully negotiated yet.”

For now, Rubio’s remarks suggest that Washington believes a deal remains possible, but not imminent. The next several days are expected to determine whether the ceasefire can be extended, whether shipping through the Strait of Hormuz can resume more safely, and whether the U.S. and Iran can move from an initial security arrangement toward broader negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and the future of regional hostilities.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

U.S. Central Command on Tuesday flatly denied a Wall Street Journal report that the Navy has restarted an initiative to help guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, saying the previously announced “Project Freedom” mission has not resumed.

“FALSE,” CENTCOM said in a post on X, responding to what it described as recent media claims that the U.S. Navy had restarted escorting or assisting commercial vessels during transits through the strategic waterway. “Project Freedom has not resumed, and U.S. forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.”

The denial came after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Navy had recently guided a Greek supertanker carrying roughly 2 million barrels of crude oil through waters off Oman, allowing the vessel to continue toward India after being stranded in the region since early March. Anadolu Agency, citing the Journal report, said the article described the move as part of a renewed U.S. effort to assist ships through the vital maritime corridor.

CENTCOM’s statement appeared aimed at drawing a distinction between any limited military activity in the area and a formal restart of Project Freedom, the U.S. initiative announced earlier this month to support merchant vessels seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

Project Freedom was announced by CENTCOM on May 3, with the command saying U.S. forces would begin supporting the mission on May 4 “to restore freedom of navigation for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.” At the time, CENTCOM said the mission would support merchant vessels in the “essential international trade corridor,” noting that a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade, along with significant volumes of fuel and fertilizer products, passes through the strait.

The May 3 announcement said U.S. support for the mission would include guided-missile destroyers, more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, unmanned platforms and roughly 15,000 service members. Adm. Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, said then that the effort was “essential to regional security and the global economy” while the United States maintained its naval blockade.

Reuters reported Tuesday that traffic through the strait, which normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade, has fallen to a fraction of normal levels since the war began.

The CENTCOM denial also followed a fresh round of U.S. strikes in southern Iran. Reuters reported that the U.S. military said it struck boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, describing the operations as defensive actions intended “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” CENTCOM spokesperson Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said the command was continuing to defend U.S. forces while “using restraint” during the ongoing ceasefire.

Iran accused the United States of violating the ceasefire, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said negotiations over a broader deal could still take several days. According to Reuters, officials have discussed a possible memorandum of understanding that could halt the war, restart shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and give negotiators additional time to address Iran’s nuclear program and other unresolved issues.

For now, CENTCOM is publicly rejecting any suggestion that the U.S. Navy has formally resumed Project Freedom or is currently escorting commercial vessels through the strait, even as the U.S. military continues operating in the region amid fragile ceasefire talks and heightened concern over one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, easily defeating four-term Sen. John Cornyn in the latest contest where President Donald Trump sought to oust an incumbent he saw as not sufficiently loyal.

Trump endorsed Paxton last week. Paxton’s victory in Tuesday’s runoff makes Cornyn the first Republican senator from Texas to lose the party’s nomination for reelection.

Cheers rang through the ballroom at Paxton’s election night party when the race was called, as Van Halen’s “Jump” played and the stage filled with supporters holding Paxton campaign signs.

At Cornyn’s watch party, the room went quiet. Cornyn moments later stood before reporters and said he will support Paxton in the general election.

“Tonight we’ve come up short,” Cornyn said. “A few years ago, I had a friend of mine say, ‘You know what makes God laugh?’ He said, ‘When we make plans.’”

“I’ve always supported the Republican ticket,” he said, “and I intend to do so again.”

Trump endorsed Paxton last week, calling him a “true MAGA warrior.” Cornyn said in 2023 as Trump was running to return to the White House that his time “has passed him by.”

His loss followed defeats of incumbents in Louisiana, Indiana and Kentucky, all to Trump-backed challengers.

Cornyn’s campaign and allied groups spent roughly $109 million on advertising for the March 3 primary and Tuesday’s runoff. He had the backing of Senate GOP leaders who said he would be the stronger general election candidate.

Paxton will run against state Rep. James Talarico in November.

Tuesday’s runoffs also will decide Democratic U.S. House nominees for districts in Dallas and Houston that overwhelmingly support Democrats, and a San Antonio-area seat the party wants to flip.

The primary has been long and costly

Cornyn led Paxton in the March primary but failed to win a majority. That was after Cornyn and his supporters waged a monthslong ad campaign, mostly attacking Paxton over ethical and personal questions. The two-term attorney general was acquitted on corruption charges in a 2023 impeachment trial, where allegations of extramarital affairs surfaced. Paxton’s wife filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds.”

The alliance of pro-Cornyn groups has continued its attack, outspending Paxton’s campaign and two allied super PACs $16.5 million to $5.9 million since March 3, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Trump promised to endorse immediately after the primary but didn’t act until after early voting began last week.

“Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to win,” Trump wrote in a social media post endorsing him.

David Jacobson, a retired 70-year-old Dallas-area resident, said Trump’s endorsement was a factor in his decision to back Paxton on Tuesday. While Cornyn has for the most part been a strong Trump supporter, Jacobson generally thinks most politicians have remained in office too long.

“Maybe it’s time for a change,” he said after voting near Dallas.

Linda Williams said she voted for Cornyn, calling him “the lesser of two evils.” She thinks Cornyn has a better chance to beat Talarico this fall.

“Because Paxton is a crook,” Williams said after voting in Plano, outside Dallas.

Trump snubs Cornyn amid retribution campaign

Trump, in his endorsement, poked at Cornyn, saying he “was not supportive of me when times were tough” and that “John was very late in backing me.”

Cornyn suggested in 2023 that Trump could not win the presidency again in 2024 and that his “time has passed him by.” He also was an early critic of Trump’s plan for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a project he now supports.

Cornyn said Tuesday on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that the president’s ire was misplaced. There are “grifters,” he said, “claiming that I am opposed to the president’s agenda, and I think that’s caused some confusion with the president himself. But I’ve been supportive.”

Some GOP strategists have argued that a Paxton nomination would cost millions of dollars more to promote in the fall, when money could be spent defending Republican seats in more competitive states. Democrats need to gain a net of four seats to take the majority. Cornyn has the support of Senate GOP leaders.

Democrats also will choose US House nominees

Newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee defeated veteran Rep. Al Green in Texas’ 18th District, dispatching a longtime House incumbent who was one of Trump’s most outspoken critics. The Republican-led Texas Legislature redrew the district when it approved a new House map last year. The new map led to a runoff between incumbents and marks the end of a dizzying series of elections in the Houston area.

Former Rep. Colin Allred and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson are competing in the Dallas-area 33rd District. Johnson was elected to the seat in 2024, the year Allred lost his U.S. Senate challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred was running for Senate again this cycle but dropped his bid and instead is looking to return to the House.

Near San Antonio, Democratic leaders are trying to prevent Maureen Galindo, who has expressed antisemitic views, from winning the party’s runoff with Johnny Garcia. While Texas lawmakers redrew the 35th District to help Republicans, Democrats view it as within reach and don’t want Galindo’s past comments to impede them.

(AP)

A majority of the members of the Advisory Committee for Senior Appointments on Tuesday submitted a supplementary opinion to the Prime Minister, clearing Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman of any wrongdoing or integrity issues.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that a majority of the committee members found no issue with Gofman’s integrity and that reviewing the additional materials only “substantially” reinforced their support for his appointment. He added that  Gofman had suffered “unnecessary legal torment” and that “the mountain did not even produce a mouse,” and he expects the High Court to immediately reject the petitions and not delay Gofman’s entry into the position.

The Prime Minister’s Office stressed that the appointment is especially necessary given the extraordinary security reality, with Israel, in its words, “in the midst of a war on seven fronts.”

The committee examined all the evidence in depth regarding the case of the petitioner Ori Elmakayes, the former underage blogger at the center of the case, including 511 pages of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Major Ratzon Tzur — the officer in contact with Elmakayes — and Elmakayes himself. The conclusion: Roman Gofman’s name was never mentioned even once. Elmakayes himself confirmed to the committee that he never had any direct contact with Gofman and that his name never came up.

The committee further determined that the accusations Elmakayes made against Major Tzur, and indirectly against Gofman, “were baseless.”

In his remarks to the committee, Major General Gofman described the personal harm caused to him by the affair. “What is at stake for me is my integrity,” he said, “which is the foundation of my ability and of how I view my mission.” He called the claim that he abandoned Elmakayes “a severe blow” that creates an intolerable gap between the accusations and his actual conduct at the time.

Gofman explained that when asked — before Elmakayes’s arrest — whether there had been an intelligence leak of classified material from the division, he categorically denied it. He even sought to verify his answer with his subordinates, but was prevented from doing so due to an ongoing investigation. He added that he learned the blogger’s identity only about two years after the arrest, when a journalist contacted him with a query.

Gofman also criticized the letter submitted by current Mossad chief Dedi Barnea opposing his appointment. He said the letter — based, in his view, on “facts that are not facts” — harmed him internationally and even affected his relationships with people in Israel.

The supplementary opinion also includes sharp criticism of how Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s opinion was transmitted. According to the three committee members, they discovered “to their complete surprise” during a Supreme Court hearing that the opinion had been sent directly to the committee chair, former Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, marked “personal, for addressee only” — and was never shared with the other committee members. They also noted that the opinion was written without reviewing materials that disproved the allegations against Gofman.

Separately, the majority noted that the committee chair admitted during a May 24 hearing that he had not read the WhatsApp messages — evidence the committee itself had requested and which the majority considers “the best and only evidence” for examining the matter. “This is regrettable,” the opinion states.

The committee majority concluded: “Our clear conclusion, beyond any reasonable doubt, is that no flaw exists in Major General Gofman’s integrity, and this conclusion is well supported by the material before us.” They rejected the chair’s proposal to refer the matter to an additional external body, noting that it had already been thoroughly examined both in real time by Northern Command chief Major General Amir Baram and again by the committee itself.

The High Court ordered all parties to the case to respond to the committee’s supplementary opinion by Tuesday evening.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Iran is considering transferring its stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium to China as part of ongoing ceasefire negotiations with the United States.

The proposal marks a notable shift from earlier Iranian positions. Reports last week indicated that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had issued a directive prohibiting the removal of the uranium from Iranian territory, and Iran’s Foreign Ministry publicly stated the stockpile would not be transferred abroad.

China’s Foreign Ministry signaled openness to a role, stating Beijing “is willing to continue to play a constructive role in the political and diplomatic resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue” and supports a peaceful resolution through dialogue that addresses the concerns of all parties. It remains unclear what safeguards Washington would require for any transfer to Chinese custody.

The fate of an estimated 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity has emerged as the central sticking point in talks aimed at extending the current ceasefire. The International Atomic Energy Agency has assessed the stockpile as sufficient to produce several nuclear weapons if further enriched. While 60 percent enrichment remains short of the roughly 90 percent threshold considered weapons grade, nuclear experts say the technical leap from 60 to 90 percent can be accomplished quickly.

President Donald Trump has stated publicly that the United States intends to take possession of the material and likely destroy it. “We will get it. We don’t need it. We don’t want it. We’ll probably destroy it after we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it,” Trump told reporters at the White House last week.

Earlier proposals discussed in the negotiations have included diluting the uranium from 60 percent down to roughly 3.67 percent in an irreversible process under IAEA monitoring, transferring portions of the stockpile to Russia, or shipping the material to the United States for destruction. One US official with direct knowledge of the talks said the question of how Iran would surrender the uranium would be worked out over a 60-day window, with some material likely diluted and the remainder sent to a third country.

The uranium currently sits beneath the wreckage of facilities struck during US and Israeli military operations.

A draft agreement under discussion would extend the ceasefire for 60 days and serve as a step toward a final settlement. Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he will not sign a final agreement that does not require Iran to dismantle its nuclear program in full and surrender all enriched uranium, according to an official familiar with the negotiations.

Iran has maintained that peaceful use of nuclear technology is “the legitimate and inalienable right of its people” and one it “will never relinquish.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A renewed push by President Donald Trump and House Republicans to make daylight saving time permanent has advanced in Congress, drawing concern from Orthodox Jewish leaders who warn that the change would push sunrise past 8 and even 9 a.m. in major cities for weeks at a time, throwing morning davening into crisis for hundreds of thousands of frum Jews.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48 to 1 last Thursday to advance the Sunshine Protection Act, folded into a broader transportation bill, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act. The legislation, introduced by Senator Rick Scott and Representative Vern Buchanan, both Florida Republicans, would lock the country into daylight saving time year-round, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. States would retain the option to opt out and remain on standard time.

Trump applauded the committee vote on Truth Social and pledged to “work very hard” to pass the bill. “It’s time that people can stop worrying about the ‘Clock,’ not to mention all of the work and money that is spent on this ridiculous, twice yearly production,” he wrote. “We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day — And who can be against that — This is an easy one!”

The Senate companion bill has 18 bipartisan cosponsors, and the House version has 32.

The proposal has alarmed Orthodox advocacy groups, which warn that permanent DST would clash with the fundamental halachic requirement that shacharis be davened only after haneitz hachamah. Under permanent daylight saving time, sunrise in New York would fall after 8 a.m. for nearly two months during the winter, and would arrive after 9 a.m. in cities like Detroit for several weeks. That would leave many working men unable to daven with a minyan and arrive at the office by 9 a.m., a conflict that would last for months rather than the narrow window of inconvenience under the current system.

Agudath Israel of America, which led the successful campaign against the last permanent-DST push in 2022, has warned that the change would cause many shuls to struggle to assemble a morning minyan and would force working Yidden to choose between davening b’tzibbur and their parnassah. The organization circulated a legislative memorandum on Capitol Hill at the time, including a survey of sunrise times in cities across the country and an analysis of zmanim by Rabbi Dovid Heber of Baltimore.

The halachic stakes were spelled out decades ago by Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, who in a 1971 teshuva sent to then-Agudath Israel president Rabbi Moshe Sherer described the extra winter hour of permanent DST as a crisis that would jeopardize the morning tefillos of observant Jews for months each year. The 1970s experiment with permanent DST was repealed by Congress in part because of widespread reports of children being struck by cars while walking to school in the dark, a concern that would immediately return if DST is enacted.

Trump’s position on the issue has shifted. In December 2024, he posted on Truth Social that the Republican Party should “eliminate Daylight Saving Time,” a stance that, while still disruptive, would have been less damaging to morning tefillah. He reversed course earlier this year, now backing permanent DST. The earlier effort to enact permanent DST passed the Senate unanimously in March 2022 but stalled in the House after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus, in part because of Orthodox community advocacy.

Sleep researchers and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have separately argued that permanent standard time, not permanent DST, would be the healthier option, citing circadian rhythm disruption. The Health and Human Services Department under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been associated with that view, which has gained traction among supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

It remains uncertain whether the bill will clear the full House and Senate and reach Trump’s desk. Orthodox groups are expected to mobilize their advocacy networks once again as the legislation moves to the House floor.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman privately told American evangelical leader Mike Evans that he was ready to recognize Israel “today” and that his father, King Salman, remained the primary obstacle, Evans said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday during a visit to Israel.

“When I talked to the crown prince, he told me that he would acknowledge Israel today,” Evans said. “But he said his problem was his father.”

Evans, the founder of Friends of Zion and a longtime evangelical supporter of Israel, said the meeting lasted two hours, with one of the crown prince’s brothers and the Saudi foreign minister also present. The brother expressed a similar view, according to Evans. The Jerusalem Post said it could not independently verify the account.

The comments surfaced as President Donald Trump moved to link a potential agreement ending the war with Iran to a broader push for Arab and Muslim countries to join the Abraham Accords. Trump said Monday that countries including Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey should normalize relations with Israel as part of an Iran deal, and said he had spoken Saturday with leaders from those countries as well as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Axios reported Sunday that Trump had asked leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain to normalize ties with Israel after a possible agreement to end the Iran war.

Saudi Arabia has long conditioned recognition of Israel on tangible progress toward a Palestinian state, a position closely associated with King Salman, who hosted the 2018 Arab League summit in Dhahran that placed Palestinian statehood at the center of the Arab consensus. The Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv has assessed that the likelihood of Saudi normalization with Israel will increase after King Salman dies and especially if the crown prince ascends to the throne.

Evans has spoken before about private conversations with Gulf leaders. At a 2019 Jerusalem Post conference in New York, he said Mohammed bin Salman and UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed were “more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” In 2018, Evans was part of a delegation of evangelical Christian leaders that met with the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh in a two-hour session also attended by senior Saudi officials, a rare gesture of religious openness from a kingdom that hosts Islam’s holiest sites and does not formally recognize Israel.

Saudi officials have not publicly commented on Evans’s latest account.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israel has tried at least twice in recent weeks to assassinate Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, according to a report Monday by the Saudi outlet Al Hadath citing an anonymous Israeli source, as Beirut’s southern suburbs braced for an intensified Israeli military campaign.

The disclosure came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he had ordered the IDF to step up operations against the Iran-backed terror group. Video circulating on social media showed residents fleeing the Dahiya district in the southern suburbs of Beirut following the announcement.

The Israeli source said the expanded military operation would be limited in duration and that references to operations in Beirut applied to the southern suburbs, not the capital itself. The chief of Israel’s Northern Command was quoted saying the war against Hezbollah would escalate further in the coming days.

A senior American official signaled in a Washington briefing that the United States would back Israeli military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon, N12 correspondent Barak Ravid reported. The official said Hezbollah had ignored repeated requests, including a recent ultimatum, to halt rocket and drone fire at northern Israel.

Qassem succeeded Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024. Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz publicly labeled Qassem a “marked target” following Hezbollah rocket fire that the group said was launched in response to Israel’s killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran. In April, the IDF said it had killed Ali Yusuf Harshi, Qassem’s personal secretary, in a strike on Beirut’s Tallet Khayat neighborhood.

The IDF has said roughly 3,000 projectiles have been fired from southern Lebanon since March 2, undermining the US-brokered ceasefire framework. Hezbollah has rejected calls to disarm, with Qassem describing the group’s arsenal as a domestic Lebanese matter and vowing to “turn it into hell for Israel” if pushed further.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The United States plans to significantly reduce the military assets it would make available to European allies during a major crisis, including fighter jets, warships and mid-air refueling aircraft, the German news magazine Spiegel reported Tuesday.
An envoy of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed senior officials from member states on the plan late last week at NATO headquarters in Brussels, according to the report.

The number of US fighter jets pledged to NATO under the crisis framework is set to fall by one third, Spiegel cited US envoy Alexander Velez-Green as saying during the closed-door meeting. The United States also plans to provide only half the previous number of strategic bombers. The US Navy will make fewer destroyers available to the alliance and no longer intends to provide submarines. Further details are expected at a force generation conference in early June.

The reductions apply to the NATO Force Model, the framework under which member countries identify the pool of forces that could be activated during a conflict or major crisis, such as an attack on a NATO member. The precise composition of those wartime forces is closely guarded, but the Pentagon has decided to scale down its commitment significantly.

The capabilities being trimmed include several that European militaries have long relied on Washington to provide. A European Commission report at the start of the war in Ukraine identified mid-air refueling tankers, modern fighter aircraft and air and missile defense systems as among the most significant capability gaps in European forces. A recent IISS assessment estimated that, for a major NATO contingency in Europe, the United States could contribute a force package equivalent to roughly 128,000 troops, along with armored brigades, air defense units, aviation brigades and submarines.

Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has said publicly that Washington will continue to use its nuclear weapons to protect NATO members even as European allies take the lead on conventional forces. Adjusting the NATO Force Model has emerged as a priority for Colby’s team ahead of the next NATO leaders’ summit, scheduled for July in Turkey.

The move follows recent Trump administration announcements cutting some 5,000 US troops from Europe and canceling a planned deployment of an Army brigade to Poland. President Donald Trump has long criticized European allies for what he calls insufficient defense spending and has expressed frustration over their reluctance to join the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. He has also pledged to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany and publicly questioned whether Washington remains bound to honor its mutual defense commitments under Article 5.

Trump’s push to acquire Greenland, a Danish overseas territory, and a public dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war have further strained transatlantic relations. NATO countries last year set new defense spending targets of 3.5 percent of GDP on core defense and 1.5 percent on broader measures such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.

A senior NATO diplomat told Reuters there is still an understanding that the United States would come to Europe’s aid if needed. European leaders have generally responded that they are accelerating their military buildup but cannot replace decades of US capability overnight. An analysis earlier this year by the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel estimated Europe would need to field 50 new combat brigades and roughly 300,000 troops to offset the contribution the United States would historically make in the event of a Russian attack.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Brad Lander, a self-hating Jewish Democratic primary candidate for New York’s 10th Congressional District, is facing backlash after appearing at the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens on May 15, where he recited – and actually sang – a verse from the Quran in Arabic, accused Israel of carrying out “genocide in Gaza,” and said he hopes to build political partnerships with Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in Congress.

Speaking to congregants, Lander described himself as “a proud Jewish New Yorker” and vowed to oppose future U.S. military aid to Israel if elected.

“I believe, as a proud Jewish New Yorker, that Israel’s genocide in Gaza is a desecration, a violation of the understanding that everyone is created in divine image. Every one of those Palestinian kids in Gaza is just as divine as my beloved children.

“And so yes, in Congress I will not vote for any more U.S. military aid to Israel – not the bombs that are destroying the hospitals and schools in Gaza, and not the occupation in Lebanon, which is now I believe unfortunately on its way potentially to being a genocide as well.

“The kind of partnership I developed with Zohran I hope to come to have with Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and others in Congress, to show we can build a city, and a country, and a world that everyone can afford, and where everyone is welcome, and where everyone’s humanity is respected.

“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Say: ‘He is Allah, [who is] One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge, He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.’ Thank you very much for welcoming me today.”

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Following Lander’s remarks, the imam led a supplication saying: “Through your hands comes the relief for the believers and the killing of the infidels by your sword.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump had another medical exam on Tuesday, putting his health under renewed public scrutiny as he has worked to dismiss concerns over his age and stamina.

The 79-year-old president spent more than three hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what the White House described as preventive medical and dental checkups. It was Trump’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term, and it comes as he tries to project strength ahead of midterm elections that will test his sway with voters.

In a social media post after the visit, Trump said that he had just finished his “6 month physical” and that “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”

For decades, administrations have released selected results from presidential physicals, offering the public a glimpse at the commander-in-chief’s health. But the results are filtered through the White House and must be approved by the president, raising questions about what the public does and doesn’t get to see.

Trump, a Republican, turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected U.S. president. His immediate predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was 82 when he left office, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job.

A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.

“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician for more than a decade under Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

For a president of Trump’s age, a complete physical would be expected to include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment, along with basics like height, weight and blood pressure, Kuhlman said.

The White House has not disclosed what the visit entailed but expressed confidence in what it will show.

“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.

No law requiring presidents to disclose their medical records

In the weeks leading up to his visit, Trump has been saying he feels as good as he did five decades ago — even as he jokes about his fondness for fast food and his minimal exercise regimen. Yet he’s also sensitive to perceptions about his age, noting that he takes extra caution descending the steps from Air Force One to avoid headlines about a stumble.

There is no law requiring presidents to publicize their health records, and the degree of transparency has varied by administration. Trump’s past reports have been criticized for offering scant detail and providing statistics that some medical experts eyed with skepticism.

At public appearances, Trump is often seen wearing makeup to conceal bruising on his hands, which the White House attributes to handshaking and regular aspirin use. He has sometimes appeared drowsy during meetings and closed his eyes for long stretches, though he denies having fallen asleep.

Trump often boasts of having “aced” cognitive tests while frequently deriding Biden, who faced questions about his mental acuity. Biden and his aides pushed back aggressively against doubts raised about his fitness for office.

Some of Trump’s previous physicals have included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, used to screen for dementia and cognitive impairment. His physicians reported a score of 30 out of 30 for him at 2018 and 2025 checkups.

Yet critics have pointed to Trump’s meandering speeches and sometimes bellicose rhetoric as evidence of cognitive decline.

Last month, a statement from more than 30 neurologists, psychiatrists and other medical experts — who acknowledged they’ve never examined him — said Trump was mentally unfit to serve and warned of an “increasingly dangerous decline” in his behavior based on what they called “objectively observable signs of serious medical concern.″

“Any so-called medical professionals engaging in armchair diagnosis or false speculation for political purposes are clearly breaking the Hippocratic Oath they’ve sworn to,” Ingle said.

Just like any other patient, presidents get to choose what’s disclosed about their health, said Sara Rosenthal, a bioethicist at the University of Kentucky who studies presidential health. Questions about transparency have become more acute as America elects aging presidents like Trump and Biden, she said.

“I think we can expect very little disclosure about the true health status of any president unless they’re in perfect health,” said Rosenthal, who has suggested an independent medical organization to review and report on the health of the president and those in the line of succession.

‘Nothing should be hidden’

Trump’s first medical report in his second term was released last April. In July, he was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins. Photographs have shown the president with swollen feet, ankles and calves, described by the White House as a symptom of chronic venous insufficiency leading to “mild swelling” in his lower legs.

Following his last publicly disclosed exam, described as a routine follow-up last October, Trump’s physician issued a one-page summary saying the president was in “exceptional health” without divulging many specific results.

The frequency of Trump’s medical checkups is not uncommon for someone his age, according to S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois-Chicago, who has studied the health of past presidents. It’s part of a strategy to catch problems while they’re still treatable, Olshansky said.

Olshansky says the public deserves to see more than White House medical summaries that “may be subject to editorial discretion.” Full, unredacted medical records should be made public, he said: “Nothing should be hidden.”

(AP)

Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a chilling series of threats against both Israel and the United States on Tuesday, declaring that “Israel will not live to see another 15 years” while warning that America will soon have “no safe haven” anywhere in the Middle East.

The fiery statements were aired by Iranian state television and published in an official Telegram message tied to the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage.

“Death to Israel” and “Death to America” remain the Islamic Republic’s guiding slogans, Khamenei declared, reaffirming Tehran’s longstanding hostility toward the Jewish state and the United States.

The remarks echoed a notorious prediction made years earlier by his father, former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who once claimed Israel would not survive another 25 years.

In Tuesday’s message, Mojtaba Khamenei also warned that the United States is rapidly losing its grip on the Middle East.

“What is certain in this regard is that the hands of time will not turn back, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for U.S. bases,” he wrote.

“The United States not only will no longer have a safe haven for its mischief and for establishing military bases in the region but day by day, it is growing more distant from its former status,” he added.

The threats come at a highly sensitive moment as Washington and Tehran continue negotiations aimed at ending the recent war and establishing a broader agreement.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared publicly since assuming power following the death of his father in a massive airstrike on Tehran during the opening stages of the recent joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has finally officially decided to dismiss the disgraced Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi from military service over her involvement in the explosive Sde Teiman leak crime, the military announced.

According to the IDF, Zamir had already suspended Tomer-Yerushalmi immediately after the allegations against her surfaced. The military said the decision to formally dismiss her was made due to the “severity of the alleged acts and suspicions” while criminal proceedings remain ongoing.

As part of the dismissal, Tomer-Yerushalmi will lose eligibility for financial benefits typically granted to senior IDF officers upon retirement.

This means that until now, seven months after she confessed to the crime, the person who placed IDF soldiers in danger and caused irreparable damage to Israel, IDF soldiers, and the hostages in Gaza by spreading blood libels, lied to the Supreme Court, and threw her phone in the sea to hide the evidence was still receiving a generous salary.

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz was updated on the Chief of Staff’s decisions.

At the same time, Katz sent a sharply worded letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara demanding that proceedings in the former Military Advocate General’s case be advanced quickly. In his letter, Katz wrote that the delay in advancing the proceedings raises “serious public and legal concerns.”

Apparently, Baharav-Miara is too busy initiating criminal proceedings against right-wing MKs and persecuting Lomdei Torah to involve herself in the criminal proceedings against the disgraced MAG.

Katz wrote that this is an especially serious case involving someone who headed the military law enforcement system and who was involved in extremely serious violations of the law, including providing false information to state authorities and acts that led to severe harm to IDF soldiers, public trust, and the military justice system itself.

Katz stressed in his letter that when IDF soldiers are sent to fight the enemy on all fronts, they must know that the State of Israel and its institutions stand behind them, protect their good name, and fully prosecute those who harm them from within.

Katz wrote that although steps are being taken to remove the former Military Advocate General from the IDF and revoke her additional benefits, including special Chief of Staff-related pension increases, the criminal process is an essential and necessary component for achieving full justice, including examining the revocation of rank and imposing severe punishment commensurate with the gravity of the acts.

At the conclusion of his letter, Katz asked the attorney general to instruct that decisions be made and the legal proceedings in the case be advanced as soon as possible, given the public and institutional urgency.

The stunning downfall of former Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi stems from the explosive Sde Teiman affair — a scandal that rocked Israel’s military, legal establishment, and political system.

The original case began in July 2024 at the Sde Teiman detention facility, where several IDF reservists were accused of severely abusing a Palestinian detainee from Gaza during the early months of the war.

The allegations were investigated by Israel’s Police Investigation Department and eventually led to indictments against several soldiers.

Public outrage intensified roughly one month later after surveillance footage allegedly documenting the abuse was leaked to the media and broadcast on Israeli television despite an active criminal investigation and ongoing legal proceedings.

The leak triggered a second criminal investigation in late 2024 focused on how the footage reached the media and whether senior officials violated confidentiality laws or abused their authority.

In February 2025, military prosecutors under Tomer-Yerushalmi formally indicted five reservists on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated injury.

But the case dramatically unraveled shortly afterward.

Her successor, Gen. Itay Ofir, canceled the indictment in March 2025, citing severe evidentiary problems and the massive fallout surrounding the leaked footage scandal. Offir stated that the very prosecutorial team responsible for pursuing the soldiers had itself become the subject of criminal scrutiny, making continuation of the case nearly impossible.

By late 2025, Tomer-Yerushalmi herself had become the central suspect in the leak she had originally overseen. She later resigned and admitted to leaking the footage.

In February 2026, Israeli police formally concluded their investigation into the leak. Police Commissioner Daniel Levi reportedly recommended appointing an external senior legal authority to further review the case amid concerns surrounding conflicts of interest.

The scandal then took an even darker turn.

Just two days after resigning in November 2025, Tomer-Yerushalmi was reported missing and was eventually found hours later on a beach in northern Tel Aviv following what investigators suspected was an attempt to destroy her cellphone — and possibly commit suicide.

One week later, after a brief stay in Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison, she was released to house arrest. Days afterward, she was hospitalized again at Ichilov Hospital following a second reported suicide attempt.

The affair has become one of the most explosive scandals in recent IDF history, fueling fierce debate over military justice, wartime accountability, political interference, media leaks, and the handling of investigations during Israel’s war against Hamas.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Shas MK Yinon Azoulay launched a fierce attack in the Knesset plenum against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Knesset members from the coalition who opposed the conscription law following Baharav-Miara’s decision that it is “illegal” for Lomdei Torah who did not enlist to participate in discounted apartment lotteries.

“Today, the terrorists’ families are very thankful to the Attorney General and Knesset members Yuli Edelstein, Dan Illouz, Ofir Sofer and Sharren Haskel,” Azoulay said. “Why? Because today, the Dira B’Hanacha lottery opened, and thanks to the dismissed Attorney General, Lomdei Torah aren’t eligible and the families of terrorists sitting in jail now have a greater chance to win.”

“Those Knesset members who call themselves ‘right-wing’, joined forces with the dismissed Attorney General, and with their own hands are increasing the chances of terrorists winning a an ‘Apartment at a Discount’ by excluding Lomdei Torah students from participating in the lotteries.”

Azoulay is referring to the fact that Arab-Israelis (who don’t serve in the IDF) are eligible to participate in the lottery, including families of convicted terrorists serving prison sentences.

“Unbelievable! In the Jewish state, instead of strengthening those who dedicate their lives to Limmud Torah and the Jewish identity of the state, they strengthen terrorists,” he stressed.

“It won’t help you,” Azoulay declared. “We won’t surrender. ‘The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out.’ Lomdei Torah will continue to sit and learn.”

His remarks come after a unprecedented decision by the Israel Land Authority Council, which determined – at the demand of Baharav-Miara – that regulating military status with the IDF will become a threshold condition for participation in “discounted apartment” lotteries.

The 11th lottery of the “Dira B’Hanacha” program opened on Monday, and for the first time, thanks to Baharav-Miara, Chareidi couples were not eligible to participate.

The step is a particularly severe economic blow to thousands of young Chareidi couples, with the Dira B’Hanacha program the main and almost only way to purchase an apartment in Israel at a lower price.

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(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A public uproar erupted in Canada in the wake of an antisemitic and inciteful display at a pro-terror anti-Israel protest on Sunday in the heart of Montreal.

During the protest held in Phillips Square, pro-terror activists set up an installation featuring an effigy of a Jew wearing a yarmulke hanging from a rope, alongside effigies of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir hanging from ropes.

The event, organized by the pro-Hamas Montreal4Palestine group, triggered strong condemnations from leaders in the Jewish community, who warned that it amounted to direct incitement to murder, violence, and hatred.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the umbrella organization of Jewish federations in Canada, stated: “Let us be clear: this is not a debate about the Middle East. Hanging effigies of Jews in the streets of Montreal evokes some of the darkest antisemitic imagery in history and is completely unacceptable.”

“This is not ‘peaceful activism.’ It is the promotion of hatred and the incitement of violence that fuels the radicalization of our social climate.”

“What will it take for authorities to treat these acts as the serious threat they are?”

Montreal4Palestine has been accused of ties to groups praising Hamas terrorists, promoting armed struggle, and refusing to condemn the October 7 massacre.

Screenshots. (Compiled by Mako)

The display comes amid an unprecedented rise in antisemitism in Canada. According to the annual report by B’nai Brith Canada, the number of antisemitic incidents in the country has reached a historic record, with 6,800 antisemitic incidents recorded in 2025, an increase of nearly ten percent compared to 2024 and the highest figure since documentation began in 1982.

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(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A yeshivah bochur was arrested overnight Monday in a planned police ambush on Highway 383.

The bochur, Meri Sabag, a talmid of the Darchei Ish Yeshivah, was on his way back to the yeshiva at 2 a.m. after visiting his parents to help them when the car he was in was stopped at a surprise checkpoint between Beit Shemesh and Moshav Tirosh.

The police officer entered his details into the system, and after he was identified as a “draft evader,” called the military police. The officers then used deceptive tactics in order to deter Sabag from calling the protest hotline, telling him that the military police did not plan on arresting him but would only issue an official summons to the draft office.

Within fifteen minutes, an unmarked car arrived, three plainclothes officers jumped out along with a soldier, who handcuffed Sabag, put him in their car, and sped away from the scene.

He was taken to the Yoav military detention camp.

Sources from his yeshiva issued an urgent call to bochurim and avreichim: “Don’t be naive. The system operates in all types of ways.”

In the wake of the arrest, Peleg Yerushalmi warned of protests in the coming days.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon has adopted a new strategy, tracking the movements of IDF commanders in southern Lebanon and along the border in order to target them with lethal strikes, according to a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

Hezbollah’s goal is to eliminate senior IDF officers via explosive drones, UAVs, and artillery fire.

Kan News reported that as part of the new strategy, Hezbollah recently attempted to hit Iron Dome launchers as well as the official vehicle of the commander of the 300th Brigade. The group also carried out coordinated attacks via rockets, artillery, and drones aimed at multiple sites simultaneously in an attempt to overwhelm the IDF’s air defense systems.

Hezbollah also recently began deploying multi-directional “suicide drone swarms,” launching multiple drones from different directions at the same time.

Over the past week alone, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for 136 attacks on  IDF forces in southern Lebanon and targets in northern Israel, most involving explosive drones and unmanned aircraft.

Hezbollah continues to develop electronic warfare and air defense capabilities as part of a broader effort to increase operational pressure on the IDF along the northern border.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Shin Bet Chief Dovid Zini, who visited the United Arab Emirates after the US-Israeli war with Iran, met there with Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah leader who held a senior role in the Gaza Strip, Kan News reported on Tuesday morning, citing Israeli and regional sources.

According to the report, the meeting took place during Zini’s visit to Abu Dhabi, against the backdrop of regional security developments and efforts to shape the reality in a postwar Gaza Strip.

The Shin Bet refused to address the details directly and issued a brief response: “We do not comment on the service chief’s schedule.”

Dahlan, who was tied to terror attacks resulting in the murder of Jews during the Second Intifada, has lived in exile in the UAE for many years and is considered close to the leadership in Abu Dhabi. In July 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that American, Israeli, and Arab officials view Dahlan as a candidate to govern the Gaza Strip in the postwar period.

Dahlan, 64, has long been considered PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ main rival. The WSJ described him as a “rare” Palestinian leader who operates independently of both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

However, Dahlan said at the time in response to Sky News Arabia: “I have declared more than once my refusal to accept any security, ministerial, or executive role, and I call for the formulation of a realistic and implementable international work plan that will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Since moving to the Emirates, Dahlan has accumulated tens of millions of dollars through brokering various deals, some of which, according to past claims, involved Israeli security officials. In January 2024, he condemned Hamas’s October 7 attack, saying it had brought total devastation to the Gaza Strip.

“It may lead to hope for coexistence between the two peoples, or it may open the door to a new hell and a cycle of violence and revenge,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Mossad chief Dedi Barnea also conducted secret visits to the Emirates during the war with Iran.

According to the report, Barnea visited the country at least twice during the 40 days of war for meetings regarding security coordination between the two countries.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The IDF has begun issuing call-up orders to reservists in preparation for an expanded military operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Kan News reported on Tuesday morning.

The report follows Israel’s decision on Monday evening to respond forcefully to Hezbollah’s relentless wave of explosive drone attacks from Lebanon. Security discussions regarding expanding operations in Lebanon were held in recent days, despite US opposition, with IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir urging further action to combat the Hezbollah explosive drone threat.

However, according to briefings from senior Israeli security officials, Israel has received backing from the US for the move to resume significant military strikes in Lebanon.

Al Jazeera reported, citing a senior US official, that the United States is aware of the renewed fighting. “Hezbollah repeatedly ignored requests to stop firing against Israel, including the latest warning,” the official said. “Therefore, Israel has the right to respond — the Trump administration is not the Biden administration.”

Channel 12 reported that “it appears Israel succeeded in convincing Trump that it must act forcefully in Lebanon and that this is also in the American interest.” The US backing marks a significant policy shift and grants Israel broader freedom of action against Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a video message on Monday evening saying that he has instructed the IDF to escalate its operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon. He also addressed the drone threat, saying: “We have a special team working on this, and we will solve that as well.”

The IDF’s Home Front Command announced that new restrictions on gatherings will go into effect on Wednesday at 6 a.m. in yishuvim along the northern border and in Meron, Bar Yochai, Or HaGanuz, and Sifsua. Gatherings are limited to 50 people outdoors and 200 people indoors, down from 200 and 600, respectively.

Many daycare centers and schools in yishuvim along the northern border closed their doors on Tuesday due to the surge in drone attacks. “I won’t take any unnecessary risks and will not allow our children or teaching staff to become targets for the enemy,” the head of the Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council said.

On Monday, Channel 12 News quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Israel is defenseless against the Hezbollah drone threat—a reference to both the lack of effective protective solutions and the restraints on IDF action in Lebanon due to the so-called ceasefire and the US-Iran talks.

In recent days, the drone threat has also affected civilian areas. “The reality is that our hands are tied, and that has to change soon,” the official says, adding that civilian communities are highly vulnerable to Hezbollah’s low-cost attack drones.

The decision comes amid repeated violations of the “ceasefire” by Hezbollah. On Sunday morning alone, 30! explosive drones detonated near IDF troops operating near the Lebanese border, killing one soldier and seriously injuring another. On Monday morning, three explosive drones detonated inside Israel, one of them exploding near a school bus stop in the yishuv of Shomera.

The IDF issued a warning Monday evening to residents of Lebanon, stating that in the coming hours it would operate forcefully against Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the area of the city of Tyre and the surrounding refugee camps. “Following the ceasefire violations by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, the IDF will operate forcefully in the coming hours,” the military statement said.

The IDF called on residents whose homes would be marked in red on maps set to be published to evacuate immediately. “Anyone located near Hezbollah operatives, infrastructure, or weapons endangers their life,” the statement warned.

The Lebanese Al Jadeed channel reported precautionary measures and temporary evacuations underway overnight in Beirut’s Dahiya district due to fears of Israeli escalation. The reports from Lebanon reflect growing concern among residents of the Shiite enclave over the possibility of large-scale Israeli strikes.

The policy shift follows a heavy price paid by Israel due to Hezbollah’s drone attacks. It was cleared for publication on Monday that Sgt. Nehorai Leizer, H’YD 19, from Eilat, a combat soldier in Combat Engineering Battalion 601, was killed by an explosive Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon.

Thousands of Eilat residents accompanied the young soldier to his levaya on Monday, as the city mourned. Mayor Eli Lankri called him “a hero of Israel who was among the finest sons of Eilat.”

Eleven IDF soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the “ceasefire,” and 24 soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war in Lebanon.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

U.S. forces struck missile launch sites and Iranian vessels attempting to lay naval mines in southern Iran on Sunday, U.S. Central Command said, marking a fresh military exchange despite an ongoing ceasefire between Washington and Tehran and advanced talks to end the war.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, told Fox News that the strikes were carried out in self-defense to protect American personnel in the region.

“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Hawkins said. “Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines. U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”

The spokesman did not disclose the number of targets struck, the platforms used or whether any Iranian personnel were killed.

CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that the campaign had degraded Iran’s defense industrial base by roughly 90 percent and eliminated more than 90 percent of Tehran’s stockpile of 8,000 naval mines. Cooper said Iran retained what he described as “nuisance capability,” including harassment by small boats and low-end drone and rocket attacks.

Sunday’s strikes appear to fall within that residual threat picture. Iranian fast boats and mine-laying vessels have long been a CENTCOM concern in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf, where roughly 20 percent of global oil shipments transit.
Iranian officials did not immediately respond to the reported strikes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A joint venture between an American defense startup and a Saudi firm has begun construction on a factory outside Riyadh that will manufacture long-range strike drones modeled on Iran’s Shahed system, the weapon that has repeatedly battered Gulf cities during the current war.

The facility is being developed by SR2Vector, a new partnership between Utah-based Vector Defense and Saudi-based SR2 Defense Systems. It will produce a one-way attack drone called SKYWASP, capable of striking targets up to 1,500 kilometers, or about 930 miles, away. That range is roughly the distance from Saudi Arabia’s northeast coast to Tehran.

The plant marks one of the most consequential private-sector defense projects to take shape in the kingdom since fighting between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition broke out in late February, and it represents a sharp escalation in Saudi Arabia’s effort to manufacture its own offensive weapons rather than buy them abroad.

“SKYWASP is a program that can level the playing field and boost Saudi Arabia’s deterrence capabilities,” Lucien Zeigler, SR2’s chief strategy officer and co-founder, told Semafor, which first reported the project.

Zeigler declined to disclose the size of the investment, projected production volumes or a timeline for when the first drones will roll off the line. He said only that the factory would produce “operationally relevant volumes consistent with the kingdom’s strategic deterrence requirements.”

SR2Vector intends to supply both the Saudi armed forces and allied foreign militaries, and the venture is being backed by MASNA Ventures, a defense-technology fund Zeigler is currently raising.

The project unfolds against a backdrop of sustained Iranian drone attacks across the Persian Gulf. Tehran has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Gulf states since the war began, with strikes that slipped past air defenses hitting hotels, data centers and energy infrastructure. Fewer than 30 people have been reported killed in the Gulf, while more than 3,000 have died in Iran from US and Israeli strikes.

The cost mismatch between Iran’s weapons and the systems used to shoot them down has emerged as a central strategic problem for Gulf governments. A Shahed drone is estimated to cost about $35,000 to produce, a fraction of the price of the interceptors used to bring it down. Industry estimates place Shahed unit costs between $20,000 and $50,000, while Patriot interceptors run into the millions of dollars per shot.

That asymmetry has triggered a regional scramble for cheaper drones and counter-drone systems. Gulf governments have explored partnerships with Ukrainian firms, which have spent years fighting the Russian-built version of the Shahed on the battlefield. A Saudi arms company recently signed a deal to purchase Ukrainian-made interceptor missiles, with additional weapons agreements under negotiation.

The SR2Vector factory also fits into Saudi Arabia’s broader Vision 2030 industrial agenda. The kingdom has one of the world’s largest defense budgets but imports almost all of its military hardware, and has set a target of producing half of its defense materiel domestically by 2030. Ahmad Al-Ohali, governor of Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Military Industries, said earlier this year that the country had reached roughly 25 percent localization by the end of 2024.

SR2 Defense Systems launched in November 2025 as what its founders described as the first private-sector US-Saudi defense manufacturing joint venture. The company was co-founded by Idris Al-Zakari, chief executive of Riyadh-based Science Technology for Investment and Industrial Development, and Zeigler, managing partner of US-based REDSALT Defense. Its leadership team includes Ahmed Nasrallah, chief investment officer at Science Technology, and retired US Army Colonel Brad Gandy, the former chief of the US Military Training Mission to Saudi Arabia.

Defense cooperation between Washington and Riyadh deepened in November, when President Donald Trump designated Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally during a White House meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The designation expanded the kingdom’s access to American military technology and streamlined defense industrial partnerships of the kind now taking shape outside Riyadh.

Vector Defense markets SKYWASP and similar platforms as “attritable” systems, meaning they are inexpensive enough to be used in large numbers and lost in combat without significant cost. The company describes its drones as cost-effective, expendable platforms designed to operate at scale, with in-kingdom production reducing the logistical burden of supplying them to regional theaters.

Saudi Arabia is not alone in the push. The United Arab Emirates announced a new defense-focused free zone in May aimed at attracting foreign arms manufacturers and localizing weapons production. Across the Gulf, governments are betting that homegrown drone manufacturing, even at modest scale, will give them tools to absorb and respond to Iran’s drone warfare in ways imported air defense systems alone cannot.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Dear Mothers-in-Law,

First, we want to say something important: we truly love having you for Yom Tov. Your presence brings warmth to the house, excitement for the children, family stories, traditions, and that special feeling that makes Yom Tov feel like Yom Tov. There is something beautiful about having another generation around the table and creating memories together.

We also know that you come because you want to help, spend time with your children and grandchildren, and simply be part of the family experience. We appreciate that more than you know.

With that said, we would like to gently offer one small request on behalf of daughters-in-law everywhere.

After the meal, if possible, please consider going to your room for a few hours to rest, relax, read, nap, or simply enjoy some quiet time — even if you don’t actually need the rest.

It may not seem like a big thing, but those afternoon hours can be incredibly helpful. It gives us a chance to clean up the kitchen, reset the house, organize the next meal, and handle the million little things that happen behind the scenes. There is something much easier about moving around freely and getting things done without feeling like someone is watching us work or feeling like we need to keep being “on” socially while doing it.

And if we’re being fully honest, those few hours can also give everyone a little breathing room. Not because we don’t love you, but because even people who love each other very much sometimes benefit from a little space during a long Yom Tov together.

The funny thing is that when everyone gets that break, the next seudah is usually even nicer. We come back refreshed, happier, more relaxed, and more able to enjoy being together.

So please know: disappearing for a little while in the afternoon is not abandoning the family. It may actually be one of the greatest acts of kindness you can give the family.

With love and appreciation,

The Daughters-in-Law 

The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has quietly launched a coast-to-coast political tour and stepped up meetings with senior Democratic operatives, fresh signs that the New York congresswoman is laying groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid even as she insists no decision has been made, according to a report from Axios.

The 35-year-old progressive has appeared at rallies and high-profile events in at least five states over the past month, mixing endorsements for down-ballot candidates with appearances aimed squarely at constituencies critical to any Democratic primary run.

In May alone, Ocasio-Cortez headlined an event in Philadelphia for a left-wing congressional candidate, spoke at a voting-rights rally in Montgomery, Alabama, and addressed a church in Atlanta alongside Sen. Raphael Warnock. Allies pointed out that Warnock is selective about which visiting politicians he allows to speak from the pulpit. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the church in March, did not address the congregation.

While in Atlanta, Ocasio-Cortez also met with Bernice King, the daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., at the King Center and visited Morehouse School of Medicine to discuss Black maternal health. This week she is scheduled to travel to Missoula, Montana, to campaign for congressional candidate Sam Forstag, a smokejumper and union organizer.

Her travel has been paired with appearances inside the Democratic establishment. In April, Ocasio-Cortez attended the Power Rising Summit in Chicago, a gathering of Black women political leaders founded by veteran Democratic operative Leah Daughtry.

A person close to the congresswoman told Axios she remains genuinely undecided about a White House bid and is also weighing a 2028 Senate campaign. “The way she will evaluate the decision is really around where she believes she can make the most change,” the source said. The same source said Ocasio-Cortez is skeptical of early primary polling that shows her leading the prospective Democratic field, including an Atlas Intel survey released this month that placed her first among possible contenders.

A Senate run would set up a generational confrontation with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the 74-year-old New York Democrat who is up for reelection in 2028. A Schumer spokesperson did not respond to inquiries from Axios, and Ocasio-Cortez’s office declined to comment.

Democratic strategists say her fundraising capacity alone makes her one of the most consequential figures in the early shadow primary. Operatives told Axios she could raise $100 million from small-dollar donors and inherit much of the activist base built by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his two presidential campaigns. She has spent millions in recent years building her online following and donor lists across TikTok, Instagram and Bluesky, according to earlier reporting.

Ocasio-Cortez has spent the past year touring the country with Sanders on a series of rallies the pair branded “Fighting Oligarchy,” drawing tens of thousands of attendees in states including Montana, Colorado and Nevada. Her recent speeches have ventured well beyond the district lines of New York’s 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of the Bronx and Queens. In Philadelphia, she approvingly quoted an activist who described MAGA as “the last dying breath of the confederacy,” telling the crowd the country was experiencing “this moment here of liberation, abolition, and revival of the values that make this country actually great.”

Asked directly about a presidential run during a public appearance with Democratic strategist David Axelrod in Chicago earlier this month, Ocasio-Cortez sidestepped the question while suggesting she viewed her political horizon broadly. “They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country,” she said. “Presidents come and go. Elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever.”

The Axios report notes that her current posture echoes a familiar pattern in modern presidential politics. Then-Sen. Barack Obama said in January 2006 that he would serve out his full Senate term and would not run for national office in 2008, only to reverse course ten months later. Then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton made a similar pledge in 1990 before launching his successful 1992 campaign after a statewide listening tour.

Democrats remain in the political wilderness after losing the White House, Senate and House in 2024, and party operatives have spent the past year searching for a generational standard-bearer. Ocasio-Cortez, who was elected to Congress at 29 in 2018, would be 39 on Election Day 2028, the same age John F. Kennedy was when he first ran for the Senate.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump declared Thursday that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile must either be surrendered to the United States or destroyed under international supervision as negotiations over a potential nuclear agreement continue.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that the “Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!)” would either be “immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed” or destroyed elsewhere in coordination with Iran and under the observation of the International Atomic Energy Agency or a similar body.

Trump did not clarify whether he was referring specifically to Iran’s estimated 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium or the regime’s broader enriched uranium stockpile. Reports have indicated that U.S. officials are pushing for the complete removal of Iran’s enriched material as part of any final agreement.

The comments come amid continued indirect talks between Washington and Tehran. Iranian officials have reportedly insisted they will not discuss nuclear concessions until a proposed 60-day ceasefire tied to the negotiations takes effect.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

YWN regrets to inform you of the the Petira of HaRavShmuel Yosef Fishbain Z’tl, longtime rav of Congregation Beth Sinai/White Lake Torah Center in White Lake, New York, who was marbitz Torah to generations of Yidden in the Catskills for close to four decades.

Congregation Beth Sinai/White Lake Torah Center, under Rav Fishbain’s leadership, served as the only year-round shul in the Town of Bethel and became a central makom Torah and tefillah for residents and visitors alike. The shul has been operating since 1975 and became deeply identified with Rav Fishbain’s warm leadership, Torah scholarship, and unwavering dedication to the kehillah.

Born in Chicago, Rav Fishbain grew up surrounded by extraordinary mesiras nefesh for Torah and chinuch. His father, a Chernobyler chossid, passed away when Rav Fishbain was still very young after sacrificing greatly to establish authentic Yiddishe chinuch in Chicago during an era when many Jewish families sent their children to public schools and viewed traditional Torah education as unsustainable in America.

His mother, an exceptional baalas chessed known for her hachnasas orchim, opened her home to many of the gedolei Yisroel of the previous generation. Among those who stayed in their home were Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, the Frierdiker Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and the Lomzher Rosh Yeshiva.

Despite the immense challenges of the time, Rav Fishbain’s mother sent her sons to Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and her daughters to Bais Yaakov under Rebbetzin Kaplan, an act remembered by the family as tremendous mesiras nefesh for an almanah in those years.

Rav Fishbain later learned in Telshe Yeshiva as well as Torah Vodaath and Netzach Yisroel, where he served as a Ram. He also learned under Hagaon HaRav Yisrael Gustman.

Before arriving in White Lake roughly 50 years ago, Rav Fishbain served as a rav in Hurleyville, where he already became known for his warmth, humility, and deep connection to every Yid.

Throughout his life, Rav Fishbain maintained close relationships with many gedolim of previous generations and continued to remain connected to leading gedolei Torah throughout his lifetime.

He leaves behind generations of talmidim, mispallelim, friends, and admirers who benefited from his Torah, guidance, and ahavas Yisroel.

Rav Fishbain zt”l was recently in Lakewood and was niftar at Kimball Medical Center. The Levaya will be held in Monsey on Tuesday – exact details still not confirmed.

Boruch Dayan HaEmmes…

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A rare public clarification has emerged from the normally quiet Amshinov Hasidic dynasty court after social media reports falsely claimed that the Amshinov Rebbe permits ascending Har Habayis.

The controversy erupted after excerpts from the chassidus’s internal publication “Yirah V’Simcha” were circulated online and presented as though the Rebbe had issued a practical heter allowing Jews to ascend the Har Habayis.

In response, the Rebbe’s son, Rabbi Moshe Milikovsky, released an unusually sharp and public statement rejecting the reports outright.

“We were shocked by the removal of the Rebbe’s words from their context regarding Har Habayis,” Rabbi Milikovsky stated.

“The Rebbe absolutely did not permit ascending the Har contrary to the view of all the poskim.”

According to the statement, the comments in question came from an internal halachic discussion held in the Rebbe’s home over a year ago and published only for members of the chassidus familiar with the Rebbe’s style of nuanced Torah discussions.

“With a lack of honesty, they presented it as though the Rebbe permits or instructs people to ascend Har Habayis in practice — something that never entered his mind,” the statement continued.

Rabbi Milikovsky emphasized that the discussion was purely theoretical and halachic in nature, adding that the Rebbe also voiced opposition during the conversation to actions such as waving the Shtei Halechem on Har Habayis in ways not aligned with halacha.

“Certainly this was not a practical or ideological permission to ascend Har Habayis,” he stressed. “The Rebbe’s view is like that of all the poskim — that at this time one may not permit ascending Har Habayis in practice, something that could easily lead to the severe prohibition of kareis, chas v’shalom.”

The clarification quickly spread through the chareidi world amid ongoing tensions and debate surrounding Jewish visits to Har Habayis.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board on Monday published a sharply worded warning to President Trump against signing a “bad deal” with Iran, arguing that an agreement along the lines now being reported in the press would amount to a “betrayal” of American interests and an economic lifeline for a regime the editors said is on the verge of collapse.

The editorial, headlined “Will Trump Bail Out Iran’s Regime?” appeared in the paper on Monday morning, as negotiators continued working toward a final framework that would lift the U.S. naval blockade of Iran in exchange for nuclear concessions. The Journal’s editors warned that the structure of the emerging agreement as currently described in news reports would hand Tehran most of what it needs while leaving Washington with little remaining leverage.

“The basic problem lies with ending U.S. pressure before dismantling the nuclear program,” the editorial argued. “If the blockade ends and Iran can sell its oil, all that’s left to coerce it into nuclear concessions is the threat of renewed war.”

The board questioned how credible that threat will be in the months ahead. “But Mr. Trump wasn’t willing to do that after Iran reneged on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and attacked U.S. forces and Gulf allies. How credible will the threat be 60 days closer to midterms, when it would trigger a new Iranian blockade of Hormuz?”

The Journal also rejected the value of any Iranian pledge not to pursue a nuclear weapon. “A pledge not to build a nuclear weapon means nothing because the regime has always said that while doing the opposite,” the editors wrote.

The editorial focused at length on the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed to the prewar volume of shipping after months of U.S. naval pressure and Iranian counter-measures. The board noted that “Iran insists that no deal will restore the Strait to its status quo ante,” and warned that even a partial reopening would come “on Iranian terms and under its control.” The editors cited the April 7 ceasefire, after which they said tanker traffic decreased rather than increased despite Iran’s pledged gradual reopening.

That history, the board argued, is sufficient reason to refuse Iran sanctions relief on the front end of any deal. “U.S. officials say relief will be tied to performance, and they will need to hold to that to get a decent final deal,” the editorial said.

The Journal also raised concerns about the duration of any restrictions on Iranian uranium enrichment. “The U.S. and Iran also have yet to agree on how long Iran would be banned from enriching uranium. The question may be academic because the regime only has to wait out the Trump Administration to gain a freer hand,” the editors wrote, calling the preliminary deal “no doubt part of” Iran’s strategy of dragging out negotiations.

On the politics, the board acknowledged that a deal would likely bring down oil prices in the short term but warned the political windfall would be temporary. “A bad deal would leave him worse off politically, even if gas prices fall. Even a half victory by Iran would hurt America’s standing — and Mr. Trump’s,” the editorial concluded.

The piece closed with its most pointed framing of the stakes. “Iran’s regime went into this war facing domestic political and economic crises. War has made these worse. Saving such a regime now with an economic bailout would be the real betrayal — of the U.S. interest even more than the Iranian people,” the board wrote.

Monday’s editorial extends a months-long pattern of public criticism from the traditionally conservative Journal directed at the Trump administration’s handling of the war. In April, the board faulted Trump for declaring premature victory after the initial ceasefire announcement and predicted Iran would drag out talks. Earlier this month, Journal editor Elliot Kaufman published an op-ed titled “The Iranians Take Trump for a Sucker,” arguing the president had twice given up American leverage in exchange for Iranian promises that went unfulfilled. Trump responded by calling Kaufman an “idiot” and accusing the paper of having “lost its way.” A separate editorial last week argued that Trump’s threats to resume bombing have been “repeated so often that they now face diminishing returns.”

The White House has not yet publicly responded to Monday’s editorial. The war with Iran is approaching its third month of active hostilities under intermittent ceasefires, and polling has shown declining American support for the conflict alongside rising fuel prices tied to the disruption of Persian Gulf shipping.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Seven MKs from seven parties submitted a proposal on Monday for an urgent parliamentary discussion, following the decision of the Israel Land Authority to deny Lomdei Torah eligibility for discounted apartments, while non-serving members of other sectors remain eligible.

The move comes amid a public uproar that erupted following the decision to bar avreichim from the “Dira B’Hanacha” housing program after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon placed extreme pressure on the Israel Land Authority last week to make immediate decisions to revoke housing discounts from bnei yeshivos.

The proposal was the initiative of UTJ MK Meir Porush and was joined by Religious Zionist MK Simcha Rothman, Likud MK Tally Gotliv, Noam chairman Avi Maoz, New Hope MK Michel Buskila, Shas MK Moshe Abutbul, and Otzma Yehudit MK Tzvika Fogel.

The explanatory notes to the request state: “Following the High Court ruling and directives from legal advisers, changes were made to the eligibility criteria for registration for the ‘Apartment at a Discount’ government housing program. As part of these changes, avreichim whose military status is unresolved were barred from registering for the program and participating in the lotteries, due to the ‘link’ created by the legal advisers between housing benefits and military service.”

“However, an examination of the reality on the ground reveals a severe case of double standards, constituting blatant and intentional discrimination specifically against the Chareidi sector. While avreichim are excluded from the program and denied the basic right to a roof over their heads, other sectors of the Israeli population who also do not serve in the IDF have not lost eligibility, and they continue to enjoy full access to the lotteries and the right to an ‘Apartment at a Discount’.”

“This policy creates an illegitimate distinction between citizens based on sectoral and cultural affiliation. Denying housing solutions to the Chareidi public, which is already suffering from a severe and unprecedented housing crisis, under the false pretext of ‘rewarding those who serve’ – while other sectors are exempt from these rules – is a glaring social and economic injustice.”

“In light of the inherent discrimination in the new criteria and the severe harm to young couples in the Chareidi sector, I request to place this issue on the Knesset’s agenda for an urgent discussion, as part of a fast‑track discussion in the Interior Committee.”

“Representatives of the Attorney General’s Office, who were partners in this discriminatory decision, as well as the relevant bodies such as the Israel Land Authority and the Housing Ministry, should be invited to take part in the discussion.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A charged debate erupted Monday in the Knesset Constitution Committee as lawmakers and public figures sparred over the proposed “Kotel Law,” legislation aimed at formally placing authority over conduct and tefillah arrangements at the Kosel under the control of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

For decades, activist groups tied to the Reform and progressive Jewish movements positioned themselves as the exclusive representatives of world Jewry in Israeli public affairs, particularly regarding the Kosel. Their messaging consistently framed their agenda as the unified voice of Jews abroad, especially in the United States.

On Monday, that narrative faced serious opposition.

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During discussions in the Knesset Constitution Committee surrounding legislation that would formally place the Kosel under the authority of the Chief Rabbinate and reinforce its status as a sacred religious site, familiar advocacy organizations arrived prepared to object. They warned lawmakers that strengthening the site’s halachic character would alienate Jews around the world and weaken ties with the Diaspora.

What unfolded then was something the committee had rarely witnessed before, with organized Orthodox representation from America directly challenging those claims.

Backed by the electoral success of Eretz HaKodesh, delegates entered the hearing not as observers, but as official representatives carrying the mandate of thousands of voters. Their message to lawmakers was straightforward: Many Jews in the Diaspora strongly support maintaining the traditional sanctity and religious standards of the Kosel and reject the repeated assertion that progressive organizations speak on behalf of all American Jews.

Rabbi Nechemya Malinowitz, speaking during the session as part of the Eretz HaKodesh leadership, emphasized that Orthodox communities abroad expect the Kosel to preserve its kedusha and religious integrity.

Joining him was Esther Jacobs, an Eretz Hakodesh delegate and activist, who addressed the committee on behalf of women who feel deeply connected to the traditional character of the site and believe its holiness must be protected.

“As an American woman who was raised on the values of freedom, equality and opportunity, I say clearly and without hesitation: Torah and halacha do not degrade women, and they do not diminish women,” said Mrs. Jacobs.

“We are simply asking to preserve the kedusha of the holiest place of the Jewish people, as it has been maintained for generations,” she said, later adding, “The greatest irony is to claim that in the name of Diaspora Jewry, one must undermine and change the character of its mesorah and sanctity.”

In his remarks, Rabbi Malinowitz said that the voices of Orthodox and traditional Jews outside Israel are routinely ignored whenever the issue of the Kosel arises.

“The Eretz HaKodesh party is now in its second term in the WZO, and I am mentioning this in regard to what MK Kariv referred to as ‘the majority of the Jewish people’ and the ‘majority of Zionist organizations.’ We represent a very large public group of Orthodox and traditional Jews in the Diaspora — a public that yearns for the Eretz Yisroel, contributes to it, visits here, invests here, send its children to study here in Israel, to volunteer here and sometimes even to settle here.

“I came here today to make their voice heard, the voice of Diaspora Jewry that is not always heard.”

Rabbi Malinowitz pushed back against repeated claims made during the Kosel debate that liberal Jewish movements represent the overwhelming majority of Jews outside Israel.

“Over and over again, we hear statements on behalf of ‘the majority of the Jewish people,’ as if there is one voice for Diaspora Jewry, but the reality is completely different.

“In the United States alone, there are thousands of Orthodox Jewish educational institutions with hundreds of thousands of students. There are thousands of shuls and communities that revolve around Torah tradition and a deep connection to Yerushalayim and the Land of Israel.

“There are tens of thousands of young people who study in yeshivos and seminaries in Israel every year. We help them get here, and we see the passion and the strong deep-rooted connection.”

Rabbi Malinowitz then referenced past warnings from liberal Israeli politicians that failure to advance expanded mixed-prayer arrangements at the Kosel could damage Israel’s relationship with Diaspora Jewry.

“As early as 2023, the opposition leader, MK Yari Lapid, said that if the Kosel plan is not advanced as the liberal party demands, it could break the alliance with Diaspora Jewry.

“And this is exactly the claim that we heard over and over again over the years in different variations, and here on this committee as well.”

Speaking emotionally, Rabbi Malinowitz declared that millions of Diaspora Jews support preserving the traditional kedusha and halachic status quo of the Kosel.

“So I came here today because I am a democratic representative elected through a democratic process by tens of thousands of Jews in the Diaspora to say clearly that there are millions of Jews in the Diaspora who want to preserve the sanctity of the Kosel Hamaarovi, the tradition of Israel, and the status quo in this holy place in accordance with halacha and longstanding tradition. This Judaism also has a voice, and it is also part of Diaspora Judaism.

“Therefore, we need to stop speaking on behalf of Diaspora Judaism as if it belongs only to one side of the ideological map. No one has a monopoly on Diaspora Judaism, and no one has the right to speak on behalf of millions of believing and traditional Jews who do not agree with changing the character of the Kosel Hamaarovi. And the truth is simple: The covenant that connects us to Diaspora Judaism is the eternal covenant of the people of Israel with the people of Israel, with the Torah of Israel, with the Land of Israel, and with Hashem. Our job is to preserve it.”

Rabbi Malinowitz tied the Kosel debate to broader tensions involving liberal Jewish advocacy organizations in the United States, specifically referencing recent controversies surrounding calls to halt American weapons shipments to Israel during the war.

“And I want to make one more point: There is a big uproar online around the initiative of the J Street organization and other liberal organizations that have appealed to the US Senate to stop the sale and shipment of weapons to Israel. The  Israel ambassador  to the United States, Dr. Yechiel Leiter, called them a ‘cancer,’ because they are harming Israel during the war. And because of what the ambassador said, the liberal organizations have signed a petition that he must retract and apologize. And they say that they are allowed to harm Israel because this is a ‘machlokes lesheim Shomayim’ (a dispute for Heaven’s sake)! Who signed this petition and demands that the ambassador retract it? These are the same liberal people and organizations who come here to Yerushalayim and demand that the tradition and halacha be changed in the Kosel Plaza in the name of Diaspora Jewry.

“In the same breath, they also support organizations that are trying to stop arms shipments to Israel. They call it a machlokes lesheim Shomayim. So I want to ask: Can these people tell us what to do in the name of Diaspora Jewry? Or is it the opposite? We just celebrated Chag HaShavuos. Tens of  thousands of Jews from the Diaspora boarded planes to capacity to get to Yerushalayim, to the Kosel Hamaarovi, despite the fact that there exists every day a chance that the war will resume and the heavens will close. These are the people on whose behalf I speak, Jews whose connection to the people of Israel is a connection of faith, of tradition, and of a deep belonging to the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, and Toras Yisroel. And my job is to maintain that connection, not to sever it.”

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung unleashed a profane broadside against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, telling President Donald Trump’s onetime top diplomat to “shut his stupid mouth” after Pompeo criticized the emerging U.S.-Iran framework agreement.

“Mike Pompeo has no idea what the [expletive removed] he’s talking about,” Cheung wrote on X. “He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals. He’s not read into anything that’s happening, so how would he know.”

The rebuke came hours after Pompeo, who served as both CIA director and secretary of state during Trump’s first term, likened the reported contours of the deal to Obama-era diplomacy and called it “not remotely America First.”

Cheung’s broadside was part of a broader pushback from Trump’s inner circle against Republican critics of the talks. Trump himself weighed in Sunday morning on Truth Social, dismissing detractors as “losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about.” The president drew a sharp contrast between the current negotiations and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, writing that the Obama-era agreement was “one of the worst deals ever made by our Country” and insisting the framework his team is negotiating is “the exact opposite.”

“It isn’t even fully negotiated yet,” Trump added, instructing his team not to rush.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also defended the president Sunday during a state visit abroad, saying Trump’s commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon “shouldn’t be questioned by anybody.” Rubio called it “absurd” to suggest Trump would agree to a deal that strengthened Tehran’s nuclear position.

The administration’s aggressive response reflects mounting frustration with hawkish Republican voices who have publicly questioned the direction of the talks. In addition to Pompeo, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Roger Wicker of Mississippi have voiced reservations in recent days, with Wicker warning that pursuing an agreement “risks a perception of weakness.”

Trump said Saturday that the agreement had been “largely negotiated” and that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, though Iran has disputed that characterization. Reports indicate the framework under discussion could include a 60-day ceasefire while talks continue over Tehran’s nuclear program, the unfreezing of certain Iranian assets, and a commitment to further negotiations.

Cheung’s targeting of Pompeo marks a striking moment in the rupture between Trump and a former cabinet official once seen as among the administration’s most loyal hawks. Pompeo played a central role in the 2018 U.S. withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear accord and in the subsequent “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Tehran.

In a Sunday morning post, Trump said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports “will remain in full force and effect” until a final agreement is reached, and reiterated his demand that Iran “cannot develop or procure” a nuclear weapon.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressing the Trump administration to preserve Israel’s right to conduct military operations on all fronts, including southern Lebanon, as the United States and Iran close in on a draft Memorandum of Understanding, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations.

Both Washington and Tehran have tempered expectations of an imminent breakthrough, with the two sides still divided over Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran’s demands for sanctions relief, and the ongoing war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the Reuters report.

The Israeli demand could complicate the talks if Iranian negotiators insist on a complete halt to Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon as part of the agreement. An Israeli official familiar with Netanyahu’s private discussions told Reuters that the prime minister has voiced concerns about the current draft of the MOU. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that the agreement would have Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the United States lifting its naval blockade, with further negotiations on the nuclear file to follow. The talks have been conducted indirectly through Pakistani mediation. Iranian sources told Reuters that future stages could produce “feasible formulas” to address Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, including diluting the material under supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.

Although the draft does not directly address Israeli concerns over Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu has acknowledged that Israel “has no maneuver to influence the president right now,” the Israeli official told Reuters.

Trump and Netanyahu have spoken by phone at least three times over the past week, the news agency reported, a stretch during which Israeli officials said the country had prepared for a potential return to joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure.

Asked by reporters after the first of those calls, on Tuesday night, what he had told the Israeli leader, Trump replied: “He’s a very good man, he’ll do whatever I want him to do.” The two spoke again Friday night, according to Reuters. A third call followed on Saturday, after Trump held a joint conversation with leaders from the Gulf, Turkey, and Pakistan to brief them on the state of the Iran talks.

Netanyahu, who had not previously commented publicly on the emerging deal, issued a statement after that third call saying he and Trump had discussed the “memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the upcoming negotiations toward a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.” He said the two leaders “agreed that any final agreement… means dismantling Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites and removing its enriched nuclear material from its territory.”

Netanyahu added that Trump “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against threats on every front, including Lebanon.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) declined to rule out a 2028 presidential bid in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, five days after losing his Republican primary to a Trump-backed challenger in what became the most expensive House primary in US history.

Pressed by moderator Kristen Welker on whether he was considering a White House run after some of his supporters chanted “President, President” during his concession speech, Massie told NBC he was leaving his options open. “I will not rule out anything, and right now I’m not going to rule in anything,” he said.

Massie told Welker he had spent the days since the race on his Kentucky farm and was still decompressing from 14 years in Congress. “Every hour that passes, I get decompressed a little bit more,” he said in the interview. “It’s like coming up from the bottom of the ocean, and I’ll take some time and decide what’s next, but I think I will stay engaged in some way or shape. Maybe it’s from the outside.”

When Welker pressed him on whether any future bid would come strictly under the Republican banner, Massie again declined to commit, according to Newsweek’s account of the broadcast, and floated the possibility of seeking local office instead. He told NBC he would not rule out a run for county commissioner, noting that he previously served as Lewis County’s judge executive and calling it “probably the best job I ever had in politics.”

Massie lost the May 19 Republican primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein by roughly 10 points. The race drew more than $32 million in ad spending, with Al Jazeera placing the figure above $34 million when all publicity expenditures are included. Outside groups supporting Gallrein included the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Republican Jewish Coalition, and billionaire donors Paul Singer, John Paulson, and Miriam Adelson contributed to political action committees opposing Massie.

President Trump recruited Gallrein to run against Massie after the congressman broke with the administration on several major issues. Those included Massie’s vote against the GOP’s signature tax and spending package, his co-authorship with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) of legislation forcing the release of files tied to the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation, and his opposition to US military action against Iran. Trump signed the Epstein-related measure into law in November after initially opposing it.

In the same Meet the Press appearance, Massie criticized the president’s standing with parts of his own coalition, drawing on a phrase recently used by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, another miscreant. “Some people on the left have Trump Derangement Syndrome. They call it TDS,” Massie told NBC. “But there’s a growing number of people on the right who have a form of TDS called Trump Disappointment Syndrome.”

Massie is not currently considered a top-tier contender in a prospective 2028 Republican field expected to feature more established national figures. Khanna, appearing separately on Meet the Press, told Welker that Massie had lost his seat because of his work on the Epstein files and his opposition to the Iran war, calling him “a real friend” and “a good man.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Iran is conditioning further progress in negotiations with the United States on the immediate release of $12 billion in Iranian funds frozen in Qatar, an informed source with direct knowledge of the talks told Iran International on Sunday night.

The demand has emerged as the sole remaining obstacle to advancing a draft Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran, the source said, and Iranian negotiators are insisting that guaranteed access to the funds be granted in the initial phase of the diplomatic roadmap before any preliminary understanding can move forward. Tehran’s broader position, the source added, is that all of its frozen assets worldwide must be released as part of any eventual comprehensive deal.

The MOU, which Al Arabiya has reported is being referred to as the “Islamabad Declaration,” would trigger a 60-day ceasefire extension during which both sides would pursue further talks and could agree to additional extensions. If approved by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the document would be sent to Mojtaba Khamenei for final sign-off. Final negotiations on a broader peace deal would only begin after both governments sign the MOU and the ceasefire takes effect, Al Arabiya reported.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters in April that the United States had agreed to release Iranian assets held in Qatar, a claim a US official denied at the time. A second Iranian source told the news agency the figure agreed to was $6 billion.

A high-level Iranian delegation arrived in Doha on Monday for talks tied to the negotiations. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati are meeting Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, an official briefed on the visit told Reuters. State media reported that Hemmati’s trip followed earlier discussions with a Qatari delegation in Tehran focused on the frozen funds.

The Doha talks will center on terms of a potential ceasefire arrangement with Washington, with particular focus on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the official said.

The current draft of the MOU calls for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz without tolls and requires Iran to clear mines it deployed in the waterway, according to Axios. In exchange, the United States would lift its blockade of Iranian ports and waive certain sanctions, including measures restricting Iranian oil sales. Both governments would also commit to refraining from attacks on each other or on their allies, Iranian media reported.

Questions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program and its enriched uranium stockpile would remain subject to ongoing negotiation, though the MOU would commit Tehran to abandoning any pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The draft also addresses the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, specifying that the conflict will end, Axios reported. A US official told the outlet the arrangement would not amount to a “one-sided ceasefire,” adding that if “Hezbollah behaves, Israel will behave.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

San José State University police have arrested a suspect in connection with a months-long string of antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and racist graffiti incidents across the campus, the university announced last week. The arrest followed an investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.

The suspect, who has been banned from campus, faces charges including felony vandalism, felony publishing threats, and potential hate crime enhancements, the university said in a statement posted to its dedicated graffiti response page.

The graffiti targeted Jewish, Muslim, Asian, and Black members of the campus community, university officials said. SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said in a campus message on Thursday that the incidents had caused “real harm” across the university and that Jewish and Muslim students, faculty, and staff were experiencing the threats most intensely.

“The acts have targeted individuals and communities we proudly welcome to SJSU, and I hope you all join me in condemning hate and violence while standing in solidarity with our community,” Teniente-Matson said in the statement, posted to the SJSU NewsCenter.

According to a chronology maintained on the university’s official response page, the first incidents surfaced in late October and early November 2025, when racist graffiti, including swastikas and threats of mass shootings, was discovered in a campus housing facility and an academic building.

The threats escalated on March 4, when graffiti was scrawled in a bathroom stall in MacQuarrie Hall warning of a terrorist attack on March 11, according to correspondence between the California State University Chancellor’s Office and Cassidy. According to Cassidy’s office, the messages included “SJSU, Sorry, But for Allah 3/11 Will Be 9/11” alongside “Kill All Jews,” with other writings stating a “goal” of “five Jews min[imum]” and a vow to “make [Osama Bin Laden] proud.”

SJSU Senior Director of Strategic Communications Michelle Smith McDonald told KTVU at the time that the graffiti specifically threatened “the Jewish community” and warned of violence “of a non-specific nature” on March 11. The university bolstered police patrols and began coordinating with outside law enforcement in response, according to the SJSU Police Department.

Additional threatening graffiti was discovered in MacQuarrie Hall bathrooms on March 24, April 3, and April 8, the SJSUPD said. On April 28, two more messages were found at the Student Union and the Art Building threatening an attack on May 4, according to the department.

The CSU Chancellor’s correspondence with Cassidy, as cited by his office, detailed the November bathroom graffiti in MacQuarrie Hall, which included antisemitic, anti-Asian, and anti-Muslim language and prompted the initial criminal investigation and the deployment of additional foot patrols.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The best agreement the United States and Iran could realistically reach on the nuclear file would likely resemble the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated under the Obama administration, former senior Israeli defense official and Iran nuclear expert Avner Vilan said Monday in an interview with 103FM, as reported by the Jerusalem Post.

“At best, we will get an agreement like Obama’s deal,” Vilan told the Israeli radio station. “There is a period in which the Iranians do not advance toward a nuclear weapon and are under supervision, which is fine. But regarding ballistic missiles, what we hit, we hit. They were not part of the agreement, and the Iranians will be able to take the money they receive and build themselves up.”

According to Vilan, the contacts now underway between Washington and Tehran could yield only a partial agreement, one that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ease economic pressure on Iran, and defer the nuclear question to a later phase. Israel, he told 103FM, is watching the prospect of an interim arrangement closely, particularly amid reports that Iran could agree to reopen the Strait as part of a broader understanding with the United States.

“As it appears, the most urgent issue is reopening Hormuz. The Iranians need pressure relief,” Vilan said in the interview. He told the station the reported framework could include the release of Iranian funds held in the West, followed by a 60-day window for negotiations on the nuclear file. Iran would then decide whether to accept or reject a nuclear arrangement potentially involving the removal of enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions.

“That is the best result they could receive,” Vilan said. “If and when they reach that point, the regime will survive for a very long time because it will have a continuing economic oxygen line. Nobody is talking about the missiles or the proxies.”

Vilan warned 103FM listeners that sanctions relief could ultimately entrench the Iranian government rather than weaken it. “Regime change does not look like it is going to happen. On the contrary, we are even strengthening it. It is beginning to receive money,” he said.

Addressing Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium is necessary but not sufficient to produce a sound nuclear agreement, Vilan said. “The 60% is perhaps the most urgent issue and a necessary condition, but it is not enough for a good nuclear agreement from a professional standpoint,” he told the station. “We need to ensure Iran is far enough away from obtaining a weapon.”

That, Vilan said, requires guarantees that Iran retains no nuclear material, that its centrifuges remain under supervision, and that it does not operate fortified sites capable of industrial-scale enrichment. “We need to make sure Iran has no path to advance toward nuclear material for a bomb,” he said.

Vilan told 103FM that President Donald Trump now faces three possible courses on Iran. The first is a return to intensive military pressure. “He can go back to heavy fighting, hit them hard, but in the end, we will probably return to roughly the same point,” Vilan said.

The second, Vilan said, is a staged agreement he described as “Hormuz for Hormuz,” which could later evolve into a full nuclear deal. He cautioned the station’s listeners that such a process risks stalling and leaving the two sides locked in an open-ended interim arrangement.

The third option, he said, is simply to wait, an approach he told 103FM the US president does not appear inclined to pursue. “We understand that Trump does not want to wait right now,” Vilan said, citing pressure over oil prices, Gulf state concerns about regional instability, and the possibility that Iran could attempt to outlast the current US administration.

Vilan closed the interview by warning that the diplomatic picture could shift rapidly and that time was not necessarily on Israel’s side. “It is possible that in another 24 hours, we will have a completely different conversation about a return to fighting,” he told 103FM.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Israel Police has refused a request from the Military Police to allocate thousands of police officers and Border Police troops for a broad arrest operation targeting bnei yeshivos in Chareidi cities, according to senior police sources who spoke to Kikar HaShabbat.

Over the past 24 hours, the Military Police approached the Israel Police with a request to assign significant forces for a proactive operation against Chareidim that would require the deployment of thousands of police officers and Border Police forces.

However, the police refused the request. A senior police official explained to Kikar HaShabbat: “We have a lot of work. We don’t have the resources for such an operation and everything that comes with it. We’re dealing with plenty of work involving crime, protection rackets, and more.”

The dramatic decision comes amid sharp criticism of the police from High Court judges and Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara for not arresting enough bnei yeshivos.

Kol B’Ramah reported earlier today that the Israel Police and the military police are preparing to launch a large-scale operation next week to arrest all Bnei Torah designated as “draft dodgers” in Chareidi cities and areas in the center of the country.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Israel’s inner security cabinet held a five-hour meeting Sunday night focused on the emerging US-Iran deal, as well as the growing threat posed by explosive drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon.

During the session, a heated argument erupted between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich over the proper response to the drone threat, Ynet reported.

According to the report, Netanyahu demanded protective solutions and pressed the IDF to accelerate an effective response to the escalating danger.

Smotrich expressed his opposition to relying primarily on defensive measures, telling Netanyahu, “We can’t endlessly defend ourselves. We need to bring down 10 buildings in Dahieh in response to every drone.”

Netanyahu objected, saying: “What exactly are you proposing? That every time there’s a drone, we demolish 10 buildings? And if there’s a drone from Gaza, we demolish 10 buildings in Gaza? And if it’s from Yehuda and Shomron, we demolish 10 buildings there? And if it’s a drone from a crime family, we demolish 10 buildings in Ramla?”

Smotrich responded: “Absolutely yes. Wars are won through deterrence and exacting a price. Defending ourselves endlessly is October 6 thinking. Show me where you want to stretch the protective nets across Israel’s skies — over Kfar Saba? Maybe Ra’anana too, or only Ramla and Lod?”

During the tense discussion, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir updated Netanyahu and the ministers on the death of Sgt. Nehoray Leizer, H’yd, from an explosive drone. Zamir said he supports a harsher response to the drone threat in order to restore deterrence.

“You can’t operate with tweezers,” he said, referring to strikes on buildings. “A different equation must be created, including strikes on buildings in Beirut and Tyre to deter the enemy.”

Earlier Monday, Smotrich visited the Civil Administration in Yehudah and Shomron to inaugurate the “Rimon” land registration system.

During the visit, he addressed the drone threat, saying: “This week I approved a massive budget of around two billion shekels for technological solutions to the drone threat. Among other things, the funding will allow civilian bodies to offer outside-the-box solutions and ideas. But the truth is that drones won’t be defeated through defense alone — only through offense.”

“Ten buildings in Beirut should fall for every explosive drone. A strategic threat cannot be answered only with defensive measures, but by changing the rules and the equation. We cannot spread protective nets over the entire State of Israel, nor cover it with automatic machine guns. We cannot defend ourselves endlessly. Imposing a disproportionate and deterrent price on the enemy must be part of the effort to protect our soldiers.”

Israel’s actions in Lebanon are currently limited by the “ceasefire” between Israel and Lebanon declared by the Trump administration, a situation that may worsen if the emerging Iran-US deal is signed.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Longtime pro-Israel activist Dov Hikind is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to deploy New York National Guard troops to the Israel Day Parade on May 31, citing a rise in antisemitic incidents in the city and concern that marchers and spectators could become targets along and around the Fifth Avenue route.

The parade’s official host, however, says it has not asked for the Guard and is content with the NYPD’s preparations.

“We need to make sure bad things don’t happen,” Hikind, the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former state assemblyman who represented heavily Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn, told The New York Post. “We want to make sure there is safety for the Jewish community. I’m calling on Governor Hochul to bring in the National Guard to help the New York City Police Department.”

Hikind said his concern extends beyond the marchers themselves to people carrying Israeli flags or wearing pro-Israel gear in the surrounding neighborhood, whom he said could be targeted on subways or side streets away from the parade’s main security perimeter. Hochul has previously sent Guard members to staff transit hubs at her direction, and Hikind argued the same logic applies to the parade weekend.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which organizes the 61st annual parade, has not joined that call. JCRC chief executive Mark Treyger told The Post his organization has full confidence in the NYPD and Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and is working closely with city law enforcement and the Community Security Initiative — the joint security program operated by JCRC-NY and UJA-Federation of New York — on parade-day operations.

“Commissioner Tisch, the NYPD, and all of our law enforcement partners have left no stone unturned in preparing for next Sunday’s parade,” Treyger said. “Extensive planning, coordination, and security infrastructure are in place to ensure a safe, successful, and joyful celebration.”

This year’s “Israel Day on Fifth,” themed “Proud Americans, Proud Zionists,” runs from 62nd Street to 74th Street and is expected to draw record turnout, organizers say, in part as a direct response to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s announcement that he will not attend. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and longtime supporter of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, becomes the first New York City mayor in the parade’s 61-year history to sit it out, breaking with a tradition observed by his predecessor Eric Adams and every mayor since 1964.

“While I will not be attending the Israel Day Parade, my lack of attendance should not be mistaken for a refusal to provide security or the necessary permits for its safety,” Mamdani said in a statement first reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I’ve been very clear: I believe in equal rights for all people — everywhere.”

Hikind cited the mayor’s boycott as part of the climate that prompted his call. He also pointed to recent anti-Israel demonstrations outside Jewish institutions including the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan and Young Israel Senior Services in Midwood, a Brooklyn neighborhood he formerly represented in the state Assembly.

The parade is taking shape against a broader rupture between City Hall and the city’s Jewish community. The UJA-Federation of New York and the JCRC declined invitations to Mamdani’s first Jewish Heritage event at Gracie Mansion earlier this month, citing his rejection of “the core pillar of our heritage, the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.” A protest at Gracie Mansion is planned for May 26. Mamdani, in remarks at his Gracie Mansion event, acknowledged the surge in antisemitism, noting that Jewish residents make up roughly 12 percent of the city’s population but account for more than half of its hate crime victims.

The Anti-Defamation League has launched a “Mamdani Monitor” tracking the new administration’s posture toward the Jewish community. Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, who has marched at past parades, has publicly raised concerns about the mayor’s previously stated willingness to direct the NYPD to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under the International Criminal Court warrant should he set foot in New York.

The governor’s office has not publicly responded to Hikind’s request.

The parade kicks off Sunday morning, May 31.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The difficulties slowing progress in negotiations for a deal with Iran to end the war stem not only from disagreements between the sides but also from an extraordinary situation inside Iran’s leadership itself — one that is significantly complicating diplomatic efforts, CBS reported.

According to the report, which cites US officials with knowledge of the matter, Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is hiding in an undisclosed location with little access to the outside world and can only be reached by a “labyrinth of couriers.”

The officials said this is one of the main reasons negotiations over the emerging agreement are progressing so slowly. When the US sends a proposal, the difficulties in reaching Khamenei result in long delays before the US receives a response.

According to the report, Khamenei is not the only Iranian leader who is in hiding. Most Iranian leaders never see daylight, spending most of their time in highly fortified bunkers and avoiding speaking to each other unless absolutely necessary, the sources said.

“Watching them try to figure out how to talk to each other is almost like watching a sitcom. They are completely exasperated,” one official said.

By design, even the most senior Iranian leaders are not aware of Khameini’s location and have no way to contact him directly.

“This is why you see people saying things like, ‘The supreme leader has agreed to the framework,’ or ‘We’re waiting to hear back on the final deal points.’ Every piece of information he receives is dated and there’s a lot of latency to his responses,” one official said.

Despite the difficulties, a senior US official said on Sunday that Khamenei had already approved the general framework of the current draft agreement.

President Trump wrote on Truth Social that he is in no rush to reach a deal as “time is on our side.”

“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed. Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled what he described as a potentially “historic” Middle East agreement tying ongoing negotiations with Iran to a sweeping expansion of the Abraham Accords across the Arab and Muslim world.

In a lengthy statement posted online, Trump said talks with Iran are “proceeding nicely,” while warning that failure to reach an agreement could mean a return “to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before.”

Trump revealed that he recently held discussions with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Pakistani military chief Asim Munir, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

According to Trump, he urged that any countries involved in the negotiations with Iran should be required to simultaneously sign onto the Abraham Accords.

“It should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote.

Trump specifically named Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain as countries he believes should formally join or expand ties under the accords framework.

In one of the most stunning portions of the statement, Trump suggested that Iran itself could eventually become part of the Abraham Accords if a final deal is reached.

“In speaking to numerous of the Great Leaders mentioned above, they would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote.

Trump called the proposal “the most important Deal that any of these Great, but always in Conflict Countries, will ever sign,” claiming it could unite the Middle East economically and militarily while bringing unprecedented stability to the region.

The president also praised the original Abraham Accords, saying the agreements brought a “Financial, Economic, and Social BOOM” to participating countries even during periods of war and instability.

Trump concluded by saying he has instructed his representatives to begin working immediately on expanding the accords framework alongside the Iran negotiations.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An explosive drone struck a residential home in Metula on Monday afternoon, the first time since the beginning of the fighting in southern Lebanon that an explosive drone has directly hit a residential building inside Israel.

The building suffered damage, but Baruch Hashem, no one was physically injured in the attack.

Medical teams at the scene treated one person suffering from shock.

The drone was one of three Hezbollah explosive drones that exploded inside Israel since this morning. On Sunday morning alone, 30! explosive drones detonated near IDF troops operating near the Lebanese border, killing one soldier and seriously injuring another soldier.

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The drone that struck the home was part of a broader attack involving several explosive drones launched by Hezbollah toward Israel.

“Following alerts activated regarding hostile aircraft infiltration in several areas in northern Israel, the Hezbollah terrorist organization launched several explosive drones toward IDF forces and Israeli territory,” the IDF said.

“An explosive drone impact was identified in Metula. The incident is being investigated by security authorities.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Israel Police and the military police are preparing to launch a large-scale operation next week to arrest all Bnei Torah designated as “draft dodgers” in Chareidi cities and areas in the center of the country, Kol B’Ramah reported on Monday morning.

According to the report, the operation will go far beyond random detentions announced last week by Police Chief Danny Levy, and will involve proactive enforcement operations in major Chareidi population centers across central Israel as part of a planned initiative by the Police Operations Division in close coordination with the Military Police.

A senior source in the police operations division confirmed the details in a conversation with Kol Barama and clarified the expected nature of the operation on the ground.

“We received instructions to arrest every draft evader identified in the central region and transfer him to the Military Police as part of the operations, with no exceptions,” he said.

The move marks a significant escalation in enforcement policy against Bnei Torah

The development follows Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara’s demand to significantly increase police involvement in the enforcement of her legal decrees against Chareidim.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

President Isaac Herzog has frozen further review of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s pardon request, Kan News reported on Sunday evening.

According to the report, Herzog’s decision came after Netanyahu failed to respond to his invitation to hold talks with the prosecution.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara agreed to hold talks but was not expected to approve a pardon without an admission of guilt, something that Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will not agree to.

The cases against Netanyahu have fallen apart one by one in the courtroom, with multiple claims disproven or withdrawn. In addition, multiple incidents of police investigators acting illegally in the cases have been revealed in the courtroom.

Netanyahu’s testimony in his ongoing trial is expected to conclude in the near future, and once it does, the pardon request could become irrelevant.

In February, U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Herzog over the matter, saying: “He should be ashamed that he is not granting Netanyahu a pardon.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A yeshivah bochur was arrested late Sunday night in Jerusalem for “draft-dodging,” leading to a large and violent protest near the local police station, where hundreds gathered to protest.

The incident began when military police arrested Yosef Levy, a talmid of the Pe’er Yosef yeshiva, in the Armon HaNetziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, shortly after midnight. According to reports, he refused to identify himself to the military police officers and was later transferred to a police station for identification before being taken to a military prison.

Following the arrest, hundreds of residents from Jerusalem and surrounding areas arrived outside the police station to protest. A large number of Border Police forces were deployed to the scene, and officers used stun grenades, batons, and other crowd-control measures to disperse the crowd.

At the same time, dozens of protesters also gathered at the Kikar HaShabbat intersection in Jerusalem to protest the arrest. During the dispersal operation, Border Police officers were filmed striking protesters with batons.

On the day before Shavuos, an avreich from Ofakim was stopped on a highway by traffic police and handed over to military police in the first implementation of the new policy announced last week by Police Chief Danny Levy to transfer every draft evader encountered by officers to the military police.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mike Burgess, appeared Monday for the first time before the special royal commission established after the massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney in December 2025.

In dramatic testimony to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the highest form of inquiry in Australia,  Burgess admitted that Australian security authorities allowed anti-Jewish hatred to spiral unchecked after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.

His testimony, described by Australian media as a “stunning self-indictment” of both political leaders and law enforcement authorities, included an unprecedented admission of failure in protecting the country’s Jewish community.

In his testimony, Burgess stated unequivocally that antisemitism in Australia remained “without any supervision, restraint, or institutional response” immediately after the outbreak of the Middle East war on October 7, 2023. According to him, this atmosphere fueled and legitimized escalating violence against Jews.

“There is no doubt that the war in the Middle East invoked a range of emotions in Australia,” Burgess told the commission. “Some of those violent aspects… and those behaviors, including antisemitism that, in our view, were left unchecked, were therefore normalized and gave more permission for violence… and Jewish Australians were on the receiving end.”

Burgess revealed alarming intelligence findings showing that from late 2024 onward, there was a dramatic escalation in the severity of incidents — ranging from intimidation, threats, and harassment in streets and universities to “direct targeting of Jewish people, businesses, schools, and places of worship.”

In another explosive revelation, Burgess said ASIO investigators possess conclusive evidence that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were directly behind two major antisemitic attacks: the arson attack on the Adass Israel shul in Melbourne and an attack on a kosher restaurant in Sydney — incidents that led to the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador in August.

Iran was probably involved in more attacks, Burgess said. “They use their network of proxies and agents to do their bidding, and that is to bring harm to Jewish people wherever they are in the world.”

Burgess warned that Australia’s permissive public atmosphere enabled the terrorists responsible for the Bondi massacre to “operate under the radar” and ultimately carry out what is now considered the deadliest terrorist attack in the country’s modern history. “These behaviors became normalized and gave legitimacy to violence,” he stressed.

Further damning testimony was heard on Monday from Richard Lancaster, who leads a team of lawyers in his role as the Senior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission, who said that police designated the Chanukah event at Bondi Beach as having the lowest security priority on a three-tier scale, despite the surge in antisemitic attacks since October 7, 2023.

Lancaster said that only four police officers were at the event when the terrorists opened fire on a crowd of around 1,000 people.

Within 29 seconds of the start of the shooting, 10 people had been fatally shot, and an 11th had been wounded.

Within five minutes, 11 police officers were at the scene. Three of those officers were wounded, Lancaster said.

A Jewish security organization, the Community Security Group, had warned the New South Wales Police Force to post officers at the beachfront park for the duration of the Chanukah event, Lancaster said.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

An IDF soldier was killed on Sunday by an explosive drone fired by Hezbollah at IDF troops in southern Lebanon, the IDF announced on Monday morning.

He was identified as Sgt. Nehoray Leizer, H’yd, 19, from Eilat. He served in the  601st Combat Engineering Battalion of the 401st Brigade.

Another soldier was seriously injured in the incident.

Hashem Yikam Damo.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

When President Trump announced Operation Epic Fury at 2 a.m. on February 28 in an eight-minute Truth Social video, the scope was vast. The United States and Israel would not just hit Iranian nuclear sites. They would destroy Iran’s missile arsenal, dismantle its proxy networks, “annihilate” its navy, and see the Islamic Republic itself replaced. “It will be yours to take,” Trump told Iranians watching the address. “This will probably be your only chance for generations.”

Three months later, the war’s stated aims have shrunk almost beyond recognition. The framework now circulating in Washington and Tehran is narrow, transactional and limited to two questions: when ships start moving again through the Strait of Hormuz, and what happens to roughly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium that Iran is being asked to dispose of “in principle.” Regime change, regional containment, dismantling proxies, ending the missile threat — none of those appear in the memorandum of understanding now being negotiated.

The collapse of ambition has come in stages.

Phase One: A War About Everything

The administration laid out four military objectives at the opening of Operation Epic Fury — preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon, destroying the missile arsenal, degrading proxy networks, eliminating the navy — along with a fifth, political objective of regime change. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu jointly called on Iranian civilians to seize control of the country once its leadership had been decapitated. Mossad chief David Barnea had designed the underlying plan, presented to senior Trump officials in mid-January. By February 13, Trump was publicly endorsing regime change as “the best thing that could happen” and telling reporters “there are people” he wanted to take over.

The opening salvo killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and much of the senior Iranian command. It also triggered the most extensive missile and drone barrage of the war, with more than 600 attacks against U.S. facilities in Iraq alone, according to a senior State Department official.

Phase Two: The Rationale Begins to Wobble

Within days, the administration’s case for war began contradicting itself. Trump had spent months insisting that Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 strikes, had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. Now his envoy Steve Witkoff was warning that Iran was “a week away” from bomb-grade material.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the strikes as a counterproliferation operation with a “very specific mission.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured reporters the mission was “very, very clear.” Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters after a classified briefing that the goals of the operation had changed “four or five times” in a matter of weeks.

By mid-March, an Axios report indicated that Trump now viewed regime change as merely “an additional victory” — not a requirement — and intended to end the war once his stated military objectives were met.

Phase Three: The Timeline Starts to Slip

Trump initially said the war would run four to six weeks. On Day 26, the administration submitted a 15-point ceasefire proposal to Iran through Pakistani intermediaries, covering sanctions relief, nuclear rollback, IAEA monitoring, missile limits and reopening the Strait. On the same day, it ordered up to 4,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne to the region. Iran responded by mocking the proposal — its military spokesman said the United States was “negotiating with itself” — and posted five counter-conditions designed to be unacceptable, including Iranian sovereignty over the Strait and war reparations. Trump extended his deadline for strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure by ten days. Then he extended it again.

Phase Four: Declare Victory, Keep Fighting

On April 8, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that the White House framed as a vindication. “Peace Through Strength: Operation Epic Fury Crushes Iranian Threat,” read the official press release. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted the war had always been “a four-to-six-week military operation to dismantle the military threat posed by the radical Islamic Iranian regime.” The administration informed Congress that hostilities had ended, a move that conveniently kept the operation under the 60-day War Powers Act threshold.

The fighting did not actually stop. U.S. and Iranian forces continued exchanging fire around the Strait of Hormuz. Iran kept hitting commercial shipping. The Pentagon kept describing the conflict as ongoing under the Epic Fury name even as Rubio publicly declared on May 5 that the operation was “over.”

NBC News reported that the Pentagon was considering re-naming the conflict “Operation Sledgehammer” if the ceasefire collapsed entirely, a tacit admission that one war ended on paper and another may already be underway.

Phase Five: A Transactional Endgame

The deal Trump described Saturday as “largely negotiated” is, in substance, a sliver of what the war was launched to accomplish. The 12,000-mile missile threat that Trump warned could “soon reach the American homeland” goes unaddressed. Iran’s regional proxies, which Hegseth had vowed to defang, are not on the table. The Iranian government — which Trump told its citizens they had a generational chance to overthrow — is not only intact but party to the deal, with Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the man killed in the opening strike, having reportedly signed off on the “broad template.”

What remains is two items. Iran agrees in principle to dispose of its highly enriched uranium, with the method to be worked out. The Strait of Hormuz reopens without tolls. Everything else — sanctions, missiles, proxies, future enrichment — is pushed into a second round of talks scheduled for sometime in the next 30 to 60 days.

A senior administration official summarized the U.S. position to reporters this weekend with a three-word doctrine: “No dust, no dollars.” The phrase fits comfortably onto a press release. It would not have fit the war Trump announced in February.

The Political Math

The contraction tracks Trump’s domestic situation. His approval rating has fallen to 37 percent, the lowest of his two terms combined, in the most recent New York Times/Siena poll. Gas prices stand at $4.56 a gallon, a four-year high. Nearly 80 percent of voters blame his administration for the price spike, according to a Fox News poll. Republicans in Congress moved this past week toward a resolution forcing him to end the war without further authorization and stripped $1 billion in security spending from his reconciliation package.

Iran has its own pressures. Its missile salvos had fallen by 70 to 85 percent within days of the opening strikes, according to the Hudson Institute. The Strait blockade has redirected more than 100 commercial ships and choked off the economic recovery Tehran needs to consolidate the new leadership. A senior administration official told reporters this weekend that most people in the Iranian system “don’t love the deal, but they also don’t like the idea of going back to war.”

Both sides, in other words, have arrived at the same place by different routes — needing an exit more than they need a victory.

What’s Left

The war was launched on the premise that Iran was an imminent nuclear threat to the United States, that its missiles could soon reach American territory, and that its regime was a destabilizing force that needed to be replaced. The deal now under negotiation accepts the regime, defers the missile question, leaves the proxies in place, and addresses the nuclear issue through a process that, as Rubio acknowledged, must still figure out “what happens to this material that’s very deep somewhere.”

The administration has framed the trajectory as success — a war fought, objectives met, peace through strength. Critics, including some Republicans, see something closer to a retreat dressed up in a press release. The deal, if it holds, will end a three-month war that killed thousands and displaced millions across Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Gulf. It will not deliver most of what Trump said the war was for.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

UTJ MK Meir Porush will soon submit a bill aimed at protecting the religious rights of bnei yeshivos detained for “draft dodging.”

Apart from the fact that bnei yeshivos are arrested and thrown into prison solely due to their religious beliefs and their adherence to the directives of Gedolei Yisrael, there have been multiple reports of Chareidi detainees being denied basic religious rights after arrest and in prison, including being transported in police cars on Shabbos, being prevented from davening with a minyan or donning tefillin, and not being provided with Mehadrin food. In addition, the prison conditions themselves are a challenge for ruchniyus.

Porush’s bill will require the IDF to establish a dedicated wing in military prison for Chareidim, modeled after religious wings in Israeli civilian prisons that offer full accommodations for a religious lifestyle.

The bill will also establish regulations guaranteeing the religious rights of Chareidi detainees in military prison, including Mehadrin food, designated times for tefillos with a minyan, access to tefillin and other religious items, consultation with Rabbanim upon request, and exemptions from activities at times or days (Shabbos and Yom Tov) prohibited by their religious beliefs.

In addition, if a detainee’s religious rights are violated, the military court would be authorized to reduce the prison sentence at its discretion. The proposal would also establish enforcement and oversight mechanisms on the issue.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A group of leftist New York State lawmakers on Friday reintroduced a bill that would strip nonprofit status from organizations that engage in “unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity,” reviving a failed legislative effort first launched in 2023 by then-Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who now serves as mayor of New York City.

The measure, known as the “Not On Our Dime! Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act,” was unveiled at a press conference in Long Island City. Assembly Member Diana Moreno, who succeeded Mamdani in the State Assembly and is one of nine Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed members of the state legislature, is carrying the bill in the Assembly. State Senator Jabari Brisport is sponsoring the legislation in the State Senate.

If passed, the bill would align New York state law with the Geneva Convention and the International Criminal Court, which define Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory as illegal. The legislation considers East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as occupied territory.

The bill would empower the New York attorney general to dissolve the nonprofit status of organizations that knowingly fund settlement activity and to impose fines of no less than one million dollars. It would also explicitly allow Palestinians who have been harmed by violence funded by New York-based charities to file lawsuits against them.

Co-sponsors in the State Senate include Kristen Gonzalez, Julia Salazar and Robert Jackson. In the State Assembly, the bill is co-sponsored by Claire Valdez, Emily Gallagher, Marcela Mitaynes, Phara Souffrant Forrest, Sarahana Shrestha, Jessica González-Rojas, Steven Raga, and Yonkers representative Nader Sayegh.

“We have a moral responsibility to defend human rights and push back against displacement and violence,” Senator Gonzalez said. “Our tax dollars should not support violations of international law in the West Bank or anywhere, and we can make that possible by passing the Not On Our Dime Act.”

The bill was introduced over Shavuos, and there was therefore no immediate response from major Jewish organizations.

Jewish groups had opposed the original 2023 version of the bill, arguing that its broad definition of settlement activity would have stripped nonprofit status from a wide range of mainstream Jewish charities, including volunteer ambulances and other organizations that operate in settlements but do not advance settlement activity, as well as social service groups operating across the Green Line that do not support settlement expansion. The original bill was swiftly rebuked by colleagues in the State Assembly and never came to a vote.

Mamdani’s 2023 measure proposed amending the state’s nonprofit law to “prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity,” and Mamdani said at the time that it would stop the flow of roughly $60 million annually from New York-based nonprofits to settlement-linked entities. The 2023 bill said nonprofits that spent at least one million dollars in violation could be sued, fined by the state attorney general, and lose their tax-exempt status.

Mamdani, who took office as mayor in January, declined to reject the prospect of enacting similar legislation at the city level during the 2025 mayoral race. “Charities and nonprofits that receive a taxpayer subsidy should not support the violation of international law, and that’s what the right-wing Israeli settlement project is doing,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, calling it “an effort that goes against the stated foreign policy of our own government, going back several decades.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A 36-year-old man was sentenced Friday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a months-long campaign of antisemitic threats targeting Jewish residents near a shul in north London, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Tavius Jean Charles, of Hackney, east London, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after admitting to eight offenses against six victims, including religiously aggravated threatening behavior and religiously aggravated criminal damage committed between October 2025 and March 2026. The total sentence includes a two-and-a-half-year term for two drug-related offenses from 2024, possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and possession of cannabis.

Jean Charles was arrested on March 24 following reports of a man shouting antisemitic abuse and throwing a rock at the window of a moving car. The court heard that his conduct escalated over a period of months in the streets surrounding the Belz Shul in Stamford Hill, the heart of London’s largest Orthodox Jewish community.

On March 16 at 1:45 p.m., while outside the Belz Shul, Jean Charles shouted “Oi, I’m gonna kill you, not just you, all of you [expletive] Jews” at the shul’s manager, Baruch Bard, and his son.

About thirty minutes later, Yoel Scher was driving along Heathland Road when Jean Charles shouted “I will kill you Jews” at his passing car. Jean Charles then threw a stone, smashing the Toyota Estima’s passenger window and causing £205 worth of damage.

Prosecutor Sam Lyon said Jean Charles was overheard by George Stamatakis on Dunsmere Road in Stamford Hill on March 24 saying on his phone, “It would be good if we blew up one of their schools.” The court was told Stamatakis believed Jean Charles was referring to a Jewish school, and that Jean Charles then asked him, “Are you Jewish?” Jean Charles was arrested later that day.

The earliest of the documented incidents took place months before his arrest. On November 24, 2025, Bard’s nephew, Dovid, was standing by his car outside the Belz Shul when Jean Charles, who lived near the shul, demanded to know his personal details, including his address. When Bard refused, Jean Charles told him, “What do you mean you’re not obliged. Do you want to lose your life? Do you want to lose your life? No. Then leave now.”

Sentencing Jean Charles, who appeared from prison via video link, Judge Dafna Spiro described his conduct as a “sustained and deliberate campaign of antisemitic behaviour carried out over a number of months.”

In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a restraining order barring Jean Charles from entering Stamford Hill and from contacting his victims.

Varinder Hayre, district crown prosecutor and hate crime lead for the CPS London North area, said in a statement that the case had been built on overwhelming evidence. “After presenting this overwhelming evidence to Jean Charles in court, he felt he had no choice but to change his pleas to guilty less than 30 days after he had first claimed he was innocent,” Hayre said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

In an extraordinary international rescue mission spanning thousands of miles and multiple countries, Hatzolah Air successfully airlifted a critically injured Israeli Soldier from Panama to Israel following a devastating motor vehicle accident involving several young Israelis traveling after their army service.

As YWN had previously reported, the horrific crash, which occurred last week in Panama, left one young Israeli dead, several others injured, and one victim fighting for his life on a ventilator in critical condition.

As the patient’s condition rapidly deteriorated in Panama, urgent appeals were made for an immediate transfer to Israel for advanced medical treatment. Hatzolah Air was contacted by Panama Hatzolah and additional officials to coordinate the highly complex emergency evacuation.

Given the enormous logistical and medical challenges involved, Hatzolah Air deployed two separate specialized critical-care flight teams — each consisting of a physician, respiratory therapist, and paramedic — to carry out the mission.

The first aircraft flew to Panama, where the crew coordinated closely with local Hatzolah volunteers and medical personnel before transporting the patient Friday night to Islip Airport in New York.

In a dramatic wing-to-wing transfer on the tarmac, a second medical team boarded the patient onto a Hatzolah Air Gulfstream G550 specially equipped for long-range intensive airborne care and immediately departed for Israel.

The life-saving mission required extraordinary international coordination and special governmental approvals. Critical assistance was provided by the office of Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev, the office of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, IMA, The Falic Family, FIDF, the FAA and others.

The aircraft landed at Ben Gurion Airport Sunday evening, where the patient was rushed directly to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer for additional emergency life-saving surgeries.

The victim remains hospitalized in serious condition as tefillos continue worldwide for his recovery.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

In an extraordinary international rescue mission spanning thousands of miles and multiple countries, Hatzolah Air successfully airlifted a critically injured Israeli Soldier from Panama to Israel following a devastating motor vehicle accident involving several young Israelis traveling after their army service.

As YWN had previously reported, the horrific crash, which occurred last week in Panama, left one young Israeli dead, several others injured, and one victim fighting for his life on a ventilator in critical condition.

As the patient’s condition rapidly deteriorated in Panama, urgent appeals were made for an immediate transfer to Israel for advanced medical treatment. Hatzolah Air was contacted by Panama Hatzolah and additional officials to coordinate the highly complex emergency evacuation.

Given the enormous logistical and medical challenges involved, Hatzolah Air deployed two separate specialized critical-care flight teams — each consisting of a physician, respiratory therapist, and paramedic — to carry out the mission.

The first aircraft flew to Panama, where the crew coordinated closely with local Hatzolah volunteers and medical personnel before transporting the patient to Islip Airport in New York.

In a dramatic wing-to-wing transfer on the tarmac, a second medical team boarded the patient onto a Hatzolah Air Gulfstream G550 specially equipped for long-range intensive airborne care and immediately departed for Israel.

The life-saving mission required extraordinary international coordination and special governmental approvals. Critical assistance was provided by the office of Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev, the office of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, IMA, The Falic Family, FIDF, the FAA and others.

The aircraft landed at Ben Gurion Airport Sunday evening, where the patient was rushed directly to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer for additional emergency life-saving surgeries.

The victim remains hospitalized in serious condition as tefillos continue worldwide for his recovery.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told leaders of several Arab and Muslim nations that he expects them to normalize relations with Israel if a deal is reached to end the war with Iran.

According to a report by Axios, Trump held a high-level phone call Saturday with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain to discuss the emerging agreement with Tehran.

One U.S. official quoted in the report said the Arab and Muslim leaders told Trump during the call: “We are with you on this deal.”

Another official familiar with the conversation said Trump informed the leaders that he planned to speak next with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed hope that Netanyahu would eventually join a future group conversation with the Muslim and Arab leaders.

Trump then reportedly urged countries that have not yet joined the Abraham Accords to formally normalize relations with Israel.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan currently do not maintain formal diplomatic ties with Israel.

According to Axios, the moment became awkwardly quiet after Trump raised the normalization issue.

“There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there,” one official reportedly said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Fourth of July show on the National Mall this year is being engineered for the record books. Producers plan to send up more than 860,000 fireworks shells in roughly 40 minutes, an attempt to claim the Guinness world record for the largest pyrotechnic display in history.

The shell count, confirmed by Pyrotecnico, the Pennsylvania firm running the show, is on a scale Washington has never attempted. National Park Service shows in recent years have typically launched 17,000 to 20,000 shells over 17 to 20 minutes at a cost of around $270,000. The 2026 display would be more than 40 times larger.

It would also surpass the current Guinness benchmark — about 809,000 shells fired off at a New Year’s Eve celebration in Manila in 2016, a display that lasted just over an hour and unfolded in a driving rainstorm.

The Mall fireworks are the climactic event of Freedom 250, a public-private partnership the White House launched in December to organize the country’s semiquincentennial. The Trump-backed group, separate from the bipartisan congressional commission America 250, has anchored a year of programming on the Mall that began with a New Year’s Eve light projection on the Washington Monument and a “Rededicate 250” faith gathering on May 17. A 16-day “Great American State Fair” featuring pavilions for all 50 states and six U.S. territories is scheduled to run from June 25 to July 10 leading into the main event.

Freedom 250 chief executive Keith Krach has billed the July 4 lineup as a “who’s who” of American entertainment, though performers have not been announced. A spokesperson for the group said planning is ongoing and a final cost for the fireworks display has not been determined. Pyrotecnico did not respond to a request for the cost.

The logistics are unusual on their own. More than 50 trucks will haul the shells into the District. A crew of about 60 will run the show from multiple firing positions, including the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, West Potomac Park and eight barges anchored on the Potomac River. The geographic spread is designed to give spectators across the Mall sightlines onto something larger than any single launch site could handle.

Weather will be a wildcard. Air-quality concerns have shadowed past Mall fireworks shows, and the most cautionary example is recent. In 2019, a low-level inversion trapped fireworks smoke close to the ground over Washington and a calm night kept it from dispersing. Spectators reported burning eyes and coughing, and views of the finale were largely obscured. The bigger the show, the more smoke it produces, and a single bad-weather night could swallow a record-setting display in a haze of its own making.

For now, organizers are leaning into the spectacle. Pyrotecnico called the planned show “not only a once-in-a-generation patriotic spectacle but a landmark moment in fireworks history.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Congressional Republicans staged their most sustained revolt yet against President Trump last week, stripping $1 billion in security funding from a reconciliation package, moving toward a resolution to force an end to the Iran war, and abruptly shelving a vote on $72 billion in new immigration enforcement money.

The break came as a New York Times/Siena College poll put Trump’s approval rating at 37 percent, the lowest of his two terms combined. Gas prices hovering near $4.50 a gallon nationally have kept the cost of the Iran war in front of voters.

The funding Republicans stripped included $220 million earmarked for Trump’s new East Wing ballroom. Lawmakers also signaled growing support for a measure that would require the administration to end military operations against Iran without congressional authorization.The flashpoint, according to lawmakers and former administration officials, was the president’s $1.8 billion proposal to compensate allies who say they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department — a fund critics have labeled a “slush fund” because some potential recipients were prosecuted for crimes connected to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

“Republicans have realized they are being scammed and this is the week where they said enough,” a former Trump administration official told MS NOW. “I can’t imagine any Republican ever allowing money to be paid to anyone who harmed law enforcement.”

Lawmakers also cited what they described as erratic governance. One House Republican, speaking anonymously, criticized the president’s “flip-flopping” on Iran negotiations from one Truth Social post to the next and his treatment of Taiwan as a “bargaining chip.”

“He’s pushing it too far,” the lawmaker said. “The list goes on and on.”

A second House Republican said colleagues “feel more confident in criticizing him because the poll numbers aren’t as high as they were,” and added that the party’s “Memorial Day wish” would be to exit the Iran war entirely.

Republicans are increasingly grim about their electoral prospects. “A freaking disaster is coming,” one House Republican told MS NOW. A former Trump administration official put it more bluntly: “If the election were held today, we’d lose the Senate and the House.”

A source close to the White House described the shift as a basic recalculation of political risk. “In many ways I don’t think they fear the president anymore,” the source told MS NOW. “Many have realized you can outlive Trump, politically speaking.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The IDF announced that it had killed a Hamas sniper who took part in the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel and who had been actively plotting fresh attacks on troops in Gaza.

Louay Hisham Mahmoud Basal, a sniper attached to Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion in Gaza City, was killed in a strike Friday, the military said. Intelligence reviewed by the IDF placed him among the gunmen who breached the Zikim military base on the northern Gaza coast during the opening hours of the October 7 onslaught, when thousands of Hamas operatives stormed across the border into southern Israel.

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The Zeitoun Battalion, which Basal served in, has been a repeated target of Israeli strikes. Its deputy commander, Musa Shaldan, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September. Shaldan had also taken part in the October 7 attack and had led hostage release ceremonies in Gaza City earlier in 2025.

The Zikim base, near the kibbutz of the same name on the Mediterranean coast, was one of several Israeli military installations overrun in the early hours of the Hamas attack, which killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza.

The IDF has continued to target Hamas operatives it links to the October 7 attacks and to ongoing operations against Israeli forces in the strip. Israeli ground troops remain active across Gaza, with the army saying its operations are being guided by the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Vice President JD Vance has been left as the lone non-interventionist voice in President Trump’s cabinet following the resignation of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and is privately weighing whether to abandon a 2028 presidential run, multiple sources told the Daily Mail.

Gabbard announced Friday that she would step down effective June 30, citing her husband Abraham Williams’s diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer. But West Wing officials told the Daily Mail her departure was inseparable from a deeper rupture inside the administration over the Iran war.

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, had clashed with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and was frequently absent from Oval Office deliberations on military action in Iran and Venezuela. She was the fourth woman to leave Trump’s cabinet this term, following the firings of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi and the resignation of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Principal Deputy Aaron Lukas will serve as acting director.

Her exit leaves Vance without his most senior internal ally against the war. “Vance is a non-event in the West Wing,” a source close to the president told the Daily Mail.

The vice president privately urged Trump in February to authorize a limited, punitive strike on Iran rather than the full-scale operation that followed, warning that a wider war risked regional chaos and heavy casualties, according to The New York Times. Trump has since acknowledged the rift, saying his vice president was “maybe less enthusiastic” at the outset and “philosophically a little bit different” on the strike decision.

As Vance’s standing has slipped, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s has risen. Rubio is now helping to plan a U.S. invasion of Cuba while the vice president flounders in stalled peace talks with Tehran.

“Rubio has more mojo than Vance. The president listens to him,” a White House insider told the Daily Mail. “Vance is out of step and has been for a long time.”

Another source described the philosophical gulf between MTrump and his vice president in starker terms. “The president has made it very clear in recent months that he doesn’t abide by this strong, silent Gary Cooper style approach to foreign policy. He’s loud, he’s active. These guys prefer to speak softly and carry a big stick, but Trump speaks loudly and carries a massive cannon.”

Sources said Vance, 41, is now considering whether to sit out 2028 entirely rather than carry the political weight of the Iran war into a primary. Allies have floated alternative timelines that would let him re-emerge in 2032 or 2036.

A source close to the vice president pushed back hard on that strategy. “Anyone who wants to be a viable nominee for president has a very small window. And if you don’t go when that window is open, most likely it never opens up again.” A 2032 run would also pit Vance against a sitting incumbent — a contest only Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump have lost in the past half-century.

“Age-wise he’d be young enough,” the source said. “But momentum-wise, there’d be a shinier penny on the street.”

The White House insider cautioned that Rubio’s ascendance could prove short-lived. By championing an unpopular war, the secretary of state risks burning through political capital with both the MAGA base and the broader public, leaving open the possibility that the cabinet’s center of gravity could shift again before 2028.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A Palestinian man from Gaza who lost his wife, children, a parent and several nieces and nephews in the war has filed a submission to the International Criminal Court demanding that 14 named Hamas leaders be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian civilian population. The filing, made in December and only recently disclosed, is the first such case brought against the terror group by a Palestinian.

The 40-page submission, prepared by American attorneys Elliot Malin and Eli Rosenbaum and French attorney Sarah Scialom, lists Hamas figures including political bureau chairman Khaled Mashaal, Mahmoud al-Zahar, Khalil al-Hayya, Mousa Abu Marzook, Ghazi Hamad, Izzat al-Rishq, Fathi Hamad, Husam Badran, Basem Naim, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Mohammed Odeh, Muhannad Rajab, Nizar Awadallah and Zaher Jabarin. Rosenbaum is a former senior war crimes prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice.

The submission catalogues what the attorneys describe as a pattern of crimes by Hamas against Palestinians in Gaza, including the use of civilians as human shields, attacks on civilians and civilian objects, the destruction and appropriation of property, the conscription of children, and sentencing or execution without due process. The filing argues that Hamas’s use of human shields was “principally responsible for the high death toll and extensive destruction experienced in Gaza.”

“The atrocity crimes perpetrated by Hamas against [redacted] family members, and against substantially all of the Palestinian civilian inhabitants of Gaza, constitute grave breaches of international criminal law,” the filing states. “Yet to this day, there has never been a disclosed OTP investigation or request for issuance of warrants for any of the Hamas leaders … complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity that they committed against the civilian Gazan population.”

The court’s Office of the Prosecutor has not responded to the filing.

“We don’t stop seeking justice because the court does not want to respond,” Malin told JNS. “We will continue kicking on the door until they deliver justice for the victims.”

Scialom, in remarks reported earlier, framed the inaction in starker terms. “OTP’s continuing failure to pursue justice on behalf of Hamas’s deceased and displaced Palestinian victims in Gaza helps incentivize the repeated commission of such crimes as an effective geopolitical strategy,” she said.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on November 21, 2024, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity tied to the Gaza war. Both men deny the charges and have accused ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan of bias and conflicts of interest.

The court had also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s armed wing, over the October 7, 2023, attacks, but rescinded it after Israel killed him. Warrant requests for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, both later killed by Israel, were withdrawn.

Khan himself has been on a leave of absence since last year amid allegations of misconduct involving a subordinate. The Office of the Prosecutor is being run by his deputies in his absence.

To date, the court has not charged a single Hamas leader with crimes committed against Palestinian civilians — a fact the lawyers behind the December filing argue undermines the ICC’s claim to impartial international justice.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Shas MK Yaakov Margi announced that he will not stand in Israel’s upcoming elections and will leave the Knesset at the end of the current term, ending a 23-year parliamentary career and marking the second resignation from the Sephardic Chareidi party’s slate in a single week.

According to Hebrew media reports citing Margi’s statement, the longtime lawmaker recently informed Shas chairman Aryeh Deri that he did not want a place on the party’s next Knesset list. Deri asked him to hold off, the statement said, but Margi made the announcement public anyway.

He did not provide a reason for the decision. Margi made a point of emphasizing that he is not leaving the Shas movement, calling the party “my home” and pledging to take on whatever role the leadership assigns him.

The announcement comes one week after Shas MK and former interior minister Moshe Arbel submitted his formal resignation to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. Arbel cited personal reasons in his resignation letter, telling associates he wanted to spend time with his family, learn Torah and complete a doctorate at Reichman University. He also issued a public plea against political division and “gratuitous hatred,” language Israeli commentators read as a parting message to the broader political class.

Margi, 64, was born in Rabat, Morocco, and brought to Israel as an infant during Operation Yachin in 1962. He served as chairman of the religious council in Be’er Sheva from 1993 to 2003 and as director-general of Shas beginning in 2001, before winning a Knesset seat in the 2003 election. He has been re-elected continuously since.

He served as minister of religious services from 2009 to 2013 under Prime Minister Netanyahu and was appointed welfare minister in 2022. He held that portfolio until last summer, when Shas pulled its ministers from the government in protest over the failure to pass a draft exemption law for bnei yeshiva. The party further escalated its rupture with the coalition in October 2025, resigning from all Knesset chairmanships at the direction of the Moetzes Chachmei Hatorah, though it has continued to support the government in critical votes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Americans are firing up their grills this Memorial Day weekend under the weight of mounting financial strain, with new polling showing a broad cross-section of voters changing how they shop, blaming President Trump for higher costs, and souring on the economy at rates not seen in years.

A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents told CNN pollsters they had altered their grocery store purchases in recent months to stay within budget. 59 percent of Americans said they had cut back on extras and entertainment.
More than three-quarters of Americans, including 55 percent of Republicans, said Trump’s policies had driven up the cost of living in their communities.

The discontent is bipartisan and deepening. Nearly half of voters rated the economy “poor” in the latest New York Times/Siena College survey, an 11-point jump since January. Gallup reported this week that economic confidence has sunk to a four-year low.

Gas prices have climbed alongside grocery bills. The national average for a gallon of regular hit $4.56 ahead of Memorial Day, according to AAA, the highest level for the holiday in four years and $1.38 above where it stood a year ago. The auto club tied the surge to the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has kept crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel.

Nearly 80 percent of voters — a majority of Republicans among them — said the Trump administration bears responsibility for the price spike, according to a Fox News poll released this month. Large majorities also faulted oil companies, the war in Iran and government regulations.

The Fox survey found 57 percent of voters saying Mr. Trump’s policies have hurt the country, up from 51 percent who said the same a year earlier.

The shift in consumer behavior has been swift. Shoppers across party lines described trading down to cheaper brands, skipping nonessentials and pulling back on dining out and weekend outings — the kind of belt-tightening that economists watch as a leading signal of softening demand.

For the White House, the polling lands at an inopportune moment. Memorial Day traditionally opens the summer travel season, and the combination of record holiday traffic and four-year-high pump prices has put the cost of living squarely in front of voters as the midterm election cycle gets underway.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

American negotiators believe Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has approved the basic framework of a peace agreement that would end three months of war by reopening the Strait of Hormuz and committing Iran “in principle” to dispose of its highly enriched uranium, a senior Trump administration official said.

Final ratification by Iranian negotiators could still take days, the official cautioned, with both sides still working through the precise wording.

“They will open up the strait in exchange for us lifting the blockade, and they will agree in principle to dispose of the highly enriched uranium, but then there’s a question about how precisely to do that,” the official said. “We feel quite confident that the supreme leader has signed off on the broad template.”

President Trump announced Saturday that an agreement had been “largely negotiated” and said he had spoken with the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain in the run-up to the deal. The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has now redirected more than 100 commercial ships entering or leaving Iranian ports.

Under the emerging framework, the strait would reopen without new tolls, the U.S. blockade would be lifted, and major issues — including the disposition of roughly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium and an enforcement mechanism to bar future enrichment — would remain subject to further negotiation. Sanctions relief would be tied to verifiable progress on offloading the nuclear material. Iran would receive no interim unfreezing of assets before a final deal is signed, the official said.

Trump has floated two possible paths for the uranium stockpile: outright destruction, or shipping it out of the country with technical assistance from China, which could help excavate the material from buried facilities.

“A lot of this debate is not really what happens to the stockpiled material, but it’s how the Iranians can sell it to their own hardliners and to their own population in a way that gets us what we need as well,” the senior administration official said. “The Iranian side has national pride considerations.”

The official summarized the U.S. position on sanctions as “no dust, no dollars.”

“In other words, no highly enriched uranium, then the Iranians aren’t going to get any real relief,” the official said. “If the Iranians make significant accommodations on the enrichment question, then we will make significant accommodations on sanctions relief, and that’s always been the fundamental question.”

The Iranian foreign ministry has described the document as a “framework agreement” or memorandum of understanding that would be followed by detailed talks within 30 to 60 days. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the deal would address the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and other “essential” issues, with final terms negotiated over a “reasonable time span.”

But Iranian officials have publicly contested key elements of the American account. Iran’s Fars news agency, citing exchanged text, reported that the strait would remain under Iranian management and dismissed Trump’s announcement as “incomplete and inconsistent with reality.” Reuters cited a senior Iranian source as saying Tehran has not agreed to surrender its highly enriched uranium stockpile and that the nuclear question is not part of the preliminary agreement.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a measured tone. “We are ready to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons. We are not seeking instability in the region,” he told reporters. But he added that Iran’s “negotiating team will not compromise when it counts to our country’s dignity and sovereignty.”

Doubts have also persisted inside Washington about the status of Mojtaba Khamenei himself, who assumed the position of supreme leader after Operation Epic Fury killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Administration officials have described receiving conflicting messages from different parts of the Iranian government, and said domestic and foreign actors with an interest in derailing the talks may be feeding the press misleading information.

“I would say, by and large, most people in the Iranian system don’t love the deal, but they also don’t like the idea of going back to war,” the senior administration official said, adding that the administration has concluded some dubious leaks have surfaced “because somebody is trying to kill this thing or is trying to derail our progress.”

Trump has faced pressure from Republican hawks who fear that Iran cannot be trusted to surrender its stockpile and that any agreement could embolden Tehran to weaponize control of the Strait of Hormuz in future disputes. Top Israeli officials have privately conveyed unease, according to reports.

“I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in New Delhi, reiterated the three U.S. red lines: no Iranian nuclear weapon, the Strait of Hormuz reopened without tolls, and Iran turning over its enriched uranium. “This problem will be solved, as the president’s made clear, one way or the other,” he said.

Administration officials cautioned that, even with the supreme leader’s apparent assent to the broad framework, “whether the broad template becomes an actual agreement is still an open question.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A major political crisis is brewing inside Israel’s coalition after Degel HaTorah reportedly informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that it does not intend to advance the controversial draft law before the next elections.

According to Hebrew media reports, the message delivered Sunday night marks a dramatic escalation in the ongoing dispute surrounding the military draft status of yeshiva bochurim — one of the most explosive issues facing the current government.

Sources close to Netanyahu reportedly reacted furiously, accusing Degel HaTorah of never truly wanting a draft law in the first place.

“From the beginning they didn’t want a draft law,” officials in Netanyahu’s circle reportedly charged, while also accusing the party of attempting to shift the blame onto the prime minister.

The standoff threatens to further destabilize the coalition at a time of mounting political and security tensions across Israel.

Political insiders believe the decision is heavily tied to the position of Hagaon HaRav Dov Landau, who reportedly refuses to approve the current version of the law — viewed by many in the chareidi world as overly harsh — without the full agreement of Hagaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Senior Israeli security officials are reportedly expressing deep concern over the emerging agreement between the United States and Iran, warning that the proposed deal may ultimately endanger Israel’s long-term security interests.

According to a report by Channel 12, Israeli officials believe the agreement — which could reportedly be signed within days — would give Iran critical time to recover economically and militarily following months of conflict and international pressure.

“As it seems, this does not serve Israel’s interest,” senior officials reportedly warned.

Israeli security officials are said to be particularly focused on whether Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium will actually be removed from the country, as repeatedly promised by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Officials also reportedly fear that once sanctions are eased and tensions cool, “it will be hard for the Americans and us to go back and fight.”

The report further states that Israeli officials are troubled by the apparent lack of provisions dealing with Iran’s ballistic missile program and Tehran’s vast regional terror proxy network, including Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups across the Middle East.

Israeli officials are also emphasizing that any final agreement must preserve the IDF’s operational freedom in Lebanon amid ongoing threats from Hezbollah.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An Iraqi national trained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps plotted to assassinate Ivanka Trump, the Jewish daughter of US President Donald Trump, in retaliation for the 2020 US killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, the New York Post reported Friday.

The suspect was identified as Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, a militia commander in Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah and an IRGC operative who is also accused of carrying out a string of recent attacks on Jewish targets in Europe and North America. Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey on May 15 and extradited to the United States, where he was charged by the US Justice Department with six counts of terrorism-related offenses tied to nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks across Europe and the US.

According to the Post, which cited sources familiar with the investigation, Al-Saadi made a formal “pledge” to kill Ivanka Trump and was found in possession of blueprints of her home in Florida. He had also posted on his X account a map of the area in Florida where Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, reside, accompanied by an Arabic-language message that translated to: “I say to the Americans look at this picture and know that neither your palaces nor the Secret Service will protect you.”

Entifadh Qanbar, a former deputy military attaché at the Iraqi embassy in Washington who now serves as president of the Future Foundation, told the Post that Al-Saadi spoke openly of avenging Soleimani after the general’s death. “After Qasem was killed, he went around telling people, ‘We need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house,'” Qanbar said. “We heard that he had a plan of Ivanka’s house in Florida.”

Soleimani, the longtime commander of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad’s international airport in January 2020, in an operation ordered by Trump during his first term. According to Qanbar, Al-Saadi was raised in Baghdad primarily by his Iraqi mother before being sent to Tehran for training with the IRGC, where he came to view Soleimani as a personal mentor. A federal criminal complaint includes a photograph from Al-Saadi’s Snapchat account showing him with Soleimani.

Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, is currently serving as one of the administration’s key negotiators in the ongoing diplomatic track between the United States and Iran, lending the alleged plot added geopolitical weight as Washington and Tehran continue to work toward an end to the Israel-Iran war.

The Justice Department said court filings show Al-Saadi was involved in bombings, stabbings, arson, and plots against shuls and US-linked facilities. Among the attacks attributed to him are the firebombing of a Bank of New York Mellon office in Amsterdam in March, a shooting at the US consulate building in Toronto in March, and the stabbing of two Jewish men in the Golders Green neighborhood of north London in April. He is also accused of involvement in the bombing of a shul in Liège, Belgium, and a series of arson attacks across the continent. Researcher and former hostage Elizabeth Tsurkov said Al-Saadi maintained close connections to Soleimani and later to his successor, Esmail Qaani.

Federal investigators allege that Al-Saadi used an Iraqi service passport and a travel agency as cover to move between countries and coordinate with terror cells, while frequently posting on social media in a manner that ultimately aided in his identification. He is being held in solitary confinement in federal custody in New York.

The alleged plot is the latest in a series of Iranian retaliatory schemes targeting senior US officials uncovered since Soleimani’s killing. Pakistani national Asif Raza Merchant was charged in September 2024 with seeking to hire a hitman to assassinate unidentified US politicians and testified in his trial that he was pressured by the IRGC.

The IRGC has been linked to multiple plots against former Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed Sunday that he held a conversation overnight with President Donald Trump regarding efforts to reopen the Straits of Hormuz and ongoing negotiations aimed at reaching a final agreement over Iran’s nuclear program.

In a statement released following the call, Netanyahu emphasized the close coordination between Jerusalem and Washington and praised Trump for his steadfast support of Israel throughout the recent conflict with Iran.

“I expressed my deep appreciation to President Trump for his unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” Netanyahu said, specifically referencing Operation Roaring Lion and Operation Epic Fury, during which “American and Israeli forces fought shoulder to shoulder against the Iranian threat.”

According to Netanyahu, both leaders agreed that any future agreement with Iran must fully eliminate Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.

“President Trump and I agreed that any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear danger,” Netanyahu stated. “That means dismantling Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites and removing its enriched nuclear material from its territory.”

Netanyahu also said Trump reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against threats “on every front, including Lebanon.”

The prime minister stressed that the alliance between Israel and the United States has emerged even stronger following the recent military operations.

“The partnership between us and our two countries has been proven on the battlefield and has never been stronger,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu concluded with a firm declaration echoing Trump’s longstanding position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“My policy, like President Trump’s, remains unchanged: Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a series of forceful warnings regarding Iran on Sunday, declaring that the United States will not allow Tehran to threaten international waterways or strengthen its nuclear ambitions.

Speaking about escalating tensions with Iran, Rubio accused the regime of threatening commercial vessels traveling through international waters, warning that allowing such actions to continue would create a dangerous global precedent.

“Iran is threatening to destroy commercial vessels using an international waterway,” Rubio said. “If we allowed that to become normal, we’d be normalizing an unacceptable status quo and setting a dangerous precedent that can be replicated in this region and around the world.”

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Rubio also emphasized that President Donald Trump still prefers a diplomatic solution to the ongoing standoff with Iran, though he made clear the administration is prepared to act if diplomacy fails.

“The President’s preference is to find a diplomatic way that these problems can be solved,” Rubio said. “He would much rather have the Department of State solve this problem than the Department of War solve it, but the problem will be solved one way or the other.”

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Addressing concerns about a potential nuclear agreement, Rubio firmly rejected suggestions that the Trump administration would accept any deal that leaves Iran in a stronger nuclear position.

“The idea that the President is going to agree to a deal that puts Iran in a stronger position on nuclear ambitions is absurd,” Rubio stated. “That’s just not going to happen.”

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Rubio also outlined what he described as the objectives achieved during the conflict with Iran, saying the campaign succeeded in severely weakening Tehran’s military capabilities.

“When this conflict began with Iran, the goals were outlined,” Rubio said. “Destroy their navy. Reduce their ability to launch ballistic missiles. Damage their defense industrial base. Those objectives were achieved.”

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The remarks come amid continuing regional tensions and ongoing negotiations surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, with fears growing over potential escalation in the Middle East and threats to critical international shipping lanes.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump sharply criticized the Obama-era Iran nuclear agreement while expressing optimism about ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran under his administration.

In a statement posted to social media, Trump called the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal “one of the worst deals ever made by our Country,” accusing former President Barack Obama and his administration of paving “a direct path to Iran developing a Nuclear Weapon.”

Trump contrasted the previous agreement with the current negotiations being conducted by his administration, insisting the talks are “the exact opposite” of the Obama deal.

“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner,” Trump wrote, adding that he has instructed U.S. representatives “not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side.”

Trump also stressed that the blockade and sanctions campaign against Iran would remain fully in effect until a final agreement is “reached, certified, and signed.”

“There can be no mistakes!” Trump declared.

The president said relations between Washington and Tehran are becoming “much more professional and productive,” but reiterated that Iran “cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb.”

Trump also thanked Middle Eastern countries for their “support and cooperation,” while suggesting that regional ties could deepen further through expansion of the Abraham Accords.

“Who knows, perhaps the Islamic Republic of Iran would like to join, as well!” Trump wrote.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Spanish police arrested four Global Sumud Flotilla activists at Bilbao Airport on Saturday after violent clashes erupted following the return of members of the Spanish delegation from Turkey.

Videos circulating online from the airport in Bilbao, located in Spain’s Basque region, showed officers dragging activists across the terminal floor and striking several individuals with batons as chaos unfolded inside the airport.

The incident comes only days after the Spanish government sharply condemned Israel over its handling of activists detained aboard the Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces.

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Earlier this week, Spain summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released controversial footage showing detained flotilla activists kneeling handcuffed at Ashdod Port while he waved an Israeli flag and declared, “Welcome to Israel, we are the masters.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares blasted Israel’s conduct, describing the treatment of the activists as “monstrous,” “inhumane,” and “disgraceful.”

Following Saturday’s airport clashes, Israel’s Foreign Ministry fired back with a sarcastic statement targeting the Spanish government.

“We demand an explanation from the Spanish government regarding its treatment of the flotilla anarchists,” the ministry said, accusing the activists of bringing disorder and confrontation wherever they go.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of R’ Yisroel Chaim Pichey Z”L, who was niftar over Shavuos at the age of 91.

R’ Yisroel Chaim z”l, a son-in-law of Mike Tress zt”l, was a talmid of Telz Cleveland and a rebbi in the Yeshiva of Brooklyn for many years, before moving to Lakewood several years ago.

He is survived by his wife, Donya yb”l, and his children R’ Eli, R’ Shloimy, Rochel Levine, Hena Rivka Willner, Chaya Sara Lefkowitz, Leebah Kahn, Dusie Basch, and Shevy Eisgrau.

The levaya is scheduled to take place at the Sons of Israel Holocaust Memorial Chapel in Lakewood at 9:30 AM Sunday, with kevurah in the Wellwood cemetery on Long Island.

Baruch Dayan Ha’Emes.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed grave concerns about the impending deal between the US and Iran to end the war.

“I am deeply concerned about what we are hearing about an Iran ‘deal,’ being pushed by some voices in the administration,” Cruz wrote.

“President Trump’s decision to strike Iran was the most consequential decision of his second term. He was right to do so, and we achieved extraordinary military results—including destroying all of their missiles & drones and sinking their entire navy.

“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime—still run by Islamists who chant “death to America”—now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake.

“The details are still coming out—and I pray the early reports are wrong—but the fact that Biden’s Rob Malley is praising the deal is not encouraging.

“President Trump believes in peace through strength, and his strong leadership has already made America much safer. He should continue to hold the line, defend America & enforce the red lines he has repeatedly drawn.

Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state during Trump’s first term, also warned of the fallacy of the emerging deal.

“The deal being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook: Pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world,” he wrote.

“Not remotely America First. It’s straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region.”

“Overdue. Let’s go,” he concluded.

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized reports that the deal includes a 60-day ceasefire.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Wicker wrote on X. “Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday Russia used the powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile during a mass drone and missile attack on Kyiv on Sunday that killed at least two people, marking the third time the weapon has been used in the four-year war.

The intense aerial assault damaged buildings across the Ukrainian capital, including near government offices, residential buildings and schools.

The Oreshnik, which is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads, struck the city of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. The target was not immediately clear.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday confirmed it used the Oreshnik, as well as other missile types, to strike Ukrainian “military command and control facilities,” air bases and military industrial enterprises. It did not specify where the targets were.

The ministry added the attack was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on “civilian facilities on Russian territory”, without immediately giving detail.

Russia first used the multiple-warhead Oreshnik on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. It was used a second time in January in the western Lviv region.

The latest combined attack included 600 strike drones and 90 air, sea and ground-launched missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Ukrainian air defenses destroyed and jammed 549 drones and 55 missiles. Around 19 missiles failed to reach targets, the Air Force said.

Earlier, Zelenskyy warned that Russia was planning to use the Oreshnik, citing intelligence from the U.S. and Western partners.

President Vladimir Putin earlier said the Oreshnik, which means “hazelnut tree” in Russian, streaks at 10 times the speed of sound, or Mach 10, and is capable of destroying underground bunkers “three, four or more floors down.”

The weapon travels “like a meteorite” and is immune to any missile defense system, Putin said, adding that several such missiles, even fitted with conventional warheads, could be as devastating as a nuclear strike.

Air raid sirens blared through the night as smoke billowed across the city from strikes. Associated Press reporters heard powerful explosions near the city center and close to government buildings.

Damage was recorded in 40 locations across several districts of the capital, including residential buildings, Kyiv military administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a Telegram post.

“It was a terrible night, and there had never been anything like it in the entire war,” said Kyiv resident Svitlana Onofryichuk, 55, who had worked in the market that was damaged for 22 years.

“I am very sorry that I have to say goodbye to Kyiv now, I am not staying there anymore, there is no possibility,” she added. “My job is gone, everything is gone, everything has burned down.”

Yevhen Zosin, 74, a Kyiv resident who witnessed the attack, said the moment he heard the explosion he rushed to grab his dog.

“Then there was another explosion and she and I were thrown back like a pin by the shock wave. We both survived, she and I. My apartment was blown to pieces,” he said.

In Kyiv’s Shevchenko district, a five-story residential building was hit, which caused a fire, and one person was killed, Ukraine’s state emergency service reported.

A school building was damaged by an attack while people sheltered inside, Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said. Local authorities reported supermarkets and warehouses across the city also were damaged.

Multiple communities recorded damage throughout the Kyiv region, according to Mykola Kalashnyk, the regional governor.

Elsewhere, a Ukrainian drone killed a civilian in the Russian town of Grayvoron, in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, local authorities reported on Sunday morning.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down or jammed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday, including over the Moscow region, western and southwestern Russia, and Russian-occupied Crimea.

(AP)

Israel’s Channel 12 quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the emerging US-Iran deal sends a dangerous message to Iran.

According to the official, the deal demonstrates to Iran that using its control over the Strait of Hormuz can be as powerful as a nuclear weapon.

He added that President Trump views the deal as an economic arrangement that allows the opening of the Strait and is contingent on dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.

“But what comes after Phase A remains unclear,” the official warned.

US Senator Lindsey Graham conveyed a similar message in a warning he issued on Motzei Shabbos, saying that a deal ending the war due to the perception that Iran cannot be prevented from its reign of terror over the Strait of Hormuz and its Gulf neighbors will lead to “a major shift of the balance of power in the region and over time will be a nightmare for Israel.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

A senior Iranian official on Sunday morning denied that Tehran had agreed to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, saying that the nuclear issue is not part of the preliminary understandings currently under discussion with the United States, Reuters reported on Sunday.

“The nuclear issue will be addressed in negotiations for a final agreement and is therefore not part of the current deal,” the official said. “There has been no agreement over Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile to be shipped out of the country.”

“We did not agree to hand over highly enriched uranium,” the official said. “The nuclear issue is not part of the preliminary agreement.”

The Tasnim news agency, which is closely aligned with the Iranian regime, described reports that Iran had proposed suspending uranium enrichment for 10 years as “completely false.”

According to the report, “the current messages and discussions concern only ending the war. There are no discussions regarding nuclear details.”

Following the report on Sunday morning, a senior Israeli official issued a statement saying that U.S. President Donald Trump gave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu assurances that no final deal will be signed with Iran unless Tehran dismantles its nuclear program and cedes all of its enriched uranium.

The official added that the US is updating Israel on the negotiations toward a memorandum of understanding on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and further talks on the nuclear issue.

Tasnim also reported that Washington would commit to suspending sanctions on Iranian oil during the negotiation period, allowing Tehran to sell oil without restrictions during that time. If the preliminary understandings are approved by both sides, a memorandum of understanding would first be announced, declaring an end to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon.

Afterward, a 30-day period would be allocated for implementing measures related to the naval blockade and the Strait of Hormuz, while a separate 60-day negotiating period would be established for talks on the nuclear issue.

The denials follow a report by the New York Times that Iran committed to relinquishing its highly enriched uranium as part of the emerging deal with the US to end the war.

Meanwhile, an Iranian military spokesman said that Tehran would continue to maintain control over the Strait of Hormuz even if a deal is reached with Washington. According to Germany’s DPA news agency, the spokesman said the strategic waterway would remain “under full Iranian management and sovereignty.”

Iran’s Fars news agency reported Sunday that Tehran had agreed to increase the number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz back to pre-war levels, but stressed that this does not mean a return to the full “freedom of navigation” that existed before the conflict.

Fars added that Iran would continue managing the strait and issuing transit permits, while dismissing Trump’s public comments as “incomplete and not reflective of reality.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

New details about the memorandum of understanding taking shape between the United States and Iran were revealed on Sunday morning in US, Israeli, and Arab media reports.

According to reports, Tehran agreed to a memorandum of understanding aimed at halting fighting “on all fronts,” including in Lebanon, and reopening the Strait of Hormuz without fees.

In exchange, the US will release $25 billion in frozen Iranian funds, lift the naval blockade on Iranian ports, and withdraw its forces from areas near Iran. Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program — a major sticking point — would be postponed to a second phase lasting between 30 and 60 days.

Israel’s Channel 12 quoted a US official as acknowledging that the release of frozen funds would be a boon to Iran’s economy but would provide relief to the global oil market.

According to the report, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a tense phone call with President Donald Trump on Motzei Shabbos, during which he expressed concerns over several aspects of the emerging agreement, including the clause on Lebanon and the delay of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. However, he ultimately “agreed” to the deal.

The US official said the clause ending the war in Lebanon will not amount to a “unilateral ceasefire,” and Israel would retain the right to act immediately if Hezbollah attempts to rearm or launch attacks.

“If Hezbollah behaves, Israel will behave,” the official said, adding that “Bibi has his domestic considerations, but Trump has  the interests of the U.S. and the global economy to think about.”

Yisrael Hayom reported that a meeting of Israel’s inner security cabinet on Motzei Shabbos focused mainly on the Lebanon issue rather than Iran. The report quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Israeli officials understand that “Iran is Trump’s” and are therefore channeling their efforts on the challenges posed by Hezbollah.

The developments come amid intensive negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with senior Israeli security sources saying that Israel has been excluded from the talks and has had to rely on indirect diplomatic contacts and intelligence channels to gather information.

Netanyahu scheduled a security cabinet meeting on Sunday evening to discuss the latest developments regarding the deal.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Iran has reportedly agreed to relinquish its stockpile of highly enriched uranium as part of a potential agreement with the United States aimed at ending the war, according to two U.S. officials cited by The New York Times.

According to the report, Iran has not yet finalized exactly how the uranium will be handed over, but has agreed in principle to give it up. Specific details are expected to be negotiated once a broader agreement is reached.

The development marks a dramatic shift after recent reports indicated that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had directed that the near-weapons-grade uranium remain inside Iran and not be transferred abroad.

Iran is believed to possess more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium — enough for approximately 11 nuclear bombs if further enriched, according to Israeli officials.

Earlier this month, a senior Israeli military official warned that if the uranium stockpile remained intact, the war launched in February could ultimately be viewed as “one big failure.”

The reported concession comes amid ongoing high-stakes negotiations involving the United States, Iran, and regional mediators seeking to prevent renewed escalation in the Middle East.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A man armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service officers Saturday evening after he approached a security checkpoint outside the White House and opened fire, law enforcement officials said. A bystander was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire.

The shooting unfolded shortly after 6 p.m. at the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, just outside the White House complex near the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. President Donald Trump was in the Oval Office at the time and was not harmed, the Secret Service said.

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According to a Secret Service statement, the suspect walked up to the checkpoint, removed a weapon from a bag and began firing at officers posted there. Uniformed officers returned fire, striking the suspect, who was transported to an area hospital and later pronounced dead.

The suspect is reportedly 21-year-old Nasire Best.

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A bystander struck during the incident was also taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said. The Secret Service said it remains unclear whether the bystander was hit by the suspect’s initial gunfire or during the officers’ return fire. Law enforcement sources told Reuters that one Secret Service agent was struck in an area covered by protective gear and was not injured. None of the responding officers were hospitalized.

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Witnesses and reporters on the White House North Lawn described hearing between 15 and 30 shots in rapid succession. Secret Service personnel cleared the lawn and ordered journalists to sprint into the press briefing room, where they were told to shelter in place. Agents inside the complex were heard shouting “get down” and warning of shots fired. ABC News correspondent Selina Wang was filming a segment outside when the gunfire began and ducked for cover with her crew.

A senior law enforcement official told Reuters the shooter had been the subject of a prior stay-away order and was described as an emotionally disturbed person. Investigators recovered a pistol believed to belong to the suspect, along with a shotgun and several knives, according to an FBI official cited by Reuters.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on X that the bureau was on scene assisting the Secret Service. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said its agents were also responding and aiding the Metropolitan Police Department and Secret Service in the investigation. Pennsylvania Avenue between 17th and 19th streets was closed to traffic.

The White House lockdown was lifted shortly before 7 p.m., and reporters were permitted to return to the North Lawn. Yellow crime scene tape stretched across the sidewalk outside the complex, where officers placed dozens of orange evidence markers on the pavement. Medical supplies, including surgical gloves and emergency kits, were visible at the scene.

President Trump was briefed on the shooting, a White House official said. He had been working in the Oval Office with senior aides Steven Cheung, Natalie Harp and Margo Martin at the time of the gunfire. Hours earlier, Trump had announced from the Oval Office that a peace agreement had been “largely negotiated” between the United States, Iran and several Middle Eastern countries.

The incident comes roughly a month after Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were evacuated by Secret Service from the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner after shots were fired outside the ballroom. The Pennsylvania Avenue pedestrian plaza where Saturday’s shooting occurred had only recently reopened to the public following a monthslong closure.

The investigation remains ongoing.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been sidelined by US President Donald Trump in negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with Israel cut “almost entirely out of the loop” on the talks, two unnamed Israeli defense officials told The New York Times in a report published Saturday.

According to the officials, Israel has been forced to rely on roundabout channels to gather information about the discussions, including diplomatic contacts with regional leaders and intelligence collection inside Iran. The Israeli officials spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

The reported exclusion marks a sharp reversal from the early phase of the war against Iran, when Netanyahu coordinated closely with Trump. In the run-up to the start of the war earlier this year, Netanyahu led a discussion in the Situation Room in Washington, where he predicted that a joint US-Israeli campaign could topple the Iranian regime. That prediction did not materialize, and Trump’s posture toward Israeli involvement in subsequent diplomacy has shifted dramatically.

“The banishment from the cockpit to economy class has potentially significant consequences for Israel, and especially for the prime minister, who faces an uphill re-election battle this year,” the report noted.

In the negotiations, the United States has reportedly proposed suspending Iran’s nuclear activity for 20 years, a timeframe that could be shortened in later proposals. IIsraeli officials cited in the report expressed concern that with Israel excluded from the talks, Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal may have been left off the table. Officials fear a final deal could impose no meaningful restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear or missile programs and lift sanctions, potentially funneling billions of dollars back to Iran and renewing its financial support for Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Times report follows an Axios account earlier in the week describing tensions between the two leaders. Axios reported that Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after a Tuesday phone call with Trump on the Iran talks. According to Axios, Trump called Netanyahu to discuss a “letter of intent” being drafted by mediators to end the war and launch a month-long negotiation period. The negotiations would cover Iran’s nuclear program and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet reported, citing two Israeli sources who described clear disagreement between Trump and Netanyahu over the path forward.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump dismissed the notion of a rift, saying Netanyahu would “do whatever I want him to do.” In comments to Axios on Saturday, Trump said “some people would much rather have a deal and others would rather resume the war,” and described Netanyahu as “torn” while rejecting the suggestion that the prime minister was worried Trump might accept a bad agreement.

Other accounts of the relationship paint a more cordial picture. The Times of Israel cited reporting describing “close coordination between Netanyahu and Trump, with no daylight between them,” a characterization at odds with the Times account of Israel’s exclusion from the negotiating loop.

According to Israel’s Yediot Acharonot, Israeli authorities must pressure third-party diplomats or regional figures merely to glean minimal insight into the nature of the U.S.-Iran dialogue. Trump is said to have stopped calling Netanyahu altogether to coordinate next steps, a stark departure from their earlier pattern of joint strategic planning.

Netanyahu’s stated war objectives since the conflict began on February 28 have been threefold: dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, eliminating its missile infrastructure, and toppling the Iranian regime. None of those goals have been achieved. The Times reported that many of Trump’s closest advisers had considered regime change in Iran unrealistic from the outset, marking the first major policy divergence between Washington and Jerusalem.

Days after the ceasefire with Iran was signed, Israel also agreed to halt its ongoing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon early and accept unusual restrictions, according to the Ynet account of the Times reporting.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned Friday, citing her husband’s diagnosis with an “extremely rare form of bone cancer” and saying she needed to step away from public service to support him through treatment. Her resignation takes effect June 30.

Gabbard notified President Donald Trump of her decision during a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday and later posted her resignation letter to X. “I am deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half,” she wrote, adding that her husband, Abraham, “faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months.”

Trump confirmed the resignation in a Truth Social post, praising Gabbard for having done an “incredible job” and saying the administration would “miss her.” He announced that Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will serve as acting director following her departure.

Gabbard becomes the fourth person to leave Trump’s Cabinet during his second term. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi were both fired from their posts, while Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned as labor secretary amid a misconduct investigation.

Her exit follows months of reported friction with the White House over the administration’s military posture toward Iran. CNN reported in June 2025, days before the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities, that multiple people inside the West Wing had grown disillusioned with Gabbard’s performance, with Trump seeing her as “off message” regarding the Israel-Iran conflict.

Trump’s annoyance reportedly peaked after Gabbard posted a video warning that the world was “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before” and blaming “political elite and warmongers” for stoking tensions between nuclear powers.

During pivotal moments as Trump deliberated military action or watched live video feeds of operations in Iran or Venezuela, Gabbard was often not in the room, underscoring her outsider status within the national security team. Her tenure was marked by reports of behind-the-scenes clashes with Trump and other administration officials that sometimes spilled into public view.

Reuters reported Friday that the White House had pressured Gabbard to step down, citing a source familiar with the matter. The administration pushed back forcefully on that account. “As the President said, she is stepping aside to ensure that her husband becomes better than ever before,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle wrote on X. “Any suggestion that the White House forced her to resign over her husband’s health is slanderous.”

Gabbard’s departure also follows the March resignation of Joe Kent, the Trump administration’s top counterterrorism official, who reported directly to her at ODNI and announced he could not “in good conscience” support the Iran war. In his resignation letter, Kent said Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the U.S. and argued the administration had been pulled into war by Israel. Gabbard publicly defended Trump’s decision following Kent’s exit, saying the president had concluded the Iranian regime posed an imminent threat.

Her office has also been locked in a behind-the-scenes feud with the CIA for months that became public last week during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, when a member of Gabbard’s Directors Initiative Group testified about internal tensions between the two agencies.

A former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard endorsed Trump in 2024 on anti-interventionist grounds, praising him as a peace-seeker. She was confirmed as national intelligence chief less than a month after Trump’s second term began and led the U.S. intelligence community, a sprawling coalition of 18 agencies and organizations.

Should Trump eventually nominate Lukas or another individual to the post, the Senate would face a truncated midterm election-year calendar to process the nomination, hold hearings and move toward floor votes. The chamber is scheduled to be out all of August for its annual summer recess and in October to campaign.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

US Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, criticized the emerging deal between the US and Iran in a post on X on Saturday.

“If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominant force requiring a diplomatic solution,” he wrote.

“This combination of Iran being perceived as having the ability to terrorize the Strait in perpetuity and the ability to inflict massive damage to Gulf oil infrastructure is a major shift of the balance of power in the region and over time will be a nightmare for Israel.”

“Also, it makes one wonder why the war started to begin with if these perceptions are accurate. I personally am a skeptic of the idea that Iran cannot be denied the ability to terrorize the Strait and the region cannot protect itself against Iranian military capability.”

He later added: “If it is perceived in the region that a deal with Iran allows the regime to survive and become more powerful over time, we will have poured gasoline on the conflicts in Lebanon and Iraq.”

“A deal that is perceived to allow Iran to survive and possess the ability to control the Strait in the future will put Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Shia militias in Iraq on steroids.”

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

US President Donald Trump announced on Motzei Shabbos (Israeli time) that a deal between the US and Iran to end the war is almost final.

“I am in the Oval Office at the White House where we just had a very good call with President Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of The United Arab Emirates, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and Minister Ali al-Thawadi, of Qatar, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, of Pakistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of Türkiye, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, of Egypt, King Abdullah II, of Jordan, and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, of Bahrain, concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran, and all things related to a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries, as listed.”

“Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well.”

“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened,” Trump concluded.

Earlier on Saturday, Reuters reported that a deal to end the war between the US and Iran is expected to be announced on Sunday.

A Pakistani military source told Reuters that “a memorandum of understandings is in its final drafting stages.”

According to sources, the outline includes three phases: an official end to the war, the resolution of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, and the opening of a 30-day window for negotiations on a broader agreement.

The nuclear issue will only be placed on the negotiating table after the completion of the first two stages.

Two Israeli defense officials told The New York Times that the US has excluded Israel from the negotiations with Iran to the point that Israel only became aware of developments in the talks from regional diplomatic contacts and the use of surveillance.

However, Channel 12 News reported that although Israeli officials are very concerned by the terms of the emerging deal, Trump and Netanyahu are still working in close coordination. Barak Ravid, who writes for Axios and Channel 12, spoke on the phone with Trump, who told him that he wouldn’t reach a deal that wasn’t good for Israel.

Netanyahu convened an urgent security meeting on Motzei Shabbos with coalition party leaders and defense officials.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

US President Donald Trump announced on Motzei Shabbos (Israeli time) that a deal between the US and Iran to end the war is almost final.

“I am in the Oval Office at the White House where we just had a very good call with President Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of The United Arab Emirates, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and Minister Ali al-Thawadi, of Qatar, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, of Pakistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of Türkiye, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, of Egypt, King Abdullah II, of Jordan, and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, of Bahrain, concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran, and all things related to a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries, as listed.”

“Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well.”

“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened,” Trump concluded.

Earlier on Saturday, Reuters reported that a deal to end the war between the US and Iran is expected to be announced on Sunday.

A Pakistani military source told Reuters that “a memorandum of understandings is in its final drafting stages.”

According to sources, the outline includes three phases: an official end to the war, the resolution of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, and the opening of a 30-day window for negotiations on a broader agreement.

The nuclear issue will only be placed on the negotiating table after the completion of the first two stages.

Two Israeli defense officials told The New York Times that the US has excluded Israel from the negotiations with Iran to the point that Israel only became aware of developments in the talks from regional diplomatic contacts and the use of surveillance.

However, Channel 12 News reported that although Israeli officials are very concerned by the terms of the emerging deal, Trump and Netanyahu are still working in close coordination. Barak Ravid, who writes for Axios and Channel 12, spoke on the phone with Trump, who told him that he wouldn’t reach a deal that wasn’t good for Israel.

Netanyahu convened an urgent security meeting on Motzei Shabbos with coalition party leaders and defense officials.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

An IDF soldier was killed by an explosive drone fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel on Friday afternoon, the IDF announced on Motzei Shabbos.

He was identified as Staff Sgt. Noam Hamburger, H”YD, 23, from Atlit, a town near Haifa. He served as a technology and maintenance combat soldier in the 9th Battalion of the 401st Brigade.

Another soldier was seriously wounded in the same incident, and an NCO was lightly wounded.

Hashem Yikam Damo.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

The United States reportedly used more than HALF of its THAAD anti-missile interceptor inventory while helping defend Israel during the recent war with Iran, according to The Washington Post.

The report says the US also fired more than 100 SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors, while Israel used fewer than 100 Arrow interceptors and roughly 90 David’s Sling interceptors.

One US official quoted in the report warned that if fighting resumes, America may need to deploy even more interceptors due to some Israeli missile defense batteries undergoing maintenance.

“Israel is not capable of fighting and winning wars on its own, but nobody actually knows this, because they never see the back end,” the official reportedly said.

The Pentagon pushed back on concerns over burden-sharing, while the Israeli Embassy in Washington said the US has “no other partner with the military willingness, readiness, shared interests and capabilities of Israel.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israel established an elite task force in the wake of the October 7 massacre to track down and kill or capture every single Hamas terrorist who participated in or planned the attack, from foot soldiers who breached the border fence to the senior commanders who orchestrated it, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The unit, code-named NILI, an acronym for “Netzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker,” operates under the principle that no victim of the massacre would be forgotten and no perpetrator placed beyond reach.

“The clear message to all future enemies is to think again about the price of a terrorist operation like that,” Shalom Ben Hanan, a former senior official in the Shin Bet, told the Journal.

NILI has compiled a list of “thousands of names” of terrorists involved in the massacre, the Journal reported, many of whom have already been crossed off. According to the report, no individual on the list is too insignificant or too powerful to be targeted. The Journal describes a man who drove a tractor through the Gaza border fence on October 7 being killed in an Israeli airstrike two years later, while walking down a narrow urban street, alongside the recent assassination of Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, whom IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir called “one of the chief perpetrators of the October 7 massacre and the head of Hamas’s military wing.”

Current and former Israeli officials told the Journal that once two pieces of evidence are found establishing that an individual took part in the attack, they are marked for death without trial. The methods used to identify and locate targets include facial recognition programs run against videos that the terrorists themselves posted to social media on and after October 7, cellphone location data, and the interrogation of Gazan detainees.

Beyond Gaza, the task force has also assassinated Hamas leaders in Iran and Lebanon, in operations consistent with the unit’s founding premise that no geography places a perpetrator out of reach.

The acronym itself carries deliberate historical weight. NILI was the name of a Jewish espionage network during World War I that provided critical intelligence to British forces fighting against the Ottoman rulers of Israel. More than a century later, a modern-day NILI is operating on behalf of the Jewish state to hunt down its most recent enemies.

The unit was established by the Shin Bet along with the Mossad in late 2023, weeks after the October 7 attack. Ahron Bregman, an Israeli political scientist at King’s College London who spent six years in the Israeli army, told France 24 at the time that “Shin Bet along with Mossad formed a special operations centre tasked with tracking down and killing members of Hamas that entered Israel and massacred Israelis on 7 October.” He added that the inclusion of Mossad meant the assassinations would not be restricted to Gaza but would extend to Hamas figures sheltering in countries such as Qatar and Turkey.

According to the Journal report, the task force has at times prioritized terrorists whose deaths would console the family members of victims, in what one security official described as “treatment for the soul.”

Michael Milstein, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer on Palestinian affairs, told the Journal that “revenge is an important part of the discourse” in the Middle East. “It is about how serious anyone in your environment sees you,” he explained. “Unfortunately, this is the language of this neighborhood.”

The task force has continued its work even as the wider war has wound down. The Journal reported that since the ceasefire with Hamas began, NILI has been reduced to a small number of operatives who pass information on targets to commanders responsible for ongoing operations in Gaza. The list does not shrink on its own, and the unit’s mandate, by design, does not expire with a ceasefire.

Some of the October 7 perpetrators are not slated for assassination. Israeli forces captured some of them alive during the war, including several minors. These terrorists are being held in isolated prison wings under strict security measures, with some reportedly responsible for as many as 30 Israeli deaths each. Israel has worked to set up a special war crimes tribunal to try them.

Top targets for the unit have historically included Marwan Issa and Yahya Sinwar, both suspected of orchestrating the October 7 massacre. Both have since been eliminated, along with a long line of senior Hamas figures whose names rotated to the top of the list in turn.

Not all observers of the Israeli security establishment view the strategy uncritically. Journalist Yossi Melman, a longtime author on Israeli intelligence, has criticized the campaign, arguing that the strategy of assassinations “doesn’t solve anything” and represents an attempt by Israeli security services to redeem themselves after being humiliated by the success of the Hamas attacks. Israeli officials, by contrast, argue that the operation serves a strategic deterrent function distinct from any single target’s value: future enemies, they say, must understand that an attack on Israel will be answered not only at the level of organizations and infrastructure but at the level of every individual who pulled a trigger.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Iran has already restarted drone production and is rapidly rebuilding its military capabilities just weeks after the April 8 ceasefire with the United States and Israel, according to a CNN report citing American intelligence sources.

The report says the speed and scale of Iran’s military recovery has stunned the US intelligence community, which had previously estimated that Tehran would require a far longer period to restore its damaged arsenal.

One US official told CNN that Iran could potentially return to its pre-war military strength in as little as six months, saying the regime has “exceeded all timelines the IC [intelligence community] had for reconstitution.”

According to the report, Iran’s accelerated recovery has been aided in part by support from Russia and China. Intelligence sources allege that China has been supplying missile components to the Islamic Republic since the war erupted on February 28.

China’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegation, insisting the CNN report was “not based on facts.”

The report warns that Iran’s rapid military reconstruction underscores the ongoing threat posed by the regime despite months of war and sustained Israeli and American strikes targeting its infrastructure and weapons systems.

US officials cited in the report said Iran’s ability to quickly restore its drone and missile programs demonstrates that Tehran could still inflict major damage across the region should hostilities resume.

US Central Command declined to comment on the intelligence assessment, while a Pentagon spokesman stated that the US military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Germany continues to face alarmingly high levels of antisemitism, with thousands of incidents recorded across the country in 2025, according to a new report released by the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).

The report documented 2,197 antisemitic incidents in Berlin alone during 2025. While that marked a 13% decline from the 2,521 incidents recorded the previous year, the number remains more than double the levels seen before the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel.

RIAS reported 40 violent antisemitic attacks in Berlin, including a stabbing at the Holocaust Memorial in which a young man suffered a neck wound. Other incidents included assaults, spitting attacks, threats, and vandalism targeting Jewish institutions and businesses.

In the German state of Hesse, the situation worsened significantly, with a record 1,099 antisemitic incidents documented in 2025 — an 18% increase from the year before and nearly six times higher than pre-October 7 levels.

The report described an increasingly hostile atmosphere for Jews and Israelis in Germany, with many victims reporting harassment, intimidation, and violence in public spaces. Jews reportedly said they avoid displaying Jewish symbols or speaking Hebrew openly out of fear for their safety.

RIAS also highlighted a sharp rise in anti-Israel demonstrations, noting that 239 events included antisemitic slogans, denial of Israel’s right to exist, and explicit calls to “kill Jews.”

Jewish leaders in Germany warned that antisemitism is becoming normalized throughout broader society.

“The threat to Jewish life is worse than at any time since the Holocaust,” said Hesse antisemitism commissioner Uwe Becker.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Australian police have charged a 35-year-old man with allegedly stealing camera equipment from one of the 15 people killed in last December’s antisemitic terror attack on a Chanukah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

The alleged thief was himself a photographer hired to work the same Chanukah by the Sea event where Peter Meagher, a 61-year-old retired police detective-sergeant, was shot dead on Dec. 14 while on a freelance assignment, New South Wales Police said. The man allegedly took Meagher’s gear in the chaos following the shooting and pawned it days later.

Detectives executed a search warrant at a home in Sydney’s northwestern suburbs Wednesday morning, where they recovered a camera, a set of handcuffs, electronic devices, and a small quantity of white crystalline powder, according to the department.

“Detectives identified that one of the victims, a 61-year-old retired police officer and photographer, had his camera equipment stolen in the aftermath of the attack,” police said in a statement. They allege the suspect “was a photographer at the Hanukah event who stole the deceased 61-year-old’s camera equipment before pawning it days later.”

The man was charged with grand larceny and drug possession, granted strict conditional bail, and is scheduled to appear in Blacktown Local Court on June 22.

The arrest brings a small measure of resolution to a months-long search by Meagher’s family. His widow, Virginia Meagher, made a public appeal on social media in March asking for help locating her late husband’s camera, which she said carried deep personal significance.

Meagher, a beloved figure at Sydney’s Randwick Rugby Club, was one of 15 people gunned down when a Muslim father and son opened fire on roughly 1,000 people gathered at Archer Park. The dead included 11 men, three women, and a 10-year-old girl. More than 40 others were wounded.

The Islamic State later claimed credit for the assault.

One of the attackers, Indian national and Australian permanent resident Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene. His son, 24-year-old Australian citizen Naveed Akram, was wounded, survived, and is now on remand at Goulburn Correctional Centre awaiting trial on 59 charges including 15 counts of murder, 44 counts of attempted murder, committing a terrorist act, and the public display of a prohibited terrorist symbol.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has reportedly ordered that Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium remain inside the country, rejecting any proposal to transfer the material abroad as part of a possible agreement aimed at ending the war with the United States and Israel.

According to senior Iranian sources cited by Reuters, Khamenei issued the directive amid ongoing indirect diplomatic efforts and mounting international pressure over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran is currently believed to possess more than 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium — a quantity Israeli officials have warned is sufficient for approximately 11 nuclear bombs if enriched further to weapons-grade levels.

The reported refusal is likely to deepen concerns in both Jerusalem and Washington, where officials have repeatedly insisted that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile must be dismantled or removed entirely as part of any future agreement.

Earlier this month, a senior Israeli military official warned that if the uranium remains inside Iran, the military campaign launched in February could ultimately be viewed as “one big failure.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

HaMashgiach HaRav Dan Segal delivered a shiur ahead of Shavuos in Yeshivas Orchos Torah in Bnei Brak.

The Mashgiach said: “‘From my enemies You make me wiser’ — why are they fighting so hard against Torah? Because evil knows the secret. Where is the real power? True power exists only in the study of the holy Torah. Therefore, on the contrary, this should awaken us to how much we need to strengthen ourselves, with the help of Hashem, in limmud Torah.

“And I’ll reveal a secret to you, whether you want it or not: the ikar rests on you, the young people. This is the future of the nation, the young flock. The matter rests upon you. And every time you learn, it’s awe-inspiring. Both in what it gives you and in what it gives the world — ‘If not for My covenant day and night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and earth.’

“Therefore, everything else becomes insignificant. We are speaking here about the very standing of the world. Not luxuries. So of course, the yetzer hara, as is its way, sneaks in wearing whatever disguise it chooses, even the disguise of anavah: ‘Who am I? What is my learning worth anyway?’ Yes! Your learning. Adarabah — specifically in the place where it is difficult for you, that is your true limmud.

“Because what comes easily is given from Shamayim. But when it is difficult for you and you push yourself—that is your portion, and upon that the world stands. Why was man created alone? So that he would say: ‘The world was created for my sake.’ This is not arrogance—it is understanding the responsibility that if the world was created for me, I too am among those who uphold the world.”

“Every bit of my limmud, every yediah I acquire, every mitzvah — are among the pillars that uphold the world.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

President Trump declared Wednesday that negotiations with Iran are in their “final stages” and warned that the U.S. military will have to get “a little bit nasty” if no deal is reached, as a flurry of Arab and Muslim mediation efforts aims to lock in a formal end to the war and open broader talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.

“We’re in final stages of Iran,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One to deliver a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “We’ll see what happens. Either [we] have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen.”

“We’re going to give this one shot. I’m in no hurry,” Trump said. “Ideally I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way.”

The negotiations have stalled over the future of Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Iran has largely shut the strait to all ships apart from its own since the war with the United States and Israel began in late February, causing the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history. The U.S. responded last month with its own blockade of Iranian ports.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the exchange of messages between Iran and the United States has continued on the basis of Tehran’s 14-point proposal, with Pakistan’s interior minister in Iran to help facilitate the talks. Baghaei told state television that Iran is also seeking to establish a mechanism with Oman to ensure sustainable security in the Strait of Hormuz and is ready to develop protocols for safe shipping traffic in cooperation with other coastal states.

Behind the scenes, a far more ambitious diplomatic push is underway, one that has produced sharp friction between the Trump White House and the Israeli government.

President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a tense phone call Tuesday night about new mediation efforts by several Arab and Muslim states to broker a deal between the United States and Iran, according to Axios, citing an American source and two Israeli sources familiar with the call.

The emerging proposal, reportedly drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from regional mediators Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, would see Washington and Tehran sign a “letter of intent” that would officially end the war and open 30 days of negotiations on issues including reopening the Strait of Hormuz and limiting Iran’s nuclear program, a U.S. source involved in the phone call told the news outlet.

The two leaders disagreed sharply on the path forward. According to two Israeli sources, Netanyahu was highly skeptical of the framework and believes the United States should continue applying military pressure on Iran to further weaken the regime by destroying its critical infrastructure. The U.S. source said Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire after the call,” though Israeli sources noted that the prime minister “is always concerned” about how negotiations with Iran will go, even during stages that previously failed. The Prime Minister’s Office and the White House both declined to comment to Axios.

Mediators have been working over the last several days to bridge gaps on the last Pakistani proposal, and Qatar recently presented the United States and Iran with a new draft, according to two Arab sources and an Israeli source cited by Axios. A fourth Qatari source said there is no separate Qatari draft and that Doha is only aiming to improve the Pakistani proposal. The current efforts aim to extract stronger commitments from the Iranians on limiting their nuclear program and better guarantees from the United States to gradually unfreeze Iranian funds held abroad. Qatar and Pakistan both sent delegations to Tehran earlier this week for talks on the latest draft.

Trump’s warning of “nasty” military action carries particular weight given how close he came to ordering strikes earlier this week. Trump has said he called off attacks at the last minute in response to requests from several of Iran’s Gulf neighbors. On Tuesday, he said he had been an hour away from ordering strikes. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, welcomed what he described as Trump’s decision to allow more time for diplomacy .

Tehran has responded to the renewed threats with warnings of its own. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement declaring, “If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time.”

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator at the peace talks, said in an audio message released on social media that “obvious and hidden moves by the enemy” indicated the Americans were preparing new attacks.

Iran submitted a new offer to the United States this week. Tehran’s descriptions of the proposal suggest it largely repeats terms previously rejected by Trump, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area.

The remarks come six weeks after Trump paused Operation Epic Fury under a ceasefire arrangement, halting a conflict that had fueled fears of a broader war in the Middle East. However, there has been little progress in negotiations for ending the conflict and curbing Iran’s nuclear and military ambitions.

International pressure for a deal is mounting. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin during talks in Beijing that “a comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important,” according to Xinhua. Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that Moscow stands ready to help end the war.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara announced on Tuesday afternoon that she has decided to file an indictment against Likud MK Tally Gotliv for exposing the identity of a Shin Bet officer, the partner of Shikma Bressler, one of the leading anti-government protest figures.

The indictment accuses Gotliv, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, of unlawfully revealing and publishing classified information without authorization, in violation of the Shin Bet Law. It also states that the prosecution submitted a formal notice that it may seek an actual prison sentence if Gotliv is convicted.

A statement published by Baharav-Miara said: “It was decided to indict MK Tally Gotliv for the offense of disclosing and publishing classified information in violation of the Shin Bet Law.”

In a post on X, Gotliv wrote: “A big round of applause for Miara. She just announced the filing of an indictment against me following Yisrael Katz’s signing of a confidentiality order. As I have already made clear, I intend to convince the members of Knesset that revealing Bresler’s partner was done as part of — and for the purpose of — fulfilling my duties. As you know, I am not easily intimidated.”

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi responded: “Tally, you are a true fighter. Neither Baharav-Miara nor any member of the ‘gang of law enforcement rule’ can intimidate you, and we all know it.”

“The only one who should receive an indictment for all her actions — and eventually will — is the one who herself should be removed from office. ‘כׇּל כְּלִי יוּצַר עָלַיִךְ לֹא יִצְלָח וְכׇל לָשׁוֹן תָּקוּם אִתָּךְ לַמִּשְׁפָּט – תַּרְשִׁיעִי'”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said: “The time has come for Yariv Levin and my colleagues in the Likud to overcome their fear of the Attorney General — reform now!”

Prior to the filing of the indictment, MK Gotliv was summoned twice for police questioning but did not appear. Deputy State Adv. Alon Altman clarified in a letter that the immunity law does not allow her to avoid appearing for a criminal investigation, meaning that her failure to appear would be considered either a waiver of her right to provide her version of events or an exercise of her right to remain silent.

Earlier this month, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz signed the required confidentiality order, paving the way for the Attorney General to file the indictment in the case.

The legal battle is now expected to shift to the political arena. Gotliv will be able to claim parliamentary immunity, and the decision will be made by the Knesset Committee. Given the coalition’s majority on the committee, there is a reasonable possibility that her immunity will be preserved and the criminal proceedings halted.

Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal commented on the case, saying that he believes that the indictment is indeed warranted against Gotliv, but the picture is more complex.

“In terms of substance, Tally Gotliv definitely deserves to get hit with an indictment,” Segal wrote. “She published the name of a senior Shin Bet official, along with false accusations about a connection between him and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, although that part is his matter to pursue in a civil lawsuit.”

“In a perfect world, Knesset members would not publish classified information, would not lie about security services, and would not get entangled in such incidents.”

“In a similarly perfect world, the Attorney General  would also not deliberately drag out an investigation against opposition MK Gilad Kariv over leaking a classified protocol from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.”

“The problem, as usual, is the feeling that justice is only being carried out against one side. In summary: Gotliv earned the indictment fair and square, and Baharav-Miara earned the public’s suspicion just as fully,” Segal concluded.

The story behind Kariv’s leak began in December 2023, when reports were published in Maariv and Walla that included quotes from a protocol of a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in June 2023. The reports claimed that the quotes proved that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was aware of the danger of a Hamas attack on Israel.

Following the reports, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana asked the Knesset Officer to investigate the leak. The week-long investigation, which involved accessing security cameras and other evidence, revealed that the only person who reviewed the leaked protocol in the six months from the meeting until the reports were published was Labor MK Gilad Kariv. Kariv reviewed the protocol twice, shortly before the quotes appeared in the media.

Ohana immediately sent the findings to Baharav-Miara, asking her to launch a criminal investigation into the leak, but no action was taken.

The Lavi Civil Rights organization subsequently filed a complaint to the High Court against Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman, stating that the accusations against Kariv of espionage and unauthorized disclosure of classified information during wartime are extremely serious, warranting an immediate criminal investigation. The complaint emphasized that the offenses that Kariv allegedly committed are far more serious than those allegedly committed by Eli Feldstein and Ari Rosenfeld in the PMO’s office leak case, but the prosecution has yet to even order an investigation.

It was only in January 2025, after the High Court held a hearing on the Lavi organization’s claim, that the State Prosecution responded to the Court that a preliminary investigation had been opened against Kariv, “but a final decision has not yet been reached regarding launching a criminal investigation.”

In other words, the legal clerks Baharav-Miara and Aisman completely ignored the request to investigate Kariv, perhaps because they are too busy persecuting lomdei Torah, ensuring that Nukhba terrorists are treated humanely in Israeli jails, and attempting to thwart every appointment made by the democratically elected government.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Iran warned Wednesday that it will carry the war beyond the Middle East and strike targets “in places you cannot imagine” if President Trump follows through on his threat to deliver another “big hit” against the Islamic Republic.

“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement aired on state media, vowing “crushing blows” against the United States and Israel should fighting resume.

The Guards added that they had not yet used their full military capability in earlier exchanges with American and Israeli forces, and dismissed Trump’s public warnings as posturing. “We are men of war, and you will witness our power on the battlefield, not in hollow statements or on social media pages,” the statement said.

Iran has previously vowed only to strike American bases in neighboring Gulf countries.

Tehran did not specify what locations it considered fair game beyond the Middle East, nor what weapons it would use to reach them. Iran has demonstrated long-range ballistic missile capabilities in past conflicts and maintains a network of proxy forces and operatives across multiple continents.

The warning followed Trump’s disclosure Tuesday that he had come within an hour of ordering a fresh round of strikes before pulling back at the urging of Persian Gulf allies who told him a diplomatic breakthrough was still possible.

“I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters. “We may have to give them another big hit. I’m not sure yet. You’ll know very soon.”

The president has set Iran’s renunciation of nuclear weapons as the central condition for ending the war, which has been frozen in an uneasy six-week cease-fire. Iranian negotiators have so far refused that demand, instead pressing for sovereign control of the Strait of Hormuz and the withdrawal of American forces from neighboring countries.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has publicly questioned the reliability of the Trump administration as a negotiating partner, and Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, traveled to Tehran on Wednesday to continue acting as a back-channel intermediary, Iranian state media reported.

The cease-fire has held, but barely. The Senate this week advanced a symbolic war powers resolution that would bar further military operations against Iran without congressional authorization, a measure Trump is expected to reject if it reaches his desk. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement Wednesday condemning the earlier American and Israeli strikes on Iran as illegal and calling for a comprehensive halt to hostilities.

Inside Tehran, the regime has leaned into a posture of public defiance. Revolutionary Guard members have begun staging open-air demonstrations on city streets, training civilians to handle Kalashnikov-style assault rifles. Military parades through the capital now routinely feature pickup trucks mounted with belt-fed Soviet-era machine guns, the kind of imagery long associated with the regime’s proxy militias rather than its uniformed forces.

Iran’s nationwide internet blackout, imposed in the war’s opening days, entered its 82nd consecutive day Wednesday, according to the monitoring service NetBlocks. The country has now been cut off from the global internet for more than 1,900 hours.

US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the war has effectively foreclosed any near-term possibility of an Oct. 7-style attack on Israel from the Iranian axis. He also confirmed that the Pentagon is still investigating a first-day strike on what American officials described as a missile facility but Iran has insisted was a girls’ elementary school. More than 165 people were killed in the strike. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Wednesday called the American account “a baseless fabrication.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An IDF soldier from the Nachal Brigade who has already begun serving a sentence in military prison for wearing a “Moshiach” patch filed an urgent petition on Wednesday to the High Court against Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Military Advocate General Itai Ofir, Army Radio reported.

The petition states that Nachal commander Col. Erik Moyal lacked the authority to impose such a punishment and acted contrary to military regulations.

Adv. Ran Cohen Rochberger, who is representing the soldier, wrote that wearing the patch falls under appearance and uniform offenses. According to IDF regulations, there is no authority to sentence a soldier to imprisonment for this type of offense if it is the first time the violation has been committed.

He emphasized that this legal flaw alone requires the revocation of the sentence,

Before submitting a petition to the High Court, Rochberger submitted an appeal to the military prosecution but did not receive a response, leading to the filing of the High Court petition.

One of the soldiers’ requests was granted. On Tuesday evening, Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor agreed to reduce the soldier’s sentence by 10 days, from 30 days to 20 days.

The IDF stated that “it was decided to reduce the punishment by 10 days for the soldier who was sentenced for a disciplinary violation that does not align with the norms expected of IDF soldiers.”

“The decision was made according to regulations and after Nahal Brigade commander Col. Erik Moyal visited the soldier in military prison, where the soldier took responsibility and expressed remorse.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Amid the growing threat of explosive drones from Lebanon and the lack of early warning systems, residents of Kibbutz Sasa in the Upper Galil have begun installing protective netting above kindergarten courtyards, daycares, and kibbutz playgrounds in an effort to shield children from potential attacks, Walla News reported.

The initiative was launched independently by members of the kibbutz, located near Israel’s northern border, as concerns continue to mount over Hezbollah’s explosive drones.

“We’re reinforcing the courtyards now so the children can still spend at least some time outside,” Yehuda Livne, a member of the community’s emergency response team, told Walla. “The children will be inside, under a roof, or outside, under these nets. We’re trying to create physical protection from a threat that suddenly appears from the sky without any warning.”

The decision followed a serious security incident earlier this week, when an explosive drone fired by Hezbollah detonated in an orchard near the kibbutz, roughly 50 meters from workers who were pruning trees nearby. At the time, many families and children were present in public areas of the kibbutz, and the explosion occurred without any siren or prior warning from Israeli defense systems or the Home Front Command.

“It’s a small, quiet ‘toy’ that you can’t see or hear,” Livne said. “Until it explodes, you don’t even know it’s there.”

Because of the minimal advance warning available, communities located close to the border — currently classified as “yellow zones” — remain under strict Home Front Command protection guidelines.

Under the current directives, children in kindergartens and daycare facilities may only use outdoor areas in groups of up to six children at a time, accompanied by two staff members, and for no longer than 20 minutes per session. In schools, outdoor groups are limited to 35 students.

Daily activity is otherwise restricted to reinforced or protected structures, while gatherings are limited to 200 people outdoors and 600 indoors.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Iranian Revolutionary Guard members now regularly show the public in Tehran how to handle Kalashnikov-style assault rifles. Parades through the capital feature military vehicles mounted with belt-fed Soviet-era machine guns. And at one mass wedding, a ballistic missile, like the one that rained down cluster munitions on Israel, adorned the stage.

Weapons are now regularly brandished in Tehran, an increasing show of defiance as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens he could restart the war with Iran should negotiations break down and the Islamic Republic refuses to release its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

The weapons displays reflect the genuine threat Iran faces: Trump has suggested American forces could seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium by force and previously said that he sent arms to Kurdish fighters to pass onto anti-government protesters.

But they also offer reassurance and motivation to hard-liners and provide rare entertainment at a time of great uncertainty, when Iranians are facing mass layoffs, business closures and spiraling prices for food, medicine and other goods. Suggesting more hard-liners will be armed could also help suppress any new demonstrations against Iran’s theocracy, which violently put down nationwide protests in January in a crackdown that activists say killed over 7,000 people and saw tens of thousands detained.

“This is necessary for all our people to get trained because we are in a war situation these days,” said Ali Mofidi, a 47-year-old Tehran resident at a weapons training Tuesday night. “If necessary, everyone should be available and know how to use a gun.”

Iran has repeatedly sought to project strength during the war

For months, state television and government-sponsored text messages have bombarded the public with calls to join the “Janfada,” or the “ones who sacrifice their lives.” At one point, hard-liners encouraged families with boys as young as 12 to send them to the Revolutionary Guard to work checkpoints — which Amnesty International denounced as a war crime.

Government officials say more than 30 million people in Iran — home to a population of some 90 million — have volunteered via an online form or at public gatherings to lay down their lives for Iran’s theocracy. There is no way to confirm that figure and there’s been no sign of a mass mobilization yet, like the one that Ukraine underwent in the days before Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion, in which officials handed out rifles and people banded together to make gasoline bombs.

But there have been several public announcements and presenters have appeared armed during live programs on state TV, as part of efforts to feed the fervor.

“Looking back at the moment I registered my name, I realize I wasn’t truly contemplating the dangers of fighting on the front lines. In that moment, like everyone else, my thoughts were solely on Iran,” wrote journalist Soheila Zarfam in a column for the state-owned Tehran Times newspaper. “My life might end, but Iran would endure, and that was all that truly mattered.”

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has criticized the public weapons demonstrations, particularly footage of young boys handling assault rifles, saying: “Scenes like these are reminiscent of child hostage-taking and arming by groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, and militias in Sudan and Congo.”

Weapons training, once unusual, becomes a norm

A recent government-organized demonstration by nomads in Iran saw them carrying everything from bolt-action Lee–Enfield rifles of the British Empire to a blunderbuss, a predecessor of the shotgun more familiar to the age of pirates on the high seas.

But during weeks of an unsteady ceasefire, most of the weapon demonstrations appear focused on Tehran, not the rural areas where there is a tradition of keeping rifles and shotguns at home.

At a demonstration Tuesday night in Tehran, male and female participants divided into separate classes. Hadi Khoosheh, a member of the Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force and trainer, demonstrated how to handle a folding-stock Kalashnikov-style assault rifle.

“At the end of the training those who completed the course will receive a card titled ‘Janfada,’ proving they have received basic and preliminary training for this type of gun and they are able to use it if, God forbid, something happens to our country,” Khoosheh said.

However, the weapons training was rudimentary at best for the young boys and older men gathered. One struggled to insert the rifle’s magazine and inadvertently pointed the barrel of the unloaded weapon at others — a major safety breach that people are taught to avoid in basic firearms training.

“Definitely we will stand against (the Americans) and won’t give up even an inch of our soil,” said Mofidi, the man at the training. “No matter if they come from the sea or land, we will stand by our flag.”

(AP)

A Democratic congressional candidate in Texas has pledged to imprison “American Zionists” in an internment camp if elected.

Maureen Galindo, a therapist and housing activist running in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s 35th Congressional District, announced over the weekend that she would write legislation to “turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.”

“It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists,” she added in the Instagram post.

The pledge marks an extraordinary escalation in antisemitic rhetoric from a candidate for federal office in the United States. U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida wrote on X, “First current political candidate suggests concentration camps for American Jews. This should be national news!”

Galindo has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout her campaign, drawing on some of the oldest and most dangerous tropes in the antisemitic canon.

In a recent appearance on Texas Public Radio’s “The Source,” Galindo denied being antisemitic but stated, “I am against Zionist Jews.” She went on to assert that Zionists “own the media, control the banking system and all politicians,” including in San Antonio, and claimed that “we have Israeli Zionists who are influencing our local politics and our South Texas politics.”

The claim that Jews control media, finance, and government is a centuries-old conspiracy theory that has historically been used to justify pogroms, expulsions, and genocide.

Galindo has separately claimed that Jews worship the “synagogue of Satan,” a phrase widely deployed by white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups to dehumanize Jewish people. In other comments, she has falsely asserted that ICE had “headquarters and offices inside Israel” and described American Jewish political engagement as “an Israeli occupation of America.”

Galindo has also said her runoff opponent, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia, “should possibly be tried for treason because of his support for Israel,” and accused his campaign of being funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In one Instagram post, she declared in all capital letters that her opponent “is being paid to put Jews and Mexicans in concentration camps via Zionist trafficking networks.”

Texas State Rep. James Talarico, a candidate for U.S. Senate, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “this antisemitic rhetoric has no place in our politics” and “we need leadership in both parties willing to stand up and call out hate wherever it rears its ugly head.” Talarico’s campaign confirmed he would not stump for Galindo even if she wins the nomination.

Rather than retreat from her remarks, Galindo has doubled down. In a follow-up video, she accused her critics of being MAGA supporters and claimed Zionists are trying to create “white supremacist religion states.” The video implicitly suggested MAGA supporters could also be targeted for internment, framing the movement as “an American incarnation of Zionism.”

Galindo finished first in the March Democratic primary with 29.2 percent of the vote, and faces Garcia in the May 26 runoff. Democratic leaders in Washington and Texas have rallied behind Garcia , but Jewish community leaders and observers have warned that the very fact that a candidate with Galindo’s record advanced to a congressional runoff, in a district that leans Democratic, represents a deeply troubling moment for American Jews and the Democratic Party.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Following the tragic crash earlier this month that claimed the life of 9-year-old Yoel Jacobowitz, senior members of the NYPD met with leaders of Williamsburg Shomrim and Hatzolah to discuss ways to improve traffic and pedestrian safety in the neighborhood.

NYPD Chief of Transportation Olufunmilola F. Obe and NYPD Highway Division Commanding Officer Conor Wynne visited the intersection of Lee Avenue and Wallabout Street, where the fatal accident occurred, to review traffic conditions and examine possible safety improvements for the area.

Following the site visit, the officials continued discussions during a meeting at Williamsburg Shomrim headquarters, focusing on strategies aimed at preventing future tragedies and enhancing street safety throughout the neighborhood.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)