For years, one of the most attractive slogans in Israeli real estate sounded almost too good to question, buy a new apartment now, pay only 10% or 20% upfront, and bring the rest when the keys are ready.

For many buyers, especially Americans watching Israeli prices rise from abroad, the pitch felt like a rare opening. You could lock in a shekel price, keep most of your capital in the U.S., avoid taking a full mortgage right away, and hope that by delivery the apartment would be worth more. For Israelis, it created a path into projects that otherwise felt financially impossible. For developers, it helped keep sales moving while interest rates were high, construction costs were rising, and unsold inventory was piling up.

But the deal was never really “cheap.” It was deferred risk.

That risk is now moving to the center of Israel’s housing story. The Bank of Israel has tightened its treatment of projects that rely heavily on deferred-payment contracts, warning that deals where buyers postpone large portions of the price until delivery can create elevated risk for banks, developers, and purchasers. Under the temporary rules, project credit is treated as higher risk when more than 25% of a project’s contracts defer 40% or more of the purchase price until delivery, while developer-subsidized bullet and balloon loans are limited to 10% of quarterly housing-loan execution. The directive is currently set to remain in effect through the end of 2026.

The 20/80 model was not just a clever payment plan. It became a pressure valve for an entire market. It allowed buyers to sign before they were fully financed. It allowed developers to report sales without collecting most of the money. And it allowed both sides to assume that the future would be easier than the present.

Israel’s housing market is carrying record supply. At the end of January, about 86,290 new apartments remained unsold, the highest level recorded, with Jerusalem holding roughly 10,340 unsold units, Tel Aviv-Yafo about 9,650, Bat Yam 5,059, and Haifa 4,246. At the current sales pace, that represented 31.4 months of supply, meaning the market would need more than two and a half years to absorb the unsold stock if no new supply were added.

Prices are no longer moving in one clean direction. Israel’s latest housing data showed apartment prices rising 0.3% in the February-March comparison after two months of declines, but still down 1.2% year-over-year. New apartment prices rose 0.4% including subsidized government transactions, but excluding those deals, new-home prices fell 0.3% for the period and 3.8% over the year. The national average apartment price stood around NIS 2.33 million in the first quarter.

For buyers, the guide begins with understanding what a 20/80 deal actually does. It does not make the apartment cheaper. It changes when the pain arrives. Instead of paying gradually through construction or taking a mortgage earlier, the buyer pays a small portion at signing and leaves the largest payment for handover. That can be useful for a buyer with strong cash flow, a verified mortgage plan, and a clear currency strategy. It can be dangerous for someone who is only able to buy because the first payment is low.

For Americans, the risk is sharper because the contract is usually in shekels while their wealth and income may be in dollars. The shekel has strengthened dramatically, and the Bank of Israel listed the representative dollar rate at NIS 2.907 on May 21. A buyer who expected to bring dollars later can find that the same shekel balance costs far more in dollar terms than it did when they first signed.

View of the southern part of the Dead Sea from Israel towards Jordan.

Take a simple example. If an American signs for a NIS 3 million apartment and leaves NIS 2.4 million for delivery, that final payment costs about $667,000 when the dollar is at 3.60 shekels. At 2.907, it costs about $826,000. The apartment did not become more expensive in shekels. But for a dollar buyer, the final bill jumped by roughly $160,000 before mortgage terms, taxes, upgrades, legal fees, or moving costs.

That is the part many buyers missed. A 20/80 deal can feel like protection against rising prices, but it can expose the buyer to interest-rate risk, currency risk, mortgage-approval risk, construction-index risk, and resale risk all at once. If the buyer cannot close, the low deposit that made the deal easy to enter may become the money they lose to escape.

For Israelis, the danger is different but just as real. The issue is not the dollar. It is affordability at delivery. A family may sign while the monthly payment is still theoretical, assuming rates will fall or income will rise. The Bank of Israel did cut the interest rate to 3.75%, but mortgages are still far more expensive than they were during the cheap-money years, and banks still examine repayment ability.

That means the first question is not “How much do I need today?” It is “What happens on the day the developer calls for the final payment?” Buyers should know the exact remaining balance, the maximum mortgage they can realistically receive, the monthly repayment under conservative assumptions, the purchase tax due, the likely linkage to the construction input index, and the cost of extras that are almost never included in the headline price.

Legal protection also needs to be understood correctly. Israel’s Sale Law gives buyers important safeguards. A developer generally may not collect more than 7% of the apartment price unless the buyer receives one of the permitted protections, such as a bank guarantee or insurance. But that protects payments from certain developer failures. It does not protect a buyer from overpaying, failing to qualify for financing, getting squeezed by currency moves, or discovering that the resale market is weaker than expected.

For foreign buyers, financing must be checked early, not imagined later. Israeli mortgage rules are very different from the U.S. market, and foreign citizens are commonly treated more conservatively. Mizrahi-Tefahot notes that a buyer eligible as an Israeli citizen or oleh can reach up to 75% loan-to-value instead of 50% as a foreign citizen, while standard Israeli mortgage financing is generally up to 75% for first-home buyers, 70% for replacement-home buyers, and 50% for those who already own a home in Israel.

MA’ALE ADUMIM, WEST BANK – OCTOBER 16: New houses are seen under construction October 16, 2003 in the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, West Bank. The first phase of the road map requires Israel to stop confiscating Palestinian land and to freeze all settlement activity. Ma’ale Adumim has grown from 23 families and a few tents and mobile homes in 1975 to nearly 30,000 residents, most of whom commute to work in nearby Jerusalem. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)

Taxes matter too. A foreign resident is generally taxed like an Israeli investor rather than like an Israeli first-home buyer, meaning the purchase-tax burden can be much heavier. Buyitinisrael notes that foreign residents cannot use the single-residence benefit unless they become Israeli tax residents within the relevant period, while new immigrants may have separate benefits depending on their status and timing.

So what should a serious buyer do before signing?

First, price the apartment as if you had to close today, not as if the market improves in two years. Second, get serious mortgage guidance before signing, not after. Third, convert the deferred shekel balance into dollars, pounds, or euros at several worse exchange rates and see whether the deal still works. Fourth, ask exactly what part of the price is linked to the construction input index and what is not. Fifth, compare the project against actual unsold supply in that city, because a “limited opportunity” in a building with heavy nearby inventory may not be limited at all.

Mixed denomination of Israeli shekel banknotes sit in this arranged photograph in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, June 1, 2019. Photographer: Corinna Kern/Bloomberg

Buyers should also negotiate differently. In a high-inventory market, the headline price is only one part of the deal. Developers may resist official price cuts because they do not want to damage earlier sales or bank valuations. That is why discounts often appear as payment terms, free parking, storage rooms, upgraded kitchens, waived linkage, legal-fee help, or quiet reductions offered through sales offices. The buyer’s job is to convert every perk into shekels and compare it with the real market price.

A 20/80 deal can still make sense. It can work for a buyer with liquid capital, a strong mortgage file, a real need for the apartment, and enough cash to handle a bad exchange-rate move or a delay. It can work in a location with genuine demand and limited competing supply. It can work when the developer is strong, the bank guarantee is clean, the delivery timeline is realistic, and the buyer is not relying on flipping the apartment before closing.

Israel is tightening public-gathering restrictions near the Lebanese border after a day of Hezbollah drone attacks pushed the northern front into a sharper and more dangerous phase. According to Ynet, the Home Front Command’s new rules will take effect at 6 a.m. Wednesday for the Confrontation Line area and the communities of Meron, Bar Yochai, Or HaGanuz and Sifsufa, cutting outdoor gatherings to 50 people and indoor gatherings to 200. The move comes after a Hezbollah UAV struck a home in Metula and another explosive drone hit the Shomera area, with no injuries reported in the incidents.

A fireball rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Qasmiyeh bridge, located on a main highway linking villages in the Tyre district with others further north, after Israel said the bridge was being used by Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon on March 22, 2026. Israel’s military struck a key bridge in south Lebanon on Sunday, an AFP correspondent said, after Israel’s defence minister said the army had been ordered to destroy more bridges over the Litani River. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2, when pro-Iran Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in response to US-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP via Getty Images) /

The new limits mark a major rollback from the previous framework, which allowed up to 200 people outdoors and 600 indoors in those areas. Educational activity is not being broadly shut down, but the Home Front Command said activity must continue in line with local protection rules and that further changes will be issued through official IDF and Home Front Command channels.

The escalation is no longer being treated as background fire. Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo said Israel is “at war” in Lebanon and that the IDF will not normalize attacks on civilians or the home front. Speaking after the strikes on Metula and Shomera, he accused Hezbollah of deliberately worsening the security reality in the north and said the terror group had crossed a “serious and unacceptable red line.”

A photograph taken from Israel shows the border fence (L) separating northern Israel from southern Lebanon, with the Lebanese village of Maroun el Ras visible in the background on November 16, 2025. Israel has recently intensified its strikes on Lebanon, accusing the Iran-backed Hezbollah group of rearming, nearly a year into a ceasefire that brought an end to their most recent war. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP) (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel has already begun hitting back harder. The IDF said it struck more than 70 Hezbollah infrastructure sites across Lebanon over the past day, including command centers and weapons depots in Tyre, using more than 85 munitions against sites used to advance attacks on Israeli civilians and troops. The pressure comes as Hezbollah’s drone threat has become one of the central dangers on the northern front, after Sgt. Nehoray Leizer, 19, was killed by an explosive Hezbollah drone in southern Lebanon.

A senior U.S. official quoted by Ynetnews said Hezbollah has ignored repeated calls to stop firing, including a final warning, and claimed the terror group has launched 1,000 drones and 700 rockets since April 17 to disrupt Lebanon-Israel negotiations. The message from Jerusalem is now blunt: Hezbollah’s attempt to turn northern Israel into a permanent drone zone is being met with tighter home-front rules and a widening military response.

An activist who participated in the Gaza Sumud Flotilla admitted in an interview that the flotilla wasn’t primarily about bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. Instead, the purpose was to engage the IDF and draw the world’s attention to Gaza.

Rosa Martinez, an anti-Israel activist from New York City and co-organizer of the vessel Adalah, said in a Palestinian Youth Movement NYC Instagram video that the mission of the flotilla had been distorted in the media as a humanitarian mission.

“I think that’s kind of flattening what it is that we’re doing,” he explained. “Yes, there is aid. The aid that we have isn’t sufficient to the structural issues in a post quote-on-quote ceasefire Gaza … I feel like directly confronting the Israeli occupation forces at sea as we try to break this 20-year genocidal siege … is a historic responsibility.”

The goals, according to Martinez, were “engaging with the IOF directly, putting the spotlight back on Gaza, because it has fallen off the headlines.”

Anti-Israel activists frequently refer to the IDF as the IOF, with the “O” standing for “occupation.”

Martinez was arrested by the IDF a week ago when his boat was intercepted. He said he was held for four days, which was a “waking nightmare” but “a fraction of a fraction” of what he said Gazans had to endure.

In a confrontation with pro-Israel activist Rachel Herman in December 2023, Martinez said that Oct. 7 was “one of the greatest days of my life” and “one of the greatest days in the history of decolonization.” At the time, he was wearing a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine pin. The PFLP is a designated terrorist organization.

JBN’s Food Critic Sruli Fuld Shows Israeli Resilience While Taking Cover During Missile Attacks

Even as Israelis face repeated bombardment from Iranian ballistic missiles, life in Israel continues in remarkable ways.

In a video shared by Jewish Breaking News, JBN food critic Sruli Fuld is seen running into a bomb shelter during a missile alert while holding a slice of Bardak Pizza, turning a tense moment into a reminder of Israeli resilience.

Fuld, known for showcasing some of Israel’s most beloved food spots, said: “these days in Israel have been intense but that comfort can still be found in good food and community.” During the alert, he brought his pizza into the shelter and joked that eating Bardak Pizza in a bomb shelter was definitely a new experience.

Despite the ongoing security situation, the message of the video is clear: Israelis continue to live, laugh, and support local businesses even under fire.

Send us suggestions for what Sruli Fuld should try next and stay safe. May Israel will soon see peace!

A video circulating on social media Monday shows the pro-Hamas group Mtl4Palestine displaying the flag of the ice hockey team Montreal Canadiens with an effigy of a man wearing a kippah hanging near the flagpole, while a keffiyeh-clad participant pounds a drum.

Not a Zionist, but a Jew.

The radical group has been criticized for its support for Hamas, aligning itself with groups that explicitly support the terror group, praising the armed actions of Hamas, promoting armed resistance and refusing to condemn the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Montreal has seen a number of controversial incidents in which effigies of Jews have been hanged or burned. In May 2024, an anti-Israel encampment at McGill University in Toronto hung a cardboard cutout of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in prison-style clothes at the gates of the campus. Jewish groups condemned the incident as antisemitic, saying it evoked violent Holocaust imagery.

Also Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he spoke to Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, about the problem of soaring antisemitism in Canada.

“I also highlighted the horrific antisemitic wave in Canada — an average of 19 incidents a day,” he posted on X. “The Canadian government must take steps against antisemitic incitement and attacks.”

President Donald Trump, along with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, attended the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day.

The tradition began after World War I in 1921 on Armistice Day, now known as Veterans Day. The previous year, on Armistice Day, Britain and France designated a tomb for an unknown soldier to represent all the nameless soldiers who fell in battle to become a national shrine where their citizens could gather to mourn.

Inspired by this, the United States buried an unknown soldier in what became known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at the heart of the cemetery, where people can come to pay their respects to those who gave their lives for our country. The act of laying the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has become imbued with great symbolic significance and has become a popular tradition, beginning with the first to lay the wreath, President Warren G. Harding.

IDF soldiers are improvising ways to protect against Hezbollah’s FPV drones, which can evade electronic jamming, using a low-tech solution: fishing nets.

Israeli public broadcaster KAN News reported Sunday that IDF soldiers have been asking Galilee fisherman to supply them with nets to use as protection against the drones.

While the IDF has been working to produce an effective defense, this low-tech initiative came from IDF soldiers and was not organized by the military, according to the report. Due to their fiber-optic cables, FPV drones can’t be electronically jammed, which means they can infiltrate the IDF’s defenses.

Staff-Sgt. Noam Hamburger was killed over the weekend from one such strike.

Fishing nets, for illustrative purposes. (Photo by RealyEasyStar/Matteo Musetti/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

“As someone who almost died a few days ago from an explosive drone strike on the building where we were staying in Lebanon, I am ashamed to read such a report, and am forced to admit that it is true,” said Yonatan Shalev, an Israeli politician who is running with Naftali Bennett’s Together Party in the upcoming election.

“I am ashamed that no one here is learning from mistakes, and mainly worried about what will happen in the next round in a few days,” he said.

A Galilee fisherman who gave only his first name, Menahem, told KAN that he was in a position to help procure large amounts of fishing nets for IDF soldiers.

“Kibbutz Ein Gev wants to help,” he declared. “If they want fishing nets, they should contact me, and we will find a solution.”

“This is to save lives and help the IDF,” he added. “The Ein Gev fishermen always do this.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed Hezbollah Sunday for its calls to overthrow the Lebanese government.

“The U.S. stands firmly with the legitimate Government of Lebanon as it works to restore its authority and build a better future for all its people,” he wrote on X. “Hizballah’s threats of violence and overthrow will not be allowed to succeed.”

“The era in which a terrorist group held an entire nation hostage is coming to an end,” he declared.

In a separate statement, he condemned “in the strongest terms Hezbollah’s reckless call to overthrow Lebanon’s democratically elected government.”

Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The scathing remarks come in response to a statement from Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, who said “the people have the right to go down onto the streets and to bring down the government.”

Qassem was reacting to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets and United States sanctions on the Al-Qard Al-Hassan financial institution, which provides financial support to the terror group.

“This is a deliberate campaign to destabilize the country and maintain its power at the expense of the future of the Lebanese people,” Rubio said.

The Lebanese government “is working to deliver recovery, reconstruction, international assistance and a stable future for its citizens with the full support of the United States,” he added. “Hezbollah, by contrast, is actively trying to drag Lebanon back into chaos and destruction.”

Meanwhile, another round of talks between Jerusalem and Beirut is scheduled for early June. The discussions will address dismantling Hezbollah to allow the government of Lebanon complete governance over the country so that the IDF can withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Israel is concerned that the United States will tie a ceasefire with Iran to a cessation of hostilities with Lebanon, fearing that this will impede the Lebanese government’s ability to rein in the terror group and embolden Hezbollah. Naim Qassem has expressed support for this step.

Being arrested four times in two weeks is surely a record, and repeat offender Francis Achille, 64, holds that dubious distinction. According to London’s Shomrim, he was just arrested for the fourth time in two weeks for threatening Jewish children with a baton outside a synagogue.

Shomrim have repeatedly detained Achille for violating his bail conditions, such as not going within 100 meters (about 300 feet) of any synagogue.

“Gets locked up, comes out and reoffends, constantly breaching bail conditions and his Criminal Behaviour Order,” Shomrim posted on X.

“Local residents continue to raise concerns regarding the repeated offending and breaches,” the volunteer patrol group added.

Francis Achille threatens Jewish children with a stick. (Credit: Shomrim)

Achille’s latest arrest in the London borough of Hackney came after threatening Jewish children with a stick. The Stamford Hill Shomrim have worked closely with the Metropolitan Police to detain Achille amid rising concern in the Jewish community over his repeated offenses.

The arrest comes on the heels of the sentencing of another man, Tavius Jean Charles, for death threats against Jews. But the larger context of attacks against Jews across London has the Jewish community on edge. Multiple synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses have been subjected to arson attacks, and a stabbing in the London neighborhood of Golders Green injured two Jewish men last month.

A team of 100 officers has been dispatched to patrol Jewish neighborhoods and combat hate crimes following a warning from Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley.

Earlier this month, he said that the rise in attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in London is “an appalling state of affairs.”

“If you overlay three things now — hate crime, terrorism and hostile state activity — you add all that together, that combined effect with that building of ideology online, that is really dangerous and troubling,” he said. “And Jewish communities feel that, and you can see that in how they talk, how it’s making them change their lives.”

Rowley called for the deployment of an additional 300 police officers to protect Jewish communities in the area, saying that the problem isn’t relegated to “a few racist idiots,” but is “something that is more embedded in society that isn’t being challenged.”

“There’s too much licensing of it in public debate,” he declared, giving voice to a sentiment shared by many Jewish advocates.

Australia’s spy chief told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism Monday that Jew hatred was left unchecked after the Bondi Beach massacre, leading to its normalization in Australian society. He also said Iran was behind at least two of the attacks, and possibly more, leading to the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador to Australia.

“There is no doubt that the war in the Middle East invoked a range of emotions in Australia,” said Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. “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.”

Starting in late 2024, antisemitism “escalated in severity from threatening, intimidating behavior ‌to direct targeting of people, businesses and places of worship,” he added.

In this video, Mike Burgess warns that the threat from terror attacks has increased since the Bondi Beach massacre due to the normalization of violence. (From a post on X)

Jewish and even non-Jewish leaders from within and without had been warning Australia for years that it must address escalating antisemitism in the country.

In December 2025, Australian Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said: “We have seen a clear failure to keep Jewish Australians safe. We have seen a clear lack of leadership in keeping Jewish Australians safe. We have a government that sees antisemitism as a problem to be managed, not evil that needs to be eradicated.”

J7, the Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, visited Australia just days before the attack to urge the government to do more to combat antisemitism. “We came from around the world to show our solidarity with the Australian Jewish community and make clear that we are one Jewish family,” the delegation said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a letter months before the attack on Bondi Beach that his policies toward Israel (namely, recognition of a Palestinian state, which rewarded Hamas terror) would encourage antisemitic violence.

Burgess informed the commission that Iran was behind at least two attacks, one on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the other on Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. He said that Iran was possibly behind other attacks as well.

“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,” he explained.

With more than a week since a 14-year-old Jewish girl in Toronto went missing, the Toronto Police Service has escalated the search to Priority 1, opening a dedicated tip hotline and offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to her safe return.

Shomrim has been organizing search parties and manning a hotline from the beginning and working with TPS, which said that while Esti had been missing since Friday, May 15, she was briefly spotted the following day at midnight in the Bathurst Street and Hotspur Road area.

TPS also said that she had last been seen wearing a turquoise sweater, grey sweatpants, and no shoes and was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. She is 5’2″ and has brown hair.

James Pasternak, a Toronto city councillor, posted on X about the girl’s disappearance.

The search for missing youth Esti has now been escalated to Priority 1. Bringing her home safely remains our top priority. We joined Esti’s family today as the search continues, and we are grateful to the @TorontoPolice and Inspector Peter Wallace for dedicating every available… pic.twitter.com/zmr4DkIuZJ

— James Pasternak (@PasternakTO) May 19, 2026

“The search for missing youth Esti has now been escalated to Priority 1,” he wrote. “Bringing her home safely remains our top priority. We joined Esti’s family today as the search continues, and we are grateful to the Toronto Police and Inspector Peter Wallace for dedicating every available resource to this effort.”

“Please continue sharing Esti’s information and keep her family in your thoughts,” he added. “If you have seen her or have any information, call 911 and contact Shomrim Toronto at (647) 557-6735.”

“Let’s bring Esti home safely,” he concluded.

Esti’s parents also addressed her in a news conference, urging her to come home safely and assuring her that she would not be in any trouble upon her return.

Pleading with the public to help search by doing such things as checking security cameras, Esti’s mother Shira said, “As a mother, there is no pain worse than not knowing where your child is or whether she is safe. Please help us bring our child home.”

Michael Kerzner, Ontario’s solicitor general, also said in a video statement Sunday as he stood next to Rabbi Chaplain Shmuel Neft of the TPS that bringing Esti home safe is the highest priority and urged the public to help. He joins other political leaders in bringing awareness to the public of the missing teen, such as York Centre member of Parliament Roman Baber and federal opposition leader Pierre Poilievre, who formerly ran against Mark Carney for the position of prime minister.

During a Saturday telephone conference with the leaders of several Muslim states in the region, Trump said that if a deal with Iran is signed, he expects those who have not yet joined the Abraham Accords to normalize ties with Israel and sign on.

The Arab leaders were speechless.

The leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain had joined the call to discuss the emerging deal with Iran. Only two of those countries, the UAE and Bahrain, have signed the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia had in the past expressed its willingness to join, but as its split with the UAE over Yemen grew over the past year, it took a more hardline approach toward Israel.

When Trump mentioned his expectation of normalization of ties with Israel, the response was silence.

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

The Iran-flagged tugboat Basim sails near a ship anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran earlier this month. (Photo by Amir Hossein Khorgooei/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)

In his Truth Social post that JBN reported earlier Sunday, Trump wrote, “I would like to thank, thus far, all of the countries of the Middle East for their support and cooperation, which will be further enhanced and strengthened by their joining the Nations of the historic Abraham Accords.”

“And, who knows, perhaps the Islamic Republic of Iran would like to join, as well!” he added.

This would require Iran to recognize Israel, something it has refused to do since the fall of the Shah in 1979. Middle East analysts do not believe the current regime would be willing to do so; it would take a change of regime for something like that to happen.

Separately, President Donald Trump said Sunday that he told his negotiators not to rush into a deal with Iran, while keeping the blockade in place. He said that given Iran’s obfuscations, it may take days to finalize a deal.

While both sides signaled forward movement on the deal, Iran’s nuclear issues remain a thorny problem. The current framework includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz and a 60-day ceasefire while discussions of Iran’s nuclear program remain ongoing.

“There is still back and forth on specific details. Some words we care about, some words they care about,” a U.S. official said. “Our understanding is that the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has endorsed the broad template of the deal. Whether this becomes an agreement is still an open question.”

Israel’s next major housing lottery has turned into something bigger than a real estate program. It is now a test of what the state rewards after years of war, those who left jobs, businesses, studies and families to serve.

The Israel Land Council has approved a split in the 11th “Dira BeHanacha” lottery, the government’s flagship discounted-housing program. Instead of launching one broad lottery for the entire eligible public, the first round will offer roughly 4,000 apartments to IDF reservists only, with about half of those reserved for combat reservists. A second round of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 additional apartments is expected to open later to the wider eligible public, once the state receives and processes the necessary IDF data.

For Israelis trying to buy their first home, “Dira BeHanacha” can be life-changing. Winners do not receive a free apartment. They receive the right to buy a new apartment in a participating project at a government-discounted price, often saving hundreds of thousands of shekels compared with the open market. In a country where young couples are squeezed by high prices, expensive mortgages and limited supply in central areas, that lottery ticket can become the difference between renting indefinitely and entering the ownership market.

The current round includes nearly 8,000 apartments across 19 cities and communities, including high-demand and strategic markets such as Ashdod, Rishon LeZion, Rehovot, Kfar Saba, Ma’ale Adumim, Kiryat Gat, Hadera, Nahariya, Eilat and others. Some of the largest allocations are outside Tel Aviv’s core, including Ma’ale Adumim, Kiryat Gat and Kfar Saba, showing how the state is using discounted housing not only as a welfare tool, but also as a way to shape where young Israeli families put down roots.

The mechanism is simple on paper and extremely competitive in practice. Eligible applicants first need a valid certificate of eligibility, then register through the official lottery system. They may generally register for up to three cities and for all participating projects in those cities. If they win, they wait for the project to advance, receive a summons from the developer, choose an apartment according to lottery order and sign a purchase contract. The catch is timing: many projects are still years away from delivery, and winners usually cannot sell the apartment freely for five years from Form 4 occupancy approval or seven years from the lottery win, whichever comes first.

The political earthquake behind this round is the High Court ruling on draft evaders. The court ordered the state to stop granting major financial benefits to Haredi yeshiva students who are legally required to serve but have not reported for military service. Housing was one of the most significant benefits on the table because the discount can be worth enormous sums. That ruling forced the government to rework the lottery rules, delaying the launch and pushing the state to create a screening process tied to military-service status.

view of Kiryat Shmona from Manara cliffs.

The result is a rare housing policy shift with moral weight. For years, Israelis complained that “Dira BeHanacha” felt like a real estate lottery that rewarded luck more than contribution. This time, the state is explicitly moving reservists to the front of the line. Under the current rules, reservists who served at least 60 days under emergency call-up orders from October 7 onward are expected to receive priority, with combat reservists receiving an additional edge within the reservist allocation.

For the broader market, this will not solve Israel’s housing crisis. It will not suddenly make Tel Aviv affordable, and it will not erase the pressure of mortgage rates, construction costs or years of underbuilt supply in key areas. The Bank of Israel’s benchmark rate remains at 4%, while the latest CBS-linked housing data still shows a choppy market: monthly prices rose slightly after recent declines, but annual prices remain lower in several areas.

But for thousands of families, this round matters. It gives reservists a real financial advantage in a market where “thank you for your service” is usually cheaper than actual policy. And it sends a clear message: after a war that pulled entire households into national service, housing benefits are no longer just about income and luck. They are also about who showed up.

Alex Miller, a 23-year-old former IDF combat soldier originally from the United States, died in an apparent suicide after struggling with post-traumatic stress linked to his military service, according to Israeli reports and the Katzrin municipality, where his father Danny lives. Miller served in the Kfir Brigade and, as his father’s only child, required special parental approval to enter combat service. He insisted on it anyway.

In 2022, while serving in Judea & Samaria, Miller was moderately wounded in a car-ramming terror attack near the Nabi Musa training area, south of Jericho. Police and the IDF said the Palestinian attacker first rammed soldiers near Nabi Musa, then continued toward Almog Junction, where he struck a bus stop before being shot by a police officer and an armed civilian. Five IDF soldiers were wounded, two moderately and three lightly.

Miller went through rehabilitation, but according to the Katzrin municipality, he pushed himself back into uniform and returned to his unit to serve alongside the soldiers he loved. The municipality described him as “brave” and “values-driven,” a young man with a huge heart who chose combat service out of real love for the country.

But the attack was not the only blow. Miller was also deeply shaken by the death of his close friend, Sgt. First Class (res.) Noam Shemesh, 21, from Jerusalem, a squad commander in the Kfir Brigade’s Shimshon Battalion. Shemesh was killed by RPG fire during fighting in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

According to Walla, Miller had been in the United States, reportedly in Miami, where he worked as a security guard and had begun preparing for studies as he tried to build a new life after his discharge. Family friends said the trauma of the attack and the loss of Shemesh weighed heavily on him. His father Danny was quoted saying he had spoken with Alex many times about the attack, but believed “the attack and Noam’s fall broke him.”

The Katzrin municipality said it mourns the “terrible loss” and will stand with Danny Miller and the family. The council is also assisting with efforts to bring Alex home to Israel for burial.

Miller’s death is another reminder that Israel’s wounded do not always leave the battlefield when the shooting stops. Some carry the war quietly, after the headlines move on and after the uniform comes off. For many combat soldiers, the cost of fighting terror is measured not only in the attack itself, but in the years that follow.

For anyone in crisis: in Israel, ERAN can be reached at 1201; in the United States, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

After years of hostility to Israel, Slovenia elected pro-Israel Janez Janša as prime minister, who was sworn in Friday. The leader of the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party had previously served as prime minister from 2004-2008, 2012-2013 and 2020-2022.

Robert Golob, who has just stepped down from the role, governed during a time when Slovenia became one of the European Union countries most hostile toward Israel. During his tenure, Slovenia recognized a Palestinian state, banned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from traveling to the country, imposed an arms embargo on Israel, banned goods produced in the Palestinian territories, sanctioned Israeli officials Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and boycotted Eurovision 2026.

In this grainy video, Janez Janša, standing next to Yossi Dagan, sends his “greetings to the residents of Judea and Samaria.” (From a post on X)

Installing Janša in the highest office in the land brings a dramatic change to the politics surrounding Israel. Janša is a friend of Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, and they recently recorded a video in which Janša says, “I send greetings to the residents of Judea and Samaria,” rather than referring to the territories as the West Bank, a strong political statement of support for Israel.

Janša boasts a long record of support for Israel. He condemned Golob’s recognition of a Palestinian state as illegal, supported Israel’s right to defend itself on many occasions, condemned every Iranian attack on Israel, and denounced antisemitism and support for terror on the Slovenian left.

Some of his pro-Israel and generally philo-semitic statements include the following:

• “We regret that the rockets falling on Israel were also paid for with the help of money ($2 billion) that the Iranian regime laundered in the largest Slovenian state bank, NLB, during the reign of the Tanja Fajon party,” he said in October 2024.
• “Antisemitism has no place anywhere in the world. Our hearts are with the families of the victims, the global Chabad family, and with the Jewish community in Australia and all over the world,” he said after the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia.
• He wished “Chag Pesach Sameach” to the Slovenian community and to Jewish communities around the world this past Passover.

Janša also promised to move the Slovenian embassy to Jerusalem, and political analysts speculate that Slovenian recognition of a Palestinian state will be withdrawn.

After the Oct. 7 massacre, the worst since the Holocaust to befall the Jewish people, CUNY Law’s graduation ceremonies have turned into anti-Israel platforms in which students wave Palestinian flags and signs and chant pro-Gaza slogans.

Thursday’s graduation ceremony was no different. As each student walked on stage, they held up to the audience Palestinian flags and signs with slogans such as “CUNY DIVEST FROM GENOCIDE NOW!,” “JEWS AGAINST GENOCIDE,” “SILENCE = DEATH” and “NONE OF OUR TUITION FOR ISRAEL’S CRIMES.” On the other hand, no American flags were visible.

In the short video clip posted online illustrating this moment, not a single student veered from the terror-supporting script, while the audience whooped and cheered and clapped.

At CUNY Law’s first graduation ceremony following Oct. 7, a student speaker used her platform to heavily criticize Israel. After fierce backlash from then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other public officials, the school condemned the talk as hate speech.

As a result of the controversy, CUNY stopped allowing students to deliver remarks at the graduation ceremony, prompting students to file a lawsuit alleging that CUNY was violating students’ free speech rights.

Multiple news reports surfaced Thursday alleging that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani paid several visits to a Muslim cleric who has engaged in Holocaust denial and celebrated Oct. 7.

Mamdani met with Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani, imam of the Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica, Queens, at least three times in the past year and a half, at one point saying of a visit paid to the mosque, “It feels like returning home to be here.”

Even pro-Israel leaders, however, do not have clean hands in this regard. Former NYC mayors Michael Bloomberg and Eric Adams also visited the cleric with antisemitic leanings.

Al-Sahlani praises Hamas from the pulpit. (Credit: Al-Khoei Islamic Center)

The Iraqi native said in an interview with the New York Sun in January 2006 that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust “has been exaggerated.”

“The numbers which have been mentioned are too much,” Al-Sahlani told Sun reporter Russell Berman. “The numbers, the reasons, we have to study more.” He even supported “Iran’s proposal to hold a conference on the Holocaust in Tehran, saying there is ‘nothing wrong with studying more,'” the Sun reported at the time.

Mamdani and Al-Sahlani shake hands warmly. (From a Facebook post)

The conference, which took place in December 2006 and was called the “International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust,” had been organized by Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and it drew all manner of Holocaust deniers and skeptics, who used it to delegitimize the State of Israel.

“It is a kind of dream,” Al-Sahlani said in response to the Sun reporter’s question about Ahmadinejad’s desire to destroy Israel. “But we have to be realistic. Even we have to accept a fact that we don’t like.”

Mamdani takes the pulpit at Al-Sahlani’s mosque. (YouTube screengrab)

Fast forward to November 2023, shortly after the worst massacre to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Al-Sahlani celebrated the actual attempted genocide of Israelis.

“One movement can make a great change,” he said in a sermon. “What we are witnessing is that one movement, Hamas, has made a big difference not only for the Arab Muslim world, but the whole world, the whole world, mashallah [Allah has willed it].”

The White House now says an Iran deal is not expected immediately, with a senior U.S. official telling Axios that approval from Tehran’s leadership could take several days, including signoff from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. U.S. officials are still signaling optimism, but the agreement is not final and could still fall apart.  

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 19: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during speeches at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on February 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. Assembled to raise money for the rebuilding and stabilization of Gaza, Trump’s Board of Peace was formally established on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in January of 2026. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump is tapping the brakes in public. He says he told his representatives not to rush, warning that both sides must “take their time and get it right,” while keeping the U.S. blockade on Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz in place until a deal is reached, certified and signed.  

The biggest danger remains unresolved: Iran’s nuclear program. Reuters reports that a senior Iranian source says Tehran has not agreed to ship out its highly enriched uranium stockpile and insists the nuclear file is not part of the current preliminary framework.  

That is the issue Israel will watch most closely. A short-term deal could reduce escalation and ease pressure on global energy markets, but without removing Iran’s enriched uranium and blocking the regime’s path to a bomb, it risks becoming a pause that lets Tehran regroup instead of a real end to the threat.

A video circulating online shows a white nationalist wearing a T-shirt that says “Whites Against Replacement” harassing a Jewish man. Using obscenities, he pokes fun at the man’s appearance, calls him “Jew” using the word as an epithet, and tells him to “go to Israel.”

The exhortation to go to Israel is interesting in light of the fact that both extremes of the right and left are united on “Free Palestine” ideology.

LANGUAGE WARNING

A police officer stands in the background, watching quietly. At one point, the Jewish man engages with the police officer, but at no point does the officer attempt to stop the verbal assault.

Is this free speech? The answer is not so simple. Abusive speech directed at an individual, such as name calling, offensive and vulgar language and personal insults, is classified as “fighting words,” words that by design provoke a physical reaction and cause a fight. Fighting words are not protected under the First Amendment.

General insults directed at a crowd of people fall outside of this narrow classification, but it’s clear from the video that one person is directly targeted by “fighting words.”

If anyone knows the people in the video and a good lawyer, this is grounds for a lawsuit.

A man was charged in the Shavuot assault on two Jewish men outside Beis Gavriel synagogue in the London neighborhood of Hendon.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that 25-year-old Daniel Nikzamir, of Sunningfields Road in Hendon, was charged with two counts of racially or religiously aggravated assault by beating, one count of assault by beating, and religiously aggravated criminal damage and criminal damage.

The attack occurred on May 21 at about 9 p.m., when the attacker assaulted the visibly Jewish men. Police arrived within 10 minutes and arrested the assailant, who had been detained by bystanders until help could arrive.

While no serious injuries were reported, one of the men sustained minor cuts and bruises after a punch to the face broke his glasses, according to a member of the synagogue speaking to the Daily Mail.

Nikzamir, who carries a German passport but may also be Iranian, appeared for a court hearing Saturday at Willesden Magistrate’s Court. After pleading not guilty, he was released on bail and is scheduled for another hearing at Harrow Crown Court on June 22.

According to police, just since March, 90 hate crime arrests have been made in London alone, 70 of which targeted Jews. As a result of the spike in assaults against Jews and Jewish-owned businesses and places of worship, a team of 100 police officers, including officers trained in counterterrorism, has been dispatched to London’s Jewish neighborhoods to patrol the areas and provide protection.

“Incidents of this nature rightly cause concern in the community,” said Detective Superintendent Will Lexton-Jones of the Metropolitan Police. “We continue to offer support to local residents, particularly to the two men who were victims of this alleged attack.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently blasted Israel over the Gaza flotilla, writing:

“Israel is once again violating international law by assaulting a civilian flotilla in waters that do not belong to it.

Our Government is doing everything necessary to protect and assist the detained Spaniards.

But that is not enough. The EU must suspend the association agreement NOW and demand that Netanyahu comply with the law of our seas.”

Yet in an irony many online called almost unbelievable unless their was video to prove it, Spanish Gaza flotilla activists were themselves reportedly beaten, dragged, and forcibly removed by police after blocking arrival gates at Spain’s Bilbao Airport in northern Spain while staging photo opportunities following their return from Israel.

According to reports, officers moved in to clear the area after several activists allegedly became aggressive and resisted police attempts to disperse the crowd. Videos circulating online appear to show tense confrontations, with some activists physically dragged away by officers during the clashes. The activists had been part of the Gaza bound flotilla intercepted by Israel earlier this week.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez

The irony quickly exploded online, with critics pointing out that if video footage of the Spanish incident did not exist, many would have dismissed the story as satire. The same Spanish government accusing Israel of “assaulting a civilian flotilla” was now facing backlash after its own police force was seen using physical force against those very activists upon their arrival home.

In a tongue in cheek response, Israel’s embassy mocked the outrage often directed at Israel by posting: “We demand an explanation from the Spanish government regarding its treatment of the flotilla anarchists.”

Will we see the same international condemnation that politicians rushed to direct at Israel? Of course not. Because when there are no Jews to blame, suddenly there is far less outrage and far less media attention.

President Donald Trump is reportedly nearing a major agreement with Iran that could temporarily halt escalating tensions in the region while opening the door to broader negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

According to multiple reports, the proposed framework would begin with a 60 day memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran. During that period, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and remove naval mines that have disrupted international shipping lanes, while the U.S. would ease certain sanctions and allow Iran to resume oil exports.

An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) speed boat is sailing along the Persian Gulf near a general cargo vessel during the IRGC marine parade in commemoration of the Persian Gulf National Day, near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the seaport city of Bushehr, Bushehr province, in the south of Iran, on April 29, 2024. The Persian Gulf National Day, which celebrates the expulsion of the Portuguese from the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf in 1622 by the Safavid forces led by Imam Quli Khan under the command of Shah Abbas I, is observed on the 10th of Ordibehesht in the Iranian calendar, typically falling in late April or early May. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The agreement has not yet been finalized and officials caution it could still collapse at the last minute. However, both American and regional mediators are said to be pushing for a formal announcement as early as Sunday.

Sources familiar with the negotiations say the deal is built around what Trump officials describe as “relief for performance,” meaning Iran would only receive additional economic benefits if it follows through on its commitments.

As part of the draft understanding, Iran would reportedly pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons and enter negotiations regarding its uranium enrichment program and stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. American officials insist any permanent sanctions relief would depend on verifiable compliance.

An Iran-made ballistic missile, Martyr Qassem, is displayed during a rally commemorating the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution’s victory in Azadi (Freedom) Square in western Tehran, Iran, on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The proposed arrangement would also impact the wider region. The draft reportedly includes terms aimed at ending the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have expressed concerns during a phone conversation with President Trump, particularly over security implications and Hezbollah’s future behavior.

One U.S. official reportedly emphasized that Israel would still retain the right to act militarily if Hezbollah attempted to rearm or launch attacks during the ceasefire period.

Trump reportedly consulted several Arab and Muslim leaders over the weekend, with sources saying many expressed support for the initiative.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – APRIL 11: U.S. Vice President JD Vance (C) walks with Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir (L), and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officials on April 11, 2026 at Islamabad, Pakistan. The proposed meeting marks a rare direct engagement between senior U.S. and Iranian officials, as Washington and Tehran seek to advance stalled negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, with Pakistan serving as neutral ground amid persistent tensions between the two countries. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin – Pool/Getty Images)

The White House believes Iran’s worsening economic crisis could pressure Tehran into making broader concessions in exchange for sanctions relief and access to frozen funds.

Administration officials say President Trump remains open to dramatically improving relations with Iran if Tehran abandons its nuclear weapons ambitions, arguing that Iran’s economic potential could be “huge” under a new relationship with the United States.

The negotiations remain fluid and no final agreement has yet been signed.

Republican leaders Saturday criticized the Trump administration’s possible move to sign a memorandum of understanding with Iran to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. While President Donald Trump did not mention Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran reportedly said that the current talks did not address nuclear issues.

In a strongly worded post on X, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the consequences of such a deal could pose a “nightmare for Israel.”

“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 dominate [sic] 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.”

Pushing back on the idea that Iran should be allowed to hold such leverage over the region, he added, “It is important we get this right.”

The Senate Republicans’ X account and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) reposted Graham’s statement.

Other leading Republicans joined their voices to the growing chorus of criticism.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” posted Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

“Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!” he warned.

Already on Friday, Wicker was posting his reservations on X, accusing Trump’s advisers of leading him to poor decisions on the conflict.

“We are at a moment that will define President Trump’s legacy,” he wrote. “His instincts have been to finish the job he started in Iran, but he is being ill advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on.”

“Our commander-in-chief needs to allow America’s skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait,” he continued. “Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness.”

“We must finish what we started. It is past time for action,” he concluded.

Ted Cruz said he was concerned about the reports on the deal and “prayed” they were wrong.

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

Cruz also said that Trump, who “believes in peace through strength,” should continue to “enforce the red lines he has repeatedly drawn.”

The U.S. Secret Service confirmed that a man who opened fire near the White House on Saturday evening was shot and killed after agents returned fire during the attack.

According to the official Secret Service statement, the suspect pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue shortly after 6 p.m. Secret Service officers immediately engaged the gunman, striking him during the exchange. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect has been identified by multiple reports as 21 year old Nasire Best.

Authorities say one bystander was struck by gunfire during the incident. No Secret Service officers were injured, and President Donald Trump was inside the White House at the time but was never in danger.

Disturbing new details reveal the suspect had reportedly been detained by Secret Service on at least two prior occasions in 2025 after allegedly making threats and entering restricted areas near the White House. Despite those encounters, he was released both times before returning Saturday armed with a handgun.

The incident remains under investigation.

France has barred Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering French territory after videos showed him confronting detained Global Sumud Flotilla activists, turning Israel’s blockade-enforcement operation into a new diplomatic clash with Europe.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the move followed Ben-Gvir’s “unspeakable actions” toward French and European citizens aboard the flotilla. He also pushed for EU sanctions, while still saying Paris disapproves of the flotilla’s approach, calling it ineffective and a burden on diplomatic and consular services. Poland has already imposed a five-year entry ban on Ben-Gvir.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks to bystanders as he walks to the site of a reported attack in a settler neighborhood in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem on January 27, 2023. – At least seven people were killed in a shooting outside a synagogue in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Friday January 27, 2023, with the gunman killed at the scene, police and medics said.
“Earlier this evening at around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT), a terrorist arrived at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov boulevard in Jerusalem and proceeded to shoot at a number of people in the area,” a police statement said. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

The footage showed detainees kneeling or lying on the ground with their hands restrained as Ben-Gvir waved an Israeli flag, shouted “Am Yisrael Chai,” and Israel’s national anthem played. The flotilla included about 50 boats and roughly 430 activists trying to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza before being intercepted by the Israeli Navy hundreds of kilometers off Israel’s coast.

Israel’s position is that the flotilla was not a humanitarian mission but a Hamas-serving provocation against a lawful naval blockade. Israeli officials said the foreign activists were deported, while detainees later alleged mistreatment; Israel’s prison service denied assault claims.

Prime Minister Netanyahu defended Israel’s right to stop “provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,” but publicly rebuked Ben-Gvir’s handling of the detainees as not in line with Israel’s values and norms.

The result, Israel stopped the flotilla, but Ben-Gvir handed hostile governments and media a cleaner target. France is now trying to turn the episode into a broader European sanctions push, while Israel is left separating the legitimacy of enforcing the blockade from the political damage caused by the video.

A senior Iran-backed Iraqi militia operative now in U.S. custody was reportedly plotting to assassinate Ivanka Trump as part of a revenge campaign over the killing of Qasem Soleimani, according to reporting first published by the New York Post. The alleged target was not random: Ivanka is the daughter of President Trump, whose administration carried out the strike that killed Soleimani, the IRGC-Quds Force chief, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Kata’ib Hezbollah leader, near Baghdad in 2020.

MIAMI, FLORIDA – MAY 02: (L-R) Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump attend Amex x CARBONE BEACH 2026 in Miami Beach, FL on May 02, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by John Parra/Getty Images for Amex x Carbone Beach)

According to the report, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi posted a map of Ivanka’s Florida home and issued threats in Arabic suggesting surveillance had begun and revenge was only a matter of time.

Al-Saadi speaks to his mentor, Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

The Ivanka allegation sits on top of a much larger federal terrorism case. The Justice Department says Al-Saadi, 32, is an Iraqi national and senior member of Kata’ib Hizballah, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, and that he operated with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He has been charged by federal complaint with six terrorism-related offenses tied to “nearly 20 attacks and attempted attacks” across Europe and the United States. He was transferred into U.S. custody overseas, brought before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan and ordered detained pending trial.

Al-Saadi posed by a missile and posted the picture to social media alongside a message saying it would be fired to “pound the strongholds of Zionism.”

Federal filings describe Al-Saadi not as a fringe online radical, but as a figure embedded inside Iran’s proxy architecture. The complaint says he worked closely with Soleimani and al-Muhandis, maintained relationships with other U.S.-designated terrorist leaders, and used Snapchat, Telegram and X accounts to promote the agendas of Kata’ib Hizballah and the IRGC. Investigators say his accounts featured photos of him with Soleimani, including at what appeared to be a military-related facility with maps and equipment.

Mohammad Baqer Al-Saadi allegedly used a religious travel agency he ran as a cover for plotting terrorist strikes around the world.

The alleged campaign was not limited to threats against the Trump family. Prosecutors say Al-Saadi and associates used a front called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, described in the complaint as a component of Kata’ib Hizballah, to claim or promote attacks against U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets. The case file lists a synagogue bombing in Liège, an explosives attack near a Jewish school in Amsterdam, an attack on a Bank of New York Mellon building in Amsterdam, arson against Hatzalah ambulances in London, attacks on Jewish targets in Belgium and the United Kingdom, and the stabbing of two Jewish men in London, one of them a dual U.S.-British citizen.

The U.S. plot, according to prosecutors, was already operational. Al-Saadi allegedly asked an FBI source for someone who could carry out attacks in America, was introduced to an undercover law-enforcement officer posing as a Mexican cartel member, and then sent photographs and maps of a prominent New York synagogue as well as Jewish centers in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona. Prosecutors say he discussed whether to use an IED or fire, agreed to pay $10,000 in cryptocurrency, and sent an initial $3,000 payment for the New York synagogue attack. In one recorded exchange, he pressed for speed: “I wanna see good news tonight.”

That is what makes the Ivanka report so significant. It fits a pattern Washington has been warning about for years: Iran and its proxies turning Soleimani “revenge” into plots against American officials, Jews and Israeli-linked targets far from the Middle East. The Justice Department previously charged an IRGC member in a murder-for-hire plot against former National Security Advisor John Bolton, saying the plot was likely retaliation for Soleimani’s killing.

Mohammad Baquer Al-Saadi posing with an artillery weapon in a picture he posted online.

A bizarre and dangerous incident unfolded in Jericho after six Israeli citizens reportedly rented a villa in the center of the PA-controlled city, placing themselves in serious danger.

According to an initial investigation, Palestinian residents living nearby heard shouting in Hebrew and passed the information to security officials. Civil Administration officers from the Jordan Valley Coordination and Liaison Administration then moved to provide immediate protection and coordinate the Israelis’ extraction with security forces.

The six Israelis were removed from the city and handed over to Israeli security forces. Police in the Judea & Samaria District have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.

Security officials are again warning Israelis: entering Area A is illegal under Israeli law and can be life-threatening.

The incident comes the same day that 23 Israelis were extracted from Nablus in a separate Area A incident.

The United States Treasury announced Wednesday that it had lifted sanctions on U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese following a court order from a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in a ruling that critics are characterizing as shameful.

Albanese has been widely criticized for what critics say are inflammatory antisemitic comments, posts and letters. After she described Israel as the common enemy of humanity in a video address at an Al Jazeera forum in Qatar, even France, along with Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, called for her resignation from the United Nations. Nevertheless, the U.N., despite repeated calls to strip her of her titles, maintains that she is an “independent expert” and the organization does not tell her what to say.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon. (Credit: United States District Court)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had imposed sanctions on Albanese in July 2025.

“Today I am imposing sanctions on U.N. Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt International Criminal Court action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X at the time.

“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” he added. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

But the judge ruled that the sanctions violated Albanese’s First Amendment rights, which do not extend to non-citizens or non-residents. Albanese is neither a citizen nor a resident of the United States.

Albanese “has done nothing more than speak,” he declared. “It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions. They are nothing more than her opinion.” 

Leon further argued that the exception for parental transactions regarding her American-born daughter is vaguely worded.

“It is not clear from the record before me how plaintiffs would distinguish between necessary and unnecessary transactions in the context of their family relationships,” he wrote.

Turkish Airlines aircraft landed Thursday at Ramon Airport to transport activists detained after Israeli forces intercepted the Hamas-linked “Global Sumud Flotilla” attempting to breach the naval blockade on Gaza.

Footage from the airport showed detainees, dressed in gray prison uniforms, being escorted onto the planes under heavy security. Reports from the scene said several activists refused to cooperate and clashed with personnel during the transfer process.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the operation marked “the end of another media flotilla,” adding that the mission was “a public relations provocation serving Hamas propaganda interests.”

Israeli officials reiterated that the naval blockade on Gaza remains in effect under international law and said security forces will continue preventing unauthorized attempts to reach the Strip by sea.

Zohar Chamberlain Regev, who was the only activist held back by Israel after the release of some 430 Gaza flotilla activists, was released Thursday under certain conditions.

The Jewish, Israeli-born woman converted to Islam at an unspecified point in her life, after working for years as an activist on behalf of Arabs in Gaza. She said in a 2024 interview that overcoming her atheism to join Islam presented an obstacle, but she cleared that hurdle with her mother’s support.

The Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court ordered her release after she signed an agreement to self-report to police on demand, adhere to a ban to visit Gaza for 60 days, and agree to a self-guarantee of NIS 5,000.

Police had sought harsher penalties in the form of a 184-day Gaza ban and paying down a deposit of NIS 5,000.

Regev’s lawyer, Hadeel Abu Saleh, argued that the arrest was unlawful, as Regev was detained at gunpoint in international waters on a Polish-registered boat. She argued that because the arrest had been carried out without proper authority, the court could not lawfully impose restrictions. She also claimed that Regev, who had gone on a hunger strike, had been abused in detention, particularly in regard to her hijab.

Initially, Regev was arrested for “infiltration” under the Prevention of Infiltration Law, which was later clarified at her court hearing as “attempted infiltration.” The police filing was considered flawed after inconsistencies were found between the stated reason for her detention and the description of where the offense occurred.

For this reason, Judge Talmor Peres criticized the filing. Nevertheless, she conceded that there was reasonable suspicion that Regev had committed the offenses she was charged with.

The judge ordered Regev’s release with the restrictions listed above, which were lighter than police recommendations.

Israel has released hundreds of the Gaza flotilla activists, who are in the process of being deported. Human rights group Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, confirmed that they were taken to Ramon Airport in the southern city of Eilat, from where they will be flown back to their countries of origin. Turkey sent airplanes to pick up some 85 Turkish activists who participated in what critics are calling a publicity stunt.

Israel is holding back one participant, Zohar Regev, who holds Israeli citizenship and has participated in previous flotillas, for illegal entry and unlawful stay. A court hearing is being held Thursday.

A commander commends his troops for their execution of the detention of the Gaza flotilla activists. (From a post on X)

Adala pushed back against the detention, calling the charges “absurd” and “unfounded and contradictory accusations,” as Regev was “forcefully abducted” and “brought into Israeli territory entirely against her will,” though it has not clarified the connection between its characterization of the charges and Regev’s detention, which by its nature is involuntary. It has also not provided evidence that the charges are baseless.

The release of the activists follows a sharp rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, who taunted activists while they were handcuffed and kneeling on the deck of a ship. The spectacle created a massive PR headache for Israel as several countries summoned their Israeli envoys to protest the act, which Netanyahu said was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms.”

Gabriel Shohet’s sin was his membership in the WJC, and simply being Jewish.

Together with his college roommate Eirik Holth, Shohet founded a global chain of coffee shops called Black Sheep Coffee, starting in London and expanding outward, with more than 120 locations across the globe, including the United States. He was once a member of the World Jewish Congress, when he advocated for the Jewish people and fought against antisemitism.

A protest at a Black Sheep café disrupted patrons enjoying their coffee, as a woman with a megaphone marched through the restaurant shouting that the café is Zionist and the coffee is “Palestinian blood.” After her tirade was over, she was joined by her companion in chanting, “Boycott Black Sheep.”

In a bold move reminiscent of the audacious capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the United States Department of Justice indicted former Cuban president Raúl Castro on charges of murder and conspiracy to kill Americans related to the downing of two American planes over the waters off the Cuban coast on Feb. 24, 1996. The incident resulted in the deaths of three Americans and one Cuban national.

If convicted, the 94-year-old faces the maximum penalty of life in prison and the possibility of a similar operation to remove him from Cuba as the one conducted to bring Maduro to the United States to face justice. Five fighter pilots who participated in the incident are also named in the grand jury indictment.

The indictment comes amid rising tensions between the two countries as President Donald Trump seeks to topple the regime.

(Credit: The White House)

The downed planes belonged to a group called Brothers to the Rescue that searched the sea off Cuba’s coast for people fleeing the Communist country who needed to be rescued. Fidel Castro took responsibility for the mission at the time, claiming the group was dropping anti-regime leaflets on Cuban territory to subvert his government. As one of “the final decision makers,” his brother Raúl Castro is named in the indictment.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Trump administration would hold those who took American lives accountable.

“My message today is clear,” he said. “The United States and President Trump does not — and will not — forget its citizens.”

He did not, however, answer questions about the possibility of U.S. military action to extract the former Cuban leader in the manner of Maduro, saying the final decision for such action rests with the president. Trump also deflected the question, saying “I don’t want to say that” in response to reporters’ questions Wednesday.

The Cuban government pushed back in a statement.

“It is highly cynical for this accusation to be made by the very same government that has murdered nearly 200 people and destroyed 57 vessels in international waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific, far from United States territory, through the disproportionate use of military force,” it said.

The shooters at the Islamic Center of San Diego who killed three people Monday before turning their fire on themselves left behind a manifesto that investigators believe is authentic.

Caleb Vasquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, called their 75- page manifesto “The New Crusade: Sons of Tarrant,” a reference to Brenton Tarrant, the mass murderer who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, seven years ago.

The teens jotted down antisemitic and racist ideas and lauded mass murderers of Jews, such as Adolf Hitler and Robert Bowers, the Tree of Life synagogue shooter. They said they wanted to “kick start the race war,” riding the “momentum” they believed Tarrant started.

The killers livestreamed their attack. (From a post on X)

“What’s the plan? Blitzkrieg,” the document states. “Cause as much death and destruction to the system and the invaders as efficiently and quickly as possible with a diverse selection of targets.”

The text outlined a plot to target three locations, kill as many people as possible, spread their ideology and die in the attacks. They hoped to target Jews, Muslims, blacks and immigrants and blamed Jews for all the ills of the world.

Reporters ask questions about the shooting at a press conference. (From a post on X)

“It’s the Jews,” they wrote in all capital letters under a section entitled “The Universal Enemy.” “For any sane man seeing all this, the only logical solution would be to just kill them all.”

They also called for the assassination of President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.

“Yes, I am inciting violence from the left, because as an accelerationist I know that it takes all sides opening fire to cause that much desired societal collapse,” they wrote regarding attacks on the White House administration.

The attack is being investigated as a hate crime.

A Jewish woman testified to the Australian Royal Commission into Antisemitism, led by Virginia Bell, that she was asked to change her name at work.

She said that her manager raised concerns about the particular “sensitivities” of an external stakeholder regarding Israel, asking her to change her name so as not to ruin the company’s prospects of a commercial partnership.

He said that her “identifiably Jewish name could potentially add some complexity to the relationship and to that partnership, and it could, in turn, potentially have negative commercial outcomes,” she explained to the commission.

When she escalated that up the chain of command, the CEO concurred with her manager and requested that she change her name as well.

The Royal Commission, which is Australia’s highest investigative body, was tasked with investigating the rise in antisemitism that has rocked the Australian Jewish community, particularly following the massacre at Bondi Beach during a Chanukah celebration that claimed 15 lives and injured dozens more.

The commission has since learned that in the first year following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Jews in Australia endured 2,062 antisemitic incidents and that Jewish parents feared sending their children to school.

A man was stabbed to death outside a synagogue in front of his 13-year-old son Wednesday. The two had been studying together in a kollel study hall inside the synagogue before the incident occurred.

The 45-year-old father was treated at the site by emergency responders and then taken to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer with critical injuries but was later pronounced dead by the medical staff.

The attacker fled the scene, and police are searching the area for the suspect. The Dan Precinct’s crime-fighting unit has been assigned to oversee the investigation.

This video posted to X shows the search for the murderer.

A four-year-old Jewish child died after being left in a hot vehicle for hours Tuesday.

The child, who belonged to a Haredi family in Valley Village in Los Angeles, Calif., was being driven to school as part of a regular transportation route, but remained in the car at drop-off. The driver, believing the car was empty, parked the vehicle and left.

The fatal error was only discovered when the mother came to pick her up and was told that her child had not attended school that day. Emergency responders rushed to the scene to free the trapped child, who had been unable to free herself and get out of the car, but by then it was too late.

This incident follows other such tragic accidents of small children and babies left in hot cars to perish. To prevent such tragedies, safety experts recommend putting a personal safety item in the back that must be retrieved upon arrival, reminding the driver of backseat passengers. Other preventive measures include performing a head count and installing an alert system on car seats.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa accepted with good humor and grace the bottles of fragrance President Donald Trump sent him, “in case you ran out!”

When al-Sharaa visited the White House in November 2025, Trump made headlines by spraying him and Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, with his private cologne brand, “Victory 47-45,” which he then gifted the president and his wife, Latifa al-Droubi, after asking him how many wives he had.

“Some meetings leave an impression; ours apparently left a fragrance,” al-Sharaa posted on X Tuesday with a photo of Trump’s gift and the note it arrived with.

“Thank you, Mr. President, for your generosity and for topping up this precious gift,” he added. “May the spirit of that meeting continue to shape a stronger relationship between Syria and the United States.”

Trump’s note read: “They’re all talking about the picture we took when I gave you this great cologne — Just in case you ran out!”

Trump has accepted the new leader with enthusiasm, despite the reservations of many in the United States and Israel due to al-Sharaa’s jihadist past. He greeted him at the White House last November in a historic first visit by a Syrian president to the White House since 1946. Trump praised the Syrian president, calling him “handsome” and saying he ushered in a new era of hope to the Middle East.

⚠️ Despite the ongoing ceasefire restrictions in northern Israel, fighting continues in southern Lebanon.

The IDF says Col. Meir Biderman, commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, was seriously wounded after an explosive drone struck a building where he was staying in southern Lebanon.

A reserve combat officer was moderately wounded in the same attack, while another soldier sustained light injuries. Earlier in the day, several explosive drone incidents and clashes with Hezbollah terrorists were also reported in the area.

Despite the escalation, there has been no change to Israel’s current fire restrictions in the north.

A 16-year-old male was lightly injured in an attempted car ramming attack in the Samarian town of Ofra. Jewish and Arab residents had allegedly been involved in a dispute when an Arab man got into his car and attempted to run them over before escaping.

The military said it received a report about the incident in the Binyamin area and immediately dispatched troops to search the area. The incident appears to have been precipitated by an argument between the two groups of residents.

The man remains at large and a manhunt is underway to catch and detain him.

A bombshell New York Times report Wednesday revealed that Israel had planned to initiate a regime change with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the helm of the new government.

Ahmadinejad had found himself increasingly at odds with the Iranian regime, which he accused of corruption, and his aides were arrested while he was placed under house arrest. Nevertheless, his past hardline rhetoric against Israel and the United States is well-documented, having vowed to “wipe Israel off the map,” supported the nuclear program, cracked down harshly on protesters, and been a long-time foe of the United States, making him a strange choice for leader.

In this undated video, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explains Iran’s position regarding Israel to Piers Morgan. (From a post on X)

A strike on his house in Tehran that was meant to kill the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps bodyguards, who both guarded his home and enforced his house arrest, and to free Ahmadinejad from house arrest succeeded in killing the guards but also injured the former president, who became disillusioned with the plan. He has not been seen or heard from since.

While a Mossad spokesperson declined to comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly responded to a request for comment on the Israeli regime change plan.

“From the outset, President Trump was clear about his goals for Operation Epic Fury: destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles, dismantle their production facilities, sink their navy, and weaken their proxy,” she said. “The United States military met or exceeded all of its objectives, and now, our negotiators are working to make a deal that would end Iran’s nuclear capabilities for good.”

The Orthodox Jewish community in Queens is reeling after a longtime kosher bakery owner and former volunteer medic was found murdered near a lakeside area in Flushing.

Authorities say 75 year old Albert “Avromi” Itzkowitz was discovered Monday evening near Kissena Lake after officers responded to the area shortly before 5 p.m. According to police, he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including injuries to his neck and back, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators have not yet determined when the shooting took place or how long the body had been near the water before it was located.

Itzkowitz was widely known in the local Jewish community. In addition to operating the once popular G&I Kosher Bakery in Flushing for many years, he had also volunteered with Hatzolah, the volunteer emergency response organization that serves Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

Albert Itzkowitz

Community members described the former bakery owner as a familiar face to generations of customers who frequented the Main Street establishment before it eventually closed.

Police have not released any information regarding possible suspects or a motive, and investigators continue working to piece together the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting.

The case remains under active investigation by the NYPD.

A dollar a day is helping power Israel’s lifesaving first responders

United Hatzalah founder Eli Beer hosted Dr. Jonathan Donath and the Daily Giving board at the organization’s Jerusalem headquarters, spotlighting a partnership built around one simple model: thousands of Jews giving small daily donations that add up to real impact. Beer said Daily Giving now has more than 20,000 people giving just $1 a day and thanked the group for supporting United Hatzalah’s lifesaving work.    

Daily Giving pools those small gifts and sends the money to vetted Jewish nonprofits. The organization says donors can start with as little as $1 a day, and that 100% of Daily Givers’ donations go to beneficiaries, with operations covered separately by private donors.  

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For United Hatzalah, that kind of steady grassroots support matters. The Israeli emergency medical service operates 24/7, free of charge, with more than 8,600 active volunteers and a 90-second response goal across Israel.  

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Jewish music star Mordechai Shapiro was also seen with the group, with Beer noting his involvement in Daily Giving. A small daily act, multiplied by thousands, is becoming a serious engine for saving lives in Israel.

The shekel is trading around ₪2.90 to the dollar, the lowest level since 1993. For an American family trying to buy in Jerusalem, Netanya, Beit Shemesh or Tel Aviv, this is major. A $1 million budget at ₪3.60 bought ₪3.6 million. At ₪2.90, it buys about ₪2.91 million. That is a loss of roughly ₪692,000 in buying power before the buyer even negotiates, hires a lawyer, pays tax or speaks to a mortgage broker.

That is what makes the Israeli housing market so strange right now. On paper, buyers finally have leverage. The latest CBS-based housing data showed apartment prices rising 0.3% month over month, but still down 1.2% year over year. New apartment prices rose slightly, but excluding subsidized government deals, new-home prices actually fell, and were down 3.8% annually. The national average apartment price stood around ₪2.33 million, while Tel Aviv averaged ₪4.59 million, Herzliya ₪3.85 million, Jerusalem ₪3.1 million, Be’er Sheva ₪1.24 million, Ashkelon ₪1.64 million and Haifa ₪1.8 million.

For dollar buyers, though, a modest Israeli price drop can be wiped out instantly by the exchange rate. A Jerusalem apartment priced at ₪5.1 million costs about $1.75 million at today’s Bank of Israel rate. At ₪3.60 to the dollar, that same apartment would have cost about $1.42 million. Same apartment. Same street. Same seller. A roughly $337,000 difference created by currency alone.

That explains why the American buyer story has changed. A new Finance Ministry analysis found that American passport holders still made up the largest group of foreign buyers in Israel, but their share fell to 49% of foreign purchases in the first quarter, down from about 60% a year earlier. Americans bought 238 apartments, slightly below the 248 they bought in the same period last year, while French purchases jumped from 84 to 130 and British purchases rose from 37 to 57. Government economists directly pointed to the dollar’s 13.6% depreciation against the shekel, compared with a much smaller 4% decline for the euro.

The American map is also revealing. More than half of American purchases were in Jerusalem, where the median foreign-buyer purchase price hit ₪5.1 million. About 60% of the apartments Americans bought in Jerusalem were new homes, with a median price of ₪5.95 million. Netanya overtook Beit Shemesh as the second-most active American-buyer market, while Tel Aviv ranked only fifth among Americans, behind Kiryat Gat.

That matters because this is not a broad “foreigners stopped buying Israel” story. It is more specific. Dollar-based buyers are being squeezed. Euro and pound buyers are seeing a different calculation. French buyers, for example, are buying more modestly priced homes, with an average purchase price of ₪2.8 million, and are spreading into Netanya, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Bat Yam. Americans are still buying, but they are concentrated in expensive markets where every currency move is amplified.

The shekel’s strength is not happening in a vacuum. The Bank of Israel says the shekel strengthened against the dollar, the euro and Israel’s broader trading partners in the first quarter, even as volatility rose during Operation Roaring Lion against Iran. Reuters reported that the shekel has been supported by a weaker global dollar, rising Israeli equities and large foreign investment into Israel. Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir said the central bank is not rushing to intervene, even while acknowledging that markets may be over-optimistic.

That creates a sharp divide. For Israelis earning shekels, the strong currency helps tame import prices and inflation. For exporters and foreign buyers, it hurts. For American Jews who kept money in dollars while planning an eventual Israel purchase, it can feel like the market moved against them even when apartment prices did not.

The irony is that this should be one of the better negotiating environments Israel has offered in years. Developers are sitting on heavy inventory. Ynet, citing Bank of Israel data, reported that contractors held a record 83,400 unsold new apartments at the end of 2025, while apartment purchases fell 12% from the previous year. The same report said 44% of projects financed by Israel’s five largest banks had construction progressing faster than sales, a sign of pressure beneath the surface.

That pressure is visible in the sales tactics. The 80/20 and 90/10 deals that became common in Israel let buyers pay only 10% or 20% upfront and the balance near delivery. Those offers helped developers keep sales moving during the slowdown, but they also created risk: some buyers may now struggle to close, especially if their dollars are worth less, their U.S. home sale is delayed, or their mortgage terms change before delivery.

Still, Israel is not a crash market. It is a compressed market. The country has too many unsold apartments in some places and not enough of the right apartments in others. A Shoresh Institution study cited by The Jerusalem Post found that from 1990 to 2023, household growth outpaced construction starts by about 121,000 apartments, and the gap reached about 272,000 when measured against completed apartments. The deeper problem is not just quantity, but mismatch: Israel keeps building large four- and five-room apartments while more Israelis live in smaller households and need smaller, more affordable units.

Rent tells the same story. Even as purchase prices soften, rents keep rising. Recent data showed rents up 2.6% for tenants renewing leases and 3.6% for new tenants, while residential construction input costs rose 3% over the year, driven partly by a 4.7% increase in labor costs. That combination makes sellers stubborn: if they can rent, wait and avoid cutting too deeply, many will.

Security has also changed the buyer checklist. In March, homes with safe rooms accounted for 65% of secondhand transactions, the highest level recorded since at least early 2024. Investor sales fell sharply, especially in Tel Aviv and Haifa, where many older apartments lack safe rooms. The message is clear: buyers are not only comparing price, view and neighborhood anymore. A mamad can now affect liquidity, resale value and family decision-making.

For Americans, the pressure is doubled by the U.S. side of the equation. Freddie Mac reported the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.36%, while Reuters said the U.S. housing market remains weighed down by elevated borrowing costs, tight entry-level inventory and high home prices. That matters because many Israel buyers do not arrive with idle cash sitting in a shekel account. They are selling a U.S. home, borrowing against assets, liquidating investments or timing a transfer. A slow U.S. sale plus a strong shekel can turn a planned Israel purchase into a moving target.

Tax status can make the gap even wider. Foreign residents are generally treated like Israeli investors for purchase tax, with rates of 8% up to ₪6,055,070 and 10% above that level. Israeli residents buying a sole residence start at lower brackets, and qualifying olim can receive special purchase-tax benefits under updated rules. For an American buyer on a multimillion-shekel purchase, tax planning is not a side issue. It can be a six-figure shekel decision.

MA’ALE ADUMIM, WEST BANK – OCTOBER 16: New houses are seen under construction October 16, 2003 in the Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, West Bank. The first phase of the road map requires Israel to stop confiscating Palestinian land and to freeze all settlement activity. Ma’ale Adumim has grown from 23 families and a few tents and mobile homes in 1975 to nearly 30,000 residents, most of whom commute to work in nearby Jerusalem. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)

So what does this market actually mean?

It does not mean Americans should panic-buy because the shekel is strong. It also does not mean waiting automatically solves the problem. If the dollar rebounds, a buyer who waited may suddenly regain hundreds of thousands of shekels in purchasing power. If the shekel stays strong and Israeli rates fall, local buyers may return, developers may regain confidence and today’s negotiating window may narrow.

The smarter read is that Israeli real estate has split into two markets. In shekel terms, buyers can find softness, especially in parts of the new-build market and in areas where developers need cash flow. In dollar terms, Israel has become dramatically more expensive. That is why some Americans are pausing, some are lowering budgets, some are shifting from Jerusalem to Netanya or Beit Shemesh, and some are deciding that if they are buying Israel for life rather than speculation, the currency pain is the price of certainty.

The best-positioned buyer right now is not the loudest bidder. It is the one who thinks in shekels, negotiates like the market is soft, protects against currency risk, understands tax status before signing and refuses to confuse a lower sticker price with a cheaper deal.

Fallen fathers promised their children the World Cup. Now 110 Israelis are heading to New York.

That is the emotional force behind Fulfilling Dreams’ World Cup 2026 campaign, a volunteer-powered project bringing war orphans, wounded soldiers and returned hostages from Israel to the New York-New Jersey area for the FIFA World Cup. The plan, a 110-person delegation, premium match seats, Broadway shows and a week of moments designed to give people who have carried the unbearable a chance to feel pure joy again. The campaign is listed on Charidy as “2026 World Cup, Fulfill their Dream.”

“Their father promised them the World Cup.”

The videos now being released show why this story lands so hard. Actor and comedian Shalom Michaelashvili surprises Rotem and Roi, the sons of Tal Eilon z”l, and tells them the dream is real, they are flying to America for the World Cup. Tal Eilon, 46, commanded Kfar Aza’s local security team and was killed defending the kibbutz from Hamas terrorists after rushing to protect his home and community. He left behind his wife, Mazi, and three children: Gali, Roi and Rotem.

Another clip opens in the quietest way possible: B’niya being woken up from sleep. Within moments, he is told he will train with Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. and fly to the World Cup. The power of the video is not only the surprise, but the disbelief on his face as the players he dreamed of meeting stand there in front of him.

Then comes the school-gate moment. A boy who had liked another child’s World Cup video had no idea the team was waiting outside his school to tell him he was next. His classmates explode with happiness around him. That reaction may be the most shareable part of the whole campaign: children celebrating another child’s joy without hesitation.

The final emotional anchor is Hagi Avni z”l of Kibbutz Be’eri, a father of five and member of the kibbutz security team who was killed fighting Hamas terrorists. Israeli records say Avni was retroactively recognized as a fallen soldier with the rank of sergeant major in the reserves; the IDF has also named him among the Be’eri defenders whose battle helped save lives during the attack. In the campaign video, the message is simple: their father promised them the World Cup, and now others are stepping in to keep that promise alive.

The World Cup setting makes this even bigger. New York-New Jersey Stadium is set to host eight FIFA World Cup 2026 matches, including the final, with official hospitality offerings built around premium seating and match experiences. For most fans, that is a dream trip. For these children, soldiers and survivors, it is something deeper: a week where the world is not only asking them to be strong.

Hamas terrorists stole fathers, homes and childhoods. This project cannot undo that. But it can do something real. It can show up at a front door, a bedroom, a school gate or a soccer field and tell these children, your father’s promise still matters, your pain has not been forgotten, and your joy is worth fighting for.

Come be part of it and join us 👇

https://charidy.com/worldcup

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing late Tuesday for a major summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, where the two sides are expected to sign around 40 agreements covering trade, energy, investment, and broader strategic cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.

The visit comes just days after Xi hosted U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing, underscoring China’s growing role at the center of global diplomacy amid rising tensions involving Ukraine, Iran, and the global economy.

A major focus of the talks is expected to be the long-delayed “Power of Siberia 2” gas pipeline, a massive project that would send Russian natural gas to China through Mongolia as Moscow continues shifting its energy exports away from Europe following Western sanctions tied to the Ukraine war.

Putin called Russia-China relations a “stabilizing force” and said ties between the two nations have reached an “unprecedented level” of trust and cooperation.

Israel is trying to pull off one of the boldest aviation moves since the Abraham Accords, offering Emirates the right to fly directly from Tel Aviv to New York and Bangkok, without requiring the flights to continue to or from Dubai. The proposal, first reported by Israel’s Channel 12, is being pushed by the Transportation Ministry as Israel’s long-haul market remains squeezed by war-driven cancellations, limited seats and painfully high fares.

The key is a rare “seventh freedom” arrangement. It would allow a foreign airline to operate between two countries that are not its home country, without touching its own territory. Emirates already uses fifth-freedom rights on routes like New York-Milan-Dubai and Newark-Athens-Dubai, but this would go further, Tel Aviv-New York as a standalone Emirates route. That makes the proposal commercially explosive and politically sensitive.

American Airlines has extended its New York-Tel Aviv suspension until January 2027, while United and Delta are not expected back before September, leaving El Al and Arkia as the only direct Israel-U.S. options. El Al is currently operating about six daily New York flights, while Arkia flies the route six days a week. For travelers, that means fewer choices and higher prices on one of the most important routes in the Jewish world.

Emirates itself has not flown to Israel since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, but the UAE’s broader aviation connection to Israel never disappeared. Flydubai and Etihad continued operating through much of the war, even as many U.S. and European carriers repeatedly pulled back. That has made Emirati airlines a lifeline for Israelis traveling to Asia, Australia, Africa and beyond, and a living reminder that the Abraham Accords are not just diplomatic paper. The 2020 treaty specifically recognized regular direct flights between Israel and the UAE as essential to deepening relations.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on February 19, 2025. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein / POOL / AFP) (Photo by EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

There are major obstacles. The move would require U.S. regulatory approval, and Channel 12 reported it would also require changes in Israeli aviation rules. Israeli carriers, including El Al, Arkia and Israir, are expected to fight it, arguing that allowing a state-backed Gulf giant onto Israel’s most lucrative routes would tilt the field against local airlines that kept flying when others left.

Still, Israel’s calculation is clear, competition is leverage. The collapsed Wizz Air hub plan left the government searching for another way to break open the market, and the Emirates offer appears designed to do exactly that. Flydubai is being offered rights to open a subsidized base in Eilat for flights to Europe, another sign that Israel is looking beyond temporary flight resumptions and trying to build a more durable aviation network.

If Emirates agrees and regulators allow it, the impact could be immediate, more seats, more competition, and a serious challenge to the postwar flight bottleneck that has punished Israeli travelers for nearly three years. It would also mark a new stage in Israel-UAE normalization, not just flights to Dubai, but an Emirati airline helping reconnect Israel to the wider world.

💔 HEARTBREAKING: The IDF announced that Maj. (res.) Itamar Sapir, 27, from the community of Eli in the Binyamin region, was killed in combat in southern Lebanon.

Sapir served as a company commander in the elite Maglan unit. He is survived by his wife Maayan and their one-and-a-half-year-old son.

The Binyamin Regional Council said he was the son of Yehuda and Rivki Sapir of Eli, mourning “with deep sorrow” the loss of the reserve officer killed during fighting against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

President Trump publicly says he held off on a planned strike against Iran after Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE urged him to give negotiations more time. Axios reports he told the Pentagon to suspend the attack but stay ready for a “full, large scale assault” if no acceptable deal is reached.  

But the NYT reporting points to a second, more military reason: Pentagon officials were reportedly concerned that Tehran was adapting fast, studying U.S. fighter and bomber patterns, improving air defenses and getting better at detecting signs of a surprise attack. In other words, every pause gives the Iranian regime more time to learn the rhythm of American air operations.  

This comes after earlier NYT-based reporting that the U.S. and Israel were in intensive preparations for renewed strikes, including heavier bombing options and even possible special-operations scenarios targeting deeply buried nuclear material. Military officials warned that those ground options carried serious casualty risk.  

SHADMOT MEHOLA, ISRAEL – APRIL 3: An Israeli woman with a child looks at the tail section of a ballistic missile launched from Iran, in the Jewish settlement of Shadmot Mehola in the northern Jordan Valley on April 03, 2026 in Shadmot Mehola, Israel. Iran has continued firing waves of drones and missiles at Israel after the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran early on February 28th. (Photo by Erik Marmor/Getty Images)

U.S. commanders publicly say Iran has been badly degraded, while intelligence assessments cited in reports suggest Tehran has restored access to much of its missile infrastructure, including sites near the Strait of Hormuz. The pause may buy diplomacy time, but it also gives the Iranian regime time to harden, move and adapt.

The ambassador of Somaliland, Mohamed Hagi, presented his credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog for the first time since Israel recognized the African country in December 2025. The ceremony at the President’s Residence marked Somaliland’s declaration of independence in 1991.

Despite its declaration of independence more than 30 years ago, Israel is the first country to recognize Somaliland, a decision that has angered Somalia, which considers the African country part of its territory, as well as Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Indonesia and other Muslim-majority countries.

Somaliland Ambassador Mohamed Hagi is greeted with pomp and circumstance upon arriving in Israel. (Credit: Republic of Somaliland)

But while Somalia’s government continues to battle the terrorist group Al-Shabaab, Somaliland has maintained its stability and is a functioning democracy that holds free and fair elections.

Herzog said that Israel seeks cooperation with Somaliland in “all the important fields of life,” such as food security, energy and science, saying Israel was ready to help Somaliland and expressing his hope that the two countries would “enjoy prosperity together.”

Later, Herzog posted in a statement on X that he was “delighted” to accept Hagi’s credentials and said that the Israeli orchestra played Somaliland’s national anthem for the first time ever.

Hagi said that the ties between the countries are strong, which would “pave the way” for cooperation in many areas. He also described the joy among Somalilanders at Israel’s recognition of their state and their enthusiasm for their deepening relationship.

Referring to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland when it briefly broke away from Somalia in 1960, he said, “Israel was always at the hearts and minds of people and government.”

“Our relationship is unique because it’s not about governments. It’s about people-to-people,” he added.

The diplomat was also presented with a menorah from the Israeli delegation.

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced federal hate crime charges against a Muslim man accused of violently attacking a Jewish man outside the Adas Torah Synagogue during a chaotic anti-Israel protest in 2024.

Federal prosecutors say Zaid Gitesatani allegedly sucker punched a Jewish man from behind during unrest outside the synagogue, where an event connected to land sales in Israel was taking place. The gathering drew large anti-Israel demonstrations organized by several Palestinian activist groups.

According to prosecutors, Gitesatani later posted disturbing comments online following the assault. In one message cited by authorities, he allegedly wrote, “The chosen people sometimes need a good smack to wake up.”

Investigators also say he sent Instagram messages boasting about the attack, allegedly writing, “I whopped 2 zios … I swung on them … It was satisfying…”

The DOJ has now charged Gitesatani with a federal hate crime.

“This case illustrated the transition from free speech to criminal conduct. Even one hate crime is one too many,” said Patrick Grandy, the FBI Los Angeles official in charge of the case.

The incident became one of the most widely discussed clashes during anti-Israel demonstrations in Los Angeles following the October 7 Hamas massacre and the ensuing war in Gaza. Jewish organizations at the time warned that rhetoric targeting Zionists and Israel supporters was increasingly spilling over into direct violence against Jews in the United States.

Against a backdrop of desecration and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries across Europe, a group of Jewish teens in Switzerland is doing something different: They are cleaning and restoring graves to preserve the memory and dignity of those buried there.

The community of Lausanne is small and tightly-knit but growing in its vibrant Jewish life, thanks to the Yael Foundation’s initiative for youths. The programming the foundation initially invested in for 5-15-year-olds grew substantially over 20 years into a large network that reaches thousands of students.

The philanthropic organization announced in a statement the project completed by the group of teens, quoting Simon Bismuth, director of the Youth Department at the Jewish Community of Lausanne and the Canton of Vaud, about the seed for the project and how it germinated.

Since Oct. 7, “we have tried each year to organize several major projects with real meaning for our young people, not just activities, but moments of transmission, responsibility and commitment,” Bismuth said.

“The idea also came from something very personal,” he added. “Since the loss of my daughter Tsofia, I sometimes go to clean her grave. One day while I was there, I looked around and thought there was something incredibly powerful to pass on to young people: taking care of memory, taking care of those who came before us, even when nobody sees it, even when there is nothing to receive in return.”

By participating in this project, the teens restored “dignity to graves that had sometimes been a little forgotten,” he explained. “For me, this is a very beautiful form of leadership: quiet, humble, concrete, but profoundly powerful.”

New York City’s Orthodox Jewish leadership as well as other groups are divided on whether to attend the Jewish American Heritage Month event at Gracie Mansion Monday.

The event is being billed as a “Pre-Shavuot Celebration in Honor of Jewish American Heritage Month” and will feature a kosher menu of traditional dairy foods served on the holiday, such as cheesecake and blintzes.

Following Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial actions and statements, beginning with his first day in office when he canceled his predecessor’s executive orders combating antisemitism to declaring that events at synagogues about real estate in Israel violate international law to commemorating Nakba Day, Jewish groups are leery of attending the event.

For example, UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC-NY), including CEO Mark Treyger, have announced that they are boycotting the event, along with Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis.

On the other hand, Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and other Jewish leaders said they do plan to attend. City Hall said about 150 leaders are expected and it defended Mamdani’s outreach to the Jewish community.

Just before the Gaza Sumud Flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy Monday, activists were seen on video footage tossing their phones into the sea.

Flotilla activists have been known to throw their phones into the water before Israeli interception to prevent their devices from falling into the hands of the Israelis, giving them access to their flotilla video footage and other communications.

Critics ask what they have to hide. They also point out that smartphones and other electronic devices are extremely harmful to marine life.

Submersion in the water causes the devices to leach toxic chemicals, heavy metals and microplastics into the water, which accumulates in the food chain that is then consumed by the denizens of the sea.

Gaza flotilla activists are seen throwing their phones into the sea just before being intercepted. (From a post on X)

Each part of a smartphone presents unique hazards to aquatic habitats: The chemicals used to create images on the screen, called liquid crystal monomers, are persistent pollutants containing gene-altering toxins. Batteries and circuit boards leach heavy metals into the water that disrupt the reproductive cycle of marine animals and cause neurological damage. The plastic from phone cases dissolves into microplastics which are ingested by plankton, who transfer this dangerous junk to animals higher up on the food chain.

Critics are mystified by the silence of Greta Thunberg on these ecological crimes. Before becoming the face of the Gaza flotilla, Thunberg led the fight against climate change. Observers wonder why she doesn’t speak out against the pollution of the sea her colleagues have caused by tossing their phones, as well as food packets, overboard.

Some Israelis have had enough of the shenanigans of the Gaza Sumud Flotilla, which they say is a mere publicity stunt and is not actually bringing aid to Gaza. To that end, famous Israeli and Arab Israeli activists such as Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, and Yoseph Haddad, an Arab Israeli journalist and activist, have launched their own “Hasbara” counter flotilla, proclaiming that Israel would not allow anyone to breach their territory.

The Israeli flotilla set sail the day before the Israeli navy intercepted the Gaza flotilla. Wearing a T-shirt that said “FCK HMS” while standing in the prow of the boat, Haddad offered some words of explanation.

“We’re here exactly to expose this,” he said, standing alongside Hassan-Nahoum. “But also to show them the Israeli people have had enough.”

He also called for the activists to be thrown in jail for attempting to breach the blockade and enter an active war zone.

The “Hasbara” flotilla, intentionally differentiating itself from the Gaza flotilla, remained in Israeli waters close to the Herzliya Marina from whence it had set sail, remaining out at sea for a few hours before returning to port.

Activists aboard the boat waved signs mocking the Gaza flotilla activists, such as “Is Gaza Free Yet?”

Haddad also pointed out that the Gaza flotilla activists are terror supporters. Indeed, the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which is linked to the Gaza Sumud Flotilla, has links to Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood and is proscribed in Israel.

Another strike, another terrorist leader eliminated. The IDF announced Monday that it bagged another senior terrorist leader, this time a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander of the Beqaa region in Lebanon. The strike was conducted in the area of Baalbek.

The PIJ leader, Wael Mahmoud Abd al-Halim, worked to integrate his unit with Hezbollah terrorists and led terrorist missions against IDF soldiers, with a marked increase in terrorist attacks against Israeli troops in recent weeks.

To prevent harm to civilians, the IDF used precision strikes to target al-Halim, coordinating with the Israeli Air Force, which provided surveillance from the air.

A video shows an activist on one of the boats of the Gaza Sumud Flotilla chucking packets of chocolate into the Mediterranean Sea.

Observers give three possible reasons for this: One, the activists, having been intercepted, are desperate for their aid to reach Gaza and hope the food will wash ashore to feed the starving Gazans. Two, this is merely a publicity stunt. Three, they’re not very bright, since the food is more likely to kill the fish in the sea than feed the people on land.

Critics say that this littering pollutes the water and serves no purpose.

Meanwhile, the activists aboard the flotilla claimed that Israel has jammed the communications of the flotilla by blasting Rihanna’s pop song “Please Don’t Stop the Music.”

Critics say that activists aboard the flotilla are only pretending to be alarmed that they can’t send out distress signals, since they are not in any danger.

Israel’s elite naval commandos from the Shayetet 13 unit intercepted a Gaza bound activist flotilla in international waters overnight, taking control of multiple vessels tied to the Turkish led “Global Sumud Flotilla” and preventing them from breaching Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza.

According to Israeli officials, the convoy included activists linked to the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or IHH, the same organization involved in the deadly 2010 Mavi Marmara confrontation. Israeli authorities described the latest flotilla as a political provocation designed to generate headlines and benefit Hamas rather than deliver meaningful humanitarian assistance.

Israeli forces reportedly boarded the vessels after repeated warnings and commands to change course were ignored. Activists who refused instructions were detained and transferred onto what officials described as a temporary holding area aboard a larger Israeli naval vessel before being transported toward the Israeli port of Ashdod for processing and deportation.

Despite concerns that activists could violently resist the boarding operation, early reports indicate Israeli troops secured the ships without deadly clashes.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry sharply condemned the flotilla, accusing organizers of attempting to undermine diplomatic efforts and distract from Hamas’s refusal to disarm. Officials also pointed to the massive quantities of aid already entering Gaza, saying more than 1.58 million tons of humanitarian supplies and thousands of tons of medical equipment have entered the territory since October 2025.

“The purpose of this provocation is to serve Hamas,” Israeli officials said, adding that Israel “will not allow any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza.”

The operation was carried out as regional tensions remain high and amid ongoing international debate over humanitarian access to Gaza and the future of post war arrangements in the territory.

For months, one of the most sensitive pieces of Israel’s Iran campaign may have been hidden in plain sight, deep inside Iraq’s western desert, far from Baghdad, beyond the populated cities, and close enough to Iran to matter.

A New York Times report, cited by Israeli and regional outlets, says Israel operated at least two covert military sites in Iraq’s western desert to support operations against the Iranian regime. The reporting expands earlier claims that there was only one secret site, suggesting a broader Israeli footprint used intermittently for air support, refueling, medical treatment and operational reach during the campaign against Iran.

The story reportedly began to unravel when Awad al-Shammari, a 29-year-old Iraqi shepherd, came across soldiers, helicopters, tents and what appeared to be a makeshift landing strip near al-Nukhaib. According to his family and witness accounts cited in regional coverage of the NYT report, al-Shammari contacted Iraqi military authorities before he was later killed; witnesses said a helicopter pursued his pickup truck and fired at it until it stopped in the sand and burned.

That discovery appears to have triggered a wider Iraqi scramble. Iraqi forces sent to inspect the area came under aerial fire, leaving one Iraqi soldier dead and two wounded, according to Iraqi and AP reporting. AP, citing Iraqi and U.S. officials, reported that the unauthorized force in the Nukhaib desert was Israeli, though Iraqi authorities have not officially identified it as such. A senior U.S. military official described the site not as a permanent base, but as a temporary staging area or camp for operations connected to Iran.

The key dispute now is not whether something happened in the desert. It is scale. Iraqi officials have publicly tried to narrow the incident, saying there are currently no unauthorized bases or foreign forces on Iraqi soil and that the March clash involved unidentified detachments backed by aircraft. But NYT-linked reporting says the discovered site was part of a larger Israeli network, with at least one location prepared as far back as late 2024 and used during Operation Rising Lion against Iran.

From Israel’s perspective, the strategic logic is obvious. Iran is far, heavily defended and surrounded by proxies. A discreet desert site in western Iraq could shorten flight routes, support aircrews, provide emergency medical or rescue options, and give Israel a forward operating edge against a regime racing to rebuild its nuclear and missile capabilities. Previous Israeli reporting already highlighted the central role of air-ground coordination, deception and commando activity in giving the IDF freedom of action over Iran during Operation Rising Lion.

An F-16Cj From The 23Rd Efs, Spangdalem Air Base, Germany Patrols The Northern No Fly Zone Over Northern Iraq January 6, 1999. Earlier Four U.S. Air Force And Navy Jets Fired On And Missed Four Iraqi Migs Testing The No-Fly Zone Over Southern Iraq. It Was The First Such Air Confrontation In More Than Six Years. (Photo By Usaf/Getty Images)

For Baghdad, the exposure is humiliating. Iraq has no diplomatic relations with Israel, hosts Iran-backed militias, depends heavily on Washington for security cooperation, and is still trying to prove it controls its own territory. Iraqi officials previously complained at the U.N. that Israeli warplanes violated Iraqi airspace during the Iran conflict, with Baghdad saying dozens of aircraft crossed over areas including Basra, Najaf and Karbala.

Israel is unlikely to confirm any of it. That is the nature of operations designed to keep Iran off balance and Israeli pilots alive. But the emerging picture is clear enough: the war with Iran was not fought only from Israeli airbases, intelligence rooms and skies over Tehran. It also appears to have run through a harsh, empty stretch of Iraqi desert, where one hidden site exposed a much larger question.

How far will Israel go to stop Iran? According to the latest reporting, farther than Tehran expected and deeper than Baghdad is comfortable admitting.

The second day of the Gunfighters Skies Airshow, a free public airshow that showcases the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds, was canceled Sunday after two Navy fighter jets collided in midair during an aerial demonstration. The pilots ejected and were found safe a mile away from the smoke.

The airshow took place at Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho.

“All four of the air crew successfully ejected and they are being evaluated by medical personnel. First responders are on the scene,” the base said in a statement, adding that the incident is being investigated.

“We had four good parachutes,” the Idaho Statesman quoted an air show announcer as saying. “The crews were able to eject. They’re located one mile south of where the smoke is. The parachutes came down.”

The midair collision took place at about 12:10 p.m. local time. At about 1:18 p.m. local time, Mountain Home Police Department officially canceled the event and said that no one should travel to or attempt to enter the base “as a spectator, as the event will no longer be taking place.”

In a later update, police said that the area had been secured and spectators could now exit, as first responders had initially requested that attendees remain in place until the area was secured.

Video showed the jets colliding in midair, then spinning and tumbling to the ground, with flames and smoke billowing out at the point of impact. Four parachutes could also be seen opening in the sky an instant after the crash occurred.

The Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Idaho, which was scheduled for May 16 and 17, was supposed to include aerial performances, static displays, and history and science exhibits. The 366th Fighter Wing, which performs in the show, is stationed at the Mountain Home Air Force Base.

“The Gunfighters are proud to open our gates and share our mission with the community we call home,” Col. D. Ray Gunter, commander of the 366th Fighter Wing, had previously said. “This event attaches a face to the mission, showcasing the skilled professionals and dedicated Airmen who make airpower possible.”

This was the first Gunfighters Skies Airshow held in eight years.

A two-year-old in Beverly, Mass., did what two-year-olds do … and first responders had to be called in to rescue him.

Little Theo thrust his head between the banisters on the stairs in his home, and his wee head got stuck. His frantic mother called for emergency responders, and local police and firefighters succeeded in getting him out by using oil and pulling the posts apart.

As responders clambered up the stairs, gathered around the child and pulled apart the posts, Theo cried, saying it hurt. Mercifully, it took only seconds to rescue him.

A friend of the family, Stanly Foreman, captured the incident on video.

“He got adventurous and put his head between the spindles going upstairs,” his mother, Liz, told Forman. “And we couldn’t get his head out. It was very scary, right Theo? We don’t know how you got it in there.”

She said the little boy had been playing while waiting for his grandmother to take him to the park.

After the ordeal was over, Theo got to check out the fire engines.

Thousands of devout Christians flocked to the National Mall Sunday in Washington, D.C., which stretches between the Capitol grounds to the east and the Washington Monument to the left, for a daylong prayer rally. Huge stained glass windows with sweeping arches soared upward to meet imposing columns as religious music spilled out from a stage, imbuing the space with the feeling of attending a church service.

The purpose of the event was laid out in a statement by the official White House X account: “Thousands of Americans are gathering on the National Mall TODAY for a powerful day of prayer, praise, and patriotism as we chart the course for America’s next 250 years and rededicate ourselves to ONE NATION UNDER GOD.”

Following the theme of rededication, President Donald Trump addressed the crowd via a video address in which he quoted at length from 2 Chronicles 7, a passage that deals with the dedication of the Temple. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), among other top Republicans, also took part in the celebrations marking 250 years of American independence.

Speakers at the event celebrated Christianity as the foundation of the United States of America in a doctrine that critics have dubbed Christian nationalism. One of the speakers owned the term.

“If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,” said the Rev. Robert Jeffress, a well-known Southern Baptist pastor.

The speakers argued that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, a controversial position that has its detractors.

Arguing against the position, Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, pointed to the religious diversity of early Americans, who counted among them Jews and Muslims. “I want to shine a light on America’s history as a nation that welcomes, celebrates, and protects people of all faiths and those of no faith,” Pesner said.

“We are deeply concerned that what is really being rededicated is a nation to a very narrow and ideological part of the Christian faith that betrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom,” said the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister and leader of the Sojourners, a progressive Christian organization.

Austin police are searching for a suspected active shooter believed to be tied to a series of apparently random shootings across the city this weekend.

According to local reports, at least three shootings are being investigated together, including gunfire directed toward two Austin fire stations. One man was shot Sunday morning and remains in serious but stable condition. Police say the suspect may be a white or Hispanic male in his late teens, possibly driving a white Kia Optima.  

The City of Austin issued a shelter-in-place warning for a large section of South Austin, bordered by South Slaughter Lane, East McKinney Falls Parkway, North Ben White Boulevard and West Escarpment Boulevard, as law enforcement searches the area.  

Police are urging residents to stay indoors, remain alert, avoid approaching anyone suspicious, and call 911 immediately with any information. The motive remains unclear, and the investigation is still developing.

London police arrested tens of protesters at an anti-Muslim “Unite the Kingdom” rally led by pro-Israel activist Tommy Robinson and a counterprotest that included demonstrators from the Stand Up Against Racism group protesting Robinson’s rally itself and anti-Israel protesters marking Nakba day, the police announced Sunday.

The police had prepared its biggest operation yet ahead of the rally, fearing violent clashes that had broken out at previous rallies. The arrests numbered 20 people from Robinson’s rally, which drew 60,000 people, and 12 from the counterprotest, which drew 15,000-20,000 people, according to numbers cited by the Metropolitan Police. Organizers of both rallies claimed higher attendance than that cited by police.

The arrests broke down as follows: nine from the Unite the Kingdom rally for hate crimes and two from Stand Up to Racism; police said they were arrested for “offenses motivated by race, religion, sexuality and disability.” An additional seven suspected hate crimes from the Nakba rally are under investigation.

Other arrests at the Robinson rally included public order, drunk and disorderly offenses, previous grievous bodily harm, telecommunications offenses, assaults on emergency workers and telecommunications offenses.

The Nakba rally included arrests for failing to remove face masks, assaulting an emergency worker and supporting a proscribed organization.

One Nakba protester shouted “Hitler knew how to deal with these people,” and others called for Tommy Robinson to be hanged and shot in the neck like Charlie Kirk.

Robinson had warned his supporters ahead of the protest to stay away from alcohol and to be “peaceful and courteous.” At his rally speech, he urged them to get politically active and prepare themselves for the “cultural revolution” he was leading, which would culminate in the “battle of Britain” in 2029, i.e., Britain’s next election.

The browser used to be a window into work. Now it is becoming the workplace itself, and in the AI era, it may also be the most exposed point in the enterprise. That is the bet behind Akamai Technologies’ decision to acquire Israeli cybersecurity startup LayerX Security for roughly $205 million in cash, a deal aimed at giving one of the world’s largest cloud and cybersecurity companies a stronger position in browser-based AI usage control. Akamai said the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions.

Conductor – Akamai Boston – photo by Photoflight Aerial Media. Subject to copyright ©Photoflight Aerial Media

LayerX is not being bought because it is already huge. It is being bought because the problem it targets is quickly becoming impossible for major companies to ignore. Employees are no longer just browsing websites. They are pasting corporate data into generative AI tools, uploading files to SaaS platforms, testing copilots, using AI coding assistants, and beginning to hand tasks over to autonomous agents. Akamai says LayerX extends its protection directly into that browser layer, where much of modern enterprise work now takes place.

That is the key to the deal. LayerX does not force workers into a completely new enterprise browser. Its technology is designed to sit on top of the browsers employees already use, including the new generation of AI-driven browsers such as Atlas and Comet. Akamai says this gives security teams visibility and control over prompts, file uploads, web content and SaaS activity without changing infrastructure or disrupting the way employees work.

Founded in 2022 by Or Eshed and David Vaisbrud, LayerX raised $45 million from investors including Glilot Capital Partners, Dell Technologies Capital and Jump Capital. Calcalist had reported earlier that Akamai was in advanced talks to buy the company at a valuation of around $250 million, before the final announced cash price landed at about $205 million after purchase price adjustments.

The financials show what Akamai is really buying. Akamai expects LayerX to reach only about $10 million in annual recurring revenue by year-end and said the acquisition should reduce non-GAAP earnings per share by roughly $0.12 in fiscal 2026. In other words, this is not a pure revenue grab. It is a strategic purchase of a category, a team and a control point Akamai clearly believes will matter as enterprise AI moves from experimentation into daily operations.

LayerX’s pitch is simple, the old security stack was built around networks, endpoints and access gates, but the action has moved into the interaction itself. A worker pastes sensitive data into an AI tool. A browser extension sees something it should not. A contractor logs into a SaaS app from an unmanaged device. An AI agent starts moving between files, repositories and accounts. LayerX tries to give security teams policy control at that exact moment, before the data leaves and before the damage is done. Its own platform messaging focuses on AI discovery, GenAI data loss prevention, access control, prompt-injection protection, browser-extension security and protection for AI browsers.

Gartner estimates that fewer than 10% of organizations currently use secure enterprise browser technology, but predicts that 25% will deploy it by 2028 to fill gaps in remote access and endpoint security. Gartner also says browsers have become a primary access method for modern corporate applications and a useful control point for enterprise security. That is exactly the market Akamai is moving into with LayerX.

Akamai already has the scale. The company reported $1.074 billion in first-quarter revenue, including $590 million from security, up 11% year over year. It also reported a 40% jump in cloud infrastructure services revenue and disclosed a $1.8 billion, seven-year commitment from a U.S.-based frontier AI model provider. That gives the LayerX acquisition a wider frame: Akamai is trying to position itself not just as an internet infrastructure company, but as a security and cloud platform for the AI economy.

For Israel, the deal lands as another reminder that local cybersecurity is not just surviving a brutal period of war, pressure and uncertainty. It is still producing technology global buyers want. LayerX joins a growing Akamai-Israel acquisition chain that includes Guardicore, acquired for about $600 million, and Noname Security, acquired for about $450 million. Akamai said LayerX is its fourth Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity acquisition in five years and that the founders and employees will join its Zero Trust organization.

There is also a deeper Israeli thread inside Akamai itself. The company still honors co-founder Danny Lewin, who was raised in Jerusalem, served as an IDF officer, studied at the Technion and MIT, and helped build the algorithms at the core of Akamai’s early services. Akamai says Lewin was killed aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001.

Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher closed his show with a fiery monologue accusing Democrats of defending virtually every minority group except Jews as antisemitism continues to surge across America.

Maher expressed outrage over what he described as growing tolerance for anti-Jewish rhetoric, saying there is now “a frothing anxiousness for the literal extermination of this one group,” before demanding of Democrats: “Where are you?”

He argued that if similar rhetoric were directed at any other minority group, political leaders and celebrities would immediately mobilize public campaigns, concerts, and symbolic gestures in support.

“If any other minority group was being talked about this way, you’d break out the Kente cloth and have 10 benefit concerts,” Maher said.

Maher also accused Democratic leaders of appeasing younger anti-Israel voters rather than confronting misinformation and extremism.

“Because you see that so many of your brainwashed-by-TikTok constituents now have an unfavorable view of Israel, you indulge them when you should be correcting them,” he stated.

TOPSHOT – Protestors wave Palestinian flags on the West Lawn of Columbia University on April 29, 2024 in New York. Student demonstrators at Columbia University, the epicenter of pro-Palestinian protests that have erupted at US colleges, said Monday they would not budge until the school met their demands, defying an ultimatum to disperse or face suspension. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

The longtime liberal host then criticized Democratic politicians eager to distance themselves from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying organization, while continuing to accept donations from a wide range of controversial industries and figures.

“You take money from crypto and factory farmers and big tech, from Diddy and Weinstein and Epstein, but AIPAC is too far?” Maher said.

He concluded by directly addressing critics who have questioned why he has become increasingly critical of Democrats in recent years.

“Let me just say this to all who ask me, ‘Why are you harder on the Democrats than you used to be?’ Until you fix this whole issue, stop asking me.”

Maher’s comments quickly spread across social media, with supporters praising him for speaking out against antisemitism at a time when many public figures remain silent.

An Italian man of Moroccan descent plowed his car into pedestrians in Modena, Italy, late Saturday afternoon before leaping out and brandishing a knife. Four passersby tackled and detained him, though one of them sustained minor stab wounds, until security forces arrived.

31-year-old Salim El Koudri had a degree in business, was unemployed, had no criminal record and had been treated at a psychiatric center in 2024. This appears to be a lone wolf attack and is being investigated as a possible terror attack, as the man may have recently been radicalized as a jihadist.

Seven people were injured, some very seriously. Two of the victims had to have their legs amputated, one of whom remains in critical condition.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Footage shows the vehicle ramming pedestrians on a street in Modena, Italy, Saturday. (From a post on X)

“The madman, I don’t know what to call him, the criminal who committed this act, he got out of the car brandishing a knife,” Mayor Massimo Mezzetti said. “Four citizens, whom I thank, captured him and handed him over to law enforcement.”

“I want to thank these citizens,” he added. “The man was also armed with a knife; they showed courage and great civic sense. My deepest thanks go to them in this dramatic moment.”

The man who was stabbed described his encounter with the attacker, saying he had been helping an injured woman when he saw the attacker trying to flee.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Footage shows passersby tackling the assailant. (From a post on X)

“I chased him,” Luca Signorelli said, adding that several others joined the pursuit. “He disappeared behind a row of cars, then suddenly reappeared holding a knife in his hands.”

“A fight broke out,” he said. “I was stabbed twice, once in the heart and once in the head. I managed to dodge one of the two, and during the other one I grabbed his wrist and blocked him.”

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni cut short a visit to Greece due to the seriousness of the attack and is scheduled to travel to Modena Sunday.

“I express my closeness to the injured people and their families,” she said in a statement. “I also extend thanks to the citizens who courageously intervened to stop the perpetrator and to the law enforcement agencies for their response.”

Luca Signorelli, his face bloodied by a stab wound to the head, describes his encounter with the assailant. (From a post on X)

“I have spoken with the Mayor and remain in constant contact with the authorities to follow the developments of the situation,” she added. “I trust that the perpetrator will be held fully accountable for his actions.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, expressed his empathy to Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, in a post on X.

“I was shocked to learn of the vile attack that took place in Modena, Italy, in which civilians were run over and stabbed,” the post, which was written in Italian and was addressed to Tajani, read.

“I wish to express my solidarity to the Italian government and to the families of the victims in this difficult time, and to wish a speedy recovery to all those who have been struck by this terrible event,” the statement added.

The International Criminal Court issued sealed arrest warrants for several Israeli officials, which means the number of officials and their identities have not been disclosed.

The warrants, whose timing of when they were issued is also remains unknown, might target two Israeli politicians and two military officials, according to a diplomatic source.

Arrest warrants were issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in November 2024. Prosecutors at the ICC have since weighed issuing warrants for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The ICC’s constitution allows it to issue arrest warrants without notifying the targets of the warrants, according to Eliav Lieblich, professor of public international law at Tel Aviv University.

Prime Minister Netanyahu explains that the ICC’s top prosecutor issued arrest warrants to deflect attention from his misdeeds. (From a post on X)

“The considerations for publishing the warrants in public, as was done in the cases of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu and Gallant, is deterrence,” he explained. “The considerations for secrecy increase the chance that the person will reach the place where he will be arrested,” because Netanyahu and Gallant have thus far avoided arrest by not traveling to countries that would arrest them and hand them over to The Hague.

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the ICC, had planned to issue arrest warrants for Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in light of settlement expansion in the West Bank. The court was mulling over whether that violated the Geneva Convention’s prohibition against transfer of their population into their occupied territories.

However, Khan has been placed on temporary leave due to accusations of sexual assault by a female staff member. He has since been accused of attempting to deflect attention from the scandal by targeting the prime minister and his defense minister. It has also since been revealed that Qatar and private British intelligence agencies teamed up to peddle an influence campaign targeting the ICC prosecutor that resulted in the issuance of the arrest warrants, with the ultimate goal of assisting Hamas’ aims.

After the Oct. 7 attack, Slovenia, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Spain and New Zealand banned the two politicians from their countries.

Despite massive anti-Israel protests and deafening boos inside the Eurovision arena, Israeli singer Noam Bettan stayed focused and delivered a performance that carried Israel all the way to second place.

According to Bettan, the biggest source of strength throughout the competition was his faith.

Every day during Eurovision, other than Shabbat, Bettan could be found backstage putting on tefillin — small black leather boxes containing Torah verses that observant Jewish men bind to their arm and head during prayer as a powerful reminder of faith, identity, and the Jewish people’s connection to God and tradition.

Bettan also revealed that his delegation prepared him mentally for the hostile environment by rehearsing while blasting loud booing noises during practice sessions so he could learn to block them out during the live performance.

“The anti-Israel protests in the arena were really, really loud, but I focused on the performance,” Bettan said after leaving the stage. “I searched with my eyes for the Israeli flags in the crowd. That strengthened me.”

Israeli actress and Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot personally video called Bettan before the final to encourage him and help him rise above the hate.

“I heard rehearsals was a bit tough, just remember that all the haters don’t have any power against you, just bring your light and love and the beauty of your song will shine through. The louder they boo the louder we will cheer, we are all behind you,” Gadot told him during the call.

In one ironic moment that quickly went viral online, a video meme showed an anti-Israel protester waving a Palestinian flag while visibly dancing and moving to the beat of Bettan’s song during the performance. The clip spread rapidly across social media, with many supporters joking that even protesters could not resist the music.

Despite the protests, political hostility, and pressure surrounding Israel’s participation, Bettan’s emotional performance resonated with millions of viewers around the world and helped secure another historic top finish for Israel at Eurovision.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gaza-born anti-Hamas activist, posted this video of the funeral of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, a senior Hamas official eliminated by Israel overnight. Alkhatib said that normally, Hamas conducts quiet funerals for its terrorists when they are eliminated by the IDF, but in this case, the terror group rushed to hold the funeral of al-Haddad, hoping to display a show of support for Hamas. The ploy failed miserably, as the funeral drew fewer than a thousand people.

The crowd, which numbered 700-800 people, comprised mostly children and teenagers. There were no displays of “resistance theatrics,” and banners, vehicles and the expected throngs of mourners were conspicuously absent.

Footage of al-Haddad’s funeral shows sparse crowds. (Credit: Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib on X)

“It was a humiliating display that underscores a reality long visible to anyone actually connected to Gaza: Hamas is overwhelmingly loathed, feared, and rejected by most of the Strip’s population,” Alkhatib posted on X alongside the video.

He pointed out that Hamas’ Western supporters mourning the terrorists’ death outnumbered the mourners in Gaza, while many actual Gazans celebrated the IDF’s elimination of al-Haddad.

“More online ‘activists,’ ‘commentators,’ and self‑styled ‘pro‑Palestine’ personalities mourned al‑Haddad’s death than Palestinians inside Gaza,” he said. “Dozens of contacts, friends, and social media posts from inside the Strip showed the opposite reaction: relief, celebration, even open joy at his elimination.”

“This is yet another data point in a long pattern: Gazans are done with Hamas, and Hamas knows it,” he concluded.

The State Department announced Friday a 45-day extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that began on April 16 following a third round of talks brokered by the United States between the two countries Thursday and Friday.

This is the third time the ceasefire has been extended. The ceasefire was initially announced on April 16, followed by the announcement of a three-week extension on April 23.

The ceasefire has existed in name only, with Israel continuing operations against Hezbollah, albeit limiting them to southern Lebanon only. The IDF said it had struck more than 100 Hezbollah targets over the weekend. Since the April ceasefire, the IDF has also eliminated hundreds of Hezbollah terrorists.

The State Department also described the talks as “highly productive” and said they would host another round on June 2 and 3.

Leo Terrell, the DOJ official leading the federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, posted video from the White House’s Shabbat 250 event, calling it “a BLAST” and wishing followers “Shabbat Shalom.” The clip shows a lively Shabbat celebration with guests clapping and dancing inside a formal White House setting.    

Shabbat 250 was launched through President Trump’s Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation, encouraging Jewish Americans and others to mark a national Sabbath in honor of America’s 250th birthday. Jewish outlets described it as the first time a sitting U.S. president formally called for a national Shabbat.  

The White House reception was tied to a wider wave of Shabbat 250 gatherings in Washington and across the country, with Jewish administration staffers, community figures and pro-Israel voices taking part. For the Jewish world, the message was unmistakable: at a time of surging antisemitism, Shabbat was not hidden or softened. It was celebrated publicly, proudly and inside the White House.

An IDF officer was killed Friday in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack in southern Lebanon, the military announced.

The fallen soldier was identified as Capt. Maoz Israel Recanati, 24, a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion from Itamar.

According to the IDF, Recanati is the seventh Israeli soldier killed in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire began, and the 20th killed on the northern front since fighting intensified during the Iran conflict. A civilian contractor was also killed in southern Lebanon.

Federal prosecutors are now seeking the death penalty against the man accused of murdering two Israeli Embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, in what authorities describe as a calculated antisemitic terror attack.

According to federal investigators, Elias Rodriguez faces hate crime charges, terrorism related offenses, and premeditated murder in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple connected to the Israeli Embassy who were reportedly preparing to become engaged.

Officials allege Rodriguez traveled from Chicago to the Washington area ahead of the May event, carrying a handgun inside checked luggage before allegedly targeting attendees outside the museum.

Witnesses told investigators they saw Rodriguez pacing near the building before suddenly opening fire on a group gathered outside. Prosecutors say surveillance footage captured Rodriguez continuing to shoot at the victims after they collapsed to the ground, before allegedly reloading and fleeing the scene.

Authorities say Rodriguez later entered the museum and admitted responsibility for the attack.

“I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” he allegedly stated after the shooting, according to court filings.

Federal prosecutors also claim Rodriguez praised the active duty Air Force member who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in 2024, allegedly describing him as “courageous” and calling him a “martyr.”

Aaron Bushnell sets himself on fire outside Israeli Consulate (Screenshot via Talia Jane on X)

The hate crime charges mean prosecutors must prove the attack was motivated by antisemitism.

On Friday, Acting US Attorney for Washington, DC, Jeanine Pirro announced her office formally filed notice seeking the death penalty against Rodriguez.

“Just this morning, before I came here, we filed notice that my office will seek death against the defendant, Elias Rodriguez, for the killing of two young Israeli Embassy staff members at the Capitol Jewish Museum,” Pirro said during the press conference.

Pirro with JBN Editor-at-Large Eddie Devir at White House dinner

Pirro used the announcement to send a broader warning against political violence in the nation’s capital.

“My message to anyone who seeks to commit political violence in this district, DC is not the place,” Pirro declared. “You will be held accountable and you will face the full wrath of the law.”

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 22: Mourners light candles during a vigil for the victims of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting outside of the White House on May 22, 2025 in Washington, DC. Two Israeli Embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were gunned down Wednesday evening after an event at the museum by a man shouting slogans in support for Palestine. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

She added that federal prosecutors intend to pursue the case aggressively and emphasized that acts of violence driven by hatred or extremism will face severe consequences under federal law.

Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including the newly added terrorism related counts. The case is expected to become one of the most high profile antisemitic terror prosecutions in the United States in recent years.

Federal prosecutors have charged a senior Iraqi militia figure accused of helping coordinate terror plots targeting Jewish and American sites across the United States, Canada, and Europe, including an alleged plan to attack a synagogue in New York City.

This photograph of Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, left, with Qasem Soleimani, was featured on al-Saadi’s Snapchat account, according to a federal criminal complaint. Soleimani is the Iranian commander who was killed in January 2020 by a US airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport. 
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According to newly unsealed court documents, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al Saadi allegedly encouraged and directed attacks tied to Iran backed terror networks following the recent escalation involving Iran, Israel, and the United States.

Authorities say Al Saadi is a high ranking commander within Kataib Hezbollah, the powerful Iraqi militia linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and long accused of carrying out attacks against American forces throughout the Middle East.

_Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi (R) is pictured with the late Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani (C)._Dept. of Justice

Investigators allege the suspect discussed possible operations against synagogues and Jewish centers in New York, Los Angeles, and Scottsdale, Arizona. Prosecutors claim he shared maps and photographs of Jewish institutions with an undercover operative and even offered funding support for a planned attack on a New York synagogue.

The criminal complaint also accuses Al Saadi of helping coordinate a string of violent incidents overseas in recent months. Those alleged attacks include firebombings, attempted bombings, shootings, and assaults targeting Jewish individuals and American linked sites in cities including Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Toronto.

Federal officials reportedly view the case as one of the most alarming Iran linked terror plots uncovered on American soil in years, amid growing fears that Iranian proxy groups could expand operations beyond the Middle East.

Al Saadi now faces multiple terrorism related charges, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism and conspiracy to bomb public locations.

Court filings also claim the suspect maintained ties to former Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani before Soleimani was killed in a United States drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

During his first court appearance, Al Saadi reportedly called himself a “political prisoner” and a “prisoner of war.” Reports indicate he was detained in Türkiye before being transferred into American custody.

Neither the Iraqi government nor Kataib Hezbollah immediately responded publicly to the accusations.

The case comes as security agencies across the West remain on heightened alert over possible retaliatory attacks targeting Jewish communities and American interests worldwide.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Friday evening that the IDF carried out a major strike in Gaza targeting Izz al Din al Haddad, the head of Hamas’s military wing and one of the alleged masterminds behind the October 7 massacre.

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According to the joint statement, Haddad was responsible for the murder, kidnapping, and harming of thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers during and after the Hamas led October 7 attack. Israeli officials also accused him of overseeing hostage captivity operations, directing terrorist attacks against Israeli forces, and rejecting efforts tied to a proposed agreement led by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.

“The IDF and the Shin Bet are effectively implementing the government’s policy of zero tolerance for threats and the preemptive neutralization of our enemies,” Netanyahu and Katz said in the statement.

The leaders added that Israel would continue pursuing all individuals connected to the October 7 attacks.

“We will continue to act with power and determination against anyone who took part in the October 7 massacre. This is a clear message to all the murderers who seek our lives: sooner or later, Israel will reach you,” the statement continued.

A senior Israeli defense official reportedly said that initial indications suggest the elimination attempt was successful.

Spain can’t seem to quit its antisemitic campaign against Israel. The pattern is clear: They joined the ICJ case against Israel of genocide. They honored notorious antisemite Francesca Albanese. And now they are boycotting Eurovision 2026 over Israel’s participation in the contest.

Spain joined Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia in withdrawing from Eurovision 2026, protesting what it calls Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, continuing the vicious blood libel against Israel that has resulted in a massive spike in antisemitic rhetoric and violence against Jews all around the world.

A video on X purports to show an audience member attempting to disrupt the Israeli contestant’s performance at Eurovision 2025.

Spain is one of the “Big Five” nations whose broadcasters are the biggest financial backers of the Eurovision contest, but it warned it would withdraw if Israel were allowed to compete.

José Pablo López, president of the board of Spain’s state broadcaster, issued a statement explaining the move.

“As joint organizers of the Eurovision song contest, we share a collective responsibility,” he said self-righteously. “While Israel has regularly participated in the competition, the current events and the genocide currently taking place make it impossible for us to look the other way.”

But no one does virtue-signaling self-righteousness better than Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.

“This year we will not be at Eurovision, but we will do so with the conviction of being on the right side of history,” he wrote smugly on X. “For consistency, responsibility and humanity.”

Spain’s 2025 Eurovision contestant, Melody. (Photo By Jose Oliva/Europa Press via Getty Images)

It would be interesting to see these two moral giants confronting the facts and explaining how they fit with their conception of genocide.

The facts are these:

• No military has ever warned a population before striking as extensively as Israel’s military, with millions of leaflets, cell phone texts and calls. Millions. And no other military has sacrificed the military advantage of surprise by publishing maps of their movements ahead of time.
• By the end of the second year of the war, Israel had facilitated one ton of aid per person into Gaza.
• The Biden administration warned the Israelis not to invade Rafah because it would take months to evacuate the civilian population. They did it in under two weeks, sending nearly a million civilians to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, where they had set up temporary housing and field hospitals.
• Israel vaccinated nearly the entire child population of Gaza (over 90 percent) against polio during wartime.
• Israel destroyed 70 percent of Gaza’s buildings and 92 percent of its residential homes, without killing a correspondingly high percentage of Gazans. How is that possible without taking extraordinary care to prevent civilian harm?
• According to some estimates, Israel has dropped about 100,000 tons of munitions on Gaza. Not 100,000 bombs, but 100,000 tons of bombs. Taking the most inflated death count of 100,000 deaths that is even higher than the Hamas count, that’s one person per one ton of explosives. How on earth is it possible to kill only one person per one ton of explosives in an area as densely populated as Gaza without taking extraordinary care to prevent civilian harm?
• A genocide means the destruction of the members of a group as such. If the Israelis want to kill Arabs as such, why have they left alone Arabs in Israel, as well as the 3 million Arabs in the West Bank?
• Can a genocide be conducted without a single massacre? For example, horrific massacres were perpetrated during the Rwanda genocide. We know this because massacres in which civilians are rounded up for the purpose of mowing them down, or rampaging through villages, leave a ton of forensic evidence. So far, there is zero forensic evidence of a single massacre against Gazans by Israel in the entire duration of the war. War crimes, yes, as in every war. But no massacres.

So here’s a challenge to all the five countries: Read that list and explain how this is genocide.

If you countries are wrong, if that list proves that Israel is not only not committing genocide but has taken extraordinary care to prevent civilian harm, then you have engaged in a monstrous libel against Israel that has resulted in violence against Jews leading to death.

And history will judge you for that.

A former Israeli prison chief interviewed by The Times of Israel characterized recent explosive allegations against the Israel Prison Service as “bullsh*t.”

The New York Times published an op-ed Sunday by one of its long-time columnists, Nicholas Kristof, in which he alleged systemic sexual abuse of Arab detainees in Israeli prisons, saying there existed “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.”

The claim that garnered the most attention and generated the most intense backlash was that the IDF coaches dogs to rape prisoners, with one Gazan journalist claiming he had been subjected to this type of abuse. Experts have pushed back by saying that such an action is scientifically and anatomically impossible.

Dakar Eilat, who ran two prisons in Israel, dismissed the claims. He said that constant CCTV surveillance deters abusive behavior and, as an example, pointed to a prison commander who preceded him in his position. The commander was dismissed after being caught using illegal force on prisoners.

The former prison chief said that changes were made in the prison system decades ago to prevent terrorists from planning and ordering attacks from prison. He added that following Oct. 7, the bare minimum allowable by law is given to the Oct. 7 terrorists.

He also said that during strip searches, if terrorists resist forcefully, “they will be met with force.”

But he also said many oversight mechanisms are in place to prevent abuse. About 130 Israeli and international organizations conduct inspections, with snap inspections occurring as often as five times a week. CCTV footage is constantly sent to prison headquarters for review.

Doctors follow a separate chain of command and report abuses independently, he said. Animal rights groups supervise dog training, and the Justice Department and police conduct official investigations.

All these mechanisms provide layers of oversight that prevent abuse before it happens and catch it as soon as it does. Therefore, Eilat said, covering up the kinds of abuse Kristof alleged would require hundreds of conspirators.

A swastika banner hung from a building on the campus of New York University Wednesday during graduation week. Swastikas flanked both sides of a Star of David in the center of a flag that resembled the purple banners hanging from the university’s buildings.

While graduates attended a graduation party called Grad Alley, a block party featuring live music, carnival games and dances, people in the crowd noticed the flag fluttering from the Steinhardt School overlooking Washington Square. The flag was taken down after about 15 minutes.

Police responded to a call about harassment at 5:21 p.m. and took a report from a man who said that someone had altered the flag to add the swastikas. A police spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made.

“We are shocked and deeply troubled that this hateful symbol expressing antisemitism was raised on a flagpole overlooking Washington Square Park,” N.Y.U. spokesperson Wiley Norvell said in a statement. “Campus safety responded immediately to remove it, and we are working closely with the N.Y.P.D. to identify whoever is responsible.”

Students had previously objected to the choice of Jonathan Haidt as a commencement speaker, complaining that the psychologist opposed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. It’s unclear if the incidents are linked.

The president of the school’s Hillel chapter expressed gratitude for the swift removal of the offending flag in a statement.

“There is a clear difference between political expression and invoking Nazi symbolism to portray Israel or Jews as equivalent to the perpetrators of the Holocaust,” she said. “That comparison is deeply offensive, historically distorted and antisemitic, and symbols tied to the genocide of millions of Jews have no place on our campus.”

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom critics have blamed for stoking an atmosphere in which antisemitic activity flourishes, denounced the act in a statement on X.

“I am outraged that a swastika flag was raised overlooking Washington Square Park,” he wrote. “This hateful antisemitic act was meant to spread fear among and intimidate Jewish New Yorkers. It has no place in our city.”

“Our administration is committed to fighting antisemitism in all its forms and protecting the safety of Jewish New Yorkers,” he added. “The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating this despicable act, and I am confident those responsible will be held accountable.”

Protesters descended on the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan Thursday to make their feelings plain about the “Israeli dogs rape Arab prisoners” libel the paper of record published Sunday, alleging widespread and systemic sexual abuse of Arab detainees in Israeli prisons based on unverified testimony and unreliable sources.

Demonstrators held up signs that read “Der Stürmer,” a reference to the Nazi propaganda newspaper published by the notorious Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, a comparison many Jewish advocates made in the wake of the article’s publication.

Other signs read “Antizionism gets Jews killed” and “J’accuse,” a reference to the famous French journalist Émile Zola’s eponymous 19th-century article blasting the French establishment for its imprisonment and exile of Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer, over false allegations of treason that turned out to be motivated by Jew hatred. 

The crowd, representing such Jewish groups as Hineni and End Jew Hatred, chanted, “New York Times, shame on you,” “We will not be silent” and “Bankrupt the Times.” They accused The Times of blood libel and shouted “Fire Kristof,” the author of the piece.

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause when Zachary Sage Fox, a famous actor and Zionist activist, arrived, carried on a protester’s shoulders.

“I am standing on the shoulders of my fellow Jews. That is a metaphor, and I’m also actually doing it,” he joked. Highlighting a consistent pattern on the part of The New York Times, he pointed to its World War II coverage, when it downplayed Hitler’s mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

The crowd also chanted, “Am Yisrael Chai.”

The IDF has completed a large-scale surprise exercise along Israel’s border with Jordan, simulating rapid escalation scenarios including terrorist infiltrations into civilian communities, drone attacks, and coordinated assaults in the Dead Sea region.

The overnight drill, dubbed “Sulfur and Fire,” involved the 96th and 80th regional divisions alongside special forces units, fighter jets, helicopters, and reserve troops. One scenario reportedly simulated terrorists infiltrating a hotel in the Dead Sea area as security forces responded in real time.

According to the military, troops and reservists were mobilized and deployed within minutes, with reserve turnout in one volunteer brigade reaching 100%. The exercise also tested new defense protocols introduced following the October 7 massacre, as well as recently expanded reinforcements along the Jordanian border.

The IDF says an initial review found the updated directives significantly improved the military’s ability to respond to sudden large-scale threats, though further lessons and weaknesses identified during the drill will now undergo deeper evaluation.

The New York Times dismissed Israel’s threat to sue the paper over its “Israeli dogs rape Palestinians” article published Sunday that came under fire from Jewish groups and advocates, saying the case “has no merit” and is “part of a well-worn political playbook” to chill the free speech of journalists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said they had instructed officials to pursue the avenue of a lawsuit over what they called “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel.”

Nicholas Kristof. (Photo by Victor Boyko/Getty Images for Aurora Humanitarian Initiative)

The column alleged widespread, systemic violent sexual and physical abuse of Arab detainees in Israeli prisons, with claims as outlandish as the testimony of one Gazan journalist who said the IDF coaches dogs to rape Arab prisoners, saying that he himself had been raped by a dog. The column, published in the opinion section, relies on unverified testimony from 14 witnesses, all but two of whom remained anonymous. The two named witnesses are known Hamas sympathizers whose stories grew more elaborate with each retelling over the years, according to HonestReporting.

The column further relies on Euro-Med Monitor, which Israel says is a front for Hamas and from whence the “Israel dogs rape prisoners” claim first emerged nearly two years ago.

No Israeli prison guards or doctors were interviewed for the piece.

In its defense, the New York Times pointed to the author’s credentials. Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist with extensive experience reporting on the sexual abuse of civilians in conflict zones, they noted, adding that he collected testimony from 14 victims that independent human rights organizations (i.e., the problematic Euro-Med Monitor) corroborated.

The IDF announced that Staff Sgt. Negev Dagan, 20, was killed overnight after a Hezbollah mortar shell struck forces operating in southern Lebanon.

Dagan served as a combat soldier in the 12th Battalion of the Golani Brigade and was from the agricultural community of Dekel near Israel’s Gaza border.

According to the IDF, medics rushed to the scene and carried out emergency efforts to save his life after he was critically wounded in the attack. Despite their attempts, Dagan was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

The deadly incident comes amid continued fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah terrorists along Israel’s northern border, where mortar fire, rockets, and anti tank attacks have intensified in recent months.

May his memory be a blessing.

New controversy is erupting around New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji after reports surfaced linking her to a Spotify account featuring anti Israel playlists and songs with vulgar lyrics targeting the Jewish state.

One playlist allegedly tied to Duwaji was titled “hungry but sexy for Palestine” and included songs promoting “Intifada” along with tracks containing inflammatory anti Israel lyrics.

One song reportedly repeated lines including “Free Palestine bitch, Israel gon’ die bitch” and “No shalom bitch.” Another track accused “prophets” of seeking “profit.”

A second playlist allegedly titled “p2P Palestine 2 Pree DC protest trip” was reportedly created ahead of the March on Washington for Gaza in January 2024. The playlist allegedly included the song “FREE PALESTINE,” which repeatedly chants vulgar anti Israel lyrics including “F_ck Israel, Israel a bitch,” according to the report.

The reported Spotify account also allegedly featured a playlist titled “ACAB,” short for “All Cops Are Bastards,” created during the George Floyd protests in 2020.

After reporters contacted City Hall this week seeking comment about the playlists and lyrics, the Spotify account was reportedly switched to private.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has consistently defended his wife, describing her as a private citizen who should not face intense public scrutiny over her online activity. City Hall declined to comment on the latest revelations.

Duwaji has already come under fire in recent months over resurfaced social media activity connected to anti Israel content following the October 7 Hamas massacre. She was previously accused of liking celebratory posts after the attacks and interacting with content claiming reports of Hamas sexual violence against Israelis were fabricated.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 1: Zohran Mamdani is sworn in as New York City’s 112th mayor by New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, alongside his wife Rama Duwaji, right, in the former City Hall subway station on January 1, 2026 in New York City. Mamdani’s term as mayor begins immediately in the new year, and a public inauguration will also take place in the afternoon at City Hall. (Photo by Amir Hamja-Pool/Getty Images)

Additional old posts attributed to Duwaji also resurfaced online, including a 2015 comment reportedly stating that Tel Aviv “shouldn’t exist in the first place” while referring to Israelis as “occupiers.” Separate posts containing racial slurs from her teenage years also triggered backlash.

In April, Duwaji apologized for the “hurt” caused by some of her past online activity, though critics pointed out she did not directly apologize for anti Israel remarks.

The growing controversy is intensifying tensions between Mayor Mamdani’s administration and many in New York City’s Jewish community at a time when antisemitism remains a major concern following October 7 and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Britain’s King Charles III visited Golders Green today to reaffirm his support for the Jewish community following a series of antisemitic attacks in the area.

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During his visit to the Jewish Care centre in Northwest London, the King met with victims of the recent knife attack that took place on April 29, 2026, offering words of comfort and solidarity.

His Majesty also met members of Shomrim, the volunteer Jewish community patrol group that helped respond during the attacks alongside local law enforcement.

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The visit comes amid growing concerns over rising antisemitism across the United Kingdom, with Jewish leaders calling for stronger protections and support for the community.

Israeli security forces foiled a planned terror attack during Jerusalem Day events after undercover Border Police officers arrested a suspect in eastern Jerusalem following precise intelligence from the Shin Bet.

According to Israeli Police spokespersons, undercover officers from the Jerusalem Border Police unit were deployed to the Abu Tor neighborhood after receiving intelligence that a wanted suspect was allegedly planning to carry out a terror attack during Jerusalem Day celebrations.

Authorities said the suspect was located inside a car wash complex, where undercover forces operating covertly moved in and arrested him without injuries or casualties.

The suspect was transferred to the Shin Bet for further investigation.

Police released dramatic helmet camera and aerial footage showing the arrest operation carried out by the undercover unit.

Israeli officials emphasized that cooperation between the Border Police undercover units and the Shin Bet continues to play a major role in thwarting terror attacks and protecting Israeli civilians, especially during high profile national and religious events such as Jerusalem Day.

Jerusalem Day celebrations brought massive crowds into the capital today, with heightened security across the city amid ongoing terror concerns.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ascended Har Habayit on Yom Yerushalayim and declared, “The Temple Mount is in our hands,” after raising the Israeli flag at the holy site.

“We have restored sovereignty to the Temple Mount thanks to determination and deterrence,” Ben Gvir said. “This year was the quietest Ramadan, and it came thanks to deterrence. The Temple Mount is in our hands!”

For decades, Jews were either barred entirely from ascending Har Habayit or heavily restricted by Israeli police. Even those permitted to enter were often forbidden from praying, singing, or openly displaying Jewish religious practices on the mount.

In recent years, those restrictions have gradually eased, with more Jewish visitors openly praying and singing at the site under heightened security.

Just one day earlier, JBN cameras caught Ben Gvir entering the Arab city of Sakhnin in northern Israel surrounded by a heavy ten man security detail.

Har Habayit remains one of the most sensitive and contested religious sites in the world, sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

The site has also been at the center of major historical flashpoints. In September 2000, then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in a move that sparked massive Palestinian riots and was widely seen as one of the main triggers of the Second Intifada, a violent uprising that lasted for years and claimed thousands of lives

A strange scene in the south exposed one of Israel’s biggest long-term battles, heavy machinery working on Shabbat at a site meant for a future Haredi city west of Kiryat Gat. The work was later described as a subcontractor’s mistake and halted, but the symbolism landed hard. A massive national housing plan for Israel’s fastest-growing Jewish community is moving forward quietly, even as ministries argue over whether the answer is separate Haredi cities or deeper integration into existing urban life.

27 January 2022, Israel, Jerusalem: An Ultra-orthodox Jewish man prays at the Western Wall, known in Islam as the Buraq Wall, in the old city of Jerusalem after a snowstorm. Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa (Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)

At the center is a proposed belt of new Haredi cities across the Negev, Kasif, now also referred to as Manora in the south, near Arad; Plugot, west of Kiryat Gat; and Tila, between Lehavim and Rahat. Together, the projects could create a new southern Haredi urban ecosystem, not just a few new neighborhoods. For supporters, this is exactly the point, stop pretending the housing crisis can be solved by squeezing large Haredi families into secular or mixed cities already under pressure. For critics, the danger is that Israel may be building low-income, politically dependent municipalities without enough jobs, transit, or tax base to stand on their own.

Israel’s Haredi population reached about 1.45 million people in 2025, roughly 14.3% of the country, with one of the fastest growth rates in the developed world and 57% of the community under age 20. CBS forecasts cited by the Israel Democracy Institute project Haredim reaching 16% of Israel’s population by 2030, about two million people by 2033, and nearly a quarter of the country by 2050. Israel can either plan for this reality or let it explode city by city.

BNEI BRAK, ISRAEL – DECEMBER 28: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men clash with police officers as they block a main highway during a demonstration against drafting into the Israeli army on December 28, 2025 in Bnei Brak, Israel. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups, including the extremist Jerusalem Faction, are protesting the reported arrests of Haredi men who have recently refused conscription to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The demonstration is taking place as a draft bill is being considered by lawmakers in Israel’s Knesset, which would end the conscription exemption for military aged ultra-Orthodox men, known as Haredi, who are enrolled in yeshivas for full-time religious study. Last year Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the IDF must begin drafting Haredi men after the exemption law expired in June 2023. The controversial issue has split the nation following Israel’s military occupation of Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, and threatens the viability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

The housing gap is already severe. A State Comptroller report found that only about 4% of new buildings approved between 2017 and 2021 were intended for the Haredi public, around 25,000 housing units out of 623,000 nationwide, while government targets call for roughly 200,000 new Haredi housing units by 2035. That shortage has pushed Haredi families beyond historic centers like Jerusalem and Bnei Brak into Beit Shemesh, Arad, Tiberias, Safed, Afula, Ashdod, Kiryat Gat and other cities, often sparking fights over Shabbat commerce, schools, public transportation, zoning and the character of public space.

That is why the separate-city model has real logic. A Haredi city needs different planning, dense but low-rise housing, balconies suitable for sukkahs, short walking distances, large numbers of synagogues, yeshivas, schools and mikvahs, and public life built around Shabbat and large families. Done correctly, dedicated cities could reduce friction in existing mixed neighborhoods, strengthen Jewish settlement in the Negev, and give young Haredi couples a realistic path to homeownership instead of pushing them into overcrowded apartments in the center.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – APRIL 28: Ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredi) protest against the failure to pass a legal arrangement exempting yeshiva students from mandatory military service and the issuance of draft notices to members of their community in Tel Aviv, Israel on April 28, 2026. Demonstrators lay on a main road in the Bnei Brak area of Tel Aviv, blocking traffic, while Israeli police deployed additional forces and intervened at the scene. Protesters carried banners opposing compulsory military service. (Photo by Gideon Markowicz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

But the plan is also a test of seriousness. Kasif/Manora, formally advanced years ago near Arad, is being planned as a major Haredi city, with Housing Ministry work plans referring to 23,000 housing units and newer planning steps moving a first major phase forward. Plugot is even larger, reports describe a city west of Kiryat Gat that could eventually reach around 150,000 to more than 200,000 residents, with detailed plans already moving for a central district including about 11,600 homes, major employment areas, commerce and industry. Tila, approved for the northern Negev, is planned for roughly 80,000 residents on about 4,000 dunams near Route 6 and existing infrastructure.

The Housing Ministry, influenced by years of Haredi political pressure and the legacy of former housing minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, wants to move. The Finance Ministry is more skeptical, warning that demand can be absorbed through mixed cities and that new separate municipalities may create long-term fiscal burdens. The government has ordered another professional review, with the Housing Ministry saying it is conducting inter-ministerial work on the needs of the Haredi public, including the possible establishment of new Haredi-character communities.

Israel’s Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf attends an event of the Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day event, at the military cemetery in the Israeli city of Rehovot near Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 13, 2024. Tension between the Israeli government and the relatives and friends of the victims of Israel’s war in Gaza is increasing with calls on the Israeli government to accept the hostage deal with Hamas and for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down. The Israeli war cabinet has persisted in a wider operation on Rafah, Gaza Strip, despite the growing opposition by Israelis and Israel’s long-standing allies like the United States that pushed for a ceasefire and secured the release of hostages held by Hamas. (Photo by Itai Ron / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by ITAI RON/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The real danger is not building for Haredim. The danger is building badly. A city of large families with low employment, weak commercial revenue and heavy service needs cannot survive on ideology alone. IDI data shows Haredi male employment at about 53.9%, while warning that failure to integrate the community more deeply into education, employment and service could cost Israel more than 10% of GDP by 2050. If Israel builds new cities without jobs, transportation to major employment hubs, serious vocational pathways, and municipal finance that does not depend on coalition leverage, it will be importing today’s problem into tomorrow’s skyline.

From Israel’s perspective, the answer should not be embarrassment over Jewish growth in the Negev. It should be confidence with discipline. Build the homes. Build the roads. Build the schools. But also build the workplaces, rail links, commercial zones, professional training and civic expectations that turn a population boom into national strength. The Haredi public is a central part of Israel’s future. The question now is whether the state is preparing a real future, or just drawing new lines in the desert.

Good news for Israel’s skies, Lufthansa Group is preparing a gradual return to Tel Aviv, with flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport set to restart in stages after a comprehensive safety and security assessment. Official Lufthansa updates confirm the group plans to begin restoring Tel Aviv service in June while continuing to monitor the regional security situation with authorities.  

Tel Aviv,Israel -September,12, 2011: Airplane of United at front of the terminal building in the summer day at the Ben Gurion Airport Israel

Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo are expected to lead the return on June 1. Lufthansa and SWISS are planning to resume flights on July 1, with Eurowings expected back in mid-July. Brussels Airlines is staying out longer, extending its suspension of Ben Gurion flights through October 24.  

The move is a major signal for Israel’s aviation recovery after months of foreign-airline pullbacks tied to the war with Iran and regional instability. It also follows Europe’s aviation safety agency softening its warning on Israeli airspace, helping clear the way for more carriers to return.  

Passengers should still check directly with the airline before booking or heading to the airport. Lufthansa Group says changes may still happen because of the dynamic situation, and affected travelers will be updated if their contact details are stored in the booking.

Israel’s political system was thrown into turmoil Wednesday after coalition party leaders officially filed a motion to dissolve the Knesset, potentially paving the way for new national elections and putting the future of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in serious jeopardy.

Under the proposal, the date of the election, which had previously been set for October 27, will now be determined during upcoming hearings by the Knesset Committee. Major disagreements have already emerged among ultra Orthodox coalition partners over when Israelis should head to the polls.

The ultra Orthodox Degel Hatorah party is reportedly pushing for elections to take place on September 1, while its rival Shas party prefers September 15, which falls during the Jewish High Holiday season. Shas leaders reportedly believe holding elections closer to the holidays could boost turnout among more traditional and religious voters.

Rabbi Dov Lando

Earlier Wednesday, Degel Hatorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando instructed party members to move quickly toward dissolving the Knesset after Netanyahu informed ultra Orthodox factions that a controversial draft exemption law would not pass before elections.

“We no longer have any trust in Netanyahu,” Lando said in a statement. “From this point forward, we will do only what is best for Haredi Judaism and the yeshiva world. We must act to dissolve the Knesset as soon as possible. The concept of a right wing bloc including the Haredim no longer exists as far as we are concerned.”

The crisis deepened after the coalition abruptly removed all of its proposed bills from the Knesset agenda ahead of preliminary readings. Opposition leaders mocked the move, claiming it exposed the coalition’s inability to maintain a functioning parliamentary majority.

“The crumbling coalition has no majority to pass its legislation,” opposition faction leaders said in a joint statement.

Recent Israeli polls suggest opposition parties could potentially secure a Knesset majority if elections are held soon. However, political analysts note that internal divisions within the anti Netanyahu bloc may still prevent them from forming a stable government.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid whispers to former prime minister Naftali Bennett at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, September 11, 2022 (Photo by RONEN ZVULUN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by RONEN ZVULUN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Several opposition figures, including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, have reportedly ruled out cooperating with Arab parties, making it difficult for the bloc to reach the critical 61 seat majority needed to govern.

The unfolding political chaos now raises growing questions across Israel about whether Netanyahu’s long political reign could finally be nearing its end.

What kind of person targets children for mass murder? A neo-Nazi by name of Michail Chkhikvishvili, that’s who.

The would-be mass child murderer plotted to hand out candy laced with poison to Jewish children in Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve, dressed up as Santa Claus.

He never got to carry out his plot — but it wouldn’t have worked anyway. New Year’s Eve? Santa Claus? Candy that’s probably not kosher? The Jewish kids in Brooklyn, the visibly Jewish ones, are the very ones who would have skirted around him on their way home from cheder (Orthodox Jewish primary school for boys). As President Trump might say, Chkhikvishvili must be “a very low IQ individual.”

Chkhikvishvili belonged to a radical neo-Nazi group called Maniac Murder Cult. The 22-year-old encouraged others online to carry out hate crimes as well, not just against Jews but against racial minorities and other groups, going so far as to write and disseminate a pamphlet he titled “Hater’s Handbook.” The handbook calls for attacks on schools, bombings, mass murder and poisoning.

Chkhikvishvili poses next to a swastika he had just spray-painted onto the wall. (From a post on X)

Prosecutors said that he incited an attack here in the United States and also abroad, in Turkey. Chkhikvishvili, who was extradited from Moldova, pleaded guilty in November to soliciting hate crimes and distributing bomb-making and ricin instructions.

The Georgian national, who is known by the nickname “Commander Butcher,” was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison for his poison candy plot.

New York officials issued statements condemning the bizarre failed murderer.

“The defendant is a hate-mongering menace who intended to hurt and kill children in the Jewish community and in other minority communities in New York City,” stated Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“As a leader of the white supremacist group ‘Maniac Murder Cult,’ this defendant concocted hate-fueled, mass-casualty plans and inspired others to commit attacks based on his vile rhetoric,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“This violent extremist’s intentions were clear: harm and kill as many Jews and racial groups as possible, but thanks to the work of our NYPD investigators, along with the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, he is now off our streets and being held accountable for his hateful crimes,” she added.

But the basic sentiment among Jews is this: Thank God for stupid enemies.

An Israeli woman was killed and four Israelis were injured in a crash in Panama Wednesday.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was traveling in a minivan with the other tourists when it crashed into a parked bus on a highway at the outskirts of La Chorrera at 5:30 a.m., according to local reports and Hebrew media.

The injured Israelis were transferred to a local hospital for treatment, where two were listed in serious condition and two in moderate condition.

Immediately upon hearing the news report, the international division of Israel’s ZAKA search and rescue organization contacted ZAKA Panama, which dispatched its team to the crash site and the hospital, according to Hebrew media.

ZAKA Panama is working with Israel’s Foreign Ministry to ship the woman’s remains home for burial in Israel.

Shots rang out in the Philippine Senate Wednesday as chaos unfolded after a man wanted by the International Criminal Court staked out an office in the Senate as his hiding place and called on his supporters to block his arrest.

The ICC had unsealed a warrant Monday for the arrest of Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a former police chief in his sixties who formed the bulwark of the enforcement of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs. Both men are accused of crimes against humanity, and Duterte is already awaiting trial at the ICC for that charge. Dela Rosa has denied any involvement in illegal killings during Duterte’s administration.

No casualties have been reported, and President ‌Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged calm while assuring the public that the government was not involved and would get to the bottom of this.

“We will get to the bottom of this,” he said in a recorded video message. “Was this encounter part of destabilization? We will need to know.”

Hours earlier, dela Rosa took to Facebook to appeal for help.

“I am appealing to you, I hope you can help me. Do not allow another Filipino to be brought to The Hague,” he said in a video on Facebook from his Senate office hideout, where he was placed under legislative protection.

Shortly thereafter, more than a dozen shots rang out in the Senate, causing legislators to scramble for cover. The senate secretary accused the justice ministry of sending its agents to infiltrate the Senate, who then fired shots as they retreated, but the ministry denied sending any agents to the Senate.

The Senate was already under heavy guard protection as protesters arrived to call for dela Rosa’s arrest. Dela Rosa appealed to Marcos not to hand him over to the ICC after returning to the Senate Monday for the first time following his disappearance from public view in November. Marcos filed a petition with the Supreme Court requesting it block dela Rosa’s transfer to The Hague. The court gave all parties 72 hours to respond.

The New York Times pushed back forcefully against criticism of a Monday op-ed titled “The Silence that Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” penned by Nicholas Kristof.

The column alleged a pattern of violent abuse of Arab prisoners, including rape, torture and sexual abuse, as well as the explosive and bizarre claim that the IDF trains dogs to rape detainees.

Responding to Israel’s Foreign Ministry accusation that the Times passed on an Israeli commission’s report about the sexual violence of Hamas on and after Oct. 7, instead publishing Kristof’s column to coincide with the report’s release, the Times issued a statement saying, “This is false. The Times never passed on the Civil Commission report and wasn’t told about its completion or the timing of its release. Once the report was made public, we covered its findings. The commission’s work also had no bearing on Nicholas Kristof’s opinion column or its publication timing.”

The Times also pushed back against journalist David Shuster’s claim on X that there were “already discussions, including up the masthead, about retracting” the column because of “issues with source credibility and lack of evidence.”

“There is no truth to this at all,” the New York Times declared in a statement on X. “Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades, and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones.”

“His article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies,” the Times concluded.

The article cites former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert toward the end of the piece, making it appear that he endorsed the claims made by Kristof.

“Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard,” Kristof wrote. Then he quoted Olmert: “Do I believe it happens? Definitely. There are war crimes committed every day in the territories.”

Olmert said the framing of his comments was misleading.

“Mr. Kristof’s article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. I did not validate these claims,” Olmert said in a statement published by The Free Press.

Ehud Olmert, former prime minister of Israel, pushed back on the framing of his comments published in The New York Times. (Photo by Bernd von Jutrczenka/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

“I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jewish groups are planning a protest outside the New York Times building in Manhattan.

EndJewHatred, Stop Antizionism, Hineni and the Movement Against Antizionism plan to hold a demonstration Thursday at the paper’s headquarters at Eighth Avenue.

“Join us to rally and let NYT know they must stop the anti-Zionist libels! Enough is enough!” the organizers said.

The planned protest comes after anti-Israel protesters were seen shouting at a New York Times reporter at a demonstration Monday in a Jewish area of Brooklyn. The reporter held up a sign reading, “Did you read Kristoff?”

Police questioned the reporter, asking whether he was reporting on the protest or making himself part of the story.

The reporter, who was wearing a press badge, referred to the protesters’ animosity toward the Times from the opposite point of view — that it doesn’t cover the plight of Gazans and Arab prisoners in Israel enough.

“I think I can ask if they read the remarkable story that Nick Kristof wrote in today’s paper about sexual violence against Palestinians,” he told the cops.

“They should be interested in that. I think that’s a fair question,” he added.

Rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, is in advanced talks to perform in Israel as part of his world tour, according to Mako. The outlet reports he has agreed in principle to come, received several offers for a major show, and that the fight now is money. West’s camp is demanding roughly 20 million shekels, with Israeli producers warning the show will only happen if that number drops sharply.

No official date or venue has been announced, and Israel Hayom notes his public tour schedule still does not list Israel, so the concert is not locked yet. But the talks alone are already explosive, because West is trying to reenter global stages after years of antisemitic remarks, Nazi praise, swastika merchandise, and a song titled “Heil Hitler.”

TOPSHOT – US rapper and producer Kanye West gestures upon arriving at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on July 11, 2025. One of the promoters of an annual London music festival on April 6, 2026 defended plans for Kanye West to headline it, amid a backlash over the US rapper’s previous antisemitic outbursts. Disgraced 48-year-old hip-hop star West — now known as Ye — is due to play three nights at the Wireless Festival in the British capital in July as part of a European comeback tour. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP via Getty Images)

Europe has largely moved the other way. Britain blocked him from entering and Wireless Festival was canceled; Poland and Switzerland also scrapped shows, while Italy has faced heavy pressure to cancel his planned appearance.

The Israel angle is the twist as West has publicly apologized, claimed he “lost touch with reality,” and framed his comeback as an attempt to prove remorse through action. For many Israelis and Jews, that will not erase what he said. For promoters, the question appears brutally simple, controversy, security, outrage, and whether the numbers work.

The United Kingdom and France hosted a virtual summit yesterday with nearly four dozen nations, including non-European countries such as Bahrain, Australia, Japan and South Korea, to forge agreements at breaking Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

The talks signal a shift in the international approach to solving the problem of transportation through the world’s most important maritime chokepoint, moving from a hands-off stance to taking a more active and aggressive role. President Donald Trump had demanded from the outset that U.S. allies join efforts to break Iran’s hold on the strait.

At the summit, British Defense Minister John Healey announced that Britain would commit autonomous mine-hunting equipment, Typhoon ‌fighter jets and the warship HMS Dragon as part of a multinational effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz, backed by about $155 million in new funding for mine-hunting drones and counter-drone systems.

The HMS Dragon has already been deployed from its current location in the Middle East, where it was stationed to protect U.K. bases, and is currently sailing to the strait. Included in the $155 million package are mine-detection and clearance systems, high‑speed drone boats and Typhoon jets. Britain has already previously deployed about 1,000 personnel to the region for defensive purposes, including fast-jet squadrons and counter-drone units.

Mossad chief David Barnea secretly visited the United Arab Emirates at least twice during Israel’s war with Iran, with trips reportedly taking place in March and April to coordinate military and intelligence efforts, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing Arab officials and a source familiar with the matter.

JERUSALEM – OCTOBER 01: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘AVI OHAYON / GPO / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) holds a meeting with the Security Cabinet after Iran’s missile attacks on Israel in West Jerusalem on October 01, 2024. Director of the Mossad David Barnea (R) also attended the meeting. (Photo by Avi Ohayon (GPO) / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The channel appears bigger than one Mossad trip. Kan News reports that Shin Bet chief David Zini also made an unprecedented visit to the UAE in recent weeks, during the ceasefire and amid continued tension with Iran. Kan also reported that a senior Israeli Defense Ministry delegation led by Director-General Amir Baram visited Abu Dhabi in the days before Operation Roaring Lion.

HOLON, ISRAEL – 2025/05/12: Israeli Head of Mossad David Barnea (Dadi) attends the funeral of Sgt first class Zvi Feldman at the military cemetery. Hundreds gathered at the Holon military cemetery to pay their respects to Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman whose body was repatriated more than four decades after he went missing during the 1982 Israel Lebanon war. His remains were located in the heart of Syria during a special operation by the IDF in coordination with the Mossad intelligence agency. (Photo by Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The backdrop is explosive, Israel and the UAE were reportedly closely coordinated during the fighting, with Israel sending Iron Dome batteries and personnel to help the Emiratis defend against Iranian attacks. Recent reporting also said the UAE carried out secret strikes on Iranian targets after Tehran targeted Emirati civilian and energy infrastructure.

This is the Abraham Accords moving from photo-ops to hard security. Israel, the UAE, and other regional players are quietly aligning around the same threat: the Iranian regime and its missile-drone network. None of the governments are publicly laying out the full scope, but the direction is clear: the anti-Iran front is getting deeper, faster, and far more operational.

President Donald Trump touched down in Beijing Wednesday for his long-anticipated summit with President Xi Jinping. The two are expected to discuss Taiwan — on which the United States has maintained an unwavering stance in support of the East Asian island — and trade amid rising tensions between the two countries over Iran. The talks come against the backdrop of stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

Trump entered his second term promising a far more aggressive approach to China, and his sweeping tariffs that sent the global economy into a tailspin also prompted retaliatory measures from Beijing. The two countries smoothed tensions at a summit in Busan, South Korea, in 2025, but many issues remain unresolved.

Trump is expected to press Xi on Chinese support for Tehran, including supplying the Iranians with dual-use components, potential weapons transfers and the purchase of crude oil that provides revenue to the regime.

U.S. officials acknowledged that the administration does not trust China on sensitive issues such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and China’s nuclear program. Despite extensive communication on those issues, officials said the government has made little progress with Beijing.

On the economic front, the executives from major corporations, such as Apple, Boeing, Tesla, BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, traveled with Trump for the purpose of hammering out trade agreements alongside strategic ones.

Trump hopes to establish a U.S.–China “Board of Trade” that will cover trade pacts on less sensitive sectors, such as space and agriculture. A possible deal may include an exchange of rare earth metals with agricultural products and aircraft.

The United States Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had charged the operators of a ship that crashed into a Maryland bridge two years ago and killed six people.

The ship, clocking in at more than 100,000 tons and stretching 900 feet long, lost power twice, causing it to crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024. Six construction workers who were working on the bridge fell to their deaths as the bridge collapsed and crumpled into the water.

“The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a preventable tragedy of enormous consequence,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement announcing the charges. “This indictment is a critical step toward holding accountable those whose reckless disregard for maritime safety regulations caused this disaster. Six construction workers lost their lives, critical infrastructure was destroyed, pollutants were released into the Patapsco River and Chesapeake Bay, and the economic damage now exceeds five billion dollars.”

“This Department is committed to securing justice for the victims and ensuring those responsible are held to account,” he added.

Those charged include the international companies Synergy Marine Pte. Ltd. and Synergy Maritime Pte. Ltd., as well as the ship’s technical superintendent, Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair. They are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; misconduct or neglect of ship officers resulting in death; willfully failing to immediately inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition; obstruction of an agency proceeding; and making false statements.

In addition to those charges, the DOJ added misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act and Refuse Act to the companies involved.

Synergy Marine Group, which includes both companies, slammed the decision to charge them by accusing the DOJ of “criminalizing a tragic accident” and calling the accusations “baseless.”

“Synergy will vigorously defend itself against these inaccurate allegations,” the company said. “Synergy and its employees have fully cooperated and have been transparent at all times during the NTSB’s investigation, and any allegations to the contrary are woefully inaccurate.”

“We are confident that the DOJ cannot and will not meet its burden of proof and that we will prevail at trial,” it said.

A swastika was discovered painted on a bathroom wall inside Tzalmon Prison in northern Israel, the Israel Prison Service announced Tuesday.

Video footage obtained by The Jerusalem Post shows the prisoner entering the bathroom, which is accessible from the prison yard, then exiting. He appears to stand close to the wall for several seconds before leaving. He is immediately met by a phalanx of prison officials, who take him away for questioning.

The only detail released publicly is that the prisoner holds foreign citizenship and has been disciplined for the incident.

Separately, Thiago Avila, a Brazilian flotilla activist who had been detained by Israel, returned to Sao Paulo Monday upon his release from detention by Israeli authorities. Avila alleged that he had been tortured and abused by Israeli authorities and that he witnessed far worse abuse of Arab prisoners.

Avila was detained for 10 days with Spanish-Palestinian activist Abu Keshek when Israel intercepted the Gaza Sumud Flotilla, which attempted to sail to Gaza to break the blockade. Israel intercepted the flotilla far from Gaza’s shore and released all the detainees in Crete except for Avila and Keshek, who they said had ties to a terror group.

Israel has denied the allegations of abuse.